Jeff Slutsky brings his expertise as the head of his own marketing and consulting firm to the basics of getting clients and keeping them. He provides plenty of insider secrets. Written in a straight-forward manner with little fluff, this book includes the psychology of pitching a new client and keeping an old client happy. It covers things you can do to make a prospective client say "yes." These are valuable insights when clients are your bread and butter. The book offers just enough anecdotes to illustrate some key points. We at getAbstract recommend this book to anyone who works with clients and wants to be even better at it, and have more of them.

At first I "skip-read" this book, but had to go back and read it word-for-word. If your business must have clients to be successful, you cannot pass up the opportunity to learn all the secrets that Jeff shares in this book. It's the COMPLETE guide to turning customers into clients. Happy Networking! - Larry James, author

Mr Slutsky's book had many suggestions in it which I have put to very good and profitable use. Because of the suggestions in his book, I have secured a weekly column on the topic which my business focuses on and got a large newspaper to do an article on me and my business (with a fantastic response!). Thanks Jeff!

I purchased this book having played flute only once (very much a beginner). This book provides a lot of history about the flute but doesn't provide very clear and in depth instruction on how to play. So, if you are looking for an instruction book, this is not the one for you.

As a flute instructor, repairman, player, and director, I find this book, Mark Shepard's "How to Love your Flute" an invaluable resource to the flute community. It includes new aged techniques as well as classical ones, also folk flute. Tis is a great book.

I am a maker of traditional Japanese shakuhachi flutes since 1970. Mark Shepard's wonderful edition dates back to the early years of interest in ethnic flutes here in the USA. It inspired a lot of people and has had a "cult following" for decades. Along with his other books on flute construction, How to Love Your Flute has established Mark as one of the pioneers in the field.

Here at Tai Hei Shakuhachi ... we offer resources for folks interested in making their own flutes. I've received calls from people searching for this book even a decade after it disappeared. In no other book about modern woodwinds will you find thorough instruction and extensive knowledge combined with such insight and wisdom. I pushed Mark for years to get this unique resource back in print and am so glad it is readily available once again.

I was greatly disappointed in this book. It could be because the hype I heard about it stated that it was a book that showed God's plan for sex. I thought the book was about a passionate, uplifting, holy sexual union between a husband and wife. I wanted to get as much information on that as possible, both to bring to my relationship as well as pass on that information to my daughters when they are of age.

Although the first few chapters did discuss a God ordained plan for sex, the balance of the book was focused on sexual perversions and deviations. I learned enough about sexual perversions and deviations in my college Human Sexuality class and am not interested in increasing my knowledge in those areas.

I'm not saying that a book of this type is not a valuable tool, if that is what your looking for, but I do think the publicity and description should be more honest about the focus of this book. The book's focus is definately un-holy sex not holy sex.

I bought this book as part of a study of God's plan for our sexuality. I was impressed by the views of the author, who not only stresses the Biblical side but also look at medical/physical and emotional sides of human sexuality. This is a holistic view which every Christian needs, whether as a personal guide, as part of training in counselling or to come to grips with his/her own sexuality.

In Holy Sex, author Terry Wier examines the root problems and consequences of misdirected sexual behavior. Conceding that regular church attendance has some positive bearing on sexual activities, Wier maintains that Christian teens are having premarital sex at record numbers. He also cites statistics which show nearly half of all abortions in the U.S. are by women from pro-life churches. Weir believes the most widespread and troublesome issues facing the Christian Church today (clergy and parishioners alike) are sexual in nature: adultery, divorce, premarital sex, pornography, and homosexuality. Wier blasts the fallacy of "safe sex" and ultimately advocates that there are laws governing sexual behavior which he calls "The Laws of Sexual Union". These are natural laws that determine the physical, social, and spiritual consequences of our physical, sexual actions. Wier believes the physical act of sexual intercourse affects us in spirit, soul, and body -- an idea that is all too seldom taught in churches today, and never heard in secular circles. Holy Sex is highly recommended reading for clergy, parishioners, parents, as well as Christian teens and young adults.

