This is a wonderful resource for anyone who enjoys reading about ancient Mesopotamia. No part of Mesopotamian religion that I could think of was not covered, and quite a lot that I did not know was covered. The reach of this book is truly breathtaking! I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the religion of ancient Mesopotamia.

In the nicest possible sense, this book isn't exactly what the title claims. All to often discussions of change management tend to concentrate on the people side of things and ignore the less glamerous topics such as re-tooling, revised administrative and reporting procedures and so on.
So, just to keep the record straight, this book is primarily concerned with the personnel aspects of change, with all other aspects of the overall process taking a very secondary part in the proceedings.

And now, on with the review:

One of the ways I judge a book like this is by the number of highlights I've made (makes it so much easier to refer back to the key points).
Sometimes I'll go through an entire book and be lucky to have half a dozen highlighted passage.

NOT here, though.

Without a hint of exaggeration I found numerous points worth highlighting in every one of the eight reprinted articles.

Of course this is not entirely surprising given the list of contributors, which includes such "leaders of the pack" as John Cotter ("Leading Change"), Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos ("The Reinvention Roller Coaster"), and Jerry Porras (Building Your Company's Vision").

I'd also like to commend the article "Managing Change : The Art of Balancing", by Jeanie Daniel Duck, (which ended up with highlighting on nearly every page!).

So, whilst the material is not exactly new (the various items appeared in the Harvard Business Review between 1992 and 1998), I'd suggest this well-chosen set of articles is as important now as when the articles were first published.

There are articles from such leading authorities on change management as John Kotter (Leading Change), Paul Strebel, and more. Each article opens with an executive summary, helping you decide if you want to tackle that article then and there, or move on to another that fits your interests of the moment.

Sooner or later, change is about people altering the status quo, and those in charge often turn a blind eye to the fact that leadership is singularly the most important issue when an organization has to implement major changes. This is followed closely by teamwork, of which there won't be any without leadership.

Inside the covers you'll find the collected knowledge, opinions and counsel of those executives and consultants who have dealt with change at all levels. If your schedule doesn't permit you to leisurely meander through hundreds of pages to find a few workable ideas upon which to build some change solutions, then this collection should be highly recommended for you.

Sexual morays and British stereo type stuffiness are thrown out the window as the two find themselves trapped in the Soviet Union with the police on Paul Hussey's trail. On the boat ride over his American wife, Belinda, becomes sick and finds herself hospitalized for a terrible rash.

"Honey for the Bears" satirizes the secret capitalist desires of the Soviet people with a schizophrenic jump between their urges for Western pleasures and at the same time a contempt for the capitalist pigs that cannot even take care of their own people.

Sharp, witty and insightful, Burgess again succeeds in bringing together a dark twisted world that strongly resembles our own. As always, Burgess' mastery of linguistics shines through as he plays games with language and dialects: thus giving his characters a sense of reality.

It was excellent. Burgess is really talented. Unlike so many other books, this one never gets boring, not even for a second. Taking a journey of self exploration with Paul could not possibly be more entertaining, funny, exciting or meaningful than Burgess makes it. You'll enjoy this book if you like a well constructed plot and interesting story line. This was not in any way Russian babble not worth reading unless Russian yourself. (I'm not Russian, never have been to Russia, and don't know any of the Russian language. I will go even furthur to say that you most certainly don't have to have a great interest in Russia to enjoy this book!) At the risk of sounding cliche, this is just one of those books that entertains you the whole way through.

It's not complete candy though: Burgess used Russian throughout this book, making it a little diffult to understand at times. I had to reread a few parts, but it wasn't a chore at all, and surprisingly, did not bother me. Everything comes together at the end, although is not always what you expect. Delightful. I'm surprised this wasn't made into a movie.

