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BOOK
When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management
Roger Lowenstein
$7.99

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John Meriwether, a famously successful Wall Street trader, spent the 1980s as a partner at Salomon Brothers, establishing the best--and the brainiest--bond arbitrage group in the world. A mysterious and shy midwesterner, he knitted together a group of Ph.D.-certified arbitrageurs who rewarded him with filial devotion and fabulous profits. Then, in 1991, in the wake of a scandal involving one of his traders, Meriwether abruptly resigned. For two years, his fiercely loyal team--convinced that the chief had been unfairly victimized--plotted their boss's return. Then, in 1993, Meriwether made a historic offer. He gathered together his former disciples and a handful of supereconomists from academia and proposed that they become partners in a new hedge fund different from any Wall Street had ever seen. And so Long-Term Capital Management was born.
        In a decade that had seen the longest and most rewarding bull market in history, hedge funds were the ne plus ultra of investments: discreet, private clubs limited to those rich enough to pony up millions. They promised that the investors' money would be placed in a variety of trades simultaneously--a "hedging" strategy designed to minimize the possibility of loss. At Long-Term, Meriwether & Co. truly believed that their finely tuned computer models had tamed the genie of risk, and would allow them to bet on the future with near mathematical certainty. And thanks to their cast--which included a pair of future Nobel Prize winners--investors believed them.
        From the moment Long-Term opened their offices in posh Greenwich, Connecticut, miles from the pandemonium of Wall Street, it was clear that this would be a hedge fund apart from all others. Though they viewed the big Wall Street investment banks with disdain, so great was Long-Term's aura that these very banks lined up to provide the firm with financing, and on the very sweetest of terms. So self-certain were Long-Term's traders that they borrowed with little concern about the leverage. At first, Long-Term's models stayed on script, and this new gold standard in hedge funds boasted such incredible returns that private investors and even central banks clamored to invest more money. It seemed the geniuses in Greenwich couldn't lose.
        Four years later, when a default in Russia set off a global storm that Long-Term's models hadn't anticipated, its supposedly safe portfolios imploded. In five weeks, the professors went from mega-rich geniuses to discredited failures. With the firm about to go under, its staggering $100 billion balance sheet threatened to drag down markets around the world. At the eleventh hour, fearing that the financial system of the world was in peril, the Federal Reserve Bank hastily summoned Wall Street's leading banks to underwrite a bailout.
        Roger Lowenstein, the bestselling author of Buffett, captures Long-Term's roller-coaster ride in gripping detail. Drawing on confidential internal memos and interviews with dozens of key players, Lowenstein crafts a story that reads like a first-rate thriller from beginning to end. He explains not just how the fund made and lost its money, but what it was about the personalities of Long-Term's partners, the arrogance of their mathematical certainties, and the late-nineties culture of Wall Street that made it all possible.
        When Genius Failed is the cautionary financial tale of our time, the gripping saga of what happened when an elite group of investors believed they could actually deconstruct risk and use virtually limitless leverage to create limitless wealth. In Roger Lowenstein's hands, it is a brilliant tale peppered with fast money, vivid characters, and high drama.

BOOK
The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need: Top Grant Writers and Grant Givers Share Their Secrets (Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need: Top Grant Writers &)
Arlen Sue Fox
$11.53

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BOOK
The Innocent Man
John Grisham
$3.89

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In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the big leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron's home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation lead nowhere. Until, on the flimsiest evidence, it lead to Ron Williamson. The washed-up small-town hero was charged, tried, and sentenced to death-in a trial littered with lying witnesses and tainted evidence that would shatter a man's already broken life . . . and let a true killer go free.

BOOK
Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard
Dan Heath
$12.48

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Chip Heath and Dan Heath on Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

"Change is hard." "People hate change." Those were two of the most common quotes we heard when we began to study change.

But it occurred to us that if people hate change, they have a funny way of showing it. Every iPhone sold serves as counter-evidence. So does every text message sent, every corporate merger finalized, every aluminum can recycled. And we haven’t even mentioned the biggest changes: Getting married. Having kids. (If people hate change, then having a kid is an awfully dumb decision.)

It puzzled us--why do some huge changes, like marriage, come joyously, while some trivial changes, like submitting an expense report on time, meet fierce resistance?

We found the answer in the research of some brilliant psychologists who’d discovered that people have two separate “systems” in their brains—a rational system and an emotional system. The rational system is a thoughtful, logical planner. The emotional system is, well, emotional—and impulsive and instinctual.

When these two systems are in alignment, change can come quickly and easily (as when a dreamy-eyed couple gets married). When they’re not, change can be grueling (as anyone who has struggled with a diet can attest).

