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My Picks of the Month
Americans are kept in a constant state of anxiety over the air their breath, the food they eat, and whatever they drink. Our life expectancy has doubled since the last century, but you would think we are all doomed by something other than old age. The Politically Incorrect Guide™ to Science by Tom Bethell ($19.95, Regnery Publishing) does a wonderful job of debunking many of the myths that have been foisted on us by people with an agenda they deliberately hide. Piling fact upon fact, Bethell, a senior editor at the American Spectator, examines the global warming theory, demonstrating how its "science" is purposefully skewed to produce predetermined results. Then he tackles popular myths about cancer, noting there has been no improvement in cancer mortality since the 1970s despite the billions spent to cure it. Other topics include nuclear power, human cloning, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. This book will appeal primarily to those with a conservative point of view, but is informative no matter what one’s political orientation. Joel Miller has written Size Matters ($22.99, Nelson Current), just published this month. Its subtitle is "How big government puts the squeeze on America’s families, finances, and freedom (and limits the pursuit of happiness.)" Do I need to tell you anything more about this book? Well, I can tell you that Miller has pulled together the most current data on the thousands of pages of regulations, the more than fifteen million—yes, million—government employees from the federal to the local level, and the trillions of tax dollars that big government represents, each year growing even larger. As Miller says, "The Constitution says nothing about the racial composition, age or sexual preferences of America’s workforce; the curricula or testing standards of America’s schools; subsidizing farmers; regulating monopolies or stock prices or drugs; granting student loans or welfare benefits or retirement checks…." Et cetera! These and much else represent things about which neither the Constitution, nor the people have delegated power to the federal government. In the process, big government reduces family income, drives up the cost of housing, healthcare, and just about every consumer product, and extends its control into every aspect of our lives, well beyond the limits the Constitution imposes. Interesting reading. I love reference books, the ones that are just jammed with useful information about anything. Imagine my delight when I received The Penguin Factfinder ($25.00, Penguin softcover), now in its second edition and edited by David Crystal. It’s a whopping 937 pages, including its index and it ranges widely over topics that include a list of recent hurricanes to data on plants and animals. There are sections on modern religions, mathematics, physics, scientists and inventors, film and television, sports, nations of the world, the solar system. You name it. The information you’re seeking is probably in this book. For anyone who needs such a handy reference, I heartily recommend this one. Penguin has also published an excellent Pocket Dictionary for the Spanish and French languages at just $10.00 each. Want to think deep thoughts? Pick up Penguin’s Dictionary of Philosophy ($17.00, softcover). Then you can talk about epistemology (the theory of knowledge) as if you had a clue about it! For lovers of classical music, there is the fabulous, fat compendium, The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs & DVDs: 2005-2006 Edition of the "key classical recordings" on CD, DVD, and SACD. Price at $30.00, this book tops out at 1,520 pages of detailed information. It took three scholars and an assistant editor to put this together. This marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of this reference. Long ago in the early Civil Rights struggle, John Howard Griffin, a white man, disguised himself as a negro to see what it was like to be "Black Like Me." His book was a bestseller. Since then, this journalistic trick has been enshrined as a way to reveal certain truths an author could not otherwise access. Norah Vincent, who had been a syndicated columnist, decided a few years back to disguise herself as a man to find out what being one was like. The result is Self-Made Man: One Woman’s Journey into Manhood and Back Again ($25.95, Viking). As a result, her expectations and stereotypes received one jolt after another and she tells the reader about this experience with a fair degree of humor. The problem is, she doesn’t tell us much about being a man today than we don’t already know. I say this, of course, being a member of good standing of that gender. One can learn as much about "manhood" in this book as one can gain insight to being a woman by reading a novel written by one. In short, there are few great revelations here, but her journey is just so offbeat that the book provides an entertaining reading experience for anyone, i.e., woman, curious enough to want to learn what she did. If women are frequently a complete mystery to men, this book reveals that men are not all that complex. Everybody Loves Pizza is a delightful book by Penny Pollack and Jeff Ruby ($19.95, Emmis Books, Cincinnati, OH, softcover) that is filled with fun facts, history, and more than fifty locations around the US where you can get the best pizzas. What you will discover is that everyone has their own favorite pizzeria. The book lists the top ten, but then includes a directory of 546 other great American pizzerias state-by-state. It also includes some great recipes for those who want to make their own. Without tiring the reader with too much minutia, the book briskly recounts the history of the dish and how it evolved into an American favorite. A special plus are the excellent illustrations and design of this mouth-watering book. Healthy in a Hurry ($24.95, Countryman Press, Woodstock, VT) lives up to its name. Jim Romanoff and the editors of Eating Well magazine have put together 150 delicious recipes that can be prepared for everyday suppers in 45 minutes or less. The color photos of some of the dishes will make you hungry. All the favorite foods are included from chicken to seafood, pork, beef and lamb, and even vegetarian. There are even recipes for quick desserts. The book begins with some excellent tips on how to get organized with a well-stocked pantry and the proper tools. All in all, a great cookbook with which to begin anyone’s year.
