The authors' have done an excellent job of pointing out the importance of maintaining physical, emotional and spiritual health through this trying time in a woman's life. I particularly liked the suggestions of using herbs as an alternate to hormone therapy. Hormone therapy is an individual affair that should be discussed with one's one physician and there are extreme pros and cons of hormone therapy - it is not for every woman. Herbs, if selecting the right ones in the right amounts can be an alternative but I would suggest readers consult a qualified herbologist first, rather than experimenting themselves. Some herbs, like any medication, do not mix well.

This book does contain some helpful exercises and self-assessment tests, though I did not find the tests to be terribly beneficial. The book is complete in that it covers all aspects of a woman's menopausal years; however, my personal preference on this subject is still "The Wisdom of Menopause" by Dr. Christiane Northrup. Kathy Smith's book appears to be written from personal experience, whereby Northrup's is based on qualified medical advice. Readers will need to decide for themselves which avenue they wish to follow, personal experience or medical expertise.

Kathy Smith is the "every woman's" health/fitness coach. It is very refreshing to work out with someone who's focus is FIRST health instead of body image. Always encouraging and friendly, not intimidating, her beauty comes from her personal training work, not as a star or beauty-image queen. Great and simple workout that can be used for ladies at all levels of fitness and especially those experiencing the challenges of midlife. Great information as well as extras including yoga and pilates. Highly recommended.

Kathy Smith has always conveyed that a healthy lifestyle includes very few quick fixes. It takes small steps that accumulate to form a healthier body and psyche. Her chapters on exercise are, as always, filled with great pictures and instructions. None of them require that you bend yourself into a pretzel or replicate moves you made in gym class thirty years ago. And her nutrition information is obviously carefully researched. Plus she takes into account "cheating." A kind and gentle approach to menopause from a kind and gentle lady.

Mostly Michael is a book about a boy who is eleven-years-old. He recieved a diary for his birthday and felt it was a stupid gift. Everyday he tries to write in it telling all of his thoughts and feelings. He goes through some very rough times. He dad works a lot and he has to help his pregnant mom with the housework and a little sister who can be a pain. Michael is pretty close with his grandma. He loves it when she comes to visit. She teaches him all sorts of way to make Mindy, his sister, behave. When the time comes for his mom to have the baby, his dad is out of town and it is Michael's responsibility to help his mom. How will he do it? Read to find out what he does for her.

Mostly Micheal is so good. I would recomend it to peoplefromfifth grade and older because some parts kids would be very imbarassedabout.(I'm age 11)

This is the best day by day account of a young boy that I have laid my hands on. We learn about the daily events that shape eleven-year-old Michael's life, from the trite stuff like weather and what was for dinner, to the wonderful, heartwarming events like welcoming in a new sibling. By the end of the book, you will feel like you have gotten to not only know Michael very well, but will also have become his friend. A must read for children of the junior high school age.

Optimize Your Operations provides managers a road map to improvement. Many times you only receive theories and not real improvement road maps that allow you to make real improvements to your daily operations. By following the various improvement methodologies discussed in the book a line manager can make great strides in meeting customer expectations. Many managers loose site of the customer and Mr. Abbott gives many valuable pointers on how to meet and understand customer expectations. The "Walk About" gives managers a valuable tool to monitor their daily operation and a workable method for recognizing problems and provides methods for improving their processes.

The book was a nice break from the usual technical process improvement books.I particulary liked the real world application oriented style that focused on a few simple principles and the application to complex problems. Since applications to my area, rocket science, are usually outside the norm, really appreciated the presentation, the stories and examples that made it easy to adapt the principles to my particular cases. Recommend that any engineer read this book. PC

This is an intriguing book. Optimize Your Operation is no quick "once over" on operations. It begins with the basic principles needed to understand and improve processes. Abbott's approach to the principles is not ordinary and his explanation of the details is not ordinary. He certainly is moving us up a notch in the way we think about processes and the way we manage them. It is not the same old same old. Yet his language and illustrations are easy to follow. His thoughts take us from how we get ourselves into and out of "Quality Hells" all the way to how a better understanding of strategic and tactical decision-making will change our organizations. I think it is an important read for those who are faced with changing their operations to meet today's tough markets.

