Black, with a dash of red
Cathie Black, the president of Hearst Magazines, wants to help you lead the 360&anddeg; life a balanced existence in which personal happiness isn't trumped by the pursuit of professional success. Black is an excellent resource for such advice: During her 40-year (and counting) career, she's been the first woman publisher of New York magazine; president and publisher of USA Today; president and CEO of the American Newspaper Association; and is now overseer of 19 big-name magazines, including Esquire, Good Housekeeping and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her insight will prove useful even for those with less extensive resumes. She shares personal stories including ones about her own missteps and career counsel in Basic Black: The Essential Guide for Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life), and urges the reader toward a focus on a happy life vs. the largest paycheck, the nicest office or the most power.

Magazine-philes will delight in insider information about the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Tina Brown and Atoosa Rubenstein. There are strategies for handling criticism and adjusting to staffers' individual styles, plus job-seeker how-to sections that offer useful if not groundbreaking advice (use spell-check, don't lie on your resume, invest in quality paper). Basic Black is a clever hybrid of autobiography and career guide; the author's straightforward, knowledgeable voice makes it an engaging read and a valuable resource. Another nice touch is the use of red ink throughout for chapter headings and major points it's a perfect expression of the flair Black brings to the boardroom.

The dangerous book for career girls
Caitlin Friedman and Kimberly Yorio waste no time in The Girl's Guide to Kicking Your Career Into Gear. On page one, they cite a 2005 Harris Interactive poll that indicated 41 percent of U.S. workers were dissatisfied with their jobs. Their prescription for joining the other 59 percent? Acknowledge that you deserve a fulfilling career and start planning for it now. The authors, who also wrote The Girl's Guide to Starting Your Own Business and The Girl's Guide to Being a Boss (Without Being a Bitch), are the founders/principals of public relations firm YC Media. Their media savvy provides a strong foundation for their message: It's time for readers to conduct their own promotional campaigns by mapping out a plan, networking and increasing awareness, and keeping an eye out for new opportunities. The authors' advice is attuned to current trends in addition to typical interview-preparation tips, they suggest careful editing of MySpace profiles and recommend covering up tattoos. Real-life tales feature women in all sorts of jobs; quizzes and lists help with soul-searching; and the confronting coworkers will not kill you section should prove invaluable. One caveat almost all the profiles are of women who work in or near Manhattan. If readers can get past the city-centrism, they'll find lessons that apply to workers nationwide.

You may just want to quit
Brian Kurth's Test-Drive Your Dream Job: A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding and Creating the Work You Love is excellent for dreamers looking for ways to become doers. Kurth went through his own career transformation when, in 1999, he realized he was a living, breathing Dilbert. Although he enjoyed his job and was paid well, it wasn't exciting anymore but starting a company for people who wanted to try out their dream jobs certainly was. Today, Vocation Vacations is in full swing; clients spend one to three days with mentors in jobs ranging from cheesemonger to sword-maker (there are more traditional jobs, too, such as architect and veterinarian). Test-Drive Your Dream Job is both an engrossing chronicle of Kurth's journey to creating his own dream job and a sourcebook for those who can't afford a mentoring fee or would prefer to set up a test-drive themselves. The book delivers by offering lists of questions to ask potential mentors; charts to help in establishing an action plan; and reality-checks about money, health insurance and the impact a life-change might have on your relationships. Anecdotes about successful dreamers are inspiring, while profiles of those who needed a dream-adjustment demonstrate the importance of taking action: Regardless of the result, you'll have useful experience and information. Kurth notes that many of us accept the ordinary because we've been conditioned to, but it's OK to want something different or better. Really.

