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This book is not an easy way to fix your finances. But then again few of the things that work rarely are easy. This is also not a get rich quick, or even get rich type of book. It's advice from a former stock-broker and financial planner on getting your finances and wealth under control. She not only talks about regular finances i.e. your income, stocks, mutual funds, etc but also insurance, retirement. She also describes how your attitude towards money and wealth in general affect your finances. With exercises and anecdotes along with straight explanations she seeks to guide you to "financial freedom". I give the book a B. Not the greatest book in the world but if you have the will to follow it you should see results.
Suze Orman has transformed the concept of personal finance for millions by teaching us how to gain control of our money -- so that money does not control us. She goes beyond the nuts and bolts of managing money to explore the psychological, even spiritual power money has in our lives. The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom is the first personal finance book that gives you not only the knowledge of how to handle money, but also the will to break through all the barriers that hold you back.
Combining real-life recommendations with the motivation to overcome financial anxieties, Suze Orman offers the keys to providing for yourself and your family, including:
The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom is useful advice and inspiration from the leading voice in personal finance. As Orman shows, managing money is far more than a matter of balancing your checkbook or picking the right investments. It's about redefining financial freedom -- and realizing that you are worth far more than your money.
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This is a feminist psychology book that is less about pleasure than the disassociation of adolescent girls. Most of the book deals with the disassociation girls go through and it is through that disassociation the author talks about pleasure. She uses literature in her writing as example, allegory or to illustrate a point. The message in a nutshell seems to be that love and overcoming patriarchy is the key to releasing the voice that has been lost. I liked the fact that she also looks at the loss of voice in boys though not to the same extent as she does with the girls. And she is not a anti-man feminist nor does she ignore or blame men.
The long-awaited new book by the world-renowned psychologist whose In a Different Voice, published two decades ago, started an intellectual revolution by showing that theories of human psychology, based on studies of men, had overlooked and distorted basic aspects of the human experience.
Now, in The Birth of Pleasure , Carol Gilligan, once again breaking through imprisoning tradition, writes about love and the forces that stand in the way of pleasure. She shows us why love between a man and a woman is so often burdened by a history of loss and how it can be freed and opened to the pursuit of happiness. Tracing a lineage from Greek mythology to our own most intimate relationships, she asks why we relive tragic stories of loss and betrayal; drawing on her own research, she offers a radical new map of love.
Within the sweep of this adventurous book, Gilligan becomes our guide on a journey that takes us through novels and dreams, ancient legends and contemporary research, to an illumination of modern couples in crisis. She shows us how, although the liberation movements of the twentieth century have challenged old patriarchal structures, the underlying patterns remain: the early channeling of boys into “masculinity,” the double consciousness of girls in adolescence, the silences between men and women, the split between our social and inner selves. In the haunting love story of Psyche and Cupid, Gilligan discovers a crucial tale of resistance—letting us see how a path leading toward tragedy can be turned into a road leading to pleasure.
Open, accessible, and rich with emotion, the book rings with the voices of girls and boys, mothers, fathers, and lovers. Gilligan draws on Shakespeare’s plays, Freud’s case histories, and the novels of Hawthorne, Proust, Toni Morrison, Michael Ondaatje, and Arundhati Roy to illuminate critical points on the map. Her pioneering scholarship, superb writing, revolutionary argument, and stunning conclusion will make The Birth of Pleasure one of the important and enduring books of our time.
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Another book in the "hood" by Paul Reiser. This time he's had a baby and takes us along to share his insights. If you liked "Couplehood" or enjoy Reiser's comedy you'll enjoy this one, if you don't you won't. It also helps if you've had a baby. There's alot of inside stuff especially for new fathers (as I happened to be close to as of the reading/reviewing of this book). I give it an A- as a fan of Reiser on general principles its probably closer to a B-.
I'm going to be totally honest. This is not the kind of book that can help you. It's not a "how-to," a "when-to," or a "what-to-expect." It's not even endorsed by anyone remotely connected to the medical profession. (Although a cousin of mine who sells carpeting to doctors' offices not only found it "insightful" and "informative," but felt that , "if properly vacuumed, it should last a lifetime.")
"A fine endorsement," you say. "But if I have only one book to buy, shouldn't I go for the helpful one?"
Let's compare:
So really, it's up to you.
