When this book was first released, I gave a copy to my 75-year-old mother, who has osteoarthritis. Over and over, she's told me about consulting this book when trying to decide whether or not to try some remedy that a friend has suggested. She feels that it has kept her from spending a fortune on snake oil, and has made her bold enough to try alternative approaches that have been helpful, such as glucosamine-chondroitin supplements. Obviously it was the perfect gift.

I found this book very helpful in making sense out of the confusing array of alternative therapies out there these days. Ms. Horstman provides a no-nonsense overview of many traditional healing techniques, together with a comprehensive bibliography and medical references. The organization of the book makes it very easy to use, too. Overall, this book shows a high level of quality on all levels, and is a valuable resource for those of us in search of health and healing!

Overall, a finely-written and much needed compendium of arthritis information. Judith Horstman did a wonderful job of sifting through the medical literature to produce an easy-to-access resource for the (often) confusing world of alternative arthritis treatments.

This 'easy to read' book is great! It should be the bible for SME companies and entrepreneurs who want to excel in real-life business. It's full of great insights and a 'must have' for anybody who cares about practical business management.

I'm not surprised why this book have 5 stars...it deserves 10.

This book not only explains which are the key success drivers for an organization to become great, but also lets us know what to do in order to achieve results on each of these drivers. I work in the Planning division of a major insurance company...I have read lots of stuff about strategic planning, and I find the content of this book to be the one that captures the essence of successful planning.

According to the authors, any person involved in leading or transforming a business, should focus on 5 dimensions. In order to become truly successful, you should achieve a great performance on each dimension.These dimensions are:

1. Leadership Style 2. Vision, values and corporate culture 3. Strategy 4. Innovation 5. Tactical Excellence

There is a chapter for each point which are full of practical examples and stories about successes and failures.

I also recommend "Built to Last", from the same author.

I have read a number of books on strategic planning. They all generally follow a very similar approach. However, Jim Collins has done a masterful job putting the theory into a format that is easily understood and easily applied to solve real problems. I initially used the book to lead the strategic planning process for the technical support department of a major software company. The results were astounding. I have since used the book to help many other organizations and have found the book equally appropriate for each engagement. Using the concepts in this book will dramatically help your organization.

Like a ship's captain, a CEO is only as good as the latest weather report. If a chief executive unknowingly steers his or her ship into the path of a hurricane, that ship's in trouble, no matter how skillful a seaman that captain may be. And unfortunately for CEOs, hurricanes - in the form of disruptive changes that remake markets overnight - have become almost an everyday danger. Authors W. Warner Burke, William Trahant and Richard Koonce argue that the most critical function of a corporate leader today is to monitor and respond to these rapid shifts in the external marketplace, or business climate. To illustrate this point, they offer insightful profiles of leaders who successfully guided their companies through the storms of organizational change initiatives. These profiles are especially effective in giving the reader both a sense of the personalities of these dynamic executives and a practical breakdown of the methodologies and strategies that they employed. We [...] strongly recommend this book to senior executives, would-be change agents and anyone curious about how to navigate the turbulent environment of 21st-century business.

After reading BUSINESS CLIMATE SHIFTS it was clear to me that this book was as much about leadership as about change. As a thirty year middle manager who has participated in both the planning and implementation of change, I was extremely pleased to read throughout the book that, although the companies were focusing on the customer, they all recognized the importance of the employees. The one common denominator throughout the book was that how management treats the employees is how the employees treat the customers. Although Colin Marshall at British Airways and Roger O. Goldman of National Westminster Bancorp. have distinctively different styles, they both recognized the importance of employees in the change process and demonstrated that leadership is key to effective and efficient change.

Starting my career in government late in life, I have noticed a reluctancy of federal executives to get the rank and file involved in major change initiatives. I suggest that any government manager or executive contemplating change read BUSINESS CLIMATE SHIFTS. The lessons learned from those who have been there, both government and industry, are invaluable and provide a framework for developing issues and questions that need to be addressed before any major shifts or changes in organizational culture.

