Digital Books

David the sixth-grader has just been forced to move to a new town, due to the sudden split-up of his parents, the reasons for which he doesn't understand. Well into the school year already, David is unable to gain any peers as friends. Instead he befriends a retarded man named Stanley. They walk to and from their respective schools, Stanley collecting interesting rocks, David wondering what happened between his parents. At one point some kids try to get Stanley to buy booze for them, but, with David's support Stanley refuses, leading to a fight which is only stopped by a popular girl in David's class, who walks by.

The writing is decent, with a few typos, and David's young voice is handled fairly well. However, he almost seems a bit slow himself, and I don't think that is how he's supposed to be. This opening is much more interesting than several boy-in-school excerpts that I've read. Both David and Stanley are distinct likable characters, though the boys who want some alcohol are the usual caricature bullies.

Mostly the pace is good, though I would like a little bit less introspection, and more specific external observations. What is the teacher like, and the classroom, and the townhouse he's staying in? Is David trying to keep in touch with his old school friends any? There are a few fabulous details, but not enough to really fill out the world.

Overall, nice story. I would keep reading.

I love the interactions between Stanley and David. I would really like to see where this goes. The excerpts here are just not representative enough of what the whole novel will be. More please!

Great writing. I feel the author has really captured the world and thoughts of a young boy. With this snippet, you are left wanting to know more about David's past, as well as what his life will be like in his new home town.

I almost skipped this one as I noticed few reviews, but my intrigue in the title made me peek and I'm glad I did. Effortlessly, this author creates a scene and mood that aren't in any way overdone. The characters are quick to develop through a wonderful balance of dialogue and light narration. The telling of this story is so natural that when I stopped I felt the storyteller snapped a book shut beneath my nose- ouch! Please, please publish more...so the readers can see how the world of Stanley and David unfolds.

This book is amazing! Dean Cycon is amazing! I've seen "Fair Trade" coffee in stores but until I read "Javatrekker," I hadn't grasped the magnitude of the problems so many coffee farmers face. Dean Cycon is on a mission...his dedication to help poor coffee farmers improve their lives is remarkable. He deserves the Nobel Peace Prize! If you read this book and you possess an ounce of compassion for humanity, you will never buy non-Fair Trade coffee again. I highly recommend this book. It is entertaining, educational and inspirational.

Coffee is more than just another drink: it's about politics, survival, and indigenous people - and Javatrekker is the perfect guide to the politics, culture and meaning of coffee. From Fair Trade business issues to adventure travel, anthropology and politics, JAVATREKKER surveys the peoples, customs and trade of coffee around the world in an invigorating, moving account recommended for any general-interest collection and in particular for college-level libraries strong in world economics.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

In remarkably few decades Fair Trade went, from a simple and hopeful idea, to a 2.3 billion dollar business! This unprecedented success owes much to the wit, the persistence and devotion of a handful of activists such as Dean Cycon. But unlike many of his fellow travelers who concentrate on improving the palate and the social conscience of western consumers, Dean sees Fair Trade as a vehicle for much more profound changes in the lives of the coffee producers. Accordingly, he concentrates his efforts in reaching out to the cooperatives from which he buys his organic beans and shares his profits directly with them in the form of infrastructure investments such as water wells and local schools and, far more than that, with his tireless concern and the effervescent warmth of his presence.

In "Javatrekker" Dean collects some of the many charming memoirs of his incessant globetrotting through the coffee lands in a style which both emulates and evokes the very story telling traditions which inhabit these regions. He calls these accounts, quite accurately, "dispatches" since most of the local situations he describes are evolving from dire to hopeful and will obviously require updates beyond the ones he provides. Through Dean's recollections we are introduced to a number of colorful characters, literally sages and saints, idols and heroes, traders and tricksters from all corners of the world but, more than anything, these are people engaged in bettering their lives and those of their kin peacefully and joyfully. Their stories range from the humorous to the tragic, but Dean always manages to describe their struggles with the touching note that conveys to the alert reader that these are hardly any different in their dreams and aspiration from those one meets on our everyday. It is this recurring slice-of-humanity which makes Javatrekker a far better read than most travel or development literature. More than a hybrid of these two popular genres this book is really a "field manual" for a new, global campaign whose time is surely here: one that firmly rejects charity and "aid" as the currency of exploitation in favor of peaceful productive engagement and the local community empowerment which the example of fair trade has proven possible. What propels Dean's trekking is also, quite clearly, the quest for the next stage, beyond fair trade, in this long but ever more necessary bridge between worlds.

Western fair trade supporters are found to point out that coffee, as a commodity, is second only to oil in total annual volume of trade. They stop short, however, from speculating on what the world would be like if coffee producers had a measure control over their global market even remotely comparable to that which the Oil Cartel exerts over the price of the barrel! Perhaps Fair Trade is still in its early stages and is likely to become the new platform for a globalizing economy concerned with product quality as well as sustainability and climate change. Or maybe it is time to think of a more ambitious formula to fight worldwide inequality in trading justice that may bring about more immediately results. In either case Javatrekker will remain a vital and historical testimonial beyond the delightfully entertaining wild ride that it surely is. GET IT! READ IT! (You will thank me later...)

