Training Books

Just to preface the fact that this review is a little biased, I am one of the writers who contributed to this book.

However I do think that I can speak for what I thought of the collection as a whole. This project has been in the works for a number of years now, and I have been eagerly awaiting it coming out.

Since getting the book, I have been amazed at the depth and breadth of the poems contained in this anthology. I have found some of them heartwarming and some of them frankly disturbing, but they all evoked something from me, and that I find to be valuable.

I loved that these poems address the training experience from different viewpoints. Many of the poems contained within are from the mind and heart of the medical students, physicians, etc, while another group comes from inside the patient's soul. It is this complex interaction developing between the poems that I have found to be the most intriguing to me.

I hope to have the opportunity to hear more from the voices of my fellow poets in the medical field.

Reading "Body Language" brings the reader into a world that is completely unfamiliar to most of us, the world of medicine. It's a compilation of poetry written entirely by doctors. The poems explore their world, a world of sixteen hour days, catheters, and mental patients. While this world is unfamiliar to me, except occasionally as a patient or family of a patient, these poems bring me right into the action. I feel like I am an intern working a sixteen-hour day who has not seen my mother in months.

The poems are magical in that they explore something wholly different from our day-to-day experiences. The subjects of these poems are not flowers or beautiful women; they are the gritty truths of life as a doctor, and they bring the reader right into that OR. The doctors write of unfamiliar or even scary subjects in a way that speaks to universal human truths and emotions. They explore love, loss, death, relationships, exhaustion, and aging, all things that are a part of our day-to-day lives.

The beauty of this compilation is that it brings the world of the young doctor, the intern, to life in a way I've only before seen on television. These doctors, masters of the scalpel, are also masters of the pen.

Poetry, without question, is a tricky thing. For many Americans it is an inapproachable art form that resides in a fortress guarded by elitist intellectuals. For the minority of Americans who read it, it is a personal thing--tough to define what works for some readers and tougher to understand for most. For the occasional reader of poetry, the favorite poem is usually something that sparks a familiar memory and puts it in perspective--a first love, the sight of the moon rising over a ridge in the mountains in the winter or the memory of a summer night in youth. For those of us that don't read much poetry it is the commonality of experience buried in the words speaking to something deep down inside of our common existence as humans that's tends to attract us to a poem.

While the language in many of the poems in Body Language is striking, what draws the physician reader in more than anything else is the commonality of experiences inherent in these works. There are many remarkable landscapes in these poems, from the struggle to understand the intricate detail of the human body in anatomy class to the indelible memories of the manic patients or hopelessly depressed during psychiatry core clerkship. It is mostly all here, in the form of poetry, evoking those moments that most physicians have painfully internalized or stepped around or ignored for the lack of time to pay any attention to. For some these things have become shadows and for others scars and for many, things they just never understood very well to begin with and don't want to think about much any more. These are poems about all physicians as much as they are about those of the physician poets that wrote them. This book brings important experiences back, whether sadly, bluntly, humorously or subtly, in a way that reminds physicians of all the things they've been blessed and cursed to see and be part of.

Body Language was the "brain child" of Neeta Jain, currently an R3 at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, when she was still a medical student at University of Rochester School of Medicine. She collaborated with another medical student at Yale University, Dagan Coppock with the support of her U of Rochester faculty advisor, Stephanie Brown Clark. While still 4th year medical students, Neeta and Dagan solicited submissions from students, residents and attending physicians from across the United States, receiving hundreds of submissions. Ultimately they culled out around 90 poems to create this anthology.

Perhaps I am cynical or perhaps I just don't really believe that given the frantic nature of modern medicine, that there are many doctors that can devote the time to polishing their poetry in the tradition of William Carlos Williams, a New Jersey General Practitioner who practiced prior to the era of information overload. Williams wrote on a typewriter in between patients, during the time doctors now reserve for looking up a question, returning a phone call or answering an old email.

But I was wrong. I came home from work exhausted one recent evening and picked up the book to discover another world, however familiar that world was. In that world are poems that occasionally jump off the page. Many of these poems are written by serious poets, poets published long before this book came along, and some are written by relative novices. But what unites these poems is the power--the raw emotion--of so many of the experiences described. We're reminded of overwhelming fatigue so harsh one envies the dead or the mundane call to pronounce a patient's death before fading back into the halls of the hospital. It is all here, experiences in training and in the practice of medicine.

