This book is a rare thing. By that I mean that although there are many, *many* herb books on the market, and a goodly percentage of those books are categorized as female-specific, this particular book doesn't feel like mere repetition of basic material, or intent subverted by its personalized approach and themes. I purchased it because there was an elegant little drawing of poppies on the cover, and the price was low enough that I thought to take the risk despite a lack of review. It was a good choice. The book has an accessible feel to it; as an ethnobotanist I appreciate the veracity of information. As a very UNscientific scientist, I appreciate the humanistic "real people" kinda tone which doesn't lose its impact on individual readers by being *too* specifically personal. It reads well and easily. Many of the inclusions are very catalytic in terms of promoting one's own experiences to experiment and pick up where the book leaves off. I'm also very grateful for the overall "tone" of the book. It does not preach or advocate a specific, tightly defined lifestyle. It is not boring. It doesn't get tangled up in its own self-conscious attempt to fuse good writing and good reading. You don't *have* to know a lot about herbs in order to appreciate it, but I believe the more you do know, the more you actually *will* appreciate it. I don't think you have to be female to get something useful from this book. And I definitely believe you don't have to be a specific type of female, or in a particular age group, in order to find great relevance and value. In a perfect world, we give books like this one very freely -- we give them to our daughters when they first start their monthly bleeding cycle. We give them to our sisters and friends when they're pregnant or new to motherhood. We give them to our mothers on mother's day or as croning gifts. We learn. We grow. So do the herbs in our gardens and our knowledge and experience.

Women and Power in the Middle East provides college-level audiences with seventeen essays which analyze the social, political, economic and cultural forces shaping gender systems in the Mid-East and North Africa. These appeared at different times in the journal Middle East Report, and outline changing roles women have played in the politics of the region, when and why they mobilize, and how movements and politics affect their lives. Recommended for any collection strong in women's or Middle East history.

Women On Power: Leadership Redefined aptly edited by the collaborative efforts of Sue J. M. Freeman (Professor of Education and Child Study, Smith College), Susan C. Bourque Esther Booth Wiley Professor of Goverment, Smith College), and Christine M. Shelton (Associate Professor of Exercise and Sport Studies and codirector of the Project on Women and Social Change, Smith College) is an impressive selection of bold essays on the changing role of women in the workplace, politics, business, and more. The issues address range from how has gender affected today's ideas of leadership and power?, to how can mothering be a catalyst to social activism? All of the manifold issues addressed are thoughtfully discussed and grappled with at length in this scholarly work. Women On Power is very highly recommended to Women's Studies reading lists and reference collections.

Bad habits and working conditions get in the way of WORDS AT WORK. Writing is easier if you look at it as a process: listing what needs to be covered and when; writing and rewriting for an attention getting opening, a smooth main part, and a memorable ending; editing; getting feedback; and proofreading. Author Susan Benjamin also says to build a portfolio of regularly written documents, find mentors, make reading and writing comfortable habits, pay attention to budgets and deadlines, take classes, use common sense, and write what the boss wants. With her emphasis on appropriately personal or professional tone, lively word use and solid structure, her book works well with Cosmo Ferrara's WRITING ON THE JOB, Marcia Layton's THE COMPLETE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO TERRIFIC BUSINESS WRITING, and Jeffrey McQuain's POWER LANGUAGE.

It seems that in our ever-increasingly casual society, we have lost some of our common sense when dressing for the office. This book has no surprises - there are no hidden secrets for compiling a work wardrobe - if we put a bit of thought into it, I'm sure most people could determine on their own that belly tops, sandals, frayed jeans, see-through blouses and poor grooming are potentially career-limiting moves.

The information in this book is pretty basic. Save your money - you can probably get this quality of advice from Mom - for free.

If you are looking for a comprehensive guide to making a positive impact through appearance, this is your book. I am a recruiter with a Fortune 100 company in the US, and a professional image consultant recommended this book to me when I originally began my position. As a person who was looking for solid guidelines around professional dressing, as well as a reference for others who are looking to improve their appearance, I have found no other book to be comparable.

There are many aspects which make this book such an important resource for professionals:

1. The author provides specific guidelines around what items should be in a professional wardrobe, even going as far as to outline what quantities are particularly helpful of each piece of clothing.

2. The book is filled with "before and after" pictures, which allow the reader to see first-hand how the author's recommendations can make a startling appearance alteration.

3. To reflect the variety of workplace formality levels, there are six levels of workplace dress covered in the chapters. For those people who work for companies that have never successfully defined "Casual Friday", this book gives a lot of great hints of how to dress casual but still remain professional.

4. Two separate chapters outline accessories and generic grooming guidelines, and I have only found those hints in this particular guideline book.

5. For people looking to improve their wardrobe on a limited budget or a first job out of school, the author does not suggest spending a fortune on designer clothing. Rather, she suggests some key pieces to acquire first, and then others that can be obtained after your finances begin to improve.

Overall, I see the negative impact every day in my position from candidates who do not make the extra effort to go from "dressing up" to "looking professional". I strongly suggest that you make the $15 investment in this book, since it could help you to acquire the high paying career of your dreams!

