The quest to be spirit filled never ends because it is always revealed that we must continue on toward an ever moving goal. This text certianly reveals fresh,yet ancient ways, to become more aware of what lies around us and how we can incorporate it into ourselves. I have come to understand that to be so self focused is not to be "self centered," for as we beautify our spirit we bring beauty to the world.

Inspiring! I couldn't put it down.

I couldn't put the book down. I read a lot of spirituality, but this one is one of the best. It goes over major life events, ways to pray, ways to contemplate, why, how to do it in the modern world. It doesn't recommend running to a guru, but gives sound advice to use today. Highly recommended.

The Birds of Pennsylvania by Gerald M. McWilliams and Daniel W. Brauning is a special interest book, being a state distribution book, but is one that you should consider adding to your library. For those who like to read distribution books in general and those birders living in the mid-Atlantic states in particular, THIS IS A MUST HAVE. I fall in the former group and must say that of all of the distribution books that I have this is the easiest reading because of the writing style. It is also the most informative from a general perspective: For each family there is a basic information opening ala David Sibley's Guide to Birds. Then for each species there is a general status that discusses the species distribution over its entire ranage. Next is a description of the habitat in which the species is found. Then comes the information that concerns Pennsylvania in particular -- Seasonal Status and distribution. Next is a history of the bird in PA. Last is a comment section that gives id problems, endangered status, nest box requirements and placement to attract Bluebirds, etc. Finally are footnotes.

Facts that I have picked up from jumping around in this book are: How cormorants differ from other birds -- they have their four toes connected by webs and THE ADULTS HAVE NO EXTERNAL NOSTRILS and breath through their mouths, p40. Why Waxwings are called Waxwings, p345.

So give this book a look. I do not think you will be disappointed if you are into distribution books. And if not, this book just might get you into them! As to how it measures up to being a desirable distribution and status book for Pennsylvania birders, I will defer to Kenn Kaufman from his forward: "Now there is an outstanding book to fill that need."

Kenn closes with his forward with "I congratulate McWilliams and Brauning on an impressive achievement and heartily recommend this volume to anyone who cares about birds." So do I.

This review has been also posted on Birdchat, a birders listserver.

A wonderful book of photgrasphs and essays in which thesubjects write on what they think being a man is all about. DanielKaufman has compiled 76 different men from all differen races, agesand socio-econimic conditions. Each of these men write in theri own words what they think it means to be a man. I found this book 10 tems more insightful than any 600 page book written by some so-called expert with a PHD. Extremely insightful, I brought this book a few years ago and I still like to flip through it from time to time.

This book tells you the basics of what colleges want in an essay, and goes into a lot of detail for all the tips. It also tells about a lot of excercises to help you write in general, which a mediocre writer might find useful. The 50 sample essays are usually from students who got into some of the top schools, such as Cornell. Some of them are really good, but a lot of them aren't (this might raise your confidence). It has some of the essays in the back graded by admissions officers with a few lines of comment. Basically, this is a good book to get, but 90% of it is available for free on the essayedge editing website. I see no reason to pay for it if they make it available for free.

As a college applicant in a foreign country, I had no idea of what American colleges wanted in an essay. I had bought one book previously, but it contained hazy advice and poor sample essays (also lacking commentry). These essays are brilliant, and well analysed. It helped me, and I hear of many advisors who use only this book to give students an idea as to what to write. BUY IT!!

As someone who works privately with students, helping them with admissions essays for college, I highly recommend this book. When students call me in regard to assistance with their essays, I recommend that they first buy this book as a means to get started. The guidelines and essays have helped my clients not only to gather their thoughts, but also to organize and write them into interesting and creative essays. By the time they come to me for feedback and editing, they are well on the way to getting into the college of their choice.

Based on a PBS Special, I have given this book as gift to several of my supervisors as I left to go on to greater things with the hopes that it would inspire them to make the workplace a great place to be.