The anthology is divided into six sections:
Medical student, first year; Medical student, second year; Medical student, clinical years; Intern; Resident; Attending. It is almost impossible not to find a situation or emotion in a poem in each section that all physicians have experienced at some point in their lives. For example, life that occasionally interjects itself into the mind numbing lecture hall of our pre-clinical years of medical school (Richard M. Berlin):

Medical School Lovers
One morning, while disease-slides flashed
and filled the lecture room with twilight blue,
the back door opened a sliver of light
and they entered holding hands.

A few of us turned, then the others,
four hundred eyes focused
on the couple at the door,
faces still flushed from making love,

their pleasure so certain.
The slides flashed on
and the lecturer persisted
but we were gone for the day,

Still dazed by the way love can enter
our lives in a flash of light,
spinning our heads as we struggle
with lessons everyone learns in the dark.

And for residents, the "soft" admit in the night (Mindy Shah):

MAO
It's what we call
a "soft" admit,
which means
your illness does not
impress us.
Here is your room,
the toilet, your bag
of personal belongings.
The toothbrush is
on us.
We'll round at seven,
but I can tell
by the smell of your breath
you're going to live.

To summarize, after reading this book cover to cover, I was not surprised to learn that Garrison Keillor had picked up a copy and had asked permission to read some of its contents on his radio show--Writer's Almanac. It is great stuff that speaks about many of the things doctors have been through that they're too tired or too busy or too afraid to stop and ponder over the years of practicing medicine. I highly recommend the anthology and congratulate Neeta Jain and her co-editors on a tremendous achievement.

Stolen Kisses (by Emily Osborn)
The fresh-laundered smell
of a boy's shirt
startles me
leaning closer
with my stethoscope
I pretend to hear a murmur
soak in the odor
of a kiss

James Herriot writes beautiful multi-layered stories which really engage the reader, and in this case the audience. This is one of his children's storys, which despite the shortness, is beautifully written.

As you may know, James Herriot was a country vet in the Yorkshire Dales in the North of England in the middle of the 20th century. His storys of eccentric families, and farmers have sold in the millions. His series of children's stories are equally rich and funny. This is the story of Bonny the clydesdale, and her owner. Herriot has been called out to Dale Close farm where the farmer has a problem with one of his horses. They go for a long and arduous walk to visit the horses, which Herriot finds difficult, but the farmer seems completely untired by. The horses are old, but in a beautiful valley, where the farmer has retired them. To Herriot's amazement, the farmer does the walk every day. They have been retired for 12 years, but because they worked so hard to help him establish the farm, he keeps them there ni retirement. Herriot suggests the farmer enters one of the horses in the Darrowby Fair that coming Saturday in the Pets class as they are clearly kept as pets now. The farmer sounds discouraging, but then, the following saturday he turns up at the fair......

This is a wonderful story and I guarantee it will move your heart to read it. The detail is extraodinary and evocative, and I am sometimes moved to tears by it when I read it.

The illustrations are pretty good - they could be richer, but overall, I just think this story is 110%. Something to really enjoy.

My daughter brought this book home from her school library - We read it together. Christmas time I always purchase a "favorite" book for her & her brother - this one will fits the bill nicely!!

This is an absolutely delightful story. One of the authors best. This book is truly appropriate for all ages. Really little ones will love the pictures and older children will warm to the story. Any adult will enjoy reading this to the kids over and over.

i found this book to be havenly. most boxing books are to vague, only offering general instruction or overwhemling with to much info. having 10 commandments, made it easier to learn and therfore made my workouts more meaningful. all the best in your efforts great book!

great material, well written with good details and instructions, another good book by this author!

I was looking for a boxing book at the bookstore the other day and the first book that I grabbed was this book. I was first put off a wee bit by the title (`Ten Commandments') and was prepared to be disappointed since most boxing books that I have read are never written very well or if they are written well then the diagrams are often wanting. However, after looking through this book I was surprised at how well it was written and how thorough it was. All aspects of boxing training, fighting techniques, and boxing fundamentals were addressed. It's hard to find a boxing book that gives a good visual as well as a good written description of the subject matter but this book certainly fits the bill. The written descriptions of the boxing essentials are very concisely explained. The associated photos are of excellent quality and there are just enough pictures to clearly represent what is being explained in the written description.

