Z Books

This work contains a lot of great information for a difficult time. Much thought and research was done to produce a sensitive and practical approach to a difficult subject. I read and referenced this work in my own book, The Wisdom of Death: Six Paths to Understanding Loss and Grief (available here at Amazon)and found it helpful in taking that journey into sorrow.

When I lost my father at the age of 25 and was left to handle *everything* (funeral, flowers, arrangements, property, and so forth) amid grad school and two jobs, I received too many pieces of advice and useless, but well-intentioned, texts. This book does wonders for the spirit, as it's a refreshing, true-to-life book to honestly get us through the loss of loved ones. No matter what anyone says, he/she doesn't know what you're going through; this book assists one with the unique experience of loss. I've given this book five times over as gifts to my siblings and friends who really needed these words and healthy, sensible suggestions. Kudos to the author! I still pick it up years later when I cycle back to struggling with my father's death.

Jill Brooke writes where others fear to tread. Her simple logic and easy-to read style gave me a feeling of peace while reading about this painful subject. Brooke writes of death as a muse and motivator and builds her theme slowly and in such a spirit of sharing that I felt I was being guided by a friend. One of the most important lessons learned, was how thinking, talking and remembering your loved ones with others keeps them alive through memories. The book is full of practical information and advice from grief professionals entwined around interviews from well-known personalities such as President Clinton who've experienced loss. A great gift,not just for the bereaved, but for new mothers looking for ideas on how to keep the memory of their parents alive with the next generation who never knew them. After reading this book, I felt I had the tools to help continue my loved ones legacy. This well researched book presents a very real way of thinking about death that removes some of the stigma and fear and leaves in its place compassion and hope for the future. Highly recommended.

I began reading books and articles on death and grief more than 40 years ago, and after a while, I found they all said the same thing, more or less. Then I read Don't Let Death Ruin Your Life. I was delighted to find a book that reflected what my experience working with grieving people has shown -- that while painful, our relationship with loved ones continues and grief provides the opportunity to learn about life and living with greater purpose. Jill Brooke provides a new framework for the stages/phases of grief and offers everyone hope. I recommend it highly, both to those who are grieving and to those who are working with grieving individuals. And as I think about it, I recommend it to anyone who is interested in living a better life.

...It was with great interest and relief that I read the book, Don't Let Death Ruin Your Life, by Jill Brooke. It's filled with insights, wisdom, and compassion. What I like most of all about it is the fact that it gives us permission to miss our loved ones--in a healthy way--for the rest of our lives if we want to. Brooke assures us that it's okay to 'keep our loved ones close by and honor their memory while integrating them into our lives that have now been changed by their physical absence.'

"Some of the ways that she shares how to do this is to notice how our loved ones live on in our beliefs and our feelings, and to tell stories about the positive ways they affected our lives. In doing so, we continue to have a meaningful, significant relationship with them while, at the same time, moving through our grief to a brighter place and reclaiming our happiness.

"This is an amazing book, and one that I'll be buying for others and sharing with people for a long time to come...

I came across this book in my local library doing some research. During an especially trying time in my life, Dr. Alter's kind words and writing style saved me. After checking it out, and renewing it 4 times, I decided it was time to buy my own copy. I have suggested it to all my instructors and collegues, not only as a reference, but as a tool for simply making life more understandable. Thank you, this book truly saved my life.

I bought this book in 2001 and this is the best self-help book from all that I have, that I re-read it until now. Each time I read, it never fails to touch me by the stories and meaningful-quotations, all are indeed beautiful. And each time I intended to re-read just one story, I always ended up reading the whole book again. There is so much wisdom in the stories, excerted from Alter's 22 years experience as a psychotherapist. This is one of two books I will ever recommend to everyone (the other is: Thick Face Black Heart) as it will bring warmth to your heart.

If you've done some reading on self-awareness, and self-development this book will be a review of some basic principles.

The approach is very gentle however, and that is the most unique aspect of the book.

The reading is easy, and the organization of lessons presented is very well thought. There are some great insights into how to view aspects of ourselves. And some exceptional examples of how to relate to those that find themselves "in question."

