Wawasan Al-Quran

Wawasan Al-Quran

Penulis: Prof. Dr. M. Quraish Shihab, M.A.

Al-Quran yang secara harfiah berarti "bacaan sempurna" merupakan suatu nama pilihan Allah yang sungguh tepat, karena tiada satu bacaan pun sejak manusia mengenal tulis baca lima ribu tahun yang lalu yang dapat menandingi Al-Quran Al-Karim, bacaan sempurna lagi mulia itu. Tiada bacaan semacam Al-Quran yang dibaca oleh ratusan juta orang yang tidak mengerti artinya dan atau tidak dapat menulis dengan aksaranya. Bahkan dihafal huruf demi huruf oleh orang dewasa, remaja, dan anak-anak. Tiada bacaan melebihi Al-Quran dalam perhatian yang diperolehnya bukan saja sejarahnya secara umum, tetapi ayat demi ayat, baik dari segi masa, musim dan saat turunnya, sampai kepada sebab-sebab serta waktu-waktu turunnya. [download]

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A to Z of Philosophy

A to Z of Philosophy

By: Alexander Moseley 

Philosophy is the love of wisdom. But what it means to be wise depends on what one is thinking about or looking at. The unwise prefer to turn off their minds, emotions or senses, and prefer not to look, feel or think. Once we begin thinking, we find that wisdom takes many roads, some less travelled than others. This is not to say that there is a plurality of paths that may be deemed equally wise or that all roads lead to the same Truth examining that problem is one of philosophy’s tasks! What the philosopher can say is that

beginning any path to deeper thinking is highly rewarding and if an end is reached, an answer apparently secured, then we should begin another route and see where we end up. [download]

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A Taste of Temptation

A Taste of Temptation

By: Amelia Grey 

Olivia Banning folded the week-old edition of the Daily Reader and handed it back to her aunt. “Lord Truefitt is colorful with his tittle-tattle, Auntie. I wonder if anyone in London’s Society ever tries to find out who he is.” Agatha Loudermilk laid the paper on the bed beside her and looked up at Olivia. “I’m sure there have been hundreds over the years who would like to know, but not me. If his identity were discovered, he would no longer have 2 Amelia Grey access to the ton and couldn’t write any more columns. He’s so clever with his quotes and so delicious with his gossip that I don’t want him to stop.” Olivia smiled down at her great aunt, who was propped against fluffy pillows having her morning chocolate and toast in bed. [download]

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Identity Management – Concepts, Technologies and Systems

Identity Management – Concepts, Technologies and Systems

By: Elisa Bertino and Kenji Takakashi

Nowadays, a global information infrastructure the Web connects remote parties worldwide through the use of large scale networks, relying on application- level protocols and services, such as recent Web service technology. Enterprises are increasingly taking advantage of computing resources available on the Web through the use of cloud computing and virtualization technologies. Execution of activities in various domains and levels, such as shopping, entertainment, business and scientific collaboration, and social networking, is increasingly based on the use of remote resources and services, and on the interaction between different remotely located parties that may, and sometimes should, know little about each other. [download]

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Jalan Terindah – Sebuah Perjalanan Menuju Allah Melalui Shalat

Jalan Terindah – Sebuah Perjalanan Menuju Allah Melalui Shalat

Editor: Imam Sutrisno

“Tidakkah engkau mengetahui bahwa sesungguhnya bertasbih kepada Allah siapa pun yang ada di langit dan bumi, dan burung dengan mengembangkan sayapnya. Sungguh setiap sesuatu

mengetahui cara shalatnya dan cara tasbihnya masing-masing. Dan Allah Maha Mengetahui terhadap apa yang mereka kerjakan.” (QS. An Nuur : 41). Penegakkan shalat harus diawali dengan sebuah pengetahuan tentang hal – hal yang menyertainya. Karena amal sedikit dibarengi ilmu pengetahuan, adalah lebih baik daripada amal banyak penuh kebodohan, sehingga pengetahuan mendalam tentang syarat, rukun termasuk adab lahir maupun batin menjadi hal mutlak, bila ingin menapaki “perjalanan dalam shalat”. [download]

