"Best Friends" will make you feel both joy and sadness. Joy for every animal saved and sadness for the reality that there are many people who treat animals as nothing more than disposable objects.

As for the writing, the author was able to bring out in me the full range of emotions that I experience as a pet owner. The day to day happiness they bring, the worry when they are ill and the sadness when it is time to say good bye.

If you are a true animal lover, you will love this book. It's a story about how the Best Friends Animal Santuary got started as well as stories of beloved animals they have rescued. If you believe in rescuing our furry friends, this book is for you!

Through their magazine, I have been acquainted with the people, animals and developments at Best Friends over the last few years. With the reading of this book, I now feel I know them so much better - the struggles, the personalities, the whole feel of such a caring sanctuary. There is not a word for the dedication, self-sacrifice, and determination that brought this organization to where it is now. I will continue supporting them and only wish I had been there in the beginning. I have thought it would be wonderful to visit Best Friends - now, I really want to! As I got in to the book, I only allowed myself to read a chapter a day, so I could prolong the joy of these new friendships and to put off finishing it! A wonderful saga of people with a cause and animals whom others did not want. You won't be disappointed.

Customer Winback broaches a topic that is applicable to infinitely many businesses. Thoughtful and well-organized, this book teems with appropriate examples for readers on a quest to "winback" customers. The real value in this book is the depth of information Griffin and Lowenstein provide. Rather than simply providing the reader with top-line information, they delve deep into their own knowledge base and extensive research on the topic to present the reader with useful approaches to winning back those much-desired customers!

With annual churn rates for most companies in the range of 10% to 40%, and staff turnover an equal problem, customer loss has become a major priority and cause for concern. Yet, few companies have programs to save or recover at-risk and lost customers. Customer loss and win-back is not only a critical challenge, it is a significant revenue opportunity. My colleague, Jill Griffin, and I have explored the dynamics and treatment of customer loss, the sales and profit represented by winning back customers, how to regain attractive former customers, and how to make your company defection-proof in the first place. We've included the results of groundbreaking original research, for instance, which uncovered the relationship and value disconnect that often exists between suppliers and their customers. The book provides scores of powerful how-to's and examples of the ways successful companies have included win-back in their CRM programs. For every individual, manager, group, or company wanting to understand customer lifetime value, customer life cycles, and the full spectrum of customer loyalty, this is a must read!

Customer Winback has great information and wonderful examples (presented in depth) of what companies can do to address a much-neglected area of customer service--winning back lost customers. It shows how this concept is just as important as emphasizing customer loyalty and customer satisfaction in not only maintaining customers, but keeping them delighted and coming back to buy more.

It is very well organized, well-written and covers a wide range of material. It also gives you many ideas to implement at your own company. Just one chapter provides you with more substance than many entire books. This is an excellent customer service book and a must for customer service managers. I recommend it highly.

Good Devotional Books are intended to help the reader reflect. They help us step outside of the seemingly mundane rhythm of our lives and see the "strong hand of love, hidden in the shadows," to quote a favorite songwriter of mine. Mike Warden's Alone with God is such a Devotional Book. Think of it like a daily guide to a place of reflection and contemplation - a sacred place (like the title offers) to be alone and intimate with God. Drink deeply of these words.

I am very impressed with Michael Warden's devotion book
"Alone With God." Michael's ability to apply the Word of God to the innermost needs of our being is extraordinary. His insight into life and his encouraging words have the effect of giving a desire to know the One True God intimately, and to trust God completely with our lives. "Alone With God" was definitely an inspiration to me, and I intend to read the book again and perhaps again. I recommend this book to anyone - it is very much appropriate for people who are not married, and it is appropriate for those who are married. Read it! It will bless your life! G. Hoffman

This little devotional is loaded with simple, yet profound insights into God's character and the amazing ways He relates to His beloved children. Even though each days' reading is only a few short paragraphs, Warden's masterful choice of words helps to illuminate many of the deep truths contained in the Bible. Even though I often read through several days worth of these devotionals, many of them are so compelling I have to STOP and take time to chew on what I've just read! Warden is also quite skilled at reflecting back these profound truths of God's word by drawing out their application in my own life. This book is definitely not just for singles! I think every believer will be challenged and encouraged by this book to draw closer to God in both maturity and intimacy.

Web usability has become a big [and important] topic in web design these days. Thankfully, its lesser-known sibling, web accessibility for disabled users, is now coming into its own right as a necessary design skill.