Okay, the holiday season is over and it’s time to get down to business, whether you’re looking for a new job and need interview skills, working your way up the corporate ladder, want to improve sales skills, or want to start your own business. Trust me, there’s a book just waiting to help you improve your lot in life. Let’s start, however, with a serious book about business trends. Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz ($26.95, Basic Books) has created a lot of buzz as the result of his view that we are at the beginning of a great shift of wealth and power to the East. The author makes his case that geopolitical clout will follow the growing economic strength of nations like China, Japan, and South Korea. He thinks that much of the innovation for which the United States has been famed will begin to shift to Asia. How, he asks, will we be able to deal with a world in which the dollar is no longer the dominant currency? But wait. I can remember reading more than a decade ago that Japan was going to overtake and surpass the U.S. and their way of doing business was the future. So, let me suggest you consider Prestowitz’s predictions, but don’t panic. The U.S. economy is going to remain strong for a long time to come. Talking about Asia, Knockoff: The Deadly Trade in Counterfeit Goods by Tim Phillips ($29.95, Kogan Page USA) takes a look at a very nasty trend and the fastest growing industry in the world. It’s a global business with its own manufacturing, distribution and retail networks. It represents a market worth $350 billion every year. The author traveled throughout America, China, France and Russia, among other nations, to research with support from law enforcement and trade organizations who lose money to this underground industry.
A lot of businesses these days have contact centers that generate sales, but sometimes a company’s call center is seen as a cost center, necessary but cumbersome. Not so says the authors of The Real-Time Contact Center: Strategies, Tactics, and Technologies for Building a Profitable Service and Sales Operation ($27.95, Amacom). Donna Fluss addresses how the daily customer interactions can be an agent of sustained customer loyalty, an origination for additional sales, and a powerful driver of revenue. Selling to Anyone Over the Phone by Renee P. Walkup with Sandra McKee ($14.95, Amacom softcover) is one of those titles that tells you everything you need to know about the book. The authors teach how to tailor the approach to each perspective customer by swiftly identifying the customer’s personality type. If the phone is your gateway to a sale, this is a book you will definitely want to read. The Virtual Handshake by David Tetan and Scott Allen ($19.95, Amacom softcover) takes a look at the Internet world and how it can be used to network in order to create lucrative opportunities. Don’t know about LinkedIn, Meetup, MySpace and other such places in cyberspace? Well, this book will introduce you to them and how to get the most from them. Blueprint for Success: Networking—150 Ways to Promote Yourself by Bette Daoust, Ph.D. ($16.95, a Penmarin Book published by Blueprint Books, Pleasanton, CA) also explores how to develop a network of colleagues whether you are just starting out in business or a seasoned veteran. I had a friend who built a successful business when he discovered the power of asking for business among his personal network. After that, the referrals rolled in, but you have to ask! Breaking out of your comfort zone to meet new people and new prospects is just one way this book will prove helpful. Think we’re through networking? Hold on, there’s Million Dollar Networking by Andrea R. Nierenberg ($19.95, Capital Books, Dulles, VA). This is way beyond just handing your business card to a stranger. The author, a top corporate consultant, shares what she has learned about building a business through networking and teaches you how to become a world-class networker. The biggest gripe I hear all the time is that someone feels unappreciated in their job. Avoiding this problem, while enhancing your business success is the subject of The Power of Appreciation in Business by Noelle C. Nelson, Ph.D. ($24.95, Mindlab Publishing, Malibu, CA, softcover). Want to hold onto good employees and customers? This is definitely the book to read. Maybe you’re just starting out in the job world and need some advice on how to nail a job interview. Monster Careers: Interviewing by Jeff Taylor, founder of Monster.com, with Doug Hardy ($15.00, Penguin Books softcover) is a good place to start if you want a quick introduction to the many kinds of questions interviewers ask and what the "right" answers to them should be. You will also learn techniques to defuse any stress you might experience, build your confidence, and tips on using advance research to better prepare you. High-Impact