"Is Your House Really Neat?"

“Is your house really neat?”  This is one of the first questions that Muffy and I receive whenever we are giving a presentation.  They think that our homes are pristine and clutter free because we are Professional Organizers.  We usually laugh and tell them that we have teenagers, so the answer is “No.”  And while we can blame some of the clutter on the teens, the truth is that our homes are not perfect.  We too look at photos in the ads of closet companies, and wonder “Who really has only six blouses in a closet the size of a small bedroom?”, and “Who owns a pantry that looks like that?!”  Not us!!!

The truth is…we are human.  Our lives get in the way of keeping our homes perfectly clutter free—-because we have prioritized what is important and where we will spend our time.  The times when our homes become the messiest are when we are working a lot of hours or have a lot of school and volunteer functions going on during a particular week, or for some other unpredictable reason have trouble scheduling the time for everything.  Does that sound familiar?

We can say, however, that we do have ‘homes’ for all of our belongings, and can find things when we need them without a lot of searching.  Is this always the case?  No, but it is 98% of the time.  But for those moments when we cannot find something—it is totally aggravating, and frustrating, and stressful, and embarrassing, and time consuming……  But I think this is a good thing because we truly understand what our customers are experiencing 80%, 90% or even 100% of the time.  We know how they feel, and we are able to make a difference in their lives so that they will not have to endure the frustration of never being able to find something when they need it.

I am building up to something here, so check in for more posts,

JoEllen

[Via http://organizing4u.wordpress.com]

A Review of Patti Smith's memoir "Just Kids".

It is a bit uncomfortable for me to call anyone an “icon” because there is always a bit of slavish idolatry in the term that no human being deserves, or should expect. I’ll use it here, in an exceptional sense, due to my certainty that Patti Smith would not expect it.

 Patti Smith is an iconic figure, as well as a sadly anachronistic one, because it is quite simply impossible for a young artist to have the sort of career journey as a musician that she did. The powers that be in the industry have lost their patience and artistic perseverance, as well as the sensibility and sensitivity to recognize artists that have a sort of preeminent artistic destiny, which she certainly had. When I mark the important connective events of my own career as an artist, foremost among these will be the honor of having been included on a recording project (Bill Laswell’s Hashisheen spoken word project) with Patti.

 Just Kids is much more of a memoir that a biography, in that it is mainly a remembrance of the artistic and personal relationship between Patti and Robert Mapplethorpe. Smith and Mapplethorpe were bound together in a sort of artistic halyard knot, supporting and strengthening each other on their journey, one side tightening when the other was too loose, challenging, cajoling, loving and supporting each other through difficult as well as joyous times. The fascinating thing about their bond is that Mapplethorpe had a desperate, aching, almost toxic yearning for fame, while Smith saw herself in her formative years( as an artist), as following in the footsteps of her idols; Baudelaire, Rimbaud, etc,  the journey being as fulfilling as whatever final destination at which she might arrive. The bond came in the fact that no matter how different their process was concerning their career path, each one of them was completely uncompromising in the execution of their vision, and held each other to a high level of aesthetic accountability. Mapplethorpe did desperately want to be famous, and powerful, and rich, but he was not going to create shit art to do it.

 Smith is remarkably candid concerning her work and motivations in Just Kids. She was on a path to be a poet, and music happened to be incidental to this. A love of music, a love of performing, as well as opportunity created a perfect storm of career-path-choice. Smith is extremely gracious and indicates a good deal of self awareness and suppression of ego in her recognition that the rich, interactive artistic community centered in and around the Chelsea Hotel in the early 70’s created an environment in which she could hone her art in the company of genius.  To be more to the point, in the company of benevolent genius. Amongst the artists she befriended and learned from were William S. Burroughs, Jim Carroll, and Sam Sheppard, with whom she had a love affair which turned into a friendship that has lasted until this day.

 Back to my aforementioned assertion that Smith’s path would be difficult to duplicate today. Smith was able to benefit from an artistic community (and I’m talking about the cool kids folks) that would grant access because an artist was good, creative, vibrant and groundbreaking. This type of camaraderie has all but vanished in the context of a music industry that has set up an environment in which artists often take adversarial, dogs in the pit sort of attitude towards each other. An environment in which every one constantly has their hand out, and the measure of the value collaboration is its potential for economic reward. If Patti Smith were a new artist today, and sold the amount of records she did on her first two releases, Clive Davis or his equivalent would be forced to drop her from the roster. Thank god she became of artistic age in the 70’s and not in the millennium.

 Smith draws a picture of Mapplethorpe as a sort of elfin man-boy, caught up in a Gordian knot of Catholic Guilt and sexual identity confusion, all the while swelling with love for beauty and humanity. She describes their relationship as possessing a mutual honor and fidelity that in the end rendered unimportant his acceptance of his homosexuality as any barrier to their loving each other. The love morphed from a passionate artistic affair forged in an erotic fire to a passionate friendship kept alive in the more significant blaze of the light of each other’s souls. They never lost contact throughout their lives, remaining close until Mapplethorpe’s death in March of 1989.

 The book is peppered with photos of Smith and Mapplethorpe together, as well as pictures of Smith alone that remain the most spiritually revealing shots that anyone has ever taken of her, including the famous cover for Horses. Just kids is an emotionally honest, transparent snapshot of a love affair, enduring friendship, and an artistic climate the likes of which may never be seen again in the context of popular music. A must read for anyone that loves art and life.

[Via http://percy3.wordpress.com]

Blog Posts

Last night I dreamt that I had thousands of people following my blog. It was kind of cool. The only problem was that the one person that I didn’t want reading my blog was. When I woke up, the plot felt familiar. Then I remembered why. I had just finished The Cubicle Next Door about a civilian employee of the Air Force who blogs anonymously about the flyboy who shares her office.  Her blog becomes a hit and she’s forced to hear her officemate quote her words about him back to her. Entertaining read.

What would I write about if I were to blog anonymously? My life isn’t that juicy at the moment. The only man I’m seeing consistently is Tony Horton, the P90X guru who has changed my life…and I’ve only been seeing him 30 days. That’s right. Today is our one month anniversary. The big decision is if I’m going to stick with him for the next two months or drop him and his workouts. See? Boring.

So if you were going to blog anonymously, what would you blog about?

[Via http://caitlinmuir.wordpress.com]

First Review: "The Stand"

I know what you’re probably thinking.  Why on earth is this guy reviewing a book that has been out for over 30 years?  Well – this is my blog and I loved this book. So there!

OK – all kidding aside – I would be remiss if I didn’t open my reviews of SK’s work with anything else.  This is one of my favorite books of all time – maybe THE favorite.  I am a notoriously slow reader, but I could not put this book down. It occupied my imagination to no end. It is basically a story of Good vs. Evil. Not a difficult concept to grasp, but the way the story is spun, it will keep you riveted.

A “superflu” plague wipes out most of the world’s population. Those who are left fall into two factions. The good become the followers of a righteous old lady named Mother Abigail and they settle in Boulder, CO. The bad become the followers of Randall Flagg, who is either a minion of the devil or the head demon himself.  The evil one and his followers take over Las Vegas.  OK – maybe that seems cheesy or even goofy, but it works.

There are a lot of creepy parts in this book, with one of my favorites being when Larry Underwood is in the Lincoln Tunnel in New York. The other creepy part was when the settlers in Boulder go into the church and find the bodies of people that had sought solace during the plague and ended up dying there. But the best part of this book is the part where Stu, Larry, Ralph and Glenn head out of Boulder to make the stand against Flagg.  The parallels to “The Lord of the Rings” cannot be denied.  A fellowship of good folks that goes on a quest to destroy ultimate evil – priceless.  Only things missing were the elf, dwarf and hobbits – but I digress….

The original novel, released in 1978, was a scaled down (or watered down) version. The publishers originally felt it was too long, so they made SK do some major editing. Oh well, at least SK got his way in the end! Good thing too – I never have read the abridged version and frankly I doubt I’d want to now.

Bottom line – if there is anyone that is just now wanting to read Stephen King’s work, grabbing a copy of “The Stand” is a great starting point.

[Via http://kingmacabre.wordpress.com]

You're Funny. Book Reviews Just Aren't.

Look at all those responses on what books people find funny!
You are funny people, people.

If you are all relatively funny, why is there no such thing as a funny book review? Are professional book reviewers decidedly unfunny? Or do their editors say to them: “Whoa Jim, your kind of off the reservation with this humor. Could you tone it down chief?”

These are weighty questions.

I’m sorry, I thought books was a form of entertainment. We take what we read seriously, but not ourselves too seriously. Right?

The reviews I read are generally (1) terribly long (2) void of the coveted punchline and generally (3) safe and dry.

Well, I’ll take safe and dry in a thunderstorm.
But in a book review, well, it kind of sucks.

Okay, I suppose it all depends on what you are looking for in your book review.
Here’s what I am looking for in my book review: 1. Finding new stuff I don’t yet know about and 2. A quick take on whether it’s worth reading.

But Mr. and Mrs. Book Reviewer, you don’t do that. No, you do not.
You speak in euphemisms and cloudy language littered with buzzwords. The Guardian even made fun of you today, inviting people to play Book Review Bingo. Do you understand this? It means you talk a lot of crazy book reviewer nonsense.

I think Tina Brown is on to something with The Daily Beast–with her straight shooting tagline: “Read This, Skip That.”  Yep, Tina girlfriend, I am with you on that. (Although your choices in books stink, surprisingly. Weird.)

