G Books

This publication is well written using simple language which has made it easy to understand.

The publication has a variety of strategies which can be implemented to help reduce the stress that is often associated with working with people who have autism.

Good read for anyone who is interested in autism

The Dummies folks have once again put together a great general resource. It provides a good baseline for understanding autism. Another book I found very helpful--and more specific as to curing this disorder--is He's Not Autistic But...: How We Pulled Our Son From the Mouth of the Abyss.

This book is such a good resource for me as a parent of an Autistic child. This book also helps me explain Autism to others who are not familiar with it. I will be purchasing more of these books for family that want to understand and help my son. This is an easy to read book and has easy answers for the most common questions about Autism. I recommend this to book to anyone who has had a child just diagnosed and doesn't know where to turn or for people who are in contact with anyone with Autism and want to understand it better.

They should give you this book when you get your diagnosis. Seriously! It was the first book I bought on Autism. It's a great place to dive in to Autism. It covers everything from Meds, IEPs, Schooling, Adult programs, everything you NEED to know on the subject. I would recommend it to anyone!

In my opinion this is a very useful book for parents, but not as complete and exhaustive as a teacher (as myself) would need. That's why I'm giving it 4 stars and not 5. Easy to read, and complete as far as parents are concerned.

I knew before I read this book that it was going to share wisdom not only for my entire lifetime but a priceless piece of information and knowledge that I needed just at that time to help me understand and live through an excruciatingly painful chapter in my life and move forward with new insight and unimaginable growth. I think this book should be a mandatory piece of the western education tool kit for living a fulfilled and abundant life lived with true purpose. Nice job.....I'm eternaly grateful.

It gives a great perspective as to how we humans experience love. It also gives a good explanation of what is the difference between romatic love and, true and mature love. It talks about expectations, desires, passion, commitment, fears, etc. It helped me to understand why my love parners acted the way they did in our relationships, as well as why I kept fighting for those unfruitful relationships. ¡Trully interesting!

This book is for anyone truly ready to enter a relationship with a clear open mind and heart. In this time when intimate relationships cannot find their way, endless divorces, embittered men and woman, frustrated couples... this book will lead the way to the new paradigm of relationship. I highly recommend it.

In this companion volume to Johnson's "He" & "She" books, he analyzes a medieval story (similar to Marie-Louise von Franz & Allan Chinen) in terms of Jungian psychology--but pursuing p. 195: "The task of salvaging love from the swamp of romance." He describes Western misinterpretation & overemphasis on being in love & its projection of the inner human soul (p. 63: "animus is the soul in woman just as anima is the soul in man") onto an external person--leading to later disaster. Interestingly, it closely parallels Trungpa's "Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" that I read in parallel. I think Trungpa would agree with Johnson that: p. 32: "Many Western people, caught up in misunderstanding of Eastern religions or philosophy, make an ideal of getting rid of the ego. We need to understand that the ego is absolutely necessary; it has a vital role to play in the drama of evolving consciousness" & Johnson (p. 151) provides an enlightening, extraordinary definition of ego "death." Also, they both address the illusions/delusions of incorrect assumptions/preconceptions & the materialization of spiritual matters. Johnson's concluding chapters (an American Indian legend, a dream, & an analysis contrasting romantic love, human love, & friendship) rounded out his view since earlier chapters seemed a bit over-the-top via overgeneralization, over intellectualization (too much Thinker vs. Feeler), & a religious view of romance & spirituality (vs. Jungian individuation, balance, & integration). I'm uneasy with Johnson's "love the one you're with" (p. 129) philosophy & his praise of Eastern marriage. While he demonstrates how romantic love is egocentric vs. altruistic human love, he deemphasizes this in his story analysis. It seems to me that Tristan was a puer (Peter Pan) archetypal hero--not an adult. Much of what Johnson vilifies as romance could be attributed to narcissism instead--could romantic love merely be an implementation of narcissism? Further, archetypes form complexes by combining with human experience; thus, anima & animus are complexes as well as archetypes. An adult could apply archetypal spiritual love to a real person to form a (human) love complex. Thus, rather than an Eastern contractual marriage or Western falling-in-love, one could follow the Middle Way of human love, balancing one's inner & outer worlds without sacrificing personal affinity. Johnson seems to imply this without explicating it. He performs a most valuable service by exposing idealized romantic falling-in-love & facilitating modern understanding of human love & commitment in a society with a dearth of both.