Interview Questions by Victoria A. Hoevemeyer ($17.95, Amacom) starts from the other end. It is a book for human relations folks about "701 behavior-based questions to find the right person for every job." This book is about the interviewing process that focuses on gathering specific, job-related, real-world examples of behaviors the candidate has demonstrated on previous jobs. Are you or someone you know in a job situation that is precarious due to lack of support from co-workers or just difficult co-workers? Is your pay an issue? The Career Troubleshooter: Tips and Tools for Overcoming the 21 Most Common Challenges to Success by Sherrie Gong Taguchi ($14.95, Amacom) addresses work place challenges. You will find topics such as inadequate financial compensation, job burnout, bad bosses, backstabbing colleagues, surviving a layoff and making a career change among the topics covered in this book, which may just save your life. Have you reached that point in life where you want to start your own business? Well, then, Starting from Scratch by Wes Moss ($22.00, Dearborn Trade Publishing) is the book for you. Donald L. Trump says, "Wes Moss has learned the power and value of entrepreneurship firsthand. He does a great job of presenting why and how you can find a thriving business venture to call your own." What better endorsement than that could you want? In 2004, Americans started more than one million small businesses, often leaving the corporate world to the uncertainty of their own enterprises. Moss interviewed people who have thrived in their own businesses and shares their knowledge with you. The Successful Family Business ($39.95, Praeger, and imprint of the Greenwood Publishing Group) by Edward Hess takes the position that the business and the family are distinct overlapping living organisms, constantly changing and influencing each other. In order for both to thrive, each family business must establish a proactive process for defining roles, articulating goals, and communicating them constantly. The author displays considerable expertise and offers specific strategies to help this form of business succeed. If you have a youngster in college and are concerned about their eating habits, pick up a copy of The College Student’s Guide to Eating Well on Campus ($14.95, Tulip Hill Press, Bethesda, MD) and send it to your favorite freshman or upper class member. It will help them navigate through their favorite fast foods, cafeteria choices or home-style cooking, teaching them how to achieve a balanced diet. What a student eats can have a significant impact on their capacity to learn. Some foods leave them feeling tired. Others provide a false sense of energy that can dissipate swiftly. It is almost a cliché that freshmen away from home for the first time will put on up to fifteen pounds by virtue of undisciplined and inappropriate eating choices.
Men and women are prone to certain diseases and two books address them. The Complete Prostrate Book: What Every Man Needs to Know by Dr. J. Stephan Jones ($19.00, Prometheus Books) is, indeed, a thorough-going guide to a medical condition that any man approaching forty or older can encounter. The prostrate gland is frequently a source of health problems ranging from mild nuisances to life-threatening malignancies. This softcover book provides a complete review and explanation of what the various medical conditions involving this gland represent and the options available to address them. Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book ($22.00, Da Capo Press softcover) is now in its fourth edition and has been thoroughly revised and updated. Here is the new research and the developments that are turning breast cancer into a potentially preventable disease. A thick guide, it is filled with information on MRIs and ultrasound tests versus mammograms, new data on Herceptin, the first targeted therapy, and much more. I think it is extraordinary that anyone can educate themselves with such a book in order to both prevent or cure this health problem. Heart to Heart by Dr. Lori Mosca, MD, PhD ($21.95, Health Communications, Deerfield Beach, FL) is about preventing heart disease and is subtitled "A personal plan for creating a heart-healthy family." Essentially this book is about making healthy lifestyle decisions and choices. Much of what the author recommends would fall into the category of common sense, i.e., make sure you have meaningful relationships with other people, allow 30 minutes of every day to spend time alone in order to ease back from the stress of the day, plan meals to insure a healthy diet, et cetera. I have no doubt that some readers will genuinely benefit from this advice by a physician with a ton of credentials. Ellen W. Cutler brings more than twenty year’s research and clinical experience to the use of enzyme supplements. Dr. Jeremy E. Kaslow has a