Reading Recommendations:

Steve Jobs by Walter IssaacsonBased on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years, as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues, Walter Issaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and seemingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing.At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering.Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing off-limits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted.Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were interrelated, just as Apple's hardware and software tended to be, as if part of an integrated system. His tale is instructive and cautionary, filled with lessons about innovation, character, leadership and values.Another Piece of My Heart, a novel, Jane GreenAndi has spent much of her adult life looking for the perfect man, and at thirty seven, she's finally found him. Ethan, divorced with two daughters, Emily and Sophia, is a devoted father and even better, husband. Always hoping one day she would be a mother, Andi embraces the girls as if they were her own. But in Emily's eyes, Andi is an obstacle to her father's love and Emily will do whatever it takes to break her down. When the dynamics between the two escalate, they threaten everything Andi believes about love, family, and motherhood leaving both of them standing at a crossroads in their lives and in their hearts.Another Piece of My Heart is a novel that illuminates the nuances and truths about relationships and is Jane Green at her absolute best. So hard to put down!Death of a Kingfisher, a Hamish Macbeth Mystery, M.C. BeatonWhen Scotland is hit by the recession, Police Constable Hamish Macbeth notices that the Highland people are forced to come up with inventive ways to lure tourists to their sleepy towns. The quaint village of Braikie doesn't have much to offer other than a place of rare beauty called Buchan's Wood, which was bequeathed to the town. The savvy local tourist director renames the woods "The Fairy Glen," and has brochures printed with a beautiful photograph of a Kingfisher rising from a pond on the cover.It isn't long before coach tours begin to arrive. But just as the town's luck starts to turn, a Kingfisher is found hanging from a branch in the woods with a noose around its neck. As a wave of vandalism threatens to ruin Braikie forever, the town turns to Hamish Macbeth. And when violence strikes again, the lawman's investigation quickly turns from animal cruelty to murder.