Silverlock was first given to me by my brother and I enjoyed reading every word of it. I carelessly lost it and eventually found another copy after many years and have reread it several times now. Silverlock is casted away from the harried present to an island filled with intruiging characters of literatures past. The fun of figuring out these suggestive characters (ie. Robin Hood, the Mad Hatter, etc) along with the journey Silverlock takes will draw you into the book like no other. If you only read one book this year, be sure to make it this one!!!

I say that because, well, I just can't think of a word to describe how I feel about this book. This book was written in 1949, but John Myers Myers writes SO WELL that you'd think it was written in the present-day if you didn't know any better. I constantly found myself devouring it in 100 page gulps. Unlike nearly all other fantasy novels that are serious, this fantasy novel is intentionally humourous. The main character, Silverlock, finds himself stranded on a strange continent called The Commonwealth. As he journeys with his friend Golias, he meets up with MANY familiar literary characters. The literary characters and references are scattered through the book, but John Myers Myers doesn't stick with any of them very long. That way they don't go stale or get too much attention. There are TONS of humorous situations and poems in this book that will make you perk right up. Tolkien may have been a good poet, but JMM was just as good and sometimes far better. After reading a flood of formula-fantasy, this book is very fresh and rewarding. It downright shocks me that so few people have commented on this book. Please, do yourself a favor and buy this book IMMEDIATELY.

I got my copy years ago and after having read it dozens of times it is badly worn. I found this site in my search for a new copy. This is simply the best work of fiction ever produced. Myers creates an entire world to challenge and capture the imagination, populated with both well known and obscure characters from all throughout literature. They are wonderful to recognize in this new context, and there is not a dull moment to be found in these adventures. This book will make you feel truly alive, and see the world around you with new awe and appreciation. Nothing compares to Silverlock. I urge you to demand as loud as possible that a new reprint is made- the world needs Silverlock!

I read books 1-4 of DIADEM.I will buy 5 and 6. You should keep on writing. Think of making this book a television series, computer software(Windows 95), and a movie. You should make a book that they have to face an evil version of themselves. And Shanara has enough power to help them and give them each a unicorn horn and a familiar(bird,mammal,reptile). And each gets a griomore or book of spells. Helaine has Eremin's, Score has Traxis's, and Pixel has Nantor's.

This book is about 3 people, Score, Helaine and Pixel. They have exiting adventures and it feels like the characters are real! I think everyone should get to read this fantastic book. I read about 50 pages and then got so interested in the book I read the whole book. This is the best book I've ever read,and the most exiting adventure story I ever read! I can't wait for the other book!

Usually I hate fantastic fiction, but this book, (and the other in the series), totally changed my view.It's very cool, especially the part where they made friends with goblins and fought the wyrm.This book,unlike the first one shows you don't have to fight everything to win. I warmly recommend it for monster-magic lovers especially.Good book.

From the first paragraph the reader is held tight to the words here, with feelings created by Michael Vines as he weaves the story of Sarah, Joshua and her life. We feel the purity of deep innocent love in a world of impure morals, and he shows us the depths of evil as forces turn against her because of her beliefs. Michael has created a work of great beauty, deep emotion, and thoroughly impacting on a readers' senses. I would gladly recommend this book to most knowing that it will live long in their hearts. This book while adult in it's maturity makes you feel uplifted, and redeemed in the belief in good vs. evil. I would keep it with me for the "dark" days in my life as I would need his message most at those times. This is a heart melter!

Super book! Theophany is an emotional and spiritual adventure. After reading a few pages, I loved Sarah and Josh. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I couldn't stop reading, except to try to recover my emotions. The story is going along beautifully, and then Mr. Vines sends a jolt to your heart. He does this several times. The humor and evil he adds to the story complete the adventure. Sarah and Joshua will be with me forever. I'm reading it a second time, and finding even more in it. I'd recommend it to everyone. I am anxiously awaiting the next book.

First, let me say that Theophany is not the type of book I would have thought I would find myself reading. My style is more action-based reading, and I prefer mystery novels over anything else. I actually saw Theophany on a bookshelf in the office of a friend who had read it, and I found myself quite intrigued. Reading Mr. Vines' bio on the back cover, I started reading the book, and couldn't put it down. Sarah quickly captures your heart, and you feel as if you are at her side as she embarks on her journey. The book blends humanity and spirituality with conflict and jubilance. Theophany helped me re-identify an inner faith that I thought was long gone. While it may be a fictional story, the effects in has the reader are very realistic. Sarah and Josh will stay with you for a while to come. Read this book...it could be the sleeper of the year!