private practice that specializes in individual biochemistry and nutrition. Together they have written Micro Miracles: Discover the Healing Power of Enzymes ($15.95, Rodale, softcover) that describes what they believe is the next frontier in healing. Based on their experience, they reveal how enzyme therapy can eliminate food cravings and unwanted pounds, replenish energy, stimulate the immune function, and protect against heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. They can even slow the aging process. Interested? I certainly was and learned a lot about these natural substances. The authors maintain that, unlike conventional medications which often mask symptoms, enzyme supplements work at the cellular level to repair and prevent the damage responsible for a host of health problems. This book is a definitive resource. Increasingly, the medical profession is beginning to pay attention to this "missing link" to a healthy life. There’s even a book about Cancer and Your Pet by Debra Eldredge, DVM, and Margaret H. Bonham ($18.95, Capital Books, Dulles, VA). In dogs and cats over ten years old, cancer is the leading cause of death; 47% of dogs and 32% of cats will lose their lives to cancer. The good news, according to the authors, is that recent research has vastly improved cancer treatments for pets. This softcover provides information about diagnosing a possible cancer, how to give medications, veterinary medical insurance, and many other topics that a pet owner needs and wants to know. There are plenty of parenting advice books around these days. Here’s a look at a few of the most recent ones. Screamfree Parenting: Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool by Hal Edward Runkel ($16.95, Oakmont Publishing LLC, 1-800-860-0771) reflects a viewpoint my own Mother had. She used to say that, "children are guests in the adult world." This guide suggests that your children should be among the most important things in your life, but as parents, people need to focus on themselves, grow up themselves, and learn how to calm themselves down. All of us know parents who need to do some growing up and for whom the responsibility of parenthood is often somewhat overwhelming. This book is Runkel’s "scream free"™ approach and has a lot of good advice, primary among which is the need to learn how to calm down in those many situations that come with any newborn or infant child. There’s a reason we talk about "the terrible twos" and other stages. So this is less about raising the child as it is about raising oneself to be the kind of parent any child will come to appreciate. Walking the Parenting Tightrope by Russ Robinson ($14.99, Baker Books) addresses similar issues as the author notes that raising kids is "like walking a tightrope—there are many tensions that can cause parents to lose their balance. The book looks at questions such as whether parents should set boundaries or give kids freedom? Should discipline be based on punishment or nurture? Robinson tried reading a lot of parenting books before concluding that, "parents beat themselves up looking for a formula to raise their kids." In the end, Robinson concluded what my Mother did. Parents have to be in charge and, to do so, must learn how to manage the tensions that arise from raising children. It should be noted that this book has a Christian component to it that will be welcome to those of that faith.
An interesting book is Family Writes: Parenting with Pens, Pencils, and PCs by Joel Epstein, PhD and Peggy Epstein ($15.95, Capitol Books, Sterling, VA, softcover). The theme of this book is that the family that writes together bonds together. A clinical psychologist, Joel Epstein has teamed up with his mother, veteran educator, Peggy, to offer parents an idea-filled handbook of 77 entertaining writing activities that will improve family communications. They provide a way to spend some fun time together and, with good writing skills beginning early and at home, it gives children an advantage when they reach school age and throughout their education. An especially good book for any younger person is The Kid’s Guide to Writing Great Thank You Notes by Jean Summers ($9.95, The Writer’s Collective). There may be no more important lesson in life to teach than the value of saying thank you. This clever book is written for kids in ways they can connect to with chapters on why to write a thank you note, who gets them, and how to put one together by breaking it down into easy steps. This is one habit you want to encourage. Finally, there’s You Know You’re an Empty Nester When…., a very funny book about life after the kids have left home by Dianne Sundby, PhD ($9.95, SPI Books). Right about now countless Baby Boomer parents are waving bye-bye as their children go off to college. The author contends that the Baby Boomers are a different breed of parent who