M Books

I used to read all these strips when they were in paperback form. I remember being around 12 or 13 and pouring over them again and again, with the added luxury of checking out the action every day in the daily paper. It's very gratifying, now that my six-year old daughter is reading, to share these volumes with her and watch her lose herself among the pages, and then ask to be quizzed on the many special characteristics of the kids in Charlie Brown's neighborhood. The printing quality is extremely high, the panels are crystal clear and the detail is really sumptuous.

My favorite so far is the Sunday strip where Charlie Brown is attempting to fly a kite in heavy wind and his cap keeps getting blown off, which he doggedly replaces atop his head every time. In the end Linus posits this classic: "I have a suggestion. Why don't you wear the kite and fly your hat?" I long for the day when we will have the collected volumes, and the prices on Amazon reallyl cannot be beat. But I must say, I miss those cheap little paper back volumes from my early youth. Rats!

If you already bought the previous releases of this collection, you know exactly what you'll find inside: intelligence, emotion and depth of the human relations.

Here you will get some of the Peanuts smartest movements, just like when Snoopy is locked under an ice piece and starts a reflection of his own life or when Linus sees himself without the safety of his blanket.

Even if you prefer the "modern version" of the strips (with Spike, Woodstock, the Red Baron, school scenes and stuff which would appear later, more precisely in the 70's), in this issue, you may find some of the roots and the reasons for the diamond that Charles M. Schulz carved on his life.

Thank you Charles, you really changed my life with these "guys" and "The Complete Peanuts 1961-1962" is another jewel from the master.

I bought all the items in the series and found them simply irresistible.
The strips are the integral version by the great master himself, Charles M. Schulz, and the edition is very, very good, with a robust hardcover and classy paper.

A special note for Italian speaking people: these are the "integral" strips, not the censored ones published for many years in Italy, where the religious quotations and remarks were systematically erased.

I gave this book to my dad who really enjoyed going through all of the comics. This is a very nice hard cover edition and is a good value.

This volume of The Complete Peanuts cover the years 1961 and 1962 in their entireties. The most noteworthy event of this book is the introduction of Frieda, the girl with the "naturally curly hair". Soon after her debut, the running gag where Frieda tries to get Snoopy to chase rabbits is used for the first time. Also introduced at this time was Frieda's cat Faron, who only made a few appearances before disappearing. Many of the jokes from this volume were later used in Peanuts television specials, most notably the Christmas and Halloween specials. Peanuts was one of the greatest comic strips of all time, and 1961 and 1962 are certainly among it's best years. Highly recommended.

I am so excited that The Complete Peanuts is being made available. I started with the first volume and have gotten each new volume. Charles Schulz was a master of understatement and pathos. HIs view of the world through the characters--Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus, Snoopy and the rest--is honest and real: skeptical, funny, pitiful and hopeful and very humanistic.

How can you review Charles Schulz? You're kidding right? He's an icon! As far as the collection, it's a must have if you're a Peanuts fan. My husband and I have all the collection books up to this point and they are wonderful. There are drawings from the minute you open the cover and that's even before you get to the comics. For a long time fan like me (Ok my first stuffed animal was a Snoopy) to see the development of the characters from their creation to when Mr. Schulz finished is delightful. As for the book, the quality of the paper is superb and the comics-priceless.

All the Fantagraphics Peanuts volumes are top notch, but this is my fave so far because it is at the beginning of my favorite Peanuts era. I love Peanuts, but the 60's strips will always be the ones I love the most.
The great thing about this series is that it reprints everything in chronological order. Previous Peanuts collections have either omitted strips or printed them out of order. The reproduction quality is also outstanding.
I'm looking forward to the Pogo series!

This book contains all the Peanuts comic strips from 1965 and 1966. The most significant events from this time period were Snoopy's first imaginary battles with The Red Baron and the first appearance of Peppermint Patty. Charles Schulz was so good for so long, it's hard to choose a "peak" period of the strip, but the strips here are definitely great. Highly recommended.

I gave this collection 5 stars because the strip was still at its peak; but, ominously, this is where Peanuts starts to go down hill. The introduction of the Peppermint Patty character is the turning point, where the peak of Peanuts ends and the long decline from greatness begins.

Not that there was anything wrong with the Peppermint Patty character to begin with. The character was amusing as an occasional intruder into the Peanuts World; but, eventually, Peppermint Patty and the other characters introduced over the coming years came to take over the strip. This new concept of the strip was not as good as the original, and it got worse as years went by. This corruption of the "pure" original concept of Peanuts, combined with the shocking deterioration of Schulz's drawing ability in later years, clearly marks the end of Peanuts as the greatest of comic strips. Greatness is not the permanent condition of anybody or anything, and no peak lasts forever. Schulz had as long a peak period as any other comic strip artist (George Herriman being a possible exception), and I highly reccomend this volume because it was in that peak period, though towards the end of it.

