Creators Books

The collaborative work of academicians Terrence E. Deal (former Irving R. Melbo Scholar, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California) and Guilbert C. Hentschke (Cooper Chair in Education, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California), Adventures Of Charter School Creators: Leading From The Ground Up is a seminal work in the areas of comparative education, educational reform, and academic leadership. The subjects are individual educational entrepreneurs who created charter school from scratch. Here are stories of failure and success, victories and defeats. Included are "education amateurs" such as an Episcopal priest working in the Pico-Union community of Las Angles; a corporate attorney in Miami; a manpower training specialist in East Saint Louis; the chief financial officer of a major African American church in New York City; and a retired military officer in North Carolina. There are also represented a number of experienced school teachers and school administrators as well. Arising from these stories are examinations of relevant issues the impact of entrepreneurial leadership upon school leadership, the differences between leadership in autonomous start-up charters and relatively dependent traditional schools, and what distinguishes charter school leadership from that more typically associated with traditional school leadership. Adventures Of Charter School Creators: Leading From The Group Up is an impressive work of considered scholarship and a highly recommended contribution to the on-going national dialogue over the advantages and disadvantages of charter schools within private and public education reform movements.

Barry is a very well known, highly respected and extremely experienced spiritual director, retreat director, and psychologist who writes this text out of that wealth of theoretical knowledge and pastoral experience for spiritual directors and primarily for directors of Ignatian retreats. The title affirms a faith that God deals directly with souls and the director's task is merely to facilitate that relationship, assisting retreatants to clarify their desires, be open to God's self-revelation, and understand their unique role in the divine plan using imaginative prayer, feeling, discernment and previous touchstone religious experience. These themes and more are developed in this masterful text that would be profitable not just to spiritual directors but to anyone whose spirituality is Ignatian or based in the Spiritual Exercises.

How one man's personal fight for freedom helped to start a chain reaction that helped to bring an end to slavery. Show's a relationship between Scott and Lincoln in that they shared the same dream. The universe chooses Dred as a champion to bring an end to the unnatural state of Slavery and how Dred's personal fight for freedom helped Lincoln become president and thus end slavery.

This is another good book on my hero Mr. William C. Durant the creator of GM. Mr. Durant defiantly affected the early automobile history more than any other one man ever. He was the worlds largest cart maker back in Flint Mi. & went on to save Buick from certain bankruptcy. Also creating GM with Buick as the cornerstone car & then adding Olds, Cadillac & Oakland (the forerunner to Pontiac) & many others that didn't pan out. He also started Chevrolet with his famous Buick race car driver Louis Chevrolet. Some other good reads are The Dream Maker 1979 by Bernard Weisberger and The Deal Maker by Axel Madsen 1999. Also some other really interesting info is the Durant website. Sincerely Lance Haynes President Durant Motors Automobile Club

This is an absolutely first-rate collection of 20 separate but inter-related essays in which their authors explain how and why brands are "the new wealth creators." They were edited by Hart and Murphy who co-authored a brief Foreword in which they correctly suggest that brands "are now centre stage: they drive major mergers, and acquisitions; they appear frequently in the balance sheets of their owners; they have vexed legislators involved in updating archaic trademark law; their application now extends to organisations who a few years ago would never have considered themselves as `brands' (charities, utilities, sport's associations, cities, etc.); and they have changed irrevocably the way in which major companies organise and run their businesses." It remains for each reader to determine which essays are of greatest interest and potential value. My personal favorites are Murphy's "What Is Branding" which provides a basic but precise introductory briefing on the subject. He concludes by noting that branding is a creative process. "It uses research techniques and the skills of a number of specialists. But in the end it is about creating distinctness -- in a consumer-relevant fashion." I also admire Fogg's analysis of "Brands as Intellectual Property." (Those who share have a special interest in this subject are urged to check out Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.) Carratu's essay follows, probing even further into "Commercial Counterfeiting" which is, he concludes, "a profitable and growing activity that poses a serious threat to manufacturers of branded products. It is frequently very well funded and organised and is prevalent throughout the world....[Fortunately], brand owners are becoming more vigilant, but the battle has yet to be won." Tragos has much of value to say about "International Branding" as do Andrew about "Brand Revitalisation and Extension" and Hart about "The Future for Brands." For executive-level managers who are either directly or indirectly involved with marketing (in general) and branding (in particular), this really is a "must read."

Attention all libertarians, classical liberals, and ardent pro-business types:

Ask that this book back into print!

In 1940, the economist Carl Snyder wrote this big treatise on the economic transformation of the world since 1700, especially since 1900. Most books written around 1940 don't feel particularly prescient today; this one does. Since 1940, the the rise of the standard of living and of the technological ingenuity of the North Atlantic nations has fully lived up to Snyder's expectations.

Snyder had been an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York during the 1920s. He was an eyewitness to the Depression. His understanding of the stock market boom and crash of the late 20s, of the pernicious role of the gold standard at the time, and of the way the perverse stupidity of the Federal Reserve nearly destroyed the US economy, are all quite modern. The advanced industrial nations spent a half century unlearning what Snyder railed against.

