It is also a good book for people who want to have a coffee table book about Utah.

The book itself starts with a brief overview of the Salt Lake Bid, and the resulting Olympic bidding scandal. It then takes us on a tour of the geology of Utah and the mountain west. The book includes pictures of both the mountains in Northern Utah, and the Colorado plateau in Southern Utah. It provides a summary of historical and cultural information about the Salt Lake Valley.

In the last quarter of the book, we get into sports photography, and we can see some high quality shoots of skiers and other athletes.

All in all, it is a well made and designed coffee table book. The main reason to buy it is the high quality photography. You will definitely enjoy having it on hand while you watch the Olympics. The book covers a great deal of information, mainly at a summary level; so it really would not serve as a reference book.

Finally, having been written before the Olympics, there are no actual pictures of 2002 Olympic events. My guess is the book was written before 9/11/2001, and there is no mention of the international tensions which will be in everyone's mind during the events.

The local police investigate but find no substantive leads. So their tact is to "wait and see what develops". But Christine's instincts are telling her that the longer they wait, the more likely that there will be a bad ending for Henry Hudson McCormick and bad news for the nuns who have loved and admired him for so many years.

Author Lee Harris has given her readers another tightly plotted mystery filling with interesting, complex characters and lots of twists and turns. Her amateur detective, Chris Bennett, is down to earth, easy to identify with and clever at following up on even the tiniest clue to get the answers that are needed to solve the mystery disappearance of her friend. At the same time, she uncovers some revealing facts in the death by suicide of a troubled young woman, who was once a novice at St. Stephens. For she suspects that, even though seven long years have passed since her death, that it, in some way, relates to the disappearance of Father McCormick. Will the solution come in time to save the priest?

The story at hand arises from a Christmas celebration at St. Stephen's that goes sour when a beloved former resident priest turns up missing at the last minute. The discovery of some of his clothes and his car soon point to foul play, but we get strung along for most of the book as the plot not only takes a few turns, but involves an older mystery (from seven years prior) that in a burst of tidiness gets cleaned up along with our priest by the final chapter. There are a few somewhat implausible parts of the book, like when Chris starts tailing suspects in her car or the inevitable few things people suddenly remember or find (after nearly a decade) and are nice enough to call Chris; but the writing style and action are generally as relaxed as are we as we read these light but entertaining stories.

The characters' lives evolve a little from book to book, so reading them in order might make sense, though it's certainly not necessary. We are also glad to report that the ex-nun angle leads to no Catholic proselytizing; indeed, Chris's best friend Melanie is Jewish, and so far, our author has even resisted what might be some interesting byplay from that scenario. So -- by the fire or at the beach, tough to go far wrong with a nice clean story with Lee Harris & Christine Bennet.

Again, looking for light summer reading? Here's a good one.

The heroine is an ex-nun, however, this is only casually mentioned and is not dwelled on. I do not think it would alienate readers regardless of their religious beliefs.

Lee Harris proves it is still possible to write a mystery without all the blood and gore.

My biggest complaint was with the title. In the beginning of the book, it's not supposed to be clear whether Sandy Gordon's wife ran away, was kidnapped, or was killed. However, the title The Thanksgiving Day Murder, made me aware that Natalie was dead.

Overall this is a good story that's easy to read.

This time, former nun turned cleaver, super sleuth, Christine Bennett meets a distraught husband who has an incredible story to relate. Nearly one year ago Sandy Gordon and his lovely redheaded second wife Natalie attend the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. Both in a happy, festive mood and looking forward to an upcoming romantic cruise vacation, Natalie impulsively rushes off down a side street to purchase balloons from a street vendor and completely disappears without a trace. Sandy swears, first to the skeptical police and, even almost a year later, to Chris that there was absolutely no reason for her to leave. That they were madly in love and happy to be together -- looking forward to life and maybe even to starting a family. Sandy begs Christine to help him find out what happened to Natalie even though the police have backed off and a private detective that he had hired some months earlier had been unable to come up with any new leads.