I disagree with the 5-star consensus of the previous reviewers - Kerouac's writing is not 'faultless prose', as he characterizes it himself in this novel. But 'Desolation Angels' is another fascinating glimpse into the heart of this daring and nomadic - literally and spiritually - author. One star gets shaved from my review for the unfocused, enigmatic opening section of the book, 'Desolation in Solitude'. A rethinking of 'Alone on a Mountaintop' from 'Lonesome Traveler', this section only thickens the fog in both the reader and in the author, it seems. It's not that it rambles - all Kerouac's writing does, and to point it out as a flaw is like insisting that Bob Dylan's voice sucks. Of course it does, that's the point. But Kerouac characterized the Desolation Peak experience before and did it better in 'Lonesome Traveler'.

However, once Kerouac makes his descent and rejoins the world in the second half of Book One and through all of Book Two, the way that his mountaintop experience informs his perspective in places like New York, Mexico, and Europe is engrossing and surpisingly intelligent. Drawing from a wide variety of influences from St. Paul to Buddha to Hemingway, Kerouac revisits familiar places and people with a broadened and more cynical point of view. Desolation Angels is more candid, forthright, even explicit, than its predecessors about drug use and sex. But it also reveals a more exhaustive spiritual hunger in Kerouac, and leads the reader to conclude that the author, in his quest to meet God, realized he had indeed found Him.

By turns a thoughtful, pensive, funny and risk-taking novel, Desolation Angels is canonical Kerouac.

generation in Desolation Angels. Kerouacs frank accounts and vivid style draw you into the heart of a man both idealistic and cinical, naive and experienced, proud and downtrodden, as well as buddist and Catholic, living the life of a "Dharma Bum" as he travels to Mexico. From the fire lookout high on Desolaion Peak, to the junk steets of Mexico, Kerouac shares with his readers every experience and emotion, carring the reader deep into the lifestyle of the Beats as few authors ever accomplished. Its no wonder Kerouac became the symbol of the Beat generation for millions of kats in the 50's, for even today his writing is hep, and inciteful. He could very easily be an icon for generations to come.

Desolation Angels was the second Kerouac book I purchased, and it became my favorite book. In the first half of the book, the "Desolation" chapters explain Jack's feelings and mind more than in any other book and during an important period of his life. Some people say the book is schitzophrenic, having been started in Mexico City in 1956 and completed around 1962. However, I believe the result is not two books but half of the book being thoughts and feelings and the other half being a thoughtful man reflecting. In any case, the book is wonderful, and reading the entire novel does take some work but well worth the effort!

This book and Robert Adair's _The_Physics_of_Baseball_ are essential to being the best player, executive, or fan possible. This book is timeless, and focuses on the 'real playing field' of baseball -- the strike zone where the hitter and pitcher battle it out. This book covers technique well, but more importantly, it teaches approach, and the earlier in your life you can learn that, the better you will be.

Williams' emphasis on plate discipline and mental approach, combined with his teaching of how to analyze your own swing gives you the basic tools you need to be an excellent offensive player. For pitchers, this book is a must to understand the weapons available to the batter.

For fans, this book will help you understand what's important and what's just filler by the broadcast team. If you're under 14 years old, buy this book, or go get from your local library, and study it on a field with a tee and a bag of balls. Then read it every day before you do your hitting reps.

This book turns bad hitters fair, and good hitters great. You just need to put in the work.

This is the greatest book anyone an possibly buy on hitting. It is written by one of the top 3 hitters in baseball history, Ted Williams, and he definitely knows what he's talking about. Take it from me, I know. Im a 15 year old baseball player, whenever I get into a slump I can read this book and it will automatically get me out of it. If you read this at the beggining of a season it's possible your batting average could at least increase by .200, depending on how good you are. He explains the importance of having a good swing, stride, and everything essential to being a good hitter. This is a must have for every little leaguer.

This book is perfect for anyone looking to expand their knowledge on how to hit a baseball. Everything from pitch recognition to a smooth swing are discussed and analyzed. Ted Williams also includes some of his stories from when baseball was a lifestyle. This book allows anyone to see the time and hard work that must go into becoming a good hitter. Becoming a good hitter does not mean picking up a bat and taking a few swings. It starts before you ever get to the ballpark. He walks you through ways to pick up pitcher tendencies, and stresses patience at the plate. This book provides helpful diagrams, which show what pitches are good ones to take a swing at. But he doesn't stop there, he goes into great detail about what you should try and do with that pitch that is in the zone. Also included are tips for making your stance comfortable yet effective, grip on the bat, and improving your power for maximum effectiveness in every at bat. Ted Williams also provides insight on knowing the situation, and doing what is best for your team. A must read for players of all skill levels. This book will grow with you as your hitting experiences expand. Ted Williams deserves more stars than I am allowed to give him for this book.

