E = mc2: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation

Generations have grown up knowing that the equation E=mc2 changed the shape of our world, but never understanding what it actually means, why it was so significant, and how it informs our daily lives today—governing, as it does, everything from the atomic bomb to a television’s cathode ray tube to the carbon dating of prehistoric paintings. In this book, David Bodanis writes the “biography” of one of the greatest scientific discoveries in history—that the realms of energy and matter are inescapably linked—and, through his skill as a writer and teacher, he turns a seemingly impenetrable theory into a dramatic human achievement and an uncommonly good story

Doris Simonis “Scientists, Mathematicians, and Inventors: An Encyclopedia of People Who Changed the World”

The first of four volumes in the landmark Lives and Legacies Oryx Press series, Scientists, Mathematicians, and Inventors profiles approximately 200 men and women who changed the world by leaving lasting legacies in their fields. It fills a gap in the biographical reference shelf by offering far more than basic facts about a scientist’s life and work–each entry describes not only the immediate effects of the individual’s discoveries, but their impact on later scientific findings as well. Each entry contains a timeline listing important dates in the biographee’s life as well as a bibliography of the most important works on the subject. A master timeline chronicling major events in scientific exploration and an annotated general bibliography are also included.

Nelson Mandela – A Long Walk to Freedom

INTRO: This is the first book of this size that I have read about S. Africa. Having many relatives from S. Africa , I’ve heard the white side of the story about post-apartheid atrocities and unfairness, but this is the first history I’ve read of the history before 1994. This book really is fascinating in seeing the black perspective of the problem as well as chronologically laying out the evolution of the struggle

SOROS – The Unauthorized Biography

Veteran Time reporter and renowned biographer Robert Slater probes Soros’s financial genius to give readers insight to the unique investment philosophy, strategies, methods, and tactics that have given George Soros enormous influence over world financial markets and in 1993 made him America’s largest money-earner (a record-breaking $1.1 billion). Since 1992, the Soros Foundations he created to fund political reform in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have given away $500 million – and have plans to give away $500 million more. Soros is the fascinating story of this enigmatic master investor, philanthropist, and self-styled philosopher.

Clifford Pickover “Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them”

Archimedes to Hawking takes the reader on a journey across the centuries as it explores the eponymous physical laws–from Archimedes’ Law of Buoyancy and Kepler’s Laws of Planetary Motion to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle and Hubble’s Law of Cosmic Expansion–whose ramifications have profoundly altered our everyday lives and our understanding of the universe. Throughout this fascinating book, Clifford Pickover invites us to share in the amazing adventures of brilliant, quirky, and passionate people after whom these laws are named. These lawgivers turn out to be a fascinating, diverse, and sometimes eccentric group of people. Many were extremely versatile polymaths–human dynamos with a seemingly infinite supply of curiosity and energy and who worked in many different areas in science. Others had non-conventional educations and displayed their unusual talents from an early age. Some experienced resistance to their ideas, causing significant personal anguish. Pickover examines more than 40 great laws, providing brief and cogent introductions to the science behind the laws as well as engaging biographies of such scientists as Newton, Faraday, Ohm, Curie, and Planck. Throughout, he includes fascinating, little-known tidbits relating to the law or lawgiver, and he provides cross-references to other laws or equations mentioned in the book. For several entries, he includes simple numerical examples and solved problems so that readers can have a hands-on understanding of the application of the law. A sweeping survey of scientific discovery as well as an intriguing portrait gallery of some of the greatest minds in history, this superb volume will engage everyone interested in science and the physical world or in the dazzling creativity of these brilliant thinkers.

Jack Welch – Winning

Jack Welch knows how to win. During his forty-year career at General Electric, he led the company to year-after-year success around the globe, in multiple markets, against brutal competition. His honest, be-the-best style of management became the gold standard in business, with his relentless focus on people, teamwork, and profits.

Since Welch retired in 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer of GE, he has traveled the world, speaking to more than 250,000 people and answering their questions on dozens of wide-ranging topics.

Inspired by his audiences and their hunger for straightforward guidance, Welch has written both a philosophical and pragmatic book, which is destined to become the bible of business for generations to come. It clearly lays out the answers to the most difficult questions people face both on and off the job.

Welch’s objective is to speak to people at every level of an organization, in companies large and small. His audience is everyone from line workers to MBAs, from project managers to senior executives. His goal is to help everyone who has a passion for success.

Welch begins Winning with an introductory section called “Underneath It All,” which describes his business philosophy. He explores the importance of values, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity for all.

The core of Winning is devoted to the real “stuff” of work. This main part of the book is split into three sections. The first looks inside the company, from leadership to picking winners to making change happen. The second section looks outside, at the competition, with chapters on strategy, mergers, and Six Sigma, to name just three. The next section of the book is about managing your career—from finding the right job to achieving work-life balance.

