• Maureen Maguire Lewis |
• Ryan Smith |
• Kathie Amato |
• Gerald Hassell |
• Dan Vermeer |
• Wendy Kuran |
• Peter Lange |
• Alison Ashton |
• Pranab Majumder |
• Meg Trauner |
• David Robinson |
• Alon Brav |
• Julie Edell Britton |
• Gavan Fitzsimons |
• Debu Purohit |
• Mary Frances Luce |
• Blair Sheppard |

Maureen Maguire Lewis

In December 2009, FuquaNet asked Maureen Maguire Lewis, Lecturer in Management Communications, what was on her nightstand. Here's what she said:

I have finished a summer and fall of reading Scandinavian writers, some of whom were stunning.

Henning Mankell is a Swedish author who writes incredibly intelligent and fascinating mysteries. I've read five of his 20 or so books: The Dogs of Riga, Sidetracked, The Fifth Woman, One Step Behind, Firewall.  

Steig Larsson, another Swedish writer and journalist, wrote three huge novels about modern Sweden with a thoroughly original female protagonist. I have read two of those novels, and am hoping to get the third one for Christmas: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoos and The Girl Who Played with Fire. These were wonderful, complex, terrifying, and superbly-written volumes.

Per Petterson is a Norwegian author. His novel, Out Stealing Horses, is just extraordinary with clear, beautiful writing and a fascinating story.

Two other books I highly recommend that I have re-read this fall are Daniel Goldman's' Working with Emotional Intelligence and Franklin Foer's How Soccer Explains the World.  Alas, the latter doesn't explain the world, but it provides such useful insights into this sport and the different cultures in which it thrives. Given that Fuqua is becoming more and more multicultural, these two books were exceptionally relevant, and great reads too.

Ryan Smith

In June 2009, FuquaNet asked Ryan Smith, Program Director, Executive MBA and Alumni Career Services, what was on his nightstand. Here's what he said:

The books typically on my nightstand fall into three categories: professional development, personal development, and stories of inspiration, which often includes historical fiction, biographies, and especially amazing stories of sport:

Professional/Career Development

• Latest Issue of Harvard Business Review. This is one of the magazines that has become a regular resource for me as I often find great supplemental material to demonstrate the importance of proactive career management. A couple of great articles from the last few years include "Tapping the World's Innovation Hot Spots" (March 2009), "Winning the Race for Talent in Emerging Markets" (November 2008), and "Four Truths of the Story Teller" (December 2007).
• The Secret Language of Leadership: How Leaders Inspire Action through Narrative by Stephen Denning (Jossey Bass). A book that appears to parallel the 2007 HBS article. Given our role in the Career Management Center to deliver presentations on a regular basis, I am always looking for resources to improve the narrative process, and this looks to offer some great lessons and perspective.
• Successful Manager's Handbook, published by Personnel Decisions International (PDI). The handbook was first recommended to me several years ago by one of my mentors due to its breadth in coverage and practical strategies for addressing common management challenges. This book is more of a resource to have on hand for reference to specific topics rather than a cover-to-cover read. It is a resource often used by top companies in their leadership development initiatives. Chapter 6 is particularly relevant for anyone dealing with global expansion or managing a workforce in other countries. 

Personal Interest/Development

• Reading National Geographic magazine is one of my favorite Sunday evening activities as it not only serves as an escape but also stimulates thinking about cultures and life external to our daily reality, and about how to be a better steward of the environment.
• Historical fiction (and non-fiction) are also areas of interest for me. In the last year, I have been engaged with the Saxon Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell (HarperCollins). This series of books details the chronicles of the Viking invasions throughout England in the 9th Century. Some other past favorites include Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose (Simon & Schuster) (which chronicles the story of Lewis and Clark), and The Frontiersmen by Allan Eckert (Jesse Stuart Foundation) (story of the American Frontier in the 1700s).