CLASS-29 takes you back to 1963 as a few 19 year old boys take on the "Toughest School on Earth." From their hands being so cold they can't even light a match until their nasal cavaties exploding blood and mucus into SCUBA masks, John Carl Roat and his "Team" engage in "Hell Week" as Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL Training unfolds. Only a chosen few have the "fire in the belly" and" burning in the brain "needed to become a U.S. Navy SEAL/Frogman.

In the words of Rush Limbaugh, "War is about killing people and breaking things." Personally, I think Rush Limbaugh is a jerk. And I assumed that John Carl Roat's book, CLASS-29: THE MAKING OF U.S. NAVY SEALS would be about training a bunch of 20-something jerks with inflated egos and terminal testosterone poisoning. I was wrong.

The candidates for SEAL training may well have started out that way, but by the time the few survivors had graduated (a minescule percentage of the original applicants) they were very different men indeed.

In an odd sort of way, Roat's CLASS-29 is a love story. We watch as the young trainees learn from their own experience that no matter how tough they think they are, they can only survive with help from the guy beside them. Soon this evolves into a sort of reliance, as they learn that they will only survive as a team; and then into genuine affection and respect. These kids come in all puffed up and clueless, and they come out as men who would lay down their lives for the good of the team, for the survival of their teammates. That they are superbly conditioned fighting machines is secondary - vitally important, but secondary none the less. Now that macho attitude has a vital core of respect and integrity.

It's a wonderful story. Roat spins a good yarn. The physical challenge of the training will make your hair stand on end. That these guys were able to joke in the midst of it is a tribute to their resiliance. That they came out of it imbued with absolute respect for another as well as love of country is a tribute to the training.

Absolutely fantastic book! I have read alot of books on SEALs and this book is the best book you can have if you want to know how SEALs are trained. It goes through each phase and tells what they are about and he felt going through them. SEALs are the toughest men in the US Miltary and one of the toughest groups of men, if not the toughest, in the world and this book tells how they weed out the ones that dont have the "fire in the gut," as he calls it and pick out the ones with the determination and mental toughness to be in the group. It is a fantastic book. If I could get ahold of John Carl Roats email address I would write him a email telling him how much I enjoyed this book. It should be read by anyone with interest in the Navy SEALs.

In ancient times, Plato was regarded as one who writes most beautifully, and even in translation his mastery comes forward.

Reading this book, you are at the beginning of philosophy. There are beautiful dialogs concerning the most profound questions anyone can ask.

An advantage of this particular book is that for a reasonable price you can own Plato's complete works in modern scholarly translations. The volume is skillfully edited and there are handy notes.

Plato is one of the few philosophers who can be read for pleasure. His influence on Western thought is immense. As Whitehead says, subsequent Western philosophy is just footnotes to Plato.

Here are some of the works collected in this volume -

Apology - Socrates defense of his life

Phaedo - a defense of the immortality of the soul

Euthyrpo - a criticism of the Divine Command theory of ethics

Republic - the ideal commonwealth, what is justice, theory of ideas

Meno - the recollection theory of knowledge

Timaeus - Plato's story of the creation of the universe, his cosmology

Plato, Complete Works is a must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in philosophy. Cooper's and Hutchinson's edition contains all Plato's known works and even some that might not be his, but are associated with him in some way. The translations are generally well-written and their style more up-to-date and readable than some older translations. As reviewers said before, this book is necessary if you want to understand philosophy and its history.

Except for some of the shorter works, (Euthyphro, Apology, Symposium), Plato's works are not easy to read. Some works are so dense and difficult that you can't see the point of his argument (e.g., Parmenides). If you need some help interpreting Plato, a good introduction to his work is G.M. Grube's Plato's Thought. It provides clear exposition on a number of subjects, including the theory of ideas, the nature of the soul, education, and statecraft.