If you are a man, and you are deeply suffering because either you are in love, or because you feel you are loosing one, this book is worth a hundred psycho-therapy sessions. It is very likely that it will help you to understand yourself, and therefore you would become much more likely to take control, or at least, to feel wide relief associated to deep understanding!

Interesting last novel in the Starbridge series by Susan Howatch. Would recommend it to anyone but particuarly to those who have read the previous five novels in series. Helps if you are an Anglican,Episcopalian or Roman Catholic. Starbridge series is both emotional and theological. Starbridge series is set in mid-twentieth century in southern England when theology was going thru some changes and allowing some more High Church thinking into general circulation, but with many battles on the subject. The series had mostly to do with Anglican clergy attempting to work out some theological/emotional conflicts.
Linda Sheean

Knowing that those likely to read this review may well already share my love for the series as a whole, I shall begin by saying that Susan's gift for characterisation, with a great honesty and much room for grace to do its work, is always superb, and here at a new peak. My general approach to her main figures in the series is to see Jonathan Darrow as someone I'd love to hear preach but might be nervous to meet (even if he tends to compress 40 years worth of direction into a week's retreat) - Neville Aysgarth as someone I'd like to shake by the shoulders - Nicholas Darrow as one I'd closet with a library of the first fifteen centuries of Christian thought before he'd be allowed out - and Charles Ashworth as the ultimate Christian intellectual with whom I'd love to share weekly four-hour lunches with the best claret on the table. In this volume, Charles is once again the key character, and the reader finds, as he himself gradually learns, that the old glittering image is still much alive and as troublesome as ever.

Watching this character struggle with bereavement and grief of all varieties, and finally face the long-hidden "demons" which lurked in shadows to affect his relationship with his children and with his old nemesis Aysgarth, is incredibly moving and insightful. Dramatic though the plot becomes, it is a marvellous work wherein a seasoned bishop comes to new self-knowledge, humility, compassion ... and, while I'll not give the ending away, ultimately a specific setting of happiness which some readers will have thought he should have snatched 30 years before.

I listened to what I wanted from a work called "Absolute Truths"-I who am desperately conservative in Christianity and most things. After Charles Ashworth's triumph in "Glittering Images," and his overall positive portrayal in the books between that and this, I didn't want to find out that the truth I thought he had found, and that Howatch suggested he had found, was a lie, another of the tragic misconceptions that Howatch regularly and regretfully demolishes in her characters ("Anti-Sex Ashworth" toppled by doubt and lust stronger than his convictions-what a depressing concept).

It wasn't. But in the interim between "Glittering Images" and "Absolute Truths," Ashworth's grip on the truth had shifted until he had become a false man holding a true thing, or, to put it another way, Ashworth had grown as much as he could during "Glittering Images," but he still had far to grow, and "Absolute Truths" pushed him farther.

Thus Howatch, as in the rest of this Starbridge series, follows a plot sequence of strength debilitating into weakness, then supernaturally resolved into strength (or truth to lies to truth, or any number of other ways may describe this spiritual falling and rising pattern). We cannot however assume that the characters will live happily ever after, that their lives are "solved," or even that the weakness resolved in the novel will never return in later years. Howatch's cruces do not involve perfect or perfectible people, but perfect moments of grace that make the rest of lives better or in some way bearable. In a sort of backhanded optimism, Ashworth writes in the midst of his revelations, "Dimly I realised that this state of companionable hell could be classified as a form of survival." At the end of "Absolute Truths," Howatch permits Ashworth an idyllically happy old age and a platform for reminiscence, a sort of sop to him and to her for six dramatically painful novels in the series, but we must not forget that after "Glittering Images" Ashworth needed "Absolute Truths" to correct him further. After receiving revelation that revolutionised his life, he needed more revelation. As such, these novels are some of the most true-to-life of any fiction I've read portraying the Christian way of living. They give hope, not for all things to turn out alright, but for all things to "intermingle," as Ashworth insists, for good-and for there to be moments, rising above the doubt and pain, in which we may see God and absolute truths as clearly as our eyes can function. We may live a long time, decades, in the strength vouchsafed by these moments. Then we may need another, as Ashworth did.

