Selling To VITO (Very Important Top Officer) is a book dedicated to the science of getting past the proverbial gatekeeper and reaching the executive prospect.

The book discusses in detail everything from attitude to the format of letters one should mail to the content of the voice mail one must leave. In that respect, the book is complete and combined with the personal experience the authors bring manages to offer an above average methodology into an important aspect of most sales cycles.

Having said that, does the book's advice actually work? Well, the answer is some yes and a lot of no. Having put the methodology to work first hand - letters, labels and all - it is fair to say that VITO helps, but is hardly a silver bullet. In fact, while the book facilitated some headway the final end-goal was never in sight.
The failed experiment might be the result of bad luck or a small and non-representative sample, but the bottom-line remains that the book's effectiveness must be questioned. Furthermore, the book's content is slightly dated as shown by some of the verbiage which might be translating into the same for the content.

The Bourne Supremacy is the second book in the Bourne trilogy of author Robert Ludlum. This time around Jason Bourne has been flung unwittingly into the politics of China and has to both reincarnate himself and battle his own reincarnation.

The book is fast-paced, thrilling and certainly has enough action to satisfy the most ardent of espionage buffs. It, however, loses points once it begins to avail itself of one too many coincidences and lucky breaks. Sure, the reader is supposed to reason, this is fiction and fantasy, but a little more realism would probably have worked here.

Nevertheless, The Bourne Supremacy is a fun and involved read for those who can suspend their disbelief and dive into the thick of the Far East quagmire.

Jason Bourne is a man with extraordinary skills. He has an altered appearance, access to millions of dollars and can get more using his many talents. The problem is that he does not know who he is, how or why he has acquired his skills and where he comes from. He is a man with no memory.
Stranded in Southern France and nurtured back to health by a drunkard doctor, Bourne is desperate to regain his past, future and identity. How can he do it though if he does not know where to start and what to look for? Moreover, there are individuals out there gunning for his life. A Canadian woman is helping, but will that be enough to remain alive when international assassin Carlos will do anything to end his life?

The thriller moves fast and weaves into and out of different cities and personalities. Twists abound and Bourne has to move fast or risk staring into the eys of death. The book is an action-packed and fast-paced tale of espionage and international deception, with many incredible and often far-fetched coincidences and breaks, but for sheer heart-pumping action The Bourne Identity moves as fast as a bullet to the heart.

Rock & Roll War Stories is the new book of fan, musician, gadfly, author and critic Gordon Gebert and a co-author and is comprised of different, and seemingly unrelated unless one takes the eccentricity of rock musicians as a theme, real-life stories and episodes of different music personalities - as narrated by the authors and other collaborators. The authors have ample experience in the world of rock and roll, as do the other contributors who turn out to be musicians, groupies or music industry types.

One cannot even be sure if half the stories in the book are legitimate - GG swears to all of them of course - but even at fifty-percent GG and co-writers have been on a hell of a ride - and so will the reader. The book is laugh-out-loud funny, insightful and voyeuristically entertaining. In fact, it is an unbridled (rock 'n roll) riot. Tales and sordid chronicles of musicians come thick and fast shattering myth and ego without mercy. It is always good to laugh at the expense of the music business and the over-inflated ego of rock stars and this book is just the tool to help in the endeavour. It is just too bad that certain narrations are anonymous. That is made up for in the appendix which features direct quotations from different industry types. One is sillier and funnier than the other.

The escapades of the glorified groupies are simultaneously comical and vulgar. The chapters are titillating not only because of the detailed publicization of the personalities' idiosyncrasies and priorities, but one also wonders whether the narrators realize how pathetic and self-demeaning it all is to them. Not deterred by any forthcoming accusations of commercialism or lewdness, the author has placed racy photographs of half-clad tramps in military uniform throughout the book. It might be the perfect pretext for Rock & Roll War Stories II for the author has now assured himself communication from rock musicians!