Peanuts was a great strip from the beginning, and it was on a continuous upward arc from there. By the early 60s, the cast of characters was as complete as it had to be, the addition of Charlie Brown's nasty little sister Sally being the last necessary addition. Schulz possibly started running out of ideas for this cast and felt, to keep fresh, he had to bring in new faces. Unfortunately, the new faces weren't as good, or funny, as the originals. Peppermint Patty was the first of these newer characters. Peanuts was still pretty darned good for ten or so years after this, up to the mid-to-late 70s, but here is where Schulz started abandoning the original Peanuts characters and the newer cast was distinctly less inspired than was the original.

The newer characters reflected a creeping mellowness in his outlook, which is common for an artist growing older. (Some, like Mark Twain, get nastier and bitterer as they grow older, but, as in the case of Twain, this doesn't necessarily make them better either.) The newer characters were too "nice". Peanuts, for all the (mistaken) talk of its "heartwarming" humor, was not sweetness and light on the comics page. It was a tale of rotten little kids being rotten to each other. This was the source of its greatness. That was the originality and innovation behind the strip. Once it became "mellow" and "nice", it lost its originality and cutting edge.

However, though this volume represents the downward turn, it is still great stuff. Rereading it all these years later, I found it better than I remembered. When I was younger, I didn't really care for the Red Baron & Snoopy strips, thinking them too far away from the true gist of the strip. Now I found them very funny. Schulz started to play heavily on the "Bleah" vs. "Nyahh" arguments between Lucy, Violet and Snoopy, which were peaks in silly (but accurate and on-the-mark) humor. The "grit your teeth" baseball sequence, and Sally and her troubles with the "New Math" were other very inspired highlights.

Though there were bad signs of the decline to come towards the end of this volume, that decline hadn't set in yet. Peanuts had at least 2 more peak years to come, then 5 or 6 more very good years. Buy this, because it is one of the best volumes in the set, but mourn also, because here is where it starts to go down, down, down.

When I first read the 1800 English translation, I could not put it down. Here are the first lines--a real grabbers! "In the year 1514, I left Castile (Spain) in company with Pedro Arias de Avila, who was then appointed governor of Tierra Firma (east Panama)...but afterwards suspicious that his son-in-law had an intention of revolting, he caused him to be beheaded."

Bernal's description of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan is amazing: "To many of us it appeared doubtful whether we were asleep of awake; nor is the manner in which I express myself to be wondered at, for it must be considered, that never yet did man see, hear or dream of anything equal to the spectacle which appeared to our eyes on this day."

And how about this magnificent line: "And now, let who can, tell me, where are men in this world to be found, except ourselves, who would have hazarded such an attempt."

And here is the horrific vision the Spaniards beheld when they climbed to the top of the great Aztec temple-pyramid. Remember that nearby, and looming up like a nightmare, was the stupendous "tzompantli," or skull rack. By careful Spanish count, it contained the grinning remains of 136,000 human beings.

"In this place they had a drum of most enormous size, the head of which was made of the skins of large serpents: this instrument when struck resounded with a noise that could be heard to the distance of two leagues, and so doleful that it deserved to be named the music of the infernal regions; and with their horrible sounding horns and trumpets, their great knives for sacrifice, their human victims, and their blood besprinkled altars, I devoted them, and all their wickedness to God's vengeance, and thought that the time would never arrive, that I should escape from this scene of human butchery, horrible smells, and more detestable sights."

The Conquest takes on a different color when seen through the eyes of the Spanish. Yes, they were greedy and cruel, but the scale of human sacrifice practiced by the Aztecs was beyond imagination. It is said that some twenty thousand people were sacrificed for the dedication of the Temple of the Sun. The Aztec priests worked for hours on end cutting out human hearts. They worked until they collapsed from exhaustion.

Bernal's history is also interesting for another entirely different reason. Joseph Smith (born 1805), the Mormon prophet, came of age during the period of English translations of Spanish histories (Bernal's in 1800 in London, and 1803 in the US, and Clevigero's "History of Mexico" in 1806 in Virginia and 1817 in Philadelphia).

Therefore, the golden splendor of the Spanish conquests of Mexico and Peru was fresh on everyone's mind, especially because the Spanish colony of Florida had become an American state (1821).

Thus, any notion that Americans were unaware of the great civilizations of ancient America is without foundation in real history. Ancient civilizations in America were so on the mind of people that in 1816, Solomon Spaulding wrote a history about a white and dark race in ancient America. His novel, "Manuscript Found," had the white race of mound builders destroyed by a darker-skin race.