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Bidadari-Bidadari Surga

Bidadari-Bidadari Surga

Penulis: Tere Liye

"PULANGLAH. Sakit kakak kalian semakin parah. Dokter bilang mungkin minggu depan, mungkin besok pagi, boleh jadi pula nanti malam. Benar-benar tidak ada waktu lagi. Anak-anakku, sebelum semuanya terlambat, pulanglah...." Wajah keriput nan tua itu menghela nafas. Sekali. Dua kali. Lebih panjang. Lebih berat. Membaca pesan itu entah untuk berapa kali lagi. Pelan menyeka pipinya yang berlinang, juga lembut menyeka dahi putri sulungnya, wanita berwajah pucat yang terbaring lemah di hadapannya. Mengangguk. Berbisik lembut: "Ijinkan, Mamak mengirimkannya, Lais.... Mamak mohon....". [download]

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The Gun Seller

The Gun Seller

By: Hugh Laurie

Imagine that you have to break someone’s arm. Right or left, doesn’t matter. The point is that you have to break it, because if you don’t . . . well, that doesn’t matter either. Let’s just say bad things will happen if you don’t. Now, my question goes like this: do you break the arm quickly - snap, whoops, sorry, here let me help you with that improvised splint - or do you drag the whole business out for a good eight minutes, every now and then increasing the pressure in the tiniest of increments, until the pain becomes pink and green and hot and cold and altogether howlingly unbearable? Well exactly. Of course. The right thing to do, the only thing to do, is to get it over with as quickly as possible. Break the arm, ply the brandy, be a good citizen. There can be no other answer. Unless.Unless unless unless. What if you were to hate the person on the other end of the arm? I mean really, really hate them. [download]

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The Mediator Shadowland

The Mediator Shadowland

By: Meg Cabot

They told me there’d be palm trees. I didn’t believe them, but that’s what they told me. They told me I’d be able to see them from the plane. Oh, I know they have palm trees in southern California. I mean, I’m not a complete moron. I’ve watched 90210, and everything. But I was moving to northern California. I didn’t expect to see palm trees in northern California. Not after my mom told me not to give away all my sweaters. “Oh, no,” my mom had said. “You’ll need them. Your coats, too. It can get cold there. Not as cold as New York, maybe, but pretty chilly.” [download]

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Hill Towns

Hill Towns

By: Anne Rivers Siddons

WHEN I WAS FIVE YEARS OLD I MADE A COLDLY

DESPERATE decision to live forever in a town on a hill, and so I have, from that terrible night in June until this one, thirty-seven years and one month later. If it has been bad for me, as many people these days seem to be telling me, I can only consider that anything else at all would have been worse. “They never saw it coming; they didn’t know what hit them,” everybody said after my parents were struck and killed by a speeding truck on the old chain bridge over Tolliver’s Creek. After that, I knew as simply and unalterably as a child knows anything that staying alive meant always being able to see what was coming. Always knowing what might hit you. [download]

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Soeharto Bapak Pembangunan Indonesia

Soeharto Bapak Pembangunan Indonesia

Terbitan: Majalah Tokoh Indonesia

Setelah menoleh ke belakang, bagaimana kiprah para pemimpin bangsa ini, khususnya Presiden, dalam menggerakkan pembangunan selama 60 tahun Indonesia merdeka, kami menjadi merasa perlu mengemukakan bahwa ternyata menjadi presiden itu tidak mudah. Hal ini semakin terasa pada era reformasi ini, yang hanya dalam tujuh tahun sudah empat kali presiden berganti. Yakni dari BJ Habibie ke KH Abdurrahman Wahid, kemudian ke Megawati Soekarnoputri dan Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Dengan tidak bermaksud kurang menghargai mereka sebagai pemimpin negeri ini, namun dengan berat hati harus kita akui bahwa keempatnya, praktis belum mampu berbuat apa-apa jika dilihat dari karya nyata pembangunan fisik (ekonomi). [download]

