Deadly Quiet City by
rom one of China’s most celebrated and silenced literary authors, Murong Xuecun, Deadly Quiet City is an unforgettable collection of true stories from the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.
On 23 January 2020, Wuhan was placed in total lockdown. The city of eleven million - the centre of China’s coronavirus outbreak - was cut off from the world. As cherry blossoms fell on silent streets, people were left anxious and afraid, struggling to find medicine, food or information about the virus that had trapped them in their homes.
In April 2020, Murong Xuecun bravely travelled to the locked-down city, covertly interviewing people from all walks of life on their experiences as the catastrophe unfolded. An exhausted doctor in a small hospital, battling the virus while sick. An illegal motorcycle taxi driver, ferrying people around the empty city. A citizen journalist fighting to reveal the truth of what happened during that endless spring.
The result is eight stories that capture the voices and griefs of a city, and that Murong had to leave China in order to publish. Vivid and haunting, Deadly Quiet City is a unique piece of literary history that reveals so much about the lives of people, the pandemic and China today.
How big things get done by
World expert Bent Flyvbjerg and bestselling author Dan Gardner reveal the secrets to successfully planning and delivering ambitious projects on any scale. Nothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant new reality. Think of how Apple's iPod went from a project with a single employee to an enormously successful product launch in eleven months. But such successes are the exception. Consider how London's Crossrail project delivered five years late and billions over budget. More modest endeavours, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly fail. Why?Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life's work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg. In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors that lead projects to fail, and the research-based principles that will make yours succeed:- Understand your odds. If you don't know them, you won't win.- Plan slow, act fast. Getting to the action quick feels right. But it's wrong.- Think right to left. Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there.- Find your Lego. Big is best built from small.- Master the unknown unknowns. Most think they can't, so they fail. Flyvbjerg shows how you can.Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House to the making of the latest Pixar blockbusters, How Big Things Get Done reveals how to get any ambitious project done - on time and on budget.
The Missing Billionaires by
The Economist's Best Books of 2023 Over the past century, if the wealthiest families had spent a reasonable fraction of their wealth, paid taxes, invested in the stock market, and passed their wealth down to the next generation, there would be tens of thousands of billionaire heirs to generations-old fortunes today. The puzzle of The Missing Billionaires is why you cannot find one such billionaire on any current rich list. There are a number of explanations, but this book is focused on one mistake which is of profound importance to all investors: poor risk decisions, both in investing and spending. Many of these families didn't choose bad investments- they sized them incorrectly- and allowed their spending decisions to amplify this mistake. The Missing Billionaires book offers a simple yet powerful framework for making important lifetime financial decisions in a systematic and rational way. It's for readers with a baseline level of financial literacy, but doesn't require a PhD. It fills the gap between personal finance books and the academic literature, bringing the valuable insights of academic finance to non-specialists. Part One builds the theory of optimal investment sizing from first principles, starting with betting on biased coins. Part Two covers lifetime financial decision-making, with emphasis on the integration of investment, saving and spending decisions. Part Three covers practical implementation details, including how to calibrate your personal level of risk-aversion, and how to estimate the expected return and risk on a broad spectrum of investments. The book is packed with case studies and anecdotes, including one about Victor's investment with LTCM as a partner, and a bonus chapter on Liar's Poker. The authors draw extensively on their own experiences as principals of Elm Wealth, a multi-billion-dollar wealth management practice, and prior to that on their years as arbitrage traders- Victor at Salomon Brothers and LTCM, and James at Nationsbank/CRT and Citadel. Whether you are young and building wealth, an entrepreneur invested heavily in your own business, or at a stage where your primary focus is investing and spending, The Missing Billionaires: A Guide to Better Financial Decisions is your must-have resource for thoughtful financial decision-making.
Flowers of Fire by
An eye-opening firsthand account of the ongoing and trailblazing feminist movement in South Korea - one that the world should be watching.
Since the beginning of the #MeToo movement, tens of thousands of people in South Korea have taken to the street, and many more brave individuals took a stand, to end a decades-long abortion ban and bring down powerful men accused of sexual misconduct - including a popular presidential contender. South Korean feminists know that the revolution has been a long time coming, between battles against its own patriarchal society as well as challenging stereotypes of docile Asian women in the Western imagination.
Now, author Hawon Jung will show the rest of the world that these women are no delicate flowers - they are trailblazing flames. Flowers of Fire takes the reader into the trenches of this fight for equality, following along as South Korean activists march on the streets, navigate public and private spaces where spycam porn crimes are rampant, and share tips and tricks with each other as they learn how to protect themselves from harassment and how to push authorities to act.
