L Books


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L Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

L
Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth
Published in Paperback by White Heart Publishing (2004-10)
Author: Sheri L. Menelli
List price: $17.95
New price: $10.88
Used price: $9.99
Collectible price: $20.75

Average review score:

Awesome Natural Birth Book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-10
I loved this book. I sent copies to both my sisters, one of whom was pregnant at the time. During my first pregnancy, I read all the how-to and technical birth books. During my second, I read these stories, and they gave me just what I needed. I hadn't known anyone who birthed naturally, and these stories filled that place for me.

Required reading for childbirth
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-04-13
My absolute favorite book. A must read for all women.
I'll give this book at every baby shower!

excellent book!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2006-02-24
This book's stories are inspiring and very educational - if you are thinking about why you should try for a natural birth, these stories will help inspire you! Very easy read - stories are from real Moms and usually no more than a few pages at a time.

Excellent Read
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2005-08-27
Sheri Menelli has compiled a wonderful collection of natural birth stories in her book Journey Into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth. Each story is written by a mother in her own voice and concludes with A Mother's Guidance and Additional Thoughts sections giving additional tips and advice to help you arm yourself with the support and guidance you need to have a natural birth.

Many stories are so touching they made me cry, but the practical tips and experiences of those that have gone before are priceless. Having a natural birth is not for everyone, but the fact that we hardly ever hear an inspiring natural birth story fills the whole process with fear for many first time mothers. If we can just trade that fear for education and preparedness I believe many more women would opt for a more natural birth experience. Menelli has provided women with a book that is both educational and inspirational. By reading these stories while preparing for birth, mothers can feel empowered by their decisions and know that others have gone before them and had a beautiful, natural birth.

C.J. Wong, M.S.(Biology), M.S. (Lib. Info. Sci.)
Editor, Organic Family Magazine


It wasn't what I was looking for
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2006-12-21
This book, about natural childbirth doesn't portray 100% positive experiences. The women's accounts are still filled with testimony of their doubts, fear, stress, pain, and often complications during childbirth. I bought this book hoping to prepare my own mental attitude for a more calm and comfortable 3rd natural childbirth. My first two births were already more calm and comfortable than most of the testimonies in this book so I found the stories frightful and reminding of the painful memories.

L
The Man Who Laughs
Published in Hardcover by Aegypan (2007-04-01)
Author: Victor Hugo
List price: $34.95
New price: $33.40
Used price: $33.40

Average review score:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-15
I come to the conclussion that The Man Who Laughs is the most descriptive, saddest, romantic and most beautifully written book that Victor Hugo has written. It is unfortunate that this book doesn't have the standing that Les Miserables or Our Lady of Notre Dame occupies. Also, it is a very hard to find book, specially in Spanish, which is my first language. The traduction is done extremely well (I have verified it with a Russian version I have). It is highly recommended.

For those who want more from a novel
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-01
This is a difficult and demanding read, but entirely worth it for those who want more from a novel. The story is of a confrontation of moral opposites set in England in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as a deliberately disfigured outcast named Gwynplaine faces a powerful conflict between the simple life of a mountebank, with the love of a pure-hearted blind girl, and the power, glamor, and corruption of nobility, with the love of a depraved, self-loathing noblewoman. Gwynplaine's disfigurement hides his true identity from all, including himself; and out of the eventual revelation of this truth, Hugo constructs a magnificent and heart-wrenching symbolic drama that is as filled with meaning as anything you'll find in literature. Again, this is not light reading, and it is not made for those who prefer to breeze through an action thriller in an afternoon.

Hugo has much to say about the destructive nature of political power, as well as the envy and injustice that conspire to keep the high and low in their respective places. The Mohawk Club of the nobility exemplifies these themes through their vicious and destructive pranks, victimizing the helpless in the name of "fun."

Hugo's contempt for the period's institutions of power is evident throughout the novel; on the wicked Barkilphedro's rise to prominence, he writes: "He had crawled where he wanted. Flat beasts can get in everywhere. Louis XIV had bugs in his bed and Jesuits in his policy. The incompatibility is nil." Clearly this is a novel of ideas, written by one who had a great deal to say and knew how to express it. Even so, I must acknowledge that Hugo's expository passages, although witty, impassioned, and eloquent, occasionally become a distraction from the story.

