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The sucess of Wal-Mart is actually based a few simple principles. Offering value to the customers, shareholders and associates and managing the business in a common sense way. Are you an entreperneur or want to be one? Invest in this book today! Not only will you gain valuable insight, but Mr. Walton is open about the hardships and obsticles he faced, especially in the early days. After reading this, I don't feel alone in my challenges as a small business man.
As for Bond himself, after being a rather predictable presence in Thunderball, he's back in full form as a full realized, interesting character in this novel. On Her Majesty's Secret Service was written after the release of Dr. No (Ursula Andress even makes a cameo appearance at the time) and one can sense that, with this book, Fleming is reestablishing his claim on the character. From the intentionally ludicrous evil scheme to the frequent excursions into Bond's head (revealing him hardly to be the ruthless, unflappable killer that filmgoers though him to be), Fleming comes across as a reenergized writer in this book -- determind to let all the new Bond fans out there know who is really in charge of their favorite secret agent's destiny. The result is one of the best of the original Bond books and one of the best spy thrillers I've read in a long time.
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The book begins by telling of the commanding rule of SMERSH. The leader of this organization is General Grubozaboyschikov. Also working is Colonel Rosa Klebb and director of planning Kronsteen, who treats real people as if they were chess pieces. The muscle of the group is a homicidal madman, who follows orders, and is in practically perfect physical shape, Donovan "Red" Grant. These evil minds have planned the perfect way to destroy the life and reputation of James Bond. Their plan is to lure 007 with the beatiful Tatiana Romanova and a Spektor cipher decoding machine as bait. Then Grant will meet up with them eventually and kill them both. However, SMERSH will take it a step further to lie to the public that Bond and Tatiana were in an affair, and that Bond commits suicide. It's a perfect plan.
Bond indeed does travel to Istanbul, believing that this girl wants to defect, and will give him the Spektor machine only if he personally helps her. 007 meets Darko Kerim, and a wonderful gypsy fight adds to the fun of the story. Bond and Tatiana travel on a train back to Europe, where he meets Red Grant and is told of the plan to kill him. An extremely bvrutal gun and fist fight breakes out between the men with 007 shooting Grant. 007 goes to Paris with Tatiana to catch Rosa Klebb in a meeting. However, Klebb releases a poison knife from her shoe and kicks 007 in the leg, before being taken away by the police. The story ends with 007 lying on the floor of the hotel room...
Perhaps the finest story of Ian Fleming, filled with the excitement and adventure to give this book it's reputation as on of the best 007 novels ever!
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This is the book I've used for years when reading this story to my own children, passing on Tasha Tudor and other illustrators. Why?
Although we can find the same poem and pay a lot more, with award winning illustrators, the illustrations provided by Douglas Gorsline are surely the best. They are quite colorful, and offer details little children love looking into...cats lie sleepily on the window sill, we see an overview of the town, the presents spilling from the open sack are intriguing and plentiful, and Jolly St. Nick is -- well, quite Jolly (as you can see by looking at the cover!)
The story is an "abridged version" - I'm not sure about other parents, but we read this on Christmas Eve, and we only have so much time and energy. Everything we remember from the classic poem by Clement Clarke Moore is in this version.
(From "'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse" to "He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle. But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,"HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!" In between we have everything, from the names of the eight tiny reindeer, to a belly that shakes like a bowl full of jelly, including dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky".
In other words, don't be scared off by 'abridged'!)
Perhaps a hardcover edition might be more appropriate if you're giving a gift (unless you're giving to more than one child), but this book is one of the best offers we've found!
A classic done simply and inexpensively!
The winter landscapes fill our senses and Tasha's own gray tabby cat and Welsh Corgi welcome us into this charming world.
Tasha's Santa that you will meet in this book has been portrayed as the poem describes him...a right jolly old elf. He's not that much larger than the corgi and his team really consists of eight "tiny" reindeer. His pointy ears and his Eskimo mukluks add to the delightful ambiance of the book. He dances with the toys and with the happy animals and we can truly believe it will be a happy Christmas for all.
I hope this book becomes a Christmas Eve tradition for many, many more families.
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I am half way through this book as I write. It is giving me clarity - I am touched, I understand now why I listened to my heart - Echoes in clay. . .
I read most of this book on a flight back home to Ireland. I just couldn't put it down. As cynical and routine that life sometimes appears each of us has a yearning to break the mold, break the routine and deep down find our way, our reason for being on this earth. O'Donohue reminds us regardless of who we are and what the material world values us at - our soul has a yearning to belong and live life spontaneously and to avoid the clutter of routine and the depression of complacency.
There are important lessons in this book on the areas of love, death, belonging, depression etc. Finding your significant other for example is something that happens through fate. Death should be celebrated for the life that it gave an individual and the journey it now presents to the soul. Depression should be addressed not through constant interactions with pyschologists, who yes help, but confronting that which caused the depression in the first place and absorbing it as a strength rather than a weakness.
I was in Ireland for a funeral, which though a sad event, i left feeling happy - This book reminded me of what a great gift life really is.
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BTW, there're even more De Selby in "The Dalkey Archive"!!! And don't read "The Poor Mouth" unless you're ready to read 100-odd pages about the boiled potato diet of an Irish family.
This book, along with Gravity's Rainbow, The Recognitions, Auto da Fe, The Burn, and a small handful of others, is a masterpiece of the 20th century - a book people will be reading while they pilot their spaceships toward a hard day's work on Venus or some such thing a kajillion years into the future. It is also one of the few satire's that doesn't succeed by denigrating us and one of the few post-modern works that does succeed by making us howl with laughter.
I dare anyone to read the first line and then put this book down. Undoubtedly the best first line in English literature (though Garcia Marquez's first line in 100 Years of Solitude is probably the best first line in all of literature).
I won't go on about plot twists - only urge fans of literature that expands understanding while entertaining to pick up this book by the greatest of Irish writers (you read right, THE greatest).
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This is one of those "easy-read" books that can have a very heavy impact on real life if one allows. It is not so much a book about spiritual disciplines as a guide book to a life of joy and transformation. My wife and I both have appreciated this book (which is quite something I might add). I will be reading it again.
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*Contents
*Acknowledgements
*Forward
1 Learning to Value a Dollar
2 Starting on a Dime
3 Bouncing Back
4 Swimming Upstream
5 Raising a Family
6 Recuiting the Team
7 Taking the Company Public
8 Rolling Out the Formula
9 Building the Partnership
10 Stepping Back
11 Creating a Culture
12 Making the Costumer Number One
13 Meeting the Competition
14 Expanding the Circles
15 Thinking Small
16 Giving Something Back
17 Running a Successful Company:Ten Rules That Worked for Me
18 Wanting to Leave a Legacy
* A Prostscript
* Co-Author's Note
* Index
Well those are the 18 chapters that Sam Walton himself and John Huey wrote. Its pretty much all about Sam Waltons life and his success behind it. Its a great book even if you don't like the guy or his stores. It also gives you good advice on making a business. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Wal-Mart and/or wants to know more about business.