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Theodore Roosevelt – Lion in The White House

Theodore Roosevelt – Lion in The White House

By: Aida D. Donald

This is how a seventeen-year-old trooper in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Rider regiment described his leader. In this account, as in all other stories about Roosevelt and there were scores over the years he “was his own limelight,” as the novelist Owen Wister, who knew him, acutely observed. An incandescent figure, by the age of forty he seemed invincible, with his jutting jaw, too-large teeth, gleaming eyes, spectacles, and a muscular body poised like a cat ready to strike. A steam engine of a man, he had already established a reputation for himself in multiple, and overlapping, realms: writer, cowboy, politician, environmentalist. Now he added soldier. Soon enough, he would add president and world leader to the list. In every realm he mastered whatever task he took on. He was, quintessentially, a reformer in a turbulent age. [download]

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Membongkar Gurita Cikeas – Dibalik Skandal Bank Century

Membongkar Gurita Cikeas – Dibalik Skandal Bank Century

Penulis: George Junus Aditjondro

Badai kecil yang menerjang periode 100 hari kepemimpinan SBY itu tk dimungkiri berdampak pada menurunnya popularitas SBY sendiri di mata publik, satu permasalahan belum usai, kasus pelik kemba;li menghantam SBY berikut kendaraan politiknya. Sekedar menyadarkan, inilah misi dibalik diterbitkannya buku “Membongkar Gurit Cikeas”. Kami tidak bermaksud menyerang lingkaran keluarga Cikeas. Buku ini ditulis justeru sebagai bentuk KEPEDULIAN kami untuk memperbaik kinerja pemerintahan SBY. Kami berharap agar SBY benar-benar fair memberantas KKN tanpa pandang bulu, sudah barang tentu perang terhadap KKN itu dimulai dari keluarga besarnya. Jujur saja, konsistensi sikap SBY memerangi kasus korupsi menuai pandangan skeptis dari banyak kalangan. [download]

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Joan of Arc and The Hundred Years War

Joan of Arc and The Hundred Years War

By: Deborah A. Fraioli

The Middle Ages are no longer considered the “Dark Ages” (as Petrarch termed them), sandwiched between the two enlightened periods of classical antiquity and the Renaissance. Often defined as a historical period lasting, roughly, from 500 to 1500 c.e., the Middle Ages span an enormous amount of time (if we consider the way other time periods have been constructed by historians) as well as an astonishing range of countries and regions very different from one another. That is, we call the “Middle” Ages the period beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire as a result of raids by northern European tribes of “barbarians” in the late antiquity of the fifth and sixth centuries and continuing until the advent of the so-called Italian and English renaissances, or rebirths of classical learning. [download]

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The Catcher in The Rye

The Catcher in The Rye

By: JDS. Salinger

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, an what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all--I'm not saying that--but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything. I'll just tell you about this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy. I mean that's all I told D.B. about, and he's my brother and all. [download]

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The Art of Seduction

The Art of Seduction

By: Robert Green 

Thousands of years ago, power was mostly gained through physical violence and maintained with brute strength. There was little need for

subtlety a king or emperor had to be merciless. Only a select few had

power, but no one suffered under this scheme of things more than women. They had no way to compete, no weapon at their disposal that could make a man do what they wanted politically, socially, or even in the home. Of course men had one weakness: their insatiable desire for sex. A woman could always toy with this desire, but once she gave in to sex the man was back in control; and if she withheld sex, he could simply look elsewhere or exert force. [download]

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Tan Malaka – Madilog (Materialisme, Dialektika, Logika)

Tan Malaka – Madilog (Materialisme, Dialektika, Logika)

