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]

Like frayed threads of rope

Let the Great World Spin, **** by Colum McCann

I find out about books in a lot of ways; I pull books off the shelf that I discovered through reviews in the New York Times (occasionally), through a friend (a lot), from a distant memory of senior year English class (more often than I would have guessed). But this is the first time I’ve picked a book recommended to me by an actual book seller … and liked it!

Here’s how it went down: As some of you know, I recently went to New York for a week (more on that later). In the week or so leading up to the trip, I decided it would be interesting to read a book set in New York.

I didn’t want a detailed history or a biography of Rudolph Giuliani. Instead, I thought it would be more fun to pick a novel set in New York where the author knows enough about the city to let it play a part in the novel — à la Paul Auster’s Brooklyn Follies, which was excellent, if I do say so myself.

I weighed a few different options, most notably Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (a book that will definitely stick on my to-read list). I had actually decided on Smith’s book until, on a whim, I asked a sales clerk at the Barnes & Noble information desk if she knew of a good New York book. She led me both to A Tree and to Let the Great World Spin.

Although I know I will one day read A Tree, I’m glad I decided on McCann. His novel centers around the day when Philippe Petit walked a line between the Two Towers. (If you want to know more about this, I would recommend the documentary film Man on Wire, but that’s another review.)

McCann unites the stories of about a dozen people in the city and the extraordinary (or not) events that happen to each of them. The grand thing about McCann’s writing is that it presents life in the city honestly and yet gut-wrenchingly. Because there are so many interesting players that figure in, it would take far too much time to explain all of them here (and besides, McCann can do it so much better).

Among my favorites:

Ciaran Corrigan, whose name alone is reason to like at the very least. Ciaran’s life for much of the book is defined by that of his brother, a man who lives tenaciously and devoutly, though he seems as trapped by these traits as he is special. Ciaran seems entranced by his brother’s magical persona, though he describes himself as merely ordinary.

Lara Liveman, a soft-willed girl from the Midwest with modest artistic talent and enough appreciation of good art to recognize a fake when she sees one. She does so in her own husband, whose artwork seems aimed to get him into the best clubs than to produce something beautiful.

Finally, there is the fragile, wistful, perhaps too-rich-for-her-own-good Claire Soderberg. Broken by the early death of her son in Vietnam, Claire desperately wants to talk about her son and so to begin healing, but her own social awkwardness and embarrassment stands in her way.

This book reads almost as a collection of interwoven short stories — so much so that it would be difficult to outline a single plot (though the stories are unified by Petit’s walk). However, it is worth noting that McCann takes the time to develop each character fully and richly — and more importantly, believably. The book is ultimately about the striking tragedies and the more subtle, yet no less life-altering beauties of the world.  A worthwhile book for anyone with a shred of human sentiment, and if you’re feeling devoid of emotion, it’s a good way to rediscover it. As frayed as life, yet tightly woven as Philippe Petit’s wire, Colum McCann’s Let the Great World Spin is substantial and beautifully fashioned.

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

"In Case of Armageddon, Break Glass" by Jason DeVelvis

In Case of Armageddon, Break Glass

The pocket guide for life, even before the end of days

By Jason DeVelvis   Book Description:

A Different Look at “The End of Days…”

Revelation is not an easy book to sit down and read. It’s not written like the Gospels, or Isaiah, or really any other book of the Bible. And that’s where most people get thrown off. It’s the explanation fo a dream-like vision that John had while he was praying.

When was the last time you tried to explain what happened in a dream, and people didn’t look at you with blank stares? The problem is that dreams aren’t literal, they’re figurative; they make heavy use of symbols that really stand for other things.

But the first thought on many people’s minds when they think about Revelation is still “Where is the timeline? The ‘doomsday’ date? The ‘antichrist’? The really cool story about how things will go down?

My answer is this: It doesn’t matter.

This book dives into Revelation with a completely different look at “The End of Days” and shows you what it all means to us, right now, in our lives.

My Review:  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

If you’re looking for a book about the end times, this is not the book to read. But if you’re looking for a great discipleship book that’s easy to read and simple, then you’ll find this is just the right book. It extracts nuggets we can learn from the Book of Revelation to apply to our lives today to become better disciples of Christ. It’s not heavy in theology or doctrine. For this reason, I would recommend it to Christians who are fairly new in their faith or to young teenagers. One thing I do disagree with in the book is that eschatology doesn’t really matter. I believe it does. But the discipleship principles outlined in this book matter more to us in today’s world.

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

Winner! Love and War!

The readers have it!  You asked for give away, and you got it.  I went over to Random.org and plugged in the mere 4 people who commented– that gave you guys a one in FOUR chance.  Odds were so good!