If you want to be prepared and well-informed, I understand. But if you enjoy seeing the words "pterodactyl" and "uterus" in the same book, you've come to the right place.
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Funny and real to life. Paul Reiser looks at his own relationship with his wife and their quirks and experiences. You'll be laughing out loud and relating throughout the book. A good book to read in order to know you aren't alone in this crazy thing known as couplehood.
Okay, you've picked up my book, but you're not ready to commit. You're looking at this little inside flap here, hoping to get a preview - a taste of what's to come before you plunk down actual cash. i respect that. I would do the same thing myself.
But here's the problem: it's a flap. you can't describe a whole book on a flap - look how thin it is.
I will tell you this, though:
There. Does that help?
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Returning to his early days of comedy, the comic genius and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Congratulations! Now What? guarantees us a look at the funny side of life.
In his long and illustrious career, Bill Cosby has been many things: award-winning actor, bestselling author, doctor of education, media icon, and role model. But first and foremost, he is a comedian, and here he returns to that role in this wonderfully funny collection of stand-up material that touches on everything from childhood and marriage to school, sports, and work.
Fusing his classic jazzy timing and edgy humor with the intelligence and perception that have made him a huge star, Bill Cosby draws from his own life to tell these laugh-out-loud stories. With a dry wit and uncanny insight, Cosby writes about his first experiences skiing, making love to his wife, lying to his mother, and fretting about ingrown hairs. Fans young and old will be eager to add this volume to their collection, while new fans everywhere will delight in this sampling of great comic genius.
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I got this book from the library originally to find pictures to help with a drawing I was doing. I didn't use any of the pictures but did end up reading the book. It was very enjoyable and interesting to see different ways of painting seascapes. I learned something about some different painting techniques. I probably won't use all that was in the book but I just might use something from what I read, which satisfies the book's objective. An A book.
"The sea has been a source of pleasure and inspiration for centuries. Constantly changing the imagination of artists as diverse as Hokusai and Marin. Here, in this innovative "idea book", a sequel to the author's popular Creative Landscape Painting, Edward Betts offers more than 50 different approaches to painting the sea. Because the idea is to free the artist of preconceived notions of how the sea should be painted, the painting styles discussed range from photographic realism to various degrees of abstraction (formal, lyrical, expressive, semiabstraction, minimalism), and the paintings shown are composed in a variety of media (oil, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media). Furthermore, since the emphasis is on formulating an individual artistic philosophy and style, the suggestions given her hold true for any subject, not merely seascapes.
After a brief introduction, Betts launches into a discussion of 50 imaginative ways to paint marine subjects, explaining how to experiment with viewpoints, lighting, textures, patterns, and styles to add new vitality to your work. Each idea is presented in three parts: the concept is thoroughly explained, suggestions are given on how to incorporate it into your own art, and an example of its application the painting of a leading contemporary artist is shown. The caption accompanying each example contains Betts' usual penetrating, perceptive analysis of the artist's primary intent and how it has been communicated in painting. A color gallery containing 32 additional paintings follows, adding yet another dimension to this seascape painting idea book. Finally, the book concludes with a section entitled "Studio Notes," which offers several pages of practical tips on painting the sea.
Creative Seascape Painting will stimulate brand new ways of thinking. It is a book to be enjoyed by professional artists, intermediate and advanced students, and dedicated amateurs - in short, by all artists searching for fresh ways to extend and improve their art.
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Excerpt from the Preface: "The object of this book is not to tell the reader how to manage his medium in order to perpetuate boats, water and the foreshore; but rather to point out details he may miss and to explain what governs the play of light or movements of water; to show the details of ships and their surroundings; and perhaps to enhance the artist's enjoyment of a naturally fascinating subject."
I used this book in helping to draw a picture of a storm tossed ship. I didn't read all of it put did read two chapters that were really helpful. I also used some of the sketches.
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Styron's detailed writing of his voyage into and battle with depression allows an insight into a lonely and misunderstood disease. He is able to take us through the darkness of depression without depressing us overly much. Not easy. He also doesn't preach, but instead illustrates. The truest form of storytelling. An A. Just for being able to describe such a difficult to describe disease and not depress us.