Read my review of Robert Silverberg's magnificent book, "The Mound Builders of Ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth." A must-read for anyone interested in the archaeology and myths about ancient America. Click here: Mound Builders

Diaz was one of the soldiers who accompanied Cortez to invade the Aztec Empire. His account is one of the best we have of the whole affair. It is not written with much bias and was written to discount historical myths after the invasion had taken place. It is very analytical at times and his analysis of what happened is given added authority since he was present at the events. If you want to understand what happened this is a great book to read.

First person historical accounts are generally the best way to read history and have it come alive in the mind of the reader. This book by Bernal Diaz is certainly no exception to that rule. Although Diaz wrote this much later in life, and doubtless his memory was not perfect, it is obvious that the experience of marching with Cortez in the conquest of the Aztec empire left innumerable vivid memories in his mind.

I am very sensitive to the fact that the conquest of the Aztec empire and other native empires in the Americas left a horrific legacy which is still felt dramatically throughout the hemisphere. Despite the fact that in many ways, the conquistadors should not be considered "heroes," I think we still can admire and be awed by their courage and fortitude in the face of unbelievable odds in facing the Aztecs and not only escaping with their lives, but eventually conquering the entire civilization. Diaz brings these events to life better than any history book I ever read, and I highly commend this book to anyone interested in the history of this period, of Mexico, or Latin America in general.

most mexican-pride types haven't hit this book. if they did they would be greatly enlightened by the fact that mexico was not a united nation from campeche to oregon. the aztecs subjugated their neighbors just like the mexico city elite subjugate the common mexican to this day. this is one of the best books i've ever read and if you plan to visit mexico city it is a must-read if you want to have any basic understanding of modern mexico city and mexico in general. read it.

This is the classic book on the history of the conquest of Mexico. Bernal Diaz fought on the front lines of Cortez's war, and he reports everything well in this book.

While Diaz may have been a great soldier, he was an awful writer. He wrote this book as he was aging well after he returned home to Spain. In his original edition, there were hundreds of pages of rambling personal attacks against various people in his life. As a result, Penguin has heavily edited this edition -- it's only about half the size of the original. However, the book is greatly improved this way, and Penguin's version is very easy to read and never gets boring.

Of course, Diaz doesn't have many negitive things to say about the Conquest, and he was a true believer in the religious mission of the conquistadors. Diaz essentially makes genocide seem not so bad. Read Bartolome de las Casas' books to balance out some of the propaganda contained in this book.

I found this book very intreguing. I have read The Chronicles of Narnia completely several times as an adult and this book is right up there with it. The story was spell binding allegory. The princess, a prophecy, a secret, everything about it kept me reading. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of his sequel, The Devil's Mouth, so that I can continue my journey into the seven kingdoms.

Thomas Williams is truly talented! This book got me from the first page till the last and I neglected much work while reading it as I couldn't put it down.Set in medievil times around two kingdoms and an awsome forrest it's fast paced , exiting and full of adventure.It has strong characters and a fantastic story line that I wished would never end. It will make you believe in love and honour and think about your own morals and strive to be better.I loved every word!

This book has wonderful allegory that compels one to be noble and pure. It is a page turner (especially the last half)that is in ways comparable to Tolkien's works. It has extensive characters which come to life and plot that is quite enjoyable.

I am excited about Tom Williams' new book, "The Crown of Eden," for several reasons. First, for those who enjoy medieval tales of brave knights and fair ladies and enchanted forests, Tom's story will thoroughly delight. The adventures of Princess Volanna and the gallant knight Aradon are woven together in twisting episodes of romance, terror, tragedy and triumph. The story begins by bringing the reader up to date concerning the great empire of Perivale whose victorious battle with the evil Morgultha united seven kingdoms. But Perivale disappears mysteriously and an ancient sage appears out of the enchanged Braegan's Wood to foretells the breakup of Perivale's empire. He delivers also a hopeful yet cryptic prophecy concerning the eventual restoration of Perivale's glory through an heir who will one day take the throne, reunite the kingdoms and reign over days even more glorious than those of his father. "The Crown of Eden" is the exciting story of the fulfillment of that prophecy.

The best thing one can say about "The Crown of Eden" is that it is a wonderfully told story. The chapters are short, revealing just enough surprises in the unfolding story that it is difficult to stop. More than once, as the reader is gaining speed toward some seemingly inevitable conclusion, Tom inserts an unexpected turn in the plot which leaves the reader delightfully off balance. And though one senses near the end of the story how it might end, the twists and turns keep coming even to the last few pages.

Tom has created dozens of wonderful characters in the story including the noble King Tallis, the loyal servants Kalley and Olstan, and the pathetically evil prince Lomar.but the story centers around two main characters, Princess Volanna and the commoner Aradon. Through these two characters Tom is able to not only tell a great story, but teach profound lessons in an effective and unintrusive way. Which is the next best thing about "The Crown of Eden." It does more than just tell a good story.

