I bought this book to help me decide which McKnight posters I wanted to purchase. The colors are brilliant; the paradise scenes are, well, paradise for many of us; and the text is succinctly simple yet artistically revealing. Many of the book's images remind me of the American 1940s era, and it contains many of his "tropical" paradises. A point that McKnight makes in the book that is disagreeable to me: These "rooms" are only available to the ultra-rich. Not so: Just buying this book, hanging a McKnight poster, or implementing some of his colorful ideas in one's own humble home brings your (inexpensive) paradise home. An inexpensive way to own many McKnights. Unavailable new, but worth an out-of-print/used book search.

This was my first introduction to Thomas McKnight, who has traveled the world and has translated his vision into gorgeous, colorful paintings rich with detail, whimsy and creativity. McKnight finds paradise everywhere he goes, and it's easy to enjoy his vision and fantasize about your own experience there, from New York City to the Greek Islands, to the Caribbean. A great book gift for those who travel, or for armchair travelers. Makes you want to see his artwork 'up close' to see even more.

I have never heard of a speaker or lecturer or workshop leader writing a book with all the secrets of how to run their workshop! In "Teamworks!" Barbara Sher gives away all her secrets of success! Barbara Sher truly wants home grown Success Teams to work! Using "Teamworks!" I run free Success Teams over email. Does that sound impossible? I do it right over jbrooks@svpal.org! The result is a supportive, friendly, encouraging, helpful, warm environment to pursue your dreams! Try it out!

Part two of one of the greatest mind games of all times! This book analyzes your own personal cube (as well as the cube of your peers) in depth. I highly recommend that you also check out "The Cube: Keep the Secret" before this book because it is a little more user friendly in layout, as well as providing a solid generalization. But if you are already addicted, check this one out! Never before have I been so amazed at how much one game can reveil about me! WOW!

This is a wonderful book. It is extremely accurate. I highly recommend it. Once you cube someone, you are given an inside look at who they are, and why they act the way they do. It is also a wonderful look inside yourself. I highly recommend this book.

I have benefited greatly from "Secret of the Cube"- I like to cube new friends, it really helps me to communicate and understand people better- very helpful! This book is also good for understanding youself too, and personal improvement.

You know those stupid psychological tests/games that you get via e-mail? arent those so stupid? and totally inaccurate? Well the CUBE was so frighteningly dead-on and intelligently deep that it puts all those to shame. You can psychoanalyze yourself in 5 questions that are really fun--or you can take a 200-question-long Kinsey Personality Test. Which is more sociable and enjoyable? I highly recommend this book as an ice-breaker and slumber parties and "bonding" activities of that sort. The only problem IMHO is that once you've played the Cube, that's it. Fini. The End. It's a one-time-use-only thing. It's of no logic to take a personality test twice unless you're schizophrenic. I found the book very entertaining and amazingly accurate on the first read, but after that it's useless. Buy this book if you have LOTS of friends, because no one can play it twice. (well you can play it twice but it's not fun the 2nd time; it's just completely redundant). Right now it's collecting dust so I am going to give it to my younger sister, who will have screaming fun with her sorority sisters over it. But again, once they've played the "Cube", no more. Just read it once and pass it on.

If you enjoy self-discovery, but don't take yourself too seriously, then you would like this book. I've been playing "The Cube" with people for the past several years.Of probably more than a hundred people, only four people didn't like the game. This book can just be a lot of fun, or you can really get a lot of great truths from it.

This is great for getting to know people or just having fun. I've used it for small parties, campfire conversation, and first dates. Kids can even play it. I can't go into more detail without giving it away, but it is worth more than the jacket price. I've enjoyed this book so much that I have given them as Christmas presents several times.

It seems superfulous to add another glowing review tothe others that have already been written. The Cube was amazing. I suggest playing it by yourself rather than in a group. What you find out might upset your friends. Thats as much as a will give away. I have been desperate to find another self-discovery book that was as accurate but ot no avail. The Kology books were a big dissapoinment when compared to the accuracy of the Cube. There is absolutely nothing like it. I wish I could forget the secrets and play again to find how my perceptions have changed, but once you know the secret that it. So, don't give into the temptation to read ahead in the book!

Most books on life planning have, to my mind, two fatal flaws: they assume that your "strengths" are an infallible guide to what you "should" be doing with your life; and they then attempt to map this to a "career." Barbara Sher starts with the basics: what is most important to YOU? Given that, how are you to get it? (And this doesn't necessarily translate into "career"!) Sher also takes the planning process beyond self-analysis and shows you, in clear and practical terms, how to get the help you need to achieve what you want. Her subsequent books are all worth reading, but start with this one; it's a breath of fresh air amongst the hundreds of "Find the Right Career For You" look-alike guides!