What if your job is boring and your coworkers are annoying? You've got security and a steady paycheck, right? Think again, Dan Miller says in today's volatile workplace, there are no guarantees. And, he explains, the moment you realize that meaningful, purposeful and profitable work really is a possibility . . . all of a sudden, complacency and Ôcomfortable misery' become intolerable. The author of 48 Days to the Work You Love also works as a career coach, speaker and Internet radio-show host. He made mistakes en route to the busy business-life he enjoys now, and shares an important lesson: You have to create your own definition of success, or you're not going to be happy for long. To that end, he offers probing questions, Revolutionary Insights, anecdotes about passion-pursuers famous and unknown, and a healthy dose of tough love in his latest book, No More Mondays: Fire Yourself and Other Revolutionary Ways to Discover Your True Calling at Work. Might you have overlooked an opportunity while you were waiting for the perfect situation to find you? And who's making you stay at that job you hate, anyway? (Hint: look in the mirror.) There are strategies for readers who don't want to quit their jobs just yet, and straight talk about finances. Establishing a timeline is key, as is doing lots of reading the books, websites and articles in his Resources section are a good start. Approaching the usual in unusual ways can lead to solutions, Miller writes, including, presumably, eradicating the dreaded Monday blues.

Fawn Germer celebrates women's accomplishments in Mustang Sallies: Success Secrets of Women Who Refuse to Run with the Herd. While she finds that sex discrimination still exists in today's workplace, she emphasizes the individualistic streak in certain women that enables them to succeed. An investigative reporter, Germer interviewed more than 50 women, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Susan Sarandon and Martina Navratilova, for this book. The women's stories are truly inspiring. In high school, Consuelo Castillo Kickbusch was asked to leave a meeting for the college-bound and told she should be grateful the school provided secretarial training. Kickbusch later became a lieutenant colonel in the Army. Nancy Hopkins started her fight for equality when, as a full professor at MIT, she had less lab space than recently hired male assistant professors.

Germer also provides practical suggestions for workplace success. Some seem self-evident, such as asking for what you want. Unfortunately, many women are still afraid of being labeled overly aggressive, an example of the lingering societal battles Gerner stresses in the book.

Faye Jones is Dean of Learning Resources at Nashville State Technical Community College. Her doctoral dissertation was on Victorian working women.

Continuing his franchise with this eighth volume, investor Robert T. Kiyosaki with Sharon L. Lechter, C.P.A., addresses those who are serious about taking control of their money and their lives. Rich Dad's Who Took My Money?: Why Slow Investors Lose and Fast Money Wins! is packed with the kind of Rich Dad's advice that has made Kiyosaki a wealthy, best-selling author. This time he shares the secrets to achieving ultra-high investment returns, noting that this extreme approach isn't for everyone. By integrating asset classes (business, real estate and paper assets) instead of diversifying, investors build synergies that accelerate leverage while protecting the cash flowing through the asset. Part one includes advice from nontraditional viewpoints: dairy farmers, gamblers, Newton and Father Time, as well as insurance agents and bankers. With those enlightening perspectives, part two shares secrets for power investing, with a focus on cash flow rather than capital gains. Transitioning from saver to educated investor is fun, Kiyosaki says, although he admits that finding good investments is hard work. But by playing this game, not following the herd, and getting your money to work for you, Kiyosaki is convinced you'll learn more as you go along, ensuring a much better shot at success.

Bobbye Middendorf writes from Chicago.

We have now entered what some call spring but what many think of as the post-tax hangover season. The trauma of April 15 has passed, and either you received a refund and have already spent it, or you have begun to worry about paying your next quarterly installment to the IRS. Like many others, I've made my annual vow to save (I'll never be cash-poor again!) only to be flummoxed by an inability to stop the money-spending cycle.

If you're searching for some fortitude, this month's bounty of books looks at wealth accumulation from a variety of perspectives. They cover all the bases, from big picture approaches to wealth to practical guides for making your money grow.

How the rich get their way

Wealth and Democracy: A Political History of the American Rich by Kevin Phillips is one of the most interesting and provocative books of the season. This rich and intriguing history of money and politics hypothesizes that power and money represent one of the world's enduring covert partnerships, and that, even today, government support critically underpins success for both finance and technology. In this must-read book, Phillips, a well-known political analyst and author, documents the fascinating evidence that American wealth has fed itself by influencing government policies at the expense of the middle and lower classes. He deftly details the rise of the wealthiest American families and corporations, and shows how they continue to accumulate wealth and power, while the income of most American families stagnates and their confidence in the political process erodes. Wealth and Democracy is a timely and intellectually challenging book. The Enron disaster, the Microsoft trials, the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2000 presidential race, funded by soft-money, lend Phillips' arguments their most recent documentation. In the end, Phillips spells out a gloomy prognosis for both the power of our democracy and the future of American economic growth if political power continues to be equated with wealth.

