Not at all your typical business book, but every bit the truth about the corporate world that I have experienced. As I became drawn in by the story, as told through the eyes and thoughts of the characters, I relived my own personal nightmares of ineffective management. But their outcome was much more pleasant, and entirely plausible. Judging by the many positive comments of some very highly placed executives, it appears that Enterprise Medicine is for real. By joining together and focusing on the possibilities, they made their vision a reality through teamwork, mutual support and encouragement - along with a good dose of flexibility. I honestly dream of working at a place like that! The employees were empowered and took ownership of their future - and the future of their company. I can think of quite a few companies who are ailing right now. They have the potential to become great again, but I think they could use a good dose of "The Cure" to get them back on their feet!

"The Cure" arrived on Friday afternoon, and I couldn't put it down. I am glad I had a free weekend to read it because it is a page-turner. I never thought a business book could be so entertaining and informative at the same time. This is really a business novel, so there is a story (a compelling one) with characters (many you will recognize from your own business).

It tells the story of company that faces many challenges - the biggest of which is its own culture. What's different about this book is it tells you how to change that troubled culture into positive energy that will drive the business towards success.

This is a must read for those struggling with the cultural issues facing so many businesses.

I loved this book. It really applied to my business and I can already see how it will improve how we do business. I highly recommend!

Robin Keuneke's comprehensive and scientifically based book, TOTAL BREAST HEALTH, is well organized and full of nutritional information for today's health-conscious women. The recipes included are flavorful and, based on scientific data, may very well help to prevent breast cancer. Robin has taken a difficult scientific topic, made it easy to understand and fascinating to read. I highly recommend this book for both women and men who want to take cahrge of their health.

Robin Keuneke has saved me a lot of valuable time by writing an excellent book, "Total Breast Health." As a physician who practices alternative medicine, I spend a great deal of time educating patients about the causes and prevention of diseases as well as giving them safe, natural approaches to alleviate their ailments. Now I can also refer them to this well-balanced, highly-informative and practical book. It's important to know that this book is not for women only. I believe that the underlying concepts and principles in "Total Breast Health" can be applied to other medical problems as well, such as prostate cancer and heart disease, to name a few. I believe that anybody who is interested in getting the cutting edge information on how to stay healthy should read this book. -- Alan R. Cohen, M.D., P.C. (Milford, CT)

Robin Keuneke's "Total Breast Health" is a model for all nutrition books. Combine its easy-to-read, well-referenced, and organized format with one of the nation's most important preventable diseases, breast cancer, and you have a deserved best seller. Keuneke's exploration into fascinating and controversial areas while bringing a clear light without judgmental tone is a hallmark of this book. Of particular interest to many will be the depth that Keuneke has written about dietary fat and its relationship with disease. While this is a complex subject, it is elucidated better through an interview format than any I have read before. As interesting as Keuneke's section is on dietary fat, she is able to cover many breast health subjects with as much acumen. Of great interest are the chapters, 'The Hidden Power of Plant Foods' and 'Herbs, Spices, and Mushrooms.' Simply said, if you want to promote not just breast health but total vitality, read Keuneke's book and follow her simple and delicious recipes. -- Paul Schulick, author of "Ginger: Common Spice and Wonder Drug"

For those of you that read Zapp! this book continues on the same idea. It's in parable form, which makes it easy to read and the points made are on target.

Helped me tremendously when I became a manager. How to tell people what needs to be done and let them figure out how to do it. Learn while following a story. You don't even realize you're learning all the techniques because the story is so fun to read.

Facing the constant threat of Dragons attacking the village, and encountering a mysterious gloomy fog each and every workday, was the reality for the people of Lamron. In order to preserve the village, and bring some meaning to the everyday work experience, change had to happen.

Heroz is a tale of a fictional village, of fictional characters facing problems common to the daily grind of work. Throughout the book, the people working in the arrow factory strive to determine and achieve the goal of the business, to make money and provide the knights charged with slaying the dragons, the quality arrows they need. Throughout the book, the factory workers and management personnel learn to work together, to enhance teamwork and motivation, and experience the enhanced ZAPP! gained by working together.

Heroz is a breeze to read, easy to identify with, especially if you experience the fog that rolls in the workplace at the beginning of the day, and lifts completely only after the last person has gone home. It's entertaining and humorous. You'll learn spells to use in all different situations, and upon completion of the book, will have them all compiled in the "Zapp! Wizard's Spell Book", conveniently tucked in at the conclusion of the novel.

Amy Barzach's true story of overcoming the terrible tragedy of the death of her 9 month old son is both heartwrenching and inspiring. Amy's son Johnathan is diagnosed with the debilitating disease Multiple Sclerosis at a young age. She manages to channel her grief into a project: playgrounds accessible to children of all abilities. Amy copes with her feelings by making a difference in the lives of countless children. This book is truly inspirational and should be on everyone's reading list.

The journey that Amy Barzach took from the diagnosis of her son, Jonathan, to his death at 9 months and thru the grief that followed is touching, beautiful and inspiring.
I give this book to friends who are experiencing a loss as a source of comfort, and a source of courage. Amy's story is told in such a way that all who read it can empathise with, and hopefully emulate, her ability to celebrate life.