Over the years, I've read many a book on goal-setting and achievement. I started many years ago with the obligatory 'Think and Grow Rich', avoided Anthony Robbin's 'Unlimited Power' because it looked 'too American', floundered around some more in the Positive Mental Attitude books, and came back to Anthony Robbins in desperation. I was seeking something practical and effective, to help me manage my life, as I was having problems due to giving up a well-paid job to study full-time. At that point, I was hooked on NLP. However, if I had read Wishcraft, I might have bypassed Anthony Robbins altogether, and would not be where I am today (such at it is :-) ) Why? Because this book provides everything I was looking for in a book at that time.

It is split into two broad sections: the first helps you to answer the question "What are my goals?"; the second, "How do I achieve them?". The first section contains a number of fairly standard exercises to help you brainstorm your goals. If you are new to the idea of goal-setting, this is a great place to start; however, if you have done many exercises in goal-setting, then most of these exercises will be familiar. However, I suspect that most people will find something of use here, no matter how well- read they are.

The second section is where the book comes into its own. The authors outline a number of tools and methods to help you be successful once you know what your goals are. Some of them are to do with planning, some to do with emotions and managing your state, some are to do with getting the help of others.

The planning model is the best I've come across, and I've done some formal training on planning in a corporate environment. It doesn't cover complex ideas like GANT charts, critical-path analysis, and so on, but it does provide a simple, workable, and effective method of setting out what you'll actually need to do to reach your goal. And it all boils down to two simple questions .....

Can I do this tomorrow? If not, what do I need to do first?

Keep going through those two questions, and you'll end up with a plan consisting of achievable steps that you can do in a day, rather than huge steps which take days or weeks to accomplish. One of the difficulties that many people experience with tasks of this size is due to lack of specificity; breaking the task down into smaller ones helps to make it more 'real' and hence easier to get started on and to acccomplish.

However, in any planning model, particularly where you are venturing out into uncharted territory, there will be some points in your plan where you simply do not know what steps are required - if you are familiar with the idea of unconscious incompetence, then you'll know what I mean. (If not, take a quick look at the article below). Again, using one simple idea, the authors can help you to overcome those problems, based on the idea that if you can't do something, then you know someone who can, or you know someone who knows someone who can, or you know someone who knows someone who...

They call the idea 'barnraising', from the idea in certain communities where each person helps the others build their barn, and then receive help from each person in building their own barn. They suggest getting all your friends, family, and colleagues together; tell them EXPLICITLY what you want; and see how they can help. At the same time, help them with their goals or plans. Whilst not a new idea, the authors go out of their way to tell you that you don't have to do everything by yourself, and then give you a framework in which to work with others to achieve your mutual goals. Anyone familiar with Stephen Covey's Seven Habits will immediately recognize the win/win situation.

Where this ties in nicely with NLP is the 'explicit' part: the meta-model is the ideal tool here for: A) defining what you need B) clarifying exactly what help others can provide C) helping others define what they need.

The authors also provide two questions that will help if you encounter a problem in the form of 'I can't do/have X until I have/do Y' The two questions are:

How can I get X without having/doing Y? How can I get/do Y?

Later, the book covers some basic time management skills, and some general strategies for dealing with fear, including one called 'Lower Your Standards - at First'. The latter goes against many positive thinking-type books by saying if your goals are too far beyond your current beliefs about what you can do, you will most likely be afraid. The way to reduce your fear is to aim to do things badly, then there is no problem if you do actually do them badly. Then, when you've got some experience under your belt, you will be in a position to set realistic, challenging, and achievable goals.

The comments I've written here sound fairly mundane - I'm not one to rant and rave over a book. One of the biggest complements that I can give a book is to say that I will never throw it away, and I will read it at least once per year without fail. I've had this book for about 4 years now, and I've read it 5-6 times, and I will never throw it away (at least, I might, but only to replace it with a less dog-eared copy). Its simplicity, elegance, and plain- talking, combined with sold, practical advice, make it one of my favourite books.

Ms. Sher has one of the most accessible writing styles I have found in a book of this type. Her ideas are easy to grasp and practical to implement, and fun! I recommend this book to all my friends who are expriencing general dissatisfaction with their life but who are not sure what direction to take next. The book has excellent goal setting exercises. It can be used again and again to plan and actualize various aspects of your life's dreams. One note of caution: bear in mind one of the other reviewer's comments about accepting everything in this book as gospel truth, especially the case studies and anecdotal results. Then read "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience" by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for some ideas with actual scientific backing. (No that's not a typo!) Then take out "Wishcraft" and get to work. The strength of this book is the clear and imaginative presentation of concrete techniques!