In the summer of 1985, William Styron was overtaken by persistent insomnia and a troubling sense of malaise - the first signs of a deep depression that would engulf his life and leave him on the brink of suicide.
In Darkness Visible a great novelist describes his devastating descent into depression, taking us on an unprecedented journey into the realm of madness. Expanded from his celebrated Vanity Fair piece, this moving memoir is an intimate portrait of the agony of Styron's ordeal, as well as a probing look at an illness that affects millions but is still widely misunderstood.
"To most of those who have experienced it," Styron writes, "the horror of depression is so overwhelming as to be quite beyond expression."" Though Styron's remarkable candor and powers of description, we come truly to understand the anguish of a mind desperate unto death. We are moved yet not depressed by his account: with him, we feel uplifted by a sense of catharsis and can at last begin to fathom depression's dark reality.
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This book is a simple practical guide to overcoming and/or moving on after widowhood or divorce. The writing and language is the same simple and practical. Carol writes like what she is someone who has gone through it and is giving her advice on how she got through it. Alot of it is common sense practical things that while you may know it it helps to have somebody say it for you. I give it a B/B-.
Carol Kriet combines her down to earth business wisdom with the inspiration and encouragement she gained as a woman who has "been there". The result is a digestible program that enables you to find your place in the real world. Accented with metaphors and personal stories, this book offers constructive ways to regain control of your life and to create an enriched future for yourself and those you love.
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A very good book. An A. It takes a look at the search for spiritual meaning. All of us at one time or another get that feeling for something more. That there is more out there than just ..... This book asks the same question and takes us along on the 5 steps to finding the answer. What I like best about the book is the broad range of ethnicities, religions and beliefs that it looks at in answering the spiritual meaning question. Yet it doesn't say one is better than the other nor does it sugar-coat the answers to finding spiritual meaning. It's a long, continuous journey that is more about the journey than the destination. A very good book no matter where you are in life or what you believe. An A. The only reason it doesn't get an A+ is the book speaks to so specific an audience. If you aren't looking for spiritual meaning or haven't traveled down the path this book will probably not hold much meaning or desire for you.
There comes a time in each of our lives when we have lived in this world long enough to sample its es but have concluded that the things we were told would make us happy - money, sex, power, possessions- bring little permanent satisfaction; that in fact, the more feverishly we pursue these goals, the more dissatisfied and alone we feel. This troubling sense of unease is the first sign of our spiritual passages.
Just as Gail Sheehy's pioneering book Passages was the first to chronicle the physical and social stages of life, The Five Stages of the Soul is the first book to identify the five specific stages of spiritual awakening most of us go through: the Call, when we receive a message that we have lost our way and that something has gone wrong in our lives; the Search; the Struggle, when we have found the way and begin the climb to spiritual fulfillment; the Breakthrough; the Return.
Combining psychology, religion, myth, and literature, Harry Moody - in the bestelling tradition of Joseph Campbell, Thomas Moore, and Scott Peck - charts the passages of countless individuals across the country who have lived through these five spiritual stages, and recounts their lessons and experiences. Moreover, he explores their confrontation with the question of meaning in their lives and the experiences the five stages offered them - from a return to traditional religion to an embrace of mysticism to the desire simply to do community service.
Based on twenty years of research, The Five Stages of the Soul is the first book to focus squarely on the spiritual passages the majority of us go through, approaching questions of philosophy and religion from a psychological point of view, and offering readers - specifically baby boomers who are disillusioned with popular panaceas and are turning back to their lost spiritual roots - a detailed road map of their quest for meaning and self-discovery.
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This book starts out well enough. It gives a few tips for preparing for a speech and getting ready to give it. It sort of falls short however when it gets to the actual speech part, which is as even the author would tell you the important part of the whole thing.
I sort of get the impression of a hack comic when I read this guy talk about being funny and opening with a joke and all that. There's nothing wrong with starting a speech with a joke or putting funny lines in if you're good at it. The key part being if you're good at it. I've seen plenty of people who should not be telling jokes during a speech. As a follower of comedy and humor I know it ain't that easy to do. The author would make you put in a funny line just to save yourself. That can be like throwing an anchor to a drowning man.
If you're looking for some good openers or one liners there are plenty in the back of the book. If you're looking for a good preparation guide for your speech this will do. If you need help with your speech STAY AWAY! Overall I give this book a C.