Interwoven amidst jousting festivals, harrowing escapes through murky swamps, rescues from dark and foreboding castles, there are scenes and conversations which allow Tom's characters to give articulate expression to various truths. King Tallis expounds on the puzzle of balancing God's sovereignty and man's freedom. Father Lucidis eloquently expounds on the virtues of pleasure, delight and ecstasy. Lord Aldemar wrestles with the tension of obedience to law and loving his country. Bogard gives some of the best advice to be found on choosing one's life mate.

Best of all, we find in Volanna and Aradon the embodiment of what it means to be a womand and a man. Tom is at his best when he describes the beauty of Volanna, a beauty that does not inflame illicit passion, but awakens the legitimate passions which lie all too dormant within us. If there is a weakness in "The Crown of Eden," it is that these "philosophical moments" in the story may linger a bit too long and distract at times from the story.

One last observation which made the book enjoyable was the way Tom has blended his own fantasy with the history of scripture. These characters and their kingdoms exist only in our minds, yet they are christians and as such often look to biblical stories to make meaning our of their own experience. The most intriguing example of this is the use of the strange biblical story of King Jephthah and his daughter which finds in "The Crown of Eden" a narrative commentary.

This tale, which hopefully will be the first of many in the The Seven Kingdom Chronicles, is a wonderful addition to the rapidly growing genre of Christian fantasy and as enjoyable as such established authors as Terry Brooks (of recent Star Wars fame.) Though Tom's single story does not merit comparisons with his literary mentors, Lewis and Tolkein, clearly his writing exhibits the best of their influence and the tales of the Seven Kingdoms certainly deserve to be on the same shelves alongside the tales of Narnia and
Middle-earth.

Tom Williams has a marvelous way of telling a story. You will actually fall in love with the main characters--and right along with them--feel their hurts, fears, disappointments, as well as their ultimate joy and exhilaration. There are profound lessons woven into the story, but they emerge from the characters' wrestling with decisions and their actions rather than tedious, preachy dialogs and monologs. Williams addresses some knotty theological questions, such as how the free will of men and women fits into an unfailing providence revealed in prophecy. But not to the detriment of a beautiful love story.

This book is masterpiece. It comes in second to none, including the works of George MacDonald, J. R. R. Tolkein, and C. S. Lewis.

a must read book for those who seek the true,Maharaj explains us his knowledge,he hard earned with his life,free to us all,
what he is giving is the essence & will directly come into the hearts of the longing seeker ,
he also explains us that with words, truth cannot be explained,
we have to go beyond the words ,where the seeker meets the sought
& there wont be anyone to explain or hear
what he follows is the direct path to salvation and said as the Hardest,where the unconditional pure faith alone can liberate,
u can hear the unique words ,trust the book as it is from one of the realised ,i love the book
and it gives me strength to live without clinging to anything other that the "I",i bow my head at my Divine Master, from where i first happen to hear about Maharaj,& the Generation of Divine Masters,
I express my humble gratitude to Maurice Frydman Who let us all hear and know Maharaj

Using words to describe what is beyond words will always fall somewhat short; this book, however, narrows the gap considerably. You are not who you think you are. Who are you? This book answers that question as accurately as it can be answered in words. If you have only one book, let this be it; if you ask only one question of yourself, let it be "Who am I?"

Words do no justice to the "teachings" found herein. I would recommend no other book prior to this. If one wishes to end suffering and awaken to ones true nature, this is all you shall require. With all, as all.

I AM THAT is my bible-In his clear yet deeply profound answers Sri Nisargadatta expounds the timeless truths of self-realization which Christ called the Kingdom of God within us.This unique book can be opened at any page and provide the reader with powerful insights into their real essence by negation of the temporary and unreal to the true fullness of their real being.A must for seekers of the light.

I love this book. If only his main teaching were not eventually to stop reading and actually to start the deep inner search he suggests, I would happily while way the rest of my life reading it.

The absolute calm certainty of his position at the very centre of the inward search, calling you on and soothing your fears, is so reassuring.

Come on in, the water's lovely!

This is the best account I have ever read about the events leading up to the Civil War. Mr. Potter does an excellent job presenting the information and carefully analyzing it without taking sides. Whether you sympathize with the Union or the Confederacy, if you have an interest in the Civil War, you will enjoy this book.

Abraham Lincoln's 1860 election as President of the United States was the catalyst that set off the American Civil War, but this book traces the political processes that led to that result during the just over a decade between the end of the Mexican War in 1848 and the start of the Civil War with the firing on Fort Sumner in 1861.

