Archive for August, 2017

DVD Recommendations for the Holiday Weekend

Wednesday, August 30th, 2017

Hidden Figures, a critical and commercial success, features engaging performances from its lead actors Taraji P.Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae. Set in the early 1960s, the three Hidden Figures DVD coverAfrican-American mathemeticians play key roles in the nascent space program. Henson’s character Katherine Johnson is instrumental in calculating the Mercury 7’s flight trajectory, and the film manages to make scenes of rapid mathematical calculation riveting.

Toni Erdmann (Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Language Film) centers around Winfried and Ines, a father and daughter. Winfried, who has affinity for pranks involving fake personas, is trying to reconnect with his serious daughter who’s left for a business consulting job. His attempts to build a bridge involve creating an alter ego, Toni Erdmann, an eccentric life coach who keeps showing up at Ines’ various work functions. The movie is a funny but touching character study.

The Expanse is a science fiction series with a compelling political narrative centering around a police detective, an officer on an interplanetary ice freighter and a United Nations executive.  Set two hundred years in the future, people have colonized the solar system but over the course of the show the characters uncover a conspiracy which threatens human survival.

Notable Business Books via library Kindles

Monday, August 21st, 2017

Now available from Ford Library, Notable Business Books on Kindles. Each Notable Business Books Kindle is preloaded with e-books, such as:

  • The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer
  • Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans
  • The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room by Timothy J Koegel
  • Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink
  • The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M Goldratt
  • The Golden Passport: Harvard Business School, the Limits of Capitalism, and the Moral Failure of the MBA Elite by Duff McDonald
  • The Honest Truth About Dishonesty: How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves by Dan Ariely
  • The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross
  • The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over by Jack Schafer
  • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss
  • Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg
  • Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds by Carmine Gallo

You may borrow a Kindle from the Ford Library circulation desk using your Duke ID. Learn more about our Kindles here: https://library.fuqua.duke.edu/resources/kindles.htm

New Movies for August

Friday, August 11th, 2017

Here are the latest titles added to our DVD collection:

Black Butterfly
The Boss Baby
The Promise
Smurfs, the Lost Village
Their Finest
Tommy’s Honour
The Expanse, season 2
Free Fire
Kong : Skull Island
The Lost City of Z
The Zookeeper’s Wife
Norman : the Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Book Reviews: Global Economy

Tuesday, August 1st, 2017

Economic scholars study, debate and write about problems in today’s global economy, but only the most optimistic readers believe that government policymakers will reverse the trends. Three important works were published last year addressing sluggish growth, rising inequality and unstable financial markets.

book cover imageRicks, Morgan. The money problem : rethinking financial regulation. The University of Chicago Press, [2016].

The central problem in the U.S. financial system is vulnerability in the short term funding markets. The solution is to update and redesign the monetary system to include explicit government guarantees for all short-term borrowing of financial firms.

Also available as an eBook.

 

book coverEl-Erian, Mohamed A. The only game in town : central banks, instability, and avoiding the next collapse. Random House, [2016].

In 2008, central banks prevented a collapse in the world economy. Now they are the only responsible economic policymakers. It is time for governments to step up and develop comprehensive economic policies that will lead to growth and stability.

Also available as an audiobook on OverDrive and as an eBook on OverDrive.

 

book cover imageMilanovic, Branko. Global inequality : a new approach for the age of globalization. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, [2016].

The industrial revolution in Europe and North America drove up inequality between rich and poor countries, but the fast rate of growth of Asian countries is pushing global inequality back down. The current trend of shrinking inequality among nations but increasing inequalities within nations will continue.

Also available as an eBook.

© Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
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