For those who were as disappointed of "How to think like Leonardo Da Vinci" as I was: This may be the one!

Yes you can! is written by a Weight Watchers leader to give you tips and pointers to manage your weight. Rosalie shares her thoughts on how you can achieve your objectives. I found the book to be nicely written, and enjoyed her insights. However, I felt for the dollars Rosalie should have shared more thoughts! (The book is only 196 pages). In addition though the book was published in 1999 Rosalie gives examples using the old WW selection system, not the new 123 Success points system. Since it was so recently published I feel this should have been updated. On the other hand regardless of the system used her inspiration as a WW leader for 22 years is very valuable.

I agree with the reviewer above about the program information being outdated. However, the other advice and motivation is worth every penny! I could relate so much to this book, I could have laughed and cried at the same time! It's given me hope that trying to lose weight by going back to Weight Watchers is not hopeless! In the age of no-diet, and all the other programs that promise that you won't have to 'count anything' ever again, Weight Watchers is the only thing that will work for me! There is more to weight control than just counting points, it's also about creating new and healthier habits! Please do yourself a favor and pick up this book. You won't be sorry!

I found this book not as useful as it claims to be. The essays feature here are usually too unique to be used as "model essays". Most of these candiates are best of the best students with tons of great experiences or personal accounts. I still enjoy reading through many of these essays and the pointers the book provides. However DO NOT expect to use these essays as model for your personal statements. This is not what this book is for.

This book was great when it initially came out. However, nowadays, you need some new stuff in order to make it in. Considering the fact that a zillion people bought this book and wrote based on it, admissions are on to it. I suggest From High School to Med school by Raju and Yanofski for some fresh essays. It's written for accelerated medical programs, but they have some good essays in there.

After applying to medical school once and not getting in, I started looking for a different approach to my second application. This book really turned my essay around. The book takes you through all the steps to put together a good essay that will catch the admission committee's attention. The example essays I found helpful also. Your essay will be what you put into it, but this book will help a lot if you will put the work into it. I would definately recommend it as a must have for anyone applying to medical school. It must have worked, because I will be starting medical school in the fall.

this book turned out to be nothing of what i expected. i expected it to be a book of traps and various kinds of challenges in it, to give ideas to DM's who need a little help from time to time (as we all do). instead, what i got was a book that has four examples of particular challenges for various level of characters. i thought this limited the use of the book tremendously, and hence has been the book that i least spent time reading and using.

While the book presents some interesting scenarios, most of it is rehashed information you can get from a book of logic puzzles or find in the AD&D 2nd edition DM's blue books (namely the Villian's handbook and Creative Campaigning) or even check out the Crypt of Lyranzad the Mad. If you want a bunch of one-shot encounters or traps, this book is fine, otherwise you can get as good ideas by buying a book of logic puzzles or riddles and adapting them as encounters.

The challenges cover a very wide range of levels with suggestions on how to tweak a challenge to make it suit the strengths/weaknesses of a DM's players. The book is quite dense for 126 pages, stuffing each page with detailed information on setting-up, presenting, and solving the traps. The artwork matches the mainstream AD&D adventure artwork, which is to say average to poor. It would be nice to have higher quality artwork to be scanned in to a computer and presented to the players for the clearest possible explanation of some very complex mechanical and magical challenges.

Book of Challenges is very comparible to Legends & Lairs Traps and Treachery series, however the Book of Challenges stays away from the traps a lone thief disarms into an encounter for the party to get involved with. So in the end, a good buy, but room for improvement.

This book profiles several different slants on submitting an effective law school essay. Read them all and decide which one will work best for you.

Most of the essays read like glorified pages from the "Fearures" or "Special" section of any major metropolitan newspaper. That is, they mostly offer tales of woe, struggle, challenge and personal goals with the reader asked to provide the ultimate happy ending - admission!