It's your money

The Great 401(k) Hoax: What You Need to Know to Protect Your Family and Your Future by William Wolman and Anne Colamosca is both eye-opening and incredibly topical. The authors argue that the term 401(k) seems to contain . . . the promise that the average American family, neither rich nor poor but middle-class, could stake a claim for its share in the prosperity created by the technological wonders that energized the American economy in the 1990s. In fact, they say, the rise of the 401(k) is an unparalleled fraud designed to protect American corporations and undermine their commitments to employee retirement plans. The 401(k) represents an implicit promise to middle class Americans that they can live off the income that they receive from stock ownership, just like the rich do. It is a promise that is impossible to fulfill. It is the great 401(k) hoax. With candor and intelligence, Colamosca and Wolman present a compelling argument for their hoax theory and present a practical set of investing rules for middle-class Americans. Using a combination of no-load index funds and diversification, the authors present a common sense approach to making the best financial sense of your retirement money.

A practical approach

The New IRAs and How to Make Them Work For You by Neil Downing is a primer for the individual investor. With new laws added every year, IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) have changed a great deal. Several years ago, only the self-employed and those with no retirement plan at work could contribute to an IRA; now housewives, part-time employees and even children can fund IRAs. Changes have also created IRA lookalikes such as the Educational IRA, the Roth IRA, SEPs and SIMPLE plans. The New IRAs offers simple but well-explained approaches to choosing IRA vehicles, explains who qualifies for an IRA and offers straightforward and practical advice on managing your investment from the first deposit to the last withdrawal.

One of the most misunderstood areas in setting up a retirement account involves choosing a Roth versus a traditional IRA. In some of the best language I've read, Downing devotes several chapters to simplifying and demystifying the choice between the two IRA vehicles.

Penny pinching

Get Clark Smart: The Ultimate Guide to Getting Rich from America's Money-Saving Expert offers savvy, penny-pinching advice from the Atlanta money-saving radio guru, Clark Howard. You'll love the no-nonsense, consumer-empowering advice on how to turn the fine art of penny-pinching into money in the bank. Ever laugh at your grandmother for saying, Don't buy anything you have to dry-clean? That's great advice says Clark. Dry-cleaning is expensive and often unnecessary for many clothes. You can also save money by buying jewelry at wholesalers and using free or low-cost Internet access sites. This compilation of right-as-rain advice ranges from the typical (how to save money on a car purchase) to unexpected cost-cutting tips on insurance and travel.

Get Clark Smart isn't a guide on how to become wealthy; it's a way to keep more of the money you earn and spend it on the things you enjoy most, so you can feel rich even if you aren't.

Sharon H. Secor is a writer based in Minneapolis.

Unstable. Unpredictable. Downright scary. Whatever term you use, the sudden swings in the stock market have left multitudes of brokers and investors scratching their heads. Are we headed for a recession? Is this just a temporary correction? Where is the economy going? With lower returns on investments in the last year, many are simply wondering, where should I put my money? It's an important question, and one that publishers and financial experts are eager to answer. Whether you've just graduated from college and are still more concerned with a latte than an IRA or are only a few years away from retirement, there is sound financial advice available to help you and your portfolio.

One of the most exhaustive resources is Suze Orman's The Road To Wealth: A Comprehensive Guide to Your Money. In 550-plus pages, Orman provides everything you need to know about finances in both good times and bad. A popular financial adviser on television (Oprah, CNBC's Business Center and two PBS specials) and in print, Orman takes a Q&andA approach in her latest book, responding to countless detailed questions about financial issues. Her answers are straight forward, opinionated and fiercely honest. Chapters cover topics ranging from managing debt, finding insurance and paying for college to handling stocks, mutual funds and bonds, and organizing a will or trust. But unlike other financial advisors, Orman is concerned with the whole person. For example, in the chapter on debt, she points out that there is a noticeable correlation between self-esteem and bad debt. The lower your self-esteem, the more willing you are to live in the hole. In a section on handling finances, she explores the links between emotions and money. Such observations add a personal touch and refreshing human element to the information. As an added bonus, buyers of Orman's book will receive the Suze Orman E-Newsletter, a bimonthly publication that includes important resource listings, updates, forecasts and an ongoing economic analysis. It's a great addition to this worthwhile title.