The book starts with the building of proper on guard stances which is the foundation upon which everything else is built upon in boxing. Then long and shot term rhythm is covered. The importance of proper footwork is then explained. Further covered is: economy of motion, proper range, the laws of punching, counterpunching, the all important jab, the mechanics of punching (straight right, straight right body, left and right hook, left and right hook body, left and right uppercut), defense and counter attack (parries, catching, blocks for head and body, evasive movements, slips, ducks, slides and rides, and the rock back). The book goes on further to explain proper angling deviation from lateral back and forth motion so as to optimize evasive maneuvering, then the importance of sparring and associated training drills that are preparations for sparring, and finally the book discusses workout plans and coaching points, training equipment, general workout (warm up, bag work, shadowboxing and mirror training, jump rope, and sparring). All in all this is an excellent book at a good price and it is a very good reference book for beginners, armatures, and even professionals who want to get back to and review the basics .

As a natural weight trainer I felt this book was very useful for setting realistic targets for results. It not only suggested dimension targets based on natural growth, but also indicated the type of poundages that would be lifted to achieve these goals. Great resource. A must buy in the ocean of such books available.

THIS IS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ..and it isn't just a book is a guide to perfect your bodybuilding lifestyle not just your training.i am very happy i read it so i don't waste any other years in ineffective for me training.thanks cs publishing for a truly amazing,no hype,no bull book for us the hardgainers.

with respect

getbigstaybig

This is one of the best bodybuilding books ever written. I have many old and new. It cuts through the hype and unrealistic pronouncements of the commercial magazines and provides essential and practical information. It illucidates clearly and emphatically one of the most substantive elements of productive bodybuilding i.e. the necessity of heavy leg work. I personally wasted many years of training, believing that I did not need to work my legs for results. After reading Brawn and therefore shifting my emphasis to include squats and deadlifts, results magically occurred. This book has the information to get you big and strong without resorting to drug use. It is a classic.

This book cured my dog of moderate Separation Anxiety. I would highly recommend it. The chapters are organized according to the kind of problem, so you can find what you're looking for fast. The directions given are concise and easy to follow. Finally there are tons of pictures to help you along.

I purchased this book to help with socialization and separation problems of my beloved Morkie. Mr. Tenant's ideas helped with both these problems AND I ended up using many of the tips on other dog behavior topics as well. Since reading this book, I have a better understanding of how dogs think, which means that I now have a better behaved dog. The book is well organized, so it is easy to find information on particular dog behavior problems. The pictures complement the text extremely well. This book is by far my FAVORITE "dog behavior" book out of the many dog "how to" books that I own. I would highly recommend this book as a "must have dog book" for any dog owner.

After adopting an out of control dog a couple of months ago, I have purchased many books on training. Most books say the same things, how to train basic commands. That would be easy if the dog would listen to you in the first place, but many dogs have behavior problems that make training impossible. Every chapter in this book was VERY helpful and informative. I would HIGHLY reccommend this book to anyone who is at their wits end with their dog. My dog behaves much better now and I am able to have guests come to my home again.

I own a dozen different dog traning books and this is easily the most readable and helpful by far.In contrast to the usual dry how-to books one usually finds for dog training this book reads quickly and painlessly for the new dog owner because of his hilarious personal anecdotes and often self deprecating humor.There is something in this book for everyone from the serious retriever trainer to the non-hunting dog owner.The biggest surprise is the fact that he gives you his e-mail address and yes he has already answered me back with a response to my training questions.I would give it the highest recommendation for the reader who desires a steady,well-mannered hunting companion who can also be a pleasure for the entire family.

Mr Barlow presents his training method in a very well organized and insightful way that makes training much less stressful for owners and dogs alike. Its all about the dog. The anecedotes he shares are hilarious and makes you feel that you're not the only knucklehead trying to train a dog. Follow this method and you will save a lot of money by not buying all the "Dog training toys." One of his key instruments is a rock! You'll girly giggle when you see how simple "the rock" works.

This is a great book on retriever training. I began with the Richard Wolters training books and found this book when my lab was about 11 weeks old. Both training methods run along the same lines and I would recommend both in training. The only hangup is that it takes only a few nights to read the books but seeing the progress in your dog is slow. BE PATIENT!!! When looking back your dog will be right on track. Good luck.

The characters are Buddy, the first seeing eye dog, his master that was blind, the person who trained Buddy and the person who trained Buddy's master.

It took place in a big field, on a boat and in his master's home.

Buddy was trained to be a seeing eye dog. His master was trained to know how to take care of Buddy.

This book is awesome! It was exciting and fun and it had a dramatic ending.

The characters are Buddy, the first seeing eye dog, his master that was blind, the person who trained Buddy and the person who trained Buddy's master.

It took place in a big field, on a boat and in his master's home.