Javatrekker is not just another book about fair trade coffee. Dean, founder of 100% fair trade, organic coffee roaster Dean's Beans, does describe fair trade, but entirely through recounting stories from his years of "Javatrekking" or traveling to coffee origins to meet the producers. Javatrekker is a great introduction to fair trade and is also some of the best travel writing I have read.
Javatrekker would be a great read for anyone interested in travel to LDCs or fair trade coffee.

Linda G. Shelnutt has told yet another story that needed to be told. The Last Lunch Box: A true story, is expertly put together by an accomplished writer. As I read this story I no longer was sitting in my living room. I was immediately transported by, Linda's words, to a site in Colorado. I looked into the winter sky and watched cloud-banks sweep across, running from the sun. I entered the once productive Energy Fuels mine site and not only saw men tearing down a colossal structure, but felt the sadness of those men as they placed memories on trucks; to be hauled away forever.
Usually, when a business ends, another just moves in and the place takes on a new `soul', with new personalities. In this story the business ends and those that have worked there for so long have to dismantle it, piece by piece.
As I read the story I could almost sense the ghosts' of those who'd worked there and died, coming to the surface and moaning as tools and machines they'd worked with was removed.
I commend Linda G. Shelnutt for honoring those past activities and remembrances in words that will forever keep them alive.
Please, read this wonderful story. Also check out Linda's other great works.

Richard Neal Huffman - author of, Dreams In Blue: The Real Police

The Lifted words for the title of this review come from the Anglican Funeral Liturgy....They talk of the committing of remains to the ground, to be turned into corruption. Waiting...Hoping...for a New Coming...at which time that which had become corrupt would be turned once more into something VIBRANT...ALIVE.

The Amazon Shorts program is indeed honored to have in its midst this eloquent lady, who writes The Last Lunch Box neither with the informed detachment of a reporter nor even the vibrance of a creative writer spinning a fascinating tale full of sympathetic characters moving about in service to a riveting...or tragic...plot.

In the most important of ways Linda Shelnutt and her husband Tom ARE the story so well chronicled here, for she is a proud member of a family which has played an ongoing part in the 160 year history of coal mining in the vicinity of Florence, Colorado. That history, and the devoted role that many families such as hers have played in this proud tradition is readily apparent in each beat of this writer's heart. The reader isn't just richly entertained...or even just richly edified, coming away feeling something of the pride in this area and its economy that when the sun rose this morning he knew nothing about...the reader is ABSORBED.

The perspective of the story is one of change...of loss. The dismantling of the infrastructure and reclamation of the mining property after 160 years is what is occuring. Through the eyes and hearts of the Energy Fuels employees (and the lady who has more than her personal share of stories) you feel not only the generations of ghosts who pulled the coal out of the ground and for so long gave the area a stable and diversified economy. You find yourself pulling for something called Northfield as you enjoy Linda's learned depiction of the banter of the crew during the course of a lunch hour.

You inevitably are drawn into the larger questions of loss and hope of renewal that this particular event holds in common with the Life of the Planet..its History. Linda skillfully uses her mastery of the details of The Little Picture to tell the Larger Story....and by indirection...the Much Larger Story Still.

I will not go into the factual developments wich Linda shares with her readers...that would cheat you out of the masterful way those details are presented. I will just close with the heartfelt sense that we all have much more we can learn from this sensitive Grassroots American artist. I, for one, am looking forward to it. Five Stars!!!

John W. Cassell

This is the way a world ends: a history, a tradition, a way of life, an industry, a mine, an economy, a job. In the brief span of not quite 7,000 words, Linda Shelnutt grapples with all these things, great and small. The big things are very big indeed, no less than the way in which the Past and Present become the Future. The smaller things, how ten men served as the Last Work Crew and labored to end their own employment, well, I suppose they seemed large enough to those involved.

All large issues, then, to those at close grips with them. In the hands of other writers, the impending and inevitable doom of this particular world might have led to examination of the great abstracts. But Linda Shelnutt is not one to deal with the eternal, the theoretical, the immaterial while the specific, the tangible and the idiosyncratic are conveniently at hand.

Here are the specific and the tangible: a small work crew under the leadership of Linda Shelnutt's husband had been given the task of closing down the Energy Fuels mine, the last coal mine in an area called Southfield, that was located south of Florence, Colorado, on the way to Westmore. The job of this last crew was to dismantle, discontinue and obliterate their own source of employment--and in some sense, themselves, too.

