Farrar, Straus and Giroux has some really great books on economics out right now, with more in the works and on the way. I will talk about Shraga F. Biran's Opportunism on this blog soon, but I'd like to turn now to a book that's being released today—New York Times bestselling author Dambisa Moyo's How the West Was Lost.

As the economy recovers, as it surely must, there are going to be a lot of workers being tapped for executive positions for the first time—and hopefully many others that reenter the workforce in leadership roles. And, for those workers, Scott Eblin's newly revised and expanded edition of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success, released last month by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, has come at a fortuitous time. This book is akin to Michael Watkin's classic, The First 90 Days, offering practical steps to succeed in one of the most grueling shifts you'll ever face in professional life.

Randall Pinkett was the winner of season four of The Apprentice, and the show's first minority winner. Rather awkwardly, after he was "hired," he was also the only winner ever asked by "The Donald" to share his victory with the runner-up. Not a fan of the show, I didn't know of those events until I picked up Dr.