Today it is easy to look back and regard the entire process as inevitable. What David Potter does in this classic, first published in 1976, is present the politics behind each step that pushed the sections of the country apart over the slavery issue. One apparent mystery has been what drove the astute politician Stephen Douglas to force through legislation tearing up the Compromise of 1820, which had extended a line from Missouri westward, north of which slavery would not be permitted. It was a colossal blunder that opened what had been a more or less settled issue, fanning the flames of sectionalism needlessly.

His Kansas-Nebraska Act opened those territories, north of the line, to a concept of popular sovereignty, in which those supposedly living in the territories would be allowed to vote on the issue. This may have sounded democratic, but it led to a wave of Abolitionist settlers from New England, and pro-slavery visitors from neighboring Missouri, resulting in "Bleeding Kansas", with attacks and massacres from both sides, and very little democracy. Potter shows that Douglas started from a powerful need to organize the territories so a Pacific railroad could be built, preferably from Chicago in his home state of Illinois. That simple point of departure led him into a series of moves that only deepened the sectional divide.

Potter describes how the southern slaveholders won a whole series of meaningless victories that did nothing to extend the slave territories but did intensify feelings against slavery in the North, from the Mexican War and Kansas-Nebraska to the Dred Scott decision and the hanging of John Brown. He traces the rise of the Republican party out of the ruins of the Whigs and the Freesoil Party, and exposes the latter not as advocates of rights for black people, but driven rather by a deep-seated racism aimed at keeping blacks out of the territories. Complicating the 1850's political map of America was the American, or "Know Nothing" party, dedicated to stopping the recent flood of mainly Catholic immigrants from Europe.

He also demonstrates that the Unionist candidates did better than generally believed in the four-sided presidential election of 1860, and that the voting system itself gave the secessionists of late 1860 and early 1861 far greater strength than their actual numbers.

If you want to get deep into the politics that split the powerful Democratic Party and ultimately the nation, this book has what you are looking for.

This is without a doubt, one of the greatest books on the Ante-bellum period. I read this book when I was in college in 1991 and was impressed with it. It remains one of my favorite books to this day on the Ante-bellum period. Your library is truly not complete without this work.

Potter's insightful history leading up to the Civil War is a must. He explains the culture, the split, the issue of slavery in easy to understand language to edify the reader's understanding of the things leading up to the secession as soon as Lincoln was nominated yet before he took office. Anyone interested in the history of this time period, it is the best book I have read on the subject. Potter not only discusses the politics, but also gives us a look into Lincoln and his actions to prevent the war.

THERE SEEM TO BE ENOUGH BOOKS ON THE COMING OF THE CIVIL WAR TO FILL THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. A FEW STAND OUT AS MUST READS AND THIS IS AMONG THE TOP FIVE. THE STORY, AND POTTER WRITES HISTORY AS A STORY WITH A LOT OF SUBSTANCE, BEGINS WITH THE TEXAS QUESTION AND CONTINUES THROUGH TO THE START OF WAR. IT IS A LARGE BOOK BUT IF YOU HAVE ANY INTEREST IN HTE TOPIC YOU WILL DREAD SEEING IT END. THIS BOOK RANKS WITH THE MORE CONTEMPORAY WORKS BY WILLIAM FREEHLING. IF POTTER TAUGHT AS HE WROTE HIS STUDENTS WERE AMONG THE MOST PRIVILEGED OF OUR HISTORIANS TODAY AND SO THEY SAY.

The Innovation SuperHighway is one of the fundamental pieces of work dealing with how to create sustainable collaborative advantage through the development AND implementation of knowledge strategies. The book defines the innovation frontier as our future assets and includes superb examples of innovation infrastructures being created in companies and countries - giving an understanding of how the attention should be on the people and not the technology per se. This since been documented in her subsequent research around knowledge innovation zones, the UNESCO reports and IBM CEO innovation surveys. In wise foresight there is also a chapter is dedicated to youth and how they are being mobilized with their vision. Finally, the vision in the concluding section documents the era of collaborative advantage - another evolving (and now accepted) principle of the Knowledge Economy. It is critical to note however that this book is NOT about knowledge management - it moves beyond these principles and provides a blueprint for discovering and leveraging intellectual capital, versus "managing" what is evident. In this manner the book enables the reader to sense not only why innovation is the utlimate manifestation of harnessing intangibles, but also how to create the dynamic conditions for profiting from an economy where sustainable succes is only possible if organizations and people innovate knowledge --existing and new-- more effectively to enhance economic growth and collaborative advantage. As we move from economic scarcity models based on land, labor, and capital to models of abundance based on an inexhaustible resource - knowledge, old rules do not apply; and the new rules are being innovated. This book provides the best starting point for executives and managers at all levels to begin this journey, and to set the stage for moving into a new innovation frontier - one based upon intangible value and intellectual wealth, for the success of their organizations, their enterprises and society.