This was the first real estate book I ever bought. The example of a penny a day doubled every day or a $1,000 a day for 30 days I thought, at the time was far fetched and corny.Using MARKS techniques, I went from 0 credit to over a $100,000 in credit and 0 net worth to $500,000 in under two years time (in 1970's $$$)The techniques still work today. I also recommend The Courage To Be Rich, the one by Mark not Suze Orman.The fact that Suze Orman would copy a title from Mark's Book should tell you the impact that Mr. Haroldsen hadon the fincially savvy.

Whatever you believe that you are, you do what that represents, which manifests its self in the physical reality.

This is also true for money management. Each time that I read this book, I have a light bulb moment. And I know that I am in the process of becoming financially savvy. I also realize, as I read this book, along with Glinda Bridgforth's, "Girl, Get Your Money Straight," that I am giving myself the financial intelligence that I lost as a child.

This book is simple, enlightening, and helpful in making my money work harder than I work.

I find myself saying to myself, as I read this book, "Okay. Yep! I can do that. And now I understand more about how the rich think."

Find and read this book to give yourself financial peace of mind.

Several years ago I was given this book by a friend. I was searching for a way to make money. This book awoke in me tons of ideas and possibilities. I have bought several properties using the ideas that I gleaned from this book. Many people told me it was just nonsense and that it could not be done. These people included family, friends, my attorney and my boss.That was in 1985. Since that time I have given this book as a gift to many of my friends and customers. Some have used it while others have not. I can tell you I have gone from selling cars to owning two personal homes, several rentals and my own mortgage company, Real Estate Company, a Title company and I'm just putting together a constuction company. The book is dated based on pricing but the concepts are current. In all honesty none of the critics I had in the begining make enough money to pay my taxes. I was looking for a recent copy of this book in order to locate the author. While I was here I thought I would send out a ray of hope to those with a dream. PS: another book I found helpful is "The Magic of Thinking Big" by David J. Schwartz

Two people hiking through the Alps find a dead body, lying face down, half-buried in a sheet of ice. The hikers call the police. The police call scientists and the scientists discover through many different tests that the man half-buried in the ice is over 5,000 years old. The book Ice Mummy not only discusses how the body was discovered, but it also goes into some speculation of how the man lived, what he looked like, and how he died. Science plays a major role in our everyday lives. However, Ice Mummy seems a little advanced scientifically and the photographs seem to be a little too graphic for this book's intended audience. The scientific wording in the book Ice Mummy appears to be intended for an older audience. The authors Mark Dubowski and Cathy East Dubowski write about certain scientific terms in very simple sentences, as in this passage: " A scientific test called carbon-14 dating can tell the age of almost anything that ever lived- dead animals, dead people, plants, or things like cloth, which comes from living matter." The authors discuss why it is used, but they neglect to talk about how it is used or works. The first time I ever even heard the term carbon-14 dating was in fifth grade, and I did not fully understand this term until I took biology in tenth grade. Therefore, I would not expect a student in second or third grade to understand this particular term. However, this term isn't the only the way the authors try to tell the story of the man found frozen in the ice. Another term is used here, " Finally the mummy is examined by an archaeologist- an expert in ancient people." The term "archaeologist" is used, but explained so simply and briefly that, even as a college student if I did not know what an archaeologist was I would probably have to look it up even after reading this passage. As advanced as this book is, is in no comparison to how graphic the photographs that are used are. The photographs the authors used in this book are morbid and somewhat scary to say the least. Within the first few pages, the authors use pictures of a body lying face down in a sheet of half-melted ice. Later, the authors show the body lying on an autopsy table dried out and crippled. At first look, the photographs seem to scare the reader enough to forget about actually reading the words. Even though the scientific terms are not the only thing that make this book difficult to read for children in second or third grade, I think as grotesque as the pictures are, they should have been saved for an older, more mature audience.

-Barbarajean Hartos-Hord

I bought this book for my son when he became fascinated by mummies at the age of 4. He enjoyed my reading it to him and now (at age 7) can read the book by himself. It is interesting to learn about mummies outside Egypt and that there are alternative forms of mummification from embalming. It is thought provoking for a child to imagine what life was like for this person before he died and was mummified, and to learn about the scientific process of discover.