Stories of Inspiration

• The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team by Coach Mike Krzyzewski (Business Plus). This is a recent acquisition that I am looking forward to reading over the July 4th holiday. Why include this on the list? Simply put, if you enjoy true stories of leadership in sport, there are few better tellers than Coach K. Even if you do not gravitate toward sports, but strive for excellence, I have found his principles and stories to transcend the court to everyday living.
• The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch (Hyperion). Another recent acquisition, this is the story of the Carnegie Mellon professor diagnosed with pancreatic cancer who wrote about, perhaps the most important topic for the human spirit, the pursuit of dreams in spite of obstacles!

Kathie Amato

In April 2009,  FuquaNet asked Kathie Amato, Assistant Dean for Executive MBA Programs and Associate Dean for the MMS Program, what she was reading. Here's what she said:

Reading is one of my favorite activities, so deciding what to include on a list of recommended reads is extremely difficult for me. After repeatedly sorting through the books on my bookshelf and then going back to sort through them a few more times, I have settled on the following list.  It includes a mix of several of my most highly prized volumes of fiction, some of the more compelling non-fiction I have read over the past year, along with a new release I plan to read. 

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) is one of my favorite works of fiction. No matter how many times I read the short stories included in this book, I discover new insights missed in earlier readings. Currently, I am in the midst of reading the eight stories which make up Lahiri's more recent collection of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth (Knopf), and this second volume confirms Lahiri's place as one of my favorite authors.  It may be a cliché to reference an author's "hauntingly beautiful" style; yet, in Lahiri's case this is an apt description of her works. Lahiri is of Bengali descent and her writing focuses on the issues of the Indian immigrant culture in America; Interpreter of Maladies was the winner of the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

The Forever War by Dexter Filkins (Knopf) is an unsparing account of the human cost of war. Filkins has spent years on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq as a journalist and paints a vivid picture of what life is like for Afghanis, Iraqis, and U.S. soldiers, without becoming political in his writing. The book was selected by the New York Times as one of the best books of 2008 and by Time magazine as the best non-fiction book of the year.

I am a big fan of "first novels" by gifted writers, so I am looking forward to reading American Rust by Philip Meyer (Random House). This debut novel is the story of two friends who find themselves trapped by circumstance and tragedy in the midst of America's crumbling heartland, with much of the book's narrative taking place in land overshadowed by the abandoned steel mills of Pennsylvania. I have high hopes for this book, as it has received outstanding reviews from a wide range of periodicals, including the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times , New Yorker , and the Economist .

The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria (W.W. Norton) deals with a very timely topic, providing a compelling overview of the growth of "the rest of the world" and the diminished influence of the United States in shaping world events. As Zakaria puts it at the beginning of the book, "This is not a book about the decline of America, but rather about the rise of everyone else." The book is a particularly interesting read in the post-financial meltdown world. Given the fact that it was written before the recent financial crisis, the book at times presents an overly optimistic outlook for the U.S. economy, most notably when addressing the "ease" with which the U.S. government will be able to enact needed reforms to place the country on more stable financial footing. Nonetheless, it is a compelling read.

Given the prominence health care reform is taking in current policy discussions and debate, Redefining Health Care by Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg (Harvard Business School Press) is another very timely read. In typical Michael Porter style, the central premise of the book focuses on transforming the health care system into one where value-based competition drives it towards increased effectiveness and efficiency.

Gerald Hassell

In March 2009, FuquaNet asked Gerald Hassell, Chairman of Fuqua's Board of Visitors and President of The Bank of New York Mellon, what he was reading. Here's what he said:

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life , by Alice Schroeder (Bantam).

It is a revealing history of the personal development of one of the greatest investors of all time - Warren Buffett.  It traces his obsession from early childhood  with making money and his fascination with investment securities.  The book also describes his incredibly disciplined and studious approach to fundamental research, and his willingness to sit on the sidelines when markets were overheated and also jump in when they were oversold.  It helps put into perspective the turmoil we are facing in today's financial markets and the realization that, as in the past, we will come out of this.

