Visit blogadda.com to discover Indian blogs

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Book Review: The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud and Cover-Ups

Our Librarywala website has a whole lot of corporate members and they're feeling slightly ignored with our reviews on books in the fiction category. So we gladly dedicate this book review to all of them!

The book we bring to you was the first place winner of the Indie Awards held in 2010 in the Finance Category. Guest reviewer, Erin E. Schmidt Smith pitched in this week with her review of Martha Maeda's brilliant book on accounting fraud. By all standards, this is a book that will definitely help you spot a muddled up balance sheet when you see one! This is what she says about it:



When I first started The Complete Guide to Spotting Accounting Fraud & Cover-Ups: Everything You Need to Know Explained Simply by Martha Maeda (Atlantic Publishing Group, 2010), I thought I was going to be bored. Actually, this book is quite fascinating. It promises to be easy to read, and it lives up to that promise, even for someone who'd had no background in accounting or finances.

There are plenty of examples, including the cases of Bernard Madoff and Martha Stewart and examples from Coca-Cola, AOL, the International Olympic Committee and more that show how the lessons apply to real life. As a psychology major, I found the discussion of psychopathic personality disorder in business especially fascinating.

 This book is also very thorough. It discusses in detail the different kinds of frauds that are most likely to occur, why they occur, and who is most likely to be involved in them. More important, it details the ways owners of businesses large and small and investors can keep an eye out for the various kinds of fraud. Numerous resources went into researching this book, and Maeda shares the particularly valuable and user-friendly resources with the reader.

 According to the introduction, organizations in the USA lose about 7% of their annual revenue to fraud, or an estimated $994 billion total. For these reasons, anyone who runs a business or a charity (even church groups) or who has investments should read through it at least once.

Monday, July 18, 2011

A List of the 5 Most Popular Books on Librarywala.com and The Views of a Happy Librarywala.

Our online book rental website (http://www.librarywala.com/) has been doing a phenomenal job at making readers happy all over the country. Numbers most definitely are the best way to judge a book's popularity. After pouring over Excel sheets and analysing numbers, we bring to you a definitive list of the most circulated books across genres on the site.
A true storyteller keeps the reader hooked by unravelling the suspense at the very end. True to that, we go backwards and start with the 5th most circulated book on our website leading up to the most popular book. 

5. The Kite Runner- Khaled Hosseini

About the Book:
"Hosseini's stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy's parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid '90s....Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium."

Rent it here:

4. 2 States-The Story of My Marriage by Chetan Bhagat

About the Book:
"Love marriages around the world are simple: Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. They get married. In India, there are a few more steps: Boy loves Girl. Girl loves Boy. Girl's family has to love boy. Boy's family has to love girl. Girl's Family has to love Boy's Family. Boy's family has to love girl's family. Girl and Boy still love each other. They get married. Welcome to 2 States, a story about Krish and Ananya. They are from two different states of India, deeply in love and want to get married. Of course, their parents don t agree. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple have a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but it is much harder to convince. Will they make it?"

Rent it here:

3. A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini

About the book:
"The story covers three decades of anti-Soviet jihad, civil war and Taliban tyranny through the lives of two women. Mariam is the scorned illegitimate daughter of a wealthy businessman, forced at age 15 into marrying the 40-year-old Rasheed, who grows increasingly brutal as she fails to produce a child. Eighteen years later, Rasheed takes another wife, 14-year-old Laila, a smart and spirited girl whose only other options, after her parents are killed by rocket fire, are prostitution or starvation. Against a backdrop of unending war, Mariam and Laila become allies in an asymmetrical battle with Rasheed, whose violent misogyny is endorsed by custom and law. His tale is a powerful, harrowing depiction of Afghanistan, but also a lyrical evocation of the lives and enduring hopes of its resilient characters."


Rent it here:
http://www.librarywala.com/WEB/BookDetail.aspx?BID=5424


2. The Lost Symbol- Dan Brown


About the Book:
"The Lost Symbol once again features Dan Brown’s unforgettable protagonist, Robert Langdon. The book’s narrative takes place in a twelve-hour period, and from the first page, readers will feel the thrill of discovery as they follow Langdon through a masterful and unexpected landscape. Dan Brown’s prodigious talent for storytelling, infused with history, codes and intrigue, is on full display in this riveting novel."


Rent it here:
http://www.librarywala.com/WEB/BookDetail.aspx?BID=8502
The number one book won by a huge margin. It is a book loved by many Indians and undoubtedly one of the most popular authors in recent times, Chetan Bhagat.
To the sound of resounding applause, let's usher in the most popular book on Librarywala.com! 


About the book:
"In late-2000, a young boy in Ahmedabad called Govind dreamt of having a business. To accomodate his friends Ish and Omi's passion, they open a cricket shop. Govind's wants to make money and thinks big. Ish is all about nurturing Ali, the batsman with a rare gift. Omi knows his limited capabiltiies and just wants to be with his friends. However, nothing comes easy in a turbulent city. To realize their goals, they will have to face it all - religious politics, earthquakes, riots, unacceptable love and above all, their own mistakes. Will they make it? Can an individual's dreams overcome the nightmares offered by real life? Can we succeed despite a few mistakes? Based on real events, from the bestselling author of "Five Point Someone" and "One Night @ the call centre", comes another dark, witty tale about modern India."

Rent it here:

On a different note, while we don't rest on our laurels, we definitely appreciate the voices of our loyal customers. Subhash Macha has been a satisfied customer at Librarywala.com for more than 2 and a half years now. He is an avid reader of both English and multi lingual books. His reading appetite gets full at Librarywala.com. Press PLAY to see what the happy Librarywala user had to say about our service: 



Thank you, Mr.Macha. 


Till next time,
Happy reading, Librarywalas.