Snyder was much less the philistine than his modern counterparts. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of European history and civilization, the history of science and technology, economic data (at a time when most economists knew little about data), even quoting ancient Greek.

In my opinion, Snyder anticipated George Gilder, Milton Friedman, and Jude Wanniski by nearly a half century.

Snyder's flaw: his English usage is eccentric, including many sentences lacking either or both of a suject or verb.

There are a number of Schulz biographies out there aimed at school libraries, mass-produced things with few words, little accuracy, and little interest. This biography, while also aimed at the same target, is a serious work done with original research and interviews and cooperation from Schulz's family. If you have a 10-15 year old who is interested in Peanuts and cartooning, this is a fine book to get them. (Adults may want to steer to the longer but more out-of-date Good Grief by Rheta Grimsley Johnson, or wait for the huge David Michaelis biography coming in 2006.)

I find Bernadette Stankard's style very relaxing and simple, especially when dealing with a serious subject such as this which relates to God. In "Co-Creators with God", creativity has been demystified and we discover the fact that we as human beings have at our disposal the gift of creativity. A gift which we often under utilize and yet which is essential to our faith formation.

Stankard is in some way telling us to abandon or throw away the measuring tape mentality whereby individuals limit their thinking to what they have been told and how they have "always done things" - not to what they are truly capable of. She is saying there are no boundaries or boarders to creativity. That is the attitude we should have in these difficult and troubled days.

I appreciated the fact that the "Something to Think About" columns have been included in the book as they not only let us reflect and think, but also challenge us to contemplate and cogitate on crucial and essential issues that are at stake in the world in which we live. These columns bring the book to the reader, includes him or her in the reading process and takes them on a real journey with the author.

Stankard hooks the reader and takes them with, without using a bait as it were. By the time you finish her book, one is totally and properly involved and itching to practice what it advocates and advises. The examples used are practical and ideal to relate to ones quest to translate and transform their faith life, thereby bringing them closer to God than ever before.

What a pleasant book to read and have in ones personal library. I strongly urge and recommend that bible schools and pastoral/religious colleges utilize and take advantage of this exceptionally well written book. I also encourage its dissemination throughout the developing world where there is immense thirst for creativity to tackle the numerous problems facing many countries.

There it is, people, go ahead and be creative since you are indeed, co-creators with God.

Upon reading the title of this spiritual nonfiction book, the reader may be curious about or vaguely stymied by its awkward pronunciation. But this is a gem of a book, a unique contribution to the spiritual reality of, as it is subtitled, "How to Have a Personal Connection and Relationship with Your Creator." Is there any person on the face of this godly earth who does not yearn for the same?

Stephen Edwards has found a connection between the lyrics of popular music and the practice of contemplating the same and being still to allow the deeper underlying meaning of the musical words to emerge into communication with God, or whatever name you prefer to use for the One who creates, maintains and transforms all by energetic Love.

Far too many song lyrics are mentioned to give due credit here, but all are deftly woven into a timeless message Edwards heard and continues to hear to this day through communion-cation, "the feeling of being with your self through the interaction with your soul mates, the other souls, who are a part of who you really are and have imagined that they were separate from you."

The text may be read through in several sittings or used as a meditation book for days and months, even years. The author clarifies that the message is about oneness versus separation, the latter a condition totally created by the minds and dis-eased feelings of human beings and not at all a quality of creation. It's a quality of energy that needs to be released and replaced by the loving vibrational energy of creation. Some of what you read will sear through you with its truth and the author invites you to stay with those words and let them "be."

The topics by chapter seem typical but the content in each is far from what one expects. Facilitating what opens one to the truest relationship one can ever have, one's true nature. But it also realistically covers all that needs to be released, that which blocks spiritual communion-cating, whether that be subtle fear, doubt, etc., all presented in a non-judgmental manner allowing the reader the freedom to absorb or ignore.

Communion-cating with God is a definite keeper, a book to cherish, re-read, ponder and share through experience as well as through giving it as a wonderful gift to those you cherish - and those you don't!

Reviewed by Viviane Crystal on September 2, 2008

Here are the listed songs in this book:
Air (from Water Music Suite)
And This Is My Beloved
Anniversay song
Anniversary Waltz, The
Ave Maria (Schubert)
Because
Bridal Chorus (Wagner)
Can't Help falling In Love
Can't Smile without You
Could i HAve This dance
Devoted to You
Endless Love
Feelings
For All We Know
Hawaiian Wedding Song
How deep Is Your Love
I just fall in love again
I love you truly
If we only Have Love
Jesu,Joy Of Man's Desiring
Let Me Call You sweetheart
love Me tender
Love's Grown Deep
Loving you
Melody of Love
My Cup runneth Over
Ode TO joy
Oh Promise Me!
Sunrise, Sunset
Through The Years
Till
Till The End Of time (Chopin's Polonaise)
To Love again
Too Much heaven
True Love
Trumpet tune
Trumpet Voluntary
Try to remember
Wedding March (Mendelssohn)
Wedding Processional
When I Need You
Whither Thou Goest
You Needed Me
Your song
You're My Everything