But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist.

He is a much-heralded scholar who studies the riddles of everyday life--from cheating and crime to sports and child-rearing--and whose conclusions turn conventional wisdom on its head. "Freakonomics" is a groundbreaking collaboration between Levitt and Stephen J.

Dubner, an award-winning author and journalist. They usually begin with a mountain of data and a simple question.

Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives--how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In "Freakonomics," they explore the hidden side of .

. .

well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang.

The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance.

The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Klu Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a great deal of complexity and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and--if the right questions are asked--is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking.

"Freakonomics" establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties.

But "Freakonomics" can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

Steven D Levitt has contributed to Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything as an author. Steven D.

Levitt is a professor of economics at the University of Chicago and a recipient of the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most influential economist under the age of forty. Stephen J Dubner has contributed to Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything as an author.

Stephen J. Dubner is the author of "Choosing My Religion" and coauthor (with Steven D.

Levitt) of the "New York Times" bestseller "Freakonomics". He is a former writer and editor at the "New York Times Magazine", and lives in New York City with his family (less)

No one can resist a rags-to-riches story. It is every common mans dream.

But Rajinikanths story is irresistible. He continues to be an enigma to both his fans and contemporaries.

He is simple Shivaji Rao Gaekwad who, by way of luck and hard work became a superstar, and continues to remain on top notwithstanding the vagaries of time. The book, written in cinematic style, painstakingly seeks to record every nuance of Rajinikanths life: the joys and sorrows, the pains and ecstasies, loves and betrayals.

It also does not shy away from underlining the two extremes that have remained an intrinsic part of his highly eventful career: the human and the divine. The book tells the essential truth about Rajinikanth that has thus far remained unknown to his vast fan following (less)

..

.GIVE FRIEND TO SOMEONE SPECIAL (less)

Margo Lanagan's electrifying stories take place in worlds not quite our own, and yet each one illuminates what it is to be human. They are stories of yearning for more, and learning to live with what you have.

Stories that show the imprint love leaves on us all. If you think you don't like short fiction, that a story can't have the depth or impact of a novel, then you haven't read Margo Lanagan.

A writer this startling and this original doesn't come along very often. So for anyone who likes to be surprised, touched, unsettled, intrigued, or scared senseless, prepare to be dazzled by what a master storyteller can do in a few short pages.

About the Author : Margo Lanagan has contributed to Red Spikes as an author. Margo Lanagana (TM)s story collection, Red Spikes, was a Publishers Weekly Best Book and a Horn Book Fanfare, and Black Juice was a Printz Honor Book.

She lives in Sydney, Australia (less)

How does if feel to find out your soul's true mission has been documented in details on an ancient leaf= that relates to you alone, and then to learn your future? Angela Donovan found it a deeply uplifting experience. But for her husband, Andrew, it was a life-changing moment that left him reeling, his lifelong skepticism challenged and destroyed.

The Hidden Oracle provides an inspiring look into one of the greatest mystical secrets of India, and shows you how to find it for yourself (less)

Pnin struggles to maintain his dignity through a series of comic and sad misunderstandings, all the while falling victim both to subtle academic conspiracies and to the manipulations of a deliberately unreliable narrator. Initially an almost grotesquely comic figure, Pnin gradually grows in stature by contrast with those who laugh at him.

Whether taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has not mastered or throwing a faculty party during which he learns he is losing his job, the gently preposterous hero of this enchanting novel evokes the reader's deepest protective instinct. Serialized in "The New Yorker and published in book form in 1957, PNIN" brought Nabokov both his first National Book Award nomination and hitherto unprecedented popularity.

(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed) One of the best-loved of Nabokov's novels, "Pnin" features his funniest and most heart-rending character. Professor Timofey Pnin is a haplessly disoriented Russian emigre precariously employed on an American college campus in the 1950s.

Pnin struggles to maintain his dignity through a series of comic and sad misunder-standings, all the while falling victim both to subtle academic conspiracies and to the manipulations of a deliberately unreliable narrator. Initially an almost grotesquely comic figure, Pnin gradually grows in stature by contrast with those who laugh at him.

Whether taking the wrong train to deliver a lecture in a language he has not mastered or throwing a faculty party during which he learns he is losing his job, the gently preposterous hero of this enchanting novel evokes the reader's deepest protective instinct. Serialized in "The New Yorker" and published in book form in 1957, "Pnin" brought Nabokov both his first National Book Award nomination and hitherto unprecedented popularity.

