Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO (Richard Peet) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO (Richard Peet)

Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“Who really runs the global economy? Who benefits most from it?

The answer is a triad of ‘governance institutions’—the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Globalization massively increased the power of these institutions and they drastically affected the livelihoods of peoples across the world. Yet they operate undemocratically and aggressively promote a particular kind of neoliberal capitalism. Under the ‘Washington Consensus’ they proposed, poverty was to be ended by increasing inequality.

This new edition of Unholy Trinity, completely updated and revised, argues that neoliberal global capitalism has now entered a period of crisis so severe that governance will become impossible. Huge incomes for a small number of super-rich people produced an unstable global economy, rife with speculation and structurally prone to crises. The IMF is in disgrace, the WTO can hardly meet anymore and the World Bank survives as a global philanthropist. Is this the end for the Unholy Trinity?”

New Books Playground says: Unholy Trinity: The IMF, World Bank and WTO is both insightful and confusing to us, for something seems to be going on that we cannot quite understand.

Understanding Industrial Design: Principles for UX and Interaction Design (Simon King & Kuen Chang) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Understanding Industrial Design: Principles for UX and Interaction Design (Simon King & Kuen Chang)

Understanding Industrial Design: Principles for UX and Interaction Design: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“With the coming flood of connected products, many UX and interaction designers are looking into hardware design, a discipline largely unfamiliar to them. If you’re among those who want to blend digital and physical design concepts successfully, this practical book helps you explore seven long-standing principles of industrial design.

Two present and former design directors at IDEO, the international design and innovation firm, use real-world examples to describe industrial designs that are sensorial, simple, enduring, playful, thoughtful, sustainable, and beautiful. You’ll learn how to approach, frame, and evaluate your designs as they extend beyond the screen and into the physical world.

Sensorial: create experiences that fully engage our human senses
Simple: design simple products that provide overall clarity in relation to their purpose
Enduring: build products that wear well and live on as classics
Playful: use playful design to go beyond functionality and create emotional connections
Thoughtful: observe people’s struggles and anticipate their needs
Sustainable: design products that reduce environmental impact
Beautiful: elevate the experience of everyday products through beauty”

New Books Playground says: Understanding Industrial Design: Principles for UX and Interaction Design… finally a design book to share! This book didn’t discuss Industrial Design as much as we would have liked it—but we still learned and enjoyed.

Two Kinds of Truth (Michael Connelly) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Two Kinds of Truth (Michael Connelly)

Two Kinds of Truth: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“Harry Bosch is back as a volunteer working cold cases for the San Fernando Police Department and is called out to a local drug store where a young pharmacist has been murdered. Bosch and the town’s 3-person detective squad sift through the clues, which lead into the dangerous, big business world of pill mills and prescription drug abuse.

Meanwhile, an old case from Bosch’s LAPD days comes back to haunt him when a long-imprisoned killer claims Harry framed him, and seems to have new evidence to prove it. Bosch left the LAPD on bad terms, so his former colleagues aren’t keen to protect his reputation. He must fend for himself in clearing his name and keeping a clever killer in prison.

The two unrelated cases wind around each other like strands of barbed wire. Along the way Bosch discovers that there are two kinds of truth: the kind that sets you free and the kind that leaves you buried in darkness.”

New Books Playground says: Two Kinds of Truth is another excellent Bosch!

Turtles All the Way Down (John Green) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Turtles All the Way Down (John Green)

Turtles All the Way Down: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“‘It’s quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.’

Sixteen-year-old Aza never intended to pursue the mystery of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there’s a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Russell Pickett’s son, Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

In his long-awaited return, John Green, the acclaimed, award-winning author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, shares Aza’s story with shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.”

New Books Playground says: Turtles All the Way Down is pure poetry.

Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts: Trust in Self, Trust in God, Trust in Others, Trust in Life (Iyanla Vanzant) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts: Trust in Self, Trust in God, Trust in Others, Trust in Life (Iyanla Vanzant)

Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts: Trust in Self, Trust in God, Trust in Others, Trust in Life: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“‘You just can’t trust anyone!’ seems to be a constant refrain in the modern world. Indeed, learning to trust is one of life’s most difficult lessons. ‘That’s because trust is not a verb,’ says legendary life coach Iyanla Vanzant, ‘it’s a noun. Trust is a state of mind and a state of being.’

In this wise book, the New York Times best-selling author and host of OWN’s popular reality TV show Iyanla: Fix My Life reveals how to cultivate this liberating power—by exploring what trust really is, how to trust, and why to trust. She outlines the special rewards that come from mastering the four essential trusts: trust in God, trust in yourself, trust in others, and trust in life. And she challenges us to see how each of these are actually deeply interconnected.