In a recent public survey about fear, it was discovered that more people feared the prospect of having to stand up and speak to an audience than feared dying. If you're one of those people who are more frightened of speaking in public than you are of disease, bankruptcy or a visit from your mother-in-law, then this book is for you.
In this volume, the award-winning Toastmaster Bob Monkhouse guides you through the simple steps that will make you a confident and effective speaker. Whether you need to address a business meeting, propose a toast at your daughter's wedding, or speak to any group of unnervingly attentive faces with "just a few words," this seasoned professional tells you exactly how to do it.
How to begin a speech is a subject that deserves several interesting approaches and gets them here. Bob Monkhouse does not neglect the many ways in which you can construct the middle and the end of what you want to say. First he provides the basics: ways to focus your thoughts and gather ideas, construct a speech, assess the audience's needs, and project you most effective image from entrance to exit. Then he will help you to establish a set of ground rules in your mind that will enable you to deal with any situation that calls upon you to speak to any group, whether i be family, sales force, or a bunch of kids.
Finally, with humor and thoroughness, this veteran demonstrates every method known to man of creating an amusing and informative speech. He explains the secrets of performance techniques, how to simulate spontaneity, how to grab your audience and keep their attention.
Special sections examine the deadpan delivery of humor, how to let your ideas grow, and the best uses of triviality to emphasize your most serious messages. There are lists of tried and true jokes an comments for any occasion, telling you how and when to sue them.
Join wholeheartedly with the author in this endeavor, and in the years to come it will pay greater dividends than you an imagine. You'll be surprised how much pleasure and fulfillment are to be had from speaking well in public. And, applause is a terrific reward. Just ask the man who gets it.
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USA Today has called Suze Orman "a force in the world of personal finance." For years, Suze has anticipated what you need to know and want to know about your money. Her books, radio and television shows, columns, and newsletter about personal finance have helped millions of people like you turn their financial lives around. The author of three consecutive runaway New York Times bestsellers, Suze is renowned for her unique brand of financial savvy, tell-it-like-it-is honesty, and dynamic motivational style, which propels her readers and audiences to change the course of their financial destiny. In this groundbreaking book, she continues to transform your relationship with money.
Never before has there been a money book and life guide like The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life. In a natural evolution of Suze's authoritative view of the world of money, and characterized by her straight talk, warmth, and humor, The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life reveals a revolutionary new paradigm of personal finance. The 5 Laws of Money are vital principles that you need to know whether you are old or young, male or female, with or without money, a novice or a veteran investor. These five laws operate without exception -- at all times, in every culture -- and apply to everyone, as Suze shows in the compassionate stories adapted from real-life situations that she recounts throughout the book. And the universal truths and lessons contained within each law help you learn how to keep what you have and create what you deserve. Anyone can -- and must -- put these laws to use today in order to survive and thrive in these times of constant upheaval and financial turmoil.
The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life provides an eminently sensible, highly effective process for gaining control over your life and your money. Through pointed questions about your attitudes toward money, with insightful financial exercises and personal guidance, Suze deciphers the false hopes and fears that keep you from making smart, confident decisions and choices about your money. Her take-charge optimism and realistic action plans will jolt you out of any financial confusion or paralysis, whether you're beginning your career or at a midpoint, planning for or already in retirement. You will learn to assess your current spending, savings, and investments, and acquire a sure sense of what you can do with the money you have and the money you want to have. A thorough guidebook is included that helps you put the laws into immediate action and see their lessons manifest in your own life.
Profound and practical, The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life will help you get out of debt, create what you want, and protect your money, your family, and your future. With these laws as your guide, you can avoid ever being a financial victim again.
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I liked this book. It showed what happened when one man with an idealistic dream seeks to make that dream a reality. Robert X. Leeds wanted to create a high quality pet boarding establishment; a pet motel. A place where animals of all kinds, cats, dogs, snakes, reptiles, birds, fish, anything could be kept where they would be kept in the kind of care a person would receive in a 4 star hotel; sometimes even better.