Hugo's style is astonishingly lofty, in a way that just doesn't happen in the present day. It is an ambitious and demanding discipline, now so far gone that we scarcely even know to miss it. As such, it may strike today's readers as unnatural and overdone; or so it did to me, at first. But by the finish, I was fully seduced into Hugo's stylistic world, and left unable to choose what to read next -- for what is there today that is even conscious of this standard of craftsmanship? I can only imagine how much of the effect of this high language is lost in translation from the original French.

If you are interested in this book, I strongly recommend the Paper Tiger edition, with its afterword by Shoshana Milgram. This afterword was of great use in understanding the book's ending, which to me was difficult; it clarified how the ending was necessitated by the novel's overall theme -- and it made the extent of Hugo's achievement that much more evident.

Quality Literature
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-30
This is extremely well written and the story is easy to follow. The story had me smile and cry. The method that Victor Hugo collected the sections of this book is similiar to the style Ayn Rand used in writing Atlas Shrugged-my favorite book. The Man Who Laughs is one I think every Victor Hugo fan would want to read and read again--I loved it!

Timeless classic...
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-21
I read this book as a teenager, along with "Toilers of the Sea," Ninety Three" and "Hunchback of Notre Dame."
I have re-read only "Toilers of the Sea" and found it as riveting now as were all of Hugo's book then. I can't imagine a library system not containing these timeless classics or their being out of print.

Everybody Hates Hugo
Helpful Votes: 10 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2006-09-29
I have now read four books by Victor Hugo. The Last Day Of A Condemned Man, Les Miserables, Hunchback of Notre Dame, and recently I finished The Man Who Laughs.
I will spare the usual props I throw Hugo's way about him being the greatest author and yada yada yada. Although, as far as classics are concerned, I was dissappointed to go to my local library and in the Hugo novel section there were only two books (and a small gap where Hunchback was). Walking over to the D's for Dickens. There were at least 50 books, multiple copies.
I love Dickens and Hugo, but I don't think Hugo gets near enough attention for the quality he puts out. Dickens can fill just as many pages as the French master, but it seems that the substance is lacking in comparison. What a shame. Does America hate the French that much?
The Man Who Laughs or By Order Of The King was a very fast read. Considering she was 550 pages, I made it through in a couple of weeks, which says a lot for me, I am extremely slow at reading. An excellent plot and a strong mystery involving many characters keeps you interested. If he were alive today, Hugo would no doubt be a writer on Lost. Although, as one reviewer noted with a bright red mark, that you don't find out the lead characters name till almost 200 pages into the book, I found the back story behind the character one of the most fascinating aspects of the book. Homo and Ursus, a mountebank and his aide/wolf introduce the book, and shortly you are introduced to a group of strangers who abandon a boy on a shore. First it follows the boat and its destination then it retraces its steps and tells the story of this boy.
Many lengthy passages are devoted to writing about nobility and lands, and law officers of the day, and there's enough death and deceit and debauchery to keep you entertained (the seduction scene with Gwynplaine and the lady he is to be betrothed to is intense and hilarious). Hugo is still Hugo, and apparently this books was written while he was in exile. So there aren't the usual 30 page essays in the midst of his tales, but it's just a wonderful story.
The ending of Hugo's books are something wonderful, and you can guess and you can guess, but you never can tell. I thought I had the ending figured out, but alas, I was wrong and it took me a good half an hour while the ending sank in.
I think my favorite book of Hugo's so far has been Hunchback, but this story does not dissappoint, and I recommend it over any Dickens or Hardy any day. It's twenty bucks for the paperback, forty for the hardback, but I'd say for anyone who likes a classic, it's worth the price.

L
Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods
Published in Paperback by Posterity Press (2004-11-05)
Author: H. John Poole
List price: $14.95
New price: $9.24
Used price: $9.24
Collectible price: $25.00

Average review score:

Very informative
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-20
This work is a very extensive examination of the tactics used by Arab small units. It goes into vivid detail about their ambush techniques as well as other aspects of how they fight. The only serious issue I have with it is it is difficult to read at times. Mr. Poole uses many quotes especially block quotes which are very useful and come from legitimate sources. However, these quotes hurt the flow of the book and make it very choppy to read. If you can work past this flaw though it is a great resource.