Anyone who has read CIO Insight http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1777087,00.asp
And who wants to understand the how of living in a globalized economy:
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman and Oliver Wyman (available here too) , would want to read Amidon's's two books The Ken Awakening as well as this one, .

The book, The Innovation Superhighway, is not about the how why of globalization as much as it is about the forces of globalization (ease of transferring and exchanging knowledge and how as Friedman says "What I am trying to do is say that something important really is happening. The value-creation model is moving away from a vertical silo model to an increasingly collaborative horizontal model, from command and control to collaborate and connect, and that's going to change everything."
This is not recreational read. It is a book to be studied. And the concepts put to use.

First off, when looking for books on innovation, one must know what type of information they are looking for and what information they are going to find in the book that they are going to read. The Innovation Superhighway is a book that starts out presenting the start of a framework using the internet as a means of transmitting information. Early on in the book it is stated that internet and all it's services and facilities are really about innovation, not information. While many innovative activities are occurred because of the information that is made more readily and by the "free wheeling" of early internet companies, the internet is truly about the transfer of knowledge. When much of the book deals with sharing of innovations across some infrastructure sounds wonderful, I have seem little of it in the corporate world, where it may be true in the academic world. In fact I have seen the opposite in the corporate world, where innovation is coveted and hoarded.

In the end, this book will do a couple of good things for you. It provides an excellent look into the ideas of Intellectual Capital, which still has a certain amount of nebulousness about it (although I was looking for something a little deeper here). The book also presents some excellent views into Knowledge and what it can mean to an individual, a company, and even a country. There is a lot of good information in those chapters.

This however only gets us to page 127 out of 349. At this point, the book goes into the story of ENTOVATION which I was unable to find much that I could use in many of my roles of using technology to facilitate communication and parts within a corporation's innovation processes. It becomes the story of how individuals from many roles got together to explore knowledge exchange and sharing for the purpose of innovation. Many of the cases that are put forth rely on companies and individuals seeing the benefit of sharing information and also that all information being shared is of equal value. I have been part of such attempts at sharing only to have them break down due to information having different value to different parties and therefore demanding different returns. The whole knowledge market, although referenced earlier in the book, seems largely ignored. The primary aspects near the end of the book rely on a more idealistic world, where personal gain (thinking selfishly here) is largely ignored and the greater good of society and countries are funded to aid innovation. I have seen little evidence of any working towards that or any chance of these goals coming to fruition. Painting of Exemplar Ken Practitioners through ~40 pages had little value to me in my quest for knowledge and innovation processes.

So, there is value to the book. I felt that the first portion of the book was the most valuable and would love to see more around the strong formations of knowledge management, but I was disappointed that after such a strong start, the end left me wanting for the creating of innovative processes out of technology.

Debra Amidon has thrown the lawn party and everyone's invited!
Before WWW, I used to think how unfortunate it was that the global reach of information and entertainment was primarily a one-way communication. Then the Internet came along and the great dialogue begin. Now, Debra Amidon is helping to create a new agenda and a principal part of that agenda is to how to take the dialogue to the next level, especially in terms of process.

One could see this book from a variety of perspectives such as innovation or knowledge management, but, in essence, it's an incredible coalescing of new human ability to collaborate and create. Debra Amidon not only provides the vision and direction, she also provides a viable example with a vibrant international network of amazing human beings.

As you read the book, you can see that Debra Amidon is actually helping to "pave" the innovation superhighway that she writes about. From a nationalistic point of view, hopefully we in the U.S. are effectively developing our stretches of this highway system. Hopefully, corporate America and the U.S. Federal government will get clearer about this picture. Also, we need to figure out how we can get her to spend more of her time traveling U.S. sections of the "innovation superhighway".

This book wrestles with measuring the intangibles. The metrics of a knowledge driven economy.
This book was first available in 2003. In the March 4th 2006 issue of The Economist there appeared an article: Getting a Grip on Prosperity - what if intangible investment is measured properly?. The concepts in this book are now entering the mainstream.

For someone who wants to understand the forces that will drive our economies and most likely their careers for the next few decades...this book is a useful introduction...particularly chapter 11.2 and Part 5.

I would say that this is a well written and indepth looks at Michael Jordans return to profession basketball with the Washington Wizards.

If you only read one story about Michael Jordan, this is the one to read. I am from D.C. and regard him as the greatest athlete of the 20th century. It was delightful to read about a second comeback. The fact that he did come back to be a Wizard, makes this story remarkable. Worth every sent!

Wow is the only words that can penetrate the ranging emotions that occur when this book is read. Awesome. A must have for any Michael Jordan Fan. I want to be so much Like Mike Right Now.