It was with this dream that he set out and met obstacle after obstacle. How he gets financed by a millionaire from a billion dollar company yet gets screwed by his lawyers. How he struggles on all for the sake of caring for animals. I personally not much of a pet person myself. (My wife owns two cats, I don't claim them :^) But reading this book made me wish if I ever had to board the pets that I could do it in a place like his. Funny anecdotes of pets and their owners, a lesson for any person trying to realize their dream and to stick with it and look out for those who would take it from you. A good example to show how hard it is for an idealistic dream to remain so in the face of "harsh" reality. Well enough written with an engaging enough topic that you won't mind reading all the way through. I give the book an A.
My wife, Peggy, answered the telephone and a serious voice on the other end of the line said," I'd like to reserve a room for a camel. Do you have one?"
"Yes we do," she replied cheerfully. "We can board anything that walks, creeps, crawls, swims, flies, slithers, or hops as long as it's not vicious or poisonous."
It was another day at the American Pet Motels, where dogs slept on brass beds and talked to their owners on Snoopy telephones. Where animals had midday cookie breaks and listened to piped-in music. Where, if a German shepherd normally had a half glass of beer at bedtime, beer was provided and,, if bacon and eggs was a Saint Bernard's breakfast fare, that was what it had as a guest at the motel. It was all done to make a pet's stay away from home safe and stress-free. Deluxe digs for pets have sprung up in many parts of the country, but Robert S. Leeds was the leader of the pack.
In 1968, Robert X. Leeds was an engineer with General Motors. Improved boarding care for animals was furthest from his mind. It was the death of his pet through the carelessness of a kennel that triggered his crusade to bring the pet-boarding industry into the twentieth century. After four years of research, he resigned his position and moved to the Chicago area to begin a frustrating search for funding and to experience the reluctance of those inn the pet industry to accept change.
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In the rich history of political philosophy great minds have sought to define the nature and extent of human freedom, with careful justifications offered for the principles proposed. This tradition experienced a heightened degree of enthusiastic intensity upon the publication of On Liberty in England during the nineteenth century. In this, his most powerful essay, John Stuart Mill defends individual liberty, against both social and political encroachment, by daring to suggest that lines of demarcation be drawn to outline the proper role of government with respect to individual freedom. Appropriate spheres of action action are offered for individuals, society, and the state; basic rules are established to deal with those cases in which human action may need to be restrained or limited. Mill's eloquence and his unwavering dedication to the cause of freedom permeate every page.
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Surprisingly I liked this book. The author manages to tell the story of the invention of the screwdriver and the screw so that it is interesting even to someone who wasn't interested. Following him in his search and his personal interest in the history and invention of these devices carries you along until you get to the end. A crisp enjoyable read. I give it an A.
The seeds of Witold Rybczynki's elegant and illuminating new book were sown by The New York Times, whose editors asked him to write an essay identifying"the best tool of the millennium". The award-winning author of Home: A Short History of an Idea and, most recently, A Clearing in the Distance Fredrick Law Olmsted and North America in the Nineteenth Century, Rybczynski once built a house using only hand tool. His intimate knowledge of the toolbox - both its contents and its history -serves him beautifully on his quest.
One Good Turn is a story starring Archimedes, who invented the water screw and introduced the helix, and Leonard, who sketched a machine for carving wood screws. It is a story of mechanical discovery and genius that takes readers from Ancient Greece to Victorian Glasgow, from weapons design in the Italian Renaissance to car design in the age of North American industry. Rybczynski writes an ode to the screw, without which there would be no telescope, no microscope - in short, no enlightenment science. The screwdriver, perhaps the last hand tool in a world gone cyber, represents nothing less than the triumph of precision.
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I'm not a fan of biographies, I care more about the result of what people did rather than what it was they did. But I liked what Tan did with her "biography". As the title says it is a book of musings. Musings about herself and her writing. Being interested in writing and having enjoyed Amy Tan's writing this was enough to interest me. Her writing and honesty were enough to keep me interested. She talks about her childhood and her mother and how these have not only influenced her life but her writing. She talks about her writing and how she got started writing and the challenges of writing. There's also musings of love, loss, friends and family, trips and journeys battles won and lost.
The last musing or chapter deals with an illness/disease she has, Lyme Disease. She is able to talk about it and her struggle to discover and cope with it without coming across as preachy or whiny. She's not looking for undue sympathy or to convert. She is just relating something that has happened to her. If it educates you or causes you to feel some emotion towards her that's good and if not at least now you know. I think that is reflected in a lot of her writing. I for one was glad to listen. I give it an A.
