Chang organizes his material within ten chapters whose titles correctly indicate the step-by-step process:

Why Passion Works in Organizations: A Timely Source for Timely Change

Putting the Passion Plan to Work: A Model for Organizational Success

Step One: Start from the Heart -- Passion as the Foundation of the Organization's Success

Step Two: Discover Core Passions -- Uncovering the Forces That Will Drive the Organization's Success

Step Three: Clarify Purpose -- Channeling the Organization's Passion Toward a Specific Goal

Step Four: Define Actions -- Planning for Passion-Inspired Change and Growth

Step Five: Perform with Passion -- Translating Passion into Performance in the Workplace and Marketplace

Step Six: Spread Excitement -- Sparking Commitment and Enthusiasm in Employees, Partners, and Customers

Step Seven: Stay the Course -- Keeping the Organization Centered on Passion

Realizing Profit: Moving on to Bigger and Better Things

Chang then includes an excellent resource, "Profiled Organizations", which consists of Web sites of various "superior organizations" which range from Ben & Jerry's to Wainwright Industries. I rate this book so highly because its coverage of material is eloquent, practical, comprehensive, and cohesive. It remains for each organization (regardless of its size or nature) to select, combine, modify, and then apply Chang's key ideas. Those who share my admiration of this book are urged to check out the aforementioned Built to Last as well as Real Change Leaders (Katzenbach and the RCL Team) and The Irresistible Growth Enterprise (Mitchell, Coles & Kahn). Chang invites feedback from his readers which can be directed to www.thepassionplan.com.

Lookin for a good book while browsing through the bookstore? Pick up this. I know that you'll read one sentence and then you'll be hooked on it through the entire two hundred something pages. It is a Dahl masterpiece. Dahl is my favorite writer of all time, but this is his best. Dahl is a unboring classical writer, even though he hasn't been elected as one.

I have read all of his books and short stories (except for the out of print ones) and they are the best. Even his adult ones I've read. But this, as I said, is the best. It is my prized posession. The only problem is that my copy is not a hardcover. Seven stories, with the style of a writer who has been wishing at a genie to be the best writer ever. The stories are: THE BOY WHO TALKED WITH ANIMALS, THE HITCHHIKER, THE SWAN, THE MILDENHALL TREASURE, THE WONDERFUL STORY OF HENRY SUGAR, LUCKY BREAK: HOW I BECAME A WRITER, and A PIECE OF CAKE. You must buy a copy of this!

Roald Dahl's fiction work in this novel is fantastic, as well as fascinating. This selection describes the story of James, a young boy and his trip across the Atlantic Ocean, on a huge peach! James has several encounters including a shark attack, being attacked by cloud men, and having a run in with a group of Cloud Men, who are painting a rainbow.

It all begins when James parents are violently scarfed down by two rhinos on the escape from the London Zoo, and poor James is sent to live with his Aunts, Spiker and Sponge. While working in a garden, James is approached by a fearful looking creature, much like a goblin, who gives him several special wormlike organisms in a plastic bag. With the right recipe, these organisms spell H-E-A-V-E-N for James, yet he drops them onto the ground...

As an extraordinary children's bedtime novel, I rate this book Five Stars.

"In fairy tales witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale. This is about REAL WITCHES. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs. That is why they are so hard to catch."

As with many of Dahl's best books, the main character must stop evil beings from doing something awfel to children! (For example: Matilda must use her powers to stop The Trenchbull from doing horrid things to her pupils in MATILDA, his last work. In THE BFG, Sophie must help The Big Friendly Giant rid the world of evil kid-eating giants.) And here, an English/Norweigen boy and his all-knowlegeable grandmother must stop all the witches in England from turning all the children into mice, even at their own personal expense.

There were only four minor things wrong with this book, and here I will describe them for you:

1. SMOKING--Grandmama smokes cigars regularly, especially when she is telling her grandson about the witches. While it does describe the cigars as discusting, this is not enough. There should not be smoking in a children's book, especially a Roald Dahl.

2. THE END--The end of this book sets up the plot for a sequel. (If you've read it, you know what I mean.) But, strangly enough, there is NO SEQUEL. This may enrage kids (and adults!) who, upon reading the ending, were anticapating finding the other book and reading about Grandmama and her grandson's further dealings with witches (or "vitches", as The Grand High Witch says in this book.)

3. NAMELESSNESS--The main character has no name! He is either refured to as "you", "I", or "grandson". Now that is disturbing!

4. BONDING--Grandmama and Grandson are bonded here like no grandmother and son could ever really bond (I think so, anyway). In this way it's a bit unrealistic. But then again, if you want realisim, you're thinking about the wrong book. Dahl's masterworks are always so zany and weird--that's what you come to expct from him if you're a loyal Dahl fan.

Well, there you have it. Except for those three things--great! This book is "a fast-moving, well-paced adventure that children will undoubtably love." (School Library Journal). While foes of magic (and any real witches who must keep their secrets secret) will surely despise this books exsistance, ALL US ROALD DAHL FANS SHOUT HOORAY! (adapted from the last line on page 87).

The Cunning Man is an examination of the life of a doctor, told by himself. Asked to recall the story of the strange death of Father Ninian Hobbes which he witnessed, he recounts his past; his childhood, his schooling, the work of his profession, the influences that have made him who he is. In doing so, he shares with us his observations on the nature of life, love, art, illness, friendship, and many other things. Davies lets us have a picture of life, complete with accomplishments and disappointments, dreams and dreams undone, and makes it real and interesting and intelligent. I can understand the appeal he has for his fans and I will be reading more of Davies' books soon.

Davies' narrator is Dr. Jonathan Hullah, a physician of unusual diagnostic skills and adroit healing powers. He is known as the cunning man, a term hearkening back to English village life in which a sort of village know-all could do a little of everything, from setting broken bones to doctoring horses. He was the wizard of folk tradition, the cunning man. The Cunning Man is Dr. Hullah's fascinating reminiscence of life, from boyhood apprenticeship with an old Indian healer to his service in the medical corps during World War II, then on to his unusual medical practice (which included such orthodox measures as having his patients strip off their clothes and lay on an exam table while he sniffed them.) Hullah narrates this while at the same time conducting a search into the mysterious death of his parish priest while saying mass. This combination memoir/mystery novel was, as I said earlier, the most pleasurable book I read in 2000. If the chief end of a novel is entertainment, then this book succeeded admirably.