Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations,great leaders are creating environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.
In Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek, internationally bestselling author of Start With Why, investigates these great leaders from Marine Corps Officers, who don't just sacrifice their place at the table but often their own comfort and even their lives for those in their care, to the heads of big business and government - each putting aside their own interests to protect their teams. Sinek argues that this is what it means to be a leader and asks are you a leader?'As refreshingly simple and easy to follow as it is thought-provoking' Management Today
Why do we do what we do? Why do we exist? Learning to ask these questions can unlock the secret to inspirational business. This title explains what it truly takes to lead and inspire and how you can learn how to do it.
* * * SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD * * * Outrageously funny and completely original, Chop Chop by Simon Wroe is the story of a hapless young chef in the crazed world of the professional kitchen, featuring lust, revenge, neurosis and haute cuisine. 'A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites. A gripping look behind the kitchen wall' Shortlist Two months behind on his rent, young graduate Monocle swallows his dreams and takes the only job he can find: the lowest-rung chef in a gastropub in Camden. Here he finds himself surrounded by a group of deranged hoodlums (his co-workers) and at the mercy of an ingenious sadist (the head chef, Bob). What follows is a furiously-paced, ribald, raucous and unexpectedly touching tale of loyalty and revenge, dark appetites and fading dreams, and a young man finding his way in the world as he is plunged into the fat and the frying pan and everything else besides. 'Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface' Independent 'Lively, amusing and alarmingly informative' Daily Mail 'Arch comedy ... Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain' Kirkus 'A brutally funny look at the world of professional cooking' Gary Shteyngart
Birds are the most obvious wild things we have around us. They are much watched and much loved. A remarkable number of poets have noticed birds and British bird poetry is as old as British poetry. Some of the best known, and most loved, poems in English are bird poems. Here poet Simon Armitage and amateur ornithologist Tim Dee gather the best of the past and the most promising of the present, as well as some overlooked gems. Poems are organised according to ornithological classification, and there are detailed ornithological notes which illuminate the poems and provide fascinating information on the birds. Altogether this is a truly original anthology.
In Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty and Kindness Simon Baron-Cohen takes fascinating and challenging new look at what exactly makes our behaviour uniquely human. How can we ever explain human cruelty? We have always struggled to understand why some people behave in the most evil way imaginable, while others are completely self-sacrificing. Is it possible that - rather than thinking in terms of 'good' and 'evil' - all of us instead lie somewhere on the empathy spectrum, and our position on that spectrum can be affected by both genes and our environments? Why do some people treat others as objects? Why is empathy our most precious resource? And does a lack of it always mean a negative outcome? From the Nazi concentration camps of World War Two to the playgrounds of today, Simon Baron-Cohen examines empathy, cruelty and understanding in a groundbreaking study of what it means to be human. 'Fascinating ... dazzling ... a full-scale assault on what we think it is to be human' ;; Sunday Telegraph 'Highly readable ... this is a valuable book' ;;Charlotte Moore, Spectator 'Important ... humane and immensely sympathetic' ;;Richard Holloway, Literary Review Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor at Cambridge University in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. He is also the Director of the Autism Research Centre there. He has carried out research into social neuroscience over a 20 year career. His popular science book entitled The Essential Difference has been translated in over a dozen languages, and has been widely reviewed.
Simon Kelly's involvement in property development began when, as a computer-mad child in the 1980s, he started making spreadsheets for his father, the developer Paddy Kelly. By 2008, when the Irish property market crashed, Simon and Paddy owed their creditors nearly a billion euro. In 2009, they were the first big developers to admit they were bust - and they encouraged their fellow developers to face reality in the same way. In 2010, in the pages of a national newspaper, Simon Kelly apologized for his part in the long-term damage created by the property bubble.
Until now, the story of Ireland's property boom and bust has been told only by people on the outside. The bankers and the developers have kept quiet. Now, Simon Kelly breaks the silence with this vivid and unsparing account of how it all worked and why it went sour. He brings us to the muddy fields, humble cafés and grand dining rooms where the deals were made; he explains how it was that debt always begat more debt; and he takes us through the hitherto opaque portals of Anglo Irish Bank, the Kellys' main lender.
In an account packed with telling and indiscreet detail, Simon Kelly makes no excuses for ending up bust. He simply shows how it happened - to him, to other developers, to the banks, and to the country. In doing so, he courageously breaks ranks with the insiders who created this disaster, and who would prefer to blame 'international forces', bad luck, or one another. Breakfast with Anglo is a landmark in our national accounting of the present crisis, an essential read for anyone who wants to know how we got into this mess and how we might begin to think about getting out of it.
