By showing the amazing collection of the American Museum of Visionary Art, this book provokes the reader to re-think the distinctions our society draws between genius and madness. I've actually been to the Museum in Baltimore and am thrilled that this artwork is now available on a large scale. This book may not be for everyone, but those willing to expose themselves to its often disturbing imagery will be rewarded.

"The End is Near" makes you yearn for Divine inspiration regardless of its source or circumstance. The artwork is stunning, the artist bios are awe-inspiring and the essays are thought provoking, empowering and spiritually comforting. This is an amazing gift to give to others...but do yourself a favor and give it to yourself first. And then go out and pick up a paintbrush, a pencil, or a piece of coal and create. This book will make you realize that the best art you ever see could be just below the surface of your own consciousness.

The End Is Near brings together interesting essays and most unsual artists. The quality of the images and paintings displayed in this book make it a MUST for any art collector and connoisseur of fine books. Essayists in this book bring new meaning to the art depicted. Visionary art and Outsider Art come together in this book beautifully. WELL DONE...a "must have".

Roger Von Oech has an uncommon gift: he can mix knowledge, wisdom and humour. Von Oech is a fan of Heraclitus. If you really like to think creatively you will be a fan too.

I have never believed in reading about the theory of creativity: is like believing that you are exercising by watching ESPN. If you want to achieve the reality of a way to stimulate your creative thinking this book is for you.

Any work from this author is satisfaction guaranteed.

"Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It" is a collection of thirty of Heraclitus' epigrams along with an examination of some of their different facets. Heraclitus was a Greek scholar who answered many of life's questions with comments that were purposely designed to be obscure. This forced the recipient to think creatively to find their answer. Many of them contain internal paradoxes and so part of the creative process is figuring out the paradox and how it applies to your situation.

As Roger von Oech goes through each of the thirty selected epigrams he includes some of the ways that they can be interpreted, ways that they have been interpreted in the past, anecdotes, jokes, and riddles that illustrate the epigram and other ways of illuminating just how deep these pieces of wisdom are. Does he give a complete explanation of how they can be interpreted? No, because that is part of the design of these epigrams, they can be applied to different circumstances and product different but still correct answers. His illustrations are there to open your mind to the creative possibilities that lie hidden within just a few wise words.

Some of these I have heard in the past such as "You can't step into the same river twice". Others are less common but just as full of wisdom such as "On a circle, an end point can also be a beginning point". If you want a book that expands your creative mind and also shows you how to break out of old patterns of thinking in any situation, then this is the book for you. Well written and sure to point the reader to new directions of thinking, it is a highly recommended read.

A number of years ago, I read Roger von Oech's A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD. It was fairly early in my career, when the mold is still unformed but the message was poignant. Recently, when I ran across EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED and saw von Oech was the author, I decided to pick it up and renew myself to von Oech's teachings. What a breath of fresh air he offers with EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED.

von Oech draws heavily upon the ancient wisdom of Heraclitus, the Greek philosopher. Heraclitus, like Parmenides, postulated a model of nature and the universe which created the foundation for all other speculation on physics and metaphysics. The ideas that the universe is in constant change and there is an underlying order or reason to this change-the Logos-form the essential foundation of the primary Heraclitean view. Everytime one walks into a science, economics, or political science course, at most any level, significantly all the teachings originate with Heraclitus's speculations on change and the Logos.
Despite this and the fact the ancient Greeks considered Heraclitus one of their principal philosophers, precious little remains of his writings. The passages remaining are tremendously obtuse, not because they are quoted out of context, but because Heraclitus deliberately cultivated an obscure writing style (one that makes one THINK!). However, thanks to von Oech's passion for all that is Heraclitus and his teachings, we are presented with many the ancient 'riddles' and a modern day correlation and translation of each. von Oech recalls being struck with "the Heraclitean bug" while studying in Germany many years ago. Now, he has written a book in which he brilliantly and entertainingly examines concepts such as symbol, paradox, and ambiguity in relation to creative thought.

At the beginning of EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, von Oech provides the reader with 30 creative insights to consider and explore our creative psyches. von Oech goes through each of the thirty selected epigrams, provides his interpretation along with examples, parables, and questions-the kind that make you go "Hmmm"- all the while stoking the creative being within. von Oech does not attempt to inform the reader that his interpretation is the correct one; to the contrary, he implores the reader to step outside the boundries of conventional thought to find the "correct" answer.