Whatever tear-jerking tact you wish to take in your essay, be it poverty, race, sexuality or politics to name a few, be sure to omit any references to conservatism, the christian religion or questionable politics. The admissions committe frowns on this and typically favors "enlightened" (read:liberal) perspectives, and it would be best if you kept it this way and saved your integrity for after graduation. I can't beleive I just wrote that, but it's true. Baring your soul can be risky at this stage of the game, so be careful.

Oh, and in case you're wondering: being a recent white immigrant is a nice touch, but alas, as you are still white, you probably won't get much mileage out of the "minority plea for admission" tactic. This line doesn't fly very far for white females, either, so you'd better have something else to sell. Sorry.

Maybe you'll agree with most or all of the views and perspectives in these essays, maybe not. Just remember that the admissons essay is not just a simple essay, and you must use careful judgement when crafting this very important piece of sales material.

I bought this book because at one crazy point, I actually thought of going to law school. I came to my senses eventually and I ended up applying to PhD programs in biology. I thought I wasted money on this book, but then I gave it a chance and it actually gives great overall advice on writing effective personal statements for ANY purpose. Graduate schools all look for the same thing ultimately, they want to know what you are about and they want to know why you chose your career path. This book is great because it gives you examples of people coming from all sorts of background and you can draw on all their experiences to put together your own essay. I even stole a line from one of the essays because it applied to my own life and I wouldn't have found a better way to say it. I'm going to Columbia University starting this fall, so I guess my personal statement wasn't half bad. This book made the job a lot easier, especially if you have writer's block like I did. It really gives you a starting point.

This book is an excellent resource. It includes tips for writing your essay as well as 40 sample essays.

There is criticism from other reviewers that the 40 sample essays aren't that good. I liked some of them, but I will freely admit that many of them completely turned me off. But, we have to remember two things. First, these essays are not written by professional writers, but by law school applicants - a successful law school essay is not necessarily going to be a brilliant work of literature. Second, we don't have to like the essays or think they're very good, someone on the admissions board of a top school already read each of these essays and admitted the student. In other words, the essays target audience liked the essay and that is why it's a good essay. This book's first chapter is called "Assess Your Audience."

My essay was mostly written before I bought this book. But it's always those last finishing touches that are the hardest and take the longest. I was at the point with my essay were I wasn't really satisfied with it, but I didn't know how to fix it. This book has many tips - many of which are elemental and basic and many I chose to ignore. The decision to reject the books tips made me more aware of the structure of my essay and confirmed how I wanted to present myself.

I also found the essays very helpful. Your own essay can be too personal to analyze objectively. In reading the other essays, especially the weaker ones, I found aspects I didn't like and was then better able to review my own essay to see if I made the same mistakes.

When I finished my essay and finished this book I was very happy with my essay. I even sent it to a professional graduate school essay editor for tips on what was still needed and it was sent back to me because the editor said it was ready to submit. When you're preparing to apply to law school, there is so much going on and so many things to keep straight I found that this book helped me feel there was order to one aspect of that process. That, in itself, is useful.

resource.

The point of writing the application essays is to emphasize your candidacy while presenting yourself as unique "fish" among the "school" of applicants. While the examples and critiques are mildly interesting, they don't do that much to help you be yourself.

A better, and more holistic analysis of positioning your entire application is presented in the Richard Montauk book, "How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs."

If you're interested purely in the essay portion, the Harry Bauld "On Writing the College Application Essay" is much better because it adds a human (and humor) element to writing. (Don't be misled by the undergraduate flair: Harry Haggard and Sarah Bleary review B-school applications, too!)

These essays are outdated, answer irrelevant questions and are entirely too long. They are good only to read and say - "I can do better than that." Besides, reading other people's essays is not as useful as a good book full of advice on which topics to cover and how to write. Save your money.

While not as good as Montauk's "How to Get Into the Top MBA Programs," this book is much shorter (1/3 the size) and may be better if you're on a tight deadline. Found that the essays provided some good guidelines. Helped me get into UCLA, so it was definitely worth the read.