Marketing Books Even Non-Marketers May Like

Normally, I use my Novel Viewpoints blog to talk about fiction, but I do have an alternate blogger persona posting for clients about direct marketing and database marketing. For once, I'm going to let my blog interests overlap by sharing top new books about marketing. Why? Even if you aren't involved in marketing, you are certainly the focus of marketers. Wouldn't you like to know how you are being targeted and manipulated in this age of "big data," social media influence, "personalized" messaging, and scientifically crafted persuasion? I'll start with The Power of Broke by Daymond John, FUBU founder and star of ABC’s "Shark Tank." We all like rags-to-riches stories. John explains how "empty pockets, a tight budget, and a hunger for success can become your greatest competitive advantage," with inspiring illustrations of this hustle principle from his own life, his branding consultant experiences and "Shark Tank" success stories.  If only empty pockets were enough to put me in John's league! Don't Buy A Duck: Stop Wasting Money & Only Do Marketing That Works! by Derek Champagne is a guide to basic branding and marketing, sharing candid soup-to-nuts advice and humorous missteps. I put this one on the list for all my non-marketing readers because of the review by Seth Godin, co-author of The Guerrilla Marketing Handbook: "If you had a smart friend who knew a lot about marketing, this is precisely what she'd tell you over coffee." Viralnomics: How to Get People to Want to Talk About You by Jonathan Goodman lets readers look at their social networks the way psychologists and marketers do. Goodman explains how social media marketing can promote to the right audience--not by finding buttons to push but by finding, understanding and appealing to the influential people who push social buttons. Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die by Eric Siegel is more technical but has fascinating revelations. Learn how the mass of data from online and offline sources can be used to predict behavior for boosting sales, reducing risk, crime fighting, winning elections and more. Siegel covers intriguing topics such as predicting which people will drop out of school, cancel a subscription or get divorced before they know it themselves. You may want to insist that you're a statistical outlier, but you'll be fighting the data! For more options, go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/new-releases/books/2698/ref=zg_bsnr_nav_b_2_3

On the Road to Washington, D.C., Fictionally

Watching the pundit-confounding presidential candidates, it dawned on me that one of these people will actually move into the White House and I might want to get a feel for his or her new home city. There are many historical, biographical and journalistic books about Washington, D.C., but I focused on fiction, especially mysteries and thrillers, hoping to dig under the facts to the politics-fueled soul of the place. Thanks to author Neely Tucker's scarred, Ducati-riding Cajun journalist sleuth Sully Carter in 2015's Murder, D.C.,  I can take a quick visit to the underbelly of the Washington beast. Tucker's series joins James Patterson's Alex Cross, David Baldacci's Camel Club, and George Pelecanos's D.C. Quartet series in the Nation's Capital setting--all best-seller mystery-thriller options. For a woman's angle, turn to two daughters of famous politicians. Margaret Truman Daniel (President Harry Truman's daughter) offers traditional mysteries with a D.C. twist in Murder in Georgetown, Murder in Foggy Bottom and Murder on K Street. Kristin Gore (VP Al Gore's daughter) has written Sammy’s Hill and Sammy’s House about the inner workings of Capitol Hill and the White House. River, Cross My Heart by Breena Clarke is an Oprah-endorsed novel about the emotional impact on an African-American family and community of a child's drowning in the Potomac. Now sometimes it's more revealing to consider a place from an outsider's viewpoint, so I was especially interested in The Guardian newspaper's British recommendations on D.C.-based fiction. Unsurprisingly, Pelecanos topped the author list, but other notable suggestions include 2002's The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen Carter, about two different privileged elites--the upper-crust African-American society and an Ivy League law school. Then there's Heartburn by the great Nora Ephron, a 1983 autobiographical novel of her marriage to Washington Post journalist Carl Bernstein and their divorce. Finally, although I don't agree with author Allen Drury's politics, I think British readers were right to choose his fascinating 1959 portrait of power politics in the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Advise and Consent about U.S. Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee. For more views of Washington from "across the pond," see http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/sep/02/books-about-washington-dc-readers-picks