Penulis: Tan Malaka

Mokojobi, 15-6-2602. tanggal opisil kini, waktu saya menulis “Madilog’’. Dalam perhitungan “tuan’’ yang sekarang sedang jatuh dari tahta pemerintahan Indonesia itu bersamaan dengan Donderdag Juli 15, 1942. Murid bangsa Indonesia yang bersekolah Arab dekat tempat saya menulis ini, menarikkan pada hari kamis, bulan Radjab 30, 1362. Semua itu memberi gambaran, bahwa Indonesia sebenarnya belum bertanggal berumur sendiri. Indonesia tulen belum timbul dari tenggelamnya berabad-abad itu. 11 Juli 1942 petang, saya sampai di Jakarta. Saya meninggalkan Telokbetong pada 7 Juli. Rupanya sama dengan tanggal Ir Sukarno meninggalkan Palembang. Tetapi ada perbedaan. Kapal yang saya tumpangi cuma perahu layar tak lebih dari 4 ton, tua dan bocor walaupun namanya merdu bunyinya "Sri Renyet’’. Perahu layar ini sama sekali menjadi permainan angin saja. Kalau angin dari belakang majulah dia. Kalau dari muka berlabuhlah dia, walaupun dekat karang, kalau dia tak mau dibalikkan kembali atau ditenggelamkan. [download]

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Empire of Ancient Egypt

Empire of Ancient Egypt

By: Wendy Christensen

EGYPT, THE WORLD’S FIRST SUPERPOWER, WAS BORN ABOUT 5000 B.C.E. in the valley of the Nile River in northeastern Africa. Tucked into a long, narrow gorge threaded by the river and bounded by steep cliffs, Egypt enjoyed a predictable, mostly pleasant climate and natural barriers against invasion. To the west lay the Sahara Desert, to the east a harsh, mountainous wasteland. To the south, a series of six great rapids (called cataracts) obstructed the river. To the north was the “Great Green:” the Mediterranean Sea. An Egyptian called his homeland Kemet. His world was divided into lowland kemet (“black land”), the narrow ribbon of rich, black earth on the valley floor, and highland deshret (“red land”), the pale, reddish sand of the forbidding desert plateaus. Foreigners were “highlanders.” “Going up” meant leaving the valley; “descending” was returning home. [download]

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The Giver

The Giver

By: Lois Lowry



It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen. Frightened was the way he had felt a year ago when an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice. He had seen it both times. Squinting toward the sky, he had seen the sleek jet, almost a blur at its high speed, go past, and a second later heard the blast of sound that followed. Then one more time, a moment later, from the opposite direction, the same plane. At first, he had been only fascinated. He had never seen aircraft so close, for it was against the rules for Pilots to fly over the community. [download]

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Investing for Women

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Investing for Women

By: Jennifer Basye Sander, Anne Boutin and Jim Brown

Investing? Sure, you've thought about it, but do you really need to handle it yourself? The short answer isyes. In this opening section, we present a harsh reality or two about what lies ahead financially for most women. But we also offer a bit of sweetenerlots of information on the vast number of successful women who have already made the plunge into the financial world: women who run major brokerage houses, women whose very words can make the stock market move! Once  we've pumped you up about the possibilities, we begin to take you through some of the preliminary steps you need to get your financial house in order before you begin to invest. Hmmmm a book on investing for women now why on earth would you need that? How can investing be any different for women than it is for men? [download]

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting A Tattoo

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting A Tatto

By: John Reardon

If you have picked up this book, you are either going to get your first tattoo or getting prepared for another one. Here is your opportunity to learn about tattooing and how to get a good tattoo so you don’t end up with an embarrassing mess. Tattooing is becoming more and more popular with TV shows such as Miami Ink. Many celebrities and professional athletes can be seen sporting fresh tattoos on TV all the time. You most likely have at least one friend or acquaintance who has a tattoo. Now it’s your turn. This book will guide you through the process of getting a tattoo. Many people find that a tattoo shop can be an intimidating place. We will go over the various aspects of tattoo shops so you will feel more comfortable when you go in for your tattoo. You will see what to look for when choosing a good tattooist to ensure that you are happy with your tattoo. [download]