(We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together)

Shelnutt writes of a certain "Matilda" who is as specifically tangible as tangible can be. She's "the 1962, 35 ton, P&H truck crane being used to cable up a heavy slab of iron chained to an old rubber tire, linked into the hook. The slab was being lifted as high as the crane arm would allow. Then the hold would be released and the linked-up-iron would cable-slip down, gravity in charge, to thud on cracking concrete." Matilda is by no means alone. There are other machines: the 988 Cat loader, the 560 Hough loader, and particularly the Joy 12-CM-11, the "mechanical monster," that "weighs as much as an armored tank and moves with remote control, hydraulic ease."

Here again is Shelnutt on the specific, the tangible and the idiosyncratic. Men, she tells us, accustomed to digging underground must use new skills to smash things in the open air, "using elements of force, motion, weight, and momentum in nearly opposite directions. Underground horizontal finesse would bring out a deep grunt" of joy from operator Tim Taylor, "Huuooh-eeehh"' Above ground, "vertical sky-tapping required an instinct for angular awareness, use of hand signals, and a variety of intricate throttle controls, one of these called `feathering.' To this concept Tim would conclude, `uuhhhh?????'"

Even as Tim made his odd noises, Frank, another member of the crew, "had made a `fudge packer,' a ramming device used to compact material pushed into mine portals to seal them. The packer was made from an 8-foot-length of 8-inch, triple-wall-pipe, to which a corner bit off a dozer had been attached."

Such are men and machines. Here is the land: "A little `oh' climbed out of my soul," author Shelnutt says of her first visit to the close-down site, "in impoverished realization as I looked out the windshield, and saw a 35-foot-diameter, muddied, metal-coal-bin lying on its side. A couple `legs' were jaggedly halved or deleted; the others were sticking out in horizontal wrongness." When at last the job was done, the mine was handed over to the munching elk, "dismantled, scrapped, ground-reclaimed".

(This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised ....)

And all through, from first to last are the men, wondering, worrying, working. Here are a few of their words arrested in flight by Shelnutt: "What does it Pay?" "Nobody told me!" "How much longer? Until the wrecking ball crashes through my office wall." "...take apart anything that don't move and walk away." "Yeah, I'm thinkin' about it." And, yes, "Huuooh-eeehh."

(Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass)

"The Last Lunchbox" is Linda Shelnutt's adroit evocation of the way a world ends: the history, the tradition, the way of life, the industry, the mine, the economy, the job.

(Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion
And the Act
Falls the shadow)

But Shelnutt's dying fall, unlike the poet's foreordained collapse of his world and his hollow men into universal whimper, does not end in despair, for she wisely writes of the death of a world, not the world. And she finishes with an unspoken acknowledgment of a literary source of still greater power and authority than even so great a poet as T. S. Elliott: for her the earth abides--and so does her reclaimed mine site, sleeping beneath its new grass and all those elk, and so, she allows us to hope, shall her ten hard-working men.

Buy "The Last Lunchbox." Read it. See for yourself. ("Between the essence / And the descent / Falls the Shadow" ... but not yet.) Five stars.

How do you help your career die? That is what the coal miners from Florence Colorado had to find out as they took their world apart piece by piece. After 160 years the mine was closing, the shafts had to be made safe by packing them, the machinery taken apart to be shipped out by truck. We get to see this process through the conversations in the lunch room as the final crew takes a lunch break from tearing everything down. In little snippets we get a sense of their humor, their pathos and their anger, especially when dealing with one truck driver who doesn't know what he is doing. The frustration builds onto the sorrow and fear that are already weighing on the shoulders of these WORKING MEN. Sorrow at loosing a way of life and fear of how the future will play out. With families to feed these men go about the job with a dignity that is the back bone of America. In Miss Shelnutt's history of Florence Colorado this is a vital part of the tale.

Fast shipping the quality was as stated for used book. Great to do business with

This book is very well done! Although it's over 500 pages, the content is engaging, well-organized, and relevant. It includes great examples, interesting stories, questions, additional sources of information and internet resources. I highly recommend it for anyone considering launching an entrepreneurial venture!

This was a required text for my Small Business Management class. I am usually not too fond of textbooks. But this one really sparked my interest. If there were ever a step-by-step guide for starting your own company, this is it. It is very easy to understand. It was written in clear English without any severely technical terms, so you don't feel like you need your MBA before you read the thing. Anything remotely complicated, it breaks down into realy simple terms. I really enjoyed this book. Its not very often you come acroos a textbook you wouldn't mind reading even if you're not taking the class.

