Book picks similar to
Machiavelli's Prince: A New Reading by Erica Benner
philosophy
non-fiction
social-engineering
might-read
Life Code: The New Rules For Winning in the Real World
Phillip C. McGraw - 2012
Much of the conventional wisdom the last generation has passed on just doesn’t apply like it once did. If you want to win, and win big, and, more importantly, keep what you work so hard for, you need a crystal-clear view of how the real world works — not how you wish it worked, but how it actually works.In Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World, six-time New York Times #1 best-selling author Dr. Phil McGraw abandons traditional thinking and tells you the ugly truth about the users, abusers, and overall “bad guys” we all have in our lives. He also reveals the secrets of how they think and how they get to and exploit you and those you love. You’ll gain incredible insight into these negative people, which he refers to as BAITERs (Backstabbers, Abusers, Imposters, Takers, Exploiters, Reckless), and you’ll gain the tools to protect yourself from their assaults. Dr. Phil's new book gives you the “Evil Eight” identifiers so you can see them coming from a mile away, as well as their “Secret Playbook,” which contains the “Nefarious 15” tactics they use to exploit you and take what is yours mentally, physically, socially and professionally. Life Code then focuses on you and your playbook, which contains the “Sweet 16” tactics for winning in the real world.Edgy, controversial and sometimes irreverent, Dr. Phil again abandons convention to prepare you to claim what you deserve and claim it now. You take flying lessons to learn to fly, swimming lessons to learn to swim, and singing lessons to learn to sing. So, why not take winning lessons to learn to win?If you read this book, you’re going to have a huge leg up on the competition, regardless of whether you’re competing for a job, a spouse, a social position, or friends. You are going to have a well-thought-out, passion-fueled strategy built on the skills and confidence that flow from rolling up your sleeves and learning what others simply do not know. By the time you finish this book, you’ll have the power to define success in your life, the ability to spot potential obstacles to your success, and the tools you can immediately implement to get and protect exactly what you want in this life. If you’re stuck in old thinking about hard work, patience and “playing by the rules,” you are about to learn how to “play big” and be the star of your own life. Life Code: The New Rules for Winning in the Real World was written for you.
Samurai Strategies: 42 Martial Secrets from Musashi's Book of Five Rings
Boyé Lafayette de Mente - 2005
Musashi fought his first duel to the death when he was 13, killing a veteran warrior more than twice his age. By the time he was 29 he had killed over 60 other warriors in death duels and was a legend in his own time.Just before he died, Musashi recorded his philosophy, strategies, and tactics in a short treatise entitled Go Rin Sho "The Book of Five Rings". Samurai Strategies has extracted the fundamentals of Musashi's tactics from this esoteric little book and explains them here in the modern context of business, politics, and war. Musashi's strategies for winning are as valid today as they were in seventeenth century Japan and provide valuable insights for anyone in any field of endeavor--from business, war, and sports to the fields of art, love, and politics.
The Jersey: The All Blacks: The Secrets Behind the World's Most Successful Team
Peter Bills - 2018
'Extremely well written. Compelling, accurate, insightful and brilliant in the way it captures the New Zealand way. - John Hart, former All Blacks coach.With a better winning record than any other sports team in history, they stand head and shoulders above their nearest rugby rivals, and go to the 2019 World Cup as back-to-back World Champions. How did a country of just 4.8 million people conquer the world?Peter Bills, who has reported on international rugby for more than 40 years, was given exclusive access to all the key figures in New Zealand rugby as he set out to understand the secrets behind the All Blacks success. From Steve Hansen to Beauden Barrett, Richie McCaw to the late Sir Colin Meads, Peter Bills talked at length with over 90 people, both in New Zealand and around the world, with intimate knowledge of what makes the All Blacks tick.This is a story of the first settlers, and the 'Originals' who forged the All Blacks legacy, right through to modern times. It draws heavily on the contributions made by all New Zealanders: players, coaches, officials, supporters and those who have worn the most recognized jersey in the world. Intrinsically, The Jersey goes to the heart of the All Blacks success. It is also an epic story of not just a rugby team but a nation, whose identities are inextricably linked. Additionally, it debates a question, terrifying for any of their opponents. Could the All Blacks get even better?