Dan Vermeer

In February 2009, FuquaNet asked Dan Vermeer, Director of Duke's Corporate Sustainability Initiative, what he was reading. Here's what he said:

Since my acquisition of books rapidly outpaces my ability to absorb them, perhaps my colleagues can help with some of my favorites below:

• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Succeed or Fail by Jared Diamond (Penguin). Together with Diamond's previous volume Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond explores why some societies triumph and others fail.  He weaves together clues from around the world and across disciplines to tell a compelling story.
• Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen (Abrams). The motto of Steffen's Worldchanging.com blog is "the future is already here; it's just unequally distributed."  The User's Guide is an encyclopedic reference to a more sustainable economy and society.
• The Ingenuity Gap: Facing the Economic, Environmental, and Other Challenges of an Increasingly Complex and Unpredictable Future by Thomas Homer-Dixon (Vintage). Are our problems outpacing us?  Homer-Dixon describes how our social structures and cognitive limits are failing to keep up with an expanding array of complex, inter-related problems, and challenges us to find ways to strengthen our individual and collective ingenuity.
• Clouded Leopard: A Book of Travels by Wade Davis (Tauris Parke Paperbacks). Wade Davis is an old-school explorer and anthropologist who has spent most of his life living with traditional people outside the bubble of modern life.  His account reminds us of the power of other realities, and that "exotic" is in the eye of the beholder.  See Wade's photography and stories at www.ted.com.
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Vintage). This dystopian tale tells the story of a father and his young son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world.  While the context is bleak, the elemental love between the father and his child is so familiar and unspeakable and overwhelming.
• Maximum City: Bombay, Lost and Found by Suketu Mehta (Vintage). India is like life with the volume turned all the way up.  Mehta's account of Bombay captures the vitality and unpredictability of modern, urban India.  With most of the world's population heading for the cities of the developing world, this book captures something of the world we are rapidly becoming.
• Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Broadway). This is the history of science course you always wished for - punchy, enlightening, and very funny!
• Tree Houses You Can Actually Build by David and Jeanie Stiles (Mariner Books). When the weather gets warmer, my son and I intend to put this book's encouraging title to the test.

Wendy Kuran

In January 2009, FuquaNet asked Wendy Kuran, Associate Dean for Centers, what she was reading. She shared a few of her favorites with us. Here's what she said:

What's always on my nightstand is a pile of the latest few issues of The Economist magazine, which I try to read cover to cover to keep up with world political and economic news. For books, since I have recently transitioned from a long U.S.-focused health care career to a new one at the rapidly globalizing Fuqua, I've been enjoying catching up on some of the foundational popular books on global economic development, social entrepreneurship and sustainability. (Three of the following authors have recently spoken at Duke or UNC, and reading autographed copies has provided extra inspiration.)

• The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities of Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs (Penguin Books). This solutions-oriented academic is an exceptionally clear explainer of the world economic system and the importance of global trade. Given the radical changes over the last year, I'm looking forward to the release on February 24 of his Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, which starts out:  "The 21st century will overturn many of our basic assumptions about economic life." 
• The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It by Paul Collier (Oxford University Press). This is a slim book with a compelling argument from the iconoclastic Oxford development economist and former World Bank executive; Africa is a special focus.
• Philanthrocapitalism: How the Rich Can Save the World by Matthew Bishop and Michael Green (Bloomsbury Press). Published in early 2008, this is a somewhat ill-timed but well-written book by the Economist bureau chief who helped shape the public understanding of social entrepreneurship and the application of capitalist principles to the social sector. 
• Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How It Can Renew America by Thomas Friedman (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux). Despite the title of Chapter 12: "If It Isn't Boring, It Isn't Green," Friedman uses his exceptional communication gifts to integrate science, policy and business into a compelling argument that's anything but boring.

A life-long interest in cross-cultural challenges has put the following memoirs and novels on my recently-read/in-process list:

• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time by Greg Mortensen (Penguin Books). An American mountain climber dedicates himself to a deep understanding of and respect for the tribal peoples along the troubled Afghan-Pakistani border in order to help them build schools.
• Gardens of Water by Alan Drew (Random House). Set against the Istanbul earthquake of 1999, this novel portrays a family of religious Kurdish immigrants from Eastern Turkey who struggle with the secular values of Istanbul Turks and American relief workers.
• The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (Free Press). This winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction addresses themes of social inequality and perceived Western oppression in modern-day India; it's a dark but worthwhile read.
  