Buddy was trained to be a seeing eye dog. His master was trained to know how to take care of Buddy.

This book is awesome! It was exciting and fun and it had a dramatic ending.

This book is an excellent chronical of The Seeing Eye, yet written in language a child can understand. The examples of exciting events punctuate and enliven the text.

Whether you are at an entry level position or a seasoned HR professional, this book is an excellent guide for promoting and maximizing total company quality and development. LaBonte takes you step by step through the process of integrating HPI into your company to pave the way for organizational success.

When Tom LaBonte decided to write Building a New Performance Vision, he created a template for moving training organizations "out of the outsourcing zone." But more importantly, he shared a secret weapon for companies to flourish even in the midst of mergers, reorganizations and technology change. That secret involves working across functional silos to partner, identify performance issues and enhance the organization's performance. LaBonte calls thus structure for change the Human Performance Improvement (HPI) organization. HPI organizations start by building support from the CEO of a company. They then organize for success by forming cross-functional teams with new roles, skills and knowledge. Building a New Performance Vision guides the reader through the entire process - from organizing to implementing performance improvement solutions.

If you are an HR leader, a line manager, a consultant or a practitioner, spending a few hours with this book will dramatically change the way you think and work within your company. Appendices include a glossary of terms, job descriptions and core competencies for Performance Consultants, Human Performance Improvement organizations and an organizational model for structuring a Human Performance Improvement department. Tables, charts and key points at the end of each chapter make the book easy to skim and navigate. But you will probably want to read it from cover to cover anyway!

While the concepts laid forth in the book are for mid to large companies, the strategies and goals can be applied to all levels. Comprehensive but still written in a fairly conversational tone, a must read for those who job or goals are to make the organization work better. And convince others they are right. Human Performance Improvement (HPI), what it is and how to make it work for your organization. The plan is clearly laid out. As someone who designs, delivers and sells technical training, Mr. LaBonte's book provides me with more than just buzz words, the book delivers a clear plan, a clear path on how I work with my customers, so I can help them achieve their goals. Standing in the trenches, striving to improve operations, it is great to have a road map that can resolve real problems for both internal and external customers. Thanks.

Highly enjoyed this book from Jossey-Bass because it clearly lays out the relevant issues involved in leadership development and training. It's concise and gives plenty of case examples. This would be an excellent purchase.

Also recommend a superb book our company uses for leader training - because it teaches managers very easily: "The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills."

Unlike a like of so-called leadership books, this one seems like it was actually written in the 1990s. No out-of-date references to "successes" like Wang computers or Saturn autos. Lot of Gen-X stuff. An easy read.

Stretching beyond the confines of books devoted solely to leadership theory, "Building Leaders" combines a conceptual understanding of corporate leadership development with the nuts and bolts of it all. Through impressive case studies of significant companies, Conger and Benjamin provide a blueprint for the design and execution of leadership development programs. If you are at all interested in understanding what will, in the future, distinguish those companies that survive from those that do not, you must read this book.

The book includes a description of free weight and other exercises, but the primary focus of the discussion of different excercises is Nautilus exercise equipment. Having said that, the book does an excellent job of discussing the theory behind setting up both strength and cardio training programs. It does a particularly good job of explaining and contrasting the various strength training approaches such as circuit training, high intensity training, and slow training. The book is a bargain for the price!

This book is great as a reference for a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, or someone who is taking classes related to Exercise Science, and/or even someone just interested in the subject. The book is clear in it's explainations along with being clear to understand. It has great images for a variety of resistance machines and gives detailed information on what muscles are being used, the joint action, the movement path (i.e. rotary or compound) along with proper technique tips. The book also gives information on the types of exercise such as isokinetic and isotonic. It also explains about your muscles and the benefits of exercise, etc. I think it's a great book to own and I highly recommend buying it!

Five years ago, after my first child was born, I discovered this book. I've always worked out and been pretty fit, but as a new mom, I realized I could no longer live at the gym. I needed to make my workout more effective, but do it in less time. By following Dr. Wescott's advise, I was able to cut my workout to 1 hour, 3 times a week (I used to workout 2 hours, 4-5 times a week), and increase my strength and endurance. Within 6 weeks, I noticed a huge difference in my strength (I had previously plateaued). Now that I have 2 kids, I'm in maintenance-mode, but follow the same principles outlined in this book. I cut my workouts down to 2 times a week (1 hour per workout), but am maintaining my physique and physical abilities.

This book definitely is worth getting.