The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level by
A comprehensive account of how government deficits and debt drive inflation Where do inflation and deflation ultimately come from? The fiscal theory of the price level offers a simple answer: Prices adjust so that the real value of government debt equals the present value of taxes less spending. Inflation breaks out when people don't expect the government to fully repay its debts. The fiscal theory is well suited to today's economy: Financial innovation undermines money demand, and central banks don't control the money supply or aggressively change interest rates, invalidating classic theories, while large debts and deficits threaten inflation and constrain monetary policy. This book presents a comprehensive account of this important theory from one of its leading developers and advocates. John Cochrane aims to make fiscal theory useful as a conceptual framework and modeling tool, and for analyzing history and policy. He merges fiscal theory with standard models in which central banks set interest rates, giving a novel account of monetary policy. He generalizes the theory to explain data and make realistic predictions. For example, inflation decreases in recessions despite deficits because discount rates fall, raising the value of debt; specifying that governments promise to partially repay debt avoids classic puzzles and allows the theory to apply at all times, not just during periods of high inflation. Cochrane offers an extensive rethinking of monetary doctrines and institutions through the eyes of fiscal theory, and analyzes the era of zero interest rates and post-pandemic inflation. Filled with research by Cochrane and others, The Fiscal Theory of the Price Level offers important new insights about fiscal and monetary policy.
Unscripted by
Unscripted is the inside story of the struggle to control one of the world's great entertainment empires. It is the story of the last great Hollywood mogul, Sumner Redstone: the ninety-something founder of Paramount Global who, well into his dotage and facing a scandalous lawsuit, proves increasingly unable to run the sprawling company he has built. It is the story of his daughter, Shari Redstone: Sumner's heir apparent who, despite being groomed for power for six decades, struggles to assert her authority over the company and her family's legacy. And it is the story of her challenger, Leslie Moonves: the well-liked CEO of CBS who plots a coup to take control of the business - until news leaks that he is facing multiple allegations of sexual misconduct (allegations he has spent years trying to hush up). The result is damning portrait of how money and power works in Hollywood now. It illuminates an industry struggling to adapt to the revolution brought by streaming, #MeToo and Black Lives Matter. And it reveals the lengths people will go to in pursuit of power - and the carnage that ensues when they do.
Hitler, Stalin, Mum and Dad by
THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER A TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR ‘EPIC, MOVING AND IMPORTANT’ ROBERT HARRIS ‘A MODERN CLASSIC’ OBSERVER ‘AN UNFORGETTABLE EPIC OF A BOOK’DAILY MAIL FROM LONGSTANDING POLITICAL COLUMNIST AND COMMENTATOR DANIEL FINKELSTEIN, A POWERFUL MEMOIR EXPLORING BOTH HIS MOTHER AND HIS FATHER’S DEVASTATING EXPERIENCES OF PERSECUTION, RESISTANCE AND SURVIVAL DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR. DANIEL’S MOTHER MIRJAM WIENER WAS THE YOUNGEST OF THREE DAUGHTERS BORN IN GERMANY TO ALFRED AND MARGARETE WIENER. ALFRED, A DECORATED HERO FROM THE GREAT WAR, IS NOW WIDELY ACKNOWLEDGED TO HAVE BEEN THE FIRST PERSON TO RECOGNISE THE EXISTENTIAL DANGER HITLER POSED TO THE JEWS AND BEGAN, IN 1933, TO CATALOGUE IN DETAIL NAZI CRIMES. AFTER MOVING HIS FAMILY TO AMSTERDAM, HE RELOCATED HIS LIBRARY TO LONDON AND WAS PREPARING TO BRING OVER HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN WHEN GERMANY INVADED THE NETHERLANDS. BEFORE LONG, THE FAMILY WAS ROUNDED UP, ROBBED AND SENT TO STARVE IN BERGEN-BELSEN. DANIEL’S FATHER LUDWIK WAS BORN IN LWÓW, THE ONLY CHILD OF A PROSPEROUS JEWISH FAMILY. IN 1939, AFTER HITLER AND STALIN CARVED UP POLAND, LUDWIK’S FATHER WAS ARRESTED AND SENTENCED TO HARD LABOUR IN THE GULAG. MEANWHILE, DEPORTED TO SIBERIA AND WORKING AS A SLAVE LABOURER ON A COLLECTIVE FARM, LUDWIK SURVIVED THE FREEZING WINTERS IN A TINY HOUSE HE BUILT FROM COW DUNG. HITLER, STALIN, MUM AND DAD IS A DEEPLY MOVING, PERSONAL AND AT TIMES HORRIFYING MEMOIR ABOUT FINKELSTEIN’S PARENTS’ EXPERIENCES AT THE HANDS OF THE TWO GENOCIDAL DICTATORS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. IT IS A STORY OF PERSECUTION; SURVIVAL; AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF TOTALITARIANISM TOLD WITH THE ALMOST UNIMAGINABLE BRAVERY OF TWO ORDINARY FAMILIES SHINING THROUGH. ‘DANNY FINKELSTEIN HAS WRITTEN AN ELEGANT, MOVING ACCOUNT OF THE HISTORY OF ONE FAMILY, AND IN DOING SO SHINES LIGHT ON THE HISTORY OF THE 20TH CENTURY. IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND HITLER AND STALIN, READ THIS BOOK ABOUT PEOPLE WHOSE LIVES WERE UPENDED BY BOTH OF THEM’ ANNE APPLEBAUM, AUTHOR OF GULAG: A HISTORY, WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
The geek way by
