The Theory of Earls


Book Description

"Chemise. Stockings. Piano." Three words, uttered by the beautifully rakish Lord Welles, leave Margaret Lainscott speechless. His improper request, that she play the piano for him in her...underthings is as shocking as it is titillating. Margaret should never have asked his help in reintroducing her to Lord Carstairs. But his friend meets all of Margaret's criteria for a husband; passably attractive, of below-average intelligence, and possessed of an obsessive outdoor hobby which will leave her free to pursue her own life. Welles is one of London's most committed bachelors, known for his notorious dealings with women and his part ownership of one of London's pleasure clubs. He's long admired Miss Lainscott's unrestrained passion at the piano; a passion he suspects is not reserved only for her music. Welles is certain Miss Lainscott will not entertain his improper request despite the attraction burning between them. A young lady such as Miss Lainscott would never ruin herself willingly. And Welles? Nothing would make him compromise his heart... Until a duet with a passionate pianist changes his mind. The Theory of Earls is a steamy, sexy regency romance with a guaranteed happily ever after and the first in a new series, The Beautiful Barringtons by Kathleen Ayers.




Devil of a Duke


Book Description

Reckless Jemma Manning is the richest heiress in all of Bermuda and promised to another when she sees Nick Shepherd staring down at her from his place at the Governor of Bermuda's dinner table. As handsome as he is mysterious, Jemma is entranced by Shepherd even while dismissing him as the fortune hunter he appears to be. But Nick Shepherd is no fortune hunter. He is something else entirely.The Devils of Dunbar do not suffer fools, nor do they suffer betrayal. A traitor is hiding amongst the wealthy society of Bermuda and is deserving of punishment. Jemma Manning and her willful nature fit perfectly into Nick's plans....until he realizes the depth of his own desire.




Herd


Book Description

"...fascinating. Like Malcolm Gladwell on speed." —THE GUARDIAN "HERD is a rare thing: a book that transforms the reader's perception of how the world works". —Matthew D'Ancona, THE SPECTATOR "This book is a must. Once you have read it you will understand why Mark Earls is regarded as a marketing guru." —Daniel Finkelstein, THE TIMES This paperback version of Mark Earls' groundbreaking and award winning book comes updated with new stats and figures and provides two completely revised chapters that deal with the rise of social networking. Since the Enlightenment there has been a very simple but widely held assumption that we are a species of thinking individuals and human behaviour is best understood by examining the psychology of individuals. It appears, however, that this insight is plain wrong. The evidence from a number of leading behavioural and neuroscientists suggests that our species is designed as a herd or group animal. Mark Earls applies this evidence to the traditional mechanisms of marketing and consumer behaviour, with a result that necessitates a complete rethink about these subjects. HERD provides a host of unusual examples and anecdotes to open the mind of the business reader, from Peter Kay to Desmond Tutu, Apple to UK Sexual Health programmes, George Bush to Castle Lager, from autism to depression to the real explanation for the placebo effect in pharmaceutical testing.




Me and Earl and the Dying Girl


Book Description

The New York Times bestseller that inspired the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film. The funniest book you’ll ever read about death. It is a universally acknowledged truth that high school sucks. But on the first day of his senior year, Greg Gaines thinks he’s figured it out. The answer to the basic existential question: How is it possible to exist in a place that sucks so bad? His strategy: remain at the periphery at all times. Keep an insanely low profile. Make mediocre films with the one person who is even sort of his friend, Earl. This plan works for exactly eight hours. Then Greg’s mom forces him to become friends with a girl who has cancer. This brings about the destruction of Greg’s entire life. “Mr. Andrews’ often hilarious teen dialogue is utterly convincing, and his characters are compelling. Greg’s random sense of humor, terrible self-esteem and general lack of self-awareness all ring true. Like many YA authors, Mr. Andrews blends humor and pathos with true skill, but he steers clear of tricky resolutions and overt life lessons, favoring incremental understanding and growth.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette “One need only look at the chapter titles (‘Let’s Just Get This Embarrassing Chapter Out of the Way’) to know that this is one funny book.” —Booklist (starred review) “Though this novel begs inevitable thematic comparisons to John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, it stands on its own in inventiveness, humor and heart.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)




I'll Have What She's Having


Book Description

How we learn from those around us: an essential guide to understanding how people behave. Humans are, first and foremost, social creatures. And this, according to the authors of I'll Have What She's Having, shapes—and explains—most of our choices. We're not just blindly driven by hard-wired instincts to hunt or gather or reproduce; our decisions are based on more than “nudges” exploiting individual cognitive quirks. I'll Have What She's Having shows us how we use the brains of others to think for us and as storage space for knowledge about the world. The story zooms out from the individual to small groups to the complexities of populations. It describes, among other things, how buzzwords propagate and how ideas spread; how the swine flu scare became an epidemic; and how focused social learning by a few gets amplified as copying by the masses. It describes how ideas, behavior, and culture spread through the simple means of doing what others do. It is notoriously difficult to change behavior. For every “Yes We Can” political slogan, there are thousands of “Just Say No” buttons. I'll Have What She's Having offers a practical map to help us navigate the complex world of social behavior, an essential guide for anyone who wants to understand how people behave and how to begin to change things.