Peter Lange

In December 2008, FuquaNet asked Peter Lange, Duke University Provost, what he was reading. Provost Lange has been traveling frequently with Fuqua's leadership as we expand around the globe. Here's what he said:

All of my selections were read within the last eighteen months or so, most in the summers or while travelling. Only one could be called "professionally enriching," while the others just gave me pleasure and diversion, often feeding interests and intellectual passions, long held but sporadically--all too sporadically--nurtured. And, of course, there are a couple that are just plain "airport books" of authors I know and enjoy, generally with black, red or both on the covers.

The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (Vintage): A fascinating and well written book about the lead up to September 11, 2001, covering the development of militant and extreme Islamic doctrine and fanaticism, the actual operations of Islamic extremism, above all the development of Al Quaeda and the history of (failed) Western intelligence. It is deeply engaging and informative.  

In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce (Anchor): A wonderful, multifaceted account of modern India and its potential and contradictions built around history, data, anecdotes and interviews. A great read before visiting India for the first time if you are not too well informed before.

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (Anchor): A brutally honest, almost shocking history of the CIA from its origins to the present day. It recounts one disaster after another, sprinkled with occasional, not always predictable, well-deserved or likely, successes. Somewhat short on analysis but very long on fascinating stories that, for a person of my age, touch and confirm many memories and previously half-baked suspicions or politically convenient but weakly founded dogmas.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet (NAL Trade): A mammoth novel of sweeping historical (12th century) span in which the centerpiece, and perhaps the most fascinating aspect, is the passion to construct a cathedral. The characters are vivid and their animosities and hatred infuse the reader as does a more simple fascination with the structure of cathedrals and the complexities, of imagination, religious passion and practical challenges, of building them.

The Narrows by Michael Connelly (Grand Central Publishing): One of those really good read airport books about the pursuit of a notorious serial killer, written in both the first and third persons. It is a sequel to his novel, The Poet.

Exile by Richard North Patterson (Henry Holt and Co.): Another airport read which is fascinating once you get past a little incredulity about the setup. The characters are thinner than the plot and the fascinating representation of Israeli-Palestinian conflict and life on the West Bank. An engaging and good read.

Alison Ashton

In November 2008, FuquaNet asked Alison Ashton, Associate Professor, Accounting, what she was reading. Alison said:

I recently finished Barack Obama's two autobiographical volumes and am celebrating the historic election by reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals (Simon & Schuster), an analysis of "The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln." My interest in her book was originally piqued when I read reviews describing the strong individual leaders who comprised Lincoln's successful cabinet.  Now, however, I read Rivals with an eye toward the exciting ongoing development of the Obama administration.

Rivals may make the list I am putting together for a "book club" my daughter, Amelia, and I are organizing for female Duke Law and MBA students interested in examining women's leadership and teamwork in professional services and business organizations. I am also reading Women and Leadership (Jossey-Bass), edited by Barbara Kellerman and Deborah Rhode, which includes articles by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Nan Kohane, Marie Wilson, and Anita Hill, among others. I'll also suggest we read Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence (Bloomsbury) and Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind (Riverhead Books), which suggests how artistic and holistic right-brained talents will dictate success in the new conceptual age, as left-brained talents dominated in the information age.

To prepare myself for the new Global Academic Travel Experience (GATE) course on Russia that Robert Ashton and I will lead this spring, I am re-reading two old friends:  Robert K. Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra (Atheneum) and Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago (Harper and Row). Even Russian literature seems more exciting when you're just months away from exploring the mother country itself.

And, when there is only time for a brief enlightening moment, I have at hand the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture by Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris. The huge volume, chock full of shorter pieces, definitions and insights was a birthday gift from Amelia, with the inscription, "To sixty years of being Southern!" This is a marvelous must-read for Southerners (and those who aspire to someday assimilate) interested in the mythology and truth about the region. I'd also recommend it for nervous transplants!