As he was in A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD, von Oech is immensely entertaining. He is an individual who has spent his career assisting others to think creatively. As a byproduct of this career, von Oech has proven himself to be a prodigous creative thinker in his own right. Those in the 'concrete' professions-attorneys, consultants, accountants-will find this book extremely insightful. Thinking in the abstract is incongruent with the 'concrete' professions (I know, I'm one of them). As such, having the fodder to stoke the creative juices, particularly when problem-solving, is a boon to any professional.

At it's small physical size and only 190-odd pages, this book is perfect to keep handy at your desk or any place one engages in thought. I plan to keep it nearby just to refer to when a problem presents itself in an ostensibly unsolvable manner.

Highly recommended.

Great book! A very descriptive story about a boy growing up during the war and facing hard times. I finished the book in two days and could not put it down. This book would make an excellent movie; It's a story that needs to be told. It's definitly a story for posterity.

Rogers descriptive memoirs were brought to life in his book. You feel like you were living his life and his struggles during the war. It is an awesome book and I would recommend it to everyone.

Mr. de Anfrasio's memoirs throughout this book paint a vivid picture of what it was like for his family living through the war. The text of the book places and emphasis on his family's emotional and psychological state of mind during the war, rather than placing emphasis on the actual bombings and tragedy of the war....it gives the book a much more personal touch. This book should not be considered a book about the war...it should be considered a book about the strong family bonds that occur during a war.

This book, brilliantly translated, is a treasure of treasures. Robert Musil's "The Man Without Qualities," from an ironic, intellectual and dispassionate viewpoint, called into question a broad range of our unconscious conventional assumptions about society and reality. "Remembrance of Things Past" brought personal experience under the lens of Marcel Proust's delicate and evocative aesthetic microscope--again, from the point of view of a detached observer. Roger Martin du Gard, using Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort as his vehicle, is the ultimate participant in life and his examinations and judgments of his actions are honest and unsparing. Reading "Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort", narrated with elegance and sobriety, was for me a cataclysmic, relentless and successful assault on many of the complacent assumptions about my "sense of self". The fortitude required of the reader to remain open to Maumort's(du Gard's) courageous exploration of the totality of his own life is repaid many times over. This is not a novel in any conventional sense. It is an experience.

A great book. This engrossing fictional memoir spans the time from the idyll of rural France in the late nineteenth century to the brilliant salons of fin-de-siecle Paris to the horrors of two world wars, probably the greatest period of change in the history of mankind. The witness to this epoch and to his own internal and external development is the narrator, Lt.-Col. de Maumort. He has the best opportunities and teachers his era can offer, and he strives to evolve and to follow his conscience in a world in which conscience matters little. (The exploration of the step-by-step justification of fascism provided to Maumort by occupying Nazi officers, also men of education and cultivation, is a novel in itself, and unlike any other representation of the subject of how seemingly decent people rationalize evil). The story has a wonderful momentum. Unlike most memoirs, fictional and otherwise, which tend always to be self-serving, this one returns again and again to the truth, baring all of the failures, self-betrayals, and contradictions of a life. No wonder Martin du Gard didn't want this to appear in his lifetime. Though the book on the surface appears to be the recollections of a military man walled up in his library while German soldiers occupy his estate in northern France, in fact it's a universal testament about what it is to be human--the best of contemporary fiction, in which every moment comes alive. The translation is superb--far more accurate, literary, and sensitive than the sometimes muddled one of the new Modern Library edition of "The Charterhouse of Parma." This is a book to treasure and reread. The "Black Box" section at the end is an extraodinary bonus: the author, a man apparently very like Maumort, in dialogue with himself through a series of memorable apercus.