There you go botaitai (Beth?)!!!  You win!  Email me your address and you’ll get your book ASAP!  Yippie Skippie!

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

Book Review: Cross Examination by Lee Strobel

Cross Examination, by Lee Strobel, (Grand Rapids:Zondervan, 1998,2006). 56 pages reviewed.

In this book by Lee Strobel, which is excerpted from his larger work, The Case for Christ, you will find a narrative style of writing and one point: Jesus is the Messiah and He knew it. Strobel explains from his interviews with leading scholars, that Jesus was very much aware of His own identity as the Messiah. He further elaborates on the fact that the “fingerprint” evidence of Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish Prophesy leave no other reasonable conclusion than Jesus is the Messiah.

I picked up these books for a particular purpose. Due to its brevity, readability, and winsome style, this is a great tool to place in the hand of someone who is open to reading about the claims of Christianity.

You can purchase a copy for about 2 dollars or less (with larger quantities) from Christianbook.com HERE.

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

Candy Spelling Sets the Record Straight in ‘Stories From Candyland’ – She Doesn’t Have a Gift-Wrapping Room: She Has Three of Them

Inside the mansion of a Hollywood widow and pack rat

Stories From Candyland. By Candy Spelling. St. Martin’s, 247 pp., $25.95.

By Janice Harayda

“Things might have been a lot different if my parents had encouraged me to write rather than fold napkins,” Candy Spelling says in this memoir of her 38-year marriage to Aaron Spelling, producer of Dynasty and Beverly Hills 90210. You can say that again. If her parents had valued writing, we might not have had a book padded with prosaic recipes, friends’ mawkish praise  for  Spelling’s “beauty and kindness,” and an alphabetized, three-page list of 69 things she collects, including “Dresden butter pats, Erotic figurines, Etiquette books, Fine arts books on master jewelry designers, First-edition books (including Mark Twain), Flower picture books, Gold presentation boxes” and Herend hand-painted characters and figurines.”

'Celebrities get way too much attention and credit,' Hollywood widow Candy Spelling says.

Stories From Candyland leaks such Styrofoam peanuts until it brings to mind the critic A.O. Scott’s description of Leap Year as “a movie only in a strictly technical sense.” Spelling casts herself as a victim of misrepresentations spread by her actress daughter, Tori, and professes not to understand them: “I’m not sure what Tori means when she says our relationship is complicated. I wish she would call me …” But the telephone works both ways. And Spelling doesn’t make up for all her omissions and special pleading with glimpses of her famous Los Angeles mansion. Perhaps the biggest revelation in this book is that contrary to reports that the Manor has a dedicated gift-wrapping room, it actually has three of them.

Best line: “I live in a place where the tabloid newspapers and TV shows run ads aimed a medical office receptionists, waiters, grocery baggers, and parking valets, offering them money for ‘confidential celebrity information’ they might have overheard.”

Worst line: No. 1: “And then, suddenly, there he was. Rock Hudson! He was tall, dark, and handsome, just like the magazines said he was.” No. 2: “Celebrities get way too much attention and credit, but they certainly sell movies, music, products, and entertainment.” No. 3: “There’s a big celebrity culture that you’d have to be here in L.A. to truly understand.” No. 4: “Being a celebrity, knowing celebrities, working with celebrities, writing about celebrities, feeding celebrities, repairing celebrity cars, and photographing celebrities – these are just some of the elements of our local economy. There is no end to the public’s fascinating with all things (and people) celebrity.”

Published: March 2009 (hardcover). Paperback due out in March 2010.

Furthermore: News reports that have appeared since the publication of this book suggest that Candy and Tori spelling have mended their fences.

Janice Harayda satirizes American literary culture, such as it is, on her FakeBookNews page on Twitter www.twitter.com/FakeBookNews.

© 2010 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.

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

Fancy Nancy

Book Review: 
Fancy Nancy:  The Dazzling Book Report
(An I Can Read Book 1)
 by Jane O’Connor, Published by Harper Collins, 2009.

Bonjour! If you have a girly-girl in your house, I’m sure you’ve heard of Fancy Nancy. Author Jane O’Connor has written picture books and now beginning readers about this one-of-a-kind character. Each book has fancy vocabulary words that sparkle, which girls will like learning. In this particular story, Fancy Nancy has a book report to write, or rather the fancy word “biography.” She chooses the princess, Sacajawea. However, Fancy Nancy spends too much time being creative and cute with her cover and art work and only writes a couple sentences. Her wonderful teacher allows Fancy Nancy to tell the class about her book to save her from embarrassment.