Young readers especially those in their 20s may be intimidated by the sheer thickness of Orman's book. They may be looking for something a little more compact a title that speaks directly to the heart. That was part of the inspiration for Vanessa Summers' Get in the Game: The Girl's Guide to Money & Investing. Summers, who worked six years as a model before becoming a stock broker, knows firsthand how important it is for women to become financially responsible at an early age. She uses her own sense of humor, concern and passion for investing to take readers on a financial adventure. In Get in the Game, Summers explains how 20-something women need to begin developing an emergency adventure backpack, a retirement adventure backpack and a dream adventure backpack. Each one contains the funds needed for various stages in life. Summers knows how to connect with her peers, and she offers advice tailor-made for a generation that came of age in era of boom times and free spending. She understands the natural craving for Starbucks, but explains how a little cutting back now can go a long way in the future.

For those a little further down the path in the journey of life, Ann Douglas and Elizabeth Lewin have written Family Finance: The Essential Guide for Parents. Although small in size, this niche finance book is admirably thorough. Topics ranging from finding the right credit card to buying the right home are examined in light of the special financial concerns of parents. Filled with ideas from surviving the first year to saving for a child's education, the book explores all the stages of parenting. Surprising tidbits of wisdom line the pages. Whether it's advice on where to find maternity clothes, a no-frills baby wardrobe or how to avoid scams, there are dozens of neat lists and guides for parents. Family Finance would make an excellent, practical gift for new parents juggling the financial demands of starting a family.

A number of investors are beyond the cloth versus disposable diaper debate, and are ready to find their own financial opportunities. Off The Record: A Maverick's Secret For Discovering Great Stocks by Craig Gordon with Stephen Kindel, helps individuals learn how to gather data, spot trends and keep a finger on the marketplace, thus making wiser stock buying decisions. Gordon, director of Off-the-Record Research, shares his secrets on how to become a successful marketplace checker. He explains how watching the movement of products in your local grocery store and making a few contacts with company representatives can provide leading information on some of the best-known and lesser-known companies on Wall Street. It's a grassroots approach to investing that will appeal to many individual investors eager to manage their own money.

Another strategy in investing is to follow the lead of those who do it best. The New Investment Superstars: 13 Great Investors and Their Strategies for Superior Returnsby Lois Peltz examines the track records and decisions of 13 hedge fund managers who have matched or outperformed the S&andP 500 for the last seven years. Each person is recognized for their unique areas of expertise whether it's stock picking, sector investing or merger arbitrage and asked candid questions about their strategies, mistakes and outlook. Profiles include Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital, Leon Cooperman of Omega Advisors, Paul Singer of Elliott Associates, Ken Griffin of Citadel Investment Group and Bruce Wilcox of Cumberland Associates. In closing, Peltz interviews some of those who have invested money with these financial superstars and uncovers how well these leaders have performed for institutions and private investors.

If you're looking for advice on where to put your nest egg, these books will help to put you right on the money.

Margaret Feinberg is a freelance writer based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Lou Gerstner, the CEO of IBM, was recently asked on CNN's Lou Dobbs' MoneyLine to explain Big Blue's strong showing in the stock market. "IBM, fortunately, never chased the dot-com phenomenon very hard, and so we missed it," Gerstner said. "We have stayed true to our focus, which is that e-business and the Internet are about real business. It is not about simply putting up a Web site. It is about transactions, it is about transforming your enterprise, and those expenditures are still going on." No, this isn't a column on the enduring legacy of IBM, nor on the collapse of the Internet bubble. This month we look at books that echo Gerstner's optimism and describe what works in "Real Business," a strategy that says great businesses do more than post a Web site and wait for business to come surfing in.