This beautiful book will be a prized addition to my collection. The photos are breathtaking. Each section dedicated to a different perennial tells the reader how to grow it, how to propagate it, where the perennial should be planted and when, and what other flowers would be great companions to the highlighted plant. Mr. Cox has divided the plants into different categories, some of which include seasonal blooming, height ranges, color groups, location (sunny/shady), and even those that are fragrant and attract hummers and butterflies. I will definitely add Mr. Cox's other books to my wishlist!

Being a beginning gardener, I didn't know where to start. Jeff Cox's book "Perennial All Stars" brought it all together for me. Not only does he recommend trouble free perennials, but he even cross references them in his "Perennial Plant Finder" by flower color, bloom season, long bloomers, short, tall, cold climates, warm climates, full sun, full shade, and many, many more categories. He even has finder sections for perennials that attract butterflies and another for attracting hummingbirds.

Each perennial all star has two pages dedicated it to it with details on growing it, propagating it, the right site for it, where to buy it, and even co-stars for it!

Today I have a beautiful trouble-free garden full of perennial all stars recommended by Jeff Cox and this book. It is the best book your money can buy.

As a novice gardener, I found this book to be the best of the 10 or so I've looked at to educate myself. Fantastically easy to use. The best feature: the many lists that cover categories such as "Best for Shade," "Fragrant Perennials," etc. Having plants listed in each category helped me narrow down the perennials that made the most sense for the constraints of my yard. In addition, it was great to have a photo of every flower in the book (most books DON'T do this) and the information included in each perennial's profile was very helpful and concise. I could learn, at a glance, the best planting/siting conditions and also get an idea of companion plants to use. I wish more flower & plant books were organized the same way this book is organized and formatted!!

One improvement for this book in the next edition: put the summary info from the "Spotlight" section on a computer-readable file so that readers can electronically arrange and sort their perennial choices by color, season of bloom, etc...

Cox's "From Vines to Wines" is probably one of the best introductions to backyard grape growing and basement winemaking available today. From selecting vine stock to harvesting the crop, the first half of the book covers all the bases for grape growing. The second half is dedicated to winemaking, from first establishing what type of wine you want to create to labeling the bottles. This book is definitely oriented towards the hobbyist - readers with designs for a large vineyard (1+ acres) will want to start with this book but move on to more detailed texts. Personally, I found the section on site selection and soil analysis a little thin - fine if you're limited to the space on hand (your backyard), but lacking if you want to buy acreage dedicated to a vineyard. No data was provided on small scale commercial operations or basic vineyard economics. Cox's winemaking chapters are probably the best I've seen. He goes through the whole process and highlights potential trouble areas. Overall, a very good book for the hobbyist.

Considering I live in Las Vegas, growing grapes is out of the question or is it? He does not mention any grape varietals that I could plant in my region. Other than growing the vines I loved all the info on fermenting and making the wine. I have already ordered equipment from places that he recommended in his book. Making wine is not going to be as exspensive as I thaught. After writing a few letters to retailers, you will be ready to roll with all your equipment. You must have an understanding of wine to understand all the terminalegy. Great book, lots of info, and a little humor about how he gets off watching his wife stomp the grapes. I wont be stomping grapes but i will be fermenting grape juice, thank you.

The new revision is an excellent book for anyone putting in a new vineyard, or thinking about winemaking. The two most certainly go hand in hand, however, if you are just interested in improving your knowledge of growing grapes, then it provides much very usefull information. On the other hand, if you are a new or aspiring winemaker, the section on making wine is filled with up to date, smart information, and can also be a stand alone reference to winemaking. By combining the two related fields, grape growing (specifically for winegrapes), and winemaking the winemaker will better understand what he should be looking for in winegrapes for his resulting wine. Conversely, the grape grower will have an understanding of how to grow his grapes to achieve the best possible product for the winemaker. If you are a grower of French Hybrid grapes, or the newer selection of American crosses from Elmer Swenson, David MacGregor, the University of Minnesota, New York Experiment Station named and numbered varieties, et al, then you do NOT want to pass up this book. A.J. Winkler's book "General Viticulture" is a bit outdated and a good revision would help... this one is right on the money.

Goldratt carefully combines strategy and fiction into his book, The Goal, providing a resource no manufacturing manager should miss. The story follows Alex Rogo as he races to improve profitability at his plant while also saving his rocky marriage. Goldratt employs a unique writing style, weaving the basic concepts of manufacturing strategy directly into the narrative. The Goal is a quick read that both entertains and informs.

How often is a plant manager asked to "improve efficiency" by keeping the assembly line flowing, reducing employee downtime, and increasing inventory stockpiles? Far too often, according to Goldratt, who convincingly proves that 'bottleneck' activities are the ultimate constraint in a manufacturing system. Likening bottlenecks to the slowest member of a hiking group, he contends a manufacturing line can only move as fast as its slowest activity - a bottleneck activity. Poor production planning can result in an inventory pileup in front of a bottleneck activity. Activities circumventing the bottleneck cause inventory problems in assembly and are similarly constrained by market demand. The solution is to pull inventory through the bottleneck activities according to this demand, while utilizing non-bottleneck activities as necessary. Idle time at non-bottlenecks is perfectly acceptable.