My daughter loves these Fancy Nancy books. And even though these beginning readers say level 1, they present a great challenge since they use fancy vocabulary. Warning:  The princess in your house might start acting and talking more sophisticated after reading these books.

Titles of other Fancy Nancy books:
Fancy Nancy (picture book)
Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas (picture book)
Fancy Nancy:  Tea Parties (picture book)
Fancy Nancy & the Posh Puppy (picture book)
Fancy Nancy:  Bonjour Butterfly (picture book)
Fancy Nancy:  Poison Ivy Expert (An I Can Read Book)

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

Anti-Inhumanism: Notes on Jaron Lanier's 'You Are Not A Gadget' (Chapter 1)

I started reading Jaron Lanier’s You Are Not A Gadget: A Manifesto tonight and gobbled up the first chapter… Seriously, I inhaled it. It smacks of being written by an individual who knows what he’s talking about, and has something very important to tell us about the future of the web. Most welcome about Lanier’s book is that he sets out to challenge the most optimistic of technophiles regarding the inevitability of technology. That is, the world we live in was not written in advance, and it is not the result of abstract technological progress. Rather, it is the result of human beings and human decisions. (For example, whatever one thinks about a TV show like Dragon’s Den, at least it demonstrates that technologies do not just drip off the linear time line of progress, but depend on whether someone can be compelled to fund them.) On this theme, Lanier warns us that some  “so-called web 2.0. ideas are stinkers, so we ought to reject them while we can”.

But what is it that makes an idea a “stinker”? Well, that has to do with what the idea does to us, and how it regards human beings. As Lanier puts it, bad ideas tend to “…reduce our expectation of what a person can be, and of who each person might become.” Bad ideas create an environment that reduces what a human being is. And technology, as is well known, has a tendency for reduction. For example, software design itself aims to apply absolute perfection to something actually quite messy. UNIX, for example, “expresses too large a belief in abstract symbols and not enough of a belief in temporal, continuous, non abstract reality; it is more like a typewriter than a dance partner”. Later on Lanier discusses the loss of the “unfathomable penumbra of meaning that distinguishes a word in natural language from a command in a computer program”.

But the real kicker, and something that ought to set off alarm bells with even the lightest technology user, is Lanier’s description of the audio format MIDI. He writes that MIDI “could not describe the curvy, transient expressions a singer or saxophone player can produce. It could only describe the tile mosaic world of the keyboardist, not the watercolor world of the violin. … .[T]he whole of human auditory experience has [with hegemony of MIDI] become filled with discrete notes that fit in a grid”. Lanier worries that this replacement of auditory experience with discrete notes on a grid could happen to the ‘human’ experience. “What happened to trains, files, and musical notes could” he ominously points out in one chapter heading “happen soon to the definition of a Human Being”.

This is because what we are, as human beings, has to do with the tools we interact with and express ourselves through. Consider the quote that begins the book: “Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is. – Publilius Syrus”. In the early days of the internet individual people created websites… Remember that? I had a Star Wars Action Figure website built out of basic HTML. The web was full of personal websites and, in Lanier’s words, “it had flavor”. Lanier worries that the ideology/design of the new social media experience has removed this personal flavor.

He cleverly suggests a couple ways we might avoid being reduced by social media. For example:

-Stop posting anonymously, as a node in the faceless crowd. Post with flavour and individuality.

-Work on personal expression by “creat[ing] a website that expresses something about who you are that wont fit into the template available to you on a social networking site”

-”Post a video once in a while that took you one hundred times more time to create than it takes to view.”

-”Write a blog post that took weeks of reflection before you heard the inner voice that needed to come out.”

-”If you are twittering, innovate in order to find a way to describe your internal state instead of trivial external events, to avoid the creeping danger of believing that objectively described events define you, as they would a machine”

It is nice being reminded, in an age that espouses the virtues of fragmentation and the power of the crowd, that personal expression and depth still matter. In a tone uncharacteristic of popular-technology books Lanier begs us to recognize that being a person is “not a pat formula, but quest, a mystery, a leap of faith”. As such, we ought to seek out “the edge of mystery, to ponder the things that can’t quite be defined – or rendered into a digital standard”. It is important that we decide now whether the type of communicative experience we want ‘locked in’ is the 2.0. one symbolized by Facebook, Twitter and Google. Offering a humanistic alternative to “antihuman way[s] of thinking” is one that I share with Lanier, and it has been a theme running through nearly all of the posts on Cybject.