marched in the 1960s, pursued high-paying careers, and who did not rush to have babies. As a result, it’s much harder, she says, to let go. A practicing psychologist, this book humorously depicts a very real and often stressful time for these parents. Now, before you think you are going to wade through tons of text, let me tell you this book is page after page of cartoons and insights designed to ease the empty nester through all the trauma. They are funny, true, and this may just be the book for you or someone you know. I always find instruction and inspiration in the lives of real people. Along with history, biographies and autobiographies are among my favorite reading. In recent months, many have arrived and a good way to start one’s year is to read about a life that interests and possibly inspired you. The death of Rosa Parks, the famed "mother of the civil rights movement" occurred in late 2004 and many famous people praised the women who, in 1955, refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus during the days of Jim Crow discriminatory laws. Douglas Brinkley, an esteemed historian, wrote a biography, Rosa Parks: A Life, ($13.00, Penguin Books softcover) about this Afro-American woman who was the spark that changed the history of this nation. Her life will prove inspirational to anyone who reads about it. Show business has, of course, catapulted many people to fame and television has often made them unofficial members of the family. I rather felt that way about Tony Randall whose long career in films and television was certainly a part of my life. Many fondly recall him as Felix Unger playing opposite Jack Klugman’s Oscar Madison in "The Odd Couple." Now Klugman, with Burton Rocks, has written a fond memoir of his long friendship with Randal, Tony and Me ($24.95, Good Hill Press, West Linn, OR). Fans of either or both of these fine actors will thoroughly enjoy it. Those old enough to remember the early days of television will enjoy Inventing Late Night: Steve Allen and the Original Tonight Show by Ben Alba with a foreword by Jay Leno ($26.00, Prometheus Books). This book will particularly please readers who are interested in the behind the scenes story of both the genius of Allen and the way the show originated and evolved. Created in 1954, The Tonight Show is the longest-running and most successful late night program and it was Allen who invented the formula with which we are all now familiar. It was an incredibly talented group of people, plus a list of guests who would go onto to become show business giants that makes for great reading. Going even further back in time is a biography of Ted Lewis, "the Jazz king", by Dawn Williams. In Me and My Father’s Shadow ($27.95, Sunrise House Publishers, Seal Beach, CA) the author tells of discovering Lewis was her father and of her quest to learn about the originator of the big band and one of the highest paid bandleaders and entertainers of his time. Lewis was a contemporary of performers such as Al Jolson and Fanny Brice, the era of vaudeville, and the early films. The book is also an autobiography of a woman who was already in college before discovering who her real father was. The lives of two luminous performers, one from the world of ballet and the other from opera, are now in softcover. Margot Fonteyn is the subject of Meredith Daneman’s extensive biography of the famed ballerina ($25.00, Penguin Books softcover) from her days as a little girl from suburban England who grew up to become a Dame of the British Empire and the most famous ballerina in the world. It is a story of great achievement and great heartbreak. Densely documented, anyone with an interest in the ballet will find it fascinating. Fans of opera will enjoy an autobiography of Renee Fleming, The Inner Voice: The Making of a Singer ($15.00, Penguin Books softcover) that begins with her life in upstate New York and her passion for music. "This is the story of how I found my voice, of how I worked to shape it and how it, in turn, shaped me." It is, of course, a story of self-discipline, hard work, and sacrifice. This is an articulate and candid look at what it takes from the discovery of one’s talent to the achievement that comes with fulfilling its potential. Another musician, one of the most consistently popular rock and folk stars, is the subject of Neil Young Nation by Kevin Chong ($16.95, Greystone Books, Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group, Vancouver, Toronto, and Berkley, CA). This is an entertaining account of Chong’s journey, a search for his boyhood hero that had him crisscrossing the continent, beginning in Winnipeg, Canada, where Young formed his first band, then to Los Angeles where Young first tasted fame, along with many other of Young’s former haunts. The musician turned 60 in 2004, and this book is about aging gracefully and remaining very cool.
