As a sales and marketing professional and university professor I can tell you this book is book is one of the worst books I have ever purchased. The reason for this is because the exercises seem adequate for people with a negative IQ! I would have returned the book but my 4 year old boy damaged it.

I do training for an association in which we are members. Although the exercises in this book are for sales people, I have adapted more than a dozen of them to use in various training sessions, from surviving or thriving in our changed economy to direct marketing by snail mail and email. Would recommend this book to anyone who needs visuals to motivate others.

A great investment for anyone looking to improve the quality and quantity of sales. Many ideas can be easily adapted for motivational meetings and brainstorming.

Imagine a place where everything is possible, but nothing works. Where life is a series of unconnected thoughts and inconsequential incidents. Where relationships falter on the twin rocks of ambivalence and depression. This is the world of Ingo Schulze's Germany circa 1990,a place where confusion is a sure thing, and people live life in a constant state of low grade psychic hangover.

This is a tough book, in every sense of the word. The language is desultory and barren. The characters never achieve empathy. The country remains an unknown place with an tenuous fate even after all the stories unfold.

The title of the book is a misnomer. Nothing about it is simple. The author has laid out a novel in short story form, which adds to the sense of the experience as an incoherent whole. It's difficult to latch on to the hopes or feelings of any of the characters, since they're so easily lost to the next chapter and the muddy narrative.

For a taste of the atmosphere of East Germany in the vise grip of change, the book may have some value. Mostly, though, it's a cynical trip through a purgatory of boredom. To the extent that purgatory is a temporary place, the logical outcome would be for these characters to move into a brighter future. At the end of this book, though, it's hard to be so hopeful. And it's harder to care.

"Maybe I'm being unfair, maybe I wouldn't even remember if it hadn't been for the brouhaha later on, maybe I've got the sequence of events mixed up, too, but I'm not inventing any of it." And so it goes--the tone of German writer Ingo Schulze's new volume of vignettes as novel _Simple Stories_--clear, punctuated, particularly elegant. Written in the spirit of Winesburg, Ohio, Schulze's musings over the post-Wall East German hamlet Altenburg have been compared to the styles of both Sherwood Anderson and Raymond Carver.

True to his guileless prose, Schulze is "not inventing any of it." Yet it would be quite reductive to label his language as pure Americana. It is American in that it is stripped-down, bare of many Old World pretensions, but Simple Stories departs from our modern literary tradition in its lack of sensationalism, redeeming, that Schulze's unadorned language is unadulterated by derogatory shock filler.

This is especially evident in his adept handling of a rape that transpires between Altenburg waitress Connie Schubert and nomadic American real estate salesman, Harry Nelson. "He and his hand didn't listen to me. Then came a pain that ran from my shoulders all the way down my back. 'Raise your arms,' someone shouted,'Raise your arms!' For a moment I didn't know where I was or what had pushed itself into me. My blouse was yanked up. And the same syllables again and again: 'Raise your arms!"

This is not to say that Schulze's medleys are solely documentary or homages to quotidian occurrences. In perhaps one of the best passages, a Schulze narrator, Danny, is frozen by the singular event of looking into "crocodile eyes," the grainy veneer of a cheap old Stasi desk. "Every time it happens, I promise myself I'm going to talk to the others about this amoeba-like grain in the veneer," she says. "We all have to spend our time staring at these lines and squiggles, which at the far left look like a crocodile's eye. But nobody ever says anything, and I keep forgetting it, too, like some bad dream."

Moments of stasis like this fill a precious few pages. No matter what the situation, Schulze's characters always seem on the move, chugging aimlessly along into their automobiles, usually Plymouths, but sometimes Renaults. Schulze's world is effused with this odd combination of German sensibility and American kitsch. Why Schulze's characters prefer to drive around in Plymouths rather than Benzes is intriguing in that it cannot be a purely economic consideration. We soon begin to realize the tacit commentary that is being made. The Wall is down, but westernization is not restitution enough, leaving more wanderers than homesteaders.

Yet, it is an over-arching lack of the epic scale, in the technical sense, that hurts the book as a whole. It would take a particularly patient reader to digest the 29 stories in one sitting but an even more intent reader to manage to surmise the complex connections between the vignettes, which are often too based on moniker relations rather than convergence of plot or metaphor. Often one finds the need for a family tree, a flow chart to keep straight the characters.

The invasion of western pop culture is also at a representational disadvantage in this book, as it is a translation. It is literally impossible to discern American colloquial from German idiom, as they become one and the same, written in the equivalent language.