I would say that this is a well written and indepth looks at Michael Jordans return to profession basketball with the Washington Wizards.

For 13 brilliant seasons Michael Jordan danced the dance of greatness across hardwood floors of basketball arenas from New York to Los Angeles to Barcelona and Paris. With a warrior's heart and an artist's grace, Jordan long ago transcended the sport to become one of the 20th century's global icons.

On the court, his almost mythic flair for the spectacular prompted former Los Angeles Laker superstar Magic Johnson to say simply, "There's Michael, then there's all the rest of us"Off the court, Jordan's ability to alter markets and drive the business of his marketing partners is unprecedented.

Through it all, Jordan showed the world that greatness, true greatness, comes from the inside out. He remains perhaps the greatest practice player in the history of sports, his desire to improve upon his own example legendary. When critics questioned his all-around ability, he became the game's most dominant defensive player at his position. When teams decided to close down the lane and eliminate drives to the basket, he became a deadly jump shooter. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson had the most successfully teams of the 1980s but never won more than two consecutive championships. The Bulls won three straight--twice.

In Michael Jordan Returns to the NBA Again, the writer pulls back the curtain on one of the most remarkable sports figure of the 20th century and delves into the question of why he returns to the NBA after going out on top in 1998.

I really enjoyed this book! Vincent M. Wales uses unconventional media to tell a touching and terrifying story, full of political and personal strife. While my first reaction was that this potential future would never be tolerated by the citizens on today's USA, it is a very real possibility and one to be wary of. His characters were well developed and revealed to their fullest, highlighting the complicated, dynamic nature of the human mind and heart. A great read.

I just finished the book One Nation Under God, and I was not disappointed. This is a great book for anyone to read, and I'd recommend it any day. The book is able to touch on a lot of controversial subjects, and it will definately open your eyes to a lot of issues that have been happening and may continue to happen in the future.

It's definately a good read, and once you start, you won't be able to put it down.

I read this book from start to finish in the same night. Not only does Mr. Wales captivate you with the unique structure of his book, but he aslo does it with it's intense subject matter and intimate portrayal of the main character.

Mr. Wales paints a vivid reality that doesn't seem to far-fetched given the world we live in today. The subjects of religion, sexuality, and morality have always been, and will continue to be, topics of hot debate.

But what happens when those in power get to decide what the right religion is? What the sexual orientation of a person should be? And what is morally right and wrong?

This books gives us a look at that haunting reality. There are some who would read this book an be frightened by the reality it proposes.

But this book gives us hope as well. It gives us the realization, that when those in power abuse it to bend their will onto the masses, there will always be somebody to fight back.

I recommend this book to everyone. Whether you are atheist, theist, straight, gay, whatever, this book will open your eyes to the intolerance and bigotry we have in this world.

This book may or may not change your mind on certain subjects, but it will may you think about them.

And that is the most powerful kind of literature there is.

This coming of age novel is remarkable for a couple of reasons. First, it presents an American theocracy in the near future where civil rights go down like dominoes and church-state conflicts roil in the very bosom of the First Family. In this dystopia, the religious right controls all branches of government.

We are privy to 12-year-old Mary's covert emails as she wrestles with big religious questions. As her father's two presidential terms of office unfold, Mary is increasingly captivated by the ideas of a powerful underground movement aimed at unseating her father and his political allies. We also get occasional peeks into the President's own anguished diary, and his wife's. In this family of three, people do not easily converse with one another, though they appear to love each other.

The novel's structure is as revealing as the story. Marshall McLuhan famously wrote, "The medium is the message." This story moves forward with confidence and energy solely by means of emails, blogs, diary entries, websites, newspaper articles, and broadcast speeches - all predigested materials without a shred of connective tissue between them. Wales stands every so-called rule of fiction on its head, and yet the book is a page-turner. I had serious trouble putting it down once I figured out the players. I stayed up reading too late at night.

The message from the medium is a basically a positive view of social change brought by communications technology. The horizons of a lonely child are as wide as the web, and she can "talk" earnestly about important matters to friendly strangers - a good thing since the neighbors or grandparents of previous generations are absent. This is a world where strangers deeply connect and form political and social alliances without ever meeting face to face, and where people present themselves in tidy electronic formats instead of trailing haphazard impressions in their wakes as they blunder through a messy world. But the flip side is a pervasive, disturbing emotional distance.

Eagerly I awaited the moment when Mary would meet the stranger she had emailed so many years. I had built the man up in my mind, but "in the flesh" he seemed ten sizes smaller. The mystery had evaporated from The Voice of Reason. Mary mentions no such disappointment in her writings, but that doesn't mean she didn't feel it. Still, one imagines she did not. If a person has never known intimacy, she might not recognize age-old cues of body language, chemistry, and sparkle in the eye. It almost seemed a sad relief to return to cyber space - where so many people today spend increasing amounts of time.