A biography, Leonardo Da Vinci: Flights of the Mind by Charles Nicholl ($18.00, Penguin softcover) is copiously researched, resulting in a masterful work that provides a fresh and penetratingly human approach to a genius of such proportions that he remains the object of much interest into modern times. He was not only a great artist, but a preeminent engineer and inventor. Fortunately for him, his contemporaries recognized this. In more modern times, a novelist of great genius has generated a three-volume biography, the third of which has just been published in softcover. The Life of Graham Greene: 1955-1991 is now available ($25.00, Penguin Books softcover) from the pen of Norman Sherry. Greene traveled the world and out of those travels often came his best novels. He was much heralded in his time, a contemporary of literary luminaries such as T.S. Eliot, Ian Fleming, and Ernest Hemingway. While an agent for the British government he reported on pre-revolutionary Cuba, events in the Belgian Congo, and adventures in many exotic places. With access to Greene and his letters and diaries, this is surely the definitive biography of the man. The "last great Tsar" is the subject of an excellent biography of Alexander II by Edvard Radzinsky ($35.00, Free Press, an imprint of Simon and Schuster). Alexander faced terrorists in his time and in many ways his life and times were the origins of modern terrorism, as well as the Russian tension between authoritarianism and liberty that can still be seen today. Alexander emancipated the serfs in 1851 and, in doing so, ironically gave rise to those who called for revolutionary change, those who were committed to the communism of Karl Marx. It took six plots before they managed to kill him, only to unleash a new authoritarian regime under Alexander III. Decades would pas before Lenin succeeded where they failed. This biography will intrigue and interest anyone who loves history. That’s it for January! 2006 promises many fine new fiction and non-fiction books, any one of which can transform your life in surprising ways. Don’t forget to tell your friends about Bookviews.com and to visit our Featured Books section for a look at some very unique and interesting books you might otherwise not learn about anywhere else. And come back in February! |
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Contact: Alan Caruba |
To reprint, e-mail for permission. |
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Despite all the headlines about the war effort in Iraq, here in the United States the years since 9-11 have lulled too many Americans into the belief that there really isn’t much to the war declared against us by al Qaeda other than some nasty, but isolated events in other nations. In War Footing: 10 Steps America Must Take to Prevail in the War for the Free World ($27.95, Naval Institute Press) by Frank J. Gaffney and thirty-five of the best informed U.S. foreign policy and defense analysts lay out a plan to protect our nation in a fight to the death with Islamofascists in terms of what must be done to end the funding and promulgation of extremist Islamic plans for global domination for nations hostile to America. Gaffney is one of the most visible of the nation’s experts on security, appearing frequently on television. He has held senior positions in the Reagan Defense Department and on the staffs of both Democrat and Republican senators. He is the founder, in 1988, of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Security Policy. The list of those who have contributed to this book is a who’s who of military, intelligence, and other experts. This book is a game plan, a blueprint for success in what will prove to be a long war being waged against the West, against democracy, and against freedom.
Normally I put all novels together into a single section, but recently I received a novel, CYBERNETICA, by Michael J. Cavallaro ($15.95, Arcanum Books, POB 55, Nesconset, NY 11767) that rises above the othernovels I am pleased to recommend. After reading it, my first reaction was “Move over, George Orwell” because it is set in a future in which a single corporate superpower wields control over the population through a powerful brain-to-computer interface system called sublimation. Its headquarters are in the city of Cybernetic and the devastating Encryption Wars are 35 years in the past. We are introduced to this future world through the lives of two conmen hired in a major investigation, a famous actress marked for corporate assassination, a biologically enhanced bodyguard, and a quintessential power-crazed chief of operations for the Onyx/Enigma Group. This is not traditional science fiction because, for one thing, it does not take place in outer space. It does, however, incorporate many factors already familiar to all of us for whom the Internet and our computers represent reality in real time. This is a sharply written, sometimes heart-pounding story that will seem more real than fiction by the time you finish. One can only hope Hollywood will turn this one into a film to rival “Gattaca” or “The Matrix.” For more information, visit our 
Nothing happens until someone sells something to someone else, so Steve Cone’s marketing secrets that will make you a star can be found in Steal These Ideas! ($18.95, Bloomberg Press, New York) This is a terrific guide to creating a winning campaign, creating a unique selling proposition, using a spokesperson, building effective loyalty programs, and all the "secrets" it might otherwise take you a long time to learn by experience. But why take that long? This book can be read in a few hours and it’s all there! Marketing, technology, and media expert Rick Mathieson is the author of Branding Unbound: The Future of Advertising, Sales, and the Brand Experience in the wireless Age ($24.95, Amacom). His book offers a one-two punch of practical wireless branding strategies, plus exclusive interviews with some of the high profile names in this cutting-edge business thinking. Sometimes even a fabulous presentation generates lots of enthusiasm and then the deal falls through. Why? Persuasion: The Art of Selling Your Message by a trio of authors ($14.95, Warner Business Books) tells you how to understand the mindset of the decision maker in order to close the deal. Based on their research and the results of a two-year study of nearly 1,700 business executives, the authors have identified five basic types, each of whom responds to persuasion in very different ways. Read the book and you will learn the secrets of persuasion that works. Someone who knows a lot about persuading people is Donald Trump, the real estate and casino entrepreneur who moves smoothly between the world of business and show business. Timothy L. O’Brien has written Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald ($24.95, Warner Business Books). It is not a tell-all, a tribute or a roast. What the book does is provide a thorough, candid, and humorous look at Trump as a human being, ubiquitous symbol of the American Dream, and one of the great self-promoters of all time. Here is the man behind the hype.