I was extremely impressed with the way this book dealt with the subject matter. Unlike a previous review, I thought it included enough detail to be understood by young readers and so the significance of this find could be appreciated. I also disagree that the photos were "morbid". The major strength of this book is it's remarkable photographs. My nine-year old was fascinated by both the photos and the story. Seeing how well preserved the mummy is makes this story even more amazing. This is a well-written book that can be enjoyed by all ages.

With "In Pursuit of Happiness" Mark Kingwell takes on one of the quintessential questions in philosophy: what is happiness and how can we achieve it? Unfortunately, this book is more annoying than enlightening.

Kingwell touches on many of the issues that need to be considered, such as the cultural forces of capitalism, the philosophical discourse of Aristotle, Boethius and the like, and the flourishing "new age" movement. But his treatment is more survey than argument. I was never quite sure what Kingwell was trying to say, until I read on to the next chapter where he finally stated what he had "proved" previously. To take on such challenging questions is to commit yourself to a more serious effort than the one here.

For example, Kingwell's investigation of the new age movement appears to be little more than a one-week course he took called "Inward Bound: An Activa Meditation Retreat" in Western Massachusetts. Compare this to Tony Schwartz five-year investigation in "What Really Matters." After the week, Kingwell ends up dismissing the instructor Kaufman's proselytizing to "get happy," even though it actually is quite close to where Kingwell himself finishes at the end of the book. On a similar note, Kingwell's study of Prozac consists of six weeks of unsupervised use, not exactly a comprehensive investigation.

Also troubling was lack of logical integrity in many of his arguments. By example, Kingwell rejects the argument that material wealth is not an important factor in happiness because of his fear that such an argument might be abused to justify wealth inequalities. Just because an argument may be abused is not a basis for dismissing it. Another annoyance is that many of the quotes provided are not properly cited.

All that said there are some nice insights here. Kingwell is quite right to highlight the self-congratulatory nature of so many of the New Age movement thinkers. He notes for example about Maslow's psychology and its many followers that it is "at once appallingly elitist and charmingly seductive ...Reading its tenet, one is sometimes tempted to offer oneself kudos for being in the upper echelon. Self-actualization? That's me." I just wish there were more of these insights and less ramblings.

Kingwell's book is a very interesting exploration of the nature of happiness. He explores a wide variety of theories from different philosophers, as well as some pyschologists. Ultimately, he concludes that Aristotle's definition is best. Aristotle has always confused me, and Kingwell is the first author who has ever explained him in a way that made sense to me.

The author's writing style is clear and concise. He has a good sense of humor, and I liked the way he tied popular culture, philosophy, and personal examples together. The book wasn't dry, dull and boring, the way philosphy can be at times.

There is only one reason that I can't give the book five stars. I found that Kingwell rambled a bit, and he lost track of his point. Overall, however, I think the book is really worthwhile, and I would encourage anyone who is interested in philosophy to pick up a copy of the book.

This is the first book by Professor Kingwell that I've read, but it certainly wasn't the last. I wait patiently for each new book he puts out (since this, there's been 'Marginalia,' 'Millennium,' and his brand new release 'The World We Want') and am alwasy interested to see his particular bent on the topic he's chosen.

In Pursuit of Happiness is a rare thing - it's readable philosophy and its darn interesting. Kingwell covers lots of ground, always exploring and exposing human nature. This tome has a personal side as well... he discusses his own framework for happiness with the backdrp being his professional career.

The reader will find his work serious, witty, funny, and always engaging. If you've ever wanted to better understand what it means to be "happy", truly happy, then this is a great place to start. Kingwell will engage you and make you think. In true philosophical form, he asks as many (if not more) questions than he answers... but as with classic philosophical pursuit, this isn't nearly as frustrating.

If you're big into cultural philosophy then this author is for you - I highly recommend his writings.

This trade paperback features the last Hulk stories Peter David wrote and you could tell that by then he had run out of ideas to do wih the Hulk so he wrote a story where something really devestating happens with the Green Guy.It was something that most readers did not like and many haven't read the comic ever since. It was a sad ways for david to end what was mostly a suucessful run on that comic. Today the Marvel novels that feature the Hulk are the only source of good story material left that they can still better Hulk stories.

