This book includes a brief individual summary of each of the following low carb plans:
the Atkins diet
the Carbohydrate Addict's Diet
the Zone
Sugar Busters!
Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution
Protein Power
The Schwarzbein Principle
Neanderthin
Thin forGood

The Secret to Low Carb Success also provides this summary in the form of a chart, allowing you to compare all of the plans side-by-side. You can reference subjects like caffeine on another comparison chart and see what each of the individual author's opinions is on a given subject.

One of the most helpful sections of this book and will no doubt be Chapter 2, "Know What to Expect." This is where you get the real nitty-gritty -- the lowdown on how much weight you can really expect to lose on a typical low carbohydrate plan, the definition of a true stall and plateau versus the typical periods of slow or no loss that plague all of us, and a discussion of "whooshes" as well as "set points" and "natural body weights" that are difficult to move beyond. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of how muscle growth masks fat loss, and how, as we all know, "scales are for fish".

The book goes on to discuss how water retention masks fat loss. She explains it very well: since a pint is a pound the world around, the weight of the water that we drink and retain fluctuates daily.

Another very valuable section has been devoted to the subject of hidden carbs. Very few of the official diet plan books even touch upon this so-important subject. This book includes images of actual nutritional labels, and it drives this important point home very well.

The author has cleverly combined the advice of many successful dieters into one easy-to-read narrative. Bravo, Laura Richard!

Although the book refers to concepts that many associate with spiritual beliefs, Ms. Day encourages you to see the book as independent of any particular religion or set of spiritual beliefs. She also says that it is just fine to reframe her words here to fit into your own religious or spiritual beliefs.

The book's key point is that "what you perceive, what you conceive, and what you create are one . . . ."

The concept is developed in three parts: initiation ("In your initiation, you discover your one true wish and put it into the language of The Circle."), apprenticeship, and mastery. These three parts are broken in turn into a total of nine steps:

(1) Intention -- You pick a single wish that is "specific, positive, passionate, and present."

(2) Embodiment -- You create "reality" tales and songs, and meditate in ways that make the wish more real to yourself.

(3) Ritual -- You follow new rituals that you create to help you achieve your wish and eliminate old habits that would undermine you.

(4) Finding Luck (or Synchronicity) -- You learn to look for meaningful coincidences and tap into them. Often, opportunity will look like a problem, a setback, or a distraction. Pay attention!

(5) Make Room for Your Wish -- "Open your hand and let go of things that you have onto out of habit for years . . . ."

(6) Achieve Coherence -- Eliminate overt cross-purposes that pull you away from your wish.

(7) Eliminate External Roadblocks -- See each one as an "inspiring challenge" that brings you closer to achieving your wish.

(8) Eliminate Subconscious Roadblocks -- Let go of unconscious and outdated wishes, and hidden agendas. In attempting to deal with these other intentions, you may realize that your wish needs to be changed to better reflect what you really want.

(9) Create and Expand a Community to Support You -- "Give what you have. Ask for what you need."

The epilogue is especially good at bringing these ideas together. I especially liked the argument that both the past and the future exist now in the present. By re-examining the past in the present, you can give the past new meaning that can power the future fulfillment of your wish.

Each of the nine steps contains assignments to help you apply the book's thinking more accurately. I found these assignments to be very brief, but highly effective.

As I read the book, I applied its process to one of my favorite wishes. What I realized from this experience is that I have some issues in step 8 that I need to deal with. That was a very helpful insight to me. Prior to reading this book, I would not have realized all of the inner conflicts that I need to resolve before I can make the fullest progress. For me, that was a highly beneficial realization. I have no way of knowing what you will learn, but I suspect that you will gain value from seeing new issues that you can deal with in at least one area.

If the book's main strength is that it explains the psychological states of implementing intention very well, the book's main weakness is that it does not explain all of its concepts. You are left hanging with some of the same statements that bother people who read Napoleon Hill. For example, you are a "sender and receiver." I take that to mean that we share our intentions with people, and we receive questions, suggestions, and support that we must be ready to notice and employ. In the context of the way the concept is used, you feel like some sort of metaphysics is being described without any detail or support.

Anyone who wants to create more coherence in their life will find this book to be very valuable, if they do the assignments in a conscientious way.

After you begin to experience mastery in applying The Circle, think about how you could introduce this information to others in ways that will make them more effective in achieving their deepest wishes. After they are having success, ask them how you can build your mastery to a higher level.

Pick worthy goals, and commit to them with integrity!

Through the circle I have found an excellent job in a bad economy, a wonderful man with similiar interests and the hidden power that we all possess to have what makes us happy and to live life in true and ultimate joy.

Read this book, buy this book, give it to your friends and families and know that life has much happiness in store for you. All you have to do is reach out and select it!

In the first part of the book Laura Carlson discusses the five stages of grief, the five stages of healing, memorial services and memorializing your pet. Throughout the book one thing stands out, that it is okay to grieve over the loss of a pet and there are ways to work through the grief.