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Theory of Quantum – Computation, Communication, and Cryptography

Theory of Quantum – Computation, Communication, and Cryptography

By: Wim van Dam, Vivien Kendon, and Simone Severini

In various branches of quantum theory such as quantum information processing, quantum communication theory or quantum statistics one of the basic problems is to determine the state of a given quantum system. In the simplest case there is a finite set of states specifying the possible preparation of the quantum system. In the Bayesian approach of quantum statistics, the likelihood of the different states is determined by an a priori probability distribution. One makes a decision in favor of one of the states following a specified rule based on the outcomes of a generalized measurement -called a quantum test. In the binary case optimal tests, i.e. tests minimizing the averaged probability of rejecting the true state, are known to be given by Holevo-Helstrom projections. These generalize the classical likelihood ratio tests. Here we consider the scenario where there is an arbitrarily large finite number n of copies of the quantum system available for performing a measurement. [download]

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Cetak Biru Pengembangan Perbankan Syariah Indonesia

Cetak Biru Pengembangan Perbankan Syariah Indonesia

Penulis: Bank Indonesia

Menyadari bahwa pertumbuhan perbankan syariah nasional yang relatif cepat, maka diperlukan suatu cetak biru pengembangan yang memberikan arahan yang ingin dicapai serta tahapan-tahapan untuk mewujudkan sasran pengembangan jangka panjang. Dalam cetak biru ini ditetapkan Visi dan Misi pengembangan perbankan syariah nasional yang disusun dengan mengelaborasi nilai-nilai dasar ekonomi syariah yang perlu dijiwai dalam pengembangan perbankan syariah baik dari perspektif mikro maupun makro. Berdasarkan visi dan misi yang ditetapkan serta memperhatikan kondisi aktual perbankan syariah nasional yang meliputi identifikasi faktor-faktor berpengaruh, tren perkembangan dan permasalahan utama yang dihadapi, ditetapkan sasaran dan pengembangan perbankan syariah nasional yang objektif dan realistis untuk periode sepuluh tahun kedepan. [download]

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The Lost Book of Enki

The Lost Book of Enki

By: Zacharia Sitchin

Some 445,000 years ago, astronauts from another planet came to Earth in search of gold.Splashing down in one of Earth’s seas, they waded ashore and established Eridu, “Home in the Faraway.” In time the initial settlement expanded to a full-fledged Mission Earth-with a Mission Control Center, a spaceport, mining operations, and even a way station on Mars.Short of manpower, the astronauts employed genetic engineering to fashion Primitive Workers-Homo sapiens. The Deluge that catastrophically swept over the Earth required a fresh start; the astronauts became gods, granting Mankind civilization, teaching it to worship.Then, about four thousand years ago, all that had been achieved unraveled in a nuclear calamity, brought about by the visitors to Earth in the course of their own rivalries and wars. [download] 

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Die 100 Des Jahrhunderts Komponisten

Die 100 Des Jahrhunderts Komponisten

Autoren: Björn Cecatka, Attila Czock, Beatrix Gehlhoff 

Der Zusammenstellung der 100 bedeutendsten Komponisten des 20. Jahrhunderts liegen folgende Kriterien zugrunde: ► Es wurden nur Komponisten aufgenommen, die ihre Hauptwerke im 20. Jahrhundert vollbracht haben bzw. einen wesentlichen Teil ihres Werksim 20. Jahrhundert vollendet haben. Bei Komponisten, die auch als Dirigenten oder Solisten tätig waren, konzentrieren sich die Artikel auf das kompositorische Werk. ► Die Auswahl bemüht sich zum einen um eine internationale Sichtweise, zum anderen will sie die Hauptvertreter aller wichtigen Musikrichtungen und stile des 20. Jahrhunderts vorstellen. [download]