Constructing Accessible Web Sites will be extremely useful to the nuts-and-bolts people who actually design and code sites, but, as importantly (if not moreso), it gives an excellent overview of current laws and standards for the higher-ups who authorize and budget for site design. The chapter on organizational strategies for accessibility is a must-read for anyone who has any responsibilities regarding web design, implementation, or retrofitting sites to meet legal (and moral) obligations for accessibility.

The book is loaded with code samples, screen shots, and useful commentary on why things don't work for those with disabilites, and how to fix them so they work better for everyone. Particularly useful is a scorecard comparing authoring and design tools' accessibility authoring functionality and compliance with standards (Section 508, WCAG).

If you are involved in the design, creation, or maintenance of web sites, and you have clients -- and that would be just about every site, whether your site is an intranet, extranet, or public Internet site -- you really need this book. You owe it to yourself to own this book and make your life -- and the lives of web users with disabilities -- much, much easier. Highly recommended.

Don't make the same mistakes the last two official Olympic sites made with regard to accessibility.

With many sites overlooking the simple ALT in images, it's no question that many need educating on this important topic. Statistics shows that 15 to 30 percent of the population has a need for accessibility features on Web sites. Happily, people live longer and aging brings seeing and hearing challenges. Furthermore, seniors are responsible for over 25 percent of online purchases, neglecting this group can be costly to the company that abandons them. The number shoots up to 40 percent when including people over the age of 40.

CEOs, CIOs, C-level whatevers, managers, designers, programmers, and anyone else who has a hand in a Web site will benefit from the book. Not only does it cover the how, but also the whats and whys by saying, "This is why we should do this and this is how to do it." Upper level management benefit from information on the Web accessibility laws, guidelines, reasons for creating accessible sites, and the accessibility organization strategy. If an executive wants to reach far and wide, then she can get that by reading and applying the knowledge found in the book. One unique chapter explains how to structure an organization to handle and support accessibility issues, a rarely addressed topic in the world of Web accessibility. The Internet has opened the gates for businesses to go global and there's information about the laws from countries other than the US.

Designers and programmers get the tools and resources for creating, evaluating, and validating pages for accessibility compliance. Useful is a comparison and report card on Web design software explaining how each program meets or fails to meet in producing accessible code and features. The book echoes the latest cry in the world of Web design in encouraging designers to separate content from presentation.

Having an accessible Web site doesn't mean boring looking pages with nothing but text. Quite the contrary, the authors encourage creating well-design sites while keeping accessibility in mind.

As one who has written articles on Web design, the book offers insight into techniques that I hadn't encountered. With multiple authors, readers are assured they're hearing from the experts on each chapter topic. One notable expert is Bob Regan of Macromedia who discusses the tools and techniques of using Flash MX to make a site accessible. Any site that wants to be successful and reach the greatest number of people will invest in creating an accessible site. This well-rounded book covers it all from laws to code to help ensure the site does it right.

Of the books and resources that I've read on accessible web sites, this is by far the best - especially from a UK perspective.

The main UK legislation that specifically mentions web sites and accessibility comes into force in October 2004 which, at the time of writing this, is still over two years away. This means that there isn't a great deal of information and certainly no legal cases that we can draw on from our country, so we have to look elsewhere to see what is happening.

This book benefits in that, although it does cover Section 508 and other already in place legislation, it also gives a great all round understanding of the topic, and is very easy to read. Having chapters written by different authors means that you get a far greater depth of experience and information, which can only benefit the reader.

If you're going to buy one book on accessible web sites, this should be at the top of your shopping list.

The story of the Forgotten Carols rekindles the true meaning of Christmas. The book is based around a nurse who doesn't believe in anything that has to do with Christmas and has no family. Her hospital assigns her to go and take care of one family's aging uncle, John. As the story continues, John introduces her to his carols about the forgotten parts of Christmas and the people who played roles that many forget about as they head to the department stores to take part in the materialized part of Christmas. Some of these characters include the innkeeper and the inn, the shepards, and Joseph. This book has been in my family since it came out and we read it many times every holiday season. If you purchase this book I recommend the audio cassette to accompany because it is read by the Glen Yarbrough and it include the Forgotten Carol songs such as "I cry the day I take the tree down," "Joseph:I was not his father, he was mine," and a great rendition of a Messiah medley called "Handel's Dream." This book is a must and will be the perfect addition to your Christmas

I rarely have found a book and music with such a touching message as The Forgotten Carols. Anyone professing to believe in Christ or Christmas needs to read the message and feel the spirit this classic provides.

The Forgotten Carols has become a Christmas Tradition in our home. Our entire family loves the story so much, and the music is truly amazing. We have made the Forgotten Carols part of our traditional Christmas Eve. Each December 24th we sit around a roaring fire with our entire family and begin reading the book. Each family member takes turns reading a chapter. It is truly a wonderful book and one of our favorite Christmas Traditions!

