I've read several books and online materials about substance abuse and how to help someone out of addiction. This book is the most comprehensive, considerate, simple, and useful source for friends or family members. It is more complete and helpful than the better-known cornerstone works from the Betty Ford Clinic and Dr. Vernon Johnson. Not only is the text full of information, but the charts offered at the end to help organize an intervention are most user-friendly and designed to give you a thoughtful helping hand. This one is the best investment.

Whether you are a family member, a friend or a professional counsellor, this book is a "must-read" for anyone dealing with alcoholism or drug addiction. It may be painful to read, but it's so true. I am purchasing copies to share with friends. I need their support.

In an effort to promote the healing and recovery of individuals and families in the 10 county diocese with 98 parishes, the parish representatives trained in the community resourses to assist people who have loved ones with a substance abuse/alcohol problem are using the guidebook "LOVE FIRST". Because of this new approach to intervention we are averageing ONE intervention a week acrose the diocese. A beautiful well written, easy to under stand text that appeals to those with a caring love for someone who is hurting.

No cobbled-together overview, this is an impressive, meaty book of great integrity. Care has obviously been taken to do the research & get the facts straight. "Heavy hitters" like John Mayall, Fleetwood Mac, the Butterfield Band & the Yardbirds are covered admirably in a way that is both comprehensive & concise. Lesser known artists also appear, & when reading the book one constantly encounter players who would turn up in other places, at other times. The reader feels himself in good, knowledgeable hands from the get-go. (Martin Celmin's introductory essay is worth the price of the book in & of itself.)
It's that rarest of things, a book that is both entertaining & a solid reference work as well. The A-Z approach also makes it, as my friend Chris Darrow calls it, a great "toilet book." Meaning, I hasten to clarify, a book one can dip into whenever or wherever.
It's the first in a series, & I look forward to the future volumes.

This book is fantastic! The only thing that would make it better yet, would be the addition of a few more blues artists that seem to have been left out. (The Animals, Eric Burdon, Spencer Davis,...and WHERE is Led Zeppelin!!!...the greatest Blues rock band ever??) It is still well worth owning, if you can still get one...lots of information, and things even an avid Blues Rock fan probably didn't know. The "Introduction" is one of the best parts, giving you virtually a complete history of how this great music evolved. Gives Blues Music the attention it has deserved for so long, and never got.

The "Blues-Rock Explosion" falls into the "must have" category for all serious music fans and collectors. The book features a great mix of well known and obscure bands and artists and is full of facts and details that even the most ardent fan will not be aware of.

Having been a British Blues fan/collector/writer for 30+ years it's great having detailed information on all of my favorites(Savoy Brown,Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation,etc.)in one place. Great articles,discographies, and photos highlight a book that is hard to put down.

So grab a stack of cds,the "Blues-Rock Explosion" sit back and enjoy!

I first read this book in junior high school,and now am in my thirties. I've re-read it about twenty times and it is probably my favorite all time.{and i read a LOT of books} It's one of those books that you want to read on a day you have completely to yourself.{so that you won't have to put it down until you finish} I've often thought that it would make a great mini-series for television. As an Alabamian I can relate to it well since it deals with our neighbors to the east. But I think that anyone anywhere would enjoy it immensely. A definite "must read".

I consider this one of the best books I have read, and I'm an avid reader. The characters are wonderful, and the story is a page turner. There is humor, excitement, romance, emotion, terror. I have read it at least 4 times. It calls to mind another Southern novel--To Kill a Mockingbird.

I had to read this book in 10th grade English class. I liked it so much I stole the book! I read extensively, and this is one book, along with Rand's The Fountainhead that I can read again and again and again... I have given this book to everyone, and I've even read it aloud to my husband. Jeff Fields' characters are as richly developed as any...I only wish I could meet Earl. I encourage everyone to read this book, especially if you like Southern Lit. By the way, can anyone tell me what happened to Jeff Fields, or if he has written anything else?