This book is an excellent guide to dressing for the workplace regardless of where you work. I especially liked the sections on business casual (for both men and women). This section helped me to see that, though I am a manager in my firm, I was dressing like the delivery man. There are so many options for dressing these days and dress has become so casual that we lose sight of the impact that our clothing has on others and the subtle signals we send. The authors do an excellent job of demonstrating how important dress is, especially for women. And, it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg to dress well, it just takes conscious buying and this book as your guide. If you feel like you are not making the impact at work and maybe in your life that you would like to make, get this book. Perhaps your appearance is sending a different message.

It is a while since I have read this book but I must say it does cover everything. This book is very good for the beginner and does not just cover witchcraft. Life Magic delves into every aspect. There are chapters on Angels, Tarot, White Witchcraft; and just about everything you can think of. I really recommend this book for the beginner, as well as the advanced, although I do suggest you have some knowledge of terminology, as this can get a bit tricky. I very good read with lovely illustrations.

This book is a great place to have your first glimpse into modern witchcraft and neo-paganism. It has a surprising amount of information in it, considering the artistic pretty nature of the book. A great place to start, but don't stop here!

There is some basic witchy history, lunar info, festivals and magick outlines, gods and goddesses, a great intro to elemental energies, plus some spells and divination information. This book is a great place to start looking at witchcraft- it is really about positive witchcraft- not 'white witchcraft' like some other fluffy intro books. Life Magic can be easily loved by witches of all levels, particularly those with celtic, or just eclectic, influences. I love it!

this book is absolutely gorgeous. If I wasn't interested in the content I think I would have purchased it any way for the beautiful art work. Susan Bowes is a gifted author teaching readers about witch craft and explaining away negative ideas that a person may have concerning witchcraft. She lets us know about the good aspects of paganism along with the myths and truths of it.

I found this book to be different than the typical management book. Rather than filled with the usual platitudes, it contains some real world advice on how to deal with and capitalize on situations that occur in a corporate environment. The book starts a bit slow, but it gets moving once it gets into the 10 strategies. The author has a nice conversational, straight-talking style of writing. The exercises and advice at the end of each chapter are excellent. I would recommend this book for new graduates starting in management and for seasoned veterans.

Marshall has written an exceptional book, a smart and practical book that reflects a very intelligent and perceptive grasp of business action and the people who are the action-eers. People run businesses and businesses are only as good as the people that run them. "How To Grow A Backbone" is at once very revealing and very familiar. We will all find ourselves somewhere in this book...for better or worse. We may smile or grimace at the unerring precision with which Marshall cuts straight to the bone, through all the usual fat, and shows us how much backbone we really have, I really have, you really have. Most important, she shows us how to grow what we're missing. Every CEO should read this book and then issue it to his staff, to everyone on the staff including the mail boy and the sweeper. If that CEO is big enough, smart enough (and secure enough) to encourage, to allow, to require, to inspire, his people to grow backbone, that boss will have one hell of a spinning business. Action, forward motion, innovation and fun the way business should be fun, going a mile a minute, breaking through. Everyone who dreams of being more than they are, or of being a CEO, should quit dreaming and dig into "Backbone". This is no "guru magic" that pumps you up for a week, this is the straight answer for anyone who has the courage to try to be what he or she can be. Miss Marshall will show you the way. "How To Grow A Backbone" is a lean, no nonsense bible for the feint of heart who want to grow the lion inside them. It's more than a business book. It's for anyone who hears their Jiminy Cricket whispering, you could have, you should have, why didn't you? Anyone who wants to know how to grow the seeds of character we all possess, who wants to be somebody, must read "How To Grow A Backbone". WARNING: Read only if you want to be better than you are.

This is a must read for anyone that wants to move further faster in the business world -- especially those who are fledglings in Corporate America! Marshall writes with clarity and good humor spiced with pithy observations and examples. This is more than a pie-in-the-sky, ethereal how-to book. She backs up her advice with practical, easy to implement ACTIONS to integrate the strategies into all areas of interactions with others. And her "excercises" are more than informative and effective: they're fun to boot!

It's only natural for a popular self-help speaker with a truly great message to want to put it into book form. The Power of Positive Confrontation teaches a truly great technique for confronting others that will help everyone who has trouble standing up for him or herself. Too bad there's only about three chapter's worth of actual content in its sixteen chapters. Instead the author gets into telling us how to dress for success, how to convey the information that a friend or loved one is in the hospital, do's and don'ts of International Travel along with several chapters of warm-up before finally getting to her actual WAC technique. Don't get me wrong, I still recommend this book highly but an abridged cassette version would be a lot less painful.

With Susan Magee, Barbara Pachter carefully analyzes all of the skills anyone needs to resolve conflicts at work, home, and in life. Confrontation is inevitable. Think about it: What REALLY upsets you? How about "road rage" when someone else cuts you off, tailgates, deliberately forces you to the side of the road, etc.? Or how about "office politicians" who lie both to your face and behind your back, thrive on hurtful gossip, and in countless other ways try to advance themselves at the cost of others? Make no mistake about it: Negative Confrontation also has power.