No doubt Schulze is a master craftsman, but his few missteps in this new volume lead one to hold back unabashed praise. END

Schulze's book is an intriguing cross between a novel and a collection of short stories. Set in the small East German town of Altenburg, a group of main characters come up again and again, viewed from different perspectives. Communism is gone, "the West has come" (as East Germans like to put it), and people have more or less difficulty in adjusting to the new situation. In contrast to Gunter Grass, Schulze does not use his narrators as mouthpieces for his views on the transformation of his home, which makes his book a lot more believable and representative than many on the effects of German unification.

No, sorry, this is not a book about any political process: It is a book about people. And their stories and obsessions are not confined to one moment in time or one place on earth. Much of this can happen in Maine just as well as in Magdeburg. Schluze is excellent at showing how spooky or meaningful the most mundane of incidences can sometimes be. His masterful arrangement of the "Simple Stories" keeps drawing you in, there is a mounting tension - and, as I must admit, a growing sense of depression. In one way or another, all of these people's lives seem to be going wrong. And yet they survive, so one may find the effect exhilarating as well, for while many characters fail to find a respectable place in a society which is alien to them, they assemble a biography which is all the more individual and interesting.

Schulze has been hailed as one of the most interesting writers of the younger generation in Germany - not just by the critics, but by a large and loyal readership, too. The title of the book, which can be read a both German or English, hints at Schulze's American hero Raymond Carver. However, Schulze uses some of his techniques to compose a caleidoscopic picture of East Germany after the downfall of Communism - or of humanity after the big ideas?

The book is a good attempt, but a lot is missing, such as diagrams, pictures and more specific ways for drills.

I want to play better golf so I bought this book. Its title is very inspiring for everyone especially beginner who want to hit the ball a long way. The good points of this book are the author keep encourage the reader that he/she can play good golf and offers alot of practice drills. However, there are also some points which should be improve otherwise it can be a good book not an average one (for me). These points are its lack of pictures. For instruction book like this, an easy to understand picture is need not just a picture of Tiger Woods' swing here and there. I think it should include some details of each club in the bag. For this subject, Ernie Els book did a great job. What I really can't stad is that the author praise Tiger too much. I agree that Tiger is a great player in this age but he is not a god like perfect player. When I read this book, I feel like it said Tiger never make a mistake in which I disagree. Tiger is a great player and he also make lots of mistakes. That is the way golf is played. My suggestion is to borrow this book from you friend. Browse it to see if you l like it then decide wheter to buy it or not.

A very useful intsructional golf book that simply shows why Tiger Woods is such a great athletic golfer and how the reader can develop similiar golfing skills. In addition, the author compares in various areas of the golf swing and body movement, how Tiger's style of movement compares with a other great golfers. An enjoyable book to read and also learn how to emulate Tiger Woods great golf swing.

All you need to know about this book is that there is a disclaimer on the back cover which tells you that Tiger Woods had nothing whatsoever to do with the creation of this book. I bought and read the book before I saw the disclaimer. Stupid me. Shame on me; much more shame on John Andrisani. You won't learn anything, or at least anything useful. Look into Manuel De La Torre or Dede Owens (especially "Smart Golf") to really improve your golf game.

Okay, let's think about this one. Is Tiger Woods the golfing machine that John Andrisani wants us to believe he is? Or is he human, at the pinnacle of his game and cruising? Golf is all about streaks. Think about Johnny Miller. At the top of his game everyone was saying that HE was the next Nicklaus. Then all of a sudden it was as though he had been abducted by aliens. Go, Tiger, go! But I won't be the least bit surprised when the streak ends and Tiger ends up stumping Mizuno or Maxfli or Golfsmith instead of Nike.

Well...maybe.

The book does bring to the table some very good things about the mind game of golf. Tiger aside, this book could have been just as good without Andrisani's overt Tiger Woods hero worship that literally drips from every page.

Go ahead and read it. Not too bad, really. Not too deep. Definitely not earth shattering.

As anyone who is serious about golf knows, the game is 90% mental. Renowned teaching professional John Andrisani draws on interviews with Tiger's Mom, Dad, ex-coaches, and current one Butch Harmon to piece together what tips have made him into perhaps the greatest player the game will ever know. That being said, anyone who wants to improve at golf NEEDS to read this book. Lessons with pros are fine, IF you have unlimited time and money to pursue them. Save yourself both strokes on the course, grief, and money by getting a hold of this book! One of the most impressive aspects of 'Think Like Tiger' is the tips Butch Harmon learned from one of golf's other all-time legends--- Ben Hogan which are passed on here. Additionally, it is interesting to learn that Tiger's mother Tida introduced him to Buddism which he uses to relax, calm his mind, and meditate. His father Earl also tells how he prepped Tiger on the need for ignoring all distractions etc by rattling golf clubs during his back swing and other tricks to build his total focus. There is even a claim made that Tiger saw a hypno-therapist named Dr. Jay Brunza, a former navy man to help him with his pre-shot routine. This may be speculation, but then again, it may not. After all, who could possibly completely explain Tiger's total domination of a game so fickle and capricious? In short, it's fair to warn the reader that 'The Man' himself DID NOT collaborate with Andrisani on the writing of this book. However, Adrisani's keen insigts into all aspects of the game and his other reliable sources, more than make up for this short-coming. I found this to be a short, and incredibly insightful read. If you really want to play better golf, do yourself a favor and get your hands on a copy of this book A.S.A.P!