On Sunday, when I open the New York Times Book Review, I fantasize about reading something like this: “It is obvious that the author has incredible talent. Unfortunately, she apparently locked it away in the closet when she was writing this book.” Or maybe: “This book made me so crazy with appreciation I stopped an old couple at Costco and insisted they buy it.” It’s sad. Mostly because I need to work on my fantasies.

Listen. Jon Stewart & Stephen Colbert (example: him recently interviewing Rebecca Skloot of Henrietta Lacks) are not going to win any literary criticism awards. But it’s books meets fun. And sometimes I kind of cringe when the author really keeps trying to talk about the book and doesn’t realize that Colbert is royally teasing. But at least it’s entertaining. That’s a place I like to be.

Every BookSnob I know personally names friends and families as their first source for books. Because your sister will say: “Blech. Stunk.” or your friend will start talking really fast and pounding the table as her coffee spills and says, “No, no, you have to read it. Really, it was awesome.”

But the reviewers, they leave me safe, dry, and, obviously, slightly bothered.
Maybe I am just hanging out with the wrong people, people.

What reviews do you read (by individual or publication) or do you mostly rely on friends and families recommendations?

[Via http://katykeim.wordpress.com]

Short Reviews of Random Books: No One Would Listen

No One Would Listen

Harry Markopolos’ story of his pursuit of Bernie Madoff is a tightly written and sparse thriller. Markopolos comes across as a ‘quant‘, he’s obsessed with numbers, sure of his own skills, and uafraid of trashing the SEC on every page. He is also not a writer, showing an obsession with jargon and catchphrases to describe the ineptitude of the SEC. The book plays up his level of fear, he does not present any evidence that Madoff was even aware he existed until after the fraud was revealed. The cases of traders being assaulted over lesser amounts of money he refers to give some weight to his fear and caution.

This book is worth a read if you want to know more about Markopolos, Madoff and financial fraud. If you show some patience for Markopolos slightly odd writing style, you get a whirlwind introduction to the Madoff investigation, a quirky view of high finance, and a worthy drubbing for the SEC.

Found it: Featured on the Daily Show
Time to read: One day

[Via http://brettlwilliams.wordpress.com]

The Puzzling World of Winston Breen by Eric Berlin

Penrose waved his waffling answer away. “I know so. Winston Breen, I know you well by now. Walter Fredericks could have hidden an old fountain pen,” said Penrose, picking up an old fountain pen. “But if the puzzle intrigued you–and I’ve yet to find one that didn’t–you’d be there solving it” (p 84).

The deceased Walter Fredericks did not hid a pen, though. He has hidden a valuable ring, leaving a set of clues with each of his four children in the hope they will make amends and solve the puzzle together. The siblings never resolve their quarrels and now, all have passed on except Ms. Lewis, the town Librarian.

Winston enjoys puzzles, to put it mildly. When he accidentally happens upon one set of clues to Frederick’s hidden ring, he becomes involved in the search for the ring, now hidden for more than 25 years.

What a fun book! With intermittent puzzles that readers can solve (the answers are in the back of the book) or skip without detraction. An excellent pick for boys.

[Via http://nicolepoliti.wordpress.com]

Paula Span’s ‘When the Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions'

A journalist’s report on adult children and elderly parents who needed help

When Time Comes: Families With Aging Parents Share Their Struggles and Solutions (Springboard, 276 pp., $23.99).

By Janice Harayda

Ilze Earner spent weeks looking for a doctor who would accept Medicare after her elderly mother moved in with her in Claverack, New York, a hamlet in upstate New York. That may have been the easy part.

Earner’s mother, Milda Betins, later refused to take her arthritis medication, saying, “Medicine is poison.” She missed her Latvian-speaking friends back at her retirement community in New Jersey. And both women wondered how to deal with to Ilze’s father, who had dementia and lived in a nearby nursing home. When they visited, he called his wife “a whore” and said, “Leave me alone.” How should they respond to comments from a man who had severely impaired “executive functioning,” the ability to make decisions?

“Everyone reminds you that this is not your father talking, it’s the disease,” Ilze said. “But how do you separate the two …?”

Paula Span devotes more than 20 pages to the story of Ilze Earner and Milda Betins in When the Time Comes. And that’s typical of her approach in a book that follows several American families as elderly parents consider options that include home care, a nursing home, assisted living, and hospice. Books on caregiving often have bland and sanitized care studies by therapists that barely suggest the challenges involved. This one comes from a former staff writer for the Washington Post Magazine who brings a journalist’s eye for detail to stories that are complex, realistic and interesting.

You can also follow Janice Harayda (@janiceharayda) on Twitter.

[Via http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com]

Esperanza Rising: A Chick Lit Wednesday Review

Esperanza had a wonderful life in Mexico in 1930. She lived with her mother and father, Ramona and Sixto Ortega at a beautiful ranch where her grandmother taught Esperanza to crochet. El Rancho de las Rosas is a little piece of paradise. Beloved servants tend to Esperanza’s every need while field hands tend to the family’s vineyard. Everything in Esperanza’s life is perfect right down to the preparations for her fourteenth birthday.

That is, until the day Esperanza’s father does not come home from tending to the ranch. Suddenly Esperanza’s life is turned upside. Her father is gone. El Rancho de las Rosas is slipping away. Esperanza and her mother are fleeing to California with nothing to find work as field workers. Worse, they have to leave Abuelita behind.

Suddenly thrust into poverty, Esperanza feels lost. She and her mother are suddenly equal to the servants who helped them escape Mexico. Prejudice and inequality leap at Esperanza from everywhere. Nothing will ever be the same and the more Esperanza sees of America, the land of opportunity, the more she feels like she’s sinking. Will Esperanza be able to rise about her circumstances and embrace her new life before it’s too late in Esperanza Rising (2000) by Pam Muñoz Ryan?

Esperanza Rising is a Pura Belpre Winner (Pura Belpre being an award that highlights distinguished work in literature and illustration by hispanic or latino authors–I’m not sure which is stated specifically in the award criteria). It’s really popular and generally well-received. And it even has a play adaptation (apparently not playing anywhere right now, but you can see hints of it in an online search).

All the same, I was initially extremely resistant to this book. I did not want to like it. The story starts depressing and, frankly, Esperanza starts off irritating. Having finished the book, I greatly regret that resistance.

One of the coolest things about this book is that it’s based on the true story of the author’s grandmother’s immigration to the United States. Like most of the books I’ve listed as possible pairings, it is a quintessential immigrant story. Esperanza has a lot of growing up to when she is forced to move to California. She faces a lot of hardships and learns a lot about herself and her inner strength.

At its core Esperanza is, unsurprisingly, a story about hope and perseverance (esperanza means “hope” in Spanish). It is also a great introduction to the immigrant experience. While Esperanza remains at the center of the story, Ryan also touches upon the Depression, the Dust Bowl, social reform, and discrimination in this rich story.

This story also shines a light on the not-always-well-known world of migrant farm workers in a respectful and informative way. That is not to say that the story itself is not interesting. Far from it. Esperanza Rising is a wonderful blend of everything good about contemporary and historical fiction; Ryan skillfully presents the time period while making Esperanza and her world approachable to modern readers of all ages.

Possible Pairings: Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch, Drown by Junot Diaz, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, From Ellis Island to JFK by Nancy Foner, The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, Imagining America: Stories from the Promised Land by Amy Ling, …y no se lo tragó la tierra / …And the Earth Did Not Devour Him by Tomas Rivera and Evangelina Vigil-Pinon (translator), Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska

[Via http://missprint.wordpress.com]

Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (Answering the Critics #2)

Our discussion of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion will focus on Chapter 4, “Why There Almost Certainly Is No God”, because this contains the central argument of the whole book. Dawkins sums up his argument in 6 points leading to a conclusion. These are provided below, not in exact quotes, but translated into language that one can understand without having read the first half of Dawkins’ book.

1. One of the greatest challenges to human intellect is to explain the improbable, complex appearance of design which we observe around us.
2. It seems only natural for humans to attribute the apparent design to a Designer.
3. We must not attribute this apparent design to a Designer because it would lead to a “who designed the Designer” problem. If we conclude that a Designer designed the universe because we observe the universe to be complex, then surely the Designer is more complex than what He/She designed. If complexity shows that something was designed by a Designer, and the Designer of the universe is complex, then who designed the Designer of the universe? (This fallacy is called the fallacy of infinite regression).
4. Darwinian evolution, that is, evolution through small degrees, has explained the illusion of design.
5. We do not yet have a theory which explains the appearance of design in physics, as Darwinian evolution does for biology.
6. Even though it is true that we do not yet have a theory to explain design in physics, the weak theories we do have are still better than the theory of an Intelligent Designer.

Conclusion: There almost certainly is no god.

There are a number of problems with Dawkins’ 6 statements. A number of them are questionable at best. For the moment, though, let us assume Dawkins’ statements are accurate. Even if all of them are true, there is a sort of bait-and-switch going on here. Throughout Dawkins’ argument, he is talking about Intelligent Design. In the conclusion, though, a switch happens. Dawkins no longer talks about Intelligent Design–he makes the jump to say that there is no God. It does not make sense to make a whole argument about Intelligent Design, and then end with a conclusion that is about the existence of God. In short, Dawkins’ conclusion does not follow from the premise. One cannot make an argument about Intelligent Design, and then follow it to a conclusion about the existence of God. The most Dawkins can say is that the Argument from Intelligent Design is flawed. This does not prove, though, that there is no God. It simply proves that this one line of reasoning is flawed.