Too often our fear of whether or not we can really trust an individual or an institution and what they represent erodes our confidence and undermines our relationships. When trust is broken or there is a betrayal, it can bring us face-to-face with our shadow, revealing that someone has failed to live up to our expectations and thus ‘outs’ our hidden beliefs. ‘You never get what you ask for; you always get what you expect,’ says Iyanla. When someone betrays our trust it reveals the high price paid for such deep disconnection.

This book’s pragmatic trust-building prescriptions demonstrate how communication, consistency, and cooperation can antidote trust-destroying behaviors and revitalize us with increased authenticity, greater resilience, and renewed peace in every part of our lives.”

New Books Playground says: Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Trusts: Trust in Self, Trust in God, Trust in Others, Trust in Life is a beautiful work about one of the most important things we can do.

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ludwig Wittgenstein) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ludwig Wittgenstein)

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in his lifetime. It was an ambitious project: to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science. It is recognized as a significant philosophical work of the twentieth century.

Wittgenstein wrote the notes for Tractatus while he was a soldier during World War I and completed it when a prisoner of war at Como and later Cassino in August 1918. It was first published in German in 1921 as Logisch-Philosophische Abhandlung. Tractatus was influential chiefly amongst the logical positivists of the Vienna Circle, such as Rudolf Carnap and Friedrich Waismann.

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889–1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. He published few works in his lifetime, including one book review, one article, a children’s dictionary, and the 75-page Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921).”

New Books Playground says: Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is not quite trivial to read and yet one of our favorite philosophy books.

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)

To Kill a Mockingbird: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“Harper Lee’s Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred.

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.”

New Books Playground says: To Kill a Mockingbird is a favorite of ours. And we’ve loved the film with Gregory Peck.

Thy Neighbor’s Wife (Gay Talese) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Thy Neighbor’s Wife (Gay Talese)

Thy Neighbor’s Wife: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“An intimate personal odyssey across America’s changing sexual landscape:

When first published, Gay Talese’s 1981 groundbreaking work, Thy Neighbor’s Wife, shocked a nation with its powerful, eye-opening revelations about the sexual activities and proclivities of the American public in the era before AIDS. A marvel of journalistic courage and craft, the book opened a window into a new world built on a new moral foundation, carrying the reader on a remarkable journey from the Playboy Mansion to the Supreme Court, to the backyards and bedrooms of suburbia—through the development of the porn industry, the rise of the ‘swinger’ culture, the legal fight to define obscenity, and the daily sex lives of ‘ordinary’ people. It is the book that forever changed the way Americans look at themselves and one another.”

New Books Playground says: Thy Neighbor’s Wife is an incredibly interesting and well-written documentary.

Thoughts on Design (Paul Rand) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

Thoughts on Design (Paul Rand)

Thoughts on Design: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“One of the seminal texts of graphic design, Paul Rand’s Thoughts on Design is now available for the first time since the 1970s. Writing at the height of his career, Rand articulated in his slender volume the pioneering vision that all design should seamlessly integrate form and function. This facsimile edition preserves Rand’s original 1947 essay with the adjustments he made to its text and imagery for a revised printing in 1970, and adds only an informative and inspiring new foreword by design luminary Michael Bierut. As relevant today as it was when first published, this classic treatise is an indispensable addition to the library of every designer.”

New Books Playground says: Thoughts on Design is an insightful little treatise on one of our favorite subjects.

The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware) · New Books Playground

Posted on January 2, 2023 by CJ

The Woman in Cabin 10 (Ruth Ware)

The Woman in Cabin 10: Learn more at Amazon or at Goodreads.

“From New York Times bestselling author of the ‘twisty-mystery’ (Vulture) novel In a Dark, Dark Wood, comes The Woman in Cabin 10, an equally suspenseful and haunting novel from Ruth Ware—this time, set at sea.

In this tightly wound, enthralling story reminiscent of Agatha Christie’s works, Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first, Lo’s stay is nothing but pleasant: the cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, gray skies fall, and Lo witnesses what she can only describe as a dark and terrifying nightmare: a woman being thrown overboard. The problem? All passengers remain accounted for—and so, the ship sails on as if nothing has happened, despite Lo’s desperate attempts to convey that something (or someone) has gone terribly, terribly wrong…

With surprising twists, spine-tingling turns, and a setting that proves as uncomfortably claustrophobic as it is eerily beautiful, Ruth Ware offers up another taut and intense read in The Woman in Cabin 10—one that will leave even the most sure-footed reader restlessly uneasy long after the last page is turned.”

New Books Playground says: The Woman in Cabin 10 is somewhat calm and predictable. But we were okay with that.

New Books Playground