fictitious

Fictitious Marriage
$19.95

Fictitious Sports
$10.98

...sure, it says its "Nick Mason's" Fictitious Sports. Nick Mason himself even produced it with "Hipgnosis" supplying the cover art. Hipgnosis as you know has handled nearly every Pink Floyd album cover. This particular assortment of material was even released by Columbia Records. ...and there was probably a good reason for all the aforementioned. That reason being money. In retrospect, this should've been called "Carla Bley's Fictitious Sports" (considering the fact that she wrote all the words and music and even co-produced it). ...or even billed as a Robert Wyatt solo project (which might've produced some good numbers in Europe under the Harvest label). However...in the US, nobody would have ever purchased it, let alone listen to it. Carla Bley being a little known jazz composer at the time and Robert Wyatt not being heard of stateside by anyone unfamiliar with Pink Floyd. I'm positively certain the record executives' at Columbia figured it would be a better idea to market this product under Nick Mason's name instead.

However, because it was released under "Nick Mason" (who by the way, supplied all the drumming). It garnered the attention of millions of Pink Floyd fans and fanatics alike. ...although, it does make you wonder why some Pink Floyd fans weren't aware of Norman "Hurricane" Smith's hit back in the early 70's with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say". Or, their still in shock over it. What's shocking here is, Nick Mason's "solo" effort is actually better than anything Roger Waters ever produced in the post-Floyd era, "The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking" included (well...with the exception of the cover art). "Sports" contains a slew of gems like Robert Wyatt's deadpan delivery in the classic "Siam". Wyatt's urgency is also quite addictive on "I'm A Mineralist" and "Do Ya?". "I Was Wrong" and "Wervin" also highlight this release from Robert Wyatt...err no...wait, Carla Bley...umm hold on. No, I meant to say Nick Mason. "I creep up to old wrecked cars and lick off the rust" ...too bad most cars are made of plastic now.

olofpalme63

Strega Nona
$7.99
I cannot believe I went through preschool and 6 years of grade school and no teacher ever read this aloud to me! It is a great children's book, complete with classic storytelling techniques, humor, and a simple, but important moral (For children: listen and follow instructions; and perhaps for adults: Don't disobey your boss!). I can't wait to read the others in dePaola's Strega Nona series. The story is great, and the illustrations are fantastic (clearly, as it is a Caldecott Honor book!). I can't wait to add this to my classroom library when I am a teacher someday soon!

Business Fairy Tales: Grim Realities of Fictitious Financial Reporting
$35.95
I found Business Fairy Tales interesting particularly in its style of presentation, it captures the facts and insight of the events which brought out one of the worst ever financial scandals in US corporate history. I would highly recommend this book for people who are interested in getting to know the details of the events preceding Enron's collapse and want to further learn about the techniques which were used to carry out these frauds, and thereby find out that Enron was not the only player in the market.

The authors' style of capturing these techniques by showing them as signals are lucid enough to understand and also comprehend the vast complexities of financial reporting, even for those who are not familiar with mainstream corporate economics.

My understanding of the book is that it was never meant to be a treatise or any reference or guidebook for investors and capitalists, but more so for audiences be it students, professionals or researchers who simply wanted to know "what happened, how it happened and why anybody did nothing to stop it"- was it simply ignorance or was it ignorance bought off by influences; without going into long investigative reports, accounting statements and balance sheets. The book provides all the essential references from SEC filings to corporate financial reporting.
As a reader, this book has brought in a lot of realization towards how Corporate America functions in spite of Governments boasting of strict regulations to curb fraudulent activities.

Fraudulent financial reporting as shown in the book referring to post Enron corporate scandals has now become a popular area of research in various universities across the country. As the Director of the California Council on Economic Education for University of Southern California, I think it was important for the author Dr.Jackson to come forward and share his knowledge with people in the academic area through his book since Forensic Accounting is now catching on as a trend, thanks to the loop-holes in corporate financial reporting and regulations.

Keeping this in mind I would also recommend this book to future accounting aspirants who are looking for a career in this field as to get an insight of malpractices in corporate accounting.