Let’s look at an analogy to demonstrate this idea. Let’s imagine that we are with Isaac Newton as he watches the apple fall from the tree. Newton sees the red apple fall from the tree, but notices that the green leaves do not fall off the tree. Imagine that Newton’s first theory of gravity went something like this: “How gravity affects an object is directly related to its color. Red objects are affected by gravity more strongly, and green objects not at all. That is why the red apple fell to the ground and the green leaves did not.” Of course, with further experimentation and investigation, Newton would find that his argument is flawed. The appropriate correction to Newton’s argument would not be to say that there almost certainly is no such thing as gravity. The appropriate correction to Newton’s argument would be to say that gravity is not related to color—in other words, to say that this specific theory of gravity was mistaken.

The same is true of Dawkins’ flawed argument. The conclusion Dawkins ought to come to is not “There almost certainly is no god”, but simply that this specific argument or theory of god is wrong. Instead, though, Dawkins takes it further and says that god almost certainly does not exist. Dawkins conclusion does not follow from the premise and should therefore be discarded. This bad reasoning, it should be remembered, occurs in the argument which Dawkins calls “the central argument” of his book (page 157). If this sort of bad reasoning happens in the central argument of his book, how can we trust anything he says as accurate? What other mistakes in logic does Dawkins make in his book?  One gets the idea after reading Dawkins’ book that perhaps theists aren’t the ones who are delusional…

[Via http://themanyfacesoftruth.wordpress.com]

Christmas StoryBook Collection -Book Review

Rexi Perimma gave me Christmas StoryBook Collection for christmas.  I like this book as much as I like Rexi perimma. This book is a collection of Christmas stories.  There are 18 stories and I have read all of them. The story I read most often is ‘A Gift for Wall-E’ and it is a nice story. If you have watched the original movie, you will know WALL-E is a robot. Wall-E is a trash picker and he cleans trash. I like this story because at the end, Eve gives Wall-E a gift which is a christmas tree. The longer version of EVE ’s name is Extra-terrestial-Evaluator. My favorite picture in the book is in Page 92 in the Story, “The Sweetest Christmas”. I like this picture because piglet wears a sock on his head for a cap,Rabbit thinks the sock is a carrot cover, tigger thinks the sock is a sleeping bag, owl thinks the sock is a windsock, gopher thinks it is a rock collecting bag and eeyore thinks it is a tail warmer. I think the picture is very funny. I think you should read this book because it is a nice book.

[Via http://sanjana.wordpress.com]

Let's Start Again

I’m going to dispense with apologies for not having posted anything for over a month and get right back to the writing.  Before we broke up last month I had mentioned a few things that I wanted to write about next: True Believer by Eric Hoffer and also book reviews by friends of mine that are musicians.  To ease my way back into the blogging life, I think I’ll keep this one short and sweet.  A friend of mine Darrin Pfeiffer from the ska/punk band Goldfinger (a personal favorite of mine since I was in high school) shared a quick book review for the book “Catcher in the Rye.” Here is what Darrin had to say,

“Hey all, Darrin Pfeiffer here from the band Goldfinger. A book that definitely influenced my life would have to be The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. The book was a very impact-full one for me in my early high school years. I felt that Holdon Caulfield was a lot like me, rebellious and craving adventure. I also was getting (semi) poor grades in school and longed for escape. I didn’t feel like I was the catcher in the rye but did however, relate to the sense of falling off a cliff and not caring if anyone caught me.”

I find it interesting to hear what books have influenced musicians who have in turn influenced me.  To keep with this theme I will continue to petition friends/musicians to give book reviews on here when I and they can which I will disperse among my own writings on here.  We’re off to a good start with Darrin here and I hope to continue with more.

As for next week I will throw down a review of the book True Believer by Eric Hoffer and we’ll go from there.  Glad to be back and let’s not break up again, okay?

[Via http://marcallredreviews.wordpress.com]

Bachelor Boys by Kate Saunders

I picked up this book years ago while I was in a bookstore, I had no idea who Kate Saunders was, I love cherries and the cover got my attention. I have been looking for other books by Saunders with no luck and finally I turned to amazon. This it’s an obscure piece of chick-lit, unfortunately so because it’s a brilliant book, fresh and wise (don’t be discouraged by Jilly Cooper’s advise on the cover, I know I would be).

Phoebe Darling is dying of leukemia and worried about what will become of her ”boys” — 30-ish sons Ben and Fritz, sweet artistic types with no particular plans to leave home so she  turns to Cassie for help.  Cassie’s family used to live close to the Darlings but  wasn’t as happy so she used to seek childhood refuge with the motherly Phoebe and her family.

Cassie, now 31, has her act together , she runs a highbrow British literary mag, has an upstanding boyfriend, all of which makes her the perfect person to find the Darling boys suitable wives so Phoebe turns to her for help.

Will Cassie help her sons, a pair of incorrigible bachelors, find wives to look after them? They are gorgeously handsome, but they are also unemployed and still living in their mother’s basement. How will she ever find decent girlfriends, let alone wives, for these wildly sexy, and wildly impractical, bachelor boys?

I read this book twice (it’s that good) and sometimes I just feeling like browsing into it for half an hour or so. It’s engaging without being superficial, you will feel compassionate, angry, crushed and awkward as characters develops into their stories. I can’t recommend this highly enough and it would make a great movie.

My grade: 10/10

Em

[Via http://emilyborges.wordpress.com]

Canister X Book Review #3: 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, Fifth Edition

Click Here to Order from Amazon.com

1001 Ways to Market Your Books, Fifth Edition by John Kremer
Review by A.P. Fuchs

5 out of 5

Writing a book is easy. Getting it out there is hard. It’s a challenge for both the big, small and self-publisher alike. 10% of your time and energy goes into creating your masterpiece, 90% goes into bringing it to the masses.

In 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, author and publisher John Kremer walks you through step-by-step 1001 effective methods to market your book.

This doesn’t read like a manual or some textbook. Kremer’s professional yet personable writing style keeps you interested and forces you to pay attention to everything he has to say.

This book is so dense that you can’t just read it once then call it good. It’s a resource, which means it’s meant to be visited each time you publish a book so you can pull out some of the 1001 marketing methods offered.

Don’t try doing all 1001 things suggested in this book all for one title. It won’t work. Kremer even says so in the opening pages. The idea is to cater to your particular book’s needs and find the marketing methods that work for that specific title.

Kremer backs up his info with industry stats, gives examples of what’s worked for some publishers and what’s failed for others.

Take notes while you read it. Even jot down in separate columns on a loose sheet of paper what ideas would work for the titles in your company’s catalogue and mark down the page number in Kremer’s book for each.

This is a book every serious publisher needs to have on their shelf. More importantly, it’s a book they need to use.

[Via http://apfuchs.wordpress.com]

BookLoons.com—Website to Check Out for Book Giveaways and Reviews

Book Loons.com boasts over 12,000 book reviews. Wow! There’s also a special section on the website with links to book giveaways going on at lots of different websites. I posted my latest giveaway of Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb there (don’t forget to comment for a chance to win). Managing Editor Hilary Williamson says she launched the site to share her love of reading books with others and to help people connect to the books they want to read.

When you click on the Teens page, you’ll find reviews, contests, articles, interviews and more. And Book Loons contest listings are easy to review also. I was happy to enter my daughter, Catherine, into a giveaway by James Patterson of his new book in the Maximum Ride series, Fang. Catherine has read the whole series so far, and I know she’s anxiously awaiting this new book. It would be so fun for her to win an advance copy. You may also find a book you’d like to win under the adult contest listings. There are lots to choose from.

[Via http://motherdaughterbookclub.wordpress.com]

Sherman: Lessons in Leadership

“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it. You might as well appeal against the thunderstorm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.”

– William Tecumseh Sherman

Steven E. Woodworth’s perceptive Sherman is a slender 178-page volume that attains its objective of providing a concise and quintessential overview of the life and military leadership of one of America’s greatest generals, William Tecumseh Sherman.

Sherman: Lessons in Leadership is one among a number of volumes in the Great Generals Series of Palgrave MacMillan, which also includes biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur, George C. Marshall, Stonewall Jackson and others. It is a lucid, well-written and perspicuous assessment of Sherman’s part in the great events of 19th century America. Woodworth’s narrative is fluid, and he consistently maintains the readers interest from start to finish. I heartily recommend this little volume to any who are curious about the life and times of this great combat leader.

A Brief Excerpt

“Sherman’s decision to rest his troops after the fall of Atlanta was to become the object of much future criticism. He may have passed up an opportunity to destroy or capture the main Rebel army in the West, although such feats were notoriously rare during the Civil War. Had Grant been in Sherman’s place, he would undoubtedly have made the attempt, but in that respect Grant was simply a better general than Sherman or any other general of the Civil War. Sherman excelled in other aspects of generalship. Though he was less likely than Grant to eliminate an enemy army, Sherman was to show that he could conceive of other, less costly, ways of winning the war.

