This is quite possibly the best book I have ever read. The characters are not real although, Alan Maki, brings such life to them it causes one to desire to seek the town and people out. The stories that George writes, about his most cherished momentos, will make you laugh, cry, and contemplate your own life and what you will leave behind for others to cherish as much as they cherish you. It causes one to ask, "What will the sum of my life come down to...?" "A CHOICE TO CHERISH" also examines relationships and how sometimes we forget the importance of choosing our battles carefully, especially with loved ones. The lack of forgiveness sometimes carries a hefty price that pride sometimes won't allow us to see clearly past and humble ourselves into forgiveness. Alan Maki examines this human trait in a most poignant manner. My copy is autographed and carries a newspaper clipping from a local Montana newspaper that tells about Mr. Maki and "A CHOICE TO CHERISH". It was a Christmas gift from my mom and I will truly cherish my copy for all time!!

I've read a string of short novels lately and this one was the best of the bunch (and if you look at my other reviews, you'll see I've read some good ones!).

It's refreshing to have poignant Christian fiction written by a man. The two main characters in this story are also men. Most Christian fiction seems to be aimed at women, unfortunately, so this was freshing. Another reviewer mentioned that he was going to purchase copies of this book for high school graduation gifts, and I think that's an excellent idea!

The story begins when almost 20-year-old Alan reluctantly agrees to spend a week caring for his dying grandfather in a small town in the mountains of Montana. There has been some distance between Alan's father and his grandfather, and during Alan's stay, he learns the reasons for this through a series of 8 stories his grandfather has written, to go along with 8 gifts that are under the tree. Grandpa has told Alan he can choose one as his Christmas gift.

Maki's depiction of these characters is outstanding. You really know these characters. It's wonderful to see the young man in the story grow in compassion through this book. Their relationship is precious. This book isn't predictable or sugar-sweet. It's just perfect and I highly recommend it. Don't wait til next Christmas - read it now - and while you're at it, get in some early Christmas shopping and buy a few copies for friends and family!

You might want to check out my other reviews of Christian books and music!

If you liked Paul Evan's "The Christmas Box" Series, you'll be right at home with Alan Maki's "A Choice to Cherish." It is a wonderful read for all ages. Maki takes the readers into a family's heart and shows the life-long damage that can be done to every member of a family when foregiveness is withheld from just one person.

Like Evan's message in his Christmas Box Series, the message in this book needs to be retold over and over. It is a good read for anyone, but especially poignant for anyone who has ever struggled with forgiving someone and has just not been able to do it...or who has forgiven and been blessed by it...or who has seen families or friends separated by the withholding of forgiveness. The way Maki shows the ramifications that spread through generations from just one unforgiving heart is awesome.

Sometimes you feel like you're the dying grandfather; other times you feel like you are the grandson who has been estranged from this wonderful old man through no fault of your own. You'll share both the heartbreak and the joy as these two men are brought together by appoaching death, finding each other in time to break down the wall that has kept a whole family apart for a lifetime.

Well worth reading and sharing with a friend or family member. A book I'll reread. A message I hope I'll always remember.

This book has reall helped me in school. It contains vocabulary that I found was useful in both the High School Exit Exam and the SAT's. I recomend this book to students that want to amplify their vocabulary or to anyone who wants to boost-up their vocabulary.

This book has all the elements that make a novel worth reading. It has humor, (Cedric is hilarious) it has tragedy, suspense and most of all it sends a clear message about a very serious issue, but it makes it interesting to read. It is really an insight to teenage life and best of all it is really easy and fun to read!
This book is really a 'Slam Dunk' on teenage novels, Check It Out!

I really enjoyed reading this and I'm not a sport fanatic. Thought provoking, funny, great characters that remind you of people you know.

If you're thinking about it...buy and read it...you won't regret it.

In what is often considered the most controversial of his many scholarly books, this exploration into the putative causes of World War Two by renowned British historian A.P.J. Taylor caused great controversy and discussion when published in the sixties. I remember as a college student the arguments regarding his scholarship, sympathies for Hitler, and somewhat simplistic approach in trying to mount an ardent and convincing argument demolishing the conventional wisdom holding that one man, Adolph Hitler, was uniquely responsible for the outbreak of the most horrific conflict in modern history. Amazingly, upon rereading this wonderfully written, entertaining, and erudite tome again recently, one walks away still impressed by his ability to marshal a wall of facts that seemingly support his incendiary ideas.