Gerald Thurmond is a serious writer, but John Lane's work recalls the worst of the southern "Look at me, I am so deep" agrarians. Lane needs to realize that there is a world out there that is bigger than he is.

The Woods Stretched for Miles is an excellent anthology of southern nature writing. The editor, Gerald Thurmond, has obviously searched far and wide to bring together a diverse group of writers. All of the selections are well chosen.

Without any review, I never had a chance to really know if this is the book that I need. Unfortunately, it is not what I was looking for.

However, the book itself is OK for beginners who are looking for simple objects like Christmas tree ornaments, butter and cookie molds, chip-carved pieces, tramp-carving, gouge decoration, silhouettes and more.

For experienced carvers, challenging projects like toys, weather vanes, signs, noisemakers, musical instruments, cigar-store, animals and humans, caricatures, carved jigsaw puzzles and more.

The price suggests this is a book for institutional libraries only. This is quite correct. Dr Carlquist has made a career of studying wood of small diameter stems: shrubs, subshrubs, liana's, etc. He has brought together an enormous body of knowledge on the variation in their wood anatomy and came up with many a theory to explain this. This book takes stock of his work up to 1988. Since many of his conclusions are controversial this work should only be read within hand's reach of an extended reference library: food for thought for the specialist!

Note: for those interested in practical wood anatomy (wood identification) the book by R.Bruce Hoadley is a good introduction. For those interested in an academic introduction to systematic wood anatomy the work 'Anatomy of the Dicotyledons' 2nd edition Volume II (1983) by Metcalfe & Chalk is the standard work: a good solid reference.

This book was written as a companion to an exhibition that opened at the Huntington Library in Los Angeles in October 1998. The illustrations are disappointing, because they are mostly photographs of documents. The text is decent, but provides a very superficial account of Washington's life. A much better general book about Washington's life is James Thomas Flexner's Washington: The Indispensable Man.

Washington's achievements were primarily in three areas: commanding the continental army, being president of the Constitutional Convention, and serving as the country's first President. He practically single-handedly fostered a sense of our being one united country and held it together through the war, the draftig of the Constitution, and the national's early history.

It is difficult to overestimate Washington's contributions. Everything he did set a precedent for the nation. And everything was being done for the first time. There had been no democratic country in the history of the world. No country had had a democratically elected leader; they had all been kings.

Washington was a fascinating man. Unfortunately, this book is not. Still, it is worthwhile as a superficial overview of Washington's life.

I've read parts of this book and it held my interest simply because the subject is interesting. But there is nothing in there that I've not read, known or heard before about Ali. The author makes a conclusion of Ali's style on the basis of just one fight, even if that fight is -- to quote Ali himself -- his "greatest". It is also too short, about 200 pages in paperback and contains very few photos of its larger-than-life subject. So what if Ali created a style that he had to maintain as part of his identity before us his fans and the rest of society? That is not a very original or striking psychological observation.

Sports Illustrated put together a collection of some of its articles chronicling the rise of Tiger Woods from the years 1992 through 1996. Writers such as James Garrity, Jaime Diaz, Tim Rosafore, Rick Reilly, William Reed, and Gary Sickle share their special insight on this young golf phenomena. Everyone has their say in this three act drama.

Act I is aptly titled The Kid. Here we are given a snapshot of the young Tiger learning his trade while moving up in the ranks of golf history. Act II concerns itself with the young man on the rise as an Amateur. The reporting tracks his comebacks, successes and the never ending question of when he will turn pro. Act III, The Pro, introduces us to a new Tiger. Tiger has moved beyond his peers on the amateur circuit and now has debuted as a professional. How he does and what he will do in the future is yet to come as we read the articles concerning his progress.

This is a good picture book. If you want to start a conversation about Tiger Woods and his rise to golf fame, this is a fair start. The articles aren't all that exciting unless you love to hear the same old jargon and statistics about Tiger, time and time again. The book's photography is good and enjoyable. Sports Illustrated threw together a picture book of a rising star. The magazine could have done better but what you have is decent coffee table reading.