I would not call the book "seminal" however, but I would say that it is worth reading. If you've done a lot of this type of reading before, this will be an easy read. If you have not, this could be packed with information for you.

I found this book to be very different from many other books I read on spirituality and psychology. For one, as I read it, I could sense the deep love that the authors have for their readers throughout the book. This alone helped me in lonely moments when I would go to read a few pages and my soul would no longer feel lonely. Secondly,its power lies in the fact that one needs not believe in religious dogma or new age ideas to see the wisdom and truth of the simple words spoke here, that come as fresh water on a tired soul. This book is the fruit of the work of Robert and Jane Alter. Robert who has worked with many human beings as a psychotherapist for the past 25 years, gives us deep wisdom on how to live our lives in the fulfilling and nourishing way we always knew how but have forgotten. In this book, one will confirm what he/she reads from his/her own life experience and so know how true it is and be freed from worries and fears. It is a wonderful and very necessary companion for the journey we are all on, for how to stay positive on a difficult day of work, becoming free of our addictions, and finding true inner peace by discovering that that is our own nature.

""Truth is the sum of things seen and known with the physical eye (and our other senses), the rational mind, or the intuitive heart. Between the eye, the mind, and the heart we can know all of reality. From the densest form of energey , physical matter, which we perceive with the physical eye, to a more subtle form of energey, intellectual and moral truth, which we perceive with the rational mind, to the most subtle form of energey, spirit and spiritual truth, which we perceive with the intuitive heart, all of reality is available to our perception and cognition." (Page 80)

Robert and Jane alter are "true." Their words are direct and honest. Their style is comforting and open.

I have read "self help" books for 25 years. None has touched me like this one. Its blend of peaceful thoughts and real experiences leaves me feeling better every time I read it.

Read this book and know that each moment is an opportunity to live and travel on your own path.

I carried this book in our bookstore and it became one of our best sellers. It describes the long life of the saguaro cactus, from seed to full growth to when it collapses. Along the way, creatures use the cactus for their homes or food. This books shows children how a plant is so important to animals. Beautiful illustrations.

I picked this up at an Arizona Airport for my kids, and we've all been enchanted by it. The illustrations are gorgeous, the text simple and accessible. Cactus hotel is the story of a single saguarno cactus throughout its 200 year life-span, as it grows from a seed into a towering cactus that is home to dozens of animals, and then topples and dies, still providing shelter to small desert animals before it returns to dust. My children and I will never look at a cactus the same way again!

This is a perfect book to read during a study of deserts. In fact, I think the author and illustrator should team up and make a whole series of books about various ecosystems, just like this one, that focus on the life cycle of a marvelous plant that is specific to that ecosystem. What an educational bonanza that would be!

A++++. As a gift idea, a child might enjoy receiving a small cactus with this book.

If you like to read about different kinds of homes and what lives in them, you would like this book. It is about a cactus that lives for 150 years! In that time about 38 animals make holes and move in. After 150 years it falls over and 10 to 20 more animals move in. This is a great book.

Beautifully written. Beautifully illustrated. This is a wonderful story and the kids (ages 7 and 3) were enthralled. It is a science book that reads like the best kind of picture book. We learned so many things from this and had fun doing it. Very highly recommended.

A fascinating book about the Saguaro cactus that reads like poetry. Highly recommended. Warning: you will want to take a trip to Arizona.

well short stories that is. This is a truly fine little book. The writing is lean and precise and fits well with her new series of books. This was my first encounter with her alter ego Doc Brite and I found him to be a wonderful character. It was also good to see Rickey and G-man and the additional Stubbs family story was excellant.

Here's hoping that Ms. Brite will give us many more of these shorts to enjoy.

I have been collecting all of Poppy Z. Brite's work for a few years now. She is a great artist, and this book was wonderful.

This collection of short stories is an excellent introduction to this author's many talents. There's no sameness here. The stories are well crafted and tight. She has an uncanny ability to shift gears seamlessly keeping your interest and absorbtion factor high. She knows how to tell a story with style. Buy it. You won't regret it at all.