Pranab Majumder

In October 2008, FuquaNet asked Pranab Majumder, Assistant Professor, Operations Management, what he was reading. Pranab gave us the list of what's on his nightstand in three categories:

Finish in a Week:

• The Numerati by Stephen Baker (Houghton Mifflin). This book is an exploration of how the gazillion pieces of digital information we create every day are being used to create new businesses, and to predict our shopping behavior. Think Google and Amazon as typical examples.
• Why Popcorn Costs So Much at the Movies: And Other Pricing Puzzles by Richard B. McKenzie (Springer). Of course, I want to learn about how economics can be applied to everyday life to gain insights, but my real goal is to learn how to write a popular book on Operations Management. (Look out for Operations Strategy Through Pictures-- A Grand Scheme to Take Over the World coming soon).
• Diaspora by Greg Egan (Eos). Hard Science Fiction. I read a lot of Sci-fi.

Finish in a Month

• How to Talk So People Listen by Sonya Hamlin. This is a nice structured book to think about ways to connect to the different categories of audiences, like Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y. As a side benefit, it provides me with an interesting social history of the U.S.
• The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures by Dan Roam (Portfolio Hardcover). I picked this up on a whim at the bookstore, and frankly, it has already given me good teaching ideas. (Also, see #2 endnote).

Finish in a Year

• Arabic Coins and How to Read Them by Richard Plant (B. A. Seaby Ltd.). This is part of my long-term plan to learn how to read Arabic, in order to feed my obsession for collecting old coins from India. India had numerous Islamic states until recently, and this has created syncretic streams in our culture--food, architecture, language, you name it.
• Pro Drupal Development by John K. VanDyk (Apress). Drupal is an open source project which provides a set of tools to create social networking Web sites. It constantly amazes me that today you can do in one afternoon what would have taken companies like FaceBook and Orkut months of work with an army of programmers. I plan to use this to create a community around collectors of old coins from India. There may be a business lurking in there somewhere. Long-term project, therefore good to fall asleep on.

Meg Trauner

In September 2008, FuquaNet asked Ford Librarian Meg Trauner what she was reading. Here's a list of books currently on her nightstand:

• The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker by Steven Greenhouse (Knopf). New York Times labor correspondent presents outrageous stories of companies like Walmart and Caterpillar, which routinely cheat their workers for profit, leading to a decline in financial security for many Americans.
• Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin (Penguin). Mountain climbing bum Mortenson is saved by poor Pakistani villagers and promises to return to build a school for girls. He succeeds and eventually builds more than fifty throughout Pakistan's and Afghanistan's poorest regions. Read my review of this book on the Ford Library blog.
• Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are by Paul Robbins (Temple University Press). Resident of Columbus, OH, analyzes various dimensions of Americans' obsession with perfect turf.
• Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein (Yale University Press). Two faculty members from the University of Chicago discuss the new science of choice architecture that helps people to see their own biases and to make better decisions for themselves, their families and society. This book is not as engaging as Fuqua faculty Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, but is interesting nonetheless.
• The Open Mind: Exploring the 6 Patterns of Natural Intelligence by Dawna Markova (Red Wheel / Weiser). A researcher at the Organizational Learning Center at MIT discusses auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learning styles and shows that people learn and communicate in one of six different ways.

David Robinson

In July 2008, FuquaNet asked David Robinson, Associate Professor in Finance, what he was reading. Here's a list of books currently on his nightstand:

• The Illusions of Entrepreneurship , by Scott Shane (Yale Press). As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about entrepreneurs and the act of new business creation, I am always eager to read other people's points of view on the subject, even if I don't share their views.
• Inaugural Addresses of Presidents of the United States, 1789-1965 . (U.S. Government Printing Office). This is a book I inherited many years ago from a relative. I read it in small doses, almost like a book of poetry. Inaugural speeches offer a fascinating window into both the political concerns of different periods of U.S. history, and the evolving set of expectations we place on presidents. They are equally interesting when examined purely as pieces of literature.
• Remembering Bill Neal , by Moreton Neal (UNC Press). Bill Neal was the founder and chef of Chapel Hill's Crook's Corner and was famous both as a local figure and as a prominent figure in the national cooking scene in the late 1970s and 1980s. The book is more than just a cookbook; it tells the back story on many of the recipes--where they came from, how he used them.
• The Boys from Dolores: Fidel Castro's Classmates from Revolution to Exile , by Patrick Symmes (Pantheon Books). Biographers have picked over Fidel Castro from numerous angles. This writer tells of his youth through the eyes of his childhood friends and schoolmates.
• Encyclopedia of North Carolina , edited by William S. Powell (UNC Press). Short blurbs on everything from Aberdeen & Rockfish Railroad Company to Z. Smiths Reynolds Foundation from an important scholar of North Carolina history. Sadly, however, there is little here on the origins of fish camps—restaurants which sprung up along the Catawba River in the early 1950s, having grown out of neighborhood fish fries sponsored by wartime cooks looking to make extra money.

Alon Brav

In May 2008, FuquaNet asked Alon Brav, Professor of Finance, what he was reading. Here's a list of books currently on his nightstand:

• The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics , Stanislas Dehaene (Oxford University Press). The book describes the number sense of infants and adults and how the adoption of symbolic systems of numerals resulted in higher mathematics. The books also offers the critical link to the workings of the brain and neuronal activity.
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales , Oliver Sacks (Touchstone). This is a book by a neurologist presenting an array of neurological disorders based on fascinating cases experienced during his years of medical practice.
• Spinoza and Other Heretics, Vol. 1, Yirmiyahu Yovel (Princeton University Press). This book traces the background and environment that led to Baruch Spinoza's philosophical revolution and the radically new principle--the philosophy of immanence.
• Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers , David Edmonds and John Eidinow (Faber and Faber).

Julie Edell Britton

In April 2008, FuquaNet asked Julie Edell Britton, Associate Professor of Marketing, what she was reading. Here's a list of books currently on her nightstand:

Here are some of the things that are on my bedside table that I am reading or have read recently.

• Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust , Immaculee Ilibagiza (with Steve Erwin) (Hay House). This is a true story of Immaculee Ilibagiza, a twenty-two-year-old Rwandan college student and Tutsi, who is home for Easter, when the death of Rwanda's Hutu president sparks a three-month slaughter of nearly one million ethnic Tutsis in the country. She survives by hiding in a Hutu pastor's tiny bathroom with seven other starving women for ninety-one days.
• 90 Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life , by Don Piper (with Cecil Murphey) (Revell). Don Piper was in an automobile accident and declared dead at the scene. Ninety minutes later a passerby saw him move and convinced the paramedics to extract him from his car and transport him to the hospital. This is the story of those ninety minutes and his recovery. This book is currently number six on the New York Times best sellers list and has been on the list for thirty-seven weeks.
• The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-Create Your World Your Way , Wayne W. Dyer (Hay House). Want to live a life that is less stressful and more joyous? Dr. Dyer describes how to surmount the barriers that get in the way—negative thinking, relying on the opinion of others, or retaining a controlling ego.
• A Gentle & Quiet Spirit: Discover the Truth About These Misunderstood Qualities , Virginia Lefler (Silverday Press). This book helps women recognize that being strong does not mean being like men. It gives a new perspective and some valuable lessons on how to become a strong woman with inner peace.
• The One Year Chronological Bible—New Living Translation by Tyndale and the NIV Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk though Biblical History and Culture , William Kaiser, Zondervan, Duane Garrett (editors). Each year I read the entire Bible. This year I am using these two versions. The Chronological Bible takes the scriptures out of canonical order and places them in chronological order—for example, prophetic books are interwoven with the historical accounts they accompany. The life of Christ is woven into one story. And Paul's letters to the churches in the first century are integrated into the book of Acts. The Archaeological Bible presents archaeological evidence and historical documentation to support the scriptures.