John F. Kennedy’s Women: The Story of a Sexual Obsession
Michael O'Brien - 2011
Kennedy has been more carefully scrutinized. Michael O’Brien, who knows as much about Kennedy as any historian now writing, here takes a comprehensive look at the feature of Camelot that remained largely under the radar during the White House years: Kennedy’s womanizing. Indeed, O’Brien writes, Kennedy’s approach to women and sex was near pathological, beyond the farthest reaches of the media’s imagination at the time. The record makes for an astonishing piece of presidential history.---Michael O’Brien was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and studied at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he received a Ph.D. in history. He is the author of the widely praised John F. Kennedy: A Biography, a full-scale study based on eleven years’ research into letters, diaries, financial papers, medical records, manuscripts, and oral histories; and a concise analytical life of the president, Rethinking Kennedy. He is now emeritus professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Fox Valley, and lives in Door County, Wisconsin.
Life Sentence
Christie Blatchford - 2013
When Christie Blatchford wandered into a Toronto courtroom in 1978 for the start of the first criminal trial she would cover as a newspaper reporter, little did she know she was also at the start of a self-imposed life sentence. In this book, Christie Blatchford revisits trials from throughout her career and asks the hard questions--about judges playing with the truth--through editing of criminal records, whitewashing of criminal records, pre-trial rulings that kick out evidence the jury can't hear. She discusses bad or troubled judges--how and why they get picked, and what can be done about them. And shows how judges are handmaidens to the state, as in the Bernardo trial when a small-town lawyer and an intellectual writer were pursued with more vigor than Karla Homolka. For anyone interested in the political and judicial fabric of this country, Life Sentence is a remarkable, argumentative, insightful and hugely important book.
The Last of the Hippies - An Hysterical Romance
Penny Rimbaud - 1982
On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist: Expeditions in an in-between world where therapy ends and stories begin
Michael Harding - 2017
All of a sudden, he found himself falling back into the old religious devotions of an earlier time. The meaning he had found through years of engagement with therapy began to dissolve.
Here, in On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist, Harding examines the search for meaning in life which keeps him fastened to the idea of god.
After many therapy sessions focused on an effort to uncover personal truth, and long solitary months on the road with a one man show, Harding is finally led to an artists' retreat in the shadow of Skellig Michael.Mixing stories from the road with dispatches from his Irish Times columns, On Tuesdays I'm a Buddhist is a spell-binding and powerful book about the human condition, the narratives we weave around the self, and the ultimate bliss of living in the present moment.
'What happens between one story and the next? That's the really interesting part. That's the space where we find bliss; where we float sometimes, suspended, and only for a brief moment. Perhaps only for a few scarce moments in an entire life.'
The New Machiavelli: How to Wield Power in the Modern World
Jonathan Powell - 2010
Taking the lessons Machiavelli derived from his experience as an official in fifteenth-century Florence, Powell shows how these lessons can still apply today. Illustrating each of Machiavelli's maxims with a description of events that occurred during Tony Blair's time as Prime Minister, The New Machiavelli is designed to be The Prince for modern times.* Tony Blair's Chief of Staff from 1994 - 2007, Jonathan Powell recounts the inside story of that period - drawing on his own unpublished diaries. He tackles the critics of Blair's 'sofa government' and gives a frank account of the intimate details of the internal political rows, the failure to join the Euro or hold a referendum on the European constitution, the struggle with the hauliers strike and the foot-and-mouth outbreak that postponed the 2001 election, the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, as well as the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, the relations with Clinton, Bush and Chirac, thebanning of fox-hunting, the triumphs and failures of spin and the scandals and inquiries - ranging from Bernie Ecclestone to the police investigation into 'cash for peerages'.* Like The Prince, The New Machiavelli is short, stark and clear. It provides a gripping account of life inside 'the bunker' of Number 10 and draws lessons from those experiences, not just for political leaders but for anyone today who has access to the levers of power.