“The failure to trap Hood’s army after the fall of Atlanta revealed how Sherman tended to focus on different objectives than Grant did. Grant aimed at the destruction of the enemy armies, while Sherman thought in terms of taking or destroying key strategic objectives that would undercut the enemy’s ability to sustain its armies. Thus, two days after the fall of Atlanta, he wrote to Halleck that there would be no point in advancing against Hood now, because ‘there is no valuable point to his rear till we reach Macon,’ and it was at present impractical to start a campaign against that city. For Grant, the object of advancing against one of the enemy’s strategic points was chiefly to induce the enemy to come out and fight, whereas for Sherman there was no reason to move against the enemy’s army if not for the purpose of taking one of his strategic points. Both approaches were sensible.

“Sherman had also displayed weaknesses in assuming his enemy would do what Sherman hoped he would do – such as evacuating Atlanta – and in misreading his enemy’s intentions – as in his failure to anticipate Hood’s attacks at the battles of Atlanta and Ezra Church. In those cases, the foresight of his younger lieutenants McPherson and Howard had prevented at least a serious check to one component of Sherman’s force. Throughout the war, Sherman had difficulty in calculating what the enemy was doing outside of the range of his direct observation. By this point in the conflict, however, he had learned to surround himself with such outstanding subordinates as Howard and McPherson and to listen to their concerns. Sherman had indeed come a long way since Shiloh.

“The capture of Atlanta was just the sort of tangible accomplishment the Northern public needed in order to grasp that the war was not, as Democratic Party orators were telling them, a failure, but that in fact victory was on its way if only the Union remained resolute. Lincoln might perhaps have won reelection without Sherman’s victory at Atlanta – though Lincoln himself thought it unlikely – but the success of the campaign did more than any other single event to insure Lincoln’s victory and a reaffirmation of the North’s determination to see the war through to final victory for the Union and for emancipation. In that sense, it deserves to be counted as one of the most decisive battles of the war.

“Throughout the campaign, Sherman had practiced maneuver warfare more skillfully and on a wider stage than any other Civil War general had done. Only at Kennesaw Mountain had he made the mistake of attacking where Johnston wanted him to attack. On every other occasion Sherman’s main effort had taken his forces around Johnston’s strength to strike at vulnerable areas the Confederate general had left uncovered. Every Civil War army commander attempted to execute turning movements, but Sherman showed himself to be the master of such maneuvers. Again and again, he successfully turned his opponents, leaving them the unenviable options of retreating or fighting at a disadvantage. Johnston consistently chose retreat. Hood, just as characteristically, chose to fight. The results, ultimately, were the same. The fundamental concepts Sherman had used – maneuvering, avoiding enemy strength, capitalizing on enemy weaknesses – transcend muzzle-loading rifles and black-powder artillery and are as valid in the twenty-first century as they were in the nineteenth.”

[Via http://haysvillelibrary.wordpress.com]

A Better Way to Spend Spring Break

It’s that time again: Spring Break. And what better way to enjoy the week than by cozying up to a new book? Here are 10 YA books that are sure to please, so grab your (virgin) Pina Colada and read up!

1)      Fallen by Lauren Kate (Delacorte, $17.99*) – After Luce’s boyfriend dies in a mysterious fire, she is forced to spend her senior year at a reform school. That’s where she meets Daniel, a fellow student aching to keep Luce at a distance. But there’s something familiar about him that Luce is desperate to figure out. What is he trying to hide? Readers will be captivated by this dangerously exciting read intertwined with the ultimate love story.

2)      13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher (Penguin, $13.99) – Clay Jenson is surprised when he receives a cassette tape from his dead classmate, Hannah—one of thirteen she has sent. Following her voice and arriving at the destinations she specifies, Clay learns the injurious implications of even small actions. This is a powerful novel, emphasizing the influence of our day-to-day interactions.

3)      Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins, $17.99) – If it was your last day to live, what would you do? Samantha Kingston is your typical popular teenager, with a perfect boyfriend and three wonderful best friends. But on February 12, Samantha dies. Then, she gets seven chances to relive that last day. Desperately, Samantha tries to unravel the truth about her death before it’s too late, while the reader crosses their fingers.

4)      Graceling by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt Children’s Books, $17.00) – In Kristin Cashore’s debut fantasy novel, she explores the mind of a teenage warrior girl, Katsa, who has the power to kill with her bare hands. With this power, Katsa has been recruited to aid a manipulative king. Feeling guilty, she channels her power and establishes a secret counsel whose main objective is to promote justice. A fierce female protagonist and a stirring plotline make Graceling a must read.

5)      Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press/Scholastic, $17.99) – As a child, Grace was saved from a wolf pack by a yellow-eyed wolf. Years later, the temporarily-human Sam meets Grace again and the two fall for one another. With winter approaching, Sam will turn into a wolf again—perhaps permanently. Can their love survive? Readers, especially Twilight fans, will flock to this classic Romeo and Juliet plot with a paranormal twist.

6)      The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic, $17.99) – After a solid 77 weeks on the NYT bestsellers list, it’s easy to see why this compelling story about a girl fighting for survival on live TV would be appealing to both teens and adults. The first in a series, Collins proves that dystopia may just be the next big trend.  (Also see Catching Fire, the second book in the series that has topped the charts 26 times.)

7) Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen (Viking Juvenile, $19.99) – Auden spends the summer before college in the company of her novelist father, his wife, and their baby daughter. While tackling new projects and dealing with the emotional baggage from her parent’s divorce, she falls for Eli, an insomniac bicyclist who has his own painful memories. Playing off Dessen’s usual plotline—girl meets boy, girls falls for boy, boy disappoints girl, boy proves his love—Lock and Key is a fun read that fans will enjoy.

8)      Marked by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast (St. Martin’s, $17.99) – In 16-year-old Zoey Redbird’s world, vampyres live among us. When a human is “marked” by these creatures, they enter The House of Night school where they either become vampyres themselves, or die. But as Zoey’s ability becomes strong, she quickly realizes that the problems she thought she left behind in the human world have only followed her.  Expertly weaving the emotional rollercoaster of teen years with a compelling characters, the House of Night series brings paranormal YA to its peak.

9)      Wake by Lisa McMann (Simon Pulse, $15.99) – When 17-year-old Janie finds herself a participant in someone else’s twisted dream, her uncontrollable gift becomes a frightening nightmare. This gripping page-turner will keep you on the edge of your seat. (Also check out Fade and Gone, the equally thrilling second and third books in the Wake series.)

10)   Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Dial/Penguin, $17.99) – Incarceron is not just any prison—it’s a sealed-off city where the inmates are convinced there is no outside world. According to legend, only one man has ever escaped. But that gives Finn, a 17-year-old inmate, enough reason to believe he can escape too. When Finn finds a crystal key, and through it a girl name Claudia who claims to live outside Incarceron, the duo team up to plan his escape. But, there’s more to Incarceron than meets the eye.

*All prices indicated are for the hardcover editions.

[Via http://wildaboutya.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown

Art historian and symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to Europe to investigate the mysterious death of a scientist with ties to the Vatican. Something very valuable and dangerous is stolen, and several very important people go missing. The killer/thief/abductor threatens a disaster of Biblical proportions in revenge for a legendary atrocity committed by the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago against a shadowy organization of scientists and like-minded free-thinkers. Time is ticking away, and it’s up to our steely-eyed Harvard prof to solve the mystery and save the day.

As I read the story, I developed a wholloping case of deja-vu. If you’ve read Brown’s blockbuster, The DaVinci Code (which takes place some time after this story), it turns out you’ve pretty much read Angels and Demons, except Angels and Demons is set in Rome and focuses on an artist of much less renown than Leonardo DaVinci.

Grisly murders with bizarre messages left at the scene? Check.
Mentally-unbalanced mercenary killer? Check.
Super-cool legendary secret society in conflict with stodgy, conventional Christianity? Check.
Trail of obscure signs embedded in famous works of art, leading to a “truth” repressed for centuries? Check.
A hidden scandal that would rock the world’s foundations if anybody found out? Check.
Good guys who turn out to be bad guys, and vice-versa? Check.
Robert Langdon: art historian, nerdy polymath, and reluctant action hero? Check.
Sultry girl-genius sidekick/romantic interest? Check.

Ah, the joys of formula. Sigh. It’s still a good yarn, though, and I ripped through the 700-plus-page paperback in a couple of evenings. Brown knows how to hold a reader’s attention. The art-based puzzles are fun, the travelogue is interesting, and Langdon is an appealing, accessible hero–an emotionally-vulnerable everyman, despite his braininess. The portrayal of organized religion seems more balanced here than in The DaVinci Code. Rather than telling us that everything we thought about Christianity is wrong, Brown’s characters argue more for the idea that religion and science both have a place in the world and ultimately work in harmony to point us toward God, if we’ll only listen. Though I doubt Brown is a big fan of the Catholic Church, and he certainly isn’t shy about portraying its failings and missteps over the centuries, he also presents characters in the Vatican hierarchy who display true courage, humility, and devotion to God.

Even for a work of fiction, there are some real groaners. Among a shotgun blast of logically-fallacious assumptions that similarity equals causality, Professor Langdon blithely makes a ridiculous connection between Christian symbology and Aztec religious rites. At the story’s climax, he survives an action so implausible it breaks my willing suspension of disbelief, and I’m a fantasy writer. Finally, not one, not two, but three characters’ hobbies become deus-ex-machinas that rescue Langdon and everyone else from disaster. Lesson learned: Don’t give up on that yoga class–it could save your life someday.

If you liked The DaVinci Code or enjoy suspenseful mysteries with lots of dashing about in exotic locales, you’ll probably like this story of Robert Langdon’s earlier days, too. Thrills, chills, a few non-explicit adult situations and the aforementioned grisly murders. Older teens and up.