Gavan Fitzsimons

In March 2008, FuquaNet asked Gavan Fitzsimons, Professor of Marketing, what he was reading. Here's a list of books currently on his nightstand:

I only read fiction, so no business books ever hit my nightstand. That said, here are some current favorites:

• Falling Man , Don Delillo (Scribner). A great book exploring post-9/11 America. For those of us with friends and family impacted by 9/11, this novel gives an inside glimpse at the psychology and emotions of those immediately involved.
• The Lay of the Land , Richard Ford (Vintage). The third in the trilogy by the Pulitzer prize-winning author, this novel tells the story of a "regular guy" dealing with middle age. You'll feel middle-aged, even if it's years away (and Ford makes it sound pretty good!).
• Saturday , Ian McEwan (Anchor). A master author, McEwan tells the story of one man's life over a 24-hour period. I stayed up all night to read it through. Literally. The most captivating book I've read in years. Truly superbly crafted. If only I could write like this...  
• The Line of Beauty , by Alan Hollinghurst (Bloomsbury USA). A wonderfully written book that transports the reader into a life that might be very different from your own.

Debu Purohit

In February 2008, FuquaNet asked Debu Purohit, Professor of Marketing, what he was reading. Here's a list of books currently on his nightstand:

• The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable , Nassim Taleb (Random House). In spite of what we may think, game-changing events are rare and unpredictable. He makes similar points in Fooled By Randomness, another great read.
• The Big Switch: Rewiring the World , from Edison to Google, Nicholas Carr (W.W. Norton). AC ended up beating out DC. Soon, we will look at the internet just like electricity—it's ubiquitous and we are always on.
• In Spite of the Gods:  The Strange Rise of Modern India , Edward Luce (Doubleday). Luce, the former head of the Financial Times in India, has a great read on India, with all its maddening contradictions. 
• The Inheritance of Loss , Kiran Desai (Grove Press). My wife gave me this to read. Although I haven't read it yet, this book won the Man Booker Prize in 2006, and I like the books written by Desai's mother. 
• Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes , Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Kline (Abrams Image). Catch up on all the philosophers you read about in college and learn a few jokes along the way. This is a fun read! 

Mary Frances Luce

In January 2008, FuquaNet asked Mary Frances Luce, Professor of Marketing, what she was reading. Here's a list of books on her nightstand:

• The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World , Elaine Scarry (Oxford University Press)—recommended by a colleague on Duke's Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure Committee. I want to read this to try to get an understanding of cultural studies and similar academic movements.
• You're Stronger Than You Think , Peter Ubel (McGraw-Hill)—psychological approach to psychological resilience from the individual perspective. Peter always has really interesting medical applications of current work in psychology and decision making.
• Overtreated , Shannon Brownlee (Bloomsbury USA)—an interesting and depressing view of health policy in the United States.
• How Doctors Think , Jerome Groopman (Mariner Books)—applies work on decision making and cognitive science to the physician's decision-making process and the doctor-patient interaction.
• A Thousand Splendid Suns , Kahled Hosseini (Riverhead Hardcover)—pure fiction but with an interesting and important historical/political setting (Afghanistan under the Taliban and beyond).

Blair Sheppard

In December 2007, FuquaNet asked Blair Sheppard, Dean of The Fuqua School of Business, what he was reading. Here's a list of books currently on the dean's nightstand:

• The Age of Turbulence , Alan Greenspan (Penguin Press)
• Authenticity , Gilmore and Pine (Harvard)
• China Shakes the World , James Kynge (Mariner Books)
• A Continent for the Taking , Howard French (Vintage Books)
• The Economist Pocket World in Figures
• Einstein: His Life and Universe , Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster)
• From Higher Aims to Hired Hands , Rakesh Khurana (Princeton)
• Identity and Violence , Amartya Sen (Norton)
• The Last Mughal , William Dalrymple (Knopf)
• Our Endangered Values , Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster)
• Passed On , Karla F.C. Holloway (Duke University Press)
• The Perfect Mile , Neal Bascomb (Mariner Books)
• Presidential Courage , Michael Beschloss (Simon & Schuster)