Showing results by narrator "Peter Ganim" in All Categories

Ben Stein's experience from Washington to Hollywood - and everywhere in between - makes him the ideal individual to offer advice to others. His expertise in countless fields makes his valuable, keen observations - that cover the range of topics and challenges that most people face every day - the perfect topic for his book, What Would Ben Stein Do? It's a question we'd all be wise to ask ourselves when contemplating an array of issues in both business and life.

Companies today face a dilemma in marketing. The tried-and-true formulas to create sales and market share behind brands are becoming irrelevant and losing traction with consumers. In this book, Gerzema and LeBar offer credible evidence - drawn from a detailed analysis of a decade's worth of brand and financial data using Y&R's Brand Asset Valuator (BAV), the largest database of brands in the world - that business is riding on yet another bubble that is ready to burst - a brand bubble.

The credit crunch affected every investor and every consumer, every industry and every government program, yet few people truly understand how it happened. Subprime mortgages were center stage, but behind the scenes a conspiracy of greed among bankers, investors, rating agencies and regulators imperiled everyone's financial future. We need to know what went wrong and how to change the practices that led to this calamity.

Mr. Shmooze is the parable of a man who reveals the secret shared by all superstar salespeople. Selling, in its most exquisite form, is not about "taking", nor is it about "persuading". Selling, believe it or not, is about "giving". Mr. Shmooze gives for a living. He starts by listening and he quickly comes to understand what people really need. His customers love him because he gives more than he takes. They trust him because he is passionate about their interests.

As Michael maneuvers through his working-class neighborhood delivering groceries, he enters the homes and lives of his customers. He’s confronted by the school yard and street corner violence of local thugs. With the 1967 Arab-Israeli War fresh in public memory, he passes for Greek or Italian and never summons the courage to explain, exactly, who he is or where his parents came from.

In their own words, immigrants recall their arrival in the United States. Includes brief biographies and facts about the Ellis Island Oral History Project.

After allying itself with Pakistan’s intelligence services and notorious terrorist group, the Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP), ISIS is ready to achieve its ultimate dream: Forcing the US into a clash of civilizations in the Mideast. The best way to accomplish this mission is to acquire three Pakistani nukes—then set them off in three US cities. The head of the CIA’s Pakistan desk, Elena Moreno, and an intrepid journalist, Jules Meredith, are on their trail. Unfortunately, a powerful Saudi ambassador is blackmailing a corrupt American president.

Over the last few years, Moustafa Bayoumi has been an extra in Sex and the City 2 playing a generic Arab, a terrorist suspect (or at least his namesake "Mustafa Bayoumi" was) in a detective novel, the subject of a trumped-up controversy because a book he had written was seen by right-wing media as pushing an "anti-American, pro-Islam" agenda, and was asked by a US citizenship officer to drop his middle name of Mohamed. Others have endured far worse fates.

"Stop the wedding!" No bride wants to hear those words, least of all Susannah "Legs" Carter, one of the Bod Squad's best agents. But when her colleague Jackson bursts in with news that her presumed-dead father may still be alive - and possibly a double agent - the vows are on hold, and the Bod Squad hits the road.

The gods who created this world have abandoned it. In their mercy, however, they chained the rogue god - and the monstrous creatures he created to plague mortalkind - in the vast and inhospitable wasteland of the Bourne. The magical Veil that contains them has protected humankind for millennia, and the monsters are little more than tales told to frighten children. But the Veil has become weak and creatures of Nightmare have come through. To fight them, the races of men must form a great alliance to try and stop the creatures. But there is dissent.

There had been two demons in Modigliani’s life. One was a fever and one was a woman. The Demon Room tells the story of the debauched and troubled artist Amedeo Modigliani through the eyes of Leo, his art dealer, friend, and rival. Consumed by the thought of his own demise, Modigliani throttles through life - and women - hoping to escape the demons that plague him. But when he stumbles into the arms of Jeanne, a young and struggling artist, his salvation might also be his undoing.

Lloyd has a particular set of skills. He writes the small print for prescription drugs, marital aids, and incontinence products. The clients present him with a list of possible side effects. His job is "to recite and minimize" sometimes by just saying them really fast and other times by finding the language that can render them acceptable. The results are ingenious. The methods diabolical. Lloyd has a habit, too. He cops smack during coffee breaks at his new job writing copy for Christian Swingles, an online dating service for the faithful.

From the first pitch of April until the final out in October, the 1962 Dodgers and Giants staged a furious pennant fight that was every bit the equal of the fractious feuds waged during the rivalry's New York heyday of bench-clearing brawls.

Rusty Sabin, born to white parents, was brought up by the Cheyenne Indians who had given the young red-headed boy the name Red Hawk. His ability to heal the sick and make strange magic were widely honored throughout the tribe. But in his twenties, Red Hawk set out to take his place among white people.

Rusty Sabin extracts two bags of gold from the Sacred Valley, partly to spend on Maisry Lester, the girl he hopes to marry. When frontiersman Charlie Galway tries to steal the gold, Galway murders Maisry's father and blames Rusty's friend, Standing Bull.

The author of the acclaimed biography of President James Polk, A Country of Vast Designs, offers a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing “Rating the Presidents,” by pitching historians’ views and subsequent experts’ polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents’ own contemporaries.

When detective Terry Orr learns about the death of the mother of the madman he believes killed his wife and son, he discovers a stunning truth about the woman he adored -and the true nature of his obsessions.

Terry Orr is a man haunted by the murder of his wife and son - and by the tragedy that darkened the streets in lower Manhattan. Now more than ever, his life has purpose. He has to raise his 14-year-old daughter alone - and he has to find the killer who shattered his world.

Though Quirt’s name is little-known, his skills as a gladiator are quickly obvious and hard to match. In Aureity, noblemen battle in the arena circuit, using their powers of teleportation and telekinesis to prove their breeding and strength. The prizes at play are not only silver and bronze but also the chance to rise amongst the nobility and mate with the ruling class of women. Older than most players, Quirt still manages to draw attention and awe through his mastery of the games.

In the decade since 9/11, the United States has grown weaker: It has been bogged down by costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It has spent billions of dollars on security to protect air travel and other transport, as well as the homeland more generally. Much of this money has been channeled into efforts that are inefficient by design and highly bureaucratic, a lack of coordination between and among the government, and an array of contractors making it difficult to evaluate the return on the enormous investment that we have made in national security.