I bought this collection because I am a Rickey and G-Man completist, and I was anxious to read "Bayou De La Mere" and "A Season In Heck." Of course both stories turned out to be excellent little windows into other aspects of the ever-growing Liquor milieu (particularly "A Season In Heck," which is a little more tangental as it deals with the travails of a young inexperienced Liquor cook), but fortunately this book also introduced me to Doc Brite, Brite's maverick foodie medical examiner alter-ego. With all these stories, Brite (the author) manages both to write great food porn and give lively insight into the intricate workings of New Orleans society and culture. Brite is, simply, a terrific writer.

In her first new collection in a couple of years, Poppy Z. Brites "The Devil you Know" focuses many of its stories in and around her beloved New Orleans and often travels in the restaurant world (her husband is a chef). Less gothic than her previous works, one might even consider "The Devil You Know" somewhat whimsical in certain spots. She certainly is prone to using humor and irony more so than in the past. But don't think that Brite has lost her edge. While she continues to explore new avenues she can still hit you right between the head although she does so with a skillful, subtle hand in this collection of 13 stories.

Several of the tales feature Poppy's alter ego, Coroner Dr. Brite such as the black humor tale "Marisol" about a restaurant critic who writes an unflattering review of a restaurant and then promptly disappears as the chef introduces his newest dish. The "Ocean" brazenly shows the high cost of fame in a story about a dysfunctional, drug addicted rock band, being fed upon by their fans.

"System Freeze" seems a bit out of place with the other stories in the book, being as much a Sci-fi story as anything else. After a fatal fall from a mountain during a climb, a woman finds she's been given a second chance at life by the mysterious Agent Fine, as long as she completes the new AI program that she is working on. The story is supposed to be a Matrix-esque type tale and is short but effective

"Burn Baby Burn" will have people thinking of Stephen King's "Firestarter" with its tragic tale of pyrokinetic Liz Sherman (of Hellboy fame) and the destruction she causes to friends and family...not to mention her entire neighborhood when her powers go out of control. Liz finds her only place of comfort and safety is at the governments Bureau of Paranormal Research---with the other freaks.

My favorite story was "Lantern Marsh" as it evoked the feelings of youth when our own little worlds and suburbs were filled with mystery and enchantment. We firmly believed that the big old house down on the corner was home to a mad scientist. Set again in the Deep South, three young friends frequent a local swamp where odd lights are seen to float and dance about. Noel especially us drawn to the area over and over, even after he's warned to stay out by the man who owns part of the land it rests on. Years later, Noel returns home from college to find that Mr. Prudhomme now owns all of the land and plans to fill in the swamp for development. Noel knows he'll have to do something drastic to save the swamp, and whatever it is that lives there.

This diverse collection of short tales shows Poppy's development and comfort with various forms and settings as well as her enormous skill as a storyteller. A must have for her fans and a great place to start for new Brite readers!

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Real eye opener for someone that doesn't have time for food research and a review for those that have.

This book came recommended, and it was sent as a gift to my daughter for her family. They are highly impressed with the articles. My teenage grand daughter is very impressed at the knowledge she has learned. Memaw

I HAVE OWNED THIS BOOK FOR OVER 5 YRS NOW. I USE IT REGULARLY TO LOOK OP NUTRITIONAL PROPERTIES FOR THINGS THAT I EAT. I AM AN RN WITH HEALTHY EATING HABITS AND I JUST LIKE TO KNOW HOW DIFFERENT FOODS PROMOTE HEATH OR WHAT COULD BE HARMFULL FOR ME. I ALSO USE IT TO TEACH MY KIDS WHAT THEY ARE CONSUMING. THEY ARE NOW MORE WILLING TO TRY ASPARGUS AFTER THE PROPERTIES ARE EXPLAINED TO THEM. I LET MY FRIEND WHO SURVIVED BREAST CANCER BORROW IT TO MODIFY HER EATING HABITS. WHAT AN EXCELLENT BOOK. IT STAYS IN MY KITCHEN.

A reminder that you really are what you eat. Great reference on foods and their nutritional value. Much of this information is now available online. But, if you prefer a hard copy for frequent reference this is a great book.