One needs to decide whether Plato's thought is vital today or just historically important. Those who treat Plato as important today fall into one of two groups. There are those who think he is the source of that evil called Western Civilization. Post-modernists see modern philosophy as a series of rhetorical tropes started by Plato. They hold him responsible for the metaphysical nonsense espoused in philosophy today about reality, objectivity, and knowledge. If you think Plato is total nonsense and think his characters Protagoras (man is the measure of things) and Thrasymachus (might makes right) are largely correct, you might want to compare his work to Derrida or Nietzsche.

Then there are the Hellenists. They think that Plato said it all and nothing (or not much) more needs to be said. You usually get Alfred North Whitehead's quote here about philosophy being a series of footnotes to Plato. If you are so enthralled, you might want to try Allen Bloom, Stanley Rosen, or Leo Strauss.

Personally, I think both readings are wrongheaded for the same reason. In the 19th and 20th centuries especially, philosophy has made conceptual advances on Plato. Frege's logic, Kuhn's history of science, Peirce's communitarian pragmatism, and Wittgenstein's later language theory step beyond Plato.

If Plato is important today, it is for what he started, not what he says. He began the philosophical fields that are still popular areas today, including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and politics. And he invented the character of Socrates, through which he developed the notions of dialectic and definition. For these reasons alone, Plato's works should be read carefully and often. The fact that you get all of them here in one relatively inexpensive book (at least in terms of price per work) should be incentive enough to buy it.

I have not read every narration and account in this huge book yet but so far I am extremely happy with it. First, Plato's works are wonderful and somehow maintain a freshness even after reading through several in a row. The threads of logic woven through these works are a delight and I have found myself laughing aloud occasionally at the near sarcasm I feel I'm reading - Socrates often comes across as a quick-tongued smart-A**.

The translation is free-flowing and up-to-date. If you can read English, buy this book. If not, learn to and then buy this or have someone read it to you. It is that good and that important.

In reading this book, two things jumped out at me. The first was that, to my surprise, the book made me like Bob Knight. After all he's been through and all the disapproval I felt for some of the things he did, I just didn't think I could like him. But, after reading this book, I think I understand him better and can see his good side as a coach and as a man much better. He's made some big mistakes, but he does a lot of good work and a lot of great coaching.

The second thing that jumped out at me was what an ordinary job of writing John Feinstein did in this book. Yes, he reported what happened, and he used language I understood, but he just didn't write in an interesting style. Instead of developing characters on the team or among the staff to report around, he just basically ground out what happened. I had to push myself to finish the book even though I'm a big basketball fan and was highly interested in the story. This dullness surprised me because I hear Feinstein on the radio and see him on the tube frequently and almost always find him very entertaining and funny. Maybe he hadn't really developed as an author when he churned this one out.

If you like basketball and have any interest in Bob Knight or Indiana, I'd say read this for sure. Just don't expect to be captivated by the writing.

As a huge sports fan, I couldn't wait to read this book and get an inside look into a college basketball season with Bob Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers. John Feinstein pulled off a minor miracle by convincing Knight to allow him to follow the whole team, players and coaches alike with his notepad and tape recorder throughout the 1985-86 season.

What you'll see is an inside look at the trials and tribulations of a big-time college basketball team and the sometime circus atmosphere created by their tempermental coach. The book starts off with a quick recap of the 1984-85 season which included the now famous chair throwing incident. Then you are lead through the offseason, training camp and regular season of 1985-86. Feinstein does a good job of keeping up the pace despite giving detailed recaps of every season's game. He ends the book with a brief summary of the national championship season of 1986-87.

There's no doubt who the center point of the whole book is: That of course is Bob Knight. I'm not an Indiana hoosier fan but I certainly was well aware of all the incidents Knight's been involved in over the years including the chair throwing, head butting, and choking. I can't say that my opinion of him changed at all after reading this book. The best word I can use to describe him is: complex.

In this book, you'll read how he verbally abuses players, especially Daryl Thomas. He'll play mind games like he did with Steve Alford, the team captain and best player. He'll be upbeat about the performance of the team one minute, and then the next he'll say how the team is horrible and will never win with these players. Warning: there is some profanity, but the f-words are "blanked" out.

But at the same time, this coach is extremely loyal to his players after they graduate. He'll do favors such as help get them jobs, etc. One of the most touching moments in the book is when he meets a family where the father and son are deaf-mute. Is his good side good enough to put up with his other nonsense? You be the judge!

Supposedly, BK was NOT very happy with the book. I don't know what he expected, but Feinstein clearly didn't take sides or had some kind of adgenda to [thrash] Knight. This is must read for all sports fans, Indiana Hoosiers or not.