Welch’s optimistic, no excuses, get-it-done mind-set is riveting. Packed with personal anecdotes and written in Jack’s distinctive no b.s. voice, Winning offers deep insights, original thinking, and solutions to nuts-and-bolts problems that will change the way people think about work.

Des Dearlove – Business the Bill Gates Way: 10 Secrets of the World’s Richest Business Leader

From computer nerd and Harvard drop-out to the world’s richest business leader? That’s the incredible path of Bill Gates.

Business the Bill Gates Way tells his story, reveals the entrepreneurial brilliance that is the driving force behind Microsoft’s awesome success, and discloses 10 key business secrets of the ultimate computer geek–and formidable businessman.

Readers will learn about: Bill’s early obsession with computers, his utter devotion to…software, his demanding management style, his incredible focus, how he anticipates market challenges and creates dominant brands, how he inspires loyalty and devotion from employees as well as customers, and much more.

Business the Bill Gates Way is part of a new series that charts the rise of business superstars Gates, Jack Welch, Richard Branson, and Rupert Murdoch. The Business Way Series looks at their deals, schemes, and dreams, revealing how each planned his career, crushed his competitors, and ended up on top. It supplies both a valuable insight into the ingredients of success and a concise source of important lessons for the next generation of winners.

Janet Lowe “Jack Welch Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World’s Greatest Business Leader”

Discover what some of the most successful minds in business and finance have to say

In the fully revised Second Edition of Jack Welch Speaks, Lowe presents-in Jack Welch’s own words-the insights, visions, and philosophies that have guided Welch throughout his extraordinary career at GE and his post-GE life. This book offers an objective assessment of Welch-from the management principles that helped him soar to the controversy surrounding his compensation package-and provides lessons in leadership that cannot be found anywhere else. With this book as their guide, readers will not only learn how Jack Welch became one of the world’s most-lauded CEOs, but they’ll also discover exactly what it takes to achieve unparalleled success in today’s dynamic business environment.

Comandante Che: Guerilla Soldier, Commander, and Strategist- Paul J. Dosal

The victory of Fidel Castro’s rebel army in Cuba was due in no small part to the training, strategy and leadership provided by Ernasto Che Guevara. Despite the deluge of biographies, memoirs and documentaries that appeared in 1997 on the 30th anniversary of Guevara’s death, his military career remains shrouded in mystery. This work offers an objective view of Guevara’s record as a Guerilla soldier, commander and strategist from his first skirmish in Cuba to his defeat in Bolivia eleven years later. Using new evidence from Guevara’s previously unpublished campaign diaries and declassified CIA documents, Paul Dosal reassesses Guevara’s impact as a guerilla warrior and theorist, comparing his accomplishments with those of other guerilla leaders with whom he has been ranked, including Colonel T.E. Lawrence, Mao Tse-Tung and General Vo Nguyen Giap. This reassessment reveals that Guevara was often underated as a conventional warrior and theorist. Guevara achieved his greatest military by applying a conventional military strategy in the final stages of the Cuban Revolution, orchestrating the defensive campaign that held off the Cuban army in the summer of 1958. As a guerilla commander, he scored impressive victories in ambush after ambush in Bolivia, but in winning the battles he lost the war. He violated most of his own precepts during the Bolivian campaign, compelling analysts to question the validity of both his strategies and his command skills. Through he is credited with developing foco theory, Guevara never attempted to advance a new theory of guerilla warfare. He was a fighter, not a theorist. He wanted to defeat American inperialism by launching guerilla campaigns simultaneously in Asia, Africa and Latin American, but his tricontinental strategy resulted in failures first in the Congo and then in Bolivia. This book presents the full record of Guevara’s successes and failures, separating myth from reality about one of the 20th century’s most contraversial revolutionary figures

Winning: The Answers: Confronting 74 of the Toughest Questions in Business Today

In Winning, their 2005 international bestseller, Jack and Suzy Welch created a rare document, both a philosophical treatise on fundamental business practices and a gritty how-to manual, all of it delivered with Jack’s trademark candor and can-do optimism. It seemed as if “no other management book,” in the words of legendary investor Warren E. Buffett, would “ever be needed.”

Instead, Winning uncovered an insatiable thirst to talk about work. Since the book’s publication, the Welches have received literally thousands of questions from college students and seasoned professionals alike, on subjects ranging from leadership and global competition to tough bosses and building teamwork. Indeed, questions about virtually every business and career challenge have poured in—some familiar, others surprising, many urgent and probing, and all of them powerfully real.

Winning: The Answers takes on the most relevant of these questions, and in doing so, its candid, hard-hitting responses expand and extend the conversation Jack and Suzy Welch began with Winning. It is a dialogue that is sure to be both compelling and immensely useful to anyone and everyone engaged in the vital work of helping an organization grow and thrive.