I was hooked early in this amazingly ambitious novel by a lovely metaphor where the narrator Maumort compares the way our early memories follow one another to the fish that came each morning out of the lake on lines that he and his sister had set the evening before. Yet memory is only part of the story, as Maumort, a career army officer, is also in thrall to matters abstract, in love with ideas, theories, analysis--all that intellectualising that we Americans love to have the French do for us. However all that cerebration also serves du Gard in developing his characterisation of the Lt Colonel himself, a man determined to understand himself and his society. That such an ambitious story reads so fluidly and fluently is a testimony to both du Gard's and his two translators' splendid prose. Midway in the novel is is a cinematically rendered and unsparing account of a tragic seduction that utterly establishes du Gard's gifts as a novelist, and which by itself might justify the entire novel, were there not so much more here: the marvellously canny portraits of character after character who Maumort encountered in his life, the unflinching account of human sexuality (especially early male sexual experience), the lavishly detailed picture of French society, and as already mentioned, no shortage of food for thought. All this capped by a poignant and powerful moment of dark paralysis towards the close, as the aged Colonel, having just reclaimed his beloved rural estate from its Nazi occupiers, takes one last look back at a relentlessly examined life.

This book is the first and best in the series, and contains the following sections:

KATEMUSHA
---------
In feudal Japan, loyal samurai Miaowara Tomokato returns from a family visit to find his lord dead in a scene of destruction that's completely spoiled me for similar scenes forever. Maybe it's the arrow-ridden dragon in Red Army uniform, or the landgoing replica of the Merrimac.

"From his vantage-point Takeda Katsuyori surveyed the grim scene. 'Fudge," he gritted."

THE BRIDGE OF KATZAD-DUM
------------------------
Samurai Cat pursues one of his lord's killers into Tolkien country, dealing with such critters as porks and the dread B'aalhop.

"The katana whirred and flamed, slicing through tentacle after tentacle, whistling in a constantly repeated *Datsun Tempura*, or Divine Whirling Outboard Motor Propeller Blow."

THE BOOK OF THE DUNWICH COW
---------------------------
The setting: a Lovecraftian town whose houses consist only of gabled attics to hide the squamous half-human denizens of Outsmouth.

"Yog N'goggawoggah and Yoknapatawpha, twin masses of stone-cold cream chip beef that ooze sluggishly in the center of all time and space, are their chiefs, terrible in combat, unappetizing to behold. Their herald and messenger is Stor-Atroomtemp, Lord of the Luke-warm, Cosmic Blight, Master-of-Many-Shapes-and-Interesting-in-None-of-Them. Their publicity is handled by the horrendous Isaac Azathoth...."

BEYOND THE BLACK WALNUT
-----------------------
Another murderer, Thpageti-Thoth, has fled into savage Pictland. Illustrated in gorgeous Frazetta parodies, the story shows Samurai Cat's meeting with Con-Ed the Barbarian.

"Amalric the East Anglian..., armored in a scale-mail corselet, was a tall weasly-looking teenager whose spiky hairdo sent orange and purple tufts up through the holes he had deliberately punched in his own helmet. His only weapon was a gigantic Wilkinson sword razor-blade with the words 'Hi Mum' written on it in crimson lipstick."

AGAINST THE GODS
----------------
Tomokato's search takes him next to Asgard, as the gods prepare for the final war against the giants of the Greater Jotunheim Co-Prosperity Sphere.

"Odin nodded his grimly regal head and picked up the microphone for his P.A. system. 'Attention, attention,' he began. 'This is Odin, Lord of the Hanged. Ketil Jormunreksson, report to the Throne-Room, on the double.'"

This book is a must.

This is definitely an excellent book. I have read both this and Samurai Cat Goes to the Movies and have found both to be hilarious and highly enteraining. While often very wierd it is a great book which I would highly recommend.

AFTER READING ALL THE OTHER REVIEWS ON THIS BOOK, I'LL JUST SAY DITTO. YOU MUST BUY THIS BOOK! OR SHIRO WILL FIND YOU AND BLOW YOUR FREAKING HEAD OFF!

I am a beginner to the leopard gecko scene. So of course I needed some info on the creature before I bought one. This book was very informative and I learned a lot. But I believe too much of it was devoted to breeding. Which is cool but that was not what i was looking for. There needed to be more basic iformation. But it definitaly answered almost all my questions and then some. I would recomend it to any one.

i've seen books on leopard geckos but this one takes the cake! this not only has up to date information and is from one of the top and most well known reptile authors, but also has parts that the other books just don't have. it has many colour photos of some of the most popular colour mutations of not only leopard geckos, but of one of its cousins, also a popular pet, the african fat-tailed gecko. this book also includes some studies done on the leopard gecko and some short introductions to some of its other close relatives fron around the world. if you have leopard geckos, have had them for years, or are planning on getting some, this is a must have! it is worth every penny!