I boutht this book in 1997 and still use it and have it handy all the time! i'm always trying to keep up my healthy habits and maintain a balanced diet. this book is a must have! it is written wisely and very easy to understand. it is written in alphabetical order and you can look up almost every sickness, foods, vitamins and minerals, what is good for what, what are the drawbacks and where to find them. for sickness what it is, what should you eat, what to cut down, what to avoid. etc. if you are a person like me and like to know what you eat, you must own this book! by the way i'm ordering today a 2004 copy for my mother in law who has recovered from breast cancer and is so much into eating healthy.

This book, if read carefully, will change the way that you look at the world. It is powerful and insightful.

Excellent and superb are words that come to mind while reviewing this work. The authors, Drs. Humberto R. Maturana (biologist, University of Chile) and Francisco J. Varela (Foundation de France Professor of Cognitive Sciences and Epistemology, Paris) attempted and succeeded in providing a clear and concise work in a difficult field. Their goal was to "propose a way of seeing cognition not as a representation of the world 'out there,' but rather as an ongoing bringing forth of a world through the process of living itself."

Knowing how we know, or how we perceive is the subject of this intriguing work. In writing on this subject, the authors present a refreshing and new approach to cognition-one which has dramatic cultural, social and ethical ramifications.

The work, originally published in 1987 and re-released in 1992 as a revised edition, is attractive, colorful and well-illustrated. Unlike many books, whose pictures, graphs and figures merely fill space, each illustration performs a beneficial and needed service. In ten chapters, the reader is led slowly through the concepts and disciplines of perception, classification, heredity, biology, psychology, sociology and philosophy.

Since its initial publication, The Tree of Knowledge has received favorable attention from the public, has been out of stock in most bookstores and has been used as an undergraduate text at the University of California. While stimulating the imagination of readers it has, however, not received the scholarly acclaim it richly deserves.

Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren, DEd
Former Member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain

However Amazon writes "by Humberto Maturana" we cannot forget the other writer (Francisco Varela) dead about three years.

Both come from the research started by Stafford Beer in Chile and they are not alone: People as Terry Winograd or Fernando Flores are in the same package and all of them give powerful reasons against the so-called GOFAI (Good-Old-Fashioned-Artificial-Intelligence).

Maturana and Varela are not the first but, for sure, they are among the brightest.

Amazing piece of work. Very slow reading... meaty. Well written. This should be the primer for every field of study in every country. We are first and foremost biological organisms. We live in language like fish in a fish bowl. Fish can't distinguish water. It defines them. Same with language with human beings... we are defined by our listening and speaking and don't have a clue.

The illustrations are the best... I think it is one of the most important books of our time.

I came to this book years ago through, of all things, a two-year course in business and sales, for which it was required reading along with "Computers and Cognition", another eye-opener; the latter anticipated the current transactional nature of the Internet. You might ask how a work as theoretical and speculative as "Tree of Knowledge" could be part of a pragmatic and hardnosed business course, and that is one key to its attraction for me: as intellectually intriguing as the ideas and assertions in this book are, even more engaging is how they might actually change the way we act in the world.

The authors drill down to molecular biology and then carefully build upward their premise that we construct the worlds we live in out of language. Each of us exists inside a story we tell ourselves about the way the world is, and we are completely contained within that story. In that sense, we interact with other people through the way our stories talk to their stories. And the success of our relationships and the effectiveness with which we act in our world is dependent on how well we can recognize the stories of others and understand the nature of our own story.

This is good news, once we recognize it, because we are a narrative species. On my way to work in the morning, I am telling myself a story about the way I want my day to go: what I expect, what I want to accomplish, how I will confront the challenges along the way. The story I tell myself about my life has heroes and villains, goals and challenges, grand themes and petty foibles. The more we understand the grand, rich, complex stories those around us are telling themselves, the more we can overcome misunderstandings, conflicts and cultural dissonance - the more, in a sense, we can constuct a meta-story that serves us all as human beings.

This is not a quick and simple read, but it is so logically and carefully laid out that I never felt lost along the journey. It is a wonderful book to read in tandem with a friend, or as part of a book club. The discussion and the "aha!" experiences it prompts make for a lively exploration of its ideas. Part of the joy of "Tree of Knowledge" is its potential for promoting tolerance of those different from us, through recognition of what drives their story rather than through compromising our own values.