On the surface Taylor's general thesis that, given the poorly constructed and patently unfair peace treaty levied by the victorious allies onto Germany at Versailles, the war was inevitable is well-taken, as is his contention that many besides Hitler and the Nazis were responsible for the increased tensions and resort to force of arms in the 1930s both through acts of commission such as the peace treaty, and also through acts of omission, in particular referring to the failure of any of the allies to act responsibly and thoughtfully to the provocative acts of rearming Germany. Certainly the policies of appeasement, willful ignorance, and benign neglect of the international agreements so painfully wrought with the blood of millions of soldiers on the battlefields of France in WWI led to such a level of indifference and anarchy that it became an ideal environment for the incubation of the kinds of tyranny that arose in Italy, Germany, and Spain in those years. As Taylor points out, the fact of this indifference did much to sow the seeds of what would be reaped so painfully later.

Yet while any thoughtful student will heartily agree that the whole western world's blind indifference and acts of craven appeasement to the rising tides of murder and mayhem did much to encourage the excesses and bloody dreams of the Nazis, one finds it more difficult to excuse or ignore Hitler's own role in steering Germany toward confrontation and fatal conflict with all of its European neighbors. While one can argue that he never intended a war against England and France, that he misunderstood their resolve regarding Poland and the declaration of war against Germany, it is simply silly to argue that Hitler was somehow not directly responsible for the planning and execution of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union and the quite systematic murder of its people. Thus, while in arguing for the wider sharing of blame for the possibility of war existing Taylor does a marvelous job, he fails miserably in trying to explain the specifics of the war, since Hitler said all along the reason for the war was to establish an area of expansion for the German people, or "living room", in the wheat-belt of Russia called the Ukraine.

Hitler intended from the beginning to systematically exterminate all the indigenous people living in the Ukraine (and elsewhere in Russia) through a delberate campaign of murder, slave labor, and starvation. He considered the Russian people subhumans he would smash and exterminate. Similarly, the so called "Final Solution", while not necessarily the product of the kind of systematic planning many have attributed to it, was in the end a masterfully executed campaign of deliberate genocide against Jews, gypsies, and other non-Aryans. This is a fascinating book, and Taylor argues articulately for the idea that others besides Hitler deserve a portion of the blame for what unfolded into the largest conflict in the history of the world. His notion that one can more fully comprehend Hitler's actions when viewing them in the context of a poisonously dangerous world environment in which others failed to act humanely and responsibly is both sophisticated and well supported. Yet he oversimplifies certain aspects of the story, and seems to be overly sympathetic to Hitler and the National Socialists in doing so. This book is a wonderful read, and it is a pleasure to be in the presence of such a marvelous intellect, even if I do not agree with the overall thesis he is arguing for. Enjoy!

A.J. P. Taylor generated a lot of controversy with what he recorded here about the causes leading up to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939, and it's not because of some weakness in his personal conclusions. If you read it for yourself, you'll learn so much that you actually won't be dependent on anyone else's conclusions. The book is now a familiar topic to all World War Two historians, but it amazed them all the more because Taylor is considered by many to rank among the finest historians the Western World ever produced.

He points out that what most people have learned about the outbreak of WW2 isn't actually in serious error, but it skips over all the embarrassing controversies and gray areas. Those deficiencies leave politicians with very few insights about how they could avert future tragedies. It's also a dangerously simplistic view planted in the minds of millions by the power of modern media, but there's actually no one person, government, regime, or creed, that can be blamed for the ignorance, as much as we would like to believe that only the good guys (or bad guys) who rule dished the perspective out to us... Misconceptions about WW2 era need to be grappled with honestly, and this particular book is a good start...Modern sociologists and religious people are moving away from a blanket condemnation of any individual or nation, especially those which are no longer in existence, and the insights offered by Taylor apply intelligence and sensitivity to the history of our last century. It is among the finest literary contributions offered for a more peaceful world.