I look forward to reading, and discussing, the remaining 13 chapters…

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

Years of Dust

Years of Dust by Albert Marrin

With beautiful sepia photographs, primary sources, a glossary of terms and informative inlays, Marrin’s Years of Dust presents a unique perspective on the Dust Bowl, focusing on the environment of the Great Plains, the impact of westward expansion and modernized farming techniques, and the ecological disaster that resulted in the dust storms of the 1930s.  Providing information about the indigenous tribes who once called the Great Plains their home, the impact of the Great Depression, the mass-exodus of families from the Dust Bowl, and the current trends of desertification worldwide, Years of Dust is an excellent introduction to the complex reasons for and consequences of environmental disaster.

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

"The Family Way" by Michelle Levigne - Purchase Novel For Haiti Fundraiser

The Family Way A Tabor Heights Ohio Novel Ebook by Michelle Levigne

Book Description:

Lisa thought she walked into her marriage with her eyes wide open, aware of the hard task of getting the approval of her cold, domineering father-in-law. When she discovered she was pregnant, she thought she would finally be accepted, but Todd’s reaction to the news was the last thing she expected: “Is it mine?”

She had endured his father’s constant criticism because she thought Todd loved her, but now she wasn’t so sure. Maybe Todd had never loved her, and he was more like his father than she dreamed. To protect her baby, should she leave him, and refuse to continue the Montgomery family tradition? Where did being a ‘good Christian wife’ end, and the need to protect her sanity and her baby begin?

Order “The Family Way” In February or March and half of all proceeds go to the Salvation Army earmarked for Haiti.

Order From Desert Breeze Publishing At This Link

Order From Amazon In Kindle Format

Go to Author’s Blog for more info about donating to Haiti & for info on winning a raffle.

Excerpt:

Lindsey, Todd’s oldest sister and her husband, Kevin stood in the hall. They were both dressed up for an evening out; suits and high heels, that cashmere coat that looked so good on Kevin, and Lindsey had her hair swept up with the blue and pearl clips Lisa had given her for her birthday.

A stab of envy shot through Lisa, followed by a sharp hunger pang. They were going out for dinner. How long had it been since Todd took her out?

“You’re not ready,” Lindsey said, after looking Lisa up and down. She chuckled. “Are we early again?”

“Ready for what?” Lisa stood back and beckoned for them to come in. The mantel clock in her office chimed the half hour.

“Yep,” Kevin said. “We’re early. How’s the cartoon business treating you, Lisa?”

“Fine.” She looked back and forth between the McNeals, feeling grubbier with each passing second. “What’s going on?”

“Todd said you two had something important to tell everybody, so he made reservations at the Mediterranean.” Lindsey took a step closer, her blue eyes narrowing a little as she looked over Lisa’s baggy jeans and sweatshirt. “Don’t tell me my idiot brother forgot to tell you what time?”

“He didn’t bother inviting me.” Her throat closed for a minute, then Lisa swallowed hard and tried to smile. “Look, whatever is going on, I’m really not in the mood. I spent the whole day bent over my desk and my head hurts — “

“What do you mean, Todd didn’t invite you?” Kevin said. He and Lindsey exchanged glances. “He asked us to pick you up, since he had to work late tonight.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Lisa considered Kevin and Lindsey’s clothes and tried to think what she had that was ready to put on and didn’t need much fussing. She couldn’t handle fussing right then.

Then something came to a jolting stop inside her. Why should she put herself out to convenience Todd?

“But … Todd said the two of you wanted to take us to dinner,” Lindsey said. “He’s been a jerk again, hasn’t he?”

“Jerk?” She tried not to burst into tears. Or was it hysterical laughter that caught in her throat?

“He’s done this since we were little. Instead of just saying he’s sorry, he has to buy a present and do something big to make up for what he did.”

“Todd certainly has a hard time saying he’s sorry, doesn’t he?” She forced her lips into a smile.

Why hadn’t she ever seen this before? Todd never said he was sorry when he forgot something they had planned, or he let her down. He made a big fuss the next time they went out together, or he brought her flowers or a full Chinese dinner and rented her favorite movies so they could spend an evening just goofing off at home together. Lisa had always thought he was just being romantic.

It was easier for him to spend money than say he was sorry.

Probably because he wasn’t sorry, just doing what it took to keep her quiet and content.

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

The King and Dr. Nick

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Soon, I Will Be Invincible

“I was exhausted and broke, young and evil and superintelligent, somewhere in America.” – Dr Impossible

Austin Grossman wrote a delightful romp when he penned “Soon I will be Invincible.” He tells the interconnected story of Dr. Impossible, who is the fourth smartest man in the world and a super-villain suffering from “Malign Hypercognition Disorder’” and the super-team called the Champions, focusing on the cyborg-woman Fatale.

