What We Are Reading Today: Emeralds of Oz by Peter Guzzardi

Updated 04 July 2019
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What We Are Reading Today: Emeralds of Oz by Peter Guzzardi

  • Guzzardi invites us all to consider the value of compassion, fear, faith in ourselves, home, compassion

In the bestselling tradition of “Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten,” a wise and inspiring collection of life lessons drawn from one of the most beloved movies of all time: The Wizard of Oz, says a review published on goodreads.com.

After a lifetime in book publishing, Peter Guzzardi had edited a remarkable group of diverse authors, from Stephen Hawking to Deepak Chopra, from Carol Burnett to Douglas Adams, from Byron Katie to Geneen Roth. Yet everything he had learned from working with them felt oddly familiar. One day it suddenly became clear: All that wisdom had its roots in a film he had loved as a child, The Wizard of Oz.

In this book, we discover what the most-watched film in history has to teach us. Moving seamlessly between the entertaining and profound Guzzardi invites us all to consider the value of compassion, fear, faith in ourselves, home, compassion, and more, as we each face our own heroic journey through life. With that knowledge we become free to embark on our own walk down the yellow brick road, having activated the magical power we possessed all along.

Written with the grace and insight of “It’s Not Easy Being Green” or “The World According to Mister Rogers,” this book is an instant classic, sure to change the way we think about this legendary movie—and our own lives.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’

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Updated 30 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Stellar English’

Author: FRANK L. CIOFFI

“Stellar English” lays out the fundamentals of effective writing, from word choice and punctuation to parts of speech and common errors.

Frank Cioffi emphasizes how formal written English—though only a sub-dialect of the language—enables writers to reach a wide and heterogenous audience.

Cioffi’s many example sentences illustrating grammatical principles tilt in an otherworldly direction, making up a science fiction story involving alien invasion.

 


What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference

Updated 29 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: A Deadly Indifference

Author: Marshall Jevons

Harvard professor Henry Spearman—an ingenious amateur sleuth who uses economics to size up every situation—is sent by an American entrepreneur to Cambridge, England.

Spearman’s mission is to scout out the purchase of the most famous house in economic science: Balliol Croft, the former home of Professor Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes’s teacher and the font of modern economic theory.

After a shocking murder, Spearman realizes that his own life is in danger as he finds himself face-to-face with the most diabolical killer in his career.


What We Are Reading Today: The Mystery of the Invisible Hand

Updated 28 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: The Mystery of the Invisible Hand

Author: Marshall Jevons 

In “The Mystery of the Invisible Hand,” Henry Spearman, an economics professor with a knack for solving crimes, is pulled into a case that mixes campus intrigue, stolen art, and murder.

Arriving at San Antonio’s Monte Vista University to teach a course on art and economics, he is confronted with a puzzling art theft and the suspicious suicide of the school’s artist-in-residence.

From Texas to New York, Spearman traces the connections between economics and the art world, finding his clues in monopolies, auction theory, and Adam Smith.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Little Book of Beetles’

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Updated 27 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘The Little Book of Beetles’

Author: ARTHUR V. EVANS

Packed with surprising facts, this delightful and gorgeously designed book will beguile any nature lover. Expertly written and beautifully illustrated throughout with color photographs and original color artwork, “The Little Book of Beetles” is an accessible and enjoyable mini-reference about the world’s beetles, with examples drawn from across the globe.

It fits an astonishing amount of information in a small package, covering a wide range of topics — from anatomy, diversity, and reproduction to habitat and conservation.

 


What We Are Reading Today: Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets

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Updated 26 April 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets

  • Hoang reveals the strategies behind spiderweb capitalism and examines the moral dilemmas of making money in legal, financial, and political gray zones

Author: Kimberly Kay Hoang

In 2015, the anonymous leak of the Panama Papers brought to light millions of financial and legal documents exposing how the superrich hide their money using complex webs of offshore vehicles. Spiderweb Capitalism takes you inside this shadow economy, uncovering the mechanics behind the invisible, mundane networks of lawyers, accountants, company secretaries, and fixers who facilitate the illicit movement of wealth across borders and around the globe.
Kimberly Kay Hoang traveled more than 350,000 miles and conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with private wealth managers, fund managers, entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, bankers, auditors, and other financial professionals. She traces the flow of capital from offshore funds in places like the Cayman Islands, Samoa, and Panama to special-purpose vehicles and holding companies in Singapore and Hong Kong, and how it finds its way into risky markets onshore in Vietnam and Myanmar.

Hoang reveals the strategies behind spiderweb capitalism and examines the moral dilemmas of making money in legal, financial, and political gray zones.

Dazzlingly written, Spiderweb Capitalism sheds critical light on how global elites capitalize on risky frontier markets, and deepens our understanding of the paradoxical ways in which global economic growth is sustained through states where the line separating the legal from the corrupt is not always clear.