The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy
Amy Wallace - 1986
Politically Homeless
Matt Forde - 2020
Which should be around 65 million people in the UK alone.Matt Forde has been obsessed with politics ever since he was 9 years old. Raised by a single mum on benefits in inner city Nottingham, he joined the Socialist Workers Party as soon as he could, foisted issues of Marxism Today on innocent bystanders and attended his first political party conference. From then on, despite some career suicide moments such as chatting to the Prime Minister at Number 10 while badly drunk, Matt's whole future looked wedded to the Labour Party as he started working for MPs in dingy back rooms in Nottinghamshire.But then Labour started to fall apart, and so did Matt's sense of purpose. With the rise of Corbyn, Brexit and Trump, his love for politics that had been so profound began to quickly crumble.Exploring themes such as tribalism, the curse of complacency and why some politicians refuse to speak normally, Politically Homeless is a hugely entertaining book of (often hilarious) personal stories and thought-provoking insights into this complicated world. And despite everything, Matt's passion is still there. Through hosting his award-winning weekly podcast, 'The Political Party' (over 5 million downloads) involving interviews with some of politics' most powerful and notorious figures including Tony Blair, Nicola Sturgeon, Sadiq Khan, Michael Heseltine, Nigel Farage and Jacob Rees-Mogg and performing critically acclaimed stand-up comedy shows, Matt has been able to keep enough faith that politics will get better. Maybe.
Libertarianism in One Lesson: Why Libertarianism Is the Best Hope for America's Future
David Bergland - 2005
With insight and candor, Bergland answers the most common questions about the freedom philosophy: What exactly is libertarianism? Does libertarianism work in the "real world"? The book lays out the central premise of libertarianism -- "you own yourself" -- and reveals how that deceptively simple statement has an enormous impact on the relationship between government and individuals. Bergland explains where libertarians stand on Social Security, gun rights, the War on Drugs, poverty, the environment, taxes, terrorism, and more. In a fast-paced Q&A chapter, he contrasts the conservative, liberal, and libertarian positions on major issues. Finally, he punctures the muddled thinking that encourages people to turn to government to solve problems. "The best brief introduction to libertarianism available. Bergland is anxious to provide as persuasive and comprehensive a case as he can, and wastes no time getting to the point... He has even adapted it so it can be readily used in classrooms, and sprinkles the book with short sections differentiating among liberal, conservative, and libertarian positions on current issues."--Brian Wilson, radio talk show host
Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Tony Hsieh - 2010
You want to learn about the path I took that eventually led me to Zappos, and the lessons I learned along the way. You want to learn from all the mistakes we made at Zappos over the years so that your business can avoid making some of the same ones. You want to figure out the right balance of profits, passion, and purpose in business and in life. You want to build a long-term, enduring business and brand. You want to create a stronger company culture, which will make your employees and coworkers happier and create more employee engagement, leading to higher productivity. You want to deliver a better customer experience, which will make your customers happier and create more customer loyalty, leading to increased profits. You want to build something special. You want to find inspiration and happiness in work and in life. You ran out of firewood for your fireplace. This book makes an excellent fire-starter.
The Namo Story: A Political Life
Kingshuk Nag - 2013
From his humble beginnings as a RSS pracharak to his rise in the Hindutva ranks, and from being Bharatiya Janata Partys master planner to one of the its most popular and controversial state chief ministers, Modis mantra of change and development is gradually finding many takers. Though he evokes vastly different reactions among the citizens for his alleged role during the Godhra aftermath, what is absolutely clear is that he indeed is racing towards the centre stage, making the 2014 General Elections look more like a Presidential system where, you either vote for him or against him. And that, as they say, is the Modi effect. Kingshuk Nag paints the most vivid portrait of the extraordinary politician who is poised to take on a new role in the coming years.