I read this book more than 10 years ago and it sticks with me even today. This is a masterpiece that shows the mind, ethics, mania, honor, despite, loathesomeness, and honesty of Bob Knight. The same man who screamed at his kids until his face matched his ubiquitous red sweater is the same man who paid for Stew Robinson's final tuition credits (after the scholarship ran out) from his own pocket. The same coach who is mournful or enraged or both after a loss was preternaturally calm after his '86-87 team won the NCAA title stressing how great it was for the kids.

The dichotomies of Knight are fascinating, and occasionally frightening. I was a Knight-hater before I read the book. I don't hate him, nor would I pretend to understand him. His self-view is highly nuanced and the depiction Feinstein gives reflects the complexities and contradictions of Knight, his program and the pressures of college basketball.

This book is outstanding because of how much Feinstein reveals, perceives and transmits to the reader.

I had to read a good part of "The Decameron" last quarter and I have gone back to read more stories from it even though the Fall quarter is over. This is a great book: funny, entertaining, subtly revolutionary, insightful, and superbly well-written. Approach it without fear. It is a Classic, but it will have you laughing, thinking, and learning far better than any current best-seller. Anyone with an interest in journalism and/or history will profit from Boccaccio's Introduction, at the beginning of the First Day. His description of the Plague in Florence is vivid and gripping, and this eventually provides the background for the setting of the one hundred and one tales that seven young women and three young men will narrate in a villa away from the dying city. Also, the Introduction to the Fourth Day presents the reader with an unfinished, but hilarious story about a man who has been kept away from women. This story is what my teacher called the 101st, and I have to agree with her.

Do not think that all "The Decameron" deals with is sex. The mostly illicit sexual encounters depicted are some times funny, sometimes sad, but they share a common trait with the stories from the Tenth Day, for example (these ones are mostly about sacrifice, abnegation, and servitude), or with those of the Second: Boccaccio's concern for his society and the terrible tensions that had reached a breaking point by the 14th century. The Plague, in Boccaccio's universe, acts as a catalyst of emotions, desires, and changes that had to come.

Read, then, about Alibech putting the Devil back in Hell, Lisabetta and her pot of basil, Ser Ceperello and his "saintly" life, Griselda and her incredible loyalty in spite of the suffering at the hands of a God-like husband, Tancredi and his disturbing love for his daughter, Masetto and the new kind of society he helps create with some less-than-religious nuns, and then it will be easier to understand why Boccaccio is so popular after 650 years. And although it may be skipped by most readers, do not miss the Translator's (G. M. McWilliam) introduction on the history of "The Decameron" proper, and that of its many, and mostly unfortunate, translations into English. This book is one of the wisest, most economic ways of obtaining entertainment and culture. Do not miss it.

Giovanni Boccaccio THE DECAMERON. Second Edition. Translated with an Introduction and Notes by G. H. McWilliam. cli + 909 pages. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN 0-14-044629-X (Pbk).

Second-hand opinions can do a lot of harm. Most of us have been given the impression that The Decameron is a lightweight collection of bawdy tales which, though it may appeal to the salacious, sober readers would do well to avoid. The more literate will probably be aware that the book is made up of one hundred stories told on ten consecutive days in 1348 by ten charming young Florentines who have fled to an amply stocked country villa to take refuge from the plague which is ravaging Florence.

Idle tales of love and adventure, then, told merely to pass the time by a group of pampered aristocrats, and written by an author who was quite without the technical equipment of a modern story-teller such as Flannery O'Connor. But how, one wonders, could it have survived for over six hundred years if that's all there were to it? And why has it so often been censored? Why have there always been those who don't want us to read it?

A puritan has been described as someone who has an awful feeling that somebody somewhere may be enjoying themselves, and since The Decameron offers the reader many pleasures it becomes automatically suspect to such minds. In the first place it is a comic masterpiece, a collection of entertaining tales many of which are as genuinely funny as Chaucer's, and it offers us the pleasure of savoring the witty, ironic, and highly refined sensibility of a writer who was also a bit of a rogue. It also provides us with an engaging portrait of the Middle Ages, and one in which we are pleasantly surprised to find that the people of those days were every bit as human as we are, and in some ways considerably more delicate.

We are also given an ongoing hilarious and devastating portrayal of the corruption and hypocrisy of the medieval Church. Another target of Boccaccio's satire is human gullibility in matters religious, since, then as now, most folks could be trusted to believe whatever they were told by authority figures. And for those who have always found Dante to be a crushing bore, the sheer good fun of The Decameron, as Human Comedy, becomes, by implication (since Boccaccio was a personal friend of Dante), a powerful and compassionate counterblast to the solemn and cruel anti-life nonsense of The Divine Comedy.