[Via http://frederation.wordpress.com]

Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Review by Gabriel

I was reading Love in the Time of Cholera around the office a lot, and people would come up to my desk, peek at the title of the book, and say “Ew.  Love and cholera?  That doesn’t sound like a very good combination”.  According to my extensive research (on Wikipedia), the main symptom of cholera is “exhaustive diahorrea.”  Not the most romantic disease, then.  And yet, this is one of the most romantic books I’ve read, which presents not an idealised image of love, but one that gushes (oh yeah.  I’m going there) humanity and sensuality.  On to the review, and more poo jokes.

The city is in mourning for the great doctor and esteemed citizen, Juvenal Urbino.  At his wake, his wife, Fermina Daza, is showing the last of the guests out when she is confronted by a ghost from her past – Florentino Ariza who, with his hat in his hands, finally confesses:

“I have waited for this opportunity for more than half a century, to repeat to you once again my vow of eternal fidelity and everlasting love.”

In his youth, Florentino Ariza wooed the teenage Fermina Daza with letters, poetry and violin serenades.  When her father, who wants his daughter to marry into nobility, finds that a commoner is romancing her, he takes her away to the mountains for over a year to cure her of her infatuation.  But the lovers find a way to contact each other in secret, and promise to wed.

However, when Fermina Daza returns to the city she has become a woman, and she falls out of love with Florentino Ariza at their first reunion.  For Florentino Ariza, this begins over five decades of martyrdom to love, while Fermina Daza marries the dashing Doctor Juvenal Urbino. 

The wonderful thing about Garcia Marquez’s depiction of love is how honest and nuanced it is.  Florentino Ariza is neither heroised nor lambasted for his lifelong obsession, but is depicted as suffering from a disease of the heart and mind.  A doctor mistakes his lovesickness for cholera, and he makes himself ill eating flowers and drinking cologne to capture Fermina Daza’s scent.  He enjoys suffering for love.  After Fermina Daza’s rejection, he becomes a philanderer, compulsively prowling the streets for “little birds” to ease the ache of his heart, which complicates his claims to fidelity.

He’s not the most likable character.  He’s foppish, predatory and a little creepy, and sometimes I felt like slapping him and telling him to move on.  Still, there is something endearing in how much of a love tragic he is.

He contrasts with the aristocratic Doctor Juvenal Urbino, a fastidious man in charge of his emotions.  While to a degree Juvenal Urbina represents the establishment, and therefore repression, he is by no means a villain.  He is kind, sympathetic, and clearly loves his wife, whispering to her as he dies, “Only God knows how much I love you.”  The sex scene between he and Fermina Daza is one of the best pieces of writing on a notoriously difficult subject.  I love, too, that after decades of marriage full of turmoil and tenderness, Fermina Daza still cannot say if what they had was love.

Garcia Marquez’s lavish writing style only adds to the romance.  He either researches exhaustively or has an amazing imagination, because he is constantly running off on tangents full of fantastical, historical detail.  It can be a bit heavy going at times, but it communicates an intoxicating passion for life.

The narrative jumps around in chronology and occasionally repeats itself, which left me reading paragraphs and wondering if I’d mistakenly opened the book on the wrong section.  Another minor quibble, which may have more to do with the translation than the author, is that the reader is often told that something will “never” happen, only for it to occur later. 

As the story progresses, the metaphor of love as a disease, particularly such a messy, debilitating disease, becomes more and more appropriate.  Garcia Marquez makes love an undeniable, all consuming force of nature that disregards social convention, logic and dignity.  Love in the Time of Cholera is beautiful, insightful and honest, everything a novel should be.

[Via http://writeronwriter.wordpress.com]

Birdong by Sebastian Faulks

This book is part of the BBC’s Big Read – Top 100 books.

Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War is exactly that – a book about love and war. I had never heard of either the book or the author before I saw the BBC’s Top 100 list. I would never read this book if not for this book being chosen as the Book of the Month for March by the Ladies’ Literary League on Goodreads.  I love these reading groups, lists and challenges – isn’t these how we discover new authors and books? Even though the title had war in it, (I don’t like war books, you see), I still started this book with a broad mind and a genuine wish to like this book. But I failed. This book was a disappointment for me.

Birdsong is about Stephen, a hard-working, young boy who visits France to learn the trade of mills. He stays with the owner of the mill where he meets Isabelle, wife of the owner, and falls helplessly in love with her. Isabelle finds herself responding to Stephen’s feelings and they end up having an affair right under the husband’s nose. As it always happens, the husband comes to know of the affair and Isabelle draws enough courage to abandon her husband and her step-children to elope with Stephen. They settle down in a small place and start their life. I can’t reveal more without spoiling it for the readers, so go and read the book to know what happens next.

The book grabs your attention from the very first page. Even though there is a lot of action in the rest of the book, I lost my interest as the story progressed. I found the war scenes especially boring. Didn’t I say I dislike fiction books on wars? Even the story that proceeds seemed implausible to me. The characters lacked depth. The romance of Stephen and Isabelle failed to draw any reaction from me. Isabelle’s action needed justification. Stephen’s reaction to Isabelle’s actions should have been stronger. And the characters that are introduced later on (can’t name them here) also were poorly developed and could have used some layers. The book should have been about just war or love – the mix of both somehow didn’t work for me. Or the author didn’t do it well. I liked Atonement, where Ian McIwan has the same ingredients – love and war and he has done a wonderful job of supporting the main love story in the backdrop of war.

In the end, there is nothing I took back home from this book. No memorable characters, no quote-worthy lines, no ‘wow’ moment – nothing at all. I am not saying that people will not like this book. I am sure many readers will like this and praise this book. All I am saying is I didn’t like this book.

[Via http://mybookshelf.wordpress.com]

Book Review: The Film Club by David Gilmour (2008)

The premise of David Gilmour’s The Film Club is reason enough to read this book: he let his 16-year-old son drop out of high school on the condition he watch three films each week with his father.  It’s a good reason, but it’s not the best.  Gilmour is a writer and a father, and his insights about both things make this memoir far more memorable than another quirky experiment.  His insights about filmmaking and how to watch films are the icing on the cake.

At heart this is really a story about fathers and sons, and what really shines through is how much Gilmour adores his son.  At times it’s actually to his son’s detriment (I think there’s some parallel to be made with Jesse’s infatuation with cocaine), but the honesty in Gimour’s writing and his willingness to disclose his own desperation make us sympathetic as readers.  When he reflects on the nature of fatherhood and watching your child outgrow the need for you he says the experience ”can loosen your teeth if you let it.” 

When Gilmour settles in to discuss films, the book falls together.  We’re able to relax from the conflicts in Jesse’s life (girls, jobs, ennui) and in Gilmour’s (wives, jobs, Jesse) and in our own to look at what’s happening beyond what we normally see on the screen.  It’s a sleight of hand since Gilmour is limited to words, but he does it.  Like the best critics, he brings to life what we didn’t know was there upon first viewing, like his commentary on Brando with the glove or James Dean with the hand sweep.  He shows us how he helped Jesse escape for a little while, but he also tried to let the movies make subtle points about life.  Like the morning after Jesse had tried cocaine he shows a scene that deals with innocence leaving and tells him that with cocaine it always ends like that.  Gilmour isn’t didactic, offering instead what he calls “little apple slices of reassurance”.  He reveres the intricate nature of filmmaking and the power of stories to convey things that can be said in other ways.  In that way his experiment is important–it allows Jesse to see for himself what life is and what it’s not, and more importantly, what he wants his own story to be.

When describing Audrey Hepburn singing “Moon River” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Gilmour says, “it is an example of what films can do, how they can slip past your defenses and really break your heart.”  That’s a good description of this book, too. 

Etc.:

• CBC review and profile
• Links from Gilmour’s site, including a video interview with he and Jesse

[Via http://dustyhum.wordpress.com]

Difficult Reads

By difficult reads, I don’t mean that these books contain hard words to understand.  I mean they discuss very difficult topics such as abuse in all its forms.

Precious (Based on the novel Push)  – Sapphire

This is the novel the Academy-nominated movie was based on.  Precious is an obese teenager who has two children by her father.  She has been severely abused (mentally, physically, and sexually) by her parents.  She is desperate to rise above her lot in life, but just as you think she will do it, something else happens to her. 

I found this book difficult to read because the abuse started so young and is graphically depicted.  I would recommend this book only to senior students.

Slave: My True Story – Mende Nazer and Damien Lewis

Mende was a happy thirteen year old Sudanese girl when she was kidnapped from her mountain village by Arab raiders, raped, and then sold into slavery in Khartoum.  Thus begins her seven years of enslavement, which ultimately ended when she was sent to work for a diplomat working in London.

Mende is a courageous woman who writes about her enslavement frankly and honestly.  You can’t help but want to cheer her on and then help free modern-day slaves.  This is a story of great courage and one I feel people need to read.

thinandbeautiful.com – Liane Shaw

When a doctor advises Maddie that she needs to start watching what she eats, Maddie takes this as confirmation that she needs to lose a lot of weight.  While researching weight loss methods, she comes across a pro-anorexia website – thinandbeautiful.com.  She then becomes friends with the Girls Without Shadow, and quickly loses her read friends.  When her parents finally decide to send her to rehab, Maddie must confront her problem, and in the form of a diary, must trace how she ended up in rehab.