Mr Patton is obviously affected by his relationship to his famous grandfather, the legendary General George S. Patton Jr. The author reveals that he is in the minority within his family for not pursuing a military path. This informative and richly entertaining history of the family of one of America's legends turns out to be a catharsis. It is apparent in his thesis that the Patton forefathers were not a model for General Patton, but a crescendo. It was well written; the author has ensured that his research did not contain gaps. In reading the Pattons, a Personal History of an American Family, one feels like the question has been answered, "Why was Patton such a jerk." He had the original rendezvous with destiny.

A truly inspiring work -- when I heard that Jonathan Yardley had dubbed it on the best books of that year, I had to read it... And it is. Should be required reading for anyone interested in history, especially their own.

I am myself admittedly a Patton aficionado, and I must say, this book reveals an even more complicated man and colorful family history than I realized. But what in my view truly distinguishes this book from other recent studies of General Patton is that its fascinating subject matter does not obscure the author's smooth, beautiful, often funny - but always precise and deliberate - literary style. Unlike so many of our more popular modern historians: this guy can actually write!

This is a brand new book by Paul Kidd, the author of numerous popular novels. The Rats of Acomar is fast reading, with vivid word pictures of the events taking place when the mythical Rats rise up to take what they feel is rightfully theirs. I enjoyed reading this science fiction, fantasy and could readily relate to how the mythical events described, really remind one of events actually taking place in real life. Only the players have been changed. Worth reading.

In the broken wasteland of Acomar, a land teeming with starvation and death, the rat Itheem live. Their bones litter the waste, fallen in the endless battles over territory and food. In terror of the Itheem, the canine Uruth built the great wall to keep them imprisoned in Acomar. But with the rising of an overlord, G'Kaa, everything is changing. The Itheem clans are uniting, planning to take the lands of the other races. But what can a free-spirited coyote, Tupan, her greyhound companion Surolf, the pony Hern, and the rebal rat Ra'sish do to stop them? A very good read, simultainously exciting, sad, and laugh out loud funny. Terrie Smith's illustrations are excellent as well. :-)

After reading Paul Kidd's other new book, "A Whisper of Wings", I did a search here on Amazon and came up with The Rats of Acomar. After the delightful experience I had with Whisper, I picked this one up at Barnes & Noble, too. Talk about a slam-bam exciting storyline that grabs you in its teeth and runs! This book is the first in a new series, and if they're all half as good as this one, I suspect it'll be one of the best sellers ever. This series is sort of like, well, a really COOL version of Brian Jacques' Redwall series... but with ten times the excitement and none of the boring food fetish that chokes his books (and their readers) from stem to stern. This story has it all... action, adventure, humor, great villains, quirky heroes and a rich, detailed world. Paul Kidd really seems to have a talent for bringing characters to life, which is only helped by all of the full-page illustrations in the book! You just never see that in most books these days. As a matter of fact, Whisper, Paul Kidd's other novel, was the only other book I've seen with that sort of thing in my last five years of reading. This book, and Whisper, are the two best Paul Kidd books I have read since "Mus of Kerbridge", from TSR. I totally recommend this book. Five gold stars!

AS fate would have it, i was given this book at the tender age of 12 by my best friend's mother. Growing up in a house with 2 sisters i was clueless to the minds of young men..a mystery..never understood why the neighborhood tough guys felt the need to pelt us girls with grapefruits from the safety of their fortified clubhouses and armed camps. I love this book..Robert Smith has captured the innnocent and fearful thinking process of young boys that transcends the generations..haven't we all put our fists to our eyeballs in the dark of night to see the flashing lights??