When we started out in Book #1, the narrator, Charles Ashworth, was still fairly young. In this novel, he is again the narrator but he is elderly and the bishop of Starbridge. Being this age, he can wind up everyone's story. There is his whole generation of people and their families in the Anglican Church plus his childrens' generation of people. Of all the books, I'd say this one you better read as #6 and not out of order. There are simply too many stories which are wrapped up here that won't have the same impact on you if you haven't read books 1-5. This novel has its share of worldly problems with: gay priests (2), the ghost of Jardine appearing in the cathederal, an exorcism of the cathedral, a possible embezzlement by Dean Aysgarth from cathedral funds, a suicide, death of a spouse and finding another spouse. It also has combined therapeutic-spiritual sessions again with Jon Darrow as spiritual director for both Ashworth and Aysgarth. Once I started any of the 6 books, I couldn't stop reading till the end and this one was no exception.

Although this is the last book in the Starbridge series it is actually set in time before its immediate prequel, Mystical Paths. Howatch obviously had good reasons for doing this; no other book could have rounded up the series so perfectly, and certainly it was a delight to return to Chares Ashworh as narrator, who began the whole series. This time Charles is at the evening of his life. He has been the Bishop of Salisbury for some years.. Some of those nearest and dearest to him have passed away and he has to come to terms not only with the sense of loss, doubt and lack of direction, but also with his wayward Dean, Neville Ayesgarth, who still insists on going off on a tangent in affairs of the Cathedral. As in Scandalous Risks, scandal seems only around the corner and Charles has to develop very strong spiritual muscles in order to bring matters to an outcome worthy of a Christian.
I must not forget to mention that in this novel Starbridge Cathedral itself - in the other books merely a background stat - becomes a major character, and a star player during the Grande Finale The climax of this book is not only deeply moving, it is also absolutely perfect. As is the entire series.

This book is an invaluable reference and great educational tool for collectors of ancient coins. It explains many aspects of the field in an academic but witty style. Very readable text, also contains lots of reference material indexed for additional study of specific areas of research. A "must have" for those new to this area of collecting.

This is a good introductory book to ancient coin collecting. Getting one's feet wet in this are of numismatics, is a touchy thing in this day of on line auctions...where forgeries are easily sold as authentic. Book covers most everything a numismatist new to this field could want, online help, types, forgeries, authentication, caveats, etc. Good read for the newbie in ancients.

This is something of a potpourri of ancient coin information. It doesn't make a good reference work, per se; there are other books, etc. to purchase when you settle on your collecting theme. It is a great background resource, though, and helped me to clarify my own collecting themes.

As a collector over 30 years on Chinese and modern world coins, it's an adventoure for me to probe a totally different field of coin collecting - the western world ancient coins. What I need most is something to show me the way, to give me an outline, to guide me to the right direction, as well as to keep me interested at the unfamiliar new world.

This book serves my needs exactly as it starts with very basic but substantial introduction to the ancient western cultures which are not familiarized by an oriental like me. Then there are good references provided, among them I appreciated most the last part of Chapter II, "Ancient Coins and the Internet", and also Chapter VI, "Numismatic Literature". Those information show a beginner to a broader view and an easier access in continuing his collection interest.

I would say the most fancinating part of this book is surely Chapter VII, "Identifying Ancient Coins". It's systematically arranged thus I can get a clear picture of different categories of ancient coins, together with fundamental history background of the coin issuers. That is, indeed, far more interesting than just reading a coin catalogue.

For anyone who intends to start ancient coin collecting, this is the book to start with.

This is a great single volume reference on Ancient Coin Collecting. I don't want to repeat what others have written, but I found it to be thorough, well-researched, engaging and well-organized. It will spark your imagination and add to your knowledge base without overwhelming you.

I discovered Betty MacDonald when I was about twelve years old, after checking The Egg and I out of the Carmichael Branch library here in Sacramento, about 22 years after it was first published. My parents had mentioned that the egg ranch Betty lived on with her first husband in the 1920s, which she writes about in The Egg and I, was located some miles from the place where we lived in Washington state, in the late 1950s. Furthermore, they had actually taken a day trip with friends to look at the old place, sometime after the book and the movie of the same name came out in the 1940s.