Not for nothing did Lem named this book, and the Project, HMV. The helplesness of the greatest Human minds against an uhuman message is not at all different from the helplesness of the dog in the face of the gramophone.

A word of causion, though. Altough Lem is depicted as a "Science Fiction" author, _HMV_ is not your regular "Arthur C. Clark"-like book. Dont expect racing starships or multi-handed aliens; it's a book about mankind, and it's failures, and is even more novel then Asimov's _I, Robot_, or Lem's own _Solaris_.

I cannot be counted among science fictions greatest fans. While I did get my share of fun out of the original Star Trek series in the late sixties and earlier seventies, I still think that most science fiction tends to degenerate in a redressing of "old imperial tales", without making any use of the extra possibilities that the many aspects of science could add to the writer's repertoire.

Yet, while scanning the Amazon web pages for signals of intelligent life from distant galaxies, I came across this book that fully lives up to be called, let me rephrase define, science-fiction. A couple of years before the movie made it's way to a wider audience I read Sagan's Contact. While the decoding of the many levels of the "message" in this book went a long way in pleasing the Nerd in me, the story itself was flat as a pancake.

Lem's HMV proceeds Contact by many years and reflects a sophistication from a civilization that is light-years ahead of the one that produced Sagan. Written in the sixties, during the Cold War, behind the Iron Curtain, HMV is a work that can be read on at least two levels. Firstly, it is a critique against Cold War politics, military and political decision making, and the conduct of science/scientist. In this respect the work could be regarded as an accurate Swiftian satire. Secondly and most importantly, however, HMV is a psychological and philosophical essay on the limitations of the human mind facing the truly unknown. This second layer is in my opinion the part that makes this book so unique.

Earlier this year I wrestled my way through Foucault's "Order of Things" a post-modern classic of contemporary structuralist philosophy. Lem may not claim to be a philosopher, but by the middle of just the preface of HMV, he has encapsulated all of Foucault's arguments in one focused concise essay in clear language. Throughout the rest of the book Lem exposes the reader to many schools of philosophy, discussion of the possibilities and limitations of science and the extent to which the human mind is limited to the level of projecting itself in the analysis of an unknown subject. An argument could be made that Lem does little more than using the subtext of HMV to give a synopsis of 20+ centuries of philosophy. Yet, both the construction of this novel and the beautiful way in which Lem concludes Hogarth's account of man finding reason without answers in the post-Nietzschian world is truly impressive.

The X-files always claims that the truth is out there. While it took me over thirty years, I have finally been able to recover the part that Lem's HMV contributed to it.

A synthetic signal from outer space is detected. In Sagan's "Contact", the signal encodes plans for a spaceship; here it's not so simple. The signal seems to carry many levels of meaning, each one more bizarre and mind-boggling than the last. Lem, as always, weaves together ideas from the fringes of modern science. He also explores the human aspects of scientific research.

This book is not light reading. Many parts require a mental effort like, say, that needed to play chess. This can be irritating, even infuriating. For readers are up to the task, however, the book rewards the effort many times over.

This story of a family that went through the time of the holocaust of the Jews was a real breath taker. Once I started reading it, I thought it was boring, but then it actually takes you in the story. Next thing I knew I had tears in my eyes. It actually helped me to see the true side of the horror of the war. I can't imagine the pain the suffrage Meyer and Manya and her family went through. It is not only a story about getting through the war but also remarkable love story that happens during the Holocaust.In a way I recommend the book to teenage readers, because it focuses on the teenage Jews and the difficulties they went through at such young age. Meyer and Mayna were tough and by maintaining the faith and not loosing there hope in the fight to stay alive all through the time. We must not instruct our children to in no way let anything resemble like this happen again.

I loved reading this book, it was hard puting down once I started. It's amasing to think that this is a true story and the holocaust really did happen. Meyer and Mayna were strong and by keeping the faith and not loosing their hope in the struggle to stay alive dunring this time. I could never imagine leaving my faimly knowing that I would never see them again. I think eveyone should read ths book because you get a real feel for what was going on in Germany druring WW11

This book really helps me learn about the Holocaust. This book is very touching and I wonder how come people treated the Jews like that. I think that the two lovers int his story are very strong and won't give up. They have faith in themselves. That is why thet were not killed. It is also hard to believe that it is a true story. It is so violent and touching that I thought it was make-belive. I really enjoyed this book and I thank all the people that forced me to read it. I really think that Manya and Meyer are two really strong people. I love this book.