This book is a must-read for anyone involved with organizational change -- whether you are managing the change or experiencing it from the "front lines." These fascinating Q & A's gave me real insight into the process. I recommend Business Climate Shifts to any forward-thinking person in the corporate world today.

There's just something to be said for Wegman's puppy images being juztaposed with images of your own baby. This is my favorite baby book I've seen out there and I really shopped around. I didn't want a "traditional" baby book, but I did want to add in all of the usual information somewhere. Wegman's Baby Book let me do all of that, provided me with a super cute height ruler that I can use for longer than a year and all with pictures of shiny, silver weimeraners. So adorable. And, the cover is really soft as a bonus.

This is the cutest baby book I've seen. I hate the cheesy ones you see in the store. Perfect size for what I wanted.

The best thing about this baby book are the ADORABLE photos of puppies in it. It also has pages for everything: family tree, lock of hair, growth chart, ultrasound photo, first birthday, etc. etc. I looked around for the perfect baby book and this one is it. I have bought 3 more copies since for friends who have had babies.
This is just the BEST baby book I've seen!

The BOOK OF QUESTIONS was written in 1973, a few months before Neruda's death to cancer. Troubled by the knowledge of his impending death, as well as by a U.S. backed coup threatening the Allende government in Chile (Leftist regime 1970-73), Neruda wrote several small books of brief poems, comprised simply of unanswerable questions, in the koan tradition (question/statement in the form of a paradox that disciples of Zen ponder). They are enigmatic, at times surreal, leaving you lost in labyrinths of deep thought, or in abstract bewilderment.

My favorite questions include:

Why do leaves commit suicide
When they feel yellow?

and

When the convict ponders the light
is it the same light that shines on you?

--ross saciuk

I know I'll be returning to this book over and over throughout my entire life, even if it's only to read one question and let it perk for a day or longer. A question is a wonderful way to experience poetry: each question is a seed, that with time, can grow into something different and something great within each person that reads it.

This was among Pablo Neruda's last works. He left us with a great gift.

316 questions posed by the great poet just months before his death. I found more than 70 of them worth copying into my journal, and I'm not particularly compulsive about things like that. Reading them, you will probably find yourself transported to an especially thoughtful and unusual frame of mind.

Here are some favorites:

Is it true that in an anthill, dreams are duty?
Am I allowed to ask my book whether it's true I wrote it?
Why did the grove undress itself only to wait for the snow?
You have room for some thorns? they asked the rose bush.
Where can you find a bell that will ring in your dreams?
Does the earth sing like a cricket in the music of the heavens?
And at whom does rice smile with infinitely many white teeth?
Will Czechoslovakians or turtles be born from your ashes?
In dreams, do plants blossom and their solemn fruit ripen?
And why does my skeleton pursue me if my soul has fallen away?
Isn't the city the great ocean of quaking mattresses?
What did the tree learn from the earth to be able to talk with the sky?
What was awaiting me in Isla Negra? The green truth or decorum?

This is one of my favorite books of all time ! The first time that I read it, I loved it so much that I bought a copy. This is a book I would recommend to Sci-fi fans or cat lovers any day of the week. Some other books of his that I would recommend of his would be BLitzcat, Futuretrack 5 and the Devil on the Road. All of these books are worth reading ! My absolute favorite book though would still ( for three years in a row, and probably for years to come ) be The Cats of Seroster.

It's interesting to note, other books by Robert Westall are not as great as this one; although Blitzcat is definitely worth reading. This is most definitely the best young-adult reader I've ever come across, but it's not just for kids!! (I'm 20 years old and it's been my favorite for almost 3 years). If you have a special place in your heart for animals and otherwise enjoy fantasy or mideval stories, this one is definitely worth your time! Enjoy!!

I read The Cats of Seroster several months ago, and I still feel the magic. I am NOT a cat lover, but after this book I wanted to go right out to the pound and adopt one! This book is a riveting fantasy with great adventure and dark threads running through that make you think. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it highly.