In her first book of nonfiction, bestselling novelist Amy Tan shares her personal philosophy of fate.
Amy Tan was born into a family that believed in fate. In The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings, she explores this legacy, as well as American circumstances, and finds ways to honor the past while creating her own brand of destiny. She discovers answers in everyday actions and attitudes-from writing stories, decorating her house with charms, learning to ski, and living with squirrels, to dealing with three members of her family afflicted with brain disease, surviving natural disasters, and shaking off both family curses and the expectations that she should become a doctor and a concert pianist.
With the same spirit, humor, and magic that characterize her beloved novels, Amy Tan presents a refreshing antidote to the world-weariness and uncertainties we face today, contemplating how things happen-in her own life and beyond-but always returning to the question of fate and its opposites: the choices, charms, influences, attitudes, and lucky accidents that shape us all.
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First off let me start by saying I really don't care for biographies. This book is an autobiography about the author from early childhood until after he reaches college. A good biography, assuming you like biographies, has to be about one of two things either someone extraordinary i.e. a celebrity or important figure or about a set of extraordinary events.
The hook in Michael's autobiography is that both his mother and brother die. When I was first reading the book I wasn't sure whether it was a fictionalized version of his life or not because it didn't state clearly whether it was fiction or an autobiography. I obviously learned that it was in fact his autobiography. I spent the entire book wondering whether this was the moment his mother and/or brother dies. This in and of itself is not bad though it is a bit macabre. But their deaths don't bring about any resolution or huge change that you can tell by the book. Obviously this was a huge event and tragic one for the author but as far as the book it is not climatic.
The book is basically how Michael grows up with his mother, who is hard working, caring, alcoholic and has trouble picking men and husbands who don't abuse her, his little brother who has a good heart but a knack for getting into trouble and caring for the little guy who in this case happens to be his big brother and as reoccurring side characters his father and his wife, various step-dads, his aunt and cousins. They live a hard life with many physical transitions but few life transitions, though the few they do have carry the book from one stage to another. To those who either haven't lived it or been around such a life it may hold your interest for a while but unlikely for the entire book. The people and events though meaningful to the author don't have much impact on the reader. I give the book a C maybe higher if I liked autobiographies.
A woman raises two sons alone despite rape, abuse, alcoholism, stalking, and the death of the man she loves. I'm the one everyone thought would grow up dysfunctional. My brother's the one who killed himself. An inspiration to women everywhere
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A good book. It tells you how to get to the point and how to get it across well. It gives several good examples of six minute meetings. The instructions are easy to follow and it is well written in a easy going and concise manner. I give it an A.
Do your meetings talk too much? Say in six minutes what used to take you twenty. Ron Hoff's first book, "I Can See You Naked," sold over 500,000 copies. Now, with Say It in Six, he tackles the problem that everybody hates: too much everlasting talk in never-ending meetings.
From Chapter 1:
.....
The point being made here is crucial to the premise of this book.
In this time-driven era of the nanosecond (one-billionth of a second), six minutes is a treasure. If you know how to use it, you can make one hell of a case for yourself - or whatever you've got in mind.
Consider the case of Abe Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863. His address on that famous battlefield has been called "the greatest short speech since the Sermon on the Mount." It took Mr. Lincoln less than three minutes to read the 269 words of his handwritten script - and that's allowing for the fact that Mr. Lincoln enjoyed words and savored them slowly.
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I liked the illustrations and little side captions. The theories were presented in a way that were understandable (as much as it could be understood without getting too deep with specifics of the physics and math). You take alot of the book on faith and figure he knows what he's talking about and follow along the best you can. For science fiction fans like myself its like when a story explains how the aliens strange biology works or the techno-babble that Star Trek is famous for. You just nod your head and keep reading. I give the book a B+.
Stephen Hawking’s phenomenal, multimillion-copy bestseller, A Brief History of Time, introduced the ideas of this brilliant theoretical physicist to readers all over the world.
Now, in a major publishing event, Hawking returns with a lavishly illustrated sequel that unravels the mysteries of the major breakthroughs that have occurred in the years since the release of his acclaimed first book.