With a foreword by Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn'A handbook for disruptors' - Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google We're living in a time of amazing innovation, but we're not paying enough attention to one of the most important of all: the innovation to the company itself. Now, bestselling author of The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee, explains how engineers and geeks are changing the world of business - with extraordinary results.A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can - and should - be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would: through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting - rather than relying on the boss's instincts.By investigating and surveying the contemporary research in psychology, economics and the behavioural sciences, as well as first-hand accounts from the `geek' leaders of today, McAfee's groundbreaking exploration of this emerging phenomenon gets to the heart of the tectonic shifts taking place all over the business world. We have entered a new age. And this age will transform how we achieve great things, now and into the future. The future is geek.'The most compelling analysis I've seen of what Silicon Valley has learned about building more effective organisations' - Adam Grant, host of TED podcast Re: Thinking and No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again
Anansi's gold : the man who swindled the world by
The astounding, never-before-told story of how an ingenious Ghanaian con artist ran one of the 20th century's longest and most audacious frauds. When Ghana declared independence from Britain in 1957, it immediately became a target for opportunists determined to lay hold of whatever assets colonialism hadn't already stripped. The military ousted the new nation's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of stealing the country's gold and hiding it overseas. Into this story stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, John Ackah Blay-Miezah - a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty, Blay-Miezah declared himself the custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece, if only you would help him rescue it - with a small investment. Over the 1970s and '80s, he grew his scam to epic proportions, amassing hundreds of millions of pounds from thousands of marks all over the world. He baffled Henry Kissinger, scandalised Shirley Temple-Black, and had Nixon's former attorney-general at his beck and call. Many tried to stop him, but Blay-Miezah continued to live in luxury, protected by ex-SAS soldiers while he deceived lawyers, businessmen and investigators around the globe. In Anansi's Gold, Yepoka Yeebo chases the ever-wilder trail of Blay-Miezah - and unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements and African dreams - revealing the untold story of the grifter who beat the West at its own thieving game.
Scaling People by
A leader at both Google and Stripe from their early days, Claire Hughes Johnson has worked with founders and company builders to try to replicate their success. The most common questions she's asked are not about business strategy-they're about how to scale the operating structures and people systems of a rapidly growing startup. Scaling People is a practical and empathetic guide to being an effective leader and manager in a high-growth environment. The tactical information it puts forward-including guidance on crafting foundational documents, strategic and financial planning, hiring and team development, and feedback and performance mechanisms-can be applied to companies of any size, in any industry. Scaling People includes over 100 pages of worksheets, templates, exercises, and example documents to help founders, leaders, and company builders create scalable operating systems and lightweight processes that really work.Implementing effective leadership and management practices takes effort and discipline, but the reward is a sustainable, scalable company that's set up for long-term success. Scaling People is a detailed roadmap for company builders to put the right operating systems and structures in place to scale the most important resource a company has: its people.
Material world by
Sand, salt, iron, copper, oil and lithium. They built our world, and they will transform our future.These are the six most crucial substances in human history. They took us from the Dark Ages to the present day. They power our computers and phones, build our homes and offices, and create life-saving medicines. But most of us take them completely for granted.In Material World, Ed Conway travels the globe - from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see. Revealing the true marvel of these substances, he follows the mind-boggling journeys, miraculous processes and little-known companies that turn the raw materials we all need into products of astonishing complexity.As we wrestle with climate change, energy crises and the threat of new global conflict, Conway shows why these substances matter more than ever before, and how the hidden battle to control them will shape our geopolitical future. This is the story of civilisation - our ambitions and glory, innovations and appetites - from a new perspective: literally from the ground up
Best Things First by
In this urgent, thought-provoking book, Bjorn Lomborg presents the 12 most efficient solutions for the world's poorest and our global SDG promises. • If you want to make the world better, Best Things First is the book to read.
World leaders have promised everything to everyone. But they are failing. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals are supposed to be delivered by 2030. The goals literally promise everything, like eradicating poverty, hunger and disease; stopping war and climate change, ending corruption, fixing education along with countless other promises. This year, the world is at halftime for its promises, but nowhere near halfway. Together with more than a hundred of the world’s top economists, Bjorn Lomborg has worked for years to identify the world’s best solutions. Based on 12 new, peer-reviewed papers, forthcoming in Cambridge University Press’ Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, this book highlights the world’s best policies.