It is a story about super-powered beings – comic book heroes and villains – living in a world that looks a whole lot like ours. The book opens with a listing of the “one thousand six hundred and eighty-six enhanced, gifted, or otherwise superpowered persons” and the various things they do, from the one hundred and twenty six who are civilians, six hundred and seventy-eight who use their power to fight crime and and four hundred forty-one who commit crimes, as well as super-powered animals and fungi.

The story follows Dr. Impossible as he escapes from prison and plots to take over the world one more time… he has already tried twelve times, with plots that ranged from orbital plasma guns to giant laser-eyed robots, as well as hypnotizing the president and impersonating the pope.  His narrates his own story in a detached, slightly self-mocking tone that is, at the same time, painfully earnest as he goes back and forth between current events and flashbacks of his origin and various adventures.

The other focus is on the good guys, narrated Fatale, a relatively new super-heroine who is asked to join the newly reformed super-team the Champions. Fatale has no past, her memory was destroyed in the freak accident that allowed her to be turned into a super-powered half-human half-machine powerhouse. She spent some time working as a one-woman army for the NSA before striking out on her own. When the Champions were needed to face a complex crisis she was invited to join them. Like Impossible her narration covers current events and her own origin story, as well as back-story on her companions in the Champions.

She finds that the super-heroes sometimes have feet of clay. While they were once pure warriors time has effected them – they are worried about their business connections and marketing image, they bicker and stumble and make mistakes. In the end they succeed in saving the day, of course, but the path to victory is sometimes twisted.

The book is an easy read, the tone is light and fun. The plot is never more important than the characters and their interactions, but that works well in a book like this. I was enjoying reading it, but the point it really took off, the place I became a fan of this book, was when the term Malign Hypercognition Disorder was introduced as a politically correct tag for “evil genius.” That was a stroke of… well, genius in and of itself.

If you enjoyed comic books as a kid, and occasionally dive back in for a bit of nostalgia today, try this one out. It is worth the time just for the fun of it.

Bright Blessings – Stormie

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

Mr. Choli's River Trip by Chris Wardle

The residents of Daphne Wood return in the second book of Chris Wardle’s Tinfish series, Mr. Choli’s River Trip.

Now settled into their new location, the members of the colony living in Daphne Wood are happy with their new place. In their previous adventures, they discovered a tunnel that leads to a town long ago deserted by the people whose wars and diseases caused their demise. Traveling through the tunnel from time to time has allowed Mr. Choli and Mr. Ginger, the cats, to stock up on their supply of canned fish that they keep in an abandoned car they now call home. The detective shingle proudly in place, Mr. Choli has certainly gained a lofty reputation for his investigative work.

When Mrs. Cat-biscuit, the goat, shares her concern that the vegetation in Daphne Wood is struggling to survive in the heat and wind, Mr. Choli and Mr. Ginger lead another expedition to find new plants that are better able to handle the increasingly hot conditions. While back at Daphne Wood, Mr. Denzel, the mole, and the remaining members of the gardening team start a new project that just might protect the existing plants in the colony from the harsh conditions.

I enjoyed Mr. Choli’s River Trip even better than the first book in the series. New adventures, new characters, and the developing friendships among the residents of Daphne Wood, add to this already engaging and thought provoking series. Again, the reader gets the opportunity to witness how the climate changes have impacted the colony and the ingenuity of the residents working together to solve the problem. The cooperation amongst the characters is truly one of the best parts of these books; teaching readers that working together, they can make a difference. In addition, the prose flowed even more smoothly in this book than in the first, making Mr. Choli’s River Trip an even more exciting adventure in reading.

The cover art on both of these books is downright hilarious. I absolutely love the picture of Mr. Choli with his pipe and magnifying glass. All he needs is a Sherlock Holmes hat. The back cover of both books has color versions of some of the illustrations found inside.

I would definitely recommend Mr. Choli’s River Trip to any youngster interested in environmental issues, those who love animals and nature, and readers who like engaging stories filled with fun and quirky characters. I can’t wait to read the next two books in this series!

Rating: 

• Publisher:  Lulu
• SRP:  $7.96

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

Review: After the Falls by Catherine Gildiner

Random House Canada, 2009

I’m not normally a fan of memoirs. Quite often I find then self indulgent and more than a little whiny. But when I had the chance to read Catherine Gildiner’s memoir After the Falls as part of an online book club started by Marci at Serendipitous Readings, I thought, What the heck? I’ll give it a go. I started reading it one evening and after staying up until 5 am finishing it, I’m awfully glad I did.