One of the pioneers in Internet retailing was Amazon.com, which started off selling only books. I'll admit, I liked the company then. The customer service people loved to talk about the books you were buying, and your order arrived in just a few days. Can Amazon now succeed by selling everything from cars to tools? I don't know, but The Myth of Excellence: Why Great Companies Never Try To Be the Best at Everything by Fred Crawford and Ryan Mathews argues for a return to the old days when businesses operated to meet customer needs. In the introduction to this thought-provoking book the authors make a cogent argument that today's consumers may be more affluent but they aren't necessarily living better than their parents did. This recognition means American values are shifting, and those values are showing up in consumer surveys and attitudes. After years as consultants for global retailers, Crawford and Mathews thought they knew everything about consumer attitudes. But a survey of 5,000 consumers disproved much of what they assumed was true. People want "honest, consistent prices," not just low prices on a given day. They want to be treated with courtesy and respect, not entertained by customer service. In this must-read book, Crawford and Mathews write a blueprint for the Real Business of the future.

If anyone knows what a Real Business is, that person is Warren Buffet. In The Essential Buffet: Timeless Principles for the New Economyby Robert G. Hagstrom the principles of the Oracle of Omaha are organized to help investors sail through the New Economy and avoid the siren's call of get-rich quick technology investments. Hagstrom acquaints the uninitiated reader with Buffet's main investing maxims, then walks a tech stock through the Berkshire-Hathaway chairman's analysis process. Hagstrom says Buffet chooses not to invest in technology, but the underlying reason "is not that we don't understand a technology business or its product. The reason we don't invest is because we can't understand the predictability of the economics ten years hence." Buffet's internal goals for Berkshire-Hathaway pre-empt the use of technology stocks. As I read The Essential Buffet, I determined to re-examine my own portfolio for the long haul and to apply Buffet's principles to my technology stocks. My own motto: only Real Businesses need apply.

I am often asked, what's B2B? If you don't know, now is the time to read Understanding B2Bby Matthew Friedman and Marlene Blanshay. B2B stands for Business-To-Business technology. Essentially B2B is the online transformation of traditional business interactions. In the past a salesperson for a medical supply company may have written up an order for hospital supplies, then transferred those orders to a sales clerk who entered the order into the company's order processing system. Now many companies can enter standard orders online, saving valuable supply and sales time without sacrificing service or cost. In the realm of Real Business, the Internet can and does offer invaluable ways to streamline business transactions. Understanding B2B provides a useful explanation of the many ways B2B plays a part in international commerce. B2B is the future as Lou Gerstner envisions it for the remaining major players in the technology industry.

Our last book this month makes a strong case for the future success of the Internet if businesses learn to use it well. Customers Rule! Why the E-Commerce Honeymoon Is Over by Roger D. Blackwell and Kristina Stephan highlights retailers who succeeded on the Internet and tells us why they've prospered. The authors also detail the embarrassing strategic mistakes many e-retailers made. (No, none of those e-ventures are still in business.) Blackwell and Stephan found most e-retailers did not understand how or why consumers use information, i.e. Internet sites. They found most consumers go to the Internet to get more information on a product, not to buy it. Are you looking for a new washer and dryer? Consumers may search the web for products and prices, but most of us will march down to Sears for the final sale and delivery. Customers want back up; they want service.

Web sites are the equivalent of catalog sales, Blackwell and Stephan say, and the profit margins are about the same. Online sites are just one way of enticing customers into a store or solidifying an already existing relationship. For example, Sherwin-Williams, the paint company, uses its Web site to devise strategies that will satisfy and retain loyal customers. In the end, a Real Business knows its customer and uses the web to enhance the relationship.

Briefly noted

A Beginner's Guide to the World Economyby Randy Charles Epping, is a revised and updated version of the perfect gift for recently graduated scholars. In engaging question and answer format, Epping covers the 81 world economic concepts he says most people run across in their daily lives. Topics include everything from the World Bank and net worth to economic sanctions. Epping leaves complicated theories and explanations to people with Ph.D.s; this book is for the rest of us.

The Microsoft Edge: Insider Strategies for Building Successby Julie Bick has been released in paperback, making it a great summer item to tuck into a briefcase or beach bag. Bick crisply and humorously relates how the software giant got big and stayed that way through business practices any corporation or small business would be wise to duplicate.

Wharton on Making Decisions, edited by Stephen J. Hoch and Howard C. Kunreuther. Summer is a good time for quiet reflection on upcoming decisions and their impact for the future year. This summer, for the price of a book, you can get help with your decisions from one of the most formidable teams in academe. The Wharton School reveals the latest academic insights in decision-making with cogent and timely essays on the topic and supplies the tools needed for strategic decisions.