The editor has conveniently arranged TR's missives by topic. The reader will find our most energetic president holding forth on politics, foreign affairs, voting, citizenship, family, children, motherhood, Lincoln, virtue, boxing, war, and himself among the categories. In short, this sampling covers many of Roosevelt's incredibly varied interests.

Because the topics are so varied, this collection will serve to give those not well aquainted with TR a good taste for the man's energy, passions and world views. For those of us who are TRphiles, this book is a treasure trove, for it calls forth in many ways the truly unique aspects that serve to make Roosevelt perhaps the most "American" of Americans.

Also included are books by TR, quotes about him, his thoughts on the Rough Riders as well as his stirring and famous "...In the Arena" speech.

An inspiring little tome handsomely presented.

Not since: MORNINGS ON HORSEBACK have I run across a book as interesting as this one.

ENJOY!

While this book will probably be of immediate interest to business managers, the refreshing thing about Paul Harmon's new book is that it speaks clearly to both IT and business camps in plain language. It reflects the need to integrate business and IT thinking. As such it is also a must read for both business facing IT people and for those key individuals who are breaking the conventional barriers between business and IT.

The book contains a wealth of timely advice. While it's range is wide and impressive, it is structured for ease of information access. This means that readers can quickly use the book for reference. Enjoy!

In hindsight, I wish I'd been able to read Paul Harmon's Business Process Change a year ago. Creating the team and its functions would have been much simpler, direct, and less time-consuming. Based on our experiences in a process architecture team in a $75B IT company, I see the book having major value to at least three audiences I deal with daily. First, the book is for managers considering major business change. It will provide a blueprint to why they might be changing (Part 1 - Process Management), specific ways they might change (Part IV - Patterns section), and if/when they use external consultants, a way to specify with formidable detail what they're expecting to receive (Part II - Modeling, and Part III - Managing).

Second, it is for IT people who are seeking to regain architectural and analytic skills, which ERP and packaged workflow may have supplanted. This book provides both modern idioms for approaching business with what might be termed 'object-oriented' analysis (Part II - Modeling), as well as a summary of the field of implementation techniques (Part V - Automation and Part VI - E-Business).

Third, for the consulting function to both IT and business, it provides a well-rounded blueprint for marketing (value propositions), tools, techniques, and implementation approaches. I cannot imagine a consultative team which doesn't have virtually all the elements of Paul's book as part of their basic operations. Certainly, no state-of-the-art team would want to be without them.

For the futurists (which I don't deal with daily), the book provides an implicit narrative of how the nature of business is changing (I myself feel we're on the edge of a dramatic change in business structure.) It begins with the disappearance of organizational models - which in the book are artifacts of a process model - and the focus on quantifiable outcomes for transactions (I'm thrown back to hierarchy-disrupting transactional analysis from the '70s). It continues by looking at virtual business structures - the 'extended supply chain' example which Paul walks through -- a linking together of transactions. And it ends by building IT - automation -- around process elements instead of traditional 'systems' architecture. Traditional labels, capsules, and hierarchies change and shift, and I see the book in a more 'future perfect' tense.

As a study of the mind of a top-notch musician, the writer has done a superb job of capturing an intimate portrait of how Casals thought about music, and the production of musical performance. Through a series of well-organised chapters, the reader feels as if he/she is undergoing a masterclass with Casals: diminuendo, stress, meter, mythology, feeling . . . by revealing Casals as a philosopher of orchestration, this book shows the microscope of Casals mind when viewing a score. We benefit from his incomparable insights, spoken off like night-time chat, and we learn from his conductor's sensibilities, like we're sitting in the string section in front of him.

This book is invaluable to musicians--of an instrument--composers, conductors, and amateur enthusiasts such as myself who'd like to experience the workings of a keen sense and ear in a genius like Casals.

This book, like few others, have deeply enriched my understanding of music--as a thing of time, shape, and expression.

Most musicians know of Casals the cellist. Unknown to many, his conducting career spans a period of over sixty-five years. During his career as a conductor, rehearsals clearly revealed his ideas about music interpretation. The text records the oral statements and the aural interpretations made by Casals during his rehearsals.

Five chapters divide the text with each chapter representing the main areas of Casals' interpretive ideas. The last chapter serves as an application of the elements of interpretation combined to produce a performance. Every chapter includes printed music excepts, detailed notations of performance practice, insightful commentary from the author, and compelling statements made by Casals during the rehearsal of a particular passage. Topic areas covered in the chapters include The First Principal, Finding the Design, Diction for Instrumentalists, Perceiving Time Relationships, Insights for String Players, Casals and Bach, and A Casals Rehearsal: the Pastoral Symphony.

A unique aspect of Blum's book, the reader is encouraged to study and become involved in every music example. The music examples are excerpts from his performances on the cello, lessons with cello students, and rehearsals with the orchestra. Transposed to the key of C for easy reading, all excerpts are in treble or bass clefs. They have notated phrases, articulations, dynamic nuances, and other stylistic attributes illustrating the points of Casals' concepts. Blum tastefully adds Casals' vocal statements to enhance the music examples, "Casals cried out, Here is the anguish! - Let it sing at the top of the phrase!"

David Blum's book is well written and informative. The music examples with Casals' statements allow the reader to easily and quickly gasp the details of interpretation. This scholarly book with practical applications and insights is invaluable.

Since then I've use the book several other times with other couples and have given it as an engagement gift several times.

The final chapter of this wonderful book is a highly informative look at the changes New Mexico experienced as it changed over the years. I must also mention that Jean-Paul Tibbles' lovely illustrations are an excellent addition to the story.

This final book in the Josefina story is every bit as wonderful as the first one, and definitely maintains the American Girls' tradition of excellence. The story is exciting and entertaining, and I especially liked how the author wove Josefina's faith into it, making it appear the natural part of her life that it would have been. My daughter and I loved this book, and we both recommend it to you and your daughter.