This is an excellent book, learned and well-written but above all insightful... warning the reader that wars can be difficult to foresee and avoid. There is a blow by blow account of inter-war events such as the seizure of the Rhineland and the Anschluss (absorbtion of Austria), but it is the masterful linkage of events to their causes in the Versailles treaty and the interwar period that carries conviction. None of the parties to events in the inter-war period escapes censure, eg the USA excessively isolationist and the French defeatist, but it is the portrayal of Hitler and German foreign policy (insofar as there was one), ie a rational and deliberate foreign policy seeking to redress the grievances of Versailles, that teaches the reader the inappropriateness of demonising Hitler. Taylor demonstrates that politicians are often swept along by events rather than masters of them, that wars often arise from muddle and confusion rather than from evil intent or war-mongering. I was suprised to see Taylor's opinion that it was British public opinion, which shifted progressively against Hitler, that forced the issuance to Germany of an ultimatum over Poland, rather than the UK Government feeling bound by formal treaty pledges to Poland.

Book contains 46 pages on introductory propagation methods, followed by very specific information on propagating these plant types: 44 pages on trees, 54 pages on shrubs, 64 pages on perennials, 16 pages on annuals, 20 pages on cacti, 28 pages on bulbs, and 28 pages on vegetables and herbs. In the back are a glossary, an index, and north america hardiness map. Very complete.

If you can grow it, the instructions are listed in this book.

Book contains hundreds of small, but helpful photographs that demonstrate a process or identify some plant anatomy.

Solid information, well worth the money!

As a professional horticulturalist, gosh what a word, I spotted this delightful book in the Beaufort Public Library, kept it out too long because I did not want to take it back and it cost me a 75 cent fine...such a deal. Now I MUST buy my own, even though my birthday is less than a month away. It makes propagation a breeze. And what great graphics and photos. I'll be out gathering palmetto seeds soon. Ever wonder what to do with a sago palm seed? You won't believe what they need to sprout. Now I know why the plant is so expensive to buy. With this book you have the knowledge to start just about any plant you can think of.

I Have to say this is the best Garden book out of all my Garden books,all the pictures and details in this book is so great, this is one reason I have this book. I checked this book out of the library before I bought this book. The step by step instructions along with the pictures is so helpful. I have never been so interested in a book in my life. Now that I have this book I will be doing more Propagation for family & friends. I Love This Book, you must have if you love to garden.

I have a number of autocourses and I still feel that they are getting better with every passing year. If you have an interest in Formula 1 then you should have this book. It gives an overview of each team in the championship and really gets a great insight as to how their performances stacked up and what their expectations really were or should have been. The race guides are an indespensible piece of information for the serious fan, although they do occasionally miss outstanding performances from the middle or rear of the field, due to the majority of the focus being on the battle at the front, however most details are covered and in very good detail. The summary of the other racing series (F3000, F3, CART, NASCAR, etc) is a very worthwhile addition as it gives a good reference point without having to purchase other literature. Then there is the top 10 driver lists, they may not always be the rankings you expect, or agree with!, but they certainly are a good talking point, and quite well justified in most cases.
Overall the most complete annual book about Formula 1 and a complete necessity to any real fan.

Autocourse is the ultimate annual of the just completed Formula One season. My first volume covered the 1976 season and I own all but two since then. The only reason I missed those two was because they sold out before I could place my order. Each edition continually improves on the previous years with outstanding statistics for each race including lap charts, the absolute best photographs from the world's best photographers and an always intriguing editor's top ten drivers list. The race reports don't miss a beat from first to last place. The technical breakdown gives every detail of each car down to what brake pads and spark plugs they use. You are not a Formula One fan if you do not own Autocourse.

Quite simply, Autocourse is the best Formula 1 review there is. I own a complete set of CART Autocourse annuals as well as a nearly complete set of the F1 annuals from 1961 forward. During the race-less down time of the winter, I always look forward to receiving my new copy of Autocourse to review the previous season. These annuals are great for deciding bets among fellow enthusiasts and for filling in gaps in memory from seasons past. No motorsport library is complete without a complete set of these annuals. Period.

My only complaint with recent annuals is that there seems to be somewhat less information than in the past-- but, by no means, is the information lacking or incomplete. The pictures, which have taken some of the space of the writing, are as usual fantastic and worth the price of the book by themselves. Note well that this complaint does not have any effect on my rating of a full five stars. If you have any enthusiasm for the sport, you must get a copy of this book!

This was the first of Foster's books that I have read. I enjoyed it very much. Foster does a great job of illustrating the hypocrisy of modern man through the eyes of aliens. I was really surprised to see the change that Will undergoes after Caldaq leaves Earth, this was certainly an interesting twist. One word of caution I would offer to those that are thinking of reading this book is that it does not really end. It just sort of stops. It is part of a three part series and it seems that in order to find any resolution, the whole series is required reading. However, I found the book entertaining enough to warrant the reading of the next book, and would have no problem recommending it to any science fiction fan.