Not at all your typical business book, but every bit the truth about the corporate world that I have experienced. As I became drawn in by the story, as told through the eyes and thoughts of the characters, I relived my own personal nightmares of ineffective management. But their outcome was much more pleasant, and entirely plausible. Judging by the many positive comments of some very highly placed executives, it appears that Enterprise Medicine is for real. By joining together and focusing on the possibilities, they made their vision a reality through teamwork, mutual support and encouragement - along with a good dose of flexibility. I honestly dream of working at a place like that! The employees were empowered and took ownership of their future - and the future of their company. I can think of quite a few companies who are ailing right now. They have the potential to become great again, but I think they could use a good dose of "The Cure" to get them back on their feet!

"The Cure" arrived on Friday afternoon, and I couldn't put it down. I am glad I had a free weekend to read it because it is a page-turner. I never thought a business book could be so entertaining and informative at the same time. This is really a business novel, so there is a story (a compelling one) with characters (many you will recognize from your own business).

It tells the story of company that faces many challenges - the biggest of which is its own culture. What's different about this book is it tells you how to change that troubled culture into positive energy that will drive the business towards success.

This is a must read for those struggling with the cultural issues facing so many businesses.

I loved this book. It really applied to my business and I can already see how it will improve how we do business. I highly recommend!

Very thoroughly researched subject matter and very informative on the dangers of rock music to the Christian culture. All research is backed up by facts so nobody can dispute the evidence! Very good...too bad it is out of print!

very informative and have details to help christians and non-christians to avoid this type of ungodly music and acknowledge us about the differences in the kind of worship that we should present to God, because the workship is totally different and the results are differents too. God bless Jeff Godwin for let God to use him to write this book and others, to God sure be the glory too. keep the good work in Jesus.

This book is god's gift to man. I used quotes from this for a paper on heavy metal music for 7 years in a row. Jeff Godwin writes some of the funniest material since Andrew Dice Clay, except he doesn't rhyme as well. If Stryper are messengers of the devil, then sign me up for hell right now! Can't wait to read his next book. Hail Satan!

Jack Trout, head of the marketing firm Trout & Partners, digs for details about the major reasons big brands run into trouble and just how enormous companies mess up by handling their signature standard-bearers badly. He runs down the litany: mistaken extensions of the brand name, failures to differentiate the brand's qualities and loss of clarity about just what a brand represents. His failure sagas are mini-novels based inside Xerox, General Motors, AT&T, Digital Equipment, General Mills and Coca-Cola. Remember New Coke? Now that was a branding debacle. Trout highlights corporate shortcomings and lays the blame for branding woes right at the feet of people who should have known better: of out-of-touch CEOs, ineffective consultants and dysfunctional boards. Alert consumers who like insider business war stories will enjoy this clear, lively book, but if you own a company or market a brand, we from getAbstract suspect you should read it twice.

"Big Brands" is kind of an update of "Positioning" with more modern examples, and they are fascinating. Examples like Newton vs. Palm, McDonalds vs. Burger King, & Levis vs. everybody. Of course some of those great examples from "Positioning" remain, like Xerox and Miller Brewing. If you haven't read "Positioning", I would definitely recommend doing that before diving into "Big Brands." Jack Trout makes marketing easy to understand by talking about products and situations we are all familiar with.

Prosper (Prosper is last word of title of review)
Time Pressured, Overloaded with Information and media outlets, and now Osamaed, Americans need to work and live more efficiently and exhuberantly than ever. How can you improve your business or learn to keep your company competitive in a short period of time? Take one to 1 1/2 hours to read: Big Brands, Big Trouble. It gets right to the point in offering the best advice for companies that want to grow and prosper, or at the very least, maintain their market share. There is no flowery language, textbook talk, academic lingo-only solid strategies based on years of experience working admidst the most well-known brands. Trout is not afraid to point out the mistakes of companies who spend millions of dollars on marketing programs and research yet move no further along in market share or stock value. See what happened to companies that were once on the Fortune 500 list but are now part of some amorphous holding company or conglomerate. What lessons can be learned from their mistakes? Easy to read, with a touch of humor, Big Brands Big Trouble provides concrete business strategies and actionable plans for the most busy among us. Jack Trout's intelligence and marketing savvy cuts through all jargon and provides the best business advice anyone working with any brand will need.

Anyone thinking of owning a boa constrictor must read this book. I foster abandoned boas and this book would save the snake and future owners lots of trauma. Buy it now!