Return to Innocence is a thought provoking guide to the physical and emotional development of older teens. This is an ideal gift for a sixteenth birthday. Written as correspondence between a young man and distant mentor, young women can also benefit, learning about themselves as well as about young men. Rather than preaching rules of behavior, Schwartz provides enlightening and inspiring perspectives on the wonderous abilities for young adults to develop a strong inner self control over impulsive behaviors; the ones that are destructive and counterproductive. As a high school nurse, I found this book to be a great resource for inspiring those teens who are at the crossroads of life - looking for which path to take. Mostly they want to be inspired; to often they are not.

A RETURN TO INNOCENCE, written as letters exchanged between Dr. Schwartz and his young sixteen-year-old friend Patrick Buckley, is a cogent message to adults and youth of our present society, urging us all to rediscover and re-embrace the customs and traditions of moral values which we have so long abandoned or shrugged off as no longer necessary for our existence.

Infused with information from today's scientific research on the chemical changes the brain can undergo, the book also details, using historical accounts, how such changes can come about when a person's mind--i.e., a person's will--makes conscious decisions and choices necessary to alter the brain chemistry. In essence, a person can therefore choose constructive brain chemistry as opposed to destructive brain chemistry. The book also broadens the application of the basic principles that were presented in Dr. Schwartz's book entitled BRAIN LOCK, especially the principles concerning mindfulness and the "Impartial Spectator."

The book gives the reader a look into a surprisingly tender and most honest communication between two men--one the regardful father figure, the other, the respectful teenage son. Matters of morality, love, self-preservation and honest friendship are explored with heartfelt conversation between the two friends.

Dr. Schwartz also addresses the issues of OCD in this book, and definitely adds to the dimensions of understanding this disease and how behavior therapy methods can help a person control this chronic condition. It is a book which can help redirect our thinking in answering society's urgent cries for help

I'm not an extremely educated person, but I have always had some level of understanding in why people behave the way they do. This book seemed to help confirm my feelings. Being based on both science, and spirituality, I believe that this book portrays a truth, that people should try to understand rather than ignore, and hopefully try to Return to Innocence which is good for everyone.

Ms Gottlieb has an objective but sympathetic view of Boomers and the period known as "the 60s". She presents Boomers warts and all, but still is able to make us feel good about ourselves and our youth.

I read this fabulous book as we went to war with Iraq. The pages came to life and the tears flowed as I was in the midst of the Vietman peace movement, war, politics and social changes leaping off the pages in vibrant, uncensored candor as I sat in my living room listening to the news of yet another war-- the absurdity, the peace protests--greater than ever befor and WORLD WIDE-- the deception of politics and the reverberation of divine righteousness from the far right fundalmentalists. It seemed the force for change made in the 60-70's had been annulled and we fell into the old addage "History repeats itself."

As a late baby boomer riding on the tail of the comet of change,
I was delighted and remorse over reading this wonderfully crafted, personal history of the experience of "my" generation and the reflection of the outcome of all the craziness of those "first wavers" as they matured into the middle age stage of life. Now they are entering the golden age and there is an enormouse amount of work yet to be done, the purpose is still the same but the maturity of experience and reflection can help the Boomers negotiate the course with greater finess and certitude.

I am a gerontologist, received my degree in Gerontology from San Diego State University in 1996 at the age of 38. I now have a greater view on the emense power the Baby Boom Generation had in their youth and what I felt as they co-opted in the 1980 into the establishment of wealth and power. It has been my hope that this "sleeping Dragon" will wake up and arise to the task they were set out to accomplish -- preservation of the earth and humanity from the destructive forces of greed, power, religion and their ultimate "glory" in the destruction of life through war and oppression.

If you are a "Boomer" and want to get reconnected, READ THIS BOOK!! The choice still remains before us-- The Bomb or US.

Ms. Gottleib's retrospective of the Sixties is approached in a manner that makes the reader feel as though they are an intimate part of the research stage of the book. Interview after interview with household names of the time, as well as with those of lesser notoriety, provide honest insight into a time of turmoil on almost every level of existence in the US.

If you were there and don't remember, READ IT! If you weren't there and wish you had been, READ IT! If you're just looking for an intelligent, insightful, well-researched book, READ IT! I would LOVE to have lunch with the author. . .