There is a pagan exuberance to Boccaccio, a frank and wholesome celebration of the flesh; in contrast to medieval Christianity's loathing of woman we find in him what David Denby beautifully describes as "a tribute to the deep-down lovableness of women" (Denby, p.249). And today, when so many women are being taught by anti-sex radical feminists to deny their own bodies and feelings, Boccaccio's celebration of the sexual avidity of the natural woman should come as a very welcome antidote. For Denby, who has written a superb essay on The Decameron that can be strongly recommended, Boccaccio's is a scandalous book, a book that liberates, a book that returns us to "the paradise from which, long ago, we had been expelled" (Denby, p.248).

The present Penguin Classics edition, besides containing Boccaccio's complete text, also includes a 122-page Introduction, a Select Bibliography, 67 pages of Notes, four excellent Maps and two Indexes. McWilliam, who is a Boccaccio scholar, writes in a supple, refined, elegant and truly impressive English which successfully captures the highly sophisticated sensibility of Boccaccio himself. His translation reads not so much as a translation as an original work, though his Introduction (which seems to cover everything except what is most important) should definitely be supplemented by Denby's wonderfully insightful and stimulating essay, details of which follow:

Chapter 17 - 'Boccaccio,' in 'GREAT BOOKS - My Adventures with Homer, Rousseau, Woolf, and Other Indestructible Writers of the Western World'
by David Denby. pp.241-249. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-83533-9 (Pbk).

Ten young Florentine noblemen and women escaping the Black Death in Florence in 1348 entertain themselves by each relating a story per day for ten days - 100 entertaining stories in all, mostly set in and around medieval Florence. Although famously naughty, none of these stories strikes a modern reader as more than mildly erotic. Rather, they consistently astonish by their thoroughly modern message that women are as good as men, nobility doesn't come from birth, sanctity doesn't come from the church, and - above all - true love must never be denied. Amazingly, Boccaccio often delivers this message while pretending to say the exact opposite; sometimes he presents very sympathetic characters who get away with things thought scandalous in his time, offering a mere token condemnation at the end, while other times he depicts someone actually following the accepted code and committing some horrible act of cruelty in the process. Either way - and despite his claims to be upholding convention - we always know what he really means, and apparently he didn't fool too many people in his own day either.

But one doesn't need to focus on the revolutionary aspects of the Decameron to enjoy the book; each of the stories delights the reader with a different tasty morsel, and, you can read as much or as little at a time as you please. Once you get past the introduction, (and that's probably the most serious part of the book, so be sure not to give up before you get to the first story) the stories will make you laugh, make you cringe, and make you sit on the edge of your seat. Inspiring authors from Chaucer to Shakespeare and entertaining audiences for over 700 years, the Decameron continues to delight.

I'm a retired manager from one of the major automakers. The business community has changed greatly over the past 35 years and has become more socially conscious. A Global Force of one provides practical and feasible ideas to implement projects with meaningful results.The bigger the company the harder it is to implement company wide programs this books shows how individual plants and offices can make a difference. Easy to read and well organized it can be read and re-read almost anywhere. I recommend this book to all management trainee's and middle managers.

BE A GLOBAL FORCE OF ONE! is a great resource to help turn our THOUGHTS of wanting to do something positive into DOING something positive. The 202 ways listed in the book provide ready-to-use ideas that can be begun NOW. We can contact people who have actually been putting an idea into action.

It is often easier to adapt an idea rather than think it up in the first place. When we want to contribute our time, money, influence, ideas and/or resources to help others -- there is something in this book to get us started. This book is actually a powerful force of one in itself. Choose your level and type of commitment and BEGIN!

Thank you, John T. Boal, for your extensive research to make so many productive ideas readily available. BE A GLOBAL FORCE OF ONE! is a gift idea that keeps on giving.

John Boal's "Be a Global Force of One!" is very inspirational, yet practical. Just in browsing the many projects he reviews one gets a feeling that YOU can make a difference in people's lives, no matter your situation.

This book is also a very important reference tool, with great contact information.

As the photographer who DONATED the use of the cover photograph, I feel honored to be a part of John's effort to inform our world of the many ways we can continue to improve it.

Hopefully people will jump for joy (as in the cover photo) because someone read about and initiated an idea in this book within their community!