This familial connection, however faint, to an old, famous book and the movies it inspired, piqued my childish mind, and I eagerly started reading about life on a chicken ranch on the Olympic Penninsula. I fell in love with Betty's easy, friendly, hysterically funny, down-to-earth yet somehow elegant prose, and immediately checked out her other autobiographical books: The Plague and I, Anybody Can Do Anything, and Onions In The Stew.

In all of her autobiographical books save Onions In The Stew, Betty uses the first chapter to presage her theme by describing her experiences as a child in a large, boisterous family, in loving and extremely funny detail. In Anybody Can Do Anything, Betty describes life with her family and her two young daughters, Anne and Joan, in Seattle after she has left her husband and the egg ranch behind. The Depression is on, and Betty, now a single mother, struggles with her large and interesting clan to make ends meet, somehow finding a lot of laughs and funny adventures, often with her exuberant sister Mary, the inspiration for the book, along the way. Anyone who is interested in what life was like in Seattle in the 1930s, in witty character descriptions, and in a personal glimpse of how families coped with the "Great Depression", will find this book fascinating, not to mention frequently hilarious.

Betty, I miss you and the way you used to make me laugh out loud--I was sad when I finished reading Onions In The Stew for the first time and then realized it was the last autobiographical book you wrote: the tuberculosis finally caught up with you in 1958, when I was only four years old, still living in Washington, not far from your home on Vashon Island. I re-read your books many times as I grew up, even visited Vashon Island, and often wished I could have met you and your family. It's silly, but I've always felt a sense of loss at never having known you, because I am sure you must have been a marvelous friend. Your sense of humor had a profound effect on me, and inspired me in my earliest writing attempts. It's been many years since I've read your books, but I've never forgotten your irrepressible, bona-fide funniness. Wherever you are, thank you!

My husband is one of Betty's nephews.All of the sisters had an incredible wit about them - probably because of their mother Sidney Bard. She did a wonderful job raising her children with out her beloved husband Darcy. It's too bad the children and grandchildren didn't learn lessons from Betty's books. She would be sad to see the way the family turned out.

It's just so heartening to know that others love Betty MacDonald's books as much as I do. I've been giving Anybody Can Do Anything as my female gift book of this year.

we get the story of what she and the children did with themselves.

Her father had been a mining engineer, and although he died fairly young he had been able to save quite a bit; her mother had come from a 'good' East Coast family--not REALLY rich, but apparently quite well off. Betty and her siblings had grown up in large houses with music and dance lessons. However, the Great Depression reduced the family's portfolio to wastepaper. The children had never been taught to actually *do* anything, and actually going out to work for a living was something that they (especially the daughters) had never thought that they would have to do.

The story of how they scrambled to make ends meet during the 1930s would have been grim, but the Bard family despises self-pity above all other faults, and Betty is able to find humor in any situation.

After women having to work to survive during the 1930s, and having to work in the 1940s when all the men were off to war, is it any wonder that the women of this generation and their daughters wanted to retreat into domesticity during the 1950s?

This book is hard to find, so if you get the chance, snap it up!
This is a hilarious account of the author's life post-"Egg & I."
Betty moves from the chicken ranch back to her family's home in Seattle.
Sister Mary, undaunted by the fact that Betty has no experience, eagerly launches Betty's business career and social life.
The mishaps that ensue are absolutely hilarious.
Skillfully written, this book makes the Depression a laugh riot.
BUY IT!
I only wish that Betty had written more books.

I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Loss. I believe that your book makes so much sense! I have already lost 10 pounds in a month's time by adopting many of the principles found in the book--eating 0-5, avoiding artifical sweetners and fake fat, and incorporating
more protien and less carbs into meals. I enjoy a small amount of dark chocolate every day or so...and I do not feel deprived at all! I am also exercising more, mostly cardio and yoga. Like many others, this has been a longtime struggle for me. I have tried Weight Watchers several times and found that I was more obsessed with food than when not on the program. In any case, I could go on and on like so many of your readers probably do. I just wanted to thank you and let you know that I loved your book, completely agree with your sensible approach, and will recommend it highly to others. Thanks!