Yes, the book is about cookies. But it also has biscotti and brownie recipes. I bought this book last summer and I have to agree with one reviewer. For our family's 4th of July celebration, I made the Snickerdoodles. WOW! These redefined my definition of Snickerdoodles (sorry, Grandma)! This cookie was chewy, buttery and perfectly golden brown. I've never tasted anything like it before. I've made several other batches like the rugelach, lemon ginger wafers, bridget's oat-raisin-coconut cookies and the chocolate chip cookies. They are all works of art. What I like is that Ms. Medrich explains the secrets of WHY these cookies turn out so well. For example, some batters need to be refrigerated, some don't. Yes, this book is somewhat pricey but so worth it. It is more than just the author's personal cookie collection. You will need no other cookbook for cookies (or biscotti) any longer. As for me, the seach has ended.

I've been cooking for many years, during the time I was raising my sons I must have baked thousands of chocolate chip cookies, very good chocolate chip cookies I thought. Until now, I just made some using the recipe and technique from Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies, what wonderful cookies they are, soft and chewy in the middle with crip brown edges, the best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted. If the other recipes are this good then the book is a miracle...this one recipe though makes the book priceless. If you love to bake then treat yourself to Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies.

Don`t let the size of the book bellie its weight in gold. Most recipes have variations so its actually more than the over 100 pages. I had so much successwith the first recipe that i could not wait to try all the rest and they were all superb (especially the mexican wedding cakes that melts in the mouth with a pecanish taste lingering in your mouth) The recipes are really simple due to precise instructions and for a number of them, you just need a saucepan...less work, less clean-up and a thumbs-up for a good cookie. If you're like me and want minimal fuss and maximum taste, read this book. This is the only book i use for chocolate chip cookies.

This book is a trek into memory and is one that is held together by two riveting and story-unifying scenes. It's scenes like these that keep the book still haunting my own memory two weeks after finishing it. The book, just like real life, is merely a cycle - a repetition of connected events.

Both scenes involve the author's dead friend, Jonathan Wright, once a professional photographer and mountaineer who was tragically killed by an unpredicted avalanche.

The author, Rick Ridgeway, is asked by Wright's daughter to take her back to the grave site of her father on the flanks of Minya Konka in "wild Tibet." While hiking the well-worn trail to Tengbocke Monastery, Ridgeway describes himself identifying the white-capped river chat on the banks of the Dudh Kosi. He is perhaps a few hundred yards of Asia Wright, the dead climber's daughter. Ridgeway is suddenly reminded of doing the same identification some twenty years earlier when Jonathan came upon Ridgeway at the river's edge. Back then, they together thumbed through the bird book until they indentified it as the same one they were looking at. Now years later, in almost the exact same spot, Asia Wright comes up the trail, and seeing Ridgeway squatting next to the river, stoops and says, "What are you looking at?" Dizzying deja-vu.

The second motif occurs at the end (don't read this if you don't want to know the surprise). Here, Ridgeway has found the grave site where twenty years before he had buried Jonathan after the fatal avalanche. He approaches the tumbled stones that still partially cover the body. He shifts a rock and sees the hair of his friend. Ridgeway reaches down and holds the strands between his fingers, rubbing them slowly and gently. Years before, Ridgeway had done the same right before Jonathan had died. Ridgeway held Jonathan in his arms. He remembers when he moved his fingers through his hair while Jonathan's lips changed color and suddenly his face paled and something "went out of him," and he died.

These scenes are lasting memories for Ridgeway. I connect with the author as he connects with his past. Below Another Sky is a touching account of an aging mountaineer with a rich heritage and valuable advice to those of us too timid to climb mountains and risk our lives.

This is the recounting of a trip Rick Ridgeway made with Asia Wright through the Himalayas enroute to searching for her father's grave. Her father was Jonathon Wright, who was killed in an avalanche on Minya Konka when she was an infant. Throughout the journey he tells her of her father's life as well as of his own past as a mountaineer and adventurer. This was a difficult book for me to get through, and it was some time before I could pick it up without my hands shaking. I didn't think it would have such an emotional impact on me, and I'm bemused to think that Jonathon can still affect people when he's been dead for twenty years. We knew Jonathon, and I remember vividly the shock of returning from a trip and receiving a telegram saying he'd been killed. Certainly we were familiar with death's capaciousness, but it was a classic case of, "Why him, of all people? Where's the meaning in this?" It's a curious experience to read a book twenty years later where someone asks those questions about the same person, but we've all known someone who died too soon.