The author tells us that Don Giovanni was inspired by none other than Casanova, himself, who set up a meeting with Mozart in a Prague coffeehouse in an attempt to "sell" the great composer on the idea of basing an opera around the figure of Don Juan. That part is factual...I think. That and the characters, dates and delays in staging the opera. The rest of this marvelous book centers around imagined happenings, all contrived to urge Mozart to produce and bring Don Giovanni to fruition.

There are three main characters in this book: Mozart, of course, Casanova, and Lorenzo da Ponte, Mozart's long suffering librettist. All three main characters are wonderfully drawn, but just as wonderfully drawn are the "minor" characters, who really aren't so minor at all.

One of the best of these "minor" characters is Mozart's wife, Constanze, or "Stanzi," as Mozart called her. Stanzi had a few secrets of her own to prod Mozart to work and she often had use them.

Josefa Dusek, the singer, and her husband make appearances in the novel when they host the elaborate parties Mozart loved to attend. The party the night before the opera's premier is especially memorable. Opera lovers will recognize the garden scene in Act Four of The Marriage of Figaro, but this only adds to the whimsy of the book rather than detracting from it. This party night is a night of high tension as well as fun, for Mozart has yet to finish the opera's Overture and more than one character is more than a little anxious.

Even the Marquis de Sade manages to make an appearance, of sorts, in this book. Locked away in Paris, he answers a letter from Casanova and gives his own advice on living a life totally without limits. You can imagine what that advice might consist of. If anything in this book can be construed as being "over the top," it is this, but then Mozart was a genius who was, much of the time, "over the top," himself. I think it is completely within the character of the book to include de Sade and I enjoyed it.

Although Mozart does take center stage in this novel, as he should, he gets stiff competition from Casanova. In his sixties at the time, Casanova may have slowed down a bit, but he is still quite thoroughly a rake. Beautiful women seem to abound in Prague and Casanova seems to make it his quest to know them all, or most of them at least, and to let others know the details of his conquests.

I'm an eastern European and I've spent many happy days and nights in Prague. I loved Rudel's detail of Prague city life as well as his detail of the premier, itself. The details are, in large part, what make this book so charming.

The best thing about this book, however, is the wonderful and loving portrait it paints of Mozart, himself. Rudel has managed to capture Mozart in all his genius and all his whimsy. We see him as he no doubt was...an extraordinary composer, the likes of which the world will never see again, and a man who took tremendous joy in the simple pleasure of life.

This is a gorgeous and fun book, but I don't think it's right for everyone, or even the majority of readers. I do think one has to be a fan of Mozart or of opera to obtain the maximum enjoyment from "Imagining Don Giovanni." If you're an opera fan, like I am, I would certainly recommend this book. While it might not stay with you forever, it will certainly entertain you for a few hours and make your life more pleasant. And, it just might leave you wanting more of Mozart.

Did you ever pick up the phone when your child was playing quietly? You know what happens, right? Your child suddenly needs your assistance THIS MINUTE and will make it impossible for you to have a conversation. The same thing happens if you get a visitor or run into someone when your child was otherwise perfectly happy. Anthony Wolf tells you why your child does this. And better yet, he tells you what you can do to STOP this!

While implementing his strategy takes some self-control, it is not difficult, and there isn't a lot to remember. The important thing is to be consistent and use his approach whenever you deal with tantrums or interruptions. He calls this approach Robo-Parent. When it's clear that the child is just trying to keep you hooked into an argument, you stop talking and remove the child to his room. At our house we just say "Goodbye." It's kind of like a time-out in that it resets everyone's mood, but there's no clock. The child can come back whenever he's ready to behave. Usually my kids just go to their room and come right back out. It's not a punishment.

In fact Wolf clearly disapproves of punishing children, because he says shaming and hurting is counter-productive. Think about an abusive boss you had and how eager you were to do your best with that behavior. That's how your kids feel too. This approach leads to better feelings for everyone.

Wolf has another book out called _Secrets of Parenting_ which is mostly taken from this book. Buy one or the other as there is a tremendous amount of overlap. Both are appropriate in handling children between 2 and 12; he has another book on dealing with teenagers.