As a self-taught gecko-keeper, over the past years I have a number of times wished I had had to hand a book such as this for all my different species of charges. While it is both interesting and informative on the background and origin of these creatures, more importantly it is remarkably focussed on the must-knows of keeping leopard geckos safely and healthily and deals with essentials from diet to breeding. The author should be commended for his close attention to detail. I truly believe that ownership of this book shall increase the chance of more of these beautiful creatures living to full term in captivity rather than dying suddenly and without explanation in the night.

I haven't read or even so much as glanced at any other translations or publications of Sun-Tzu's Art of Warfare, and as far as I'm concerned I didn't need to. This edition is a wonderful translation, easily readable and understandable while remaining true to the Chinese. In fact, for verification purposes, the original text is contained opposite nearly every page.

The translator starts off with a very interesting introduction probably longer than the book itself; while a little boring at times, it was a very necessary addition. He explains to the reader the history of the various finds that have gone towards completing the text, the structure of the text, the historical background and anecdotes of Sun-Tzu, compares fundamental western beliefs and mindsets to eastern, and generally just analyzes this work and puts it into perspective for the reader.

As for Sun-Tzu's work itself -- it's great. If you read it carefully, you'll be surprised to not how much of this stuff you already know, how much is simply common sense -- but the format and presentation and conciseness of it is astounding. It presents the material in an accessible way that's understandable and readable. Also including here, alongside the initial 13 chapters, are all kinds of Art of Warfare fragments which have been unearthed, most of which are pretty interesting.

This book is a must read if you are at all interesting in war or the context thereof.

This book is superb. What this edition offers that others may not is geared toward the interests of anthropologists: pictures, explanations, and diagrams of/from the excavated sites in China that materials used in this book originated from. In addition, this book offers fragments of other writings related to "The Art Of Warfare" that in the case of some are great supplements to "The Art of Warfare" proper. What a great read.

This is the first English translation of the Art of Warfare that incorporates the recently discovered Ma Wang Tui texts. It has been scrupulously and meticulously rendered, with a lengthy introduction that narrates the discovery of the new texts and the arduous work to reassemble them. This book includes the Chinese text of the entire new version, a core text of 13 chapters and 5 new chapters that serve to explain and elaborate the core text. Numerous photographs.

With the increasing concern for building a stable workforce today, this book is absolutely right on target. It does no good to hire good people if you can't keep them. I was delighted with the style of this book. It's so easy to read and understand. The organization of the chapters, presenting almost 200 strategies for keeping people, is just perfect for conveying all this information. I read the book from cover to cover, but see how it can serve as a great reference tool, too. Now I see why it's the #5 best seller for the Society for Human Resource Management. I'd sure give "Keeping Good People" five stars!

In today's job market, it is challenging to attract the best-qualified and well-suited job applicants. It is even more difficult to retain excellent employees. The cost of employee turnover is high in terms of lost productivity, lost knowledge, and financial expense associated with filling the vacancy.

Roger Herman, futurist and certified management consultant and speaker, provides an exceptional resource for any organization seeking to retain its best employees. Keep Good People is divided into three sections. The first effectively sets the stage by providing valuable insights into the competitive nature of the job market, the value of good employees, and what prompts employees to stay and leave an employer. The first section provides essential background that led to an essential, yet basic understanding of employer/employee relations regarding retention. Section two provides nearly 200 very specific and useful strategies. Each strategy is clearly defined and concisely explained. Herman does not stop with a somewhat overwhelming list of strategies, yet provides suggestions for implementation and an "eye to the future" in section three.

Keep Good People is an excellent resource for human resource professionals and managers seeking to prevent undesirable employee turnover as well for the organizations seeking to reduce turnover. Use this book as a guide to simply review current practices and development of strategic, and it will be well worth the investment of both time and money.