Tatics of the Cresent Moon
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-13
This book is excellent. It should be required reading for both military Officers and Non Commissioned Officers. This book gives an ever day insight into the tatics used by Mid-Eastern terrorist.

Understand what we're up against
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2007-02-27
If you want to truly understand how difficult it is to fight and win in the Middle East, then this book is required reading. Far too often we get watered-down information out of the press and on the Internet but the tactics of our Eastern adversaries go unmentioned. We know of suicide bombs, but where did this tactic originate? Which group in the Middle East is the most proficient at close-range combat? Where does Al Qaeda excel and what is the role of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard? Are Sunni and Shia groups always adversaries, or will they work together when faced with a common enemy?

This book gives countless examples of diffent tactics in different areas of the world from Afghanistan to Chechnya to the Levant. It illustrates the strengths of our adversaries and addresses our own weaknesses as a "Western" army. Finally, Poole makes recommendations on how we can win this fight through better light infantry tactics and restrained use of preparatory fire and air power.

It is in my opinion the best book yet on this "4th Generation" warfare. It is an outstanding read and will make you an expert amongst your friends when discussing the current state of military affairs in the Middle East.

After reading this book I sent it to my old ROTC school
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-27
I would highly encourage any person who is Battalion staff or lower to read this book. All Army and Marine personnel should read this book on the jet flying them to Iraq or Afghanistan. This book will give a typical soldier or marine a good snap shot of how the Eastern combat mind thinks. Also, unlike much propaganda to the contrary, the Islamic soldiers fight using Eastern techniques. There is more hand-to-hand fighting than in the past. American's just can't call in their massive fire support because the targets may not be easy to hit.

This book is great for privates, sergeants, lieutenants, and captains. I don't know if the advice will be taken if it's read at the level of battalion or above. That is where the "rubber no longer meets the road". The staff disconnect from the soldiers begins.

For all war fighters this book is a must read. All ROTC departments, Marine, and Army infantry should have this book as required reading.

A must read for those who leave the wire
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2006-11-21
During seven months in Falluja in 2005 I spent approximately 150 days in the city. The history alone in this book showed us just how much we may have been underestimating our enemies, and that if they followed their classical influences they could have done much more damage.

The history is priceless dating back to influences of the Samarai and how it came to bring the original Middle Eastern assassins, and how today's suicide bombers are like those in the past, only they have explosives instead of knives, and do not need as much skill.

John Poole had spent close to 30 years in the Marine Corps leading men as both a gunnery sergeant (when enlisted) and a Lt Colonel (when commissioned). He saw Vietnam first hand, and left feeling that he could have done more for the men he'd led. Although the officers that are in charge of teaching battle field skills are not fast to accept his methods the men on the ground who deal with the enemies in the streets of Iraqi cities know he is right.

L
Collard Greens & Caviar
Published in Paperback by Disk & That Communications ()
Author: L. Breezee Harris
List price: $9.99
Used price: $5.98

Average review score:

Go Auntie!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-18
Man, my aunt knocked me out with her first book. I truly enjoyed it. It touched on a very big part of African American life/issues - the color complex. I recommend this book to everyone!

A real life look at "light skinned dark skinned issues"
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1999-08-13
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. After reading the first few pages, I felt I couldn't put it down. It examined so many crucial issues in the African American community that needed bringing to light. The author really brought the charaters to life so much so that certain sections of the book brought me to tears. I hope maybe movie producers of HBO, BET, etc. will read this novel and consider making a movie based on it.

An interesting story
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-07
I purchased this book locally. It really is good. An interesting story that is sometimes painful, sometimes funny, but all the times, interesting. Congrats to this new author.

An exciting page-turner!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1999-02-18
I've read and reread this book. It is very creative, and written beautifully. If you haven't read this book you're missing out. The characters are so real you feel like you know them. To the author: Great Job!!! Can we expect another great book after this?

