My non-fiction favorites
Discover my top non-fiction book favorites! Explore must-read titles across genres, from biographies to self-help, that inspire, educate, and captivate every reader.
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Traders, Guns & Money
by Satyajit Das
Liar's Pokerwith more lies and more insight, Traders, Guns & Moneyis a sensational insider's view of the business of trading and marketing derivatives for a living. It reveals the nature of the business, the players and how the real money is made and lost. An accessible companion, a wise counsel and a great read. A sensational and controversial first-person account of the business of derivatives trading and the financial products industry. Offers a true insider's view. Funny and poignant, written in a wry and wickedly comic style. Reveals how shareholders, clients, regulators, and the tax paying ordinary public bear most of the risk in the trading rooms. Reveals the story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal. Traders, Guns & Money cleverly weaves together: the dazzling world of derivatives and how to work out what you know, don't know and need to know; an insider's, expert witness account of the rise and rules of the world of derivatives and the astonishing story of how one set of clients discovered the perils of unknowns in a derivatives deal. Benchmark: Liar's Poker 0340767006.Das now offers more lies and is set in today's derivatives market, and Traders Gun's and Moneyis written not by a journalist but by a world-famous insider.
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Maximum City
by Suketu Mehta
A native of Bombay, Suketu Mehta gives us an insider’s view of this stunning metropolis. He approaches the city from unexpected angles, taking us into the criminal underworld of rival Muslim and Hindu gangs, following the life of a bar dancer raised amid poverty and abuse, opening the door into the inner sanctums of Bollywood, and delving into the stories of the countless villagers who come in search of a better life and end up living on the sidewalks. As each individual story unfolds, Mehta also recounts his own efforts to make a home in Bombay after more than twenty years abroad. Candid, impassioned, funny, and heartrending, Maximum City is a revelation of an ancient and ever-changing world.
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Ghost Wars
by Steve Coll
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction • A New York Times bestseller “The CIA itself would be hard put to beat his grasp of global events . . . Deeply satisfying.” —The New York Review of Books From the award-winning and bestselling author of Directorate S and The Achilles Trap comes the explosive first-hand account of America's secret history in Afghanistan. To what extent did America’s best intelligence analysts grasp the rising thread of Islamist radicalism? Who tried to stop bin Laden and why did they fail? Comprehensively and for the first time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Coll recounts the history of the covert wars in Afghanistan that fueled Islamic militancy and sowed the seeds of the September 11 attacks. Based on scrupulous research and firsthand accounts by key government, intelligence, and military personnel both foreign and American, Ghost Wars details the secret history of the CIA’s role in Afghanistan (including its covert operations against Soviet troops from 1979 to 1989), the rise of the Taliban, the emergence of bin Laden, and the failed efforts by U.S. forces to find and assassinate bin Laden in Afghanistan.
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Al-Jazeera
by Hugh Miles
Al Jazeera is one of the most widely watched news channels in the world. Journalist Hugh Miles uncovers the true story behind the most influential media outlet in the Arab world.
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The Wisdom of Crowds
by James Surowiecki
In this fascinating book, New Yorker business columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea: Large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. With boundless erudition and in delightfully clear prose, Surowiecki ranges across fields as diverse as popular culture, psychology, ant biology, behavioral economics, artificial intelligence, military history, and politics to show how this simple idea offers important lessons for how we live our lives, select our leaders, run our companies, and think about our world.
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Freakonomics Rev Ed
by Steven D. Levitt
Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? How did the legalization of abortion affect the rate of violent crime? These may not sound like typical questions for an econo-mist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life—from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing—and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. Freakonomics is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics. Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives—how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they explore the hidden side of . . . well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan. What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and—if the right questions are asked—is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
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Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts
The story of a man who escapes from a maximum security facility in Australia and arrives in Bombay, crossroads of the underworld, where he works in an aid station and smuggles drugs and guns.
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Big Deal
by Bruce Wasserstein
Big Deal is a penetrating look at the world of mergers and acquisitions. Bruce Wasserstein has worked on over 1,000 deals and reveals the inside story of the billion dollar deals that shape America's economy.