Mysteries Close to Home: Los Angeles Noir

It's a rainy winter day in Los Angeles, courtesy of El Nino, and a great time to stay at home with a good mystery. Since Los Angeles is the recognized home of "noir" police procedurals and "hard-boiled" private eyes, I'm gathering together my favorite "L.A. noir" authors. Start with Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye; in post-war L.A., iconic private investigator Philip Marlowe is dragged into a cesspool of dangerous lies after befriending a drunken, scarred vet with a rich nymphomanic wife who turns up dead. Then go neo-noir with James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia, the first in his quartet of novels about corrupt police and depraved post-war society, inspired by the gruesome, unsolved 1947 Elizabeth Short murder. Moving forward in L.A. history, there is T. Jefferson Parker's Edgar Award-winning The California Girl, set in Orange County's suburbs at the time of Vietnam, hippies and LSD, when three brothers (a cop, a reporter and a minister) collide over the decapitation murder of a teenage beauty queen. I also love Michael Connelly's maverick homicide detective Harry Bosch, and I'd recommend starting with the Edgar Award-winning The Black Echo. It's the first entry in the Bosch series and introduces Bosch as he fights enemies within the police department and his conflicting urges for justice and vengeance. For another tough PI, get to know Ross Macdonald's Lew Archer; The Underground Man has it all--a fire in the hills, a missing child, and Southern California's special brand of moral ambiguity. I'm also a fan of Jonathan Kellerman's child psychologist sleuth Alex Delaware, who helps the police root out the evil hiding under So Cal's sunny glam. A good starting point is the Edgar Award-winning When the Bough Breaks, in which Delaware tries to unlock the memory of a 7-year-old girl, the only witness to the murder of a fraudulent, sexually manipulative psychiatrist. Finally, for a very different angle on L.A, get to know Easy Rawlins, Walter Mosley's African-American sleuth. In the series debut, Devil in a Blue Dress, watch Rawlins transform from Watts day laborer to private detective. For more L.A. noir gems, see Jonathan Kellerman's recommendations at http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/mar/31/jonathan-kellerman-top-10-la-noir-novels

Some Ideas for Those 2016 Reading Resolutions

New Year's Eve is around the corner, so I'm coming up with reading resolutions for 2016. My list of want-to-read books is based on reviews, past experience with an author, or just personal interest. For nonfiction, I'm looking back to some great 2015 books that I meant to read but somehow missed. Leading the list is the award-winning Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates, an intelligent autobiographical and historical meditation, as told to his son, about racism in America. And from New York Times book critic Janet Maslin's 2015 recommendations, I'm picking up two more biographical histories: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (on my book club's reading list, too) and The Ingenious Mr. Pyke: Inventor, Fugitive, Spy by Henry Hemmings about a British "mad scientist" working on World War II covert strategy, which has the unbeatable teaser: "Only now, following the release of previously classified documents by MI5, can this man's extraordinary story be told in full." When it comes to fiction, I'm looking forward, however, and my thanks to The Washington Post for recommending a bevy of new novels releasing in 2016. From a long list, I'm cherry-picking The Man Without a Shadow by best-selling Joyce Carol Oates, about a neuroscientist who falls in love with the famous amnesiac subject of her research, coming out in January. Because I loved Yann Martel's The Life of Pi, I'm looking forward to the February release of The High Mountains of Portugal, in which Martel weaves together three tales that are part quest, ghost story and contemporary fable of love and loss. I'm also a Jane Austen fan, so I'm curious to read Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, a playful modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, when it comes out in April. You can't beat Stephen King for popular thriller fare, so if you've followed the saga of retired police detective Bill Hodges and his unlikely sleuthing allies through Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, you'll want to snap up King's End of Watch, the "spectacular finale" of the trilogy in June. For advice on making reading resolutions that you can actually accomplish, I'll pass along tips from the Huffington Post article "How to Make Non-Intimidating Reading Resolutions for 2016" at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/non-intimidating-reading-resolutions_5682e8abe4b0b958f65a9b9c