Simon Baron-Cohen's The Essential Difference: Men, Women and the Extreme Male Brain is an unflinching look at the scientific evidence behind the innate sex differences of the mind. Men and women have always seemed to think in entirely different ways, from conversation and communication to games and gadgets. But are these differences created by society, or do our minds come ready-wired one way or another, with female brains tending towards interaction and male towards organisation? And could this mean that autism - rather than being a mental anomaly - is in fact simply an extreme male brain? Why are female brains better at empathasing? How are male brains designed to analyse systems? And what really makes men and women different? Simon Baron-Cohen explores list-making, lying and two decades of research in a ground-breaking examination of how our brains can be male or female but always completely fascinating. 'Compelling ... Inspiring';;Guardian 'This is no Mars/Venus whimsy, but the conclusion from twenty years of experiment' ;;Evening Standard 'A devastating contribution to the gender debate';;Mail on Sunday 'A fascinating, thought-provoking book';;Observer Simon Baron-Cohen is Professor at Cambridge University in the fields of psychology and psychiatry. He is also the Director of Cambridge's internationally renowned Autism Research Centre. He has carried out research into social neuroscience over a career spanning twenty years. He is the author of Mindblindness and Zero Degrees of Empathy.
From the great citadels of Caernarvon, Harlech, Powis and Beaumaris in the north, to the Victorian glories of Cardiff in the south, St David's cathedral ('the loveliest church in Wales') in the west to the exquisite little hill church of Patrishow in the east, from Plas Newydd above the Menai Straits to the romantic citadel of Carreg Cennan in the heart of the country, the buildings of Wales embody its history and are the equal of any in the British Isles. Simon Jenkins has travelled, it seems, every mile of the country to celebrate, and in some cases to find the very best of them, and irresistibly conveys in this book his enthusiasm for them. Cumulatively they amount to a cultural history of Wales by one of its most devoted sons. Anyone who is visiting Wales or who loves it will want to own this glorious book.
The first geological map was made by an Oxfordshire farmer's son called William Smith. His life was beset with troubles: his work was plagiarized, he was imprisoned for debt, his wife went insane and the scientific establishment shunned him. This is the tale of his life and work in modern geology.
In August 1883 there was a series of volcanic eruptions on the island of Krakatoa - these were so extreme that the effects were heard and felt over ten per cent of the Earth's surface. This text uses contemporary reports to recount the events leading up to and following the cataclysm.
* THE OBSERVER THRILLER BOOK OF THE MONTH* *A BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB PICK* ---------------------------------------- The perfect couple. The perfect house. . . . The perfect crime. Londoners Jack and Syd moved into the house a year ago. It seemed like their dream home: tons of space, the perfect location, and a friendly owner who wanted a young couple to have it. So when they made a grisly discovery in the attic, Jack and Syd chose to ignore it. That was a mistake. Because someone has just been murdered outside their back door. AND NOW THE POLICE ARE WATCHING THEM. This thriller will hook you and not let you go. Perfect for fans of He Said / She Said , and The Couple Next Door ---------------------------------------- What authors and readers are saying: 'DELICIOUSLY DARK AND CLEVER WITH A SATISFYING TWIST. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED' Mark Edwards 'AN INTRICATE AND POWERFUL THRILLER' Tana French 'HUGELY GRIPPING AND SPOOKY AS HELL' Mark Billingham 'TAUGHT, TENSE AND TERRIFYING, I LOVED IT' Sharon Bolton 'O.M.G . I just devoured this gem...Perfect execution of a psychological thriller right here.' Reader review 'A brilliantly tense and shocking thriller. I literally couldn't put it down!' Nuala Ellwood, author of My Sister's Bones 'This terrifying thriller sent shivers through me' Jane Corry, author of My Husband's Wife 'A bundle of creepy chills, perfectly timed for Halloween . . . Read it' Thriller of the Month, The Observer 'Deeply creepy . . . This clever, twisting plot, told in convincing voices, will haunt you in the very best way' The Sunday Mirror ' An intriguing and suspenseful read' Cath Staincliffe 'Brilliantly dark and gripping ...Plays on the fundamental fear that the building blocks of our existence - home, relationships, family - may not be as secure as we like to think' Thomas Mogford 'Clearly influenced by the great Alfred Hitchcock , this is not so much a ghost story as an homage to the master's expert touch with dread' Daily Mail 'Creepy and totally gripping. A real page-turner. I loved it' Claire McGowan