This book fully explains how to start a real entrepreneurial venture and make it a success! The author is the best expert in the field. I was introduced to this book through an instructor who had made this book required reading for a credit class. Instead of wasting hundreds of dollars on some seminar to start a small business, purchase and use this book to discover how much success you can achieve by thinking "outside" of the box. Launch a venture that can give real financial support to you and your employees. Who knows, you may be the next Bill Gates just needing some basic tools to start. Here are those tools. .......... Michael Taylor .......... V.P. Students in Free Enterprise ..........University of North Florid

Jeff Metz is a very creative writer. You must download this writing and read it right away. You will be happy you did.c

HAH-HA! How does one review brillaince?
Jeff's creative writing completely captured my attention from the first sentence completely through to the ending period of this dynamic and intriguing tale of incomparable brilliance. It's one of those reads that you will have to had been there to understand, and for less than 50¢ you can be thrilled down to your toenails. I've NEVER read anything, bar nothing, as engrossing and memorable as this is, and will be for you. It's worth the price of admission at 10-times the cost. You'll love this, I can promise....the surprises in this GIANT of a short story will astound your senses and leave you wanting more! Whatta ya got to lose, except a lot of excitement?
JEFF METZ is an amazing writer!!!!
Remember the name....JEFF METZ!!!

Richard Jenkins - Houston, Texas

We've all heard stories of battered wives. We've read the news articles of various forms of revenge taken on brutal husbands ranging from castration to murder. We have, perhaps, even become somewhat inured to them in a sense. Get ready to read a scenario that will turn all of that upside down. Jeff Metz has crafted an idea that will leave the reader with a strong sense of bizarre unreality to the old theme. This is definitely a read for adults only, but it features an almost childlike imagination where "what if" becomes the vehicle for wish fulfillment. Happy reading.

Wow! What an adventure. This is a story that will hold your attention from start to finish and leave the reader spell-bound. I am sure there are many women who have suffered at the hand of an abuser. This tale is one of self-empowerment. The "what if" and "if only" will come out in each of us as we read this creative story. Jeff's ability to draw the reader in with his details placed me there, in the scene, in the moment, watching as Laura took back her life. Well done and with a wonderful ending! Powerful read!!!

"The first law of holes--when you're in one, stop digging--tells us what to do: abandon our traditional leadership development practices. They're not working." And with that blast across the corporate training bow, best-selling author Ram Charan delivers a revolutionary, but thoroughly practical new look at how to rebuild succession and leadership development from the ground up.

His remedy: the Apprenticeship Model with real-life practice, feedback, corrections and more practice. Calling his model "radical and not for the fainthearted," it gives mega-roles to line leaders who supervise other leaders. "Preparing future leaders becomes part of their job description," he adds. Creating the talent for your organization is not HR's job. Every leader must be constantly focused on the talent pool. Healthy organizations, he pleads, find their future CEOs in their own pools.

Charan wants you to scratch your traditional performance assessments and, instead, mentor emerging leaders with the "gap question." For example, Novartis Pharmaceuticals U.S. asks its people to identify any big gaps between the target job and the leader's current capabilities. They ask, "What would happen if we put the person in the job right now?" and then they look for ways to close the gap "and thus minimize the risk, with assignments tailored to prepare the person."

The author warns, "The CEO job requires giant leaps in learning. Leaders will not be prepared to lead large companies unless each job is much more complex than the one before." Mentoring apprentices will get you there, he promises. So, would you spend $18 to ensure your organization's future? Business and nonprofit leaders (especially board members) will find Ram Charan's "Succession Solution" difficult to ignore. If you're comfortable with your current faulty conventional wisdom, don't buy this book.

Leaders at all Levels: Deepening Your Talent Poll to Solve the Succession Crisis by Ram Charan is the first book by a major leadership guru to discuss the development of leaders as an apprenticeship process. That's a good reason to read it, but there are many more.

You will get the most out of this book if you keep in mind that Ram Charan works with the top executives of large companies. That's who he writes for, too, so if you're in a smaller company, plan to adapt what you read here to your situation.

Keep in mind that Charan has been involved in leadership development for a very long time, well before it was the fashionable topic it is today. He is the co-author of the best book on the subject for large companies, The Leadership Pipeline. He brings deep knowledge and experience to the subject.

The core of the book revolves around the insight that leadership is an apprentice trade. You learn about 20 percent of it from courses and books. You learn 80 percent on the job, by taking action, getting feedback, and learning. You learn most through a series of developmental experiences, some which are planned and some which are not.

I know that this works because I've been applying it in my writing and consulting practice for years. Charan writes about it in this book with an almost single-minded focus on what are called "high potential" leaders, the ones who wind up in the C-suite, but you can use the principles for leadership development for leaders in any company or for yourself or a protégé.

The premise is very simple, though Charan is the first big-name consultant to write about it in book form. People learn about leadership in classes and from books. But they learn leadership by leading. If you structure your leadership development program so that it makes use of this natural process and accelerates it, you will do a better job.

Here are the things that are likely to need to change in most companies to make an apprenticeship model work. They come directly from chapter 2. I present them with my comments.

Identify leadership talent early and correctly. This is absolutely necessary. Charan talks about identifying high potential individuals who are already in management positions. I would go a step farther back and put emphasis on improving the selection process of anyone we put in charge of a group at any level.

Plan the apprenticeship for fast growth. This is critical. It may mean that in some cases you will be seeking out the right job for a developing leader instead of looking for the right leader for a job you already have.