If you could only buy one book on Boa Constrictors, this would be it. I had the first printing of this title, and just got the updated version- definitely an improvement. The book details all aspects of their care and breeding, and gives you the hard facts of owning these large beautiful creatures. You will not find redundant or conflicting information unlike some other boa books. Even if you are only considering getting a red tail, do yourself a favor and read this book to find out what you're getting yourself into. I also recommend the books "What's wrong with my Snake?" and "Understanding Reptile Parasites" if you own or are thinking of owning a boa.

I had owned a copy of the original version of this book, and I have to say that this updated edition is even better. It's got some great information about breeding, disease and care that goes far beyond what the original contained, making it even more valuable than before. Like probably almost everyone else says, if you're only going to buy one book regarding the proper husbandry of boa constrictors, this is the book you should buy. It's so reasonably priced, there's no excuse not to.

I was in the bookstore wondering to get for my friend. A golf neophyte, he finds the sport both rewarding and relaxing. He once told me that golf was the perfect game and sport because, ''you aren't competing against your friends, you're competing agianst yourself." This was the perfect book for him and anyone who respects the game. Golf can be so very relaxing and it's nice to have a book that tells you where the fun is. I also enjoyed the book because it was easy to follow and inexpensive. This is a great Father's Day gift as well. Bravo.

I've lived in this area for over twenty years, and this guide provided information that I was unaware of, for my own town. It'll be invaluable as I travel to other cities this year.

What a great idea for a book! Why didn't somebody think of this sooner? I can't tell you how many times I've skipped an opportunity to play on the road simply because I didn't know anything about the courses in that area. Never again. The next time I'm hacking up a course during some spare time on a business trip, I'm going to blame the guys who wrote this book.

However valuable how-to books may be, most of us haven't time for them. Many of the books geared to the business world are fat, ugly, and bone-dry.

Jeff Tobe has taken his book on creativity, marketing and sales quite a few steps beyond that. He has been thinking , creating, and "Coloring Outside the Lines." He presents basic approach to business within a slim, memorable volume.

The author polishes up a dull subject with images from the sports world and from children's games. He supplies an intriguing diagnosis of stale business practices he calls BPIP (Business Professionals Innovation Deficiency) with all its symptoms. These include Past-a-Plegia, Internal Myopia, and Psycho-Sclerosis, all of which make anthrax seem innocuous. You will want to learn about these because they are diseases anyone can contract.

The book itself is a tribute to Tobe's own philosophies. The cover looks more like an Easter egg than a business book, the typeface is positively enchanting (and readable) and his advice is anecdotal, not built with dry-old, tired-old businessese. His message is to achieve success by thinking differently; this book illustrates this very premise. Tobe takes a risk and it works.

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"

When you're raised with the oft-repeated admonition to stay inside the lines when you're coloring, the message sticks. When you're an adult, coloring outside the lines, out of the box thinking, and challenging the status quo can be really difficult. The old tapes come on and hold you within established boundaries. Creativity is a useless exercise: it's outside the limits. And that's our problem. We're all so bound by limits, we can't find new solutions. We're stuck with the old solutions, even though the problems, the playing field, and the rules have changed. And the tape plays on.

It is said that if you tie an elephant to a stake with a thin rope when it's young, the elephant learns that it is secured to that stake. The learned behavior "sticks," enabling handlers to secure huge, powerful elephants to stakes with thin ropes. The elephant doesn't believe it can break free. Humans are not so different.

Then Jeff Tobe comes along and shatters all those imaginary boundaries. A salesman and professional speaker, he specializes in stimulating creativity and innovation in business organizations. As demonstrated by his stories in this book Tobe helps companies break through "innovation deficiency," characterized by Internal Myopia and the Ostrich Syndrome. He argues that business leaders-and everyone else in the environment-must change the way they perceive, think, and behave to succeed in today's competitive world.

You get an immediate sense that this book is going to be a bit different when you open the cover. There is no traditional Times New Roman type between these covers. The typeface--throughout the entire book--looks like something from a primary school primer on the fine art of printed word penmanship. The message is clear: this book is going to be different and fun. And it is, but it's serious, too.