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John McEnroe – You Cannot Be Serious

John McEnroe – You Cannot Be Serious 

By: James Kaplan

I HATE ALARM CLOCKS. That incessant ticking drives me nuts. And so September 11, 2001, began like any other morning in the McEnroe household, with my seven A.M. call from 540-WAKE. I quickly hung up the phone, let my wife Patty sleep, and dragged myself out of bed to go rouse five of my six children Ava, the baby of the family at two, was still too young to be part of this daily ritual. We live at the top of a big apartment building on Central Park West, in what I happen to believe is the best apartment in the most beautiful building in New York City. I think about that, appreciate that, every day. Our house is the top four floors; the kids’ rooms are on floors one, two, and three. I smiled as I moved from room to room, mussing hair, scratching backs, patting cheeks. [download]

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Life With My Sister Madonna

Life With My Sister Madonna

By: Christopher Ciccone and Wendy Leigh 

We. The royal we. Madonna and me. My sister and I, she who is still fast asleep in a mahogany four poster bed in her suite adjoining mine. The royal we, so fitting for a woman who is sometimes a royal pain in my ass. Although Buckingham Palace, the queen of England’s residence, is just across the road, in my estimation and that of millions of fans, she is the real queen of the universe Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, my elder sister by twenty seven months, who, just eleven years after the release of her first record, is now one of the most famous women in the world. I eat an orange. No big English breakfast for me, no matter how much I like it. Otherwise, I’ll probably throw up when Madonna and I take our scheduled six-mile jog at eleven. Just as we did yesterday, just as we will do tomorrow and on every other day during the tour. [download]

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Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus 

By: John Gray, Ph.D.

A week after our daughter Lauren was born, my wife Bonnie and I were completely exhausted. Each night Lauren kept waking us, bonnie had been torn in the delivery and was taking painkillers, she could barely walk, after five days of staying home to hel, I went back to work, she seemed to be getting better. While I was away she run out of pain pills. instead of calling me at the office, she asked one of my brothers, who was visiting, to purchase more. my brother, however, did not return with the pills. consequently, she spent the whole day in pain, taking care of a newborn. I had know idea that her day had been so awful, when I returned home she was very upset. I misinterpreted the cause of her distress and thought she was blaming me. [download]

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Business The Bill Gates Way

Business The Bill Gates Way 

By: Des Dearlove 

How do Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch get to have it all? How do they get to control such awesome empires and amass such vast personal fortunes? How do Richard Branson and Jack Welch create such dominant international brands and inspire such loyalty and devotion from employees and consumers alike? Big Shots reveals the secrets, deals, schemes and dreams of the world’s fiercest business competitors. Each book entertainingly charts the rise and rise of a business great and takes a sideways look at how they planned their career, crushed their competitors and ended up as kings. Each book is at once an inspiring and engaging insight into the ingredients of success and a source of invaluable business lessons for the next generation of winners. [download]

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published

By: Sheree Bykofsky and Jennifer Basye Sander

Books, wonderful books. It seems like such a dream that you might someday see your very own name on the cover of a book that’s sitting proudly on a bookstore shelf. Well, dream no longer. It’s high time you turned that dream into reality your reality! Together, we’ve been in the book business for 30 years, and we’ve seen it all (or nearly all). We’ve been interns, editors, authors, agents, and packagers, and we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. As interns, well … we won’t tell you what we did as interns, but as editors, we’ve evaluated dozens of projects. As authors, we’ve struggled to come up with ideas for books that would catch an editor’s eye. As agents, we’ve sorted through thousands of query letters in search of potential authors, and as packagers, we’ve tried to craft marketable books. Now we’d like to share all our hard-won knowledge with you. [download]

