April 8, 2009 — About Town with Hooks Book Events

The cherry blossoms are visible all over DC and so are we! From private events with our government and corporate clients to the salons and conferences we participated in, we have been busy — and we are looking forward to more fun throughout 2009.

Following are a few of the places where you might recently have seen Hooks Book Events:

In Washington, DC:

• Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Pension Real Estate Association conference
• US Chamber of Commerce: Executive Women in Government
• DC Convention Center, Women in Cable Telecommunications
• The Willard Hotel, Center for New American Security conference
• Georgetown, Salon Party for Richard Cytowic's book, Wednesday in Indigo Blue

Maryland and Virginia:

• The National Harbor, Legal Marketing Association conference
• Northrop Grumman in McLean, VA, WIT Connect conference

In New York City:

• The Frick Museum, Fiduciary Trust International

From Maine to Florida, we're happy to bring our authors to our office, conference, or home. Let us know who you'd like to book, and we'll arrange the details: bookhooks@hooksbookevents.com.

Illustration by www.michaelgibbs.com.

April 8, 2009 — John Palfrey on Global Voices

The charming John Palfrey from Harvard's Berkman Center was in DC to discuss his MIT title Access Denied with some Senior Execs at the Treasury www.cyber.law.harvard.edu.
He mentioned a very interesting website he is involved with called, Global Voices www.globalvoicesonline.org which “aggregates, curates, and amplifies the global conversation online – shining light on places and people other media often ignore” is definitely a worthy endeavor… check it out!.

April 2, 2009 — Hooks Book Events creates "bookstore" at Women in Cable Telecommunications conference

We did it! After lugging countless boxes of books and setting up a room full of book shelves, Hooks Book Events created our own makeshift bookstore at the two-day WOMEN IN CABLE TELECOMMUNICATIONS (WICT) conference, which ended late today.

It was our honor to sell the books of the dozen incredible leaders who spoke at the event:

• Erika Andersen, Growing Great Employees
• James S. Gordon M.D., Unstuck
• Ariane De Bonvoisin, The First 30 Days
• Lloyd Boston, Before You Put That On
• Donna Brazile, Cooking with Grease
• Jeanette Bronee, Secrets to Appetite Control
• Tracy Gaudet, Consciously Female
• Kathleen Hall, A Life in Balance
• Franke James, Bothered by My Green Conscience
• Loren Slocum, Life Tuneups
• Elaine Yarbrough, Artful Mediation.

We were also thrilled to help promote Olympic superstar Dara Torres, author of Age is Just a Number. She made her national book tour debut at the conference.

Don't miss next year's event! For details, visit www.wict.org.

April 2, 2009 — David Kilcullen

We want to point out a new book "The Accidental Guerilla" (Oxford University Press, 2009) by Aussie pal, David Kilcullen. The review in Sunday’s NYT was excellent and if you are interested in what has really been going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, you may want to pick this one up. We sold books for David at two events; he is definitely a rock star in this area! Read the review here:
www.nytimes.com.

April 1, 2009 — Keeping up with Dexter Filkins and "The Forever War"

We checked in today with Dexter Filkins who was in Rome, en route to Kabul, to see how the young Afghan women were doing in the Marwais School. Dexter has raised more than $22,000 (up from $8,000) to help the girls recover from the Taliban attack and to purchase supplies for the school. He promises to keep us posted.

As you probably know, Dexter is the New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins, author of The Forever War. He is hard at work trying to raise funds and the global consciousness on behalf of Shamsia Hussein, the Afghan girl at the Mirwais School who was burned in an acid attack by the Taliban in Afghanistan – a child who had acid thrown on her just for attending school. We felt compelled to send money in February — and encourage you do, as well.

After receiving our check, Dexter wrote to us to say:

"You recently sent me a donation to help Shamsia Hussein and support the Mirwais School for Girls, where Shamsia and 1,500 other Afghan girls attend classes in very difficult circumstances. I have finally returned to the United States from Afghanistan and was able to open the many envelopes sent by people who wanted to help. I am happy to report that to date I have received 51 checks and one five-dollar bill, totaling $8,855. Incredible! On behalf of the girls at the Mirwais School in Afghanistan, and of Shamsia, thank you very much. I am sure they will be amazed and moved by your extraordinary generosity. I am a hard-bitten foreign correspondent, and I’m moved, too. I promise you I will spend your money wisely and humanely and make sure it does much good. The needs of the girls, as you can imagine, are basically bottomless."

To contribute to Dexter's efforts, email him: Filkins@nytimes.com.

March 25, 2009 — Gerda Lerner shined at EWG conference today

EXECUTIVE WOMEN IN GOVERNMENT (EWG) threw quite a bash today when they hosted their 2009 conference at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Among the highlights was a speech by the founder of Women's History Month, Gerda Lerner.

At 88, Gerda is an amazing, formidable embodiment of 20th century history. Armed with her ever-present cup of tea, she enthralled us with her stories of her early days as a prisoner in the Austrian jail, her experience with the McCarthy-era black list, women's activism, and more. Gerda has seen and survived it all and we were honored to listen as she shared her wisdom with the dynamic crowd of top women in government.

We felt honored to be able to bring her to the conference, and we thank our friends at Accenture for underwriting the purchase of Gerda's book, Living with History Making Social Change. Each attendee took home a copy - along with copies of the books by the other powerful women leaders who spoke that day:

• Diane MacEachern, author of Big Green Purse
• Rosemary O'Leary, author of The Collaborative Public Manager
• Carolyn Maloney, author of Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
• Nell Merlino, author of Stepping Out of Line

We also loved meeting the fabulously energetic and inspirational keynote speaker Vernice Armour, America's first African-American female combat pilot (www.vernicearmour.com). This event was filled with incredible networking opportunities, good conversations, and of course, great books. Learn more about EWG and be sure to sign up for next year's event: www.execwomeningov.org.

March 2, 2009 — “Animal Spirits” authors George Akerlof and Bob Shiller at the Greater Washington Board of Trade

More than 50 local executives tonight joined world-class economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, co-authors of the book “Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why it Matters for Global Capitalism.” The professors were invited to share their insights and ideas on the economy at the Greater Washington Board of Trade (pictured here with BOT president and CEO Jim Dinegar and Perry Hooks). Afterward they responded to questions about their forecasts on the future of the economy.

About the Authors: Akerlof is the Daniel E. Koshland Sr. Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economics. Shiller is the best-selling author of “Irrational Exuberance” and “The Subprime Solution.” He is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University and the co-creator of the Case-Shiller index.

About the Book: The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, “animal spirits” are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity.

Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery.

Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government—simply allowing markets to work won’t do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life—such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes—and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them.

Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits—the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today.