Through it all he maintains a dry wit and subtle humor than endears the reader. I re-read it once a year just to get perspective on the youth in America...a treasure not to be missed..his narrative on losing at marbles to the town bully is a classic.....fears and joys..isn't that what childhood is all about?With a wry perspective and total honesty, Robert Smith manages to ring a bell of truth in this slice of life.

This timeless collection of childhood memories is a classic. It can be read at any age, because everyone, boy or girl, man or woman, can relate to its tellings of childhood memories, dreams, and shenanigans. This is the best book ever written, aside from the Bible.

As a young man, I found this book among some of my Father's collection. It seems it has been twenty years since I read it, but the images of life portrayed by the Author are still imprinted on my mind. I can remember the wholesome, innocent feeling that came over me, even as a rebellious youth, as I read each chapter. Even the detail of each story has escaped me now, but the impression it has left is inescapable. And now after all these years, Through Amazon.com, I am able to rekindle this friendship, between that old book and I. It is a "must read" and should be considered a classic for young people in school.

This book was well written and documented. It has much historical and spiritual value. My disappointment in the book was that it did not contain the contents of Anne Smith's Journal as a whole. It is an editorialized document written about Anne Smith's Journal, much in the form of a term paper. I did enjoy reading the excerpts from her journal and would have liked to read it for myself. One gets the sense of who and what Anne Smith was from this book, however the total effect is broken up by the many outside points and notations. I would like to see a copy of the original journal as a part of this book. I think that this would complete the work. I understand that the journal by itself is not a complete document. The combination of the two would be a excellant resource for spiritual growth and AA history.

Dick B. here presents part of his ten years of research on early A.A. history. But the Anne Smith contribution is tops because the material is unavailable elsewhere. The original copy was obtained from A.A. with support of Dr. Bob's daughter and consent of Trustees. But it can't be seen or republished.That's the top value of this history. On careful reading, I found that the order of presentation is that of the relation of the Twelve Steps to Anne's writing in her journal as the early years moved on. It's been a lost treasure. Dick was the historian who brought it to light as a real resource for understanding the Alcoholics Anonymous roots. Good for reading. Good for understanding. Good for Christians like me.

What struck me is that this book analyzes natural law within a legal context: many of the contributing authors are attorneys as well as philosopher. This is particularly helpful to our nation today, as I think more citizens will have to reassess the role of the judiciary these days.

For the latter half of the 20th century, worries over "judicial acitivism" and judges' making decisions that should be made by legislatures have been the domain of conservatives, with Roe v. Wade probably being the chief example. But now liberals have said similar things about the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore decision. It is high time for intelligent discussion, and this book is a solid foundation for a dialogue.

By looking at natural law historically, legally, and philosophically, the authors of this book examine how natural law works and various challenges to it. This book is a very good introduction, and I have come away with a greater respect for natural law and its vital role in our nation, and also new questions to pursue (and more books to buy...).

The contributing authors are an impressive team of formidable thinkers, and while most of the writers clearly come from a religious background, the are pretty good about keeping what they say applicable to a secular society (the last two essays tend to be more theological than philosophical, and I thought that hurt their impact).

I think MacIntyre's essay on the role of the ordinary person in natural law is particularly valuable: if the American citizenry cannot execute sound moral judgment, our nation as a constitutional republic is in grave danger. Fuller's essay on Locke's struggles with natural law is an honest and challenging look at natural law's theoretical chinks. Riley's essay on tort law gave excellent lessons on liability, but with lawsuits being as common as they are nowadays, I would have hoped for more practical insights on today's situation, and possible remedies.

On the whole, this book is a good read and a good challenge. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in ethics or concerned about the present condition of the United States.