I unfortunately wasn’t around for the 60s, but through the author’s description of the era, I felt like I was there. I was pulled not only into the personal aspects of the book, but the time period as a whole.

While After the Falls is essentially Gildiner’s story, there were plenty of other people weaving in and out of her life. I loved the fact that she would introduce a person and rather than simply let their story end when they were no longer part of her life, she fills the reader in on what happened to them later on. And the switching back and forth from the 60s to other times was done so fluently that it didn’t jar me out of the story at all.

I really, really enjoyed After the Falls. In fact, I enjoyed it so much I just may have to rethink my opinion on memoirs.

Thanks to Marci and the folks at Random House for the review copy.

Browse inside After the Falls.

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

Review of "How Rome Fell" by Adrian Goldsworthy

You can find the book here. Goldsworthy starts where Gibbon starts – after Marcus Aurelius. It ends at the end of the 5th Century. The vast majority of the book is basically a short description of what happened during this time period. Only at the end does Goldsworthy explain how Rome fell. The answer is that it fell slowly in a long process of day. The reviews have basically left it at that.

Unlike Gibbon, Goldsworthy, does not overtly answer the question of why Rome fell. Goldsworthy slightly hidden answer is basically Mancur Olson’s answer. Bureaucracies have a tendency to decay in a certain way and Rome’s eventually did. I’d write more on this, but I already did in my review of Olson’s book – read that if you’re interested.

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

All I Know Is That I Know Nothing.

In an earlier post, I profiled a “technical” market analyst who claims he can predict stock market movements based on a mathematical sequence called the Fibonacci progression.  (See below for a details.)  I opined (as would most) that his recent success derived more from coincidence than prescience.

I have since delved into the work of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a trader-turned-philosopher, which addresses just this point.  Taleb, author of the best selling The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, has made a career (and recently, some fame and fortune), on debunking investors’ assertions that they can predict movements in financial markets.  Taleb believes not only that “technical” analysis does not hold up over time (else people would learn the technical signs divining market movements and jump in front of them, thereby changing the very technical signs they hope to use to their advantage).  He further asserts that most successful traders’ success (particularly the hottest traders at any time, “technical” or not) derives more from luck than from ability.  Taleb believes we are biologically ill-equipped to understand randomness, and so underestimate its role in our triumphs (while overestimating its role in our failures).

There is much appealing about Taleb’s work.  In Fooled by Randomness he points out many ironies about life you may recognize from time to time but quickly forget.  (Journalists are not out not so much to impart information as to entertain; corporate executives often are chosen as much for their presentation skills as for their business acumen; finance professionals may ignore remote but catastrophic risks to juice short-term results and hence their bonuses.)

But for this observer the most entertaining portion of Taleb’s work is the introduction to Fooled by Randomness (second edition), which is both funny and representative (in a nutshell) of the broader themes of Taleb’s work.

The book itself is intelligent, witty and demonstrative of deep reading (Taleb is deeply familiar with ancient history, philosophy and medical science) but otherwise perhaps not terribly informative.  It should come as little surprise to the reader that much of life is random, and that we do not have great tools for dealing with this, and never did.  I am not sure I needed to read an entire book to remind myself of this.

Bottom line: If you have a Kindle, I recommend downloading the free sample, which includes the introduction.   (Or, visit a bookstore and devote five minutes to the opening pages).  It may reel you in, as it did me.  But remember, while the book may vindicate some buried suspicions you’ve long harbored about society, it may not give you many new ones.

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

Book Review: The Elements of Investing

Whenever people ask me where they can learn more about Couch Potato investing, I need to answer carefully. Two classic books are Burton Malkiel’s A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Charles Ellis’s Winning the Loser’s Game, but for someone who just wants the basics, without a lot of graphs and unfamiliar terms, neither title would be my first choice. Fortunately, these two giants have teamed up to write a quick-and-dirty primer on smart investing that any newbie can read in a couple of well-spent hours.

The Elements of Investing (Wiley) packs a lot of wisdom into its 130 little pages. It begins by explaining some cardinal rules of investing: the time value of money, the Rule of 72, and imparts some commonsense advice about reducing debt and saving more money. Then it lays out the case that Malkiel and Ellis have been arguing for decades: “Investors will be much better off bowing to the wisdom of the market and investing in low-cost index funds, which simply buy and hold all the stocks in the market as a whole.”

The book includes a wise chapter on avoiding common blunders, like trying to outsmart the market or putting faith in pundits who claim to have a crystal ball: “So, as an investor, what should you do about forecasts—forecasts of the stock market, forecasts of interest rates, forecasts of the economy? Answer: Nothing.”