A very good book, one of my all time favorites. Although, I somewhat disagree with Fosters recurrent theme of humanity's violent tendencies (presented a bit simplistic or naive in a way) it didn't keep me from enjoying this book. It is a great start to the series, and by far the best of the trilogy.

There is also a little twist in the first contact theory. Humans carry some advantages that aren't often represented in most scifi stories. I also enjoyed the switching between POVs during the initial encounters, judgments that are made about each side.

The idea that Earth's humanity is an inferior life form (physically and/or mentally) to other intelligent or aggressive types pervades science fiction and fantasy, yet there is no reason to presume that this would be the case. It is equally possible that humanity would be superior in many ways to other forms and this attitude has seldom been explored. Foster explores it in this book. Although exactly what is "superior" and what is "inferior" in moral terms is left open to question, the author leaves no doubt that humans are definitely unique to all other known forms in making war successfully. In addition, they appear to be stronger, more versatile and faster than the other intelligent types that are present. It's an interesting idea that should have come to maturity many years ago and finally has

While some of the criticism of Flusser on this site is well placed, overall, this book should be the Bible for anyone wanting a sound, basic introduction to men's style. It is especially useful if you're interested in how men's dress evolved in this country. While some of the book is dated, it gives a good overview of almost anything a man could want to know about style. As someone else has pointed out, this book is not about fashion, it's about style. As such, it's a starting point for someone interested in developing their own, not the be all end all of men's dress.

This is probably one of my two favorite books on Men's style, the other being Gentlemen Style by Bernhard Roetzel. This book has very useful information for male fashion basics and is well illustrated. It is devoted to true male classic style so don't look to it if you want trendy or the lastest. I would say it is a sigificanlty better book than Style and the Man by Flusser, though, the text of the two books is fairly dupliciative - this one is better illustrated and goes into more detail.

I have read this book several times with pleasure and refer to it often. (I even reached for it on my wedding day for advice on pocket squares.) Flusser combines detailed information about fabrics, tailoring, and color with his own wonderful sense of style, based on 1930s and '40s models that have remained classic. A beautiful book and well worth the price.

Very impressive and entertaining work by Dr. Hirshfeld. The amount of historical research that must have gone into this book is stunning. He covers over 2,000 years of the history of astronomy and astronomers, from Aristarchus to Ptolemy to Copernicus to the 19th Century and into the modern era. And he puts it together is an extremely readable and compelling way.

Perhaps the single best thing about the book is how the author doesn't shy away from describing the science and technology at the root of the human story he is telling, yet he presents it all in a way that is understandable and interesting whether you are an expert or a novice.

I have read many books and articles on the history of astronomy in the past, and hands down this is one of my absolute favorites.

Along the lines of Longitude, where Dava Sobel took us on a walk through astronomical history with the focus on the effort to determine longitude at sea, Hirshfeld's "Parallax" is an engaging historical survey concentrating on efforts to detect that minute wobble of stars. Hirshfeld focuses on the personalities and people - which makes this story enjoyable and even riveting.

Copernicus' view of the heavens had long since prevailed - no serious person of science doubted that the Earth and planets orbited the sun. However, there was no concrete scientific evidence to prove the Copernican view. The acid test of the Earth's motion, slight displacement of stars in June and December, when the Earth is on opposite sides of its orbit, had still not been detected. Hirshfeld traces the story from the earliest Greeks through Hooke, Newton, Bessel, Bradley and many others. It's a great story, well told.

I highly recommend and thoroughly enjoyed this delightful spellbinding journey through the history and science of astronomy and its quest to find stellar parallax. Parallax is full of humor, suspense and intrigue with insight into the creativity, genius, skill, perseverance and sometimes quirkiness of astronomy's founding fathers. I was fascinated by the human story, often all too human but more often inspirational, of each contributor in this scientific endeavor from the early Greeks through the Renaissance to 19th century Europe. Hirshfeld gives the reader an intimate sense of each of these great astronomers(Aristarchus, Copernicus, Gallileo, Kepler, Newton, Hooke, Bradley and many more) and what each contributed and made them tick.