Your plan should include developmental assignments, both temporary and permanent. It should incorporate lots of feedback to accelerate development. That's why the boss's role must include something new.

Boss as mentor. Charan recommends making the development of other leaders part of every leader's job. That's a good idea. But it doesn't go far enough.

In real life you will have excellent leaders who are not good at mentoring, don't like it, and consequently don't do it well. That's why you need to evaluate bosses on their leadership development work and tie preferment and pay to those evaluations. But you must also make use of the leaders in your company that love to mentor and do it well, so that the developing leader stuck with a non-mentoring boss still has growth options.

Beyond that, Charan expects your company to do what all the companies who are great at leadership development do. They identify high potential leaders early and pay them special attention. They constantly and religiously review their leaders with a view toward development. They see developmental experiences as opportunities to develop both skills and relationships. And they see training as a carrier of culture.

Beyond the big picture, there are many other good things in this book. One is the concept of Concentric Learning. This holds that leaders expand their capabilities through deliberate practice of core skills in increasingly complex situations. That concept will work no matter what your leadership development challenge.

There is an excellent and insightful chapter on how to recognize leadership potential. It includes ways to evaluate basic leadership skills, cultural fit, and broad business acumen. As with other sections of the book, there are simple lists of questions you can ask to aid your analysis.

There are also excellent chapters on customizing leaders' growth paths and the important role of bosses as well as a chapter on how to manage a system like this in a large company. The book concludes with material on picking the next CEO and advice on adopting the apprenticeship model of leadership development. An appendix on "Building Blocks of the Apprenticeship Model" gives advice for both individuals and companies.

As usual, Ram Charan has written a book for the senior executives of large companies and those who aspire to those positions. As usual, there's lots of value for you in this book, whether you are one of those people or not. If you're concerned with leadership development for yourself, for a protégé or for your company, you should read this book.

Now more than ever before, organizations need leadership at all levels and within all areas of their enterprise. The "succession crisis" to which the subtitle of this book refers includes but is by no means limited to C-level executives. With all due respect to formal education and institutional training programs, on-the-job training is (by far) the best preparation for completing more demanding tasks, assuming increased responsibilities and duties, etc. Moreover, Ram Charan is absolutely correct when asserting that organizations "are short on the quantity and quality of leaders they need...[We must] abandon our traditional leadership development practices. They're not working. Tinkering and fine-tuning won't solve the fundamental program. It's time for a completely new approach to finding and developing the kinds of leaders businesses need... To fix the problem, you have to get to its root, which is the faulty conventional wisdom about what leadership is and how to improve it."

Charan offers what he characterizes as a "radically different approach," one "that is not for the fainthearted": the Apprenticeship Model. (What it involves and how to implement it are best revealed within Charan's narrative rather than discussed now, out of context.) Any model is based on certain assumptions and Charan's is no exception. By now, he has concluded that not everyone can become a leader, that leadership ability is developed through practice and self-correction, and that the CEO job requires "giant leaps in learning." The Apprenticeship Model is based on these assumptions. As in all of his previous books, Charan is again a pragmatist when presenting his insights and recommendations in this book and thus almost wholly preoccupied with explaining what works, what doesn't, and how to achieve the desired results. For example:

Chapter 1: How to measure the "leadership talent deficit" in an organization and then fund efforts to reduce (if not eliminate) it

Note: This has serious implications for both hiring and subsequent training.

Chapter 2: How apprenticeship develops effective leaders

Chapter 3: How to recognize leadership potential

Note: My personal opinion is that the material in Chapter 3 should precede the material in Chapter 2.

Chapter 4: How to customize each leader's growth path

Chapter 5: What the crucial role of "bosses" is

Note: Personally, I dislike the term "boss" but agree with Charan that one standard of measurement for a supervisor's performance evaluation should be the extent to which that supervisor developed skills in those for whom she or his is directly responsible.

Chapter 6: How to manage apprenticeship initiatives and relationships systematically

Chapter 7: How to select the CEO candidate who is most likely to provide the leadership and produce the results that are needed

Chapter 8: How to institutionalize the Apprenticeship Model

Once again, I am in total agreement with Charan's assertion that leadership must be development at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise. The Apprenticeship Model is uniquely, indeed ideally suited to help achieve that objective because it is based on a sometimes misunderstood or neglected business reality: those who function as mentors (i.e. "masters") to their direct reports learn much of value while doing so; moreover, their direct reports, in turn, can and should serve as mentors to those for whom they are responsible. This interactive process is precisely what Thomas Davenport, Carla O'Dell, Peter Senge, and others mean when advocating a "total learning organization."

In the Epilogue, Charan observes that individual leaders can and should embrace the Apprenticeship Model even if their companies don't and take ownership of their own development. Those who believe they have leadership potential that is undiscovered should take charge of their own learning and development. They should make their own luck." Quite right.

Two final points. First, the model that Ram Charan recommends does not replace an organization's formal training programs. On the contrary, both should be mutually supportive and carefully coordinated combinations of earning opportunities. Also, what Charan recommends can be implemented in any organization, whatever its size or nature may be.