I know everyone else is raving about this book, but I just don't see the big deal. In that it's one of the "complete idiot's" series, I was expecting something a little less "gimicky." However, these authors' diet recommendations remind me so much of The Zone, i.e., protein/carb/fat combo meals where the carbs are in the form of fruits & veggies. They note that our ancient ancestors didn't eat grains and suggest that we limit our consumption. I agree on the limits and like the new food pyramid where the grains are not the foundation; however, I do think eating whole grains shouldn't be discouraged to the extent that the authors discourage it. After all, barring those ancient ancestors, our more recent ancestors (i.e., those in the last few hundred years) have been eating grains, and America's obesity problem is just getting out of hand in the past 30 years, so we can't blame it on grains. The authors do have some common sense advice in the part of the plan that advises readers only to eat when hungry and to eat only until satisfied, not full (e.g., a portion about the size of your fist). The authors say that this is the way thin people eat, and we should emulate that if we want to be thin. I agree with that part. However, I was annoyed at the contradictions in the book. The authors continually suggest that we act and think "thin," but then they make suggestions for eating in a way that I've never seen any of my thin friends do. For example, the authors say that you can eat those cheeseburgers and that pizza, but when you do, eat the burger without the bun and the pizza without the crust. I've never seen a thin person do that unless for some odd reason that person didn't like bread (I don't know anyone who doesn't like bread). I think that suggestions like these perpetuate the dieting mentality. I would have prefered them to suggest eating a smaller burger or just one piece of pizza.

All in all, I don't think the book is harmful, but it didn't measure up to my expectations of books in the "complete idiot's" series. For those who like the concept of eating only when hungry (a concept I highly recommend), I suggest Seven Secrets of Slim People. This book advocates that type of eating, but doesn't suggest any food restrictions. The only aspect of the COMPLETE IDIOT'S guide that I prefer to Seven Secrets is their recommendation to eat breakfast even if you're not hungry. I believe this is necessary to get your metabolism moving in the morning.

I have been doing Weight Watchers off and on for about three years. I have gained and lost the same 10 pounds, and I have gotten nowhere near my "goal weight". Why not? No one mentioned the common sense guidelines that I got from this book in the first five minutes of reading it: eat according to your appetite and eat balanced meals that satify (rather than stuff) you. FINALLY! Very very great information about nutrition (with no hocus-pocus studies or extreme recommendations) and about how each meal should be balanced for maximum satisfaction and metabolism, and how to increase your physical activity (moderately) to support your weight loss. After only a few days I feel, for the first time in my life, a) satisfied after every meal, b) the excess weight coming off (already!), and c) completely confident that I can meet my goal weight without completely disrupting my life or suffering at the hands of the dreaded "WW points". I can do this for the rest of my life. Buy this book!

This book is really terrific! After over two years of living a "controlled carb" lifestyle, my husband and I began to get concerned about our health. Even though we lost loads of weight and kept it off all that time, we felt we may be doing our bodies long-term damage. So we tried low-fat for a bit, but started gaining weight and so we went back to low carb. Desperate to find a way to lose weight and eat healthy, we bought this book. In a nutshell, it shows you how to balance it all out. Through educating you about metabolism and even how to "get in tune" with your own body, this book puts it all in perspective. No fad dieting ideas, no gimmicks, just REAL answers to why we eat the way we do and how to eat right for the rest of your life! Exercise and stop being afraid of food! Eat when you're hungry! Enjoy real ice cream, butter and mayonnaise! Just do it right. This book shows you how.

This book is excellent. Written in easy-to-get language it manages to be both simple and yet detailed enough to go into a wide range of weight-management topics in significant depth.

I think books like this should be at least tax-free if not entirely free, as they are beyond being just self-help in the sense that they can potentially help relieve the burden that overweight/obese/unhealthy people have on our society. don't get me wrong - I mean no judgements there - I've been overweight and unhealthy myself and it's a problem which is still very much on the increase, both sides of the pond.

It's very educational and based on sound science yet you will hardly ever feel that you're 'in class' or studying; that said your knowledge of biology and the human body will definitely increase as a result of reading this book.

The real question - will it help me lose weight? Well, the answer is perhaps obvious - the book itself won't help you lose weight: your choices and behaviour will help you lose weight, but this book will definitely help you to understand how to lose weight (and why).