Katie Lee has led a remarkable life. But while she may be a fine story teller for a live audience, she is a poor writer. I found it a slow book to flog myself through- despite an enormous interest in the subject. Too bad she couldn't have put her ego aside and sat down with a professional writer. I can think of several women writers of the west that would have been a boon to the project. I look forward to the Katie Lee biography from one of them.

Katie Lee has written a beautiful & powerful love story & funeral song to a place some considered the most beautiful on earth, now drowned under Lake Powell. The book is largely exerpts from Katie's river journals from 40+yrs ago & has an immediacy that left me feeling like I was in Glen Canyon with her. She mentions that she shared early drafts of a fiction version with Ed Abbey, who told her to just write her own story. That she couldn't make up anything better than her own experiences. Ed Abbey was right. I devoured the book in one emotional sitting, then spent the rest of the day wandering aimlessly with dreams & visions of lost desert canyons in my mind.

Katie Lee has given us a wonderful glimpse at a lost treasure. Her discriptions of the river and side canyons tell of her love of this lost world. My 2nd greatgrandfather went through Glen Canyon in 1872 with the second Powell Expedition and Katie has given me some feeling as to What he saw and the places he visited. I never understood what a treasure Glen Canyon was to Us till I read her book. Thank You Katie Lee

this is shakespeare's most accessible comedy. it's a farce about mistaken identities among identical twins. nothing complicated here. the play has it's funny moments. it's not the bard's best comedy; that's 'much ado about nothing', imho. but this is not a bad place to start.

"Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother."
So says Dromio of Ephesus, one of the members of two sets of estranged twins whose lives become comically intertwined in this delightful, ingenious, & aptly named Comedy of Errors. Being an avid Shakespeare fan and reader, I unequivocally consider The Comdey of Errors to be Shakespeare's finest and funniest comedy. Antipholus of Syracuse and his long lost twin Antipholus of Ephesus along with the two twin servants Dromio of Ephesus and Syracuse become unceasingly mistaken for each other making for a hilarious and entertaining farce of a play.

The Comedy of Errors has been copied many times since in literature, movies, & sitcoms, although it has never been duplicated.

There is no doubt that this comedy of Shakespeare's is delightful, crazy fun. You could call it the father (or mother) of all sit-coms. The play is suitable for middle school production and viewing, with some modifications. For my students and myself I prefer the Folger's edition of Shakespeare's plays for three reasons. First, the footnotes are easy to read and across from the text. 2. The choice of illustrations and 3. The introductory information. When purchasing for my students, though I have tried other publishers, I now always choose Folgers.

I have no complaints about this sci fi adventure and this isn't normally my genre at all. I read this book because I like "bodyguard" stories (usually I read them from the romance section). I enjoyed the deteriorating high tech world (and solar system) that this author created. It sounded suspiciously familiar, as if it's truly just around the corner for Earth in real life. And the bodyguard, Max, was a pleasant surprise. As a "chrome dome" who'd undergone brain surgery that he doesn't remember, suffering brain damage of unknown origin, he was surprisingly self-effacing and humorous. The book is a real page-turner because you're so willing to follow Max wherever he goes. And I enjoyed the little twist in the story concerning the young woman he's guarding, a protectee who's curiously able to defend herself. I hope this author has this turned into a movie soon!

This is a really good read. It keeps you exceited the whole time. In the beginning, it seems slow, but then outta nowhere! Bang! Sasha's gone, and Max has to go after her! MKuch action and advetnure, and defintely a good story. It keeps you guessing about Max's plates. Its also funny, too, when Max messes up and says things like "001000101010101" or "And how do you know that XXX672TTT?" ot "Deederwomp." or "Gaberscam." Read it! Now!

Well, when I first started reading it, it sounded pretty cool. But the action just started out of nowhere! Bang the girl was gone. And then all the travelling and action. The characters are very interesting, especially Max Maxon, who wants his memory back. Read this book! you won't regret it.