Perhaps even more evocative of the dark side of this brave new world is the book's climactic scene. It is not viewed through the actual eyes of any protagonist, but through the palm-sized electronic screen of an TV journalist as he stands in the backyard of a 2-story house while mayhem is happening inside, upstairs. A tiny lens on the tip of his telescoped wand relays the action to him. His excitement at having arrived in time to capture this on film spills out in his words as he narrates the instant news to an unseen audience. Thus the reader "sees" this shocking episode as a video-piece by a total stranger who never once considers helping our imperiled protagonist. The chilly distance of this way of telling the story seems all too familiar as 24/7 news programs blanket the electronic age. We have come a long way from John Wayne.

Upon finishing the book, I immediately turned to the first page and began re-reading to find details I had missed before I put the puzzle pieces together. Finally, about half way through again, I put it down - thinking. And that's what I want a novel to do, make me think. Independently published, experimental works like this book are changing the face of literature, but few are as interesting as this one.

--Naida West, Ph.D. in sociology, author of River of Red Gold, Eye of the Bear, and Murder on the Middle Fork

Many of us who consider ourselves Secular Humanists view the current political climate with a good deal of trepidation. Never before in the history of this country has so much political rhetoric been specifically aimed at the needs and concerns of one particular special interest group. The group in question happens to be large, powerful, and seems to be pretty much controlling a major political party.

The Republican party has been hijacked, and we are closer to a theocracy than we realize. All it would take is one more Republican victory, and a couple of additional vacancies on the court, and this country would be plunged into the dark ages. This is not idle speculation, but a very possible future.

One Nation Under God explores that future from the viewpoint of the daughter of a future President. The book details the forming of the theocracy and the initial steps taken by the new government to quell dissent in an extremely believable, and totally unique manner. We watch events unfolding through the girl's diary, email correspondence, and web pages. We watch as her life is totally changed forever by her own perceptions. We watch as she grows and matures as the country is changing radically in response to the policies of the new government.

It is chilling, it is believable, and, worst of all, it could happen here within a few years. The foundations for One Nation Under God have already been laid, and the joists are being set down as we watch.

I very much enjoyed the book, especially it's unusual format. I found it easy-to-follow, and exiting right up to the end. Anyone who is concerned about the direction of America should read this book, and then donate to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State!

This is definitely one of my favorite Peanuts collections. I pretty much grew up reading this book. Over the years, it had been read so much that it had fallen apart. I was so happy to see this book in the stores again. If you're a Peanuts fan like I am, this book is a must have for your collection.

This is a great book for any Peanuts fan to add to their Peanuts memorabilia collection. I have been a huge fan of Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gangs since I was a child, but somehow Charles Schulz's Snoopy comics have a universal, timeless essence that appeals to people of all ages. Even in my 20's I still enjoying collecting Peanuts memorabilia, and I would recommend adding this book to top of your collection.

Until a few years ago, Peanuts Classics collections were very hard to find except in your local library. But Peanuts Treasury is much better than most of those-better than most of the `60s collections, anyway. Not to say that the Classics books aren't good, but several of the books repeat strips, print the pages backwards, or even repeat stories (or parts of stories). But this collection doesn't do that. Not only that, but this book has about three times as many more pages AND there are more strips per page (five instead of two). A few of the stories aren't finished in this book either, but nevertheless it's a great collection.

This is a highly worthwhile "Peanuts" collection, as it's an unusually [inexpensive] but vast collection of late 50s-early/mid-60s strips that you don't often find in new books, with a lot of wonderful strips in it, and an effort to group them into their original storylines (where applicable) - Sally is born, and Charlie Brown rejoices ("I'm a father!" - and Linus tells Lucy, "You didn't act like that when I was born,") . . . Lucy buries Linus' blanket to prompt him to kick the habit, and Linus is plagued with withdrawal symptoms ("That's the first time I ever dreamed of Hyannis Port!") . . . Linus freaks out when Lucy assigns him to sing "Jingle Bells" at the PTA Christmas pageant - then the new year's pageant ("I will not run around the stage holding a banner reading '1964'!") . . . and, perhaps best, the first time Sally joins Linus in the pumpkin patch - and it's much, much funnier than the TV version ("YOU OWE ME RESTITUTION!!") . . . among many, many others. But anyway, this may be nostalgic for you, too, and even if not, it's still a wonderful book. It's definitely worth it!

Apparently there has been a mix-up: The two "editions" of this book DON'T correspond to each other. I've bought the paperback one, and it does not contain some of the strips mentioned in the review section.