Buy it if

- you need to lose weight (duh)
- if you've lost weight with fad/crash-diets but know you're going to put it back on again
- want to learn more about the human body and basic nutrition
- want to teach and guide others in the subject (e.g. if studying nutrition/health on a medium level course)
- want to support someone who you know wants to lose weight effectively, safety and for good.

I first read this book when it was published. I have lost count of the number of times I have read it since then. This was among the first books to go to my Kindle. I love all of Elizabeth Peters' books, but for sheer lunacy, this one remains my favorite.

This is one of my favorites in the Barbara Michaels / Elizabeth Peters collection, brimming over with all my most beloved elements: a young female protagonist, unconventional relatives, an enormous, rambling old house complete with a menagerie of ill-behaved pets, fateful secrets, flawless characters, and of course, a few resident ghosts.

Ellie has come to her irascible Aunt Kate's home in rural Virginia to house-sit while said Aunt Kate takes a brief vacation. Ellie just has to inhabit the house, water the plants, and take care of Kate's veritable stable of pets, including dogs, cats, and one rat named after a local politician. On her very first night in the old house alone Ellie has an unwelcome spectral visitor, and from that moment forward, nothing is quite as it seems. The library is vandalized, more ghostly figures appear, and the apparently rich and scandalous past of some of the town's most distinguished inhabitants re-awakens to shake up the present. Ellie feels a little out of her league, and so ropes in various friends and neighbors to help her figure out what's going on as genuine danger seems to be closing in.

We all want an Aunt Kate, or at least I do! She's the perfect picture of the kind of eccentricity that's cozy rather than creepy, and her skill at witchcraft - or at least the rumor of it, which is as good as the real thing, around these parts! - is as much a part of her as her obsession with the Washington Redskins. Technically she's away for much of the story, but her character is very much a part of it. Ted, Dr. Gold, Don, the Grants, Miss Mary and the other characters fill out their parts with gusto, adding wonderfully to the atmosphere.

Always a pleasure, Miss Peters/Michaels/Mertz!

Fun, nice dialog, nice characters. The story's conclusion just didn't carry much punch for me.

I've read this book several times. I love coming back to it after a couple of years and enjoying it all over again. The best thing about Elizabeth Peters/B Michaels is that she creates a cozy atmostphere, with every day occurences (such as eating lunch...sleeping...,) yet, there are not so every day occurences thrown in - ghosts, etc. It makes it feel like is business as usual to suspect that a ghost is inhabiting your house. I just love the atmostphere she creates! She doesn't write these types of books anymore, - not a dynasty - like Amelia (love those too, of course), but these single book stories, and I miss them!

Ellie has agreed to house sit for her Aunt Kate. Her pompous fiance drives her down to impress the rich old lady, who dislikes him immediately. After Kate's departure with the fiance to the airport. Ellie experiences all kinds of strange manifestations involving the six founding families of the area. A rare book telling of their boring scandals seems to be the trigger. A neighbor agrees to help her solve the mystery. It seems like a practical joke, until an old friend of Kate's gets seriously injured....

This was a very quick read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I picked it up and didn't stop reading until the last page. The characters are quirky and entertaining. The atmosphere appropriately creepy, and the story line engrossing. A very good read.

Gavin Goodfellow:The Lure of Burnt Swamp is a refreshing contemporary mix of reality, fantasy, and spirituality. Read it TO your kids, WITH your kids, and FOR the kid in you.

This is an extraordinary book. Well written, awesome. Harry Potter readers will find the hidden truths they have been searching for! Great for home schoolers, this will fit into curriculum. A must read book! Author Candy Abbott has gone into places only the brave will go. I can't wait for the next one!

Gavin Goodfellow is wonderfully written. And to think I put off reading it, because I had bought it for a friend's sons. I just thought it was for teens; well was I wrong! I read it from cover to cover and loved it. I got totally immersed in the book, the story, and the characters. I am really looking forward to the next book and the continuation of the story of Burnt Swamp. To make the reading even more interesting, go to the Gavin Goodfellow website and you can see pictures and backgrounds on all of the characters -- that was really slick! It's a wonderful feeling to have a really intersting book to read and to give as a gift and know that there are solid Christian beliefs beautifully included.

I can't say enough good things about this book. It's great for young and old alike. Wonderful spiritual truths are skillfully woven into a great adventure. The characters are so believable and interesting, and the story line kept me turning the pages longer than I planned each time. A great read!!