Common Truths: New Perspectives On Natural Law is a collection consisting of cogent remarks and prescient essays: Are There Moral Truths That Everyone Knows? (Ralph McInerny); Natural Law: The Legacy of Greece and Rome (J. Rufus Fears); Aquinas, Natural Law, and the Challenges of Diversity (John Jenkins); John Locke's Reflections on Natural Law and the Character of the Modern World (Timothy Fuller); Theories of Natural Law in the Culture of Advanced Modernity (Alasdair MacIntyre); What Dignity Means (Virginia Black); Natural Law and Positive Law (Robert P. George); Natural Rights and the Limited of Constitutional Law (Russell Hittinger); Natural Law and Sexual Ethics (Janet E. Smith); Contract Law and Natural Law (Edward J. Murphy); Tort Law and Natural Law (William N. Riley); Criminal Law and Natural Law (Ian A.T. McLean); and Natural Law in the Twenty-First Century (Charles E. Rice). Common Truths is scholarly, intellectually stimulating reading for anyone wanting to better understand and appreciate the permanent norms of human action and their relationships to a moral and political life.

Wide variety of encounters - good storytelling. I wish that the author had provided some simple maps so that battle movements could have been more easily visualized.

This book is excellent in presenting selected episodes in the field of war. The stories are generally accessible to anyone who has an interest in the subject. I found the episodes on 20th Century battles especially engaging. Also useful were the little anecdotes like Leading etc.

However, there are some areas in which the book could have been improved. Firstly, I felt that the contents have been too Euro/American-centred, to the point of leaving out a great portion of humanity's experience.

Research into Asia would have revealed the courage and dedication of frontier generals and their families in their task of defending China against nomadic hordes,especially during the Song dynasty. Inter-clan warfare in Japan during the Shogunate periods would also reveal this aspect.

Secondly, I felt that some of the narratives seemed too implausible for Smith to truly empathise with eg. the first and third stories; for the reason that historical records were not exactly kept with the same objective view we experience today. It was not uncommon for exaggerations to take place in the retelling of a war account.

Thirdly, war is not only about combatants' courage, but also about the heroism displayed by the civilian population in civil disobedience, WWII Resistance, guerilla bands etc, in the face of domination. Stories from such experiences would also have been worth including in this collection.

All said, this book is still worth a good read.

I am no student of war, but I could not put this book down. One cannot read this book without pausing to reflect on all those who have sacrificed themselves for us.

I'm glad I bought this book because it gives me an Idea of the kind of person Skoglund is, and interesting information on her work as well as many works I have never seen before. However, I was dissapointed by the image quality in that the pictures were very dark and the color-depth was off. I have several postcards with Skoglund's photography on them, and they knock the socks off the picture quality in the book. Maybe in a few years another book will be made.

Being an untrained creative person and artist, I thrive on drinking in the arts whenever I can. I took my 12 year old daughter Jessica to Sandy's lecture and opening night of her display show in Omaha, Nebraska. It can be difficult to find such inspiration at this level in the midwest. It is just not at our fingertips as in the case of those who live on the east and west coast.

Being new to the midwest from Southern California, I was thrilled when we joined Joslyn Art Museum and our first invitation was to Sandy's lecture and to view her collection. My daughter was so inspired she wanted to use her hard earned money to buy Sandy's book but time and again the book sold out at the museum bookstore. Finally I decided to add the book to her Christmas list and surprise her with it Christmas morning. I am so thrilled to finally find it here on Amazon.com and at such a reasonable price. We are so looking forward to Christmas morning and the joy she will feel when she opens this gift. She is so artistic and creative. We want to nurture this in her, she will go far with her talent. Sandy's wonderful, colorful, inspiring work in this book will be so perfect. The book truly does her work justice, in showing her work and the process she goes through in creating it.

What creativity and imagination! Sandy Skoglund (who went to school in my home town) has put together one of the most intriguing collections of photographs I've ever seen. Her pictures are so surreal and complicated it's almost impossible to describe them. Her use of sculptures, patterns and colors create whole worlds that are captured on film. Accompanying these pictures are several informative essays that delve into the mind of the artist and into the work that goes into her art. I hope others find out about this immensely talented woman so she receives the attention she deserves. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has a healthy imagination and a love of the surreal.