It is a puzzle that Chris just has to try her hand at. And it eventually begins to unravel on thread at a time.

Ms. Harris is masterful at these intricate plots. She manages to keep me guessing nearly every time by zig-zagging and using a few well placed red herrings. As usual, Chris Bennett and her husband, Jack, are so likable. I really enjoy the cozy little details about their lives that get woven into the story. It keeps her from seeming like robo-sleuth as she cuts through the mystery and gets to the truth. A diverting side plot also gives us an interesting view of Chris' family.

It's a great, fast paced read.

The bottom line on this book (actually an 8.5 by 11 "manual") is that it has some nuggets, including a fairly good but by no means comprehensive quasi-annotated bibliography, but it is very very "busy" and difficult to read easily. In essence, while the authors may have brought together some of the best annecdotes and insights on supervising volunteers, they have not done the more difficult work of integration and simplification that would have allowed the busy manager to absorb this material comfortably. Reading this book is a strain.

The book also appears to be part of a "portal program" that churns out books and articles on volunteer program management. On balance, I would get the book if you are the one person responsible for program-wide oversight of volunteer supervision, and not get it if you are simply one of many people superivising small numbers of volunteers.

As M. Susan Power states in her useful introduction, Wilson's main interests were Catholicism, conservatism, public opinion, and Spanish political philosophy. Born in Texas, he pursued a quiet life as a professor of political philosophy at the University of Illinois and the University of Washington.

The editors have compiled this collection of essays, written during the 1930s and 40s, into three parts: one, human nature and modern ideology; two, the definition of conservatism and its various aspects; three, "sources of renewal," including analysis of democratic theory, Jefferson, Cicero, and The Federalist.

Power asserts that Wilson offered an original interpretation of American political philosophy based on the classical quest for self-knowledge. This quest for ultimate meaning revealed both a shared human experience and a divine basis for history. In our time Christian conservatism has received a good deal of skepticism, with good reason, but I found Wilson's approach to be among the least intrusive, the most reasoned and flexible. Important to Wilson's view, for example, was the Catholic notion of subsidiarity, or localism, which dispersed political power and authority and which relied for its sustenance on the moral sense of the people. Localism of this sort was very much in the American tradition.

In this context I might also mention Wilson's belief, partly influenced by papal encyclicals, that the captains of industry in his day failed to take their moral leadership seriously, a remark that could be torn from today's newspapers. I am reminded of an observation by Russell Kirk that human beings, not being objects, naturally resist being treated like objects. Wilson was not the first conservative to draw attention to the limitations of industrialism or the mentality it fostered (Carlyle, Coleridge, and Henry Adams also had their doubts) but true to his nature he refused to settle for dividing the issue into legal absolutes or false dichotomies (e.g. Luddite pastoral versus Orwellian skyscrapers). Wilson could see that life divided itself into primary and secondary changes (essential and nonessential elements). That approach was fundamentally conservative in its recognition that the preservation of a moral order occurred among the tension between opposites: past and future, stability and progress, order and liberty, community and the person. Every generation must work to apply first principles to the particular circumstances in which it lives.

While Wilson's prose is free from the academic jargon that would later infect universities, it does proceed in a plodding style which might try the patience of the modern reader. This is not to say it is unreadable, only that it lacks, for example, the literary sense of Kirk or the plain speaking of Nisbet. Yet it covers enough of the foundations in a sufficiently nuanced way to encourage serious reflection about conservatism.

The book is truly written for leaders who are responsible for the strategy, health, and market performance of their organizations, and offers specific development suggestions and advice, as well as references to a good selection of supporting material.

I would recommend using this book as 1) a reminder of things that you should not forget to do in an executive role, and 2) a resource for specific advice on how to do better.

It makes a good companion (and word of sensible, research-based advice) to the popular books on executive leadership. I find the research-based recommendations written well and concisely--an advantage for execs who are always pressed for time.