Goldratt also examines the critical flaw of cost accounting systems - reducing total product costs do not simply correlate to higher profits. In many manufacturing organizations, performance measures are based upon efficiencies and variances, rather than bottom-line impact. Therefore, the goal of management (make more money) is misaligned with that of the front-line worker (increase efficiency).

They are simple, yet often forgotten lessons. What is the GOAL of a business? It is simply to make more money, and any action you take towards that goal is a good decision. Any action taking you away from that goal is a poor decision. Goldratt makes the distinction clear both in a personal and professional context. He concludes his discussion by asking the reader to consider how such action can successfully be implemented across an organization. Without providing a definitive answer, he implores the reader to examine the lessons learned throughout his writing - seek and ye shall find.

One word of warning can be drawn from the narrative - many managers will be tempted to duplicate the examples without regard for the process leading to those conclusions. Many will consider their own organization a "special case" to which these lessons do not apply. Such criticism is clearly unfounded; the true lesson of The Goal is that change is implemented through a process of ongoing improvement specific to each organization. The framework outlined through the narrative is broad, providing the fundamentals necessary to drill down into the core problems plaguing manufacturing profitability.

For successfully authoring an entertaining and informative composition, based upon the Socratic method, Goldratt deserves high praise.

I read this book several years ago because it was "recommended reading" by a VP of a company where I used to work. The ideas are not necessarily new, they are very much common sense but not practiced enough. The approach of a novel makes this read enjoyable while learning something at the same time. Bottlenecks or "Herbies" (constraints) are vital to identify.

Back in Chemical Engineering school, we often talked about "rate-determining steps" of a chemical reaction. It's a similar idea in maximizing production rates. In that case it had to do with understanding the sequential steps of a chemical reaction to determine which step was so much slower than the other steps that it determined the overall rate. Once you understand what step controls the reaction rate, you are then able to do something to increase the reaction rate with the end result of higher throughput, smaller equipment, lowered cost, etc. I found after really learning that datum in school, I looked at non-chemical processes in a similar way with the net effect of boosting rates in many endeavors. You could even apply this to your own life, much like the novel shows the effects of constraints on a camping trip. It can open a door to improvement and even optimization.

Similar to the "rate-determining step" idea, this book should help you see manufacturing processes in a different way by identifying the real constraints that determine the overall rate of production. Once you know what the constraints are, you are then able to act.

It's useful, applicable knowledge at a next-to-nothing cost.

As for skipping this book and jumping right into six-sigma, in my opinion that is BAD advice. They are not the same thing. They share the same goal: improvement. So both have merit.

One final note: the book is a quick read.

This book is the ultimate paradox - a "business novel", a love story in fact. It is the first in Goldratt's series following Alex Rogo, and how he turns his manufacturing plant around through some relatively simple (though not necessarily easy) principles. It is through this book that Goldratt introduces the reader to his Theory of Constraints, which should rank among the top five business concepts of the 20th century (including, for example, six sigma and the assembly line).

Not in a manufacturing business? This book is set in a manufacturing plant, but the concepts apply broadly. I currently work in a service business, with no tangible products whatsoever, and the keys of this book are as useful here as anywhere.

This book is engaging and easy to read, but it's not written to the lowest common denominator. It's for people who want to improve the way their business is run, no matter what level they are - though obviously, the higher you are, the bigger impact you can have.

I read this book for the first time in college, and have reread it every two or three years since. It belongs in the company of such business and self-help classics as Seven Habits, See You at the Top, One Minute Manager, and Win Friends/Influence People. Perhaps the highest recommendation I can give this book is that I have bought it and given it as a gift, out of my own pocket, to about half a dozen different people in the company I have worked for over the last six years - all VPs, SVPs, and EVPs. I figure, if they apply the principles, it's ultimately going to make the company (and me) more successful. All of them have commented positively on the book, and some have in turn passed it along.

Whether you are just starting out in business, or have already attained a high level and want to broaden (and brighten) your horizons, this is a must-read that will positively impact your business, and your life.

After returning from Scotland, I'm glad I took the time to view this video beforehand. Not only was it interesting from a historical standpoint, but it helped me make choices about sites I wanted to see, such as Blair Castle.

Anyone planning to tour Scotland will likely find something of interest in this video. I recommend it for any future traveler.

While some English renderings of Kabbalah are controversial for wavering from the original intent of the Kabbalistic masters, this book paradoxically suffers from being too faithful and literal. As in word-to-word Hebrew-to-English literal as could be generated by software. By using such exact translations, Berg has created a new English jargon in which standard Kabbalistic terms are replaced by neologisms. Thus Berg's terminology is unrecognizable to secular and religious scholars alike.Students of this book may even get the bad rap of being "cultish" for speaking in such idiosyncrasies. Berg is innoculated from any taint of heterodoxy or innovation; his loyalty to his teacher Rav Ashlag is to be commended. But the unintended consequence of his approach is to create a private code for a few initiates.