Elsewhere, and admittedly the book was not after the literate target market to begin with, the work suffers from poor English. There are one too many spelling and grammatical mistakes present. 'Formally' substitutes for 'formerly,' one has to read 'they're' when coming across 'their' and the old stand-by 'your' is constantly substituted for 'you're.' What do they teach in schools in America? Nothing serious, which would be a good maxim for this book.

No matter, Rock & Roll War Stories is funny, candid and a good antidote for a case of the blues.

Managing Multiple Bosses: How to Juggle Priorities, Personalities & Projects, and Make It Look Easy is a book with an atypical approach to solving common workplace issues. Written by author and speaker Pat Nickerson, the book is in fact a compilation of issues, discussions and solutions offered at different seminars by disparate participants. In this way, the book takes advantage of a rare common wisdom and set of experiences. Moreover, The overall subject-matter is more true to the book's sub-title as opposed to its main title. Managing Multiple Bosses... has a broader focus than just managing multiple superiors. It indeed discusses and offers practical solutions for other aspects of the corporate circus. In this context, the book has a lot to offer and is even fun to read at times - the serious nature of the issues discussed aside.
The sole fault with the book though is its organization. Titles, sections and problems/solutions do not enjoy an elegant and logical pattern or organization. Rather, the book is somehow organized as one discussion after the other and the bold headings are of little consequence.
All in all, Pat Nickerson's compilation is an above average read for corporate citizens.

The 25 Sales Habits of Highly Successful Salespeople is a concise book on how successful salespeople go about their profession. The 25 'habits' are quite basic and hardly represent a revelation to anyone but the most novice of salespersons.
Nevertheless, the 130-odd pages can be a fast and quick review, or check list if you wish, for anyone interested in covering the basics.
The book's title might or might not be referring to Steven Covey's famous series. Either way, The 25 Sales Habits can apply to more than just salespeople.
Pro: A quick read with a quick reference summary at the end.
Con: Too basic for most and a partially dated entry in the ocean of sales collateral designed to launch a training career.

Witches: True Encounters With Wicca, Wizards, Covens, Cults, and Magic is a hefty book that at over 600 pages packs quite a bit of information in its pages. The book is largely true to its name covering a plethora of subjects in different chapters. In fact, Hans Holzer often deviates from a strict discussion of witches into realms such as Satan, ancient Greece, the Celts, poltergeist and the like. Oddly enough the bulk of the material chronicles events and persons from the 60's and the 70's. Apparently, while the tome is a recent publication, the book was written in the mid-70's and given a cursory update and then shipped for printing in 2002. The book, consequently, comes occasionally across as dated by thirty years. Regardless of that matter, Witches... easily features lots of interesting information.

Holzer's bias for paganism and Wicca becomes apparent early in the book. He is clearly sold on the notion and often allows the bias to seep into the narrative. Still, Witches... steers clear of commercial sensationalism and aggrandization and is a good entree into the topic. Nonetheless, one can still encounter many grammatical and factual mistakes, as well as over-simplifications. The coming to the fore of the 'devil' on page 25 is a good example. Naturally, and often, non-mainstream ideas simply make too much sense for most and are difficult for the average person to fathom. Holzer tries hard to re-introduce witchcraft and 'the old religion' as a sane choice that is crudely ostracized by Joe public. It is not surprising then that Holzer dissects Christianity in addition to alternative religions. It is surprising that the chapter on how to become a witch is giving short shift and comes up with very few details. Moreover, in order to make his topic more palatable, Holzer gives the accounts of different contemporary witches and gives great space to demystifying the craft. It is here that the author gives the occasional rare and valuable glimpse into the world of witchcraft and paganism. Nevertheless, when discussing the dark arts the author himself manages to display much prejudice and ignorance while trying to distinguish between witchcraft and Satanism. Even this book's notion of Satanism is Christian and dated. Given the book's main thrust that witches and pagans are not to be feared and are more 'good' than 'bad', the book's early mentions of Satanism are annoying at best. Having said that, and towards the end of the book, the subject matter is treated in a more conciliatory fashion. It is possible that those chapters were written several years later and signal an evolution in the author's thinking.