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Smart Mobs
by Howard Rheingold
Smart Mobs takes us on a journey around the world for a preview of the next techno-cultural shift. The coming wave, says Rheingold, is the result of super-efficient mobile communications-cellular phones, wireless-paging, and Internet-access devices-that will allow us to connect with anyone, anytime, anywhere.Rheingold offers a penetrating perspective on the new convergence of pop culture, cutting-edge technology, and social activism. He also reminds us that the real impact of mobile communications will come not from the technology itself but from how people use it, resist it, and adapt to it.
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Gandhi
by Louis Fischer
Describes the life and teachings of the man who led India's struggle for freedom and was assassinated in 1948.
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The End of Oil
by Paul Roberts
In this frank and balanced investigation, Roberts delves deep into the economics and politics of oil, and considers the promises and pitfalls of alternatives such as wind power, hybrid cars, and hydrogen. A new Afterword brings the book up to the minute.
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Banker To The Poor
by Muhammad Yunus
Muhammad Yunus is that rare thing: a bona fide visionary. His dream is the total eradication of poverty from the world. In 1983, against the advice of banking and government officials, Yunus established Grameen, a bank devoted to providing the poorest of Bangladesh with minuscule loans. Grameen Bank, based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, now provides over 2.5 billion dollars of micro-loans to more than two million families in rural Bangladesh. Ninety-four percent of Yunus's clients are women, and repayment rates are near 100 percent. Around the world, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen are blossoming, with more than three hundred programs established in the United States alone. Banker to the Poor is Muhammad Yunus's memoir of how he decided to change his life in order to help the world's poor. In it he traces the intellectual and spiritual journey that led him to fundamentally rethink the economic relationship between rich and poor, and the challenges he and his colleagues faced in founding Grameen. He also provides wise, hopeful guidance for anyone who would like to join him in "putting homelessness and destitution in a museum so that one day our children will visit it and ask how we could have allowed such a terrible thing to go on for so long." The definitive history of micro-credit direct from the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poor is necessary and inspirational reading for anyone interested in economics, public policy, philanthropy, social history, and business. Muhammad Yunus was born in Bangladesh and earned his Ph.D. in economics in the United States at Vanderbilt University, where he was deeply influenced by the civil rights movement. He still lives in Bangladesh, and travels widely around the world on behalf of Grameen Bank and the concept of micro-credit.
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The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
by C. K. Prahalad
The world's most exciting, fastest-growing new market is where you least expect it: at the bottom of the pyramid. Collectively, the world's billions of poor people have immense untapped buying power. They represent an enormous opportunity for companies who learn how to serve them. Not only can it be done, it is being done--very profitably. What's more, companies aren't just making money: by serving these markets, they're helping millions of the world's poorest people escape poverty. C.K. Prahalad's global bestseller "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," now available in paperback, " "shows why you can't afford to ignore "Bottom of the Pyramid" (BOP) markets. Now available in paperback, it offers a blueprint for driving the radical innovation you'll need to profit in emerging markets--and using those innovations to become more competitive "everywhere." This new paperback edition includes eleven concise, fast-paced success stories from India, Peru, Mexico, Brazil, and Venezuela--ranging from salt to soap, banking to cellphones, healthcare to housing. These stories are backed by more detailed case studies and 10 hours of digital videos on whartonsp.com. Simply put, this book is about making a revolution: building profitable "bottom of the pyramid" markets, reducing poverty, and creating an inclusive capitalism that works for "everyone." Preface xi About the Author xix Part I: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid 1 Chapter 1: The Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid 3 Chapter 2: Products and Services for the BOP 23 Chapter 3: BOP: A Global Opportunity? 47 Chapter 4: The Ecosystem for Wealth Creation 63 Chapter 5: Reducing Corruption: Transaction Governance Capacity 77 Chapter 6: Development as Social Transformation 99 Part II: Business Success Stories from the Bottom of the Pyramid 113 Financing the Poor 115 Aravind Eye Care-The Most Precious Gift 131 Energy for Everyone 137 Agricultural Advances for the Poor-The EID Parry Story 149 Retail for the Poor 159 Information Technology to the Poor 169 The Jaipur Foot Story 187 Health Alerts for All 191 Transparent Government 201 The Annapurna Salt Story 213 Homes for the Poor-The CEMEX Story 221 From Hand to Mouth-The HHL Soap Story 235 Part III: On the Web at Whartonsp.com Video Success Stories Casas Bahia CEMEX Annapurna Salt Hindustan Lever Jaipur Foot Aravind Eye Care ICICI Bank ITC e-Choupal EID Parry Voxiva E+Co/Tecnosol Andhra Pradesh Full Success Case Stories in pdf format The Market at the Bottom of the Pyramid Known Problems and Known Solutions: What Is the Missing Link? Known Problems and Unique Solutions Known Problems and Systemwide Reform Scaling Innovations Creating Enabling Conditions for the Development of the Private Sector The EID Parry Story Biographies of the Researchers/Writers of the Success Case Stories from "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" 247 About the Video Success Stories 255 Index 257