About the Author : Vladimir Nabokov has contributed to Pnin as an author. Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977), one of the 20th century's greatest writers in both Russian and English, was born in St.

Petersburg, Russia, and spent his adult life in Germany, France, the United States, and Switzerland. In addition to his literary work, he was a passionate lepidopterist and chess player.

His books include "Lolita, Pale Fire, The Real Light of Sebastian Knight, Laughter in the Dark", and many more (less)

His only shortcoming was as a husband, and now they have worked out an odd but amicable divorce, and share three children they both adore. Blake gets to keep his globe-trotting lifestyle - dating a succession of beautiful, famous and very young women - while Maxine raises their kids in Manhattan and pursues her passion, working as a child psychiatrist.

Then, everything changes..

. Maxine finds a new love just as a tragedy transforms Blake from carefree playboy to compassionate, responsible grown-up.

He wants Maxine in his life again - as a partner in a humanitarian project that could affect countless lives.But Maxine is on the cusp of a new life and almost certain that Blake, a.

k.a.

the Rogue, is a man capable of doing anything - except change..

.Or is he? (less)

Instead, Rosenbaum says that we should focus our resources on handpicking content or products that are already out there--whether it's someone else's how-to-install-your-new-showerhead video or a particularly great movie review or an article about organic baby foods--that we think would be relevant and exciting to customers, and repackaging it for their consumption (less)

Not only that, now you can train your children out of problem behaviours--watching too much TV, not doing homework on time, disobeying parents in public, using foul language, not eating properly and much more. Peppered with relevant examples and keen insight, it is the perfect guide to create a superior learning environment for our child.

Now parents, teachers, principals as well as children themselves don't need to look far. Just follow the magic mantra, The 10 Laws of Learning and experience the difference (less)

Are such issues dated, or do they still impact womens lives? Vrinda Nabar travels back in time to deconstruct the lives of her mother and grandmothers, and using experience to question notions of the self and identity, the nature of relationships, the undercurrents and the inner conflicts that these women battled with and resolved, not always satisfactorily. Drawing on history, myth and gender, she unravels the many fault lines women have to negotiate, often at great cost, in their search for a middle ground between individuality and conformity (less)

After all, she sees a shadowy river man where there isn't one. And then there was that time she and her best friend Courtney tried to conjure a spirit with a Ouija board .

. .

Alan is Courtney's cousin. His family moved to Maine when Courtney's father went missing.

It's not just Alan's dark good looks that make him attractive. He is also totally in touch with a kind of spiritual mysticism from his Native American heritage.

And it's not long before Aimee has broken up with her boyfriend . .

. But it's not Aimee or Alan who is truly haunted - it's Courtney.

In a desperate plea to find her father, Courtney invites a demonic presence into her life. Together, Aimee and Alan must exorcise the ghost, before it devours Courtney - and everything around her (less)

Julie Buxbaum is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School. The Opposite of Love is her first novel (less)

Except that this stranger seems to know much more than he should about Jack. Jack thinks no more of their meeting and resumes his old life in Galway.

But when he's called to investigate a student murder--connected to an elusive Mr. K--he remembers the man from the airport.

Is the stranger really who he says he is? With the help of the Jameson, Jack struggles to make sense of it all. After several more murders and too many coincidental encounters, Jack believes he may have met his nemesis.

But why has he been chosen? And could he really have taken on the devil himself? Suspenseful, haunting, and totally unique, "The Devil" is Bruen at his very best. About the Author : Ken Bruen has contributed to The Devil as an author.

Ken Bruen was born in Galway, Ireland in 1951. The author of sixteen novels, he spent twenty-five years as an English teacher in Africa, Japan, SE Asia and South America.

He now lives in Galway City with his wife and daughter (less)

On Day 10 the author gives a series of MBA mini courses on research public speaking negotiating international business and more. This third edition of Steven Silbiger's bestselling book has the latest facts figures and trends as well as information on ethics in business post-Enron and personal finance.

All-new mini-courses in property investment business writing leadership coaching and financial planning have also been added. Prospective MBAs can use The 10-Day MBA to decide if they want to pursue a degree; those about to enter business school can use it to get a BIG head start on the competition; and those without the time and money can get the equivalent (less)