A real life look at "light skinned dark skinned issues"
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1999-08-13
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. After reading the first few pages, I felt I couldn't put it down. It examined so many crucial issues in the African American community that needed bringing to light. The author really brought the charaters to life so much so that certain sections of the book brought me to tears. I hope maybe movie producers of HBO, BET, etc. will read this novel and consider making a movie based on it.

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Constance. Journal d'une jeune fille aux premiers temps de la Nouvelle-Angleterre
Published in Mass Market Paperback by L'Ecole des loisirs (1988-01-01)
Author: Patricia Clapp
List price:
New price: $26.60
Used price: $22.39

Average review score:

A Classic Read
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-23
This book was given to me when I was nine, and is a long-standing favorite. I'm now in my late teens, but every November I read it again for old time's sake around Thanksgiving, and every year I love it. It speaks many truths about life in general, and Constance is an engaging and highly relatable character. I looked online out of interest to see if it was as widely read as I thought it should be, and thankfully it appears to be. This book would make an excellent gift for a young girl; it is gaurenteed to be a book she will read over and over again and always hold a special place in her heart.

Wonderful and historically accurate
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-11
I picked up "Constance" somewhere - I have no idea where, but my copy is old and yellowed and falling apart. I read it and fell in love with it. I must say - my old copy has a fantastic cover and I much prefer it to the one depicted here. But that's by the by... =)

I'm teaching my (7th grade) son the 1600-1850 time period this year and was able to pull "Constance" off the shelf and introduce him to its delights. It has been the ONLY book he has begged me to continue to read to him outside of planned school reading times. WOO HOO! It warms the cockles of this mother's heart. We've laughed at the funny bits, sobbed our hearts out at the sad bits, and marveled how these people, with their numbers decimated that very first spring, worked together to make a successful community.

We'll be finishing the book tomorrow. I drove him bananas by reading the first sentence of tomorrow's reading, telling him WHO proposed but NOT what the answer or consequence was. He says I'm an evil mother. =D I laughed with joy at his enthusiasm for the book.

A Perennial Favorite
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-06-24
This is one of the books that stays in your heart. I first read this some 30 years ago, loved it, re-read it several times, lost track of it, found it again a couple of years ago, and -- surprisingly enough, since I certainly can't say this about all the books I loved when I was in my early teens -- I still loved it. Constance, as she is written in this story, is a very real person to me. I don't know if the real Constance Hopkins was anything like the one in this book, and I don't really care, but Patricia Clapp has done an excellent job here of making two-dimensional history come to life.

My Favorite Book
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-11-29
I got this book on a trip to the East Coast when I was ten years old and fell in love. It was my favorite book during all of my early teen years; and though I haven't read it in years, I think it will always hold the place in my heart as my favorite book.

A great book anyway . . .
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2005-06-24
I read this long before I knew a key fact about Constance Hopkins, and I thought it was terrific. Of course, I still do. The tone of high spirits forced into apparent submission is perfect. I do think the cover illustration on the Beech Tree edition is awful; the cover on the Dell edition is far better.

Key fact: she is my nine-times-great-grandmother. (Patricia Clapp, the author, is also descended from Constance.) I have dug around in other books and on-line sources about Plimouth Plantation, and the historical facts are dead-on. I don't at the moment remember whether "Constance" mentions that her father was not a Puritan, Dissenter, Separatist; he came not for religious reasons but because he wanted his own farm. Constance, her husband Nicholas, and her brother Giles left Plymouth for the same reason in 1644 -- and also because they were fed up with the Puritan oligarchy in Plymouth.

So her family represents, in many ways, the American quest for independence and farmland -- the Jeffersonian ideal of the free citizen. (Constance's descendants were still farming as late as 1940, though my father left the farm in 1921, finding farming a new form of tyranny.)

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Dead Lifeguard
Published in Paperback by Pocket Childrens Books ()
Author: R L Stine
List price:

Average review score:

The Dead Lifeguard
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-12-17
Lifeguards in this book are never safe. This book is about a lifeguard club with teenagers who come every summer to the club house.One by one teenagers start to die.This one teenager,who thinks she's Lindsay,keeps finding her friends dead in parts of the club house.
I recommend this book to people of all ages who like stories.I think this book is to pruve to people that being a lifeguard is very hard.This book will wrap you in and never let you go.R.L. Stine has very good ideas for scary stories.His books are all different and interesting.