I got this book for my kids. Since it deals with some pretty heavy issues, I wanted to review it before they got a hold of it. I couldn't put it down! I actually had a hard time focusing on my own responsibilities as I followed Gavin through his struggles.
My kids start reading it this week, and I know they will love it as well. They have longed for a series that was based on a Christian perspective, and still as fun as the Harry Potter series. We found it!
Now I can get back to work.

This book was recommended to me by several people at a recent ESOP conference. Feeling that employee input was one of the best ways to build an ownership culture, I purchased the book. I was only 3/4 of the way through it when I found that we had another employee working on an ideas program, planning to give 10% of savings as employee bonuses. I quickly passed the book on to him. As it did with me, it totally changed his way of thinking; he scrapped his initial plan and will be proposing a completely different program that rewards all employees who submit ideas, without the reward being based on the savings.

In "Ideas are Free," the authors synopsize idea programs at several high-performing companies worldwide. They also point out the pitfalls of trying to develop and manage rewards based on savings, instead recommending making idea generation and implementation a part of everyone's job. Finally, they help walk you through how to implement a program at your workplace (although I haven't been able to read that part yet, because my co-worker still has my book! -- He has ordered his own, so I hope to have it back soon.).

I highly recommend this book. It is non-technical and easy to read.

Since my company has an idea program which I believe could be improved, I've read this book. It's short and to the point. It addresses the importance of small ideas for the improvement of the company and the engagement of its employees. It accompanies most of the points with real case stories which make the point even more compelling. Also very important is the chapter related to rewards and the counter-intuitive effects.

Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder's IDEAS ARE FREE is for employers who would tap into the riches of employee ideas and insights. Employees are quite opt to recognize both problems and opportunitiestheir managers pass by - but most organizations don't encourage sharing such insights, much less reward them. IDEAS ARE FREE: HOW THE IDEA REVOLUTION IS LIBERATING PEOPLE AND TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATIONS shows how to tap this hidden wealth.

Ideas Are Free: How The Idea Of Revolution Is Liberating People And Transforming Organizations by Alan G. Robinson (Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts) and Dean M. Schroeder (Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Programs in Management at the College of Business Administrations at Valparaiso University) is an innovative guide to saving money, effort, time and also provides an informative introduction to entirely new ways of doing business with front-line employees, making the most out of opportunities and maximizing the benefits of sound, effective management. Robinson and Schroeder aptly examine the intricacies of the business life and include an analysis of a more prosperous, ease-filled advancement for opportunities granted to all, and situational manipulation for a more competently finalized project. Ideas Are Free is very highly recommended reading for all business consultants, corporate executives and departmental managers.

The authors show how important it is to gather ideas and encourage people to think creatively. I wish they would have described more how they could gather these ideas more effectively.

I found The Inner Glow to be an affirmation of things from my own childhood I had let slide in my busy adult world, things I should have remembered would get me through all the good and bad times. It inspired me to look closer at what I am doing or saying and the effect I am having on others. It is a book of hope and promise of things we may not understand and that there is a spiritual path that each of us were born to follow. I hope to find more works by this author in the future.

A delightful story that is well-written and easy to read. It is a spiritually moving story that is touching and uplifting, despite the life issues addressed story. It was a quick reading story that leaves the reader with heart-felt messages and things to ponder about their own lives. Highly recommended for all readers, young and old.

The Inner Glow was easy to read and made me feel alot of different emotions. Very good book and it made me cry which is also a good sign it's a good book.

The Inner Glow reminds us about the nature of true miracles: they are powerful, but personal experiences that come to us as "still, small voices" that speak peace to our hearts and bring about lasting change.

Ehly's somber and realistic story about how a man deals with his son's terminal illness not only shows us how adversity is necessary for growth, but how it can renew our faith in God and help us to find truth and beauty amid the most tragic of circumstances.

The Inner Glow is well-crafted, with a beautiful retelling of the biblical battle between David and Goliath and a tear-wrenching conclusion that will send you running for a box of tissues! It is the essence of the old verse that "a child shall lead them." I recommend this book to anyone who has experienced loss and everyone who has not... yet.

The author wrote a very heart warming moving story. I would truly recommend this book to anybody who has experienced a loss in their lives. A great spiritual journy!!