The Elements of Investing has the usual limitations for Canadians: its practical advice about 401(k) plans, Roth IRAs and American index funds are all but useless for investors in this country. Readers who learn the principles behind building a diversified index portfolio should be able to adapt the information for Canada, but I caution readers that Ellis’s suggested asset allocations are way too aggressive for most investors: he suggests people in their 40s keep no more than 15% in bonds, and recommends 30% to 50% stocks even for people in their 80s.

If you’re new to index investing—or you’re hoping to win over a friend or family member who’s still buying crummy mutual funds—this book is an excellent place to start. When you finish it, pass along your copy to your advisor.

[Via http://canadiancouchpotato.com]

Book Review - The Voice Bible

I recently received The Voice New Testament Bible published by Thomas Nelson. Initially in my reading I wasn’t sure I would like this Bible at all. I like direct translations. I trust them. The Voice is a retelling, it is not a literal translation.
However, I wanted to give an honest review, and attempted to read the introduction with an open mind. Once I was finished with that I compared Ephesians (my favorite book) between The Voice and my ESV Bible.
After reading the introduction I was intrigued. The Voice was written because “the way a new generation processes ideas and information raises obstacles to traditional methods of teaching biblical content.” “The Voice is a retelling of the scriptures, not of words, but of meaning and experience.”
While I could not recommend this a Bible, I can recommend it as a study guide, a good piece of literature, and a good asset for learning more about the time periods in which each book was written.
The particular copy I got has thick pages with some room for taking notes. I love how easy it is to read; the font is nice, the layout is good, and I found myself sitting here for quite some time comparing it to my ESV Bible.
There are a few things I do love about the The Voice. First is that when there is a dialogue, it reads like a script. The person is speaking is in a colored font and then the words they spoke come after. In between the dialogue are the verses with WHAT they are doing.
Second I love the little bits of information in between the verses. Tidbits about that time period or what the people of that day and age might have already understood.
Third is that I haven’t found an instance where the writers have taken this to a gender neutral theme. Nor have they lessened sin in any way. In fact, I found Ephesians 5, in its expanded view, to be more direct as to certain sins, and even more direct to husbands and wives in their roles to each other.
Like I said earlier, I wouldn’t recommend this as a Bible for someone that wants to learn scripture, that wants to study God’s own words. But I think I’ll keep this one on my shelves as a piece of literature, just like I would any other history book that seeks to expand my knowledge of that time period.
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://marineswife.wordpress.com]

Vicky Is On The Road...

Greetings from San Jose, California! The American Bookseller’s Association is sponsoring a wonderful conference called the Winter Institute. It’s 3 fantastic days of education and opportunities to talk with other booksellers and publishers about books, bookselling and the state of book publishing. Today is all about technology – which will be especially interesting. We’ll be talking with Daniel Clancy about Google Editions and I’m really looking forward to a session on the state of book publishing with the heads of W. W. Norton, Hachette Book Group and Random House.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

I read the BEST book on the flight and time absolutely flew by!!! It was a review copy of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. I laughed my way across the country and the book is filled with dog-eared pages and underlinings I have to share with others when I get back. The book is funny and sweet and the writing is fantastic. (More about this book when it comes out March 2, 2010).

I only got to look out the plane window on the quick shuttle from LA to San Jose. The mountains were beautiful!! But I was struck by the architecture and housing developments of San Jose – so many squares of houses all alike!! So different from Cape Cod!

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

Book Review: Reggie McNeal, Missional Renaissance-Changing the Scorecard for the Church

McNeal’s book has not been as enjoyable a read as I thought it would be.  I struggled most of the way through until the last two chapters.  Almost from the first several paragraphs there was something that seemed to rub me wrong.  I wondered at first if I was just struggling because I didn’t want to change, but I realized that the bottom line of what McNeal was proposing I have advocated for most of my ministry life.  I have come to the conclusion that McNeal just bugged me.  There seems to be an arrogant attitude that comes through in his writing.  Fortunately, that attitude disappears in the last two chapters.

In the first part of the book his main theme is to convince us that the term missional renaissance is the new catch phrase for the church.  I wondered if he had trademarked the term and receives a residual fee every time someone uses it.  But now I am being catty. McNeal states that there are three shifts that need to be made in order to be missional: “From internal to external in terms of ministry focus,” “from program development to people development in terms of core activity,” and “from church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda.” (p xvi)  I do not disagree with any of these ideas.  It has been my assumption that we have been trying to get the American church to buy into these issues for years.

