New and Forthcoming Books for the Executive Nightstand

Trust Rules: How to Tell the Good Guys From the Bad Guys in Work and Life by Linda Stroh (Praeger)
Stroh, a business professor at Loyola University in Chicago, offers a primer on trust in the workplace, based on interviews with more than 300 people—from manufacturing-line workers to the CEOs of major multinationals from Mattel to Gillette—who give their views on whom you can trust at work, whom you can't, and why. One suggestion: Don't use your gut when evaluating people. Rather, Stroh recommends using a multipoint mental checklist such as taking note when someone tactfully tells you that you've made a big mistake. You can't trust sycophants.

The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned From the Market's Perfect Storm by Robert Bruner and Sean Carr (Wiley)
Bruner, dean of the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, and Carr, director of the school's Batten Institute, tell the gripping tale of one of the worst financial panics in modern history, where greed and lack of liquidity (sound familiar, people?) dragged stocks down 37 percent. After the chaos of 1907, the Federal Reserve System was finally established, as was the reputation of J. Pierpont Morgan.

Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist by Tyler Cowen (Dutton)
Cowen, an economics professor at George Mason University, is the latest scholar to pen a pop-economics treatise. His book, blurbed by Freakonomics author Steven Levitt, explains how economics—that is to say, market incentives—influences all whims and wants, from venting anger to falling in love. But if you want your kids to do chores, Cowen says, don't pay them. You want to be a parent, not a boss. —Justin Ewers