The second part of the book contains many letters from pet owners who have lost a pet. The letters are written to the pets and show the deep emotions involved with the loss of a loyal companion. Reading the many letters one comes to realize the strength of the bond between many pet owners and their pets and the depth of grief that many go through. Recommended for those going through such a loss as it offers constructive methods of working through the loss and validation of their feelings.

I just re-read ORDINARY RESURRECTIONS and wanted to update my review....the book is just wonderful....and full of such hope!

Like other reviewers, I heard Mr. Kozol's interview on National Public Radio during my commute home and was completely enchanted by his stories of Pineapple and her friends in Mott Haven.

I ordered the book from amamzon.com and devoured it in two sittings.

I cannot remember when a book moved me as much as this one. I'm not sure what gifts God gave Jonathan Kozol, but one of them is true compassion and insight without judgment or pretense.

I was continually amazed, as was Kozol, at these children's tenderness, kindness, their incredible gift of insight and their wide-eyed innocence.

At the back of the book, there is an address for St. Ann's Church. I will be sending them a check...for St. Ann's Scholars...for Pineapple and Elio and Mother Martha and all the children and caretakers who perform miracles day in and day out.

This should be required reading for not only present/future teachers, it should be required reading for the human race.

I hope Kozol and his kids win the Pulitzer/Nobel/and any other available award!

Read this book...you will be richer for it.

Kozol shares bits and pieces of the children's' lives, which include stark realities such as a large percentage of absentee fathers, many who are in prison, an extremely high rate of asthma due largely to poor environmental conditions, a high incidence of AIDS in relatives, gangs, shootings, hunger, lack of health care, and eviction. The term "apartheid education" is used in describing how skin color and class origin still determine curricular provision for these children, limiting their educational resources and their future. Stories shared indicate that expectations are set lower than other areas of the city and children's dreams for the future are effectively stifled. They are encouraged to plan careers as hairdressers, nurse's aides, or technicians, rather than professionals requiring a college degree. Kozol urges us not to impose "global preconceptions on a multitude of diverse personalities and motivations in a given group of' children".

The stark reality is that the money spent on children's' education per capita is much less in South Bronx than other areas of the city, and even miniscule compared to the amount spent to incarcerate men in the nearest prison. When Kozol is challenged with the question of whether money really is the only answer to the problems faced by schools serving poorest children in our cities now, he responds, "I think it is fair to answer, No. It is not the only answer, but it is often a precondition for most other answers."

Despite the disheartening facts of life and lack of resources, there is a bright side to Kozol's reflections. He describes with wonder at times of "the deep, inextinguishable goodness at the core of creation" evidenced over and over again in the children of Mott Haven. While many term these children resilient, Kozol argues that word does an justice the true qualities that help them prevail, such as ingenuity, courage, love, and especially spiritual faith. "Ordinary resurrection" is a term used by an Episcopal priest named Robert Morris who speaks about the commonplace and frequently unnoticed ways that people rise above their loneliness and fear. He states, "We all lie down. We all rise up. We do this every day. The Resurrection does not wait for Easter." This is the life of the children at Mott Haven. How they rise up every day is the heartwarming encouraging part of Kozol's book. Why they have to do it is the heart-disturbing part that makes the reader want to agree that something needs to be done to invest in these children's' futures, that they deserve a chance at something better. As Kozol asks, "why not give these kids the best we have because we are a wealthy nation and they're children and deserve to have some fun while they're still less than four feet high?"

Laura Lippman has surrounded Tess with a charming assortment of friends and family members. Their obvious affection for Tess makes her more compelling to the reader. As Tess steps more and more deeply into danger, you'll find yourself turning the pages faster and faster. The mystery is well crafted and Lippman dangles clues, one by one, leaving the reader like Tess certain that there is a way of connecting them without actually able to do it.

This book is especially popular in Maryland which is great--as a longtime resident of Maryland I felt at home reading it--but it is far to good to be missed out on by the rest of us.

THE SUGAR HOUSE may be the best mystery you read this year.

I purchased this book as an informational companion to my role as a coaching client. As someone in the midst of many personal and professional decisions, I found the client success examples illustrating each idea to be energizing and inspiring. Fortgang's perspective is a breath of fresh air in a world that tells you to push for your goals. Fortgang supports allowing your innate wisdom to pull you toward your passion and purpose.

"Living Your Best Life" is not about making lists, or even making plans. It is about knowing what you really want in life, instead of what you think you can have. It is about being who you are so you can do what you are meant to do in order to live your best life.

Strategies, tools and techniques for creating success (in your own terms) and living a life that is passionate and purposeful, are also provided in this brilliant book. Laura is truly a guru in the world of coaching, and she shares her considerable wisdom and coaching experience in this wonderful book.

Am I the 100th monkey? All I can tell you is that from these pages came real changes . The stories evoked alot of head nodding and tears, with my own stories of estrangement suddenly having a tangible context within which to flourish and take heart... Maybe it was the great empathy with which it was written, or the detailed way in which Ms Davis is able to take us down that jungle path into the contrary ways of the heart ...these things followed by stories of those doing the good work of reconciling entire classes of people in political or religious conflict made for one very moved, well fed, and lately enlightened monkey.