The idea of dumping programs for people is interesting.  How McNeal proposes to accomplish this is to adopt a new people centered…program.  I think that McNeal has missed the point here.  Programs are not the problem, it is the people who are administering the programs who have lost their focus.  A program is only as good as the people who run them.  If the people in a church are centristic in their thinking every program they do will be internal rather than external in focus.  Often the leadership of a church is external in their thinking and ministry, but the laypeople are internal.  McNeal did not really address how to move laypeople from internal to external.  He was more interested in creating a new scorecard.  After all, the title of his book suggests that a new scorecard is the goal.  This idea of a scorecard is very programmatic.  He is consumed with this idea and speaks more about numbers than he does how to move people into an external functioning church.

The best section of the book is found in chapter 8, beginning on page 169, where McNeal talks about self-awareness.  He states, as a leader, “you need to know these things about yourself—your motivations, fears tendencies, and so on.”  He then lists some specific topics: personality strengths and challenges, cognitive style, conflict style, emotional intelligence, talent, passions, and hidden addictions and compulsions.  His point is that leaders need to understand themselves and be honest with themselves before they can lead a church into the missional world.  He adds important areas that leaders often ignore; family development, emotional and spiritual health, physical health, and financial health.  This part of the book makes reading it worth the time.

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

Just Listen: When do your 'Principles' Get in the Way?

There are many times in negotiation when we make the assumption that we can rationally reach a conclusion.  We might have been more effective if we get the ‘principles’ out of the way.

In the book ‘Just Listen’ (Goulston, M., 2010),

The author discussed occasions where fear, danger, etc. causes the brain to suspend rational thought and react instinctively (e.g. the fight or flight response)

Most business people don’t think about this in terms of negotiation – we tend to approach everything rationally (principle centered), and sometimes we add in intuition and feelings (what does you gut say?).

We are reminded that the context really matters, for, say, a hostage or terrorist negotiator.   The ‘fight or flight’ response doesn’t care about ‘principles’ or rational thought.

In reality, we need to pay much more attention to this in the business world.  How many times have you tried to initiate ‘principle centered negotiation’ with someone who feels ‘backed into a corner?’  It usually fails, right?

So, if you are enjoyed  ’Getting to Yes’, you might also want to pick up ‘Just Listen’ http://bit.ly/Just_Listen.

Goulston, M. (2010). Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone. New York, NY: AMACOM.

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

Listen by Rene Gutteridge

I spent most of my weekend devouring a book. From prologue to the last page I was fascinated by the story Rene Gutteridge weaved. At first the book moved slowly but the plot was good enough to keep me interested. By page 100 I could not put the book down. The town of Marlo is like my small town and I soon found myself pondering if what happened in Listen could happen here. It could. What happened in Marlo could happen any where….to a family, to your job, to a ministry. Words. They have such power. As Rene Gutteridge reminds us…they have the power of life and death. Not only was this a superbly told story but it also reminded me that my words are powerful…given the opportunity I can hurt someone or uplift someone. And more than that…I have the power to listen…listen to the words others are saying…and be aware that maybe they are trying to tell you something.

Life and Death are indeed in the power of the tongue. And words are as permanent as ink pen on a password. -Rene Gutteridge

If you enjoy a suspenseful superbly written story that will also make you think then I suggest Rene Gutteridge’s newest book, Listen.

**********************************************

Nothing ever happens in the small town of Marlo . . . until the residents begin seeing their private conversations posted online for everyone to read. Then it’s neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, as paranoia and violence escalate. The police scramble to identify the person responsible for the posts and pull the plug on the Website before it destroys the town. But what responsibility do the people of the town have for the words they say when they think no one is listening? Life and death are in the power of the tongue.

Buy Listen.

Read the first chapter.

**Thank You Tyndale House Publishers for providing me with a complimentary copy of this book.

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

Dewey: There's a Cat in the Library

Book Review: 
Dewey:  There’s a Cat in the Library!  by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter
Published by Little, Brown and Company 2009

This was a great find because the story takes place in Iowa! (where I grew up) It’s also based on a true story. A kitten is left in the return box of a library in a small town in Iowa. The librarian takes it in, cares for it, and names it Dewey Readmore Books. Dewey is now a library cat. He entertains the patrons and all the children love him, a little too much. Soon Dewey decides how to act as a library cat, by helping people. The most touching moment comes when a sad little girl is reading by herself. Dewey tries his best to cheer her up and finally finds a way. She laughs and hugs him. Dewey likes this feeling!

Children will love this story with its soft colorful paintings. Dewey is such an adorable kitten and holds the attention of even my four-year-old. You can use this book before visiting the library or have your child think what would happen if a kitten interrupted his storytime at his library?

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