Author: Meryle Secrest

Authors: Jeffrey Bowman, Sven Ehmann, Robert Klanten

Authors: Anne Berest, Caroline De Maigret, Audrey Diwan and Sophie Mas

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Publisher: Random House

Comments: *Although not recent, this book has been extensively mentioned in recent month. Indeed, it has generally been assumed that there are two types of systems: fragile which is vulnerable to disruptions, and robust which is strong enough to withstand shocks. Taleb develops a third type which are resilient, and which survive shocks precisely because they do change, adapt and learn. For example, the banking system is fragile, whereas Switzerland, because it is decentralised, allows for experimentation which makes it “antifragile”.

In his earlier book, The Black Swan, Taleb shows that highly improbable and unpredictable events underlie almost everything about our world. In Antifragile, he stands uncertainty on its head, making it desirable, even necessary, and proposes that things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better. Furthermore, the antifragile is immune to prediction errors and protected from adverse events.*

Author: Dave Eggers

Authors: Ducan Campbell, Marie Le Fort and Charlotte Rey

Author: Greg Marchand

Authors: Theresa Payton & Ted Claypoole

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Comments: Theresa Payton who was the White House CIO and appeared on the TV show “Hunted”, and Ted Claypoole, a technology attorney, show the many ways our personal information is collected and used in today’s society. They are quick to point out the beneficial aspects of technological advancements in commercial, private, and government settings. However, any collection of personal data is susceptible to malicious use. The authors go on to elaborate on the everyday possibilities of hacking, wiretapping, and other big data strategies by marketers and cybercriminals. Most alarming are the implications of data mining for everyday citizens: cybercriminals can and will steal any information, through government or commercial enterprises.  They suggest ways to adjust our behaviours and activities to recapture our privacy, and to regain data and identity security.

Author: Tory Burch

Publisher: Gesta

Authors: Misha Pinkhasov & Rachna Joshi Nair

Author: Ellen Lupton

Author: Kevin Garvin with John Harrisson

Author:Thomas Piketty

Author:Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

An updated selection of cookbooks for 2014 in which features "First Prize Pies" by Allison Kave, "A La Mère De Famille" by Julien Merceron, and "Dim Sum" by Janice Wong and Ma Jian Jun, among others ...

Author:Doug Stephens

Author:Joel Mitch

Publisher: Business Plus

Comments: According to Mitch Joel, a number of elements have converged to change business forever. It is time to Ctrl Alt Delete your business, reboot and start again. The author of Six Pixels of Separation claims we are in "business purgatory". However, there are a number of things we can do and this applies to people also who risk finding themselves unemployable. None of the points he makes are truly original but they are phrased interestingly and brought together to form a powerful message of change.

Authors: Robert Scoble, Shel Israel

Author: Jonah Berger

Author: Nick Waplington (photographer)

Author:Jeff Fromm and Christie Garton

Author:Sheryl Sandberg