In those situations where change is hard, is it possible to align the two systems? Is it possible to overcome our internal "schizophrenia" about change? We believe it is.

In our research, we studied people trying to make difficult changes: People fighting to lose weight and keep it off. Managers trying to overhaul an entrenched bureaucracy. Activists combatting seemingly intractable problems such as child malnutrition. They succeeded--and, to our surprise, we found striking similarities in the strategies they used. They seemed to share a similar game plan. We wanted, in Switch, to make that game plan available to everyone, in hopes that we could show people how to make the hard changes in life a little bit easier. --Chip and Dan Heath

(Photo © Amy Surdacki)

BOOK
The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education
Diane Ravitch
$29.83

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• leave decisions about schools to educators, not politicians or businessmen
• devise a truly national curriculum that sets out what children in every grade should be learning
• expect charter schools to educate the kids who need help the most, not to compete with public schools
• pay teachers a fair wage for their work, not “merit pay” based on deeply flawed and unreliable test scores
• encourage family involvement in education from an early age

BOOK
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
Atul Gawande
$14.82

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The New York Times bestselling author of Better and Complications reveals the surprising power of the ordinary checklist

We live in a world of great and increasing complexity, where even the most expert professionals struggle to master the tasks they face. Longer training, ever more advanced technologies—neither seems to prevent grievous errors. But in a hopeful turn, acclaimed surgeon and writer Atul Gawande finds a remedy in the humblest and simplest of techniques: the checklist. First introduced decades ago by the U.S. Air Force, checklists have enabled pilots to fly aircraft of mind-boggling sophistication. Now innovative checklists are being adopted in hospitals around the world, helping doctors and nurses respond to everything from flu epidemics to avalanches. Even in the immensely complex world of surgery, a simple ninety-second variant has cut the rate of fatalities by more than a third.

In riveting stories, Gawande takes us from Austria, where an emergency checklist saved a drowning victim who had spent half an hour underwater, to Michigan, where a cleanliness checklist in intensive care units virtually eliminated a type of deadly hospital infection. He explains how checklists actually work to prompt striking and immediate improvements. And he follows the checklist revolution into fields well beyond medicine, from disaster response to investment banking, skyscraper construction, and businesses of all kinds.

An intellectual adventure in which lives are lost and saved and one simple idea makes a tremendous difference, The Checklist Manifesto is essential reading for anyone working to get things right.

BOOK
Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
John Townsend
$6.94

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Having clear boundaries is essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle. A boundary is a personal property line that marks those things for which we are responsible. In other words, boundaries define wh

BOOK
Take Three (Above the Line Series #3)
Karen Kingsbury
$10.19

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Take Three, the third book in the Above the Line series by New York Times bestselling author Karen Kingsbury, follows filmmakers Chase Ryan and Keith Ellison as they celebrate their first successful movie. But in the midst of family relationships, broken budgets, and conflicting dreams, Chase and Keith must find their way through the maze of pain and questions that comes with everything they thought they wanted

BOOK
2010: Take Back America: A Battle Plan
Eileen Mcgann
$16.19

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Casting your vote in the november 2010 election may be the single most important thing you do all year.

We stand at the crossroads of ideals and policies: freedom versus socialism; sovereignty versus international subservience; economic liberty versus debt slavery; quality medical care versus government-sponsored euthanasia; and private property versus confiscatory taxation.

All this depends on the answer to one question: Will Obama maintain his control of Congress?

To prepare us for this battle, Dick Morris and Eileen McGann have written 2010: Take Back America, their most important book yet. In Fleeced, they warned of the dangers of an Obama administration. In Catastrophe, they predicted his campaign to promote a socialist economy. And now, in this book, they offer a battle plan to take back America.

Morris and McGann explain the stakes -- permanent unemployment, rampaging inflation, international control of our economy, collapse of our manufacturing industry, European-style taxation levels, and a nation without quality medical care at any price.

They point out the targets -- the incumbent Democrats who are most vulnerable. They identify the races we must win and offer ammunition to do so. They examine the records of Harry Reid, Blanche Lincoln, Arlen Specter, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Barbara Boxer -- the key incumbent targets for 2010. And they tell you all the secrets these incumbents hope you won't find out.

They outline a strategy for victory -- explaining the pitfalls and walking us through a path to winning control of Congress.

And then they tell us what we can do as individuals to defeat Obama -- how to go beyond the traditional work of donating, local campaigning, and voting, and build our own electronic precincts to get people engaged and spread the word between now and Election Day. Today politics is no longer a spectator sport; Morris and McGann explain how to get off the bleachers and get out on the field, using everything from e-mail to blogs, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to get the message out.

The battle is coming. 2010: Take Back America is the basic training manual you need to win.