Super Great Super chiller!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2003-04-24
This Is one of my favorites i have a lot of favorites right now i am reading lights out and so far so good.

This Book is about lindsay who was a past life guard that shows up with a 2 year old i.d. card for lifguarding and cant remember why she has it instead of her new one, then mysteryious murders start to accurr and to life guards die. Some of the other charecters are danny cassie arnie may-ann spencer and another person whos name i cant remember. It is suspenceful and a very good fear street book!

lifegaurds
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-16
this is one of the most suspenceful books I have ever read. I read the book all at once! this book is about lifegaurds who do work at a so called "haunted resort". one by one the lifgaurds start to die horrible deaths. one of the lifgaurs wants revenge on all the rest.the main character in this book is probably lindsay everthimg happens to her. there is also mouse he is the killer. mouse is the nickname of the killer lifgaurd.

good book.
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-10
The dead lifeguard is about a group of teens that sign up to be lifeguards for the summer. Everything is going fine at first until lifeguards start being killed.......


I read this book so many times because I liked it so much I bet you or your kid will to if you are into horror/spense books. R.L Stine did a great job.

dont forget how to swim, never know whats lurking behind you
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-02-14
I enjoyed reading the dead lifeguard. This is a very captivating book. It's alot like the normal horrors that you would see on television but it has a twist to it. I would recommed this book to people who like a good story of suspense and horror.
The Dead Lifeguard is about a group of strangers who spend the summer together lifeguarding at shady acres country club. One by one lifeguards disappear and no one can explain what's going on; but someone who knows is out to get revenge on the lifeguards... read the the book and find out what happens.

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How to Become an Employer of Choice
Published in Hardcover by Oak Hill Publishing Company (2000-04)
Authors: Roger E. Herman and Joyce L. Gioia
List price: $30.00
New price: $10.20
Used price: $4.59
Collectible price: $30.00

Average review score:

Complete and Practical
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-09-28
Herman and Gioia have done an excellent job of outlining successful strategies based on their own experience as well as the experience of successful organizations. Their simple, but complete, list of critical components for becoming (or remaining) an employer of choice provide a valuable guide. I particularly like the inclusion of examples and quotes from organizations that use these approaches and techniques. This is a complete "how to" guide. A must read...and, a must use book.

El-Speedo Trip to Employee Attraction & Retention
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-06-24
Herman & Gioia's EOC is a virtual quick-trip to understanding how the EOCs have achieved their elite status. Easy reading, practical advice supported by diverse cases from leading companies. The summaries of best practices alone are worth reading. Readers wanting more detail can refer to the chapter notes citing specific bibliographic sources.

The chapters on Culture and Enlightened Leadership contain insights into what leaders personally and specifically can do to create the kind of organizational environment that is attractive to employees. Those chapters would be useful to those leaders who sincerely want to "walk the talk." The chapters on Growth and Opportunity and Compensation & Benefits provide poignant "how-to" tips for addressing some of the key advancement, development and pay-related reasons that younger employees are defecting to other competitors. The chapters on Care of People and Meaningful Work would be useful to HR officers wanting to improve employee relations and job design to help reduce the skyrocketing cost of undesirable turnover.

In sum, Herman & Gioia's book is a cornucopia of pithy, actionable suggestions based on relevant EOC case examples. Any leader "worth his/her salt" should reap a significant ROI by effectively implementing even a few of those ideas to help attract and retain talented people.

Useful whether times are tough or not!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-23
How to Become an Employer of Choice was published in a year when the biggest problem most companies had was hiring and retaining talented people. Reading the book today it strikes me as a shame that companies are not as eager to pursue the excellent advice given in this book on building strong devotion to your company in the workforce. The problem may seem very far from your mind right now, but being an employer of choice has a tremendous value even when the labor market is easy.

The book starts with a good explanation of why you would want your company to be an employer of choice. One of the nice things in this book is that each chapter is peppered with sidebar anecdotes about real world examples of the concepts being discussed. Most of these anecdotes come from Herman and Gioia's personal research and consulting work, and they are quite helpful.

