The Tomten was my first and favorite childhood book. Today, I read it to my daughter as her bedtime story. It is her favorite book also. This book is the perfect comforting bedtime story for children of all ages. The author magically weaves fantasy and security into the story of The Tomten. Reading The Tomten gives you that "safe in the bed between your parents" feeling we all remember.

The author, Austrid Lindgren, passed away today. The world has lost a timeless treasure. Thank you Mrs. Lindgren. You will be missed by generations.

I have loved this book for over 40 years. The copy I have was printed in Sweden a long time ago but I am very glad that this story is available as a nicely affordable paperback because it's such a sweet and comforting tale that lots of children will love. The beautiful illustrations capture perfectly the crisp, cold, snowy atmosphere of a still winter's night as the Tomten, a small spirit and guardian of a humble farm homestead goes about on his secret rounds doing his caretaker duties in his gentle, loving way. He whispers encouragment to the sleeping animals and children. He has seen many hundreds of winters and so he knows that "winters come and winters go, summers come and summers go" and the wheel of the year turns on and on. I encourage you to read this to children to help them feel safe and cozy and snug in their beds on a cold, dark winter's night...maybe try it this Winter Solstice and be sure to keep a look-out for tiny footprints in the snow around your home.

"The Tomten" by Astrid Lindgren is one of the most comforting books for children. The story remains with them through a lifetime. My 32 year old son and 35 year old nephew still would like to have "Tomten" books to read to the young ones in their families.

Unfinished Tales is some of Tolkien's unpublished writings. These writings includes the stories of Tour, Turin, Galadriel, the Stewards, Eorl and Rohan, the wizards and other aspects of middle earth. Christopher Tolkien also provides many footnotes that go into detail about the languages used by Tolkien. I have read six novels by Tolkien, and consider this to be weakest, but I still gave it five stars. Unfinished Tales contains information that could not included in the Silmarillion. Many of the stories add detail to those began in the Silmarillion.

If you are considering buying this book, you should know this is not like Tolkien's other books about middle earth. This is a collection of many stories and legends that do not neccessarily involve each other. In this work, there is no overall plot. If you, as I, love Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion, then Unfinished Tales provides more information and depth. If you are looking for a novel about another period in middle earth, then you might be disappointed. Additionally, the second story concerning Turin requires that you have read the Silmarillion.

However, this novel gives fans of Tolkien another chance to marvel in his genius and be amazed at his vast creation. I have just finished reading Unfinished Tales for a third time, and encourage anyone who enjoyed the Silmarillion to buy this book because more likely than not, you will also read it again.

In this "follow-up" to The Silmarillion and LOTR you find a literal treasure chest of knowledge concerning tales of Middle Earth. The Tale of the Children of Hurin is one of the best stories I have ever read, the essays on the Istari and the Druidain reveal two of the mysteries in LOTR, and The Battle of the Fords of Isen and Cirion and Eorl will give you good insight on the troubles of Gondor and Rohan in the Third Age. It also contains two rarely mentioned parts of LOTR; one being Aldarion and Erendis, a tale concerning a King of Numenor, and the other tells of the entire hunt for the Ring as seen by the enemy. I recommend this book to any Tolkien fan. You will read this book time and time again and simply revel in the quantity of information it gives you.

This collection of stories is just what the name implies--unfinished tales from both the continent of Middle-Earth and the island of Numenor. These tales are great and rich in detail, but one should be warned that they are not your everyday fantasy story. Both The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are complicated and not casually understood, but this book tops both of them in terms of complexity.

The story of the compilation of the book is this: Tolkien's son Christopher collected a mass of writings of his father--notes scrawled on scraps of paper, unpublished essays, even letters dealing with Middle-Earth. He edited and organized them, and prepared them for publication, and the result is this book. Because of this, many of the stories are missing detail and have some speculation, and all of them relate to other events related in Tolkien's other works.

Because of the relation to Tolkien's other work, this book should be read AFTER The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion, and should only be approached by those who want to seriously study and learn all there is to know of the world Tolkien created. For the casual reader this compilation may be somewhat tedious, for there is much detail lacking and it is assumed that you already have a knowledge of the history of Middle-Earth as outlined in Tolkien's other books.

For those who are serious about study, though, this book is a great addition to the already extensive world of JRR Tolkien. Ever wonder where Gandalf and the other wizards came from? Why Bilbo was chosen to accompany the Dwarves in The Hobbit? What the palantiri stones do, and where they came from? If so, then this is the book for you. You will find a collection of stories that will greatly enrich the lore of Middle-Earth (and Numenor).

For serious readers of Tolkien, this book is highly recommended. No one does fantasy like he does, and even these scattered fragments of narrative are enough to leave you begging for more.

This book, like so many others in the field of selling techniques, is probably useful for people new to selling but disappointing to those with more than a few years of experience. Ms. Sjodin's writing is competent, engaging and easy to read.
She illustrates her points with pertinent anecdotes that make the book engaging to read, but the content is definitely "lite," meaning both general and thin on substance. Although she has targeted her book for sales professionals, it may be less useful to sales reps than the many more more substantial books on public speaking and the principles of persuasion written for a broader audience. The points Ms. Sjodin makes about sales presentations are no different from tips presented in any low-level high-school or college speech class.
Importantly for new sales people, Ms. Sjodin makes only passing reference to the critically important differences between complex sales that require many presentations over a long period of time and simpler sales that are likely to be closed after a single presentation.
The book is another volume in a growing library of thinly veiled self-promotion vehicles that provide contact information on the back page in case you may want to hire the author as a consultant.
As a 15-year sales professional who has been closing multi-million dollar software deals for years, I read almost anything about selling techniques in the belief that even a nearly useless book can easily justify its cover price if it provides a single good idea. Even so, I wish I had not spent the money on this book.

I ordered this book from Amazon a few weeks ago and read it at sales meeting I just attended. The author has some excellent presentation ideas that I plan to use during my sales calls this season. Perfect for the new sales rep, I too, a long time salesperson, found this book to be an excellent addition to my library. I'm sure this book will be big seller.

This book was right on target. Definitely not a regular book on public speaking but rather a real world guide to building a persusive presentation.

I found it very clear, to the point and entertaining. You can tell that the author defintely practices what she preaches.

It is timely and relevent for what happens in the real world -- not a generic type text book. I really relate well to the examples and stories. The short outline and long outline samples provide a great "how to" guide and the presentation evaluation chart is a great tool to do a self evaluation or evaluate others presentations.

I highly recommend it...and bought extra copies to give to my associates! Great book for Sales People and even those who don't sell for a living....Sjodin is right "Everybody sells something".