Ram Charan's "Leaders At All Levels" takes on a major crisis that exists today in most large US corporations - the shortage of leadership talent. Companies while focused on the next quarters' earnings target have ignored the hard work of building future company leaders. In a recent poll of 1380 Human Resource (HR) directors of large US companies, sixty percent said their firms have no CEO succession plan in place.

The top jobs are harder now than in the past due to hyper-competition, changing technology, and a raft of emerging players from every corner of the globe pressuring companies to keep changing their game to survive and thrive. And the evidence shows that a lot of firms are not responding to it well. Why? Charan argues the state of leadership development is faulty and companies must abandon traditional leadership practices. The severe shortage of leaders is an unmistakable sign that the typical approaches to leadership are fundamentally flawed. We urgently need to get at the root causes, faulty conventional wisdom about what leadership is and how to develop it.

"Leaders At All Levels" lays out a radically new leadership-development model, "The Apprenticeship Model," which transforms leadership development from a discrete activity run by the human resources staff to an everyday process that is fully integrated into the fabric of the business and in which line leaders play a central role. The model centers on customizing and accelerating a potential leader's development and growth path.

"It is designed to give each promising leader the opportunities that are right for him/her at the fastest pace of growth he/she can handle, defining the learning in each new job and making sure the learning in fact took place before helping the leader take the next step or leap forward." It allows leaders to develop increasingly "sophisticated and nuanced versions of their core capabilities in an astonishing short time."

While Charan points out that the model is not for the faint-hearted, it does work. He validates this approach with real-world examples of its success at General Electric (GE), Colgate-Palmolive, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Textron, and WellPoint, Inc.

The book is organized into sections including: how to recognize leadership potential (including GE's leadership criteria); how to develop a leader; how "Apprenticeship" turns potential into leaders; leadership growth through concentric learning; freedom to fail; how to manage "Apprenticeship" systemically: and choosing the CEO. It also includes tools for: rating a company's ability to develop leaders at the highest level; spotting a leader; what makes a good boss-mentor: and what to coach on.

"Leaders At All Levels" is a must read for CEOs and Boards of Directors concerned with CEO succession and leadership development. The book will also appeal to anyone who aspires to a leadership role, particularly those who feel trapped in a faulty development process. For this last group, the last chapter, "What can a leader do?" will more than justify the cost of the book.

Mark LaFlamme really knows how to spin horror, and his Amazon Short "Legend" is a great offering in the genre.

Jim Dean is drinking tequila and mourning his wife Julie, on the night of her burial. The silence of the house is a torment to him: "Married couples make noise all their own and all their lives. They create their own cacophony together and it becomes a sort of domestic symphony you don't always notice. Remove one half of that couple and a strange, preternatural silence roars."

Then the walkie talkie crackles in the silence.

The walkie talkies were a joke gift turned serious. For a year they had been using the walkie talkies with their own code; a little bit of fun that had become important--so important that Julie was working on a more elaborate cipher. This legend for this new code was still a secret from him.

Now the voice of his wife is speaking to him on his walkie talkie. He needs to find the code and translate her message! LaFlamme's characterization of the grief-stricken husband is so full of emotion that you'll cry with him as he begins to believe that the bonds of death can be loosened.

Your heart will pound as Jim frantically searches for the legend to translate his wife's message, and the horrifying outcome is yours to discover. Can you really say you wouldn't feel the same? Act the same?

This is a wonderful, taut story from Mark LaFlamme that focuses on some of the themes from his novel "The Pink Room." You WILL be impressed!

Linda Bulger, 2008

After reading Mark LaFlamme's debut novel, THE PINK ROOM, and determining that he's in a league with the horror greats: Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and John Saul, I could not wait to see if he could inspire the same level of "fear" in the shorter form of horror fiction.

Yep ... he did!

LaFlamme is a master of the horror genre; his description of a man mourning the loss of his wife is flawless. This author truly understands human emotions and has a way of describing them, and background settings, that will make you gasp. The grieving widower's reactions and feelings at the funeral and afterwards were so real-to-life, it was downright "spooky." I wept for the poor, lonely soul and sobbed out loud at what happened to him in the surprise ending.

This short story will definitely whet your appetite for more of this author's works. I suggest that when you read his frightening novel, THE PINK ROOM, you leave all the lights on. Otherwise, your hair might turn white before the dawn arrives. Or you could end up like the guy in this short story, LEGEND.

This story is so descriptive you actually feel like you are there watching and listening to this man mourn his wife...grabs you and doesn't let go until the very end...then you feel cheated that the story ended so soon. This story is a classic and one worth reading and re-reading. Just wished there had been more of it to read.

Legend is an exceptionally well written short story that grips your attention the first moment you start to read it. Mark LaFlamme writes very well and he is able to lead his reader on using creativity and excellent descriptions of just about anything.