Hirshfeld tells an impressive tale of the scientific mind and engineering skills, and their challenges, pursuits and perseverance against all obstacles, technical and political, to discover the scientific truths that the earth revolves around the sun and distances to the stars. The tale is wrought with pitfalls due to the enormity of the scale of the universe, the diversity of stars, the technological difficulty in inventing and improving the telescope and its usability, reliability and resolution in its early incarnations, and many preconceived misleading notions and an enormity of other stumbling blocks.

Reading Parallax, I imagined the frustration for over 2000 years knowing the basic principle of stellar parallax - measure the shift in position of a star relative to its background stars from opposite sides of the earth's orbit and geometry yields its distance - and not having the technology to measure it, for even the closest stars are very far away and therefore have very small parallaxes to resolve. Parallax gave me a sense of admiration for those early astronomers and their inspiration, insight, foresight and dogged determination, often in dire circumstances.

Alan Hirshfeld has a knack for helping the reader to visualize his descriptions of technical, physics and telescopic concepts and equipment. There are also great diagrams illustrating technical concepts and mechanical equipment that enhanced my reading experience, along with engaging tales of how telescopic equipment was invented, constructed and used over the centuries in pursuit of stellar parallax. Hirshfeld is especially charming when he relates his personal delightful stories from aspiring young amateur astronomer to professional astronomer and physics teacher.

Parallax is a compelling, informative, insightful and often humorous tale of the people, science and technology that race to find the parallax of a star. Parallax is a great scientific who-done-it, building on each scientist, their obstacles and innovations, giving the reader the anticipation of what scientist with what equipment will solve the technological challenge of measuring stellar parallax. I learned a lot of fun and interesting things about the people involved, the evolution of human ideas and technology, and the history of the pursuit.

Be careful when you read some of these reviews. A couple of these reviewers are writing about the movie, and don't appear to have read the book. No matter. I saw the film first, and--except for the pretty awful theme song that comes in at the otherwise memorable ending--it's as good as it's cracked up to be. Probably John Wayne's best film, and maybe even John Ford's as well. The book, however, is considerably different from the film. Ford and his screenwriters made many different choices, and I think this helps the reader who's seen the film. The story and characters are different enough to keep fans of the film in suspense. And for those who haven't seen the film I recommend it as a good, suspenseful, gripping read.

These people had a kind of courage that may be the finest gift of man: the courage of those who simply keep on, and on, doing the next thing ... -Alan Le May (on the Texicans)

It's muy chic in these days of political correctness to bemoan our ancestors' horrible misguided behavior in regards to the American Indians. In Leftist hindsight, the Indians have been converted into pastoral New Age environmentalists, facing off against a militaristic, technological behemoth. The novel The Searchers, basis for the great John Ford/John Wayne movie (The Searchers--1956), offers a necessary antidote to such fuzzy headed platitudinous twaddle.

The story begins in 1868 Texas; neglected by the military during the Civil War and now subject to the naive Quaker administration of Indian affairs, white settlements are being rolled back by persistent murderous Comanche raids. Living at the very edge of civilization are Henry and Martha Edwards and their children, Lucy, Debbie, Ben and Hunter. The couple are assisted by the young man , Martin Pauley, who they virtually adopted when Comanches slaughtered his family, and by Henry's brother Amos, a quiet, taciturn man who seems to be irresistibly drawn back to the ranch time and again. But then one day Marty and Amos are lured away from the ranch when a Comanche party steals a herd of cattle. They pursue them for quite a distance before realizing that they have been tricked. By the time they arrive back at the Edwards ranch, it is in ruins, the parents and the boys are dead and scalped and the girls are missing. As every movie viewer knows, what ensues is a years long quest by Martin and Amos (Ethan in the movie) as they search for the girls.

Martin is driven by a memory of how he ignored Debbie on her last day of life, Amos appears to be driven by darker demons. Eventually, Martin has an epiphany:

Amos, Mart realized, no longer believed they would recover Lucy alive--and wasn't thinking of Debbie at all. Seeing Amos' face as it was tonight, Mart remembered it as it was that worst time of the world, when Martha lay in the box they had made for her. Her face looked young and serene, and her crossed hands were at rest. They were worn hands, betraying Martha's age as her face did not, with little random scars on them. Martha was always hurting her hands. Mart thought, "She wore them out, she hurt them, working for us."