"ladylucero", in her review, noted that "Tree of Knowledge" is required reading in some American universities. I read that in the authors' native Chile it is even taught in high schools. This, I believe, is good news: the earlier in life we recognize how our individual stories drive our hopes and expectations, our fears and disappointments, the more capable we will be of living well with our fellow human beings.

This is essential reading for anybody who is seriously interested in the tradeoffs between capitalism and socialism. As Hugo puts the matter in "Les Miserables", socialism is a great system for distributing wealth, but poor for creating wealth. Capitalism is a great system for creating wealth, but poor for distributing it.

Muller documents very well, and very fairly, the fact that this basic conundrum was well understood by most thinkers since the 18th centry. Muller presents the various solutions proposed by thinkers from all sides of the political spectrum to solve the conundrum.

In a way, the book is depressing, because it shows that all possible solutions have already been thought of, and tried.

This book is an amazing book and goes through and discusses exactly what many of the previous economic philosophers believe. Muller writes this wonderfully, and is typically an easy read. I wouldn't mind reading this book for fun actually.

The world of capitalism is presented to us through the eyes of the greatest European thinkers. Muller examines the relationship between the individual and the state though the prism of the marketplace tapping into the writings from thinkers such as Adam Smith, Marx, Voltaire, Schumpeter and Hayek. The depth and breath of this economic treatise on the marketplace presents perspectives from all sides of the political spectrum while taking the time and care to place that thinker's perspective within its proper historical context.

The thinkers that are tapped into come from a very broad swath of history. Their perspectives trace how western civilization left the feudal period where commerce and finance where frowned upon as immoral or dirty and how Europe eventually developed market-based institutions that we are so familiar with today. This book clearly shows how thinking men viewed the development of markets and how societies dealt with the social and moral benefits and costs of markets. Muller also describes how different societies in different time periods came to different conclusions on how a market should be regulated and managed as a result of the efforts of these great thinkers.

The way we operate today is linked inextricably to the past. Market-based societies are a product of western European history and culture. The answer to why things are like today can be found in the past and Mueller provides the key.

Being interested in the topic made the book very helpful. But I was a bit disapointed with his obvious slant towards a free-market. Though I think he does a good job presenting arguments against capitalism and the free-market, he doesn't leave the arguments alone. For example, on Marx, he takes the time to make a critique that he does not make of other authors. Is this because he doesn't want his readers to be persuaded by Marx? That is my imperssion. Still, I found the book intersting and his treatment on Marcuse compelling.

But I was looking for a book that was not approching economics from a free-market perspective. I was unsure of his position when buying the book. The other reviews I read gave me the impression that he was somehow un-biased (not that I thought anyone can be un-biased) or maybe even left leaning. But just so you know, I would say he is not left leaning, at least not in a Marxist sense. If you are looking for a Marxist critique of Capitalism, which I was, this isn't necesarily the book for you. But, it does put the whole discussion in a nice frame and presents the Marxists and anit-capitalists in a fair light. I enjoyed it from cover to cover.

It was a good book for me at the time and I would recomend it to anyone interested in the topic.

"The Mind and the Market" is certainly a rare bird: a 400-page tract of intellectual history that manages to be lucid and fascinating, informative and persuasive. It is not a historical chronicle per se; instead it is a chronological sampling of biographical profiles of major and minor thinkers and how they viewed, with admiration and mistrust, capitalism and the "free market."

Muller examines the careers and thoughts of thinkers from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries (from Adam Smith to Karl Marx), as well as more recent writers (such as George Lukacs and Friedrich Hayek) and lesser known intellectuals (Hans Freyer and Werner Sombart). An intriguing subplot of sorts that runs through these chapters is the societal and academic view of the role of Jewish populations in the development of the market; such views, even among the best thinkers (with few exceptions), tended to be harsh and simplistic. Muller's book does not in any way pretend to be comprehensive--he admits in the introduction that the authors under discussion "are drawn disproportionately from German-speaking Europe"--but this tighter focus allows for a better, more coherent narrative.