In Legend, the action starts after the funeral for Julie Dean. Her newly widowed husband, Jim Dean, is grieving uncontrollably and Jim is not looking forward to life without Julie. Jim remembers life with Julie and how much pleasure he and Julie took in using their walkie-talkies and a made-up language that only they understood. As Jim mourns his wife's passing, something happens that is completely unexpected. Jim has quite a reaction. The result is that this intriguing story becomes even more captivating, picking up speed and building suspense to the very last word.

The ending is quite surprising; and it packs a good sized shock effect. I remain very impressed.

I recommend Legend as an excellent horror story with an ending that you just won't see coming at you. If you like this short story I strongly encourage you to read other works by Mark LaFlamme.

This very funny short by Jarod Kintz is definitely a celebration of surrealism. Each poem and random thought is a delight to the subconscious mind, but I think it would be even more effective if you read this while fasting. Just kick up your feet and let your mind go and enjoy!

I like my fiction straight-up like Hemingway whiskey and I like my poetry the same way, like raw vegetables straight from the dirt, the kind Bukowski used to cook. And that's why I liked Jarod Kintz's latest publication, "A Letter from Andre Breton, Originally Composed on a Leaf of Lettuce With an Ink-dipped Carrot". If cucumbers were similes and onions were metaphors then this Short Salad would fill a family of hungry muses. When Kintz turns a phrase, he really turns a phrase- loose. His figures of speech get legs and they run. Sometimes they run into offbeat places like The Fountain of Youth and sometimes they just sit and chuckle with the Mythical Mr. Boo.

I liked the way Mr. Kintz laced his poetic narratives with flavorful commentary spiced with humorous digs. This Short is a good meal for the mind-- funny, original and fresh. Rave on Jarod Kintz.

This short absolutely blew me away. It is the funniest thing I have read in a long time, the sort of thing you can't put down once you start reading. Very nice.

Growing up Lutheran, I've experienced my share of potlucks. It always amazed me how diversified the dishes were - rarely were two alike and there always seemed to be a healthy balance of the important food groups (with the exception of an overabundance of Jello).

As I read Mr. Kintz's latest short, it immediately brought back memories of those potlucks from my childhood. After my initial salivations, I marvelled at how varied and unique each of his thoughts were, yet together they created a most satisfying literal feast.

Okay, so there were some thoughts in "A Letter to Andre Breton" that were totally "off-the-wall"....much like my Aunt Mildred's infamous Dishwasher Fish (yes, she really cooked it in her dishwasher!) But all in all, Mr. Kintz's short is a fabulous smorgasbord, without all the indigestion afterwards.

As an editor of a writing ezine, I tend to surf the net checking out other writing ezines out of curiosity, more than anything else. I am in awe of all the writing ezines out there in cyberland, but one particular website, Word Thunder, impressed me over the other the others. I had come to know the editor, Sarah Mankowski, through an online writing group and had emailed her a few times asking her questions and generally admiring what she has done for writers. It wasn't until I read her book, LIBERATION, when I found out this woman who had managed to run one of the best writing ezines around, plus find time to answer the questions from this particular writing group and helping so many people, is legally blind.

LIBERATIONS, her latest book, is one of Sarah's finest achievements. Baring her heart and soul of what it was like in the early years of the internet, she lets us travel back to the time when she was a struggling writer and all the obstacles which could have been in her way if not for the internet.

She explores her life as a writer, the ups and downs, with such candidness, not only can you relate as a writer but as someone who has overcome the odds and become "liberated" through the wonderful access of computers.

A truly entertaining read and one in which will stay with me. I fully recommend this book!

Sarah writes a candid biography which describes her life and obsticles she overcomes despite being legally blind. She uses computer and internet technology to expand her writing career. While this book focuses on writing it is an inspiration for anyone dealing with disability whether personally or in one's profession.

Sarah was born legally blind. She was packed off to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind at age six. Alone and lonely she retreated into a world of imagination. A writer was born.

The "Liberation" in Liberation One Writer's Adventures and Misadventures on the Digital Playground refers to the freedom that Sarah has found through computers and the Internet. Sarah has never been timid about trying new technologies and after being introduced to the Internet she dove in with gusto, learning all she could about web design and digital publishing. The book can be summed up in the following passage.

"And so, I began to understand the true greatness of the Internet. Sure, this amazing network has allowed men and women to make millions. Perhaps, even more importantly, it has allowed obscure, creative minds to speak to the world. "

Liberation will be a "must read" for all writers that use the Internet. But everybody who would like a new perspective on computer technologists and networking should read this book.

As Sarah states in her introduction, this book is not a how-to book. This book is not a lot of
things. One thing that it is. It is a life. Sarah also says it's not an autobiography. And it's not. It's
a story. It's a story of a life. Sarah Mankowski's life and how she has developed various aspects
of her life to have what she now has.

What does she now have? A marriage, a son, a writing livelihood and a genuine interest and
commentary on things she observes as she lives her life. And something that they all have in
common, is that she loves them all. She loves it all.

