John Sparks

Martha Stewart may be the most famous woman to have had a disappointing experience as an inside trader, but apparently she's hardly the only one. In a new study of 700,000 insider trades over 20 years, finance professors at the University of Michigan found that female executives and board members who buy or sell their companies' shares based on nonpublic information get less than half the benefit that men in similar positions gain when they risk insider trades.In the first two months following...

Whether he's excoriating Time Warner's bosses, mocking religious believers or drunkenly and publicly savoring his America's Cup win in the streets of Newport, R.I., Turner has never been a tight-lipped guy.

Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else By Geoff ColvinWith everything from houses to 401(k)s (as well as collateralized debt obligations) turning out to be worth a whole lot less than it used to be, it's perhaps unsurprising that talent turns out to be overvalued as well.

That certain artists who get tagged as Young Creative Geniuses later commit suicide is tragic. What often happens after the death—when peers milk their legacy for cash profit—is not only tragic but tacky.

Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference By Tim Sanders Former Yahoo executive Sanders won't be mistaken for Lenin (he lacks a beard, for starters), but he shares a taste for revolt.

Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction by Lisa ChamberlainNot only have those born between the baby boomers and the boomers' kids had to struggle to make themselves felt as a cultural force, they've also got stuck on the wrong side of every big economic trend in the past 30 years.

Developing countries like China are infamous for fudging economic stats, but in reality, lying about inflation is as American as baseball.

European intellectuals who make a living attacking American cultural invaders, from McDonald's to Disney and the NBA, now have a new target. Zuffa International of Las Vegas has picked the Continent as a key growth market for it's Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Too bad his U.S. publisher opted to retitle Dennis' chart-topping U.K. best seller "The Getting of Money." The original nicely captured both the author's single-mindedness in pursuing wealth and the quirky raconteur's voice that makes the Maxim publisher's tome a better read than the typical rags-to-riches saga.

While waiting for boomers to shut up and sit down, Gen X quietly went about changing the world, one cultural totem at a time. Google, anyone? YouTube? 'The Daily Show'?

The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America's Most Troubled Companies By Steve MillerSteve Miller has had an extraordinary career that many of his readers may be glad they haven't shared.

The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up By Adrian Gostick and Scott ChristopherAnybody who's ever had to cope day after day with a gloomy workplace will warm to the idea of having more fun on the job.

Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures —And Yours By Tarun KhannaChina and India together account for 2.4 billion people—and a seemingly similar number of books that claim to reveal the secret to doing business with them.

A new documentary tries to unriddle the contradictory life of Clash vet Joe Strummer.

Bo's Lasting Lessons by Bo Schembechler and John U. BaconLeadership tomes from successful college coaches are practically a genre unto themselves. Most are as interchangeable in both advice and voice as the slick and mercenary new breed of coaches who operate on today's college sidelines.

Regulators say they want to liberate iTunes for all.

Apple, Inc., maker of the Macintosh computer and the iPod, never lets anyone forget what it isn't—Microsoft. The company's ads show a hipster named Mac humiliating a pale, pudgy loser named PC; its slogan urges consumers to "Think different." But as Apple has evolved from struggling computer maker to digital media giant, it now finds itself cast in a role that had been Microsoft's alone—European corporate villain.When Apple's iTunes online music store arrived in Europe in mid-2004, it...

by Richard S. TedlowThis saga of Andras Istvan Grof's transformation from refugee of Hungarian communism to titan of Silicon Valley capitalism is a remarkable American success story.

by Richard S. TedlowThis saga of Andras Istvan Grof's transformation from refugee of Hungarian communism to titan of Silicon Valley capitalism is a remarkable American success story.

Red, White, and Drunk All Over By Natalie MacLeanAs escape fantasies go, it's an appealing one: a thirtysomething chucks a career in tech marketing to build a living around her love of wine.

Beyond the big photo-sharing sites like Kodak, Shutterfly and Snapfish are some good niche players.

Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It by Stuart E. LucasCongratulations! You've just come into some cash. But what to do next? With $1 trillion per year expected to pass from one generation of Americans to another over the next decade, it's a question more people than ever are facing.

As mountain snow turns to mud, even the most diehard snowsliders are facing the end of another season. How to cope? Try sandboarding. The sport, already huge in Australia and Brazil, is taking off here.How to ride.

Deciding between a new car and a European vacation? You can have both. Thanks to overseas delivery programs from European carmakers, you can order a new car stateside, pick it up in Europe, drive it on vacation and then ship it home--all for less than the U.S. sticker price.

Maximum City by Suketu MehtaReaders in the know have awaited this nonfiction paean to Mumbai, India's financial and film capital, since Mehta signed a two-book contract with Knopf in 1999.

One of the few things knottier than James Joyce's "Ulysses" was the author's relationship with his hometown, Dublin. But on the 100th anniversary of the day Joyce sent Leopold Bloom wandering through the Irish capital, the city is showering affection on its literary son--all summer long.

The first person to get a serious chunk of your estate used to be the lawyer you paid to draft your will. But new software and Web sites make it easier than ever to do it yourself.

If you're giving great job interviews but failing to land any jobs, there could be more tripping you up than the economy. More than 80 percent of companies are now doing background checks on applicants.

With the Olympics set to drop into their ancient birthplace this August, publishers have issued a flood of new or Olympified guides to the Greek capital. If you're planning on attending, make sure to pack copies of "TimeOut Athens" and the "Lonely Planet: Best of Athens," which deliver hip-but-not-too-hip tips on the usual diversions, plus comprehensive listings of events, stadium charts and ways of snagging last-minute tickets to prized events.

Forget groundhogs and robins. The real first sign of spring comes this week as pitchers and catchers report to train-ing camps in Florida and Arizona. Alan Byrd, author of the just-published "Florida Spring Training: Your Guide to Touring the Grapefruit League," offers some tips for fans planning to migrate south:Head for Tampa Bay.