"The Mind and the Market" is at its best when it sticks to intellectual history; when Muller turns to economic history, however, he occasionally falters (or, more accurately, his discussion is nakedly incomplete). In his largely unimpeachable comments on Marx's myopia, for example, he counters that capitalist development in the late nineteenth century lead to better working and living conditions in England, as well as "improved standards of health and safety in one industry after another." Such a description of the standard of living is true, but "capitalist development" is only half the story and even that story applies to only to the island and not the empire. The British Isles also benefited from colonialism: unprecedented wealth entered the country at the same time that significant chunks of its labor supply shipped overseas to jobs in civil service and the military--often never to return (60,000 died in the Crimean War alone).

Similarly, Muller notes correctly that Hayek's economic theories have gained much prominence during the last three decades, but his arguments for their exoneration is a bit one-sided. He notes the deregulation and tax reduction in the United States during the 1980s but fails to admit the un-Hayek escalation in government spending (at both the federal and state levels) and in budget deficits.

Fortunately for the reader, however, such details, which comprise only small portions of the book, are beyond its scope and in no way compromise the integrity of Muller's discussion of these great thinkers. Taken as a whole, "The Mind and Market" amply displays the love-hate relationship between philosophers and capitalism and how that relationship has evolved during the last two centuries.

What I luv about this book is that it tells you what to expect from traditional medicine and what you can do for yourself through herbal and homeopathy. Very thorough and easy to find information in the index.

Great book with lots of choices on how proactive you want to be with your health. Good information to read before going to the doctors, or making alternative lifestyle choices for your well being. Doesn't push one method over another, just the facts. Great reference book for any home.

This book is a wonderful guide to maintaining good health. It embraces Western Medicine, Chinese Medicine, Natural Remedies, and Nutrition.

This book is great. It gives you a variety of solutions to your health issues that fits you individually. It helps you make informative decisions regarding your health. I originally bought Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child. I was happy to find the same version for adults. Great Buy - Helps you determine if your condition merits your own personal care or a physicians.

I got this book and the one for our kids, my husband woke up with a stye in his eye a couple of days after receiving this book. He wanted to run to the Dr., I asked him to wait and followed the instructions the book provided, i like how it gave us many different ways to treat it. I used the homeopathic way and in a day and a half it was gone, it went from this horrible red, bloodshot eye to normal!!Amamzing, my mainstrean husband was very impressed. I really enjoy this book it gives me the power to heal our aliments in a healthy way and I save on the co-pays at the dr. office:)

This book serves as an excellent introduction to and/or refresher on valuation techniques. The entire valuation process (primarily DCF) is broken down into a series of steps, each of which gets its own complete chapter. Each chapter is well written and builds on its predecessors.

A particular strength of the book is the authors' reference to Excel functions and which ones are useful in valuation models. This book is not just theory; there are concrete "how to" examples throughout. Once you've finished this book, you can do more than cite valuation theory: you can build valuation models.

One of the best finance books I've ever read.

Simon Benninga's and Oded Sarig's "Corporate Finance: A Valuation Approach" (CFaVA) is one of those secret texts that true insiders cherish while other less efficient or significant works capture limelight.

"CFaVA" is comparable to the McKinsey group authors Koller, Goedhart, Wessels's "Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies" and also Aswath Damodaran's "Investment Valuation: Tools and Techniques for Determining the Value of Any Asset" [Full disclosure: I've taught graduate Corporate Valuation with both texts].

Benninga and Sarig's work is excellent because it is lean while not oversimplified. The key chapter of estimating discount rates is the finest one-chapter treatment of the subject I've seen in my career, and should be required reading for any M&A or LBO banker or PE associate. The chapter on valuing by multiples is also useful for relative value and comparative scenarios for deal-makers.

Chapter 12 covers convertible securities, and it would be unfair to say it is bad simply because it is compressed and incomplete (entire libraries have been written on the subject of convertible bond valuation), but also appears out of place in the content of the book until you realize that the random elements of a stock price going forward in time intersect with capital structure choices and enterprise value, so the connection and recursive element of valuation is made at once explicit with an example.

An excellent book that should be well known by a wider audience.