I've looked through several books on employee retention and this one takes the prize! I was amazed at how much information was packed into a little over 400 pages. From reading this book, I now have a much better understanding of the trends...the big picture of why people jump from job to job. The five reasons why people leave was really thought-provoking. The strategy section is well organized and full of great ideas. I found the book easy to read from cover to cover and I'm now using the index and detailed table of contents to find specific information I need. Very well put together...worth far more than the price.

Harvard child psychologist and severe child abuse survivor Annie Rogers suffered psychiatric hospitalizations once or twice a year from puberty until her late twenties -- when, after a six year insidiously inept and crazymaking "therapy," an attempt to stab and shoot that therapist and one last hospitalization for another word salad psychosis (and no more insurance), her exceptional and no doubt desperate sister and friends found the gifted and pro bono analyst Dr. Blumenfeld. If this exceptional memoir hasn't become a classic must read in psychology with many reviews by both patients and therapists by now, there are unfortunate reasons. One is that Annie's politically correct adolescence shows in her disdain for the "medical models and diagnoses" Dr. Blumenfeld himself could afford to abandon only because he knew them and the blind therapists who live by them so well -- and thus could authentically reach and stabilize the talented and brilliant, borderline and psychotic personality and doctoral intern Annie. "You have a kind of giftedness, Annie, that probably has always been inseparable from your suffering, and we don't know very much about that yet." What we need now is a wonderful book from the exceptional and sainted Dr. Blumenfeld and more from the healed and gifted writer Dr. Rogers on the two sided magic of play therapy with children. You must meet Annie's beloved "oppositional" 5 year old patient Ben and ponder the 7 foot angel "Theosporus" who protected and accompanied Annie from age 6 to Dr. Blumenfeld's office at 27. A Shining Affliction raises more questions than it answers -- it might have been twice as long, and it's hard to tell if important details were deliberately or unconsciously left out. As it is, it's a daring memoir by a once psychotic Harvard child psychologist that should be a controversial must read classic in both child and adult psychotherapy.

I believe this is one of my favorite books of all time. Rogers is an excellent writer -- my words cannot possibly evoke the vibrancy with which she brings her surroundings, her internal process, and her experience of Ben, her five-year-old patient, to life. The book gives a detailed, living-and-breathing picture of working therapeutically with children; at the same time, it shows the necessity of facing, feeling and integrating that which we most fear from our past in order to be fully alive, which is helped beyond measure by having a sensitive therapist to do the healing work with. Rogers' descriptions of Blumenthal, her second therapist, gives us all a standard to hope for, both in terms of the kind of therapist we should all be able to find, and the kind of therapist we should try to be, for those of us in the field.

This book takes you into the heart and mind of a fascinating woman. It portrays, in sometimes painful detail, the importance of the therapist-patient relationship. We observe two radically different styles of therapy, and the power of each to help or heal. A wonderful read for anyone in therapy - my own therapist and I are using it as a tool to explore our relationship.

What a "maaaaahvelous" book put out by Ron Smith and Billy Crystal. A perfect companion to the movie. This book takes us baby boomer Yankee fans back to a magical time in our lives.
The photgraphy is phenomenal and the text --smooth,easy to read and very informative. I loved this book so much I ordered for my sister for Christmas. I have no doubt she will enjoy as much as I did. Everything in the 6l season for the Yankees was amazing, Mantle, Maris, Ford, the unbelievable infeild--this book covers it ALL to perfection. i must read for aging Yankee fans.

Like I did, you will love this book. It is a great companion piece to the movie.

Most of the book is full of pictures and narratives about the great 1961 season when Mantle and Maris were chasing the Babe's home run record. (Aside, Maris' 61 home runs, which stood for 37 years, is now only 7th best all time?). There are lots of pics of the real Mantle and Maris as well as a discussion of the movie. And of course, there is the postscript of M and M after their Yankee careers ended. And sadly for both, very early and untimely deaths.

M and M were the talk of baseball and New York in 1961. Forty years later as we watch their descendants try to bring New York together with another World Series crown we can remember the innocence the joy and heartbreak of 61 and we can thank Billy Crystal for helping us to relive the innocence that was our youth.

This is the way sports should be! Two men, who gave it their all
for their team. It was more for the sport and not the money!
Great book!