2666: A Novel

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ISBN:0374100144

2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolano


FamousPick:

		Robert Pattinson, Actor "Edward Cullen" Twilight "..."

		New York Times: The 10 Best Books Of 2008 "Bolaño, the prodigious Chilean writer who died at age 50 in 2003, has posthumously risen, like a figure in one of his own splendid creations, to the summit of modern fiction. This latest work, first published in Spanish in 2004, is a mega- and meta-detective novel with strong hints of apocalyptic foreboding. It contains five separate narratives, each pursuing a different story with a cast of beguiling characters — European literary scholars, an African-American journalist and more — whose lives converge in a Mexican border town where hundreds of young women have been brutally murdered."

		Publisher Weekly Best Books Of The Year 2008 "Bolaño's sprawling masterpiece revolves around a passel of academics, a reclusive German writer and a fictionalized Juarez, Mexico. Pure brilliance."

		Salon Book Awards 2008 "An elusive German writer and the murders of hundreds of girls and women in a bleak town on the Mexican-U.S. border are the two mysteries at the core of this expansive, mesmerizing novel in five parts. The critical reputation of Bolaño, who died in 2003 at the age of 50, got a massive boost in the English-speaking world with the publication of "The Savage Detectives" last year; we were skeptics when it came to that novel, but "2666" has made believers out of us. Bolaño pursues, with suave implacability, questions of art and evil through an immense web of stories, some humorously mundane, others as resonant and enigmatic as the great myths. On any page, you might be reminded of Borges or Melville or David Foster Wallace, but the totality is utterly original. Are the worst brutalities that humanity perpetrates redeemed or ameliorated to the slightest degree by our most sublime achievements? That's the puzzle this novel circles as it winds through academic conferences and coroner's reports, romantic triangles and gang killings, cafes and battlefields, with a light-footed and mournful curiosity that seems, despite the author's abbreviated life, nothing less than infinite."

		Time: The Best Book Of 2008 "When the first of Bolaño's major novels, The Savage Detectives, a massive, bizarre epic about a band of avant-garde Mexican poets, was published in the U.S. last year, it instantly became a cult hit among readers and practically a fetish object to critics. Bolaño's second (and last) major novel is titled 2666, and if anything, it is even more massive and more bizarre. It is also a masterpiece, the electrifying literary event of the year. With its publication by Farrar, Straus and Giroux this week — adding to an oeuvre that includes several collections of short stories, numerous novellas and minor novels, and a volume of poems due out later this month from New Directions — Bolaño's posthumous conquest of the U.S. will be complete."

		Village Voice: The Best Books Of 2008 "Apocrypha, secret history, and murder salt Roberto Bolaño's posthumous titan of a novel. United by the gravitational pull of Santa Teresa (a stand-in for Mexico's Ciudad Juárez), Bolaño's characters confront madness and a host of mysteries that are all, ultimately, the same mystery: lost writers, lost women, lost faith."

Source:
http://www.time.com
http://www.atwilightkiss.com
http://www.salon.com
http://www.publishersweekly.com
http://www.nytimes.com
http://www.villagevoice.com

Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens

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ISBN:1400081696

Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens



FamousPick:

		Seth Godin, Marketing expert "Your marketing may suck, but this book doesn’t. Every single page has a story, an example, or a concept you’ll find yourself repeating to colleagues within days. Powerful stuff, not for amateurs or anyone too lazy to succeed"

		800ceoread "..."

		Best Marketing Books Of 2003 By John Moore (best Book Title) "This book doesn't suck. Its quite good."

		Publisher Weekly "...this gem of a book is brimming with anecdotal evidence of advertising strategies gone awry..."

		Tom Peters "I love Mark Stevens' Your Marketing Sucks. (I admit it, I start by loving the title.) Clear language. Strong point of view. Actionable as the dickens. And ... extreme. (My favorite word.) "Extreme Marketing" is the author's mantra."

Source:
http://blog.fastcompany.com
http://www.tompeters.com

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Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die


FamousPick:

• Bob Miglani, Senior Director Pfizer Inc

• Fast Company: The Best Business Books Of 2007

"In this useful, engaging resource, the authors, who are also Fast Company columnists, deconstruct how to make proposals and stories memorable, resonant, and effective. They've bundled the tenets of stickiness into one easy-to-remember acronym: SUCCESS, or rather, SUCCES: simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional, and story."

• Michael S. Hyatt, CEO Thomas Nelson Publisher

• Bob Sutton, Author of "The No Asshole Rule"

"This book deserves to be on the best-seller list all next year and, as an added bonus, Chip Heath is my candidate for the next Malcolm Gladwell. Of course, the future is impossible to predict, but you really owe to yourself to buy the book and to hear Chip talk about it."

• Business Week

"So Made to Stick takes the existence of sticky ideas as a given, focusing instead on their mechanics: What makes an idea sticky and, more specifically, how can you, the reader, craft stickier ideas? As a result, while the book is, the authors write, inspired by Gladwell's tale, it also borrows from the more practical, how-to style of a business classic such as Stephen Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People."

• Guy Kawasaki, co-founder and managing director of Garage Technology Ventures

"My prediction for Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die is that it will join The Tipping Point and Built to Last as a must-read for business people. The book explains why some ideas stick and some don't--and I've been on both sides of this equation. A warning though: If you read this book, you'll revamp a lot of your marketing material (as you probably should)."