This book was difficult to read as I cannot really understand the mind of an anorexic girl.  It wasn’t until a tragedy happens that Maddie actually makes her realize that teenage girls aren’t supposed to be less than 80 lbs.

[Via http://swethered.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

I read a lot, and lately have been focusing the majority of my reading on books that deal with entrepreneurship and business.  Reading about success stories has always inspired me and kept me motivated to stay hungry.

My father recommended this book to me some years ago so I decided to pick it up and I’m glad I did.  The book is a very easy read and Kiyosaki’s writing style is quite easy to understand.  You can tell he writes in a very similar manner to the way he talks, so he doesn’t come off as sounding like a pompous prick or arrogant douche bag.

He more or less talks about his life as a child, and how he had two fathers; his actual biological dad and the father of one of his good friends.

His actual biological father was extremely well educated and specialized.  He continued to study for advanced degrees so that he could acquire pay raises and live what he thought was a more secure financial life.  However his father never got ahead financially, and was for the most part living from paycheck to paycheck.

The father of his good friend was somewhat different.  He did not hold any advanced degrees, but he was a business owner and extremely wealthy.  Everything that his biological father told him to do was the complete opposite of what his good friend’s father would tell him.

It’s interesting to see the completely different dynamics of the two fathers.  The one who has the specialized degrees sounds very much like what the “majority” of the population strive to become.  While the millionaire/wealthy father was completely different.

He also talks about how investments, and how the way you spend money falls into two basic categories; assets and liabilities.

An asset is anything that produces income for you, such as a business, while a liability is something that costs you money.  Your cars, house etc.  He makes a great point of stating how most people tend to think that their home is an asset when it in fact is not.  Unless you own that home free and clear, and have built equity in it, it’s not an asset but a liability.  You are constantly pumping money into it for repairs, mortgage payments, taxes and so on.

All in all I thought it was a great book and an easy read, and I definitely recommend it.

[Via http://mikesquestforsuccess.wordpress.com]

Book Reveiw - How To Reach Your Full Potential For God by Charles Stanley

How To Reach Your Full Potential For God

Fluff.

That’s what I think after reading Charles Stanley’s new book How To Reach Your Full Potential For God.

I really didn’t like the book. Oh, sure. There were some valid points made. In fact, Stanley lays out seven essentials necessary in order to reach your full potential: a clean heart; a clear mind; using your gifts; a healthy body; right relationships; a balanced schedule; and taking God-approved risks.

I agree that each of these seven areas are necessary for growth. However, Stanley’s writing style made me feel a little like I was an elementary student sitting in the principal’s office. I don’t feel like it helped me to grow much at all. That’s disappointing to me.

I did my best to milk what I could out of it. And I will readily admit that Stanley makes some valid points. But maybe it’s his writing style; I felt like he was “talking down” at the reader.

If you are a new believer, then How To Reach Your Full Potential For God may be more helpful for you. Otherwise, I don’t recommend that you read it.

Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

[Via http://jeffrandleman.net]

Free Book by Chris Tome

FREE BOOK by Brian Tome Book Description:

“I am a fanatic about freedom. And I’m fanatical about coming at you hard in this book.”

Maybe you’re not as free as you think you are. Even worse, you may have been duped into believing that a “balanced” life is the key to happiness (it isn’t) or that a relationship with God is about layering on rules and restrictions (nope).

Whether it’s media-fueled fear, something a parent or teacher said that you just can’t shake, or even the reality of dark spiritual forces bent on keeping you down, something is holding you back from the full-on freedom God intends for you.

The Bible says, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Not fear. Not guilt. Not morality. Freedom. You can have the sort of joy you thought only kids could have. The day of freedom is here.

My Review:  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

This is one of the best books on the freedom we have in Christ that I’ve ever read. It’s well worth reading.

[Via http://wordsharpeners.wordpress.com]

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Once upon a time I read a book, kept hoping it would make sense at the end, and when the end was not the resolution for which I had hoped, declared the book to be a bad one, and not worthy of recommendation.  That book was much shorter than The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

I have never before read a Russian novel.  My literary experience has generally skirted the classics.  Against Tolstoy I am prejudiced, for his enormous works sat on the same shelf as Tolkien’s at the library, except Tolstoy’s were always waiting to be checked out while Tolkien’s occasionally visited their home nearby the famed Russian.  The literature of Russia has a reputation, but I am not entirely sure what that reputation is.  I think it has a reputation for being unpleasant.

For The Brothers Karamazov does not end like a romance or a tragedy.  The entire novel is like applied philosophy, the kind that is so like real life that it weaves a story.  There are many ideas brought forward by Dostoyevsky’s portrait of the Karamazov family, ideas which are loosely connected and often contradictory.  At the center of the tale is the trial of Dmitri Karamazov, the oldest son of the murdered Fyodor Karamazov.  Willing to betray a woman, willing to lie, unwilling to steal but stealing anyway, willing to beat a man – but not willing to murder?  Does integrity come by degrees?  What if the same man is willing to take pity, willing to show gratitude, willing to be generous, willing to love?  Can such extremes exist sincerely in one person?

Perhaps rather than claiming the book to be a study of evil’s causes and cures, it could be described as a description of the approach Russians have taken to evil.

Is evil innate?  Is it taught?  Is it a response to neglect and abuse?  Does evil behavior spring from insanity?  Is it the inevitable cause of rejecting God’s world – even if you still embrace God?

What about cure?  Will science cure evil?  Liberation?  If a culture embraces the creed that “all is lawful,” will evil cease to exist?  Can piety cure evil?  Goodness?  Vengeance?  Mercy?  Gratitude?  What prevents evil?  Honesty?  Faith?  Does the threat of law discourage evil?  Does the church’s social influence deter evil?

Has the church been corrupted?  Can conflict exist in the midst of the church or society, without at least one side representing evil?  Has God been corrupted?  Has God been lied about?  Has the Devil?  What is the Devil’s goal?  For that matter, what is God’s?

What would a man take in exchange for his soul?  If he could save someone he loved from damnation, what would he sacrifice?  If he could save someone he hated?  Would a proud enemy accept help?

What is the difference between remorse and despair?  Forgiveness and disdain?  Why do people seek after a sign?  Must we walk by reason and experience, or is it possible to walk by honor and faith?  Can a person love another and hate them at the same time?  Can God?

I once read a book and kept hoping that the end would bring resolution, but I will not declare this book to be a bad book.  I will humbly admit that I do not understand The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.  It has a lot to say about the psyche of Russia, their history and culture.  If I re-read the book, now knowing the story, I might be able to follow its message.  But at 700 pages long, I’m not particularly eager to.

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

[Via http://lisaoflongbourn.wordpress.com]

New Issue, New Website & More!

Our new website is finally finished! We inaugurate it with the second issue of this, featuring:

–poetry by Rachel C. Fletcher and Liza Sparks
–fiction by Ian Penrose
–erotica by Niki Graff
–an interview with Christine Stoddard, Founder and President of the Greater Washington Indie Arts Festival
–a short film by Erica F.
–a book reviews of Elizabeth Kostova’s The Swan Thieves, Alison Croggon’s The Naming, and Jennifer Scanlon’s Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life and Times of Helen Gurley Brown.

Don’t forget to join our fan page on Facebook! If you are logged in to Facebook, this link will take you directly to our fan page.

[Via http://thiszine.wordpress.com]

What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?

Name of Book: What Does My Teddy Bear Do All Night?

Author: Bruno Hachler

Illustrator: Birte Muller

Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group

Audience: Ages 3 and up

Summary: A story of companionship in which a young girl shares the details of her nightly routine for bed, which includes her relationship with her teddy bear. She projects her lack of desire to go to sleep onto her teddy bear. She wonders what activities her teddy bear engages in at night while she is sound asleep.  

Literary elements at work in the story: A picture book told from the perspective of a young girl about her kindredness to her teddy bear. The setting is the bedtime routine of a little girl.

How does the perspective on gender/race/culture/economic/ability make a difference to the

story? The story makes cultural assumptions by placing the story in a home with multiple rooms. The family appears to be a white and/or European family of means, based upon the perceived size of the home and the child’s belongings including toys, bedroom, etc.

Scripture: Psalm 139:1-3, 18b

Theology: We believe in God’s providential care over creation. God does not abandon us, rather God is faithful in God’s love and care for all of creation. We cannot escape from the love and care of God.

Faith Talk Questions:

1. Were there a lot of rooms in the house? Where does the girl go? Can God be there?
2. Is God in every room of our homes?
3. Does God watch over us at night while we sleep? Does God sleep during the daytime?
4. Where can we go that God won’t be?

Review prepared by Katie Todd, MDiv/MACE, Entering Cohort Fall 2005

[Via http://storypath.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Lips Touch, Three Times by Laini Taylor and Jim Di Bartolo

The kisses in Lips Touch, Three Times are not the absent-minded pecks on the cheek, expressions of friendship kinds of kisses. The kisses in these stories are sometimes shy, but also passionate, desperate, and full of longing and expectation. They celebrate life, and they herald death. They are not for the weak of spirit.

Lips Touch, Three Times is written and illustrated by the husband and wife team, Laini Taylor and Jim Di Bartolo. Each of the three stories creates a rich fantasy world that pulls you in so completely you may have difficulty re-entering reality when you put it down.