Pachter has a specific objective in mind: To enable those to read the book to master the skills needed to resolve confrontation is positive, constructive, and beneficial ways. As indicated in the Preface, she wants each reader to be able to say "I don't feel frustrated any more..." or "In the past I would have sulked or complained until the person got the hint, now I can just say something..." or "Annoying things don't bother me as much because I know I can say something now."

The book consists of 16 chapters, ranging from "Positive Confrontation -- What It Is and How It Can Make Your Life Better" to "International Etiquette", with Chapter 16 followed by a "Final 12-Step Pep Talk." Over the course of the book, Pachter covers just about every conceivable situation in which conflict can occur at work, home, and in life. I think this book will be invaluable to individual readers as well as to senior-level executives who can use much of the material to help those whom they supervise to master the same skills.

I've never been very good at confrontation; I always feel like I've said or done the right thing in the wrong way. This book changed that for good. Positive confrontation is something we all aspire to but rarely achieve. I've used what I learned in this book to deal with issues at work and at home -- and it works! Now I handle confrontation in the "right" way, and things work out much better both for me and for the person on the other side of the issue. This is a great book!

Reading this book helped me understand things about myself and the way I relate with others that were just huge damn mysteries to me before.

Especially interesting were the sections on accepting differences, why opposites attract(and later repel), the dualities of character. Fascinating stuff. I am on my third reading and still finding revelations on every page. And it's not because I am dense or a careless reader--well, maybe a little dense at times,when I am resistant to learning but there is a lot to take in here. Susan Campbell's simple, direct language allows the content to remain in sharp focus.

The only part I found weak was the co-worker/group stuff--I'm not real fond of those feel-good group exercises--but it takes up only a fraction of the book and is easy enough to ignore if you choose to. Nonetheless, it is an amazing read and worth keeping in your personal library. She has also written a book called "The Couple's Journey" which is supposedly a more targeted and intense exploration of the same ideas about human nature and close relationships.

The author is extraordinarily gifted in presenting material from the various branches of psychology and psychotherapy in simple layman's terms that make it useful for relationships in everyday life. Has the potential to prevent many conflicts and the power to help resolve existing ones, provided the reader looks into the mirror the book holds up to him/her -in a non-judgemental, non-critical manner - from time to time. Have personally benefited from it countless times and have offered it to others in need. A must-have book for every household.

This book weaves a myriad of folk motifs into the fabric of reality, creating a vibrant tale about the connections among generation, about how the actions of our ancestors can affect out contemporary lives-and how the presence resonates in us.

The story creates a foundation in the 1860s-when a Dakota warrior-Ghost Horse, lost his love-Red Dress. Since then, their spirits have sought to be reunited, and it is the playing out of this drama that shapes the sometimes violent fate of those who have come after them. The story jumps to the 1980s,where Charlene Thunder, a teenage descendant of Red Dress, is in love with Harley Wind Soldier, a traditional dancer of Ghost Horse's lineage. When Harley's soulmate, Pumpkin, dies, Charlene suspects her grandmother, the infamous Anna Thunder- who is both revered and feared by the Dakota community.

Charlene and Harley strive to make peace with the ghosts of their pasts while contending with the living. Other significant characters include Jeanette McVay, an American college student studying the tribe; Crystal Thunder-who must escape to Chicago to find her past; Herod Sall War-a member of the community who provides spiritual guidance; and Margaret Many Wounds-Harley's grandmother who he sees walking on the moon.

The story combines the mythic and supernatural aspect of the Dakota heritage with the contemporary Dakota tribe to serve as a very entertaining and interesting text!

Susan Power's novel The Grass Dancer is a wonderful look into the lives of the Dakota, a part of the Sioux. Her words are so rich and descriptions incredibly vivid about not only the grass dance itself from the beginning but also about the lives of the indivdual characters in the book.

The organization of the book is what makes Power's novel stand out in my mind. She uniquely makes each chapter from a different person's perspective. This gives the reader a glimpse into the lives of so many people that make up the entire Native American community. Every aspect of the reservation is shown from the young Harley, Pumpkin and Charlene to the older Mercury Thunder and mythical Red Dress. So many tales and myths run through out the novel. Through the art of story telling Power's characters keep the history of their people alive for generations to come.
Power's novel was a rich glimpse into the lives of many many people who all lived together, working to live harmoniously in the same community.

I recently was assigned The Grass Dancer for my Native American Literature class. I must say that this is a fantastic book. All of the characters are beautifully crafted. The stories of each character, such as Anna Thunder and Lydia Wind Soldier give the reader real insight as to why each character behaves in a particular way. The loss that the various characters suffer does not fill me with sadness, but gives me hope that they will see each other once again once they leave this world. The backwards progression of time brings Harley Wind Soldier to a place that allows him to fill the hole over his heart. This story displays the vivid and very much alive culture of the Dakota Sioux. Susan Power does a wonderful job of creating a world that is true and completely fictional all at the same time. I would definitely recommend this book to other people.