They're difficult questions and Ridgeway does as credible a job of the philosophical answers as anyone can, with his acceptance of life and death, and change. However, his denouement at the end, that we should live each day as if it were our only one, felt flat. We've heard it before and it's been boiled done to a kitchen plaque cliché that I've always found irritating when it's not further explained. I don't think I'd plan on spending my only day on earth wondering if the roof should be redone this year or next and booking dental cleanings, as I'm doing today. My grudge with the cliché is that it seems to imply that we should regret whatever it is we've been doing up to now, rather than accepting that some days are simply going to be filled with the mundane details of living. It also holds an inherent suggestion that we should seek pleasure. But the kind of pleasure that makes life worth living is an elusive phantom and comes only after we've sought experience. Pain or regret may also result, regardless of our intentions. We have to embrace the experience regardless of outcome; if it's pleasurable, it's a bonus and we've earned it. Jonathon tried to focus on the experience rather than the goal or glory at the end, and I think that's what was meant in the book, but perhaps each of us sees it differently.

But Jonathon's effect on people was the result of more than what he did, it was the result of his personality, and Jonathon simply being Jonathon. We all affect the people we contact each day. Whether it's for good or ill is up to us. Partly because of his own innate goodness and partly because of his efforts, Jonathon had a positive effect on the people who know him. The lesson I would take from his life is that we could all have a similar impact if we made the effort to be nice - and I apologize for the lackluster word, but there it is - nice. The circumstances in which I first met him was one where egos could become inflated, inflamed, or deflated in an instant, and the silly posturing and puffy tempers certainly were a contrast to Jonathon's calmness. It's an odd thing, given that I didn't know him that well and it's been a long time, but I am still influenced by him and try (not always successfully!) to behave in difficult situations as he would have. Our lives do indeed affect others.

The book focuses on personalities, and that gives it a heart and poignancy which are often lacking in adventure stories. As for his journey with Asia Wright, it begins in Nepal, continues on to Mount Kailas, across the Chang Tang Plateau in Tibet, and ends at Asia's father's grave. The book is nicely-written and over-all the description is strong enough, although there were places where it lacked the vitality that would really bring an area to life for me. I will say (and this truly is surprising, since he recounts a fair number of disasters, not to mention numerous other assorted miseries) that Rick Ridgeway managed the impossible - he made mountain-climbing sound appealing even to me.

I bought this book after reading Seven Summits which recounted Rick Ridgeway's involvement with Dick Bass's and Frank Well's attempt to be the first to bag the "seven summits".
This is a moving story of not only the loss of Rick Ridgeway's friend and climbing buddy in an avalanche in the himalayas where he also almost died but an account of his return voyage with the friend's twenty year old daughter to where the avalanche had occurred some 18 years before. It is a travel narrative, mountaineering book, great insights on Nepal and Tibet with interesting sidetrips through his memories, trips to Patagonia, being in a Panamanian jail when he was but twenty and what it taught him...etc. You have got to like this guy! A perfect read for the introspective armchair adventure traveller who loves Asia; which is the name of the twenty year old girl who finds her father's grave and her way in life on this trip.

I bought this book based on the rave reviews listed here. I was looking for insights into the requirements specifications process based on case studies, experience, etc. The topics discussed are very abstract, and the organization of the book (in alphabetical order of topics) contributed to this abstraction. One of the topics I found extremely interesting throughout the book was the use of mathematical notation to accurately specify relationships and concepts. In my own software engineering consulting practice with Fortune 500 firms, the use of mathematical notation in requirements specifications, such as is used for mathematical and logical proofs, is rarely used, primarily because most users, stakeholders, and developers cannot read or understand mathematical notation with respect to logic! Nevertheless, the book's treatment of mathematical notation in software specifications is refreshing and a keen reminder that the purpose of requirements specifications is precision and to eliminate misinterpretations. If you are looking for a textbook that provides insights into the practice and successful techniques of requirements engineering through case studies and anecdotes, I recommend reading other texts that are aligned with methodologies and techniques such as UML, CRC, etc.

I loved this book. It is one of the rare books that can be read for education or for entertainment. The book is written for software engineers and architects. Jackson's thesis is that most of the battle in software engineering is in describing the problem to be solved, not in solving it. When the problem is clearly represented, then the solution often falls out. He presents universal techniques that are independent of analysis and design method. He provides systematic, disciplined methods for thinking about and communicating about problems of any sort. Thoughtful readers will enjoy it greatly.

In Software Engineering, a book that is a good read is a rare find.

Most books bore you to tears, so you are asleep before you learn anything.

Jackson's book is well written, interesting, and EXTREMELY informative. I strongly suggest ALL Software Developer's read this book.