This hands-on, concise guide gives you 24 proven techniques for communicating clearly and managing conflicts. It features guidelines for everything from sharing information and gathering input from employees to handling disagreements to conducting results-driven meetings and presentations.

Chinese Astrology: Exploring the Eastern Zodiac explains our "natural endowment" or "inner being"-our personality from the beginning. This 5,000-year-old art paints a remarkable picture of personality and potential using the archetypes of the 12 signs of the ancient Eastern zodiac. While each one of us possess some qualities of all 12 signs, we each have a dominant sign and birth element. Be prepared for some "ah ha!" moments as you explore this ancient art and gain insight into the characters of those you meet along life's path. You may notice interesting similarities to your friends and family, and you may never look at yourself the same way again. This is a timeless system that is as pertinent today as it was many centuries ago. In a book that will fascinate both devotees of Western astrology and those who have never even checked their horoscopes in the newspaper, you'll learn * The twelve signs of the Eastern Zodiac and what they tell you about yourself and others. * The Five Elements, and how your birth element influences your destiny. * Chinese love signs, karmic connections, and the secrets of soul mates. * Your Chinese birth hour "companion"-your other self. Shelly Wu has been called the "Dear Abby" of Chinese astrology. Her horoscope columns and feature articles have appeared in A. Magazine: Inside Asian America, The Rainbow News, Psychic Interactive, and Your Stars magazines, and featured on the Associated Press, ABC News, the BBC, and the Wireless Flash news services. Ms. Wu teaches Chinese Astrology at the Online College of Astrology and lives in the high desert of Southern California with her menagerie of pets.

If you want to improve your conversational skills--and achieve greater levels of personal and professional success--The Art of Talking to Anyone is the ultimate book. Rosalie Maggio has built a career on teaching people how to say the right thing at the right time--and she's made her techniques available to you.

This essential communication handbook includes:

• Sample dialogues, topics, and responses
• Quick-reference dos and don'ts
• Tips for handling special situations
• Confidence-building advice and quotations
• Key words that get to the business at hand

Whether it's small talk or big, social or work-related, The Art of Talking to Anyone gives you all the tools you need to speak up with confidence, to charm and persuade, and to talk your way through any situation--successfully.

Ever wonder who the famous figures are on various banknotes and how the concept of “paying the bearer” first originated? This monetary miscellany of unusual banknotes tells the story of different nations’ notes (like the unusual Faroese Króna) and the lesser-known people and places depicted on them. The history of the U.S. dollar is covered in full, including a list of the numerous slang terms for it that have developed through the ages, and stories of famous forgeries and money launderers along the way. Following currency from 7th-century China to the (cancelled) 500 Euro note, color reproductions make this a fascinating insight into banknotes, famous faces, and the whole history of legal tender.

Statistics and probability made fun, easy and useful for everyday life? Rosenthal does just that by explaining common uses of statistics (such as polling), demonstrating how probability can lead to better decision making (should you ask your cute co-worker out on a date?) and getting downright silly (chapter nine is a noir mystery). The author maintains that our fear of untoward events can be eased with the logic of probability and knowing how to evaluate what the real odds are of such an event occurring. A multitude of applications of "the Probability Perspective" are laid out: calculating average losses at gambling, deciding which coincidences are truly surprising, understanding studies that show that a new drug reduces fatalities from a given disease, playing silly party games and using uncertainty for one's own benefit. Anecdotes—some personal stories, some universal situations—illustrate ways that the probability perspective can set one's mind at ease and help in navigating all aspects of life. The lighthearted presentation ensures that readers will not feel burdened by all the knowledge they are gaining and the concluding summary—disguised as a final exam—is sure to deliver an A to everyone, which is what Rosenthal deserves for this clever book. 

Career army officer Boyd breaks his half-century of silence to tell the remarkable story of a top-secret black operation behind enemy lines during the Korean War. Code-named Broken Reed, the operation sent a 10-man team into North Korea to collect badly needed intelligence on enemy capabilities and intentions to aid President Harry Truman in making a fateful decision: to escalate the conflict or accept a stalemate. Boyd, a young signal corps lieutenant, was selected for the mission because of his top-secret clearance and his knowledge of Morse code. Boyd would transmit whatever intelligence the team gathered to a communications aircraft over the Sea of Japan. Inserted into North Korea by submarine, the team collected and transmitted intelligence that revealed a staggering enemy buildup and convinced Truman not to escalate the conflict. Discovered and ambushed, seven of the team were killed and three wounded—two grievously. In a desperate flight, the wounded reached their rendezvous point and were rescued by a waiting ship. If true—and there are no records, transcripts, or evidence of the operation and Boyd is the only known survivor—this suspenseful saga of heroism and sacrifice is further proof that truth can be stranger than fiction. 

We all know one hard and undeniable truth: Physical beauty comes with tremendous power, and tremendous benefits. Those who possess it are generally luckier in love, more likely to be popular, and more apt to get better grades in school. But very few of us realize just how much looks affect every aspect of our lives. Recent studies document that people blessed with good looks earn about 10% more than their average-looking colleagues. They are also more likely to get hired and promoted at work. What exactly is this "physical attractiveness" phenomenon and how does it affect each and every one of us?
Dr. Gordon L. Patzer has devoted the last 30 years to investigating this unsettling phenomenon for both women and men, and how it touches every part of our lives. In Looks, he reveals not only its impact on romance, but also on family dynamics, performance in school, career, courtroom proceedings, politics and government. Looks is the first book to explore how the power of beauty affects both sexes and how the rise of reality TV shows, cosmetic surgery, and celebrity culture have contributed to our culture's overall obsession with being beautiful.

 A re-creation of the inner workings of a government commission threatens to be a dry bureaucratic procedural, but the 9/11 Commission was so politically fraught that its story is compelling in its own right. Chairman Kean and vice-chair Hamilton detail the commission's fight with Congress for more money and time; its wranglings with the Bush administration to win access to witnesses and classified documents; its delicate relations with victims' families, who were its harshest critics and staunchest champions; its strategic use of public censure to wring concessions from recalcitrant officials; and the forging of a bipartisan consensus among fractious Republican and Democratic commissioners. Their tone is evenhanded and diplomatic, but some adversaries—NORAD, the FAA, House Republicans—get singled out as stumbling blocks to the investigation. The authors cogently defend the compromises they made and swat conspiracy theories about coverups, but critics unhappy with the commission's refusal to "point fingers" or its lukewarm resistance to White House claims of executive privilege may not be satisfied. The issues the commission wrestled with—official incapacity to prevent disaster, the government's use and misuse of intelligence, presidential accountability—are still in the headlines, which makes this lucid, absorbing account of its work very timely. Photos.

According to business professors Zeng (of Cheung Kong Graduate School in China) and Williamson (of INSEAD in Fontainebleau and Singapore), the slogan of the China International Marine Container Group, "Learn, Improve, Disrupt," could just as easily apply to any such Chinese corporation, each of whom are busy using those principles to reinvent manufacturing, with global consequences. The authors reveal that low labor costs are only one advantage enjoyed by Chinese companies, and that the "three faces" of cost innovation (offering high technology at low cost, a near-impossible range of choice, and "speciality products" at volume prices) have given them impressive inroads to markets long assumed impenetrable. This is sobering reading for Western audiences; while the authors avoid the alarms that sound throughout many current business books on China, their dry, factual approach may prove even more unnerving. Though it may paint a disturbing portrait of a competitor formidable even in its infancy, the anecdotes and analysis this volume brings to light are bound to inspire anyone serious about global business or politics today.