"Coloring Outside the Lines" is organized into three sections: Creativity, Marketing, and Sales. Each section has 6-9 chapters that stimulate the thinking and illustrate how things can be done differently. The lessons are valuable-some are fresh and some are the old saws that we've all learned for years. Each lesson is presented in the context of a story that you might hear on a fun walk through a meadow with the author. The chapters are filled with personal stories and experiences with titles like "Are Your Bagels Hot?" to "Step into My Office." These narratives are enjoyable (yup, chuckles in this book), comfortable and reasonable, yet highly instructive. The book is deceivingly simple in appearance; the educational aspect sort of sneaks up on you.

This easy-to-read volume will be thought-provoking and stimulating for salespeople, marketers, and other executives and managers who welcome inspiration (or permission) to do things just a little bit differently. If the thinking and behavior or different, (surprise!) the outcomes are different.

The basic metaphor is obvious. Less obvious is the profound importance of understanding (a) why there are "lines", (b) how they got there, and (c) who decided where to place them. Of even greater importance is understanding how to take initiatives in those areas in which creative thinking is not only appropriate but essential. New product development, for example, or positioning which differentiates an organization from its competition. (Other areas obviously require "coloring" only inside the "lines." There are some highly creative accountants who now receive their mail at a federal penitentiary.) I am all in favor of "thinking outside the box" even as I remain convinced that, at least most of the time, answers to questions or solutions to problems can only be effective when implemented inside a "box" of some kind. Only breakthrough thinking (e.g. mass production of automobiles, development of the Internet) creates entirely new "boxes" which then replace the old ones. Subsequent innovations then reconfigure the "lines" until other new "boxes" become dominant. Of course, Jeff Tobe understands all this as he shares his thoughts on creativity, marketing, and sales. He has a great deal of value to share.

His is a much more personal book than those written on the same general subject by others such as Claxton, de Bono, Levesque, Michalko, and von Oech. It covers less material. That's OK. This book would be much easier to re-read on a regular basis (which I highly recommend) for those involved in marketing and sales who need to reactivate their creative "juices" from time to time. Of course, it would also be of substantial value to just about anyone else. To school and college students, for example, or to those who have only recently begun a career, or especially to those who have (voluntarily or involuntarily) reached a crisis point in their career.

One of the book's greatest benefits is derived from Tobe's own "coloring" outside various "lines" throughout his own life and career. Perhaps he agrees with my own opinion that most human limits are self-imposed. That is to say, on many occasions we feel constrained by "lines" we ourselves have drawn. (Long ago, Henry Ford said something to the effect "Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.") Tobe wrote this book primarily (but not exclusively) for marketing and sales executives. As indicated previously, I recommend it to anyone who now feels constrained by real or imagined "chains." Tobe offers new "crayons" with which to "color" and strong encouragement to re-think assumptions about creativity. Two chapter titles suggest how: "If It Is [italics] Broke, Don't Fix It...Yet" and "To Err Is Right...or at Least Necessary."

Once you have read this book, you will be much better prepared to read other books written by the aforementioned Claxton, de Bono, Levesque, Michalko, and von Oech. More to the point, you will be much better prepared to increase and enhance your ability to think creatively whenever that may be necessary...which is to say, all of the time.

Reinvention ... what a concept! This book maintains that reinvention is a chance to renew yourself and that the longer you live, the more opportunities you have for reinventing your life. How true. There are several great sections in this book including Getting Your Mind in Gear, Reinventing Your Body, Reinventing Your Career, Reinventing Your Relationships and Reinventing Other Aspects of Your Life. The cover says, you begin reinventing yourself when you purchase the book, and in this case, it is not a false claim. If you are ready to make a change, this book will
help.

Rarely have I encountered a book that is so methodically, comprehensively and yet amicable covers the topic of reinventing yourself. Like the author says, most of us are going to live a whole lot longer than we think, and are going to be findng ourselves in different occupations, maybe in different regions of the country or even different countries, living different kinds of life styles. This book gives great insights as to what kinds of chalenges might be on the horizon for you. I think that this would also be a good book to give to friends who are currently trying to find their way.

The idea of reinventing yourself, is appealing to me for many reasons. Since the terrorist attack, I have been reading how so many people are reevaluating their priorities and what is really important in life, but I was already thinking about these things before then. This book covers considerable ground, but is not difficult to get through. The author is kind of witty, and he has certainly done a lot of homework in terms of providing resources to help readers follow up on particular topics. I would recommend this book for lots of different reasons and in fact I am thinking giving some for Christmas.