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Business Maharajas
by Gita Piramal
The Inside Track To India&Rsquo;S Most Powerful Tycoons The Eight Business Maharajas Profiled Here Are Among Asia&Rsquo;S Most Powerful Industrial Tycoons, Their Combined Turnover Runs Into Billions Of Rupees, And Between Them They Employ Some 650,000 People, While Indirectly Affecting The Lives Of Millions More. Sip A Cup Of Tea, Drive To Work, Listen To Music, Build A House&Hellip;And The Chances Are That In These And A Myriad Other Ways You Are Using Products That They Manufacture Or Market. By Any Yardstick, The Achievements Of These Men Would Rank Among The Great Business Stories Of Our Time. How Did These Men Build Their Enormous Empires? What Are Their Management Secrets? How Did They Thrive And Prosper Even As Others Failed? What Is Their Vision For The Future? Top Business Writer And Industry Insider Gita Piramal Draws On Exhaustive Interviews And In-Depth Research To Discover The Answers To These And Related Questions In Her Profiles Of The Men Who Will Lead The Country&Rsquo;S Push To Become An Industrial Superpower In The 21St Century.
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Reinventing the Bazaar: A Natural History of Markets
by John McMillan
McMillan takes readers on a lively tour, from the wild swings of the stock market to the online auctions of eBay to the unexpected twists of the world's post-communist economies.
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The End of Poverty
by Jeffrey D. Sachs
"Book and man are brilliant, passionate, optimistic and impatient . . . Outstanding." —The Economist The landmark exploration of economic prosperity and how the world can escape from extreme poverty for the world's poorest citizens, from one of the world's most renowned economists Hailed by Time as one of the world's hundred most influential people, Jeffrey D. Sachs is renowned for his work around the globe advising economies in crisis. Now a classic of its genre, The End of Poverty distills more than thirty years of experience to offer a uniquely informed vision of the steps that can transform impoverished countries into prosperous ones. Marrying vivid storytelling with rigorous analysis, Sachs lays out a clear conceptual map of the world economy. Explaining his own work in Bolivia, Russia, India, China, and Africa, he offers an integrated set of solutions to the interwoven economic, political, environmental, and social problems that challenge the world's poorest countries. Ten years after its initial publication, The End of Poverty remains an indispensible and influential work. In this 10th anniversary edition, Sachs presents an extensive new foreword assessing the progress of the past decade, the work that remains to be done, and how each of us can help. He also looks ahead across the next fifteen years to 2030, the United Nations' target date for ending extreme poverty, offering new insights and recommendations.
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The Mystery of Capital
by Hernando De Soto
In the West we've forgotten that creating this system is also what allowed people everywhere to leverage property into wealth.
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The Great War for Civilisation
by Robert Fisk
A sweeping and dramatic history of the last half century of conflict in the Middle East from an award-winning journalist who has covered the region for over forty years, The Great War for Civilisation unflinchingly chronicles the tragedy of the region from the Algerian Civil War to the Iranian Revolution; from the American hostage crisis in Beirut to the Iran-Iraq War; from the 1991 Gulf War to the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. A book of searing drama as well as lucid, incisive analysis, The Great War for Civilisation is a work of major importance for today's world.
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Crimes Against Humanity
by Geoffrey Robertson
An updated history of the human rights movement draws on a variety of disciplines to explain how the international community is gaining a greater capacity to advocate for people whose lives have been wasted by war, genocide, and torture, in an account that includes in the latest edition additional chapters on Iraq and Guant namo. Original.
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Common Wealth
by Jeffrey Sachs
Presents an outline for achieving sustainable and equitable global prosperity that addresses key needs in the areas of environmental responsibility, energy, and biodiversity, in order to avert imminent economic catastrophe.