This TPB effectively brings the reader the greatest and most important stories of the relationship between Betty Ross and Bruce Banner.
All of the stories are very entertaining, and yet very tragic.

If your a Betty Ross Banner fan, you'll love this! Its a tribute to the love between Bruce and Betty. Betty is one of the most substansial characters in Bruce Banners life, and this helps her legacy continue until after her demise. Every Hulk fan will love this book. I highly reccomend it. Also, the Harpy's in it.

Mark Barrowcliffe has created the perfect anti-hero: a cheating man who faces the ultimate dilemma: two women -- his fiancee and his mistress -- are pregnant at the same time. What will Stewart do? Infidelity for First-Time Fathers is a dark and ironic novel about a man's struggle to do the right thing. However, this novel has missed the mark. The theme isn't the problem -- though I am sure that readers, especially the female ones, might find the plot somewhat problematic -- the problem is that the male protagonist seeks sympathy in the appalling situation. I was expecting a dark, tell-like-it-is tale of an unfaithful man. Instead, I found the aforementioned character childish and whiny. However, all is not lost in the story. Cat Grey, for example, is an original and fresh character. She isn't the stereotypical "other woman," which I find refreshing. Other than that, the novel fails to deliver the dark situations that I had expected. A true disappointment...

Stewart Dagman (Dag), a mid thirties British bloke, is engaged to be married to his live-in girlfriend of ten years, Andrea Ellis. And guess what? She's pregnant. But Dag also has this fresh young "bit on the side," Cat Gray, and guess what? She's pregnant too. So what's a guy to do?

On one hand, I found INFIDELITY FOR FIRST-TIME FATHERS side splittingly funny -- even the thoroughly British parts that a poor American like me didn't get. Dag is being assailed by a fiancee whose desire for the physical is much greater than his own, and Barrowcliffe does a hilarious job of describing the way men in their thirties and forties are continually cruising for women in their twenties. The story is a comic roller-coaster, the reader propelled from one twist to the next. I don't think there's a single potential turn that Barrowcliffe failed to make, except for the one at the end. There he crashed.

Which brings me to the part that isn't funny: The entire plot. It could have been an interesting (and yes, still funny) tale of a guy's attempt to do the right thing, but Dag doesn't hold up his end of the deal. He comes across incredibly selfish and unlikable, which would be fine if he wasn't the lead character, but he is, and three hundred some pages in his whiny company are enough to kill any joke and completely total any "deeper meaning" the story might have fostered. His slapstick conversations with his best friend, Henderson, don't improve matters. Basically the reading experience consists of following an immature guy through a series of incomplete breakups and near misses while he makes sometimes apropos, sometimes totally nutty comments about everything from politics to relationships (what else?) to dealing with your in-laws. And the thugs? The electronic surveillance? The births? Can we strain credulity any further?

When I first read INFIDELITY FOR FIRST-TIME FATHERS, I laughed. I fully admit I laughed. But I'm not laughing now.

This is the author's second novel. Like the first, Girlfriend 44, it is a contemporary comedic novel with plenty of drole asides in the style of Nick Hornby, PG Wodehouse, and columnist-author Dave Barry. Stewart Dagman, a mid-thirtyish management consultant, has to choose between duty to his pregnant fiancee and housemate for the past ten years, Andrea, with whom he shares a comfortable and familiar, if not exciting life, and Cat his exhilarating new paramour, with whom he is falling in love. There are tons of interesting complications, all plotted skilfully --- this is actually a page-turner ---- and throughout there are endless wickedly funny takes on contemporary London life that made the first novel so engaging. I had a little trouble with some of the London slang and place references, but no great distraction. I have to say I enjoyed it thoroughly. Three strangers approached me on a plane trip to ask about the book that was making me laugh to myself like a psychotic. All three were sufficiently interested to look past the somewhat off-putting (for American tastes) title to record the ordering info. I look forward to the next with impatient enthusiasm.

Jordan does show convincingly that "sodomy," in the Bible defined as the sins of the men of Sodom, applies to a range of sinful activities rather than specifically homosexual ones. He does not, however, show that homosexual activity is excluded within that range of activities.