The Brazilian Sound is good as far as it goes - a who's who list and discography of 20th century Brazilian music. Although, the book has the feel of a junior college textbook, it's written in plain language. It would be a relatively easy read if it were not that a parenthetical list of Brazilian names breaks up every third or fourth paragraph. There are some very informative passages - notably the chapter on Bossa Nova and the "Escolas de Samba" section of Chapter 2. At their best, the authors provide clear and comphrensive explanations of the geneology and sociological context of the music.

Unfortunately, unless a person is willing to spend countless shopping hours and a couple of thousand dollars building up collection of Brazilian records, he or she will gain almost no insight from this book into what the music feels like. The authors describe individual works and artists in only vague terms - terms often identical to those previously used to describe others. They beat the term "syncopation" into irrelevance - it's clear only that all Brazilian music is syncopated. The authors habitually refer to folk music genres and song forms ala "Composer X's work is all based on the Y song form..." But they provide no practical examples or definitions of those genres or forms.

The authors stridently dumb-down their text, accepting as axiom that one has to "hear it to believe it" and that it is meaningless to describe Brazilian music in technical terms. They generally refrain from even using common musical terms - bar, measure, pulse, key, etc. - to give the reader a clearer understanding of Brazilian rhythmic and harmonic structures. They use few effective musical comparisons or verbal metaphors. It is understandably difficult to describe music in writing. But it is possible. Judicious use of metaphor, comparisions, and technical descriptions would have greatly fleshed out what in the end comes off as a skeletal text.

This 1998 edition serves as the update to the first, apparently published in 1990 or 1991. However, the amendments appear to have been quite minor - embodied by an isolated paragraph here and there, and four meager pages in the final "More Brazilian Sounds" chapter. It's as if nothing has really happened in the evolution of Brazilian music since 1990 - an impression that must be wrong.

The Brazilian Sound catalogs decent research, but is neither good writing nor effective music history.

The best book ever written about Brazilian music in English, "The Brazilian Sound" is a beautifully written, in-depth guide to samba, bossa and other Brazilian genres. Many of the reviews below are on the mark, but BGB from WA seems not to have read the book (or to have read a different book!). The 1998 edition substantially upgrades the original 1991 version. There is much added in terms of early history, capoeira, racial issues, choro, and the blocos and afoxes in Bahia. There is more on important artists from the 1990s, like Marisa Monte, Daniela Mercury, Carlinhos Brown, Chico Cesar, Chico Science and Karnak, though these additions are in various chapters, not just the final one ("More Brazilian Sounds"). One needs to have actually read the book to know that, of course...The music is nicely described, in both musical and cultural terms. One gets a strong sense of how it sounds, and a clear understanding of its rhythmic, harmonic and melodic ingredients. Some of the writing is rather encyclopedic, dispensing a rather staggering amount of information, while many sections vividly convey a sense of the music. I often felt I was at a bossa nova club in '59, at an escola de samba rehearsal, watching one of the 1960s song festivals, or attending a forro party. "The Brazilian Life" brings to life both the current and past greats of Brazilian music. As a result, I added quite a few CDs to my collection, especially of artists like Milton Nascimento, Pixinguinha, Jobim and Marisa Monte. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

You could fill a book with all the information I _don't_ know about Brazilian music... In fact, these guys already have! Concise, conversational, informative and very well laid out, this is an exceptionally readable book. Chapters on samba, bossa nova, tropicalia, forro and jazz include focused biographical sketches of dozens of key artists, as well as succinct historical information about the progress of Brazilian music from its European and African folk roots into its bewildering and often beautiful modern offshoots. The book's focus is nonpartisan: although there is plenty of room for aesthetic criticism within the various styles, the authors generally hold their preferences and dislikes to themselves. They do, however, give readers a good sense of which recordings might be best to check out -- an invaluable service considering how little of Brazil's vast musical output makes it to the United States. Highly recommended! Certainly the best English-language guide to Brazilian pop that you will find in print (online is a different matter), this is great for casual listeners and hardcore fans alike.