The arrangement of this reference source is divided into four sections in two concise volumes: Small Business Profiles, Topics in Small Business, State Listings, and Federal Government Assistance.

Generally, if topics aren't specifically related to small business, they are not included. This is a handy source of information for business owners, managers, operators, and entrepreneurs, and one that provides one-stop-shopping. There are over 330 small business profiles that act as a kind of industry insider guide.

For example, you own a bookstore and have an idea or business plan to open a gourmet coffee/tea house or a plan to add a computer store within that establishment. Suppose you have an idea to open a small business int he swimming pool/hotupb industry. Information can be found in SBS regarding licensing for a new business, fees, contacts, and state listings that will also include the chamber of commerces of each location.

If you want to find a consultant, a seminar, a convention, or trade show related to your business' interests, it will be in SBS. Where can you find government funding for a minority owned business? What about women owned businesses? This source is the best starting point because it also lists special libraries and resource centers specific to each subject in the area of small business.

Entrepreneurs use SBS to find the criteria they must meet to receive federal government assistance programs. Entries are arranged numerically and are easy to use. Sometimes licensing issues and fees vary from state to state and often ask for different prerequisites. The Small Business Sourcebook is a reference tool that all small business owners ought to familiarize themselves with.

This source can be rated as a highly reliable source of information that has been carefully compiled, gathered and disseminated. The Gale Group has produced a source that is highly recommendable. Small Business Sourcebook is a standard reference book in most public libraries as well as a standard in such special libraries related to business, can be found in business resource centers, and in top business school libraries.

Spirit of Fear by Evelyn Gale wrapped me in from the first to the end. Well written, fast paced, no word clutter--I had a great read.

I loved the reaction of the heroine, Rachel Beckman, when she found her husband murdered. Her grisly smile was understandable; after all, he'd beaten her for the pleasure the beatings fed to his nasty control-hungry appetite.

Finally free of him, Rachel finds she has become so dependent on his control that she must relearn the freedoms she had as a younger woman. Each step, even driving a car, is a brave walk back to finding her spirit.

Couple this journey with the discovery that any one of half a dozen people could have murdered her husband--and someone is after her, and Rachel finds that she must dig even deeper for courage. But from this search, Rachel discovers that she has a mind that can't resist exploring the puzzle pieces of the crime and a spirit to go after the suspects. She is a natural, albeit still somewhat timid, and her thinking is way ahead of the police.

Gale wrote using her farm wife background as a research tool. Her characters spun from the mosaic of rural America breathe with the spirit and life she's given them.

Rachel's search for the murderer, while she, herself, is a suspect forced me to become involved. Perhaps, it was Rachel's lack of grief that sent the police in the wrong direction; or maybe they didn't like her clever logic, which left them in the dust. Even Rachel's connection to Earl Martin and friendship with Jerry Walton made the police suspicious. For whatever reason, Rachel must find the proof to convince the police that she is the victim, not the perpetrator.

I look forward to Evelyn Gale's next book.

The book is short, easy to read, and positive. It contains 30 exercises that can each be completed in half an hour or less. These powerful and effective exercises are designed to be done individually and work even if your spouse does not do them at all.

The book showed me how to focus on practical ways that I could take control of a situation that felt completely out of control by focusing on my attitudes, behaviors, and thoughts. Even though I thought I had done everything I could do the exercises helped me make some personal breakthroughs that allowed me to make real improvements in our marriage by only changing my own approach to it. Even though I was already familiar with most of the principals in the book and had done some of the exercises before as part of other self improvement programs, I found that doing them again in the context of the marriage I was in was invaluable.

I experienced real improvement after just the first two days. This book gave me more than hope that there was a solution out there, it gave me real tools to move into a better marriage.

If you only read one book on how to save your marriage, I would recommend this one.