In the next chapter, there is a survey of the attributes of a company that is an employer of choice. This is probably the least prescriptive of the chapters, but it does offer useful ideas. The succeeding three chapters, on culture, enlightened leadership and care of people give very specific advice about things you can do to work on your company from the inside. There is a wealth of practical material here, and I find much of it as useful for smaller companies as for large ones.

The chapter on growth and opportunity gives excellent advice on nurturing your best people through education. I like the fact that the chapter gives an appropriate balance of suggestions about using both internal and outside educational resources.

The chapter on meaningful work emphasizes the usefulness of measurement and the use of culture to help employees get a sense of satisfaction from their jobs - no matter how small.

In the chapter "Compensation and Benefits" Herman and Gioia offer a wealth of ideas that go beyond the obvious "pay for performance". In particular, the ideas about making the benefits package fit well into your employees' lives are well founded. The whole chapter is a really good survey of ideas for rounding out your benefits package that I have found useful both for my own company and for my strategy clients.

The chapter on "Making a Difference" focuses on community involvement. This creates a strong sense of pride in the companies that do it, and the chapter has a number of excellent ideas for companies of any size or budget.

The last chapter, "Getting Started", unfortunately offers the least practical advice. This is a shame because I think for most of us, the challenge of applying the great ideas in this book will be daunting. Fortunately, there is a great appendix with some techniques for measuring your performance as an employer of choice, so we are left with what I would consider the most important tool for getting started.

Overall, this is a super book with good concepts, supporting anecdotes, and a treasure trove of useable, practical advice on becoming an employer of choice. Even if you are having an easy time with hiring right now, you will be much better off for applying the great stuff in this book!

(Robert Bradford is CEO of the Center for Simplified Strategic Planning and co-author of Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast)

A Must-Have
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-14
Despite the "employers' market" created after thousands of layoffs since the tragedy of September 11, companies must work harder than ever to become an "employer of choice." Herman and Gioia have developed what is sure to become a standard for how to get and keep your most valuable employees.

With case studies from a variety of organizations that include actual accounts of what works--and what doesn't, Herman and Gioia have managed to walk the fine line between research and reality. In simple, everyday language, this practical, hands-on how-to guide explains the process of developing an "employee-centered culture" that allows employees and their businesses to thrive.

"How To Become an Employer of Choice" is a must-have for any business seeking an edge in today's ever-competitive marketplace.

Dianna Booher
Author of communicate with Confidence, E-Writing, and Get a Life

Solid, timely, easy to follow suggestions for success
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-07-07
How to become an employer of choice is a well organized compendium of timely suggestions for things organizations can do to attract, retain and motivate high quality employees in this volatile labor market. The authors use clear, straightforward langage to identify the business rationale for creating and maintaining a work environment that invites and rewards the best and the brightest, and encourages them to stay, even in the face of other offers. The suggestions the authors make don't require a major overhaul or reorganization of your company. Instead they present common sense alternatives to the traditional business model that are relatively easy to implement. Good ideas here for all kinds of companies and other organizations.

L
How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now
Published in MP3 CD by Brilliance Audio (2008-10)
Author: James L. Kugel
List price: $44.25
New price: $44.25

Average review score:

"How to Read the Bible"
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-30
Well researched and written book. Understandable by layman as well as biblical scholar. Most enlightening and informative.

ralfbythesea
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-29
Thank you James L. Kugel. I have longed for guidance in understanding the complexities of the Old Testament. Very informative and readable.
Highly recommended.

How to Read the Bible
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-13
This is an especially good resource book for those who are not really familiar with the Bible. I particularly liked the set-up, with the major characters' stories so easy to find and understand. Knowing the Bible is so important in understanding everything in our Western Culture, particularly in literature, that I can't imagine this won't become a critical part of many people's libraries. That is especially true at this time when so many young people are backing away from religion. Now all we need is similar works on the New Testament and Shakespeare's works!