The stories build in length and complexity. The first, “Goblin Fruit,” is a short piece about Kizzy, a girl who so longs to be kissed, she becomes prey for the goblins. Can the spirit of her grandmother and stories of girls lost before her save Kizzy from the goblin’s kiss?

“Spicy Little Curses Such as These” takes the reader to India, where Estella, an Englishwoman, enters the realm of the dead every day to bargain with a demon for the souls of dead children. The deals she strikes promises an exchange of one soul of a corrupted adult for each child’s soul returned to the land of the living. When an earthquake claims the lives of many children, Estella is able to strike a deal that brings them all back. The price she must pay is to put a curse on a newborn baby girl named Anamique, a curse that will keep her silent or condemn those around her to death. When Anamique grows up, the love of a soldier tests her ability to maintain her silence and protect the life of her love as well as that of her family.

“Hatchling” is the most elaborate and inventive tale of all, creating a world of immortals, the Druj, who long for something they can almost remember having in their now forgotten past. To while away their time they keep girls as pets, casting them off when they grow to be women. Esme and her mother Mab have escaped from Mab’s cage and lived in hiding for fourteen years when Esme’s brown eye turns blue and their entire world turns upside down. With the help of Mihai, a Druj outcast, they hope to rid themselves of the Druj queen forever.

In each story, Di Bartolo’s color illustrations beautifully enhance Taylor’s evocative words to help the tales come alive. Even non-fantasy lovers should find the stories compelling. Topics to discuss include the nature of longing, maintaining self-respect while falling in love, and having the courage to create the life you want to live. Lips Touch is a 2009 National Book Award Finalist for Young People’s Literature. I highly recommend it for mother-daughter book clubs with girls in high school and all readers over 14.

[Via http://motherdaughterbookclub.wordpress.com]

Book Review - Spiritual Warfare And Missions by Jerry Rankin and Ed Stetzer

Spiritual Warfare And Missions

First off, let me just state that this isn’t really a book review. Spiritual Warfare And Missions isn’t even published yet, and has an estimated release date of May 2010.

I was able to read and review a pre-release copy of Spiritual Warfare And Missions, watching for content and clarity.

Suffice it to say that this is an incredible book about missions that has opened my eyes to new thoughts and ideas concerning the strategies of our enemy, as he strives to keep us from sharing the Gospel with the Nations.

Without going into detail here, since the book hasn’t even been published yet, I would recommend that anyone grab this and read it as soon as it comes out. You will not be disappointed!

After the official release of Spiritual Warfare And Missions, I plan to post a review detailing my thoughts and ideas. Stay tuned…

[Via http://jeffrandleman.net]

David Carol - All My Lies Are True

Copyright David Carol 2009, courtesy of David Carol

Inside the window is a beautiful wedding dress, but this simple window is framed by a neutral toned cinderblock and wood wall with an exposed adjacent electrical box. The surrounding ground is a patchwork of grass and dirt, with a barren tree lurking on the edges of the fame. This bleak looking scene is not enhanced by the mirrored reflection of an oil well rig ringed by an overcast sky. The wedding dressed manikin is facing inward, with the reflected oil rig positioned such that it is just above the back shoulder out of the field of vision. This is a dark story about love and romance with a fairy tale wedding story, but looming in the background is the reality of a rough and tumble working life working out in the plains. This same mixture of humor and pathos seems to run though David Carol’s photobook All My Lies Are True.

The book’s title takes umbrage with the supposedly documentary aspect of photography that although a photograph appears to be factual and true, that the underlying essence of any photograph is that it exits as a unique fabrication by the photographer. All photographs are lies. Carol is stating that this is not the case with his photographs, he has in fact documented truth, or at least he would like us to believe as much. It is that contradictory thread running through this body of work which makes Carol’s humor and pathos that much more complex.

The coarse and grainy contrast of his black and white photographs provides a gritty undertone to these images and heightens for me a feeling of pathos. All of the photographs have a horizontal framing, outlined with a distinct black border to ensure separation from the nice white margins. This layout design seems to work well to maximize the size of the images within this horizontal book. Ironically, the black border was an early photographic technique to ensure that a photograph would be seen as a two-dimensional image and not be confused with reality.

In combination with the accompanying captions, it is obvious to me that Carol is a punster, humorous and witty, perhaps like Elliott Erwitt, seeing the absurd in the everyday, who mined the urban landscape with his series of flicks, snaps and photofictions. Perhaps not as dire as the work by Barbara Kruger, who Carol Squiers states, “Although Kruger’s work is always levered by and sometimes dependent on humor for its punch, it is usually humor of the blackly corrosive variety”.

I have found myself challenged by Carol’s photographs, attempting to find the comedy, satire, irony or humor before I advance the page, although not always successfully. I remember a quote about a comedian, regretfully whose name I do not recall, who stated that “humor is really hard work”.  Sometimes humor is witty and ironic, leaving you smiling, enjoying the delightful pun that has been discovered, but sometimes it leaves the comedian sweating. It seems that a small number of Carol’ photographs are highly dependent on the accompanying caption for their success.

Humor also depends on your cultural background, life-stories and past memories, thus some will have an easier time with some of Carol’s photographs than others. I recall when my wife and I were rolling with laughter at a Robyn Williams comedy in a Munich theater, unlike everyone else (later my wife said that those around me were only laughing after I began laughing). We understood the subtly of the puns and jokes because we grew up in the United States. The movie had a subtext and external context that was not easily understood without that cultural grounding.

Carol placed the sign of the sailing shipping floating on a far wall, made all that more humorous if noted that this was photographed in Mystic, Maine. A wiry spelled out HAPPY sign is in fact falling over and neither appears very uplifting or in a very happy state. A Welcome sign obliterated by the growing shrub, implies that in fact you are not really welcome at all. A dour looking white-face clown stands facing the photographer with the ironic text We Ha Fun Yet written on his shirt. At an apparent sales lot, multiple OK signs are festooned on the abandoned and rundown property. A pair of doors on the side of a building, with a number 3 on both doors and a giant spray-painted 3 and arrow pointing to the same doors, belabors the obvious.

There is a Walker Evans element to a photograph of billboard poster that has been composed to extract the paired text of Alive with Pleasure in juxtaposition with Cancer, Heart Disease & Emphysema, then within the in the lower corner of the frame,  a smiling face is reflected on the windshield of the car. A heart shaped clock is also adorned with the text Free Tibet. Three plumb paper covered figurines are hanging in the foreground, then subtly in the background on the edge is a cartoon of a laughing chef who appears to be very amused by this sight.

Carol finds humorous and absurd situations of the everyday, utilizing an amusing vernacular to highlight poignant ironies. At times overstating the obvious, other times with an undercurrent of satire and black humor, he captures mankind’s follies in comedic relief.  Regretfully, Comedies rarely get an Academy Award, but that does not make them any less popular, entertaining and enjoyable.

By Douglas Stockdale

[Via http://thephotobook.wordpress.com]

Book Review: Insights on Romans by Charles Swindoll

Insights on Romans by Charles R. Swindoll

Charles “Chuck” Swindoll has indeed done an amazing job on Insights On Romans.
Listening to Swindoll on the radio is good. Reading his books is good. I never dreamed, however, that his commentary would be so good.
Swindoll combines an amazing amount of background information: society, geography, religious beliefs, politics, etc. He then shows how these things are relevant to the text.
Not only does he do this, but Swindoll takes the text and faithfully expounds upon it.
Then there are charts, maps, illustrations, etc. to help the reader.
Scholar, layman, and pastor will find this a good reference.
I honestly was very pleased with this book and look forward to using it more in the future.
Zondervan has done a great service to the people of Christ by publishing this work by Swindoll.
Thanks to our friends at Zondervan for supplying a copy for review.

View all my reviews >>

[Via http://pastoralmusings.com]

Book Review: Crafting a Business: Make Money Doing What You Love

For my birthday earlier this month, my sister-in-law graciously sent me a copy of Country Living’s Crafting a Business: Make Money Doing What You Love by Kathie Fitzgerald. I just finished reading it, so I wanted give it a little review for those of you out there who might be curious if this book is for you.

This book was published in 2008, so it isn’t new to the market, but it was new to me because I had not seen it before. I didn’t know exactly what to expect from a book put out by Country Living because I am not really a country livin’ kind of gal. That being said, I would not let the fact that it is by Country Living put you off in anyway. The one thing that makes it obviously Country Living is that all of the featured artists and crafters belong in the pages of a Country Living magazine. It might seem kind of hard for you to imagine finding any inspiration from most of the women in this book who are your mom’s age making things like American flag rugs (which is how the book appears at a cursory glance), but there were a few crafters in here I had heard about before, such as Amy Butler and the ladies of The Junk Gypsy Company.

If you aren't an avid reader of Country Living, Amy Butler may be the only person in "Crafting a Business" you've actually heard of.

I’m certainly not saying the other ladies in here aren’t inspirational, it’s just that, well, they are a lot older than me, and it makes it hard for me to relate to them or see any linear connections.  See, one thing about this book is that the first 140 pages is 2-3 page short bios about successful women. If you like reading about others successes, or sneaking a peek into the shops of successful women, then the first 140-ish pages are for you. One of the women who “spoke” to me the most was probably Julie Dobies who said:

“I enjoyed my job at Shabby Chic and had a great salary, but it wasn’t about having money anymore; it was about having a life. So, I decided to take a week off and paint every single day as if it were my job and see how it went. I produced so much work it was phenomenal.”

See, this is a desire I can relate to. So, yeah, I get some of these women, but just not all of them in Part 1 of this book.

