Author: Biz India

Book Review: Will Work for Shoes

Author: Susan J. Ashbrook Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press – 224 pages Book Review by Ramu Nakliba How to save millions of dollars in advertising, if not at least, hundreds of thousands of dollars in the risky business of marketing, is a great benefit that business people can derive from reading Susan J. Ashbrook’s highly insightful book Will Work for Shoes. For this reason alone, the book is worth more than its weight in gold. A savvy  entrepreneur in the world of fashion with more than two decades of experience in getting products endorsed by top celebrities, Ms. Ashbrook cites numerous examples of her success with notable stars in the Hollywood firmament. Ashbrook has used her unusual and rare interpersonal skills in getting famous movie and TV personalities to wear and endorse clothes and accessories and thereby built brands that were virtually unknown before. In the process, she founded her company Film Fashion, which she describes as “the first product placement company in Los Angeles” and had the famed designer Ralph Lauren as its first client. She sold that firm in 2008 to the well-known public relations agency Rogers and Cowan. It is not only in the world of fashion that Ashbrook has had success. She has also helped clients such as Hasbro Games, MasterCard and Nikon. In this extremely useful book, Ashbrook masterfully takes you through the difficult...

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Book Review: Who Are We – And Should It Matter in the Twenty-First Century?

Author: Gary Younge Publisher: Nation Books – 245 pages Book Review by Laxmi Chaandi Gary Younge, a columnist for The Guardian and The Nation, explores paradoxes in our identities and really makes us think hard why they persist despite greater present-day interaction among people, in this unique brilliant work of insight into why we insist on highlighting our differences rather than accentuating our commonalities. Most conflicts over the long course of human history – ranging from small skirmishes between two regional groups within nations to major international wars – have had as their cause some sort of difference between the two sides. The cause may have been economic, ethnic, religious, and territorial or some other type of difference. Yet with peoples of the world having become closer through the advance of communications – with the advent of the Internet and social media as prime current examples – one would expect that we would develop respect for others’ differences. But on the contrary, conflicts and wars continue, Gary points out and asks why. Travels to other lands and intermingling between people far different from us have fostered greater understanding. The development of business relations between companies and people located in other countries has helped mutually advance national economies and personal incomes. And with life-changing devices such as cell phones and iPads with talk, text and video capabilities you can see,...

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Book Review: When Work and Family Collide

Author: Andy Stanley Publisher:  Multnomah – 143 pages Book Review by:  Sonu Chandiram Taking care of family needs (not just material ones) while living in today’s busy and complex world can and does put time pressure on working people. This book by Andy Stanley, a pastor, can help you set priorities in your life and help you reduce tensions, whichever aspect of your life they are in. As many of us know there are four types of tasks we all have: the important and urgent tasks; the important but not urgent ones; the unimportant but nonetheless urgent tasks; and the unimportant and not urgent tasks. You choose what category your task belongs to and take the appropriate action on it. The author offers this book as a way to help you transform your life from “time-crunching craziness to life-changing success.” He helps to look at your world and help you reorder it. Andy Stanley is senior pastor of the campuses of North Point Ministries, including three churches in Georgia, where more than 20,000 people attend services: North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Buckhead Church in Atlanta, and the Browns Bridge Community Church in Cumming. He is the author of these other books: Visioneering, The Next Generation Leader, The Principle of the Path, It Came from Within! and How Good is Good Enough? In this small book of less than...

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Book Review: What Works on Wall Street

Author: James P. O’Shaughnessy Publisher: McGraw-Hill – 681 pages Book Review by: Nano Khilnani This large, bestselling book provides a lot of data, detailed analysis of that data, and some new knowledge that I think most readers did not have, no matter how much they know about investing, or think they already know. I know I picked about a lot of it. The main (and pleasantly surprising) conclusion is that investing in stocks – rightly representing shares in the balance sheet, earnings and earning potential of companies, rather than just some “trading chips”  – does work. A lot of readers would be skeptical with that conclusion. But if you see the long-term performance records of successful investors in public companies such as Warren Buffett and others, your skepticism will change to positive belief that investing can help you increase your wealth as well as your passive income. Like involvement in any endeavor, the amount of correct knowledge you acquire, the positive actions you take, the discipline you gain and the good investing habits you develop, determines the level of your outcome. I believe you can acquire all these changes in yourself with this unusual book. This book can help you raise the level of your successful outcome if you learn the numerous lessons it provides within its pages filled with information about what works and what does not work...

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Book Review: Vegan Pie in the Sky

Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero Publisher: Da Capo Press–Lifelong Books (Member of Perseus Books Group), 223 pages Book Review by Laxmi Chaandi My mouth was watering as I started to browse through photos of the immense variety of delicious-looking cakes, cobblers, cookies, creams, fruits, nuts, pies, puddings and tarts on the front and back covers and within 220-plus pages of this colorful book filled with recipes of baked delights. And for vegetarians who love baked goods but do not eat anything with animal fat in it, this book is an unusual treasure trove of 75 recipes for delectable pies and other such goodies. You like chocolate? With more than 30 pages of delights made with chocolate – from Boston cream pie with a layer of chocolate to brownie bottom peanut butter cheesecake to chocolate mousse to Manhattan mud pie to salted chocolate caramel tart – this delightful book has the recipes you need to satisfy your craving for chocolate And if you are nuts about nuts and want to have them with chocolate, you will find delicacies made with almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios, walnuts and other dried fruit too. If you like creamy delights, try the banana kahlua cheesecake, the cappuccino mousse pie, the coconut cream pie, the key lime pie, the little lemon mousse or the luxury pistachio pudding pie and many other tasty treats. If...

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