Resources for Humans managing editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book Recognizing Richard Rabbit: A Fable about Being True to Yourself by Peter Weddle. Review finds that while book may be useful in therapy setting, it doesn’t offer much for the HR professional.

In Recognizing Richard Rabbit: A Fable About Being True to Yourself, Peter Weddle separates each page turn: on the right side is the fable of Richard Rabbit and on the left is what he calls “a corresponding interview with yourself.” The fable follows Willie Wabbit’s transformation into his “true self” Richard Rabbit. Along the way, his friends offer support and try to help him find a good luck charm that will help him change his life. In the end, he realizes that he is his own good luck charm (he does, after all, come with an attached rabbit’s foot). This fairly clever fable does a good job of illustrating that we make our own luck and that we can’t just wish for things and hope that they will happen.

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Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling business books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, October 27, in the “Business and Investing” category.

1. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

2. Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman. The author of The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century takes a look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. He asserts that the solutions to these two big problems are linked and that we can restore the world and revive America at the same time.

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Last October, we launched Resources for Humans: A Review of the Best Books for HR. So this week, we are taking a look back at the five most popular reviews. We hope you have enjoyed this first year and found many helpful books. We look forward to bringing you another year full of great reading.

— Resources for Humans Managing Editor Celeste Blackburn

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BusinessWeek ranks business books that are the most recent bestsellers and provides a short summary.

1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. Ferriss isn’t shy about tooting his own horn: He says he “speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in kickboxing, and an actor in a hit television series in Hong Kong.” Is this the sort of person you really want to be taking advice from? Anyway, Ferris offers recommendations and resources for everything from eliminating wasted time to oursourcing your job and getting cheap airfare. Discover your dreams and live them!

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Resources for Humans managing editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up. Review summarizes book’s theory on how levity improves the workplace and ways to achieve levity.

These are serious times. As the stock market plunges and the government is bailing out banks, many employers are struggling to make payroll. Their employees are watching their retirements savings diminish all while feeling the toll of higher food, fuel, and energy prices. So now, more than ever, is the time for a little levity.

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The following is a list of the bestselling paperback business books as ranked by the New York Times on October 13.

1. The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman. A columnisView this Postt for the New York Times analyzes 21st-century economics and foreign policy and presents an overview of globalization trends.

2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. A new edition of the author’s principles for solving problems.

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Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the business book Dealing with People You Can’t Stand: How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner. Review covers four steps from the book for dealing with “yes” people.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And there are certain kinds of employees who lay down the asphalt, compress it into place, and paint the lines. Whom are we talking about? The “yes” employees, who always tell you that they’re going to do a project, end up taking on too much, and then fail to come through.In Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, How to Bring Out the Best in People at Their Worst, Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner talk about the “yes” employee. Here are some tips they give.

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Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling business books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, October 6, in the “Organizational Behavior” category.
1. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Patrick Lencioni. The author targets group behavior in the final entry of his trilogy of corporate fables. When the instructional tale is over, Lencioni discusses the “five dysfunctions” (absence of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results) and provides a questionnaire for readers to use in evaluating their own teams and specifics to help them understand and overcome these common shortcomings.

2. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard . This story is about adjusting attitudes toward change in life, especially at work. Change occurs whether a person is ready or not, but the author affirms that it can be positive. His principles are to anticipate change, let go of the old, and do what you would do if you were not afraid.

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Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book Coping with Difficult People: The Proven-Effective Battle Plan that Has Helped Millions Deal with the Troublemakers in Their Lives at Home and Work. Review focuses on book’s profiles of employees who cause supervisors, managers, and coworkers stress and tips for how to deal with those employees.

Coping with Difficult People: The Proven-Effective Battle Plan That Has Helped Millions Deal with the Troublemakers in Their Lives at Home and at Work by Robert Bramson deals with employees who are stress carriers — who, through their negative and counterproductive behavior, cause distress in coworkers and drain you of energy. Here are some of their profiles and what you can do to turn them around.

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