The Universe in a Nutshell
One of the most influential thinkers of our time, Stephen Hawking is an intellectual icon, known not only for the adventurousness of his ideas but for the clarity and wit with which he expresses them. In this new book Hawking takes us to the cutting edge of theoretical physics, where truth is often stranger than fiction, to explain in laymen’s terms the principles that control our universe.
Like many in the community of theoretical physicists, Professor Hawking is seeking to uncover the grail of science — the elusive Theory of Everything that lies at the heart of the cosmos. In his accessible and often playful style, he guides us on his search to uncover the secrets of the universe — from supergravity to supersymmetry, from quantum theory to M-theory, from holography to duality.
He takes us to the wild frontiers of science, where superstring theory and p-branes may hold the final clue to the puzzle. And he lets us behind the scenes of one of his most exciting intellectual adventures as he seeks “to combine Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and Richard Feynman’s idea of multiple histories into one complete unified theory that will describe everything that happens in the universe.”
With characteristic exuberance, Professor Hawking invites us to be fellow travelers on this extraordinary voyage through space-time. Copious four-color illustrations help clarify this journey into a surreal wonderland where particles, sheets, and strings move in eleven dimensions; where black holes evaporate and disappear, taking their secret with them; and where the original cosmic seed from which our own universe sprang was a tiny nut.
The Universe in a Nutshell is essential reading for all of us who want to understand the universe in which we live. Like its companion volume, A Brief History of Time, it conveys the excitement felt within the scientific community as the secrets of the cosmos reveal themselves.
Order The Universe in a Nutshell Hardcover from Amazon Today!
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This is an excellent book. Not only for those looking for a job, or those looking to change careers but also for anyone who wants to find out more about themselves and what they'd like to do in life. While at times tedious and some of the things you should do seem lofty, a fact that is acknowledged throughout the book. It provides an excellent motivation and guide for an often trying time. This book gets an A+.
From the Preface to the 1998 Edition
This is the 28th annual edition of this book.
It is the most popular job-hunting book in the world, existing in ten languages currently, and more to come.
Six million people have used this book, and twenty thousand people a month go into a bookstore to buy it. Many, in fact, buy the new edition each year. So, it is a book many people are quite familiar with.
Nonetheless, for new and old readers alike, it is occasionally worth summarizing what the book is all about.
Its history is: first published December 1, 1970; revised every year since 1975 -- and sometimes completely rewritten. .....
Its motto is: "Give me a fish, and I will eat for today; teach me to fish, and I will eat for the rest of my life." We want to teach you not only how to do this job-hunt or career-change that currently faces you, but how to do every job-hunt for the rest of your life. In a word, we want to empower you. These words were in the very first edition of his book, back in 1970.
Its purpose is: to save job-hunters from lowered self-esteem. The unfortunate characteristic of the job-hunt is that if you use a method (like resumes) that you think works for everyone else, but it doesn't work for you, you don't just fail to find a job; you feel there's something really wrong with you. The purpose of this book is to tell you how often a particular method fails, so you don't take it personally.
Its attitude is: iconoclastic. It is not only willing, but anxious, to tell the truth about everything -- ads, agencies, resumes, counselling, testing, the Internet, and other methods that everyone swears by.
It's style is: that of a friendly uncle (with a playful sense of humor) giving you advice on a subject he knows well, using informal writing, amusing cartoons, and helpful graphics.
Its target is: every kind of job-hunter or career-changer, both those who want to spend the least amount of time possible on their job-hunt, and only want some quick tips (the impatient job-hunter), and those who are willing to roll up their sleeves and put in a lot of time and work on their job-hunt, or career-change (the determined job-hunter).
Its structure is: What. Where. How. The aim of Parachute is to teach a simple method that everyone can understand. ....
Its method is: a careful inventory of yourself, by writing and analyzing stories about yourself, then filling out a pictorial diagram of A Flower (which represents both You, and your desired job or career).
Its content is: two volumes in one, two books in one -- the first (this one) containing the essential stuff that every reader needs to know. the second volume or book behind this one, but in the same binding (called The Parachute Workbook and Resource Guide) containing stuff that only some readers need to know.
Its design is: created by a genius called Bev Anderson, who from the first -- and for 25 years thus far -- has shaped each year's new edition of this book, together with the author ...
Its publisher is: Phil Wood, owner of Ten Speed Press in Berkeley, California. ....
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