But even if Jordan were to show that homosexual activity is not one of the sins of Sodom, the implication for us is merely that "sodomy"--if we would like to be etymologically correct--ought not be used as a term for homosexual activity. If he were to establish that, he would not be establishing that homosexual activity is not a sin. The only implication would be that we should use a different term to describe homosexual sin (as for instance was often done by using the more inclusive term "luxuria," it appears). Since Jordan shows a hermeneutical friendliness to the Bible (which is what motivates his etymological interest in "sodomy" in the first place), he would be hard pressed to do away with passages of similar brevity in which homosexual activity is specifically labeled as a sin. (In fact he ignores these passages entirely, as the authors he reads do not, which decimates the value of his arguments around pp. 166 ff.)

Regarding the Middle Ages, even if "sodomy" had been constructed incorrectly as a term for homosexual activity and similar sexual sins, the idea of those sins was not constructed. His interest turns out to be merely etymological through page 40.

For most of the remainder of the book, Jordan moves to "invention" in the rhetorical sense, finding all the different ways that sodomy was discussed--seldom engaging the arguments, as though he is having enough fun repeating all the unsayable words.

On 42 and towards the end, he unfairly objects to the use of places and place-names as symbols, calling this an "essentialism" that is "antihistorical." This hermeneutical prejudice is untenable, and not just in the case of Sodom. One might say that "homophobia" is also one of those words that is used as "an attack upon a [supposedly] malignant essence" (43, cf. 167-68). If Jordan really is attacking the whole system of applying abstract words to sets of activities, he loses the ability to make many of his own points as well.

For those interested in the relationship of nature and ethics, the most relevant and good parts are: 54-56, which are especially good for showing the connection between nature, reason, and ethics in Peter Damian; at 87 (and the whole section as well), esp. where Jordan summarizes how Alan of Lille demonstrates the naturalistic fallacy; after a lot of digressing, some material on Albert the Great at 126 ff.; and a good summary of Aristotle's NE at 132. By the Albert the Great section, it becomes apparent that the relation of pleasure to the natural and the moral is what is really at issue. One should also pick up some Plato on this, e.g. from the Laws, 732e, 836c-e, 838b-839c, passages which seem very pertinent. Jordan and Plato seem to diverge regarding this relation. My vote is with Plato.

No one is at fault. It is simply the nature of the beast that each book has its limitations, each author his or here axe to grind, and so be it, and so what? The point is that books in general and this book in particular do not go far enough, deep enough. Robert Graves (e.g., THE GREEK MYTHS) is a good place to start one's investigation into the Original Sodomy, which was heterosexual...always!...indeed, it involved a complex sodomistic Priesthood in honor of the Great Goddess, and had nothing whatsoever to do with males.

This book addresses some of the same terrain as John Boswell's 1980 book CHRISTIANITY, SOCIAL TOLERANCE, AND HOMOSEXUALITY, but with important points of contrast, one of which is it's half the earlier book's length in pages.

Jordan takes a Christianized, quasi-Foucauldian approach to the subject, whereas Boswell's approach was essentialist, stressing historical continuities which Jordan opposes. Boswell equated the modern concept of homosexuality with the medieval concept of sodomy, whereas Jordan does not.

Instead, Jordan argues that the term "sodomy," as used by early church fathers and pre-Renaissance theologians, was a usefully vague invective, employed not altogether differently from the ways "philistinism" was used later or, for that matter, the way "homophobia" is used in some circles today.

But parallel to what Jordan says about the term "homophobia," "sodomy," too, has been used politically not as a precise explanation for human behavior, but as "a placeholder for an explanation yet to be provided" (167-68).

[Arguably, as philosopher Judith Butler does argue elsewhere (cogently), the same could be said for the current uses of "gay," "homosexual," "queer," etc., or for that matter, "sex."]

Jordan's book is an important one for people who identify themselves as either Christian or gay (--or both) because it addresses issues underlying the clash of values and "culture wars" being played out in society now. If indeed, as Jordan suggests, "sodomy" was invented to fill a gap left by Christendom's refusal of the "erotic"--even between two sexes, perhaps progress lies in our seeking a place for the erotic INSIDE the moral, instead of persisting in (often hypocritically) dichotomizing the two--something, in response to a previous reader's comments, Plato did NOT do (though the later Platonists did).