A Brilliant Reading of the Bible and its Interpretations
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-28
This is the smartest, best-written, most even-handed book of Biblical Scholarship I have ever read. I don't blindly worship Harvard, but I can see why Kugel had the most popular course there for many years. It is not only brilliant about the bible and its interpretations, it is a model for how an educated person should approach any subject where the truth claims are competing. Kugel is an Orthodox Jewish believer. I am a Buddhist atheist. But his noble search for truth first and foremost is to be admired by all humans of whatever relation to God.

A Book for Protestants as Well as Jews
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2008-02-02
How to Read the Bible, by James L. Kugel, is an amazing book. It is eminently readable and tells the general reader as much as he or she would want to know about Biblical sources, alternative interpretations through history, and factual conclusions of Biblical scholars up to the present. Kugel is a Jewish scholar, Starr professor of Hebrew at Harvard from 1982 to 2003, now living in Jerusalem. He goes more or less book by book through the Hebrew Bible (essentially the Christian Old Testament) and tells us about what modern scholarship has determined as to the Bible's origins, its probably authors, its subsequent editors, and its interpreters. He follows the development of the Jewish conception of JHWH as originally one, rather fierce, god among many, locatable in a temple, to being the God of all, approachable everywhere.
The scholarly conclusion is that what we now have as Genesis, Exodus, etc. are composites of the writings and rewritings of authors and editors over time. Most of the stories in the Bible, including those concerning the patriarchs, were written long after the time described and cannot be considered to represent actual history.

Kugel's real interest is in this question: given all this, how can the Bible continue to be read as scripture? He emphasizes the importance of the Hebrew scholars who finally edited and put together what we now have as the Bible, in the last few hundred years BCE. They read and interpreted the Bible primarily as a means of determining how God wants us to serve Him. The Biblical stories were read by them primarily as moral lessons, rather than as history. Furthermore, the understanding of Rabbinic Judaism is that the literal words of the Bible are not sacrosanct. There is an "Oral Torah" (preserved as a great quantity of interpretive writings) that are as important to the believer as the Torah itself. This understanding enables believers to move beyond instructions of Torah that are no longer practically relevant (e.g. detailed instructions concerning temple sacrifice) and avoid making Biblical language an idol rather than seeking the message within.

What fascinates and energizes me, as a liberal Protestant Christian, is how the solution of Rabbinic Judaism in reading its Bible may provide helpful insights in dealing with the similar problems of modern Christians. For Jews the theological problem was that God did not intervene to free the Jews from the control of a succession of foreign empires, from the Assyrians to the Romans. For the first Christians the theological problem was, first, that Jesus did not turn out to be a new King David. Then, after He was crucified and raised, they were assured by Paul that He would return within then current lifetimes and set things right. That did not happen and has not happened. For the next fifteen hundred years, the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church might be analogized to the Oral Torah. But under Protestantism, Scripture became the only authority available. Martin Luther discovered Paul's principal of "justification by faith", leading to a renewed effort to define what is an acceptable faith in very precise terms. Religious wars and fractures within Protestantism followed. Kugel shows, at least with respect to the Old Testament, that fundamentalists do not read the Bible (at least the Old Testament) the way that the people who actually put it together as Scripture intended.

Now, we all live in a post-Holocaust world. God has shown no inclination to override the consequences of human foolishness. For me, the import of How to Read the Bible is that we had best concentrate, whether based on the Pentateuch, the prophets, or on the teachings of Jesus, on how God wants us to live.

L
I Can Do It (Louise L. Hay Subliminal Mastery)
Published in Hardcover by Hay House (2004-01-01)
Author: Louise Hay
List price: $17.95
New price: $8.90
Used price: $8.50

Average review score:

Wonderful
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-05
I love Louise L. Hay and this book and cd it just great. It would make a great gift for someone who is going through some tough times in their life and they need a little life. The positive messages on the CD are wonderful to fall asleep to.

Quintessential Louise Hay
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-05-01
Okay, I admit it. I wish my mother had Louise Hay's voice. I probably would have grown up to be a normal person. It's the CD that comes with this little book that gets my 5 star rating. Yes, the CD is essentially what's written in the book. But when you hear Louise read it, everything makes sense. And it does. If you put out positive, loving thoughts, you'll get positive, loving thoughts back. Simple, right? Except when I say it, you probably smirk, or roll your eyes. But listen to Louise just once, and you'll actaully entertain the idea that you can change your world just by changing your thoughts. I advocate buying this book so you can listen to the CD on your computer, in your car, at the office. Your cynicism will abate (or at least lessen) and you might just believe all things are possible. Really.