It is also worth mentioning that this book would have been a much better read had the author refrained from his constant self-referential self-promotion. Safe to say he has written many books, stayed at many expensive hotels and met many witches who happen to be both beautiful and blonde. Holzer would have done better had he left out the autobiographical and devoted the space instead to the topic at hand.

Vanity aside, Witches: True Encounters With Wicca, Wizards, Covens, Cults, and Magic is a comprehensive book that is better recommended to the initiate than the insider.

Writer, director, humourist and political observer Michael Moore is back with a new book following the success of his book Stupid White Men and documentary Bowling For Columbine. He is once again employing humour in order to get his point across, given chapters with titles like Home Of The Whopper, 7 Questions For George Of Arabia and How to Talk To Your Conservative Brother-In-Law.

The tragedy is that, despite the irreverent tone, fact after fact in this book is deadly serious, and even occasionally morbid. Speaking of facts, "information, we want information" someone once demanded, and if it were a plea for anything to do with current affairs, Michael Moore heeds the call. The book chronicles lies, fabrications, half-truths and the sordid list of American evil being continuously perpetuated. This, while the USA seeks to ascribe them to others. The book directs rhetorical questions after question at George W. Bush and the establishment. The accusatory finger does not spare others through. The Democrats, Saudi Arabia and the thieving corporate culture also come under the microscope. Moore exposes America, and its P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act, as a seditious folly molesting its own citizenry and beyond.

In the past, critics have suggested that Moore is reckless with his facts. This is why the book is meticulously foot-noted. Still, mistakes do creep in. Saudi Arabia, for instance, is not the biggest exporter of oil to the United States. Nonetheless, the book verbalizes dozens of problems with contemporary America and nullifies the many myths perpetuated by the corporate media.
Moore is like a bottle opener making contact with America's cola. Out pours the truth about Bush II, Iraq, Enron and everything else the nightly news program prefers to ignore. The next paragraph is a perfect example given its basic nature. "We attack the Bill of Rights. Yeah, that'll show those terrorists! Let's dismantle our way of life so they won't have to blow it up. This makes no sense."

The only conclusion any fair-minded reader should reach upon completing Dude, Where's My Country is that United States of America is lead by a liar, which is lamentable seeing how much better America can do.

French philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre's early novel Nausea is often cited as the essential book of Existentialism. The book follows Antoine Roquentin who illustrates the subject matter by living it in every minute of his life, on every corner and in every situation. The defeatist philosophy is neither negative nor positive. It simply is. It is the hollow essence of man. Having perceived this, Roquentin can not stand himself, the people around him, the objects revolving them and all related actions or outcomes.
The bleakness extends to Roquentin's object of research. He too, not unsurprisingly, turns out to be an adulterer, a charlatan, unworthy and lacking worth. In short, both the story itself and the story within the story are lambasted in futility in the end.
Wither in such a universe? Nowhere, for the illusion is by definition hollow and but a shell of nothingness.

"I figgered the devil was the enemy. But they's somepin worse'n the devil got hold a country, an it ain't gonna let go till it's chopped loose."
Grapes Of Wrath is the story of the desperate battle of migrant labourers with the rich, greedy, malevolent and the mean. When the Joads arrive in California from their native Oklahoma, their troubles and tribulations are rewarded not by bounty, but by even more hardship. What ensues is a timeless battle. It is waged by the spirit of the downtrodden on the one side, and by the mercenary mean muscle of the other. The story is primordial and resonates with any reader with a sense for perception.
The classic work of fiction describes a world where the rich, with their glitzy cars, ride alone and never mind hitting a man or a noble dog should one come in their way. Then there is the poor and oppressed who, despite their condition, extend a hand time and time again and never forget what is important on the great round dustbowl. The wheel in the sky seems to work against those who toil and possess a heart, but cruelty and oppression are exposed as mere facades that once removed reveal nothing more than a faceless corporate entity bereft of the right to exist.
It is in this setting that John Steinbeck writes in amazingly authentic and sanguine dialogue the flight of the strong-at-heart from, and again into, the belly of a system bent on browbeating compassion, kindness and veracity.