The summer holidays are dragging on and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school year. It is his fourth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and there are spells to be learnt and (unluckily) Potions and Divination lessons to be attended. But Harry can't know that the atmosphere is darkening around him.

Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. But Katniss has been close to death before - and survival, for her, is second nature.

To many, Scrabble is just a board game. For others it's an intellectual pilgrimage, a balancing act between language and mathematics. This book charts the history and theory of the game, alongside the authors own rise from living-room player to competitive shark.

Michael E. Porter shows how competitive advantage can be defined in terms of relative cost and relative prices, thus linking it directly to profitability, and presents a whole new perspective on how profit is created and divided.

Porter's value chain enables managers to isolate the underlying sources of buyer value that will command a premium price, and the reasons why one product or service substitutes for another. He shows how competitive advantage lies in activities and in the way they relate to each other, to supplier activities, and to customer activities.

Challenges what you thought you knew about competing in the crowded market place. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, the authors argue that lasting success comes from creating 'blue oceans': untapped new market spaces ripe from growth.

Explores both the benefits and disadvantages of the developments in global communication. The author discusses the annoyance and dangers of BlackBerrys in meeting rooms, hands-free kits in conversation, and using a phone or iPod whilst driving.

Arriman the Awful, Wizard of the North, has decided to marry. But his wife must be a witch of the darkest powers. A competition is held to discover which witch is the most fiendish, and Madame Olympia conjures up a thousand rats! Belladonna, the white witch, wants to be a wicked enchantress. How can she become more devilish than the other witches?

This text identifies the fundamental determinants of national competitive advantage in an industry, and how they work together to give international advantage.

In this captivating tour of human and avian nature, of courage and deceit, of passion and paranoia, prize-winning journalist Mark Obmascik reveals the extremes to which Man will go to pursue his dreams, to conquer and to categorize - no matter how low the stakes.

Noah, Nadia, Ethan and Julian each have a story to tell about how they became friends: Noah was best man at the wedding of Ethan's grandmother and Nadia's grandfather; Nadia saved a nest of baby turtles; Ethan recounts how he could not let Julian face disaster. And Julian? He valued something important in himself and saw it in the other three.

Summoning up more than 20 years of Japan's most dramatic history, the geisha's story uncovers a hidden world of eroticism and enchantment, exploitation and degradation. It moves from a small fishing village in 1929 to the glamorous and decadent Kyoto of the 30s and on to postwar New York.

In this title, readers can enter the dazzling world of 19th century magicians fighting Napoleon's advancing army - and fighting between themselves

The third book in the New York Times bestselling vampire romance series that has developed a cult following among teens

Tells the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did. This title presents the mystery about the murder - and rebirth - of man's spirit.

Certain enterprises are building their competitive strategies around data-driven insights that in turn generate impressive business results. This book puts forward an argument that the frontier for using data to make decisions has shifted. It uses analytics which is a sophisticated quantitative and statistical analysis and predictive modeling.

Presents a way of thinking that combines competition and cooperation. This book applies the science of game theory to the art of corporate strategy. It adapts game theory to the needs of CEOs, managers and entrepreneurs.

Argues that in a world in which information is readily available to everyone, the role of the customer has changed dramatically. This book present four building blocks that helps companies to co-create the future with customers - transparency, access, dialogues, and risk management - and illustrates them through examples from a range of companies.

Outsell, outmanage, outmotivate and outnegotiate your competition