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Comedy Writing

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Comedy Writing 

By: James Mendrinos

So you want to write comedy. Perhaps you were the class clown or a locker room cut-up. Maybe you are the cleverest conversationalist a cocktail party has ever known. Whatever the case, you want to take your comedy style and do something with it. You want to turn pro. You have the desire, but where do you start? It’s easy: You start by finding funny ideas. In Part 1, I’ll tell you how to mine those ideas. I’ll take you from forming comedy ideas, to adding your own sense of humor, to looking at the world for more comedy gems. I’ll also give you some names for the styles of jokes you’ll be writing. I’m sure you have. We hear jokes every day. Comedy is woven into the fabric of our lives. We use laughter to educate, communicate, defuse situations, and bond with each other. Comedy is at the epicenter of our humanity. [download]

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Benjamin Franklin – Inventing America

Benjamin Franklin – Inventing America

By: Edwin S. Gaustad

Among Benjamin Franklin’s many talents was his gift for satire: making fun of the noble and the mighty, of the proud and pretentious, and on occasion even of the British Empire itself. But those who live by the satirical sword may die by it as well. In American literature, the only real competitor to Franklin in boundless, bubbling humor is Mark Twain. Both men had a built-in funny bone, so to speak, and for both no subject was too sacred, too solemn, to escape the bite of satire. Among the many subjects that Twain enjoyed making fun of was none other than Franklin himself. Pretending to have been raised by a father who had read Franklin’s Autobiography and to have been fatally infected by it, Twain bitterly complained, in a brief sketch from 1890 called “The Late Benjamin Franklin,” that his boyhood had been ruined by having the model of Franklin held up to him day after day. [download]

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The A to Z of Sexspionage

The A to Z of Sexspionage

By: Nigel West

The motives that drive individuals to engage in espionage are many, and very often those involved are reluctant to admit precisely what it was that propelled them into it. Ideology is frequently cited as a reason for someone having betrayed his or her country, often on the basis that a political commitment is easier to acknowledge than sheer greed or some monetary consideration. Counterintelligence analysts, of course, are always anxious to learn more about motives, partly so they can attempt to develop a profile that will assist them in detecting a betrayal before serious damage is incurred, but also to enable them to recognize the traits in an adversary who perhaps might usefully be exploited. During the Cold War there was a concentrated effort by all the protagonists to persuade intelligence professionals to defect, and many did so. [download]

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Before I Die

Before I Die 

By: Jenny Downham 

I wish I had a boyfriend. I wish he lived in the wardrobe on a coat hanger. Whenever I wanted, I could get him out and he’d ook at me the ay boys do in films, as if I’m beautiful. He wouldn’t speak much, but he’d be breathing hard as he took off his leather jacket and unbuckled his jeans. He’d wear white pants and he’d be so gorgeous I’d almost faint. He’d take my clothes off too. He’d whisper, “Tessa, I love you. I really bloody love you. You’re beautiful” – exactly those words – as he undressed me. I sit up and switch on the bedside light. There’s a pen, but no paper, so on the wall behind me I write, I want to feel the weight of a boy on top of me. Then I lie back down and look out at the sky. It’s gone a funny colour red and charcoal all at once, like the day is bleeding out. [download]

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The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating A Web Page

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating A Web Page 

By: Paul McFedries

Creating a web page sounds like tough stuff, doesn’t it? I mean, have you ever seen the code that comprises a web page? It looks as though someone took a bunch of letters, numbers, and symbols, put them through some kind of linguistic blender, and then poured the result onto the web. It’s ugly, it’s messy, and it’s downright intimidating. But it’s also one more thing: It’s easy. Yes, you read that right: Creating web pages is really quite easy. Actually, let me qualify that: Creating web pages is easy if you approach it in the right way. What’s the right way? Starting at the very beginning with the most basic structure of a page, and then slowly working step-by-step through the rest of it, tacking on bits and pieces as you go along. This way you slowly build your HTML knowledge until, before you know it, you have your very own web page for all to see. [download]

Format : Ebook.Pdf