• Tim Berry, President and founder of Palo Alto Software co-founder of Borland International teacher of entrepreneurship

"It's an excellent book. This is in no way a substitute for reading the whole book -- very interesting to read, very entertaining, as well as important"

• Publisher Weekly (starred Review)

"They start by relating the gruesome urban legend about a man who succumbs to a barroom flirtation only to wake up in a tub of ice, victim of an organ-harvesting ring. What makes such stories memorable and ensures their spread around the globe? The authors credit six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. (The initial letters spell out "success"—well, almost.) They illustrate these principles with a host of stories, some familiar (Kennedy's stirring call to "land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth" within a decade) and others very funny (Nora Ephron's anecdote of how her high school journalism teacher used a simple, embarrassing trick to teach her how not to "bury the lead"). Throughout the book, sidebars show how bland messages can be made intriguing. Fun to read and solidly researched, this book deserves a wide readership."

• Booklist

"This book explores what makes social epidemics "epidemic" and, as the Heaths cite from Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point (2000), defines the secret recipe that makes an idea viral. The principles of stickiness are examined--an unexpected outcome, lots of concrete details that we remember, emotion, simplicity, and credibility--all packaged in an easily told story format. Taking these five stickiness attributes, the book offers numerous examples of how these properties make up the stories we are all familiar with--the urban legend about kidney theft and the razor blades supposedly lurking in Halloween candy. Exercises, checklists, and other tools are sprinkled throughout the book to help the reader understand and test how stickiness can be applied to their ideas, whether they are teachers, parents, or CEOs."

• Brand Autopsy Marketing Book Awards 2007 (best Marketing Book Of The Year)

"MADE TO STICK is absolutely the breakthrough business book of 2007 for creatives, marketers, and anyone else responsible for communicating ideas and/or messages. (Anyone else includes writers, teachers, lawyers, salespeople, project managers, pastors, rabbis, etc.) Brilliant book. Get it. Read it. Do it."

• Businessweek Best Seller: Hardcover Business Books

"Why some ideas gain traction while others fade from view"

• Richard Pachter: 2007's Best Business Books

"Genuine or bogus, concepts and products resonate with authenticity and gain acceptance because of a perception of their legitimacy. The Heaths explain why emotion and simplicity are vital components of successful persuasion"

• Jim Estill, CEO Synnex Canada

"The book is entertaining, easy to read and uses tons of useful examples. Highly recommended if you ever want to sell or market anything."

• Ken Schafer, VP Marketing & Product Management Tucows

"A fantastic resource for anyone who needs to clearly communicate anything. Probably my top business book of 2007. A must read."

• Tim Sanders, Chief solutions officer Yahoo!

"Consider this the marketing tome of 2007. The Heaths provide a manageable list of must-dos for any marketer that wants his or her message to be memorable and longlasting."

Source:
http://www.treatyourcustomers.com
http://www.fastcompany.com, Fast Company February 15, 2008, article: "The Best Business Books of 2007"
http://www.michaelhyatt.com
http://brandautopsy.typepad.com
http://www.businessweek.com
http://sanderssays.typepad.com


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Publisher Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008: Mass Market

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“May you live in interesting times” is a quote commonly attributed to Confucius, probably erroneously, but Robert F. Kennedy did use it in a speech in 1966, adding a rueful twist: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times....” Regardless of your thinking on these current times, they are certainly anything but boring, and we feel the same about the books published this year.

Once again, we take the opportunity near year's end to review the year in books, highlighting the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's. There were the authors we expected to deliver, and they did: Louise Erdrich with The Plague of Doves, Richard Price with Lush Life, Jhumpa Lahiri with Unaccustomed Earth, Lydia Millet with How the Dead Dream. A breakthrough surprise about cricket, Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, delighted us, while Tim Winton's Breath took ours away. We listened to our elders in How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People; thought about our planet with The Soul of the Rhino; examined our history in The Hemingses of Monticello and Abraham Lincoln: A Life; and, thanks to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, we even considered Jesus for President.

1. No One Heard Her Scream By Jordan Dane
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers, romance)
   
   "Dane crafts this debut murder mystery with tight plotting and smooth prose, and adds a few sparks to create a story that appeals to mainstream thriller readers as well as romantic suspense fans."
   
   


2. The Face By Angela Hunt
   
   
   (literature and fiction, mystery and thrillers, religion and spirituality, romance)
   
   "Compelling characterization drives this enthralling tale of second chances and new beginnings, centered on the struggles of a young woman born without a face."
   
   


3. Deadly Deceptions By Linda Lael Miller
   
   
   (mystery and thrillers, romance)
   
   "Miller's second Cave Creek supernatural mystery is packed full of plot twists and smart romance, painting crime-solver Mojo Sheepshanks as much more than just another quirky psychic."
   
   


4. Heart Of The Wolf By Terry Spear
   
   
   (literature and fiction, romance)
   
   "A werewolf woman defies the alpha male of her pack in this supernatural romance, with chemistry that crackles off the page and a richly depicted pack dynamic"
   
   


5. Private Arrangements By Sherry Thomas
   
   
   (romance)
   
   "Deft plotting and sparkling characterization mark this superior debut historical romance, wherein an English lord agrees to grant his wife a divorce if she produces an heir within a year."
   
   


Source:
http://www.publishersweekly.com

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