The debate rages on about our nation’s healthcare system. Both physicians and patients seem to feel it needs reforming. One book addresses this in terms of the personal relationship between healers, health care providers, and those in need of their skills. Rage and Reconciliation: Inspiring a Health Care Revolution, edited by Lee Gutkind, ($19.95, Southern Methodist University Press) is a collection of often intense and searing personal essays by those who have passed through the system, too often being reduced to just another element in a larger medical environment where their feelings and their confrontation with disease and even the prospect of death does not receive the same attention as their medical condition. One hopes this book will receive a wide readership among physicians and others in the system. This book comes with an interesting 80-minute audio CD that gives voice to the text. Also from the same publisher, Encounters with the Invisible: Unseen Illness, Controversy, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome by Dorothy Wall ($22.50) is an investigation of an illness that is not widely understood and it has much to offer both doctors and patients alike. This is a look at illnesses that include chronic fatigue, Gulf War syndrome, fibromyalgia, and others for which there has not been the same attention given in terms of funding of research for various reasons. The author, without self-pity, tells how her own encounter with chronic fatigue syndrome left her searching for answers the medical community was not providing. These are not high-profile illnesses, but their numbers seem to be growing.
Spilled Milk: Breastfeeding Adventures and Advice from Less-Than-Perfect Moms by Andy Steiner ($12.95, Rodale softcover) is an entertaining look at all the advice about nursing moms. Don’t be fooledby her name, Steiner is a former senior editor at Unta magazine whose work has appeared in Ms, Glamour, Mademoiselle, Self, and Modern Maturity. It is a commonsense book on breastfeeding. More advice can be found in The MomsTown Guide to Getting it All: A Life Makeover for Stay-at-Home Moms by Mary Goulet and Heather Reider ($15.00, Hyperion, softcover). The authors believe that motherhood does not mean giving up your dreams of running a marathon or going back to school, or turning a hobby into a business. They offer a game plan on how to make such goals into reality and how to avoid the obstacles that keep many moms from pursuing their dreams. Yes, this has a feminist message, but the truth is that lots of moms have found ways to lead fulfilling lives beyond just being a mom. 
Talent, of course, comes in many forms and the autobiography of world champion figure skater, Katerina Witt: Only with Passion ($23.50, Public Affairs, an imprint of the Perseus Group) takes the reader behind the scenes of the glamorous, utra-competitive world of figure skating as experienced by one of its living legends. Ms. Witt is the only woman since Sonja Henie to win Olympic gold twice in a row, along with more titles than anyone else before her, including four world championships and eight national championships. This book will prove to be an encouragement to a new generation of women athletes on how to compete and how to navigate life with grace. Another Olympian’s story is told in Headfirst: The Olympic Success Story of Skeleton by Robie Vaughn with Mike Towle ($24.95, Brown Books, Dallas). This autobiography is about a man who embraced the high-octane sledding sport of skeleton in which the athlete plunges headfirst down a mile-long ice track often surpassing speeds of 80 miles per hour barely inches above the ice. Never heard of Robie? Neither had I, but this interesting story tells of how he went from the boardroom as an oil and gas entrepreneur to interim executive director of the U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. And, to make it all the more interesting, he started in the sport at age 39!