As he thought that, the key to Amos' life suddenly became plain. All his uncertainties, his deadlocks with himself, his labors without pay, his perpetual gravitation back to his brother's ranch--they all fell into line. As he saw what had shaped and twisted Amos' life, Mart felt shaken up; he had lived with Amos most of his life without ever suspecting the truth. But neither had Henry suspected it--and Martha least of all.

Amos was--had always been--in love with his brother's wife.

At first they are accompanied by Lucy's fiancé, but when he thinks that he has spied Lucy dancing around a fire in the Comanche camp, Amos brutally explains that what he's actually seen is a young buck wearing her scalp. The young man, driven mad, attacks the camp and is killed. From there on, Amos and Martin have only each other and Martin increasingly realizes that they do not share the same obsessions:

Mart had noticed that Amos always spoke of catching up to "them"--never of finding "her." And the cold, banked fires behind Amos' eyes were manifestly the lights of hatred, not of concern for a lost girl. He wondered uneasily if there might not be a peculiar danger in this. He believed now that Amos, in certain moods, would ride past the child and let her be lost to them if he saw a chance to kill Comanches.

In the coming years they survive Indian attacks, blizzards, comic misadventures, robbery attempts and the like as their search narrows in on Scar, a chief of the Wolf Clan. Along the way, Amos develops a grudging respect for Martin (even making him his heir) and the two become the stuff of legend, known to the Indians as "Bull Shoulders" (Amos) and "The Other" (Marty).

This is historical fiction in the grand manor, combining an exciting story and extensive historical background to create the kind of mythos that is central to a nation's understanding of itself. What emerges is a more balanced sense of how precarious a situation these early white homesteaders faced as they pushed into Indian territory and, while not justifying racial hatred, it makes the animus between the races more understandable. This is a great American story, with an obvious debt to Moby Dick (Amos/Ahab, Marty/Ishmael, Scar/Moby); the movie will always preserve our memory of the tale, but it deserves to be read too.

GRADE: A+

EVEN IF YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE-WITH JOHN WAYNE- DONT PASS THIS UP. PLEASE. IT IS AS GOOD AS A WESTERN CAN BE. YOU ARE RIGHT THERE ,LOOKING OVER ETHAN'S SHOULDER AS THE STORY UNFOLDS. I WANT TO SEE JAMES DRURY '' THE VIRGINIAN'' PUT THIS ON TAPE ALONG WITH LEMAY'S OTHER CLASSIC-THE UNFORGIVEN! YOU WILL WANT TO KEEP THESE TWO BOOKS IN YOUR LIBRARY. IF YOU DONT READ THIS BOOK- YOU ARE CHEATING YOURSELF!!!!!!!!

If you know the story of Grameen Bank, and wanted to know more about the founder - I don't need to say anymore.

If you haven't heard of Grameen, prepare yourself to learn about a bank which has overturned the conventional wisdom about helping people who live in poverty.

Yunus' big idea can be put very simply: people who live on less than $1 per day (3 billion people) don't need to be tought how to feed themselves and survive - the very fact that they are alive is testament to their abilities.

His approach rests upon that faith in people's ability to help themselves, if given access to the very small amounts of loan capital they need to start a profitable venture - whether that is weaving cloth or repairing bicycles.

The road to reaching more than 2 million people in Bangladesh, and many other millions worldwide, wasn't smooth. What you get from reading this book is a sense that sometimes the 'homegrown' solution beats the 'imposed' ideas from the developed world.

A challenging book for liberals and conservatives alike!

I liked this book a lot. I had heard of micro-credit, but wanted to know what it was from its originator, Dr. Yunus. It is very informative about his struggles to get it started and rolling. What I liked best was that it was told like a story and it motivated me to do more research into Micro Credit.

What this is not is a how-to manual for implementing Micro-Credit programs. But it is still a great book!

Professor Muhammed Yunus, with a combination of analytical clarity and moral indignation that is too rare among economists, embarked on a personal journey to stamp out poverty back in 1976. Amazingly, from that modest beginning of a $27 mini loan, his Grameen ("of the village") Bank has now distributed the equivalent of over one billion dollars to 2 million borrowers! And their repayment rate is above 98%. Provocatively, his scathing critiques of traditional economics will mark him as an innovator who belives in a "socially-consciousness-driven private sector". Summing up, if a "Long March" of 1,000 miles begins with the first step, then reading this book will surely be happy trails for the aspiring pioneers of the new collective economy of the 21st century.