Christmas Magic Inspires Classic Mystery Writers

It's almost Christmas, and, for mystery lovers, that means a slew of seasonal mysteries. Besides all the "cozy" murder tales rife with small-town festivities and pie recipes, the holiday has inspired some classic mystery authors. For example, Agatha Christie penned Hercule Poirot's Christmas: The Belgian detective, spending Christmas with a friend in an English village, offers to help the Lee family solve the bloody murder of a tyrannical patriarch at their holiday family reunion. Christie also wrote The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, a gathering of short mysteries featuring Poirot and her other beloved sleuth Miss Marple. If Christie doesn't satisfy your thirst for British Yuletide mayhem, you can curl up with Silent Nights: Christmas Mysteries, a short-story collection of vintage British mystery writers' holiday-themed tales. For a more recent holiday mystery offering, read New York Times bestselling author Anne Perry. Perry writes a Christmas-themed mystery each year, and this year's 13th seasonal tale is A Christmas Escape: On the Mediterranean island of Stromboli, protagonist Charles Latterly arrives at a small hotel hoping that the island’s blue skies will brighten his spirits. Although orphaned teenager Candace Finbar helps introduce lonely Charles to the island's beauty, his fellow guests turn out to be unhappy, quarrelsome, suspicious company. As the local volcano stirs ominously, a body is found, and Charles suspects a killer among the other guests. Now, for those readers who want to focus on the mystery of Christmas without the murder, check out this list of the 50 best Christmas books for adults or kids, ranging from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, O. Henry's The Gift of the Magi, and Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, all the way to Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas: http://www.stylist.co.uk/books/50-best-christmas-books

Reading About Terror in the Season of Peace

Most of my friends and relatives are immersed in shopping, feasting and happy parties. When it comes to reading, 'tis the season for uplifting tales of hope and love. But the darker, real world intrudes--the Paris terror attacks, the Russian airplane downing, the San Bernardino mayhem, the terror-threat LAUSD school closure, the fiery rhetoric of presidential candidates--and all that grim news sometimes drowns out the cheery mall music. Heading up the enemies of peace is ISIS, the violent movement to create an Islamic caliphate. So, paradoxically, to further peace and goodwill this season, some of the best gifts may be books that help explain ISIS and today's terror threat, because only by understanding can we mount an effective defense and avoid irrational reactions that risk injecting our own society with the hate-filled bigotry we fear. A recent Wall Street Journal blog post provided 10 must-read recommendations on the topic. Focusing on those published or updated just this year, there is The ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State by William McCants, director of the Project on U.S. Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution and translator of a key Jihadist text, “Management of Savagery.” For a wider and longer viewpoint, read The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic by William Harris, a survey of the Middle East's Levant region including Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and parts of Jordan and Iraq. Harris offers a sweeping history of the structural and geographic determinants of today's turmoil there. Finally, you can refocus on ISIS with 2015's ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror by U.S. journalist Michael Weiss and Syrian analyst Hassan Hassan, who describe the group’s history and tactics within the context of Iraq and its post-2003 insurgency. For more book suggestions, read http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2015/11/17/10-must-read-books-on-terrorism/

Books for Novice and Expert Cooks in Your Life

My holiday gift shopping list always includes cookbooks for the foodies in my life, but the list of possibilities is so huge that I scour the Internet for recommendations. I've found that the Food Network has a good list of cookbooks for a range of tastes (from foreign gourmet dining to down-home BBQ to gluten-free believers) and a range of skill levels, from novice to expert. While TV celeb chefs are perhaps overrepresented, there are many listed books that I found recommended by multiple other sources, such as gourmet magazines, book reviewers and lifestyle editors. The books that seem to be getting the biggest buzz this year include: Lucky Peach, a 101 easy Asian recipes from the independent foodie mag; Nopi: The Cookbook, a collection of Asian-meets-Middle-Eastern recipes from the famed London restaurant Nopi's Head Chef Ramael Scully teamed with author Yotam Ottolenghi; Zahav: A World of Israeli Cooking, featuring Israeli cuisine from the Philadelphia restaurant of James Beard Award-winning Chef Michael Solomonov; Bien Cuit: The Art of Bread by New York artisanal baker Zachary Golper; Milk Bar Life featuring new savory recipes from Christina Tosi, author of Momofuku Milk Bar's creative sweets; Near & Far: Recipes Inspired by Home and Travel offering 120 vegetarian dishes from the personal collection of award-winning food blogger Heidi Swanson; Gjelina, the first cookbook inspired by Travis Lett's Venice Beach-based California-Mediterranean restaurant; The Nomad Cookbook with sweet and savory creations from New York's popular The Nomad restaurant menu, plus bonus cocktail recipes; and, finally, Mexico from the Inside Out, a debut cookbook from Chef Enrique Olvera, combining the sophistication of his Mexico City Pujol restaurant with family home cooking. For many more gift ideas, go to http://www.foodnetwork.com/holidays-and-parties/photos/cookbook-gift-guide.html