This book does a good job of logically explaining the step-by-step method of corporate valuation. Benninga and Sarig do a good job of focusing on the practical tools of finance. I only wish the DCF examples were less simplistic. A substantial amount of additional work is needed to apply these models to real world firms.

If you are new to corporate finance valuation this book will take you to the next level. Provides step by step instruction on how to value companies. Covers Excel techniques with easy to follow examples. Covers 1 full semester at most business schools.

This book offers a very simple introduction to evaluation of companies prior to investing. The DCF method is primarily used. There is a common thread running through the chapters which makes the book easy to understand. Its not verbose, which adds to its attractiveness. But, the readers should remember that this is only an introduction, and some other advanced book like Copeland's is needed to build upon the ideas presented in the book.

This book offers practical strategies to help readers achieve inner peace in a busy, chaotic world. Each of the 52 strategies are realistic and simple to implement. Dr. Borysenko offers strategies in each of the main areas of our lives including: overall life, taking care of yourself, time, managing your mind, developing compassion, kindness, and clear communication, and creating wisdom and purpose. She offers a specific action for each strategy so the reader can begin transforming their life immediately.

"Inner Peace for Busy People" is definitely worth the time to read.

Chapters are short. Nice read before bed. Good and thoughtful information. Worth the money.

As a big believer in the need for personal peace to achieve our life purpose and a huge fan of Dr. Joan Borysenko's wisdom, I treasure this book!

Who among us in this high speed world isn't stressed by the environment in which we operate? And, who among us hasn't seen that our health and performance is better when we have inner peace? The challenge is to maintain our inner peace in this busy world. And, this book provides 52 thoughtful strategies and tactics for doing so.

Other reviewers have done a fine job of summarizing the contents of this gem. So instead of replicating that which they have summarized, let me share how I use this book. This is one of a handful of books that are my life guides (Cheryl Richardson's Unmistakable Touch of Grace, Judith Orloff's Positive Energy, Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life). I reread these books frequently. Each also stands as a powerful tangible reminder of that which I believe I must practice. And, each has directly contributed to profound, positive changes in my life.

Beyond the personal benefits of this book, I am just enough of an idealist to believe that the best anecdote to the absence of peace in this world is for each of us to become more peaceful. To be a beacon of peace, and a practioner of kindness. This is as good a guidebook as you will find in setting forth a holistic approach to personal inner peace.

Joan Borysenko's book, Inner Peace For Busy People, is an intelligently written, thought provoking read. She has demonstrated a deep understanding of those things that create familiar feelings of being overwhelmed and stressed to the max, and better yet, she gives practical solutions on ways to cope with that stress. The chapters in this book are short, one page or a little more. I found that the best way to read this book was to read a chapter a week and attempt to instill these lessons gradually. I can honestly say that it helped me to find new ways to relax and enjoy life, in spite of feeling at times as though I am "crazy busy" as the author discusses. I highly recommend this book. Unlike other self-help books, this guide doesn't overgeneralize, or have within it's pages unrealistic expectations that people would have difficulty implementing in their own lives. I found it to be incredibly practical and life-changing. I feel more rested and relaxed than I have in a very long time.

I had heard of this author for a long time and never read any of her work, so it was with careful reflection and consideration that I opened this book - attracted by the "Peace" and "Busy People" of the title.

The book is divided into 52 chapters (almost chapterettes) that include ideas for application of the principle discussed. Borysenko writes with a friend-like, compassionate voice as she guides the reader into a more centered life style.

The strategies discussed won't be new for those "experienced" at Personal Development AND the presentation makes it worth the investment. Each idea is narrowed down so succinctly and at the same time, the resulting "a-ha's" have the possibility of being substantial for those who take the principles and put them into practice.

I love how personable Joan comes across - in the section on perfectionism she describes how she still deals with it in her life through a story from a recent holiday dinner. Her chapter on "Breath" is so simple and yes, so powerful. These happen to be my favorites, but each lesson has gold to be mined.

For those folks who don't want to do the lessons "one-a-week", the book could easily be opened to any page, read and applied in that moment. The chapterettes can literally be read while waiting in line at the grocery store so there is no reason NOT to live more peacefully now -

There - see how effortless that was? *Smile* Reading and using this book is even easier than reading this review.... Enjoy!