CHASING DAYLIGHT How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life By Eugene O'Kelly Tata McGraw-Hill Pp: 179 Price: Rs 250

What would you do if you found out that you had just 100 days to live? Would you pray, seek a miracle cure, or simply focus on tying up loose ends? Not an easy question to answer. And it wasn't for Eugene O'Kelly either, when the CEO of KPMG's us operations was told by his doctors last week of May in 2005 that he had just about three months to live. But being relatively young (53), O'Kelly decided not to wallow in self-pity or make his loved ones miserable, but to be "the master of my own farewell". Chasing Daylight, then, is the remarkable story of how one man rediscovered life as he approached death.

Normally, that sort of writing should make for disturbing-perhaps, even morbidly voyeuristic-reading, but O'Kelly's autobiography is nothing if not inspiring. It is written simply, from the heart and with great thought. Reading it, you are forced-just as the writer was-to stop and think about life. When was the last time you looked up to admire the sky, the stars, or the green leaves on a tree? When was the last time you called a sibling, a friend or even your parents out of the blue? When was the last time you wondered why you are even here, on Earth? As O'Kelly realised in his dying days, "the life had to be enjoyed as explicitly and as often as possible, right now".

So, soon after the doctors tell him that he has terminal cancer of the brain, O'Kelly decides to do three things: quit his job as the Chairman and CEO of KPMG, find a medical treatment that might help and, three, "make the time remaining the best of my life, and as good as it could possibly be for those most affected by my situation". On June 8, 2005, barely two weeks after the fatal diagnosis, O'Kelly puts in his papers. He takes a shot at chemotherapy, but soon realises that it is futile in his case, and decides to spend the rest of his days connecting with his family and friends.

In the book, Kelly calls it "unwinding". "But why did I want to (unwind)?" he asks. "Why would anyone want to make some kind of part-symbolic, part-literal break with all the people he had enjoyed and loved?". Needless to say, it was a rhetorical question. "As soon as I started the process, it felt right. And it made me think that other people, especially those with more than three months left, could benefit from the approach I took, or at least modify it to make it their own". If there's only one thing you take away from O'Kelly's autobiography, then let it be this.

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY (VOLUME 1 AND 2) By David E. O'Connor Academic Foundation Pp: 440 + 374 Price (set): Rs 2,995

Confused what the Bretton Woods System was all about or what the three alternative theories of growth are? Then O'Connor's Encyclopedia Of The Global Economy may be just what you need. Available in two volumes, the encyclopedia "examines the key people, institutions, current issues, and historical events that shaped the global economy". Volume One consists of 168 entries on key international topics, besides a timeline of key economic events since 1776. Volume Two is all about data related to 10 topics, ranging from population to global output to least developed economies to external debt. A high school teacher of economics,

O'Connor has packed in a mind-boggling variety of economic information in the two volumes. Did you know, for instance, that the informal economy employs as much as 42 per cent of the workforce in Africa, but the number is just 13 per cent in North America? Or that Mexico's maquiladoras, of duty-free assembly plants, get 21 per cent of the country's FDI? The idea behind the encyclopedia, O'Connor explains, is to invite "readers to explore and analyse the international organisations, global issues, and personalities that have moulded today's dynamic global economy". Students, researchers and even executives will find the encyclopedia of great value.