Wicked's Scandal


Book Description

Alexandra Dunforth, a bookish spinster from Hampshire, has no desire to marry despite her uncle holding the fate of her beloved family estate over her head. Sutton "Satan" Reynolds, a wealthy Marquess, is possessed of angelic beauty and a scandalous dragon tattoo. He doesn't care for the simpering women of the ton and is determined to avoid any entanglements, until a chance meeting with the delectable Miss Dunforth changes his mind.




Voice, Choice, and Action


Book Description

Compiling decades of fieldwork, two acclaimed scholars offer strategies for strengthening democracies by nurturing the voices of children and encouraging public awareness of their role as citizens. Voice, Choice, and Action is the fruit of the extraordinary personal and professional partnership of a psychiatrist and a neurobiologist whose research and social activism have informed each other for the last thirty years. Inspired by the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Felton Earls and Mary Carlson embarked on a series of international studies that would recognize the voice of children. In Romania they witnessed the consequences of infant institutionalization under the Ceaușescu regime. In Brazil they encountered street children who had banded together to advocate effectively for themselves. In Chicago Earls explored the origins of prosocial and antisocial behavior with teenagers. Children all over the world demonstrated an unappreciated but powerful interest in the common good. On the basis of these experiences, Earls and Carlson mounted a rigorous field study in Moshi, Tanzania, which demonstrated that young citizens could change attitudes about HIV/AIDS and mobilize their communities to confront the epidemic. The program, outlined in this book, promoted children’s communicative and reasoning capacities, guiding their growth as deliberative citizens. The program’s success in reducing stigma and promoting universal testing for HIV exceeded all expectations. Here in vivid detail are the science, ethics, and everyday practice of fostering young citizens eager to confront diverse health and social challenges. At a moment when adults regularly profess dismay about our capacity for effective action, Voice, Choice, and Action offers inspiration and tools for participatory democracy.




Copy, Copy, Copy


Book Description

THE #1 HACK FOR SMARTER MARKETING We all want new answers and new solutions for the very real and pressing challenges that our organizations face. New things to point to and talk about, new ways of working and new ways of thinking that might just be better than the old ways. But rather than this endless search for a brilliant and novel solution, why don't you just copy something that’s worked before? Mark Earls, leading expert in marketing and consumer behaviour, quashes the stigma around copying, and shows that it can help us to rethink how we go about solving problems. By understanding what other people are doing and the choices they make, we can develop strategies to solve the challenges that we face inside and outside the organization. Based on extensive research and proven examples, Copy, Copy, Copy provides over 50 strategies that you can use right away to copy, borrow or steal as the basis for better ideas – faster. If it’s good enough for Elvis, Newton, Shakespeare, The British Olympic Cycling Team and Great Ormond Street Hospital, isn’t it good enough for you? ‘This delightful book argues convincingly that transferring ideas usually produces greater value than cooking them up from scratch. And then shows you how.’ — Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy London and the Spectator Magazine’s Wikiman ‘Yet another entertaining handbook from the acclaimed Herdmeister for anyone involved in marketing, behavioural change and understanding why we all make the choices we make. Earls convincingly disrupts convention about what is innovation – though "praxis". This is jammed with great case studies and 52 actionable strategies.’ — Stephen Maher, Chairman, The Marketing Society and CEO, MBA ‘Yet again this leading British business thinker has got us to see the world we inhabit today in fresh and mind-altering ways. A book which marries theory and practice better than the vast majority out there. Most of all his message of copying one’s way to greatness is entertaining, counter-intuitive and fun.’ — David Abraham, CEO Channel 4 PLC




Red Zen


Book Description

Saul Summerblend has a bizarre memory problem. And his Zen master, Bodhee, says he should travel to the dwarf planet Ceres to fix it. Along the way Saul meets a thirty-foot magic square whose diagonals and rows sum to 666, encounters a group of drunken Vikings and evil dwarves, works some campy mathematics and overhears amusing CB radio conversations, fights a visionary with a penchant for wrestling masks and flipping off cars all day on main street, invents neologisms like deemkrite and freeganidge. He also learns of a mystical book called 'Red Zen: Way of the Butterfly' and attempts to solve a few koans about kangaroos, split toe nails, and carts filled with hatchets. Will Saul fix his strange memory problem? Will he even make it back to Earth alive?




The Earl's Betrothal


Book Description

A 2016 Foreward Indies award finalist for Romance. Out of one war and into another, Captain Lord Anthony Hargreaves finds the politics of romance to be as uninviting a battle as the one that nearly cost him his life in Badajoz, Spain. Wounded both mentally and physically from the Peninsular War in 1812, Anthony returns home to find that his older brother has died, placing Anthony next in line to inherit the estate. But he's not ready for such responsibilities. And when Anthony's dying father pleads with him to marry and produce an heir to preserve the family title, it nearly sends Anthony over the edge; nevertheless, he dutifully faces a long line of hopeful young ladies who await him. No one grabs his attention, though, like Amelia Clarke, his mother's young, stunning companion, who is off-limits for the earl. But when he unwittingly puts Amelia in a compromising situation, he dedicates himself to protecting her reputation. But the horrors Anthony faced while away from home have left him feeling broken and tormented. And while he is drawn to Miss Clarke, the only one who can chase away his demons, he must find a way to overcome himself, as well as the hostility of a society driven by class and a jealous duke bent on revenge for could Amelia ever really love a troubled, haunted man?