Part 2 of this book is about 40 pages titled “Business-Crafting Workshop.” Here is where the reader starts to glean a bit of information about how they could  accomplish what the other ladies in the book have done.  There are 7 sections: The Business Plan, Financing, Product Development, Marketing and Sales, Financial Management, Staffing, and Growing Bigger. Each section is anywhere from 3-5 pages long and has very basic information about how to create a business plan or deal with staffing issues. In the “Financing” section, I was surprised at how much focus was spent on debt and equity financing. Personally, I don’t feel like most people starting out in a craft business like I am should be dependent on credit cards, taking out bank loans, or dipping into our home equity lines to finance our needs. It just seemed really intangible.

Now, the Product development section had good information on pricing your items and remembering to including such things as not undervaluing yourself or being afraid to raise prices as the market changes.  The Marketing and Sales section however, gives advice like “Get Your Products into the Hands of the Media,” but does not tell you how to go about doing this at all (Of course you could check out my post about Craft Business Press Kits for some ideas).

Overall, I found this book to be a bit out of touch with the typical type of crafter I am used to working next to at craft fairs. It’s focus is more on the successful women than telling the reader how to succeed, and one thing that it doesn’t spend nearly enough words on is how to use the internet to help your business.  My last words: If you are just starting to consider starting your own business, then this book is definitely for you. However, if you have been successfully running your business for a year or more, then you probably won’t benefit much from this book. If, though, you are looking for some simple inspiration, regardless of how long you have been in business, and you like peeking into the lives  and workshops of others, but are not hoping for all the answers to your craft biz questions, you’ll probably enjoy this book quite a bit.

So, please tell me, what are your favorite and most useful books to go to for inspiration? What book do you go to again and again for business help or advice?

[Via http://sundayafternoonhousewife.wordpress.com]

Canister X Book Review #1: Gross Movie Reviews Volume 1

Click Here to Order from Amazon.com

This book is hardcore. It’s 99.9% horror movies start to finish, with a few of those “other” movies (read: non-horror) peppered throughout.

Tim Gross is a guy who loves horror and his love for the genre oozes on every page with every review. And there’s loads of ‘em here. Tons. I mean, really, out of all of the movies he reviewed, I only maybe knew of, what, 40 of them? The rest were horror flicks ranging from the ’80s to the present, stuff made not just by the mainstream but all those cool underground movies as well. In other words, my DVD rent and shopping list just exploded.

This book is dense and totally horror info-loaded.

If you dig movies and want to hear somebody’s thoughts–and genuine fan’s thoughts and not just a mainstream reviewer’s whose job it is to “review stuff”–then Gross Movie Reviews Vol. 1 is a must-have hands done.

Grab a copy. You’ll have a blast.

[Via http://apfuchs.wordpress.com]

The Resurrection of Deacon Shader by Derek Prior

I reviewed the first edition of The Resurrection of Deacon Shader when it was first released on Lulu. At the time Derek Prior was virtually unknown outside of a select genre circle. At CFR we were fortunate to be sent a review copy and it instantly hit our top 10 independent fantasy books list. Since then, Shader has entered its third printing (via Create Space/Amazon). More significantly, late in 2009, it was released on the Kindle. This is where it once more came to our attention as – for a couple of days in January 2010 The Resurrection of Deacon Shader was a best seller in Kindle fantasy (sandwiched inbetween Piers Anthony and Neil Gaiman). As a subscriber to Kindleboards I keep tabs on all my favourite authors and sometimes stumble upon useful bits of information like this. I also learnt that Prior has now released Shader on Smashwords in all Ebook formats, has entered it into the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award and now lists it on Authonomy, where it is rapidly soaring up through the ratings. With all this activity (not to mention C.F. Levy’s recent interview, the transcript of which will appear on CFR shortly) I figured it was about time I took another look at the book with a view to cutting it down to size.

The reading experience starts with the cover, and in this case it’s a win-win situation. The cover art is so strong, so evocative that buyers are likley to splash out on the book purely for the artwork. If they like the story within as well then so much the better. The cover is a dark atmospheric piece that was produced by fantasy artist Mike Nash. The image captures the protagonist in exquisite detail battling the amorphous, shifting shape of the Dweller, a demon from the Abyss. The backdrop arch is suggestive of a church interior and the billowing smoke not only hints at incense but also contains a myriad demonic faces. The Dweller itself is sprouting human limbs as it moves to smother Shader. It is a compelling action piece, one to which I found myself frequently returning as the action unfolded. Prior’s writing is equally compelling. We are thrust straight into an action prologue full of mystery and then immediately into a scene set in the sweltering city of Sarum and a young woman tearing along corridors as she goes to collect a mysterious visitor. The action in Shader is cleverly tempered by passages of reflection, back stories and sublime poetic prose describing the harsh environment of Sahul (which approximates to Western Australia) and the dream world of Aethir. Perhaps the finest example of these moments of purple prose comes in the first chapter of part two when we are introduced to a relam that may or may not be Heaven. Prior is at his best in these moments. He is also a master of melee – my favourite example being the confrontation between the Sicarii assassins and the shamed youthful knight gaston Rayn. The scene was a masterwork of point-of-view with scintillating sword fighting that was reminiscent of David Gemmell. Prior is very assured during combat scenes and passages of reflection and description.

If he suffers from any weaknesses I would suggest it sometimes lies in the dialogue – there are a few needless speech tags and the odd irrelevant adverb. I noticed on my second reading that these disappear largely towards the latter part of the book – presumably as the writing becomes more assured. There is also a little bit of exposition – more than I would have expected. It appears that there was some attempt at keeping down the length of the book by occasionally telling rather than showing. I actually enjoyed some of these passages and felt they kepts the pace up. A couple of short chapters, however, gave me the impression that they were fillers, buffers between scenes designed to slow the pace and explain to the reader. They were barely noticeable and did actually serve their purpose, but I think the book would have been even better without them. Prior’s language is a great strength of the book – although I wonder how many readers will have to refer to their dictionaries now and again. He has a deftness for using archaisms intelligently in order to promote atmosphere and voice.

The action scenes are kept much simpler – as they should be – affording a nice contrast in pace.

Characterisation is one of the major keys to fanatsy novels. Often fanatsy characters are bland and indistinguishable, othertimes they are too broadly sketched, caricatures (I found this the case with Joe Abercrombie). The principle characters in Shader are strong and memorable. Many are iconic. The best ar ethose who admit us to their inner minds – Shader, Rhiannon, Maldark, and most especially the nefarious Dr Cadman. Perhaps my favourite example is when Cadman – afraid for his soul – resumes his illusory disguise of a fat librarian (he is a skeletal lych) in the manner of a comfort eater. I would have liked to have seen a few more idiosyncracies of voice (Brother Hugues is good here) but that’s a minor point.

Prior makes excellent use of foreshadowing throughout Shader, to the extent that it is very satisfying for the reader to start to piece things together. There is also a good deal of foreshadowing relating to the sequels. There are mysteries left unexplained too, and characters with unclear, or shifting motivations which adds to their depth and realism. Thematically the book is very strong, drawing upon mystical theology, Nietschean philosophy and the Faustian myth. There is a pleasing coherence to the plot elements – even the darkest hours of the principles. This is no simple fight between good and evil.

I still find this one of the most promising new fantasies out there – it is light years ahead of much of the slush currently published by the major houses. Judging by comments made to C.F. Levy in his recent interview, Prior has fine-tuned his skills further for the sequel “The Archon’s Assassin”, which is set to be pacier and much more character driven. The Resurrection of Deacon Shader is a must have for any Kindle fantasy library. The paperback is a hefty $11.99 but well worth it if this is your style. Check out the free samples on www.smashwords.com first and then you’ll know if it’s for you.

CFR rating: ****

(thanks to Nathan Sugbury for permission to post his review on CFR)

[Via http://conradlevy.wordpress.com]

Brand New (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of the latest 2009 top books (8 of 15) for entrepreneurs as listed in INC. Magazine, and 800CEOread.com.

Shop Class as Soulcraft by Matthew Crawford

In an age of smartphones, apps, and ergonomic keyboards, Crawford offers this interesting commentary on work, on getting your hands dirty, and on finding fulfillment in the process

Clever by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones

Solve the problem of attracting and managing clever people, and other challenges—productive collaboration and sustained innovation, among them—get a lot easier

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk

If you’re stuck in a job that you’re not passionate about, this powerful little book will inspire you to pursue your true calling in life. Better yet, it clearly lays out the process of how you can turn your excitement about an idea or a hobby into activity that will drive it forward into a viable business

Change by Design by Tim Brown

A good designer must also consider how people interact with products, with other people, and with their surroundings

Borrowing Brilliance by David Kord Murray

Murray, a former entrepreneur and Intuit executive, lays out some simple steps that you can take to make sure your organization is constantly on the lookout for opportunities to adapt other folks’ ideas in order to create your next breakthrough offering

The Match King by Frank Partnoy

Frank Partnoy deftly untangles the machinations of Kreuger’s hugely audacious scheme while bringing to life one of business’s more provocative villains

I Love You More Than My Dog by Jeanne Bliss

An essential read for entrepreneurs—and for anyone in your company who is responsible for keeping clients satisfied

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins

A critical reminder to business leaders that decisions aimed at spectacular growth may sow the seeds of an organization’s destruction

[Via http://entrepreneursatutsa.wordpress.com]