The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini Amazon Price: $9.00
Customer Review: A tear came down when I finished this book. And, btw, I like to movie too (for different reasons).
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell Amazon Price: $10.19
Customer Review: With social networking and user generated content (UGC) flooding the web, businesses are struggling to find ways to harness and direct this power. There exists an extensive collection of blogs, books, news articles and podcasts that offers advice about techniques to jump-start user adoption and gain stickiness, but these tend to focus on execution and not on concept. The dialogue generally advocates creating new communities, controlling messages within existing communities, and monetizing concepts, but fails to answer the fundamental question, "Why do people adopt certain ideas and not others?"
Enter Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point. This is not a new book. It was published in 2002 and doesn't mention a single Internet technology or concept, instead focusing on how "epidemics" spread - From Paul Revere's success in his midnight ride to why kids love Blue's Clues to syphilis' spread in Baltimore in the mid-90's. Gladwell dissects the masses and exposes the population segments that serve as the kindling for raging success.
Connectors - The people that know everyone and revel in making mutually beneficial introductions. These are the catalysts or accelerants that help bring the key components together.
Mavens - The experts. These are the people that know everything about certain topics. Everyone has friends that they trust when it comes to food, music, sports, electronics, etc., the friends that are almost freakishly knowledgeable and passionate about their interests.
Sales people - These are the people that sell ideas and visions - the evangelists. They get people excited and spread the word - like the sales person mentioned in the Holiday Inn commercial that once had a heart attack and within an hour had sold the paramedics 12 sets of steak knives.
If you can come up with a great product or offering that has amazing value for those that take advantage of it, you're off to a good start, but the challenge is just beginning. The Tipping Point presents some of the foundational relationships and interactions that must occur to be successful. Coupling the above personality traits with a discussion of the various adopter types - from Innovators to Late Adopters - and you have a powerful recipe. Blending together the right mix of Connectors, Mavens, and Sales People with Early Adopters sets the stage for success... then all you need is a phenomenal idea. Easy right?
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Things Fall Apart: A Novel by Chinua Achebe Amazon Price: $6.57
Customer Review: This was the absolute WORST book I've ever read in my life. My English teacher made me read it over the summer and I hated it. It's this boring hard to understand book about this guy in Nigeria just livin' his life. Then he accedentally kills this kid and is sent into excile for seven years. These people come from Europe trying to make the people more civilized and become Christians. So this guy gets mad when he comes back from exile. While they were at a meeting trying to figure out what to do, a messenger comes and the guy gets mad and shoots him. Then he goes home and hangs himself. All of that happens in the three hundred pages. It was an awful book and I would not suggest it to anyone. I wish I could give it no stars. Yeah, it was that bad.
Night (Oprah's Book Club) by Elie Wiesel Amazon Price: $9.00
Customer Review: Should be required reading for . . . for everyone who can read. Puts a face, a voice, a mind, a spirit to something that is so hard to comprehend that it often can feel more like an idea than a reality. A truly moving book. Also, I would recommend the PBS documentary made about Wiesel that was produced, written and edited by David Grossbach and Rob Gardner.
Psychology by David G. Myers Amazon Price: $82.98
Customer Review: I purchased this book for my Psychology class. It was a introductory class, and I was surprised as heck to see this thick, 700+ page book was what I needed. I bought it out of necessity. I was hesitant to take this course, but at the same time interested. Hesitant because I didn't want to find out that I had some psychological problems and read about myself, and interested because I was curious as to which psychological problems I may have. So I guess you could say that I was torn inside psychologically just with the prospect of purchasing a darn book. After reading the entire book, I realized that I had no less that a half a dozen different mental problems- self diagnosed of course. I mean dag nam it. I belong in a loony bin according to this book. I've got some bolts loose, I'm missing some screws, I'm a few cards short of a deck, and I probably need some mental meds and to be put in lock down. Heck, I have no need for a shrink, this book saved me money by helping me realize exactly what my mental condition consist of. And next semester I am taking a biology course, so I'll be able to determine all my health problems and be my own doctor too. Books are amazing, they really are. Even a psycho would buy this book. You would have to be insane to pass up on this one. Buy it now.
Hamlet (The New Folger Library Shakespeare) by William Shakespeare Amazon Price: $5.99
Customer Review: shakespeare has done it again... and thanks to amazon i was allowed to fully enjoy this great masterpiece
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser Amazon Price: $10.17
Customer Review: In Eric Schlosser's first devastating book on the malpractices of the fast food industry, he pieces together history, facts, and numerous sources to reveal some disturbing truths about their nature.
Fast Food Nation is less an expose` on how unhealthy junk food is than a look into the operations of the food industry, specifically McDonalds. The book is divided into two sections: the first, "The American Way," is concerned primarily with the growth and development of the fast food chains, beginning around the 40s in southern California and soon burgeoning into multiple restaurants across the US. Schlosser details the rise of the Speedee Service System, advertising techniques the emphasis on conformity by the chains, and their consolidation of power. The next section, "Meat and Potatoes," details various specifics about the machinations of the incredibly powerful fast food corporations. To the terrible conditions of workers in filthy (and dangerous) slaughterhouses, the employment of thousands of illegal immigrants in these buildings throughout the Midwest, and the diehard attempts by the corporations against possibilities of lawsuits by these workers after receiving any number of injuries. The companies further fight against the right to unionize.
While Schlosser doesn't focus on the naturally unhealthy nature of fast food, he does describe the abundant diseases that can be found in the meat, such as E. coli O157:H7. The causes for these pathogens are the environments in the above-mentioned slaughterhouses, particularly the fact that feces often finds its way into the processed animals, or sick cattle are used along with healthy ones. Near the end of the book, fast food's spread around the globe and its effects on the societies of foreign nations are described. This and much more are brought up and examined by the determined author.
As for the writing style, Schlosser has a great ability for scene setting, as in the first pages of the introduction where he describes the Cheyenne Mountain base, where it feels like it's some sort of sci-fi novel. This book never really drags, although in the epilogue his writing abruptly seems to become more lackluster. Other than that and repeating E. coli O157:H7 one too many times, this book can be a useful weapon against the fast food empire. I still plan to eat McDonalds, but I'll definitely be thinking more when I bite into one of their products.
A note: ...
The South Beach Diet Cookbook (The South Beach Diet) by Arthur Agatston Amazon Price: $18.45
Customer Review: Very useful tool when going on this diet. Helps w/ having variety to eat while in phase 1, 2 and 3. Very timely delivery.
Sundays at Tiffany's by James Patterson, Gabrielle Charbonnet Amazon Price: $16.49
Customer Review: I thought this book a delightful adult fairytale. Make no mistake, while it is pure escape, it, nevertheless, is a feel good story. If you want reality, pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV news, because this little gem is not for you. If you want a quick, yet simple afternoon read, give it a try. It doesn't hurt to set aside reality for a few lazy hours and in the meantime, it just might even make you smile and lift your spirits. Nothing wrong with that.
Return of diesel: Innovations help clean up fuel Norwich Bulletin, CT - Jul 29, 2008 In Geneva, NY, used-car retailer Joel Osserman sells 15 used VW diesels each year at Selecteurocars.com. Six months ago he sold a 2006 Jetta TDI to a ...
No Lemons Here Wired News - Aug 14, 2008 (It also means a used VW depreciates less than any other car.) We pluck the lemons; you get the plums. Today, they're mostly sticking to the plums. ...
SNIDER: The real price of a new car Daily Camera, CO - Aug 3, 2008 I swapped Smurfy for a used VW Beetle last summer, and I learned how much it costs to buy a vehicle on credit even when the new-to-me car already had 105000 ...
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