By Chris Herren and Bill Reynolds
St. Martin’s Press, 275 Pages, $24.99

The story of Chris Herren evokes anger and sympathy, sorrow and joy, inspiration and discouragement.  He set high school basketball scoring records in his native Fall River, Massachusetts, earning McDonald’s All-American honors and developing addictions to alcohol and drugs.

“You’ve got the world in the palm of your hands,” his high school coach admonished him, “and you’re doing everything in your power to blow it.”   Indeed.

Following the fall came recovery and redemption.  It is a tough story to read, but ends on a positive note.

James Baar

The difficulty of navigating a true moral course through a confusing and ambiguous world beset by knaves and rogues is a theme that runs through many of the stories in this excellent new collection. When confronting true evil, embodied in a person or a government, how far can the righteous person go without straying into the garden of evil himself? Businesspeople, advocates, warriors, and priests populate these stories, and every reader is bound to identify with at least one or two of them. Ever been downsized, outplaced, replaced, folded, spindled, or mutilated? Meet Arthur Ballentine, just made the former Executive Vice President of Marketing in “Alchemists of the New Age.” If, like the author and this reviewer, you have worked in public relations, lobbying, or advertising, you will laugh out loud, and then be ashamed you did, at the utter cynicism and manipulation of G. Cameron Lightower, in the same story. Or meet St. Jerome in the Holy Land (“Cleansing the Sepulchre”). This book will entertain and provoke reflection in any sentient reader.

Tamar Weinberg   O”Reilly Publishing   $24.99

“Probably the single most important book to read this year if you are involved in marketing your organization or your cause on the Web.” – Angus Parker, program director, WiserEarth, http://www.wiserearth.org/.

The Sellout
How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System
Charles Gasparino • Harper Collins • $27.99

The publisher calls it “the definitive book on the recent collapse of Wall Street, one of the most dramatic and anxiety-ridden eras” in U.S. history. CNBC reporter and author of Blood on the Floor and King of the Club, traces the implosion of the financial services business to the late 1970s, when he says Wall Street embraced a new business model predicated on taking enormous risks.

Too Big to Fail
The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System – and Themselves
Andrew Ross Sorkin • Penguin • $32.95

The publisher calls it a “real life thriller’ that provides “the first true behind-the-scenes, moment-by-moment account of how the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression developed into a global tsunami.”  Sorkin is an award-winning chief mergers-and-acquisitions reporter for The New York Times, where he also writes a column and serves as assistant editor of business and finance news

Sticks and Stones

How Digital Business Reputations Are Created Over Time and Lost in a Click

Larry Weber John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 207 pp. $24.95

One of the recognized leaders in the use of the new media, and in the positioning and promotion of high-tech companies generally, Weber ranges from strategic brand establishment and defense to the nuts and bolts of how use social media. If you want to learn the new media from someone who really knows it, and can explain clearly its workings and his philosophy of its use, this book is for you. One quote that stands out to us, “Whether you own a local restaurant or pilot a multibillion dollar corporation, you have to be YouTube savvy.”

Buy Sticks and Stones from Amazon.com | Buy Sticks and Stones at BN.com

Losing the News: The Future of the News That Feeds Democracy

Alex Jones  Oxford University Press   $24.95

“At a time of dazzling technological innovation, Jones says that what stands to be lost is the fact-based reporting that serves as a watchdog over government, holds the powerful accountable, and gives citizens what they need,” says a major online book retailer.

In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic
Crown Publishing Group  $26.99  336 Pages

20+ years as The Wall Street Journal’s reporter covering the Federal Reserve Bank have prepared the author to write an captivating and authoritative portrait of what some call the fourth branch of the federal government.

Name that Ballplayer: The Ultimate Baseball ‘Whodunnit?’ Quiz
Wayne Stewart Skyhorse Publishing $8.95

This book lives up to its name. A great present for the baseball fan in your life, even if that is you. Important: Read the instructions at the beginning before diving into the questions. Note to cheapskates: As we write this item, amazon.com is offering 24 new and used copies for as little as $4.84.

(Buy from Amazon | Buy at BN.com)

Fool’s Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J.P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe
Gillian Tett  $26.00  Little Brown

A small group at JP Morgan “came up with the idea of creating ‘derivatives that enabled banks to place bets on whether a loan or bond might default in the future’ – what became known as credit derivatives.

And so began the unprecedented financial ‘creativity’ that eventually led to global financial meltdown and worldwide recession.”  From a review of this book on www.ThisIsMoney.co.uk. The author is a first-rank editor at the U.K.’s Financial Times.

(Buy from Amazon | Buy at BN.com)

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug
New Riders Press
$40.00

A non-technical guide to Web site usability.

(Buy from Amazon | Buy at BN.com)