I can do it - Great CD
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-30
Great CD, Thank you for sending it so promptly.
Sincerely

Lynn

Once again, WONDERFUL!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-08
Louise is just amazing. Since traveling along her road since the start of the new year, it is amazing how much better I feel when I try what she suggests. Simple things but putting all the power in your hands. If you want to be happy, it is up to you. When you are miserable, you can only blame yourself. I can't tell you how many people I tell about louise hay.

This book is fantastic!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-06
This book is an instant Life Changer. The best part about this book is the CD that comes in the back of it. Louise Hay reads the book to you.
So after you read the book she hammers her ideas home to you again and again. Repetition is a must. If everyone on the planet incorporated these affirmations into their lives our world would be 300 years into the future. God Bless Louise Hay for evolving and giving of herself to the rest of us!!!

L
I love Lucy: The complete picture history of the most popular TV show ever
Published in Unknown Binding by Barnes & Noble (2001)
Author: Michael McClay
List price:
New price: $4.85
Used price: $1.16
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

A Great I Love Lucy Book!!!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-21
Through Michael McClay, we can have a wonder picture of one of the best shows on TV. Through MANY pictures (a lot in color) and words, we can learn how these four greatly made this show: I Love Lucy. The book takes you through all of their lives before, during and after the show. Three parts are in this facinating book; one is about the show. And the other two are thirty-five of the classic episodes (some of which were chosen by Lucille Ball herself!!); and the last section is ALL 179 episodes in order that they went on air.

The book is definitly five stars and you cannot read this book once. It is great to just look at and you can learn so much about Luciile Ball, Desi Arnaz and Vivian Vance and William Frawley. So get yourself this I Love Lucy treasure TODAY!!!!

Everybody Loves Lucy
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-09-15
Who doesn't LOVE Lucy? This book is THE definitive guide for all us die-hard, lifelong, Lucy fans. It is chock full of facts, anecdotes, black and white and colour photos, etc. By far, the most comprehensive book on the series I have ever read. Introduced by daughter, Lucie Arnaz, we are taken down memory lane and even allowed BACKSTAGE where we get glimpses of the REAL life Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Strictly for the fans, who will understand and appreciate the attention to detail here.

I Love Lucy -The Complete Picture History...
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-09-08
Very Good Book... Great Collectors Item.

Through McClay You Get the Complete Picture
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-14
AMAZING!! This is one of the best books written about "I Love Lucy." Michael McClay certainly knew what he was doing when he gave us this great book on the best show in picture history. Through many pictures (many in color) and words, McClay is able to tell you ALL about "I Love Lucy" and the great people that made it so great. He tells not only about the people at the time of the show, but gives, not much but accurate, information about the four wonderful people that made the show so successful before and after the shows were made. He gives you thirty-five classic episodes that are the hits in the "I Love Lucy" shows. And also a TV-ography of the 179 "I Love Lucy" shows in the order that they went on the air. And the "I Love Lucy" Theme Song music given at the beginning of the three parts that are in this book has been played many times on my piano.

This is truely the best book there is on the show "I Love Lucy" (but no "I Love Lucy" book can beat Lucille Ball's book "Love, Lucy;" it covers her whole life as well as the "I Love Lucy" shows.Get that one too because both are both greatly recommended). Some books don't give very much or very accurate information on this show. But this one gives you all of the information, accurately, about the show.

I greatly encoutrage you top get this book especially if you are a Lucy fan (and if you are not, reading this book will give you a great start). You will NOT be disappionted. You will have too much trouble putting it down that when you finish it, you will want to read it again--you will never get tired of it. Get yours TODAY and you WILL enjoy!

Great Gift For A Lucy Fan
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2002-08-12
This beautiful book introduced me to the world of "I Love Lucy" literature, and I must say I got off on the right foot! The photographs are beautiful, and the text is surprisingly thorough for a "picture history". This would make an enjoyable addition to anyone's Lucy collection (it's also a great place to start!).


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