This is a story about a woman who beat the odds. So what? There are many stories about people
who beat the odds. This is more than an inspirational story. It contains depth and conviction of
one person who is making a difference in many lives. But she chose to make a difference in her
own life first.

Sarah's writing style in this particular book is conversational, at least that's how I felt as I was

reading it. I felt like we were having a conversation, and she was answering questions before I
could ask them. In other words, she did very well at leading me down the garden path of her
story. I wanted to read more each day just to find out what Sarah was up to and how she did what
she did. And then what would I do? I'd tell others about Sarah and her life, and what she had
done and continues to do.

I will miss reading about Sarah each day. I felt like she was here with me for awhile, but now
she's gone. I'll miss her.

If I were to be asked would I recommend this book, the answer is most certainly yes, and I
already have, even before I finished it. It will help anyone along their way who may be at a
crossroads. It will help those who have made it past the crossroads, and want to join Sarah and
feel like you have a comrade in life who understands. You know the ones, the ones you don't
have to explain anything to, because you know, that they know. Sarah knows.

She is walking in your shoes as you read this story of her life. That's how good she is at this that
she has done.

Thank You, Sarah Mankowski!

Susan James

I think this is a must-read book. Douglass is a wonderful example of a man who "made lemonade out of lemons." Really, he is a terrific role model...a man of integrity, incredible intelligence, and an overflowing heart.

FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH

At the start of the 21st century the international labor movement faces, as it has for a long time, a crisis of revolutionary leadership. That leadership is necessary to resolve the contradiction between the outmoded profit-driven international capitalist productive system and a future production system based on social solidarity, cooperation and production for social use. In America, at least, there is also a crisis of leadership of the black liberation struggle, which is tied into the labor question as well through the key role of blacks in the labor force. More happily in the 19th century in the struggle against slavery by the slaves and former slaves for black liberation there was such a leadership and none more important than the subject of this autobiography, Frederick Douglass. Even a cursory look at his life puts today `clean' black leadership in the shades.

That Frederick Douglass was exceptional as a fighter for black freedom, women's rights and as a man there is no question. His early life story of struggle for individual escape from slavery, attempts to educate himself and take an active political role on the slavery question rightly thrilled audiences here and in Europe. I, however, believe that he definitely came into his own as a revolutionary politician when he broke from Garrisonian non-resistant abolitionism and linked up with more radical elements like John Brown and the Boston `high' abolitionists like Wendell Phillips and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. This abolitionist element pointed the way to the necessary fight to the finish strategy, arms in hand, to end slavery that eventually came to fruition in the Civil War.

At one time I personally believed that Douglass should have gone with John Brown to Harpers Ferry. He would have provided a better grasp of the political and military situation there than Brown had and would have been forceful in calling out the slaves and others in the area to aid the uprising. In no way was my position on his refusal based on his personal courage of which there was no question. I now believe that Douglass more than made up for any help he would have given Brown by his work for an emancipation proclamation and for his calls for arming blacks in the Civil War to take part in their own emancipation. As such, it is well known that Douglass was instrumental in calling for the creation of the famous Massachusetts 54th Regiment, including the recruitment of two of his sons. Yes, 200,000 black soldiers and sailors under arms fighting to the death, and under penalty of death by the rebels, for their freedom is a fitting monument to the man.


Douglass, as well as every other militant abolitionist worth his or her salt, lined up politically with the new Republican Party headed by Lincoln and Seward before, during and shortly after the Civil War. However, the Republican Party ran out of steam as a progressive force fairly shortly after the war, culminating in the sell-out Compromise of 1877 which abandoned blacks to their fate in the South. Douglass, committed to emancipation, education and `forty acres and a mule' for his fellows stayed with that party far too long. When key elements of that party lost heart in the fight for black emancipation due to their racism and other factors, moved on to other more financially rewarding interests, or accepted the traditional white leadership of the South he also should have moved on to another progressive formation. Embryonic workers parties and other such progressive formations were raising their heads in the 1870's. I do not believe that office in the Consular Service in Haiti was worth continuing to support a party going in the wrong direction. Notwithstanding that point, if you want to read about the exploits of a `big man' in the history of the struggles of the oppressed, our history, when it counted this is your stop. Honor the memory of Frederick Douglass.

- As an author myself, I recommend that you purchase this book for personal study. "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" is a fascinating book and video that helped me understand one of my relatives.
Author. "Knowledge For Tomorrow" Quinton Douglass Crawford

This book, written in Douglass' later years, not only lifted my spirits but did a great deal to reestablish my faith in humanity. This was a man who had every opportunity, and reason, to be bitter and/or vengeful. He, instead, chose to fight, with his intellect and his golden tongue, for what he, and others chained in slavery and social subservience, rightfully disserved as a member of our human race. He was a man of conviction and inner strength who taught himself to write with an elegance that I have never seen equaled. I strongly recommend this book.