O Books

In 1988, Forbes magazine's annual list of America's most wealthy listed Charles F Feeney as the 23rd richest American alive, whose personal worth of $1.3 billion was greater than Rupert Murdoch or Donald Trump. In fact, four years earlier Feeney had secretly given away almost his entire fortune to a philanthropic trust. He had enough to live on for the rest of his life, but no longer even owned a house or a car. He was, as Irish journalist Conor O'Clery phrases it in this powerful biography, `the billionaire who wasn't'.

This is two books in one: the remarkable story of duty free retailing and its leading company, DFS, whose extraordinary growth and profits paralleled the rise of jet travel; and that of Feeney himself, a slightly shambolic businessman, linguist and traveller, who took the needs of the world on his shoulders and became a model philanthropist.

It is nicely written and pulls you in like a novel. As a business biography alone, O'Clery's book is valuable, showing that huge money can be made from very simple business models. DFS's success could be put down to `four men in a room' working out what they would bid for airport duty-free concessions, and winning them. Once established, profits came easily. Feeney insisted that luck played a big role in the company's fortunes, that they reaped the benefits of being the first trusted brand in a fast-growing new field. Yet the book is also peppered with Feeney's advice to other to always `think big' (in both business and philanthropy), and in his restless desire to build a great business even the other partners admitted that Feeney had been its driving force.

I liked this book so much I included it as one of the classics of philanthropy in my own book "50 Prosperity Classics: Attract It, Create It, Manage It, Share It - Wisdom from the best books on wealth building and abundance".
50 Prosperity Classics: Attract It, Create It, Manage It, Share It (50 Classics)

Very interesting story. I know the subject as I worked for his company (DFS) for about four years. This is a really good story, about an exceptional individual. Unfortunately the author is uninspiring. It gets boring in spots.

Chuck Feeney is a very unique individual. We need many more like him in the business world, instead of the Nardelli's and that ilk.

This should be required reading for any wealthy person. The Feeney way of living and giving is spectacular in its simplicity and heart.

Nice job by Conor O'Clery. Following Chuck Feeney around to gather the info for the book had to be exhausting since Chuck doesn't appear to stand still for more than a few seconds. Aside from the millions of lives Chuck has influenced through his giving, the difficulties of remaining nameless and faceless - and multiple other sub-plots - think SALES. If you have anything to do with sales you should buy this book for yourself and your team. Chuck Feeney is the quintessential salesmen, "the pure and concentrated essence" of a Level 5 leader and consummate salesman. He calls audibles at the line of scrimmage on every play - a perpetual no huddle, run and shoot offense on steroids. There is no five year (or five minute) business plan in his briefcase - just an uncanny ability to trust his gut and get buy-in from the people around him. This is already a longer review than Chuck would read so I'm signing off......long live prodigal generosity....

I saw this book reviewed in The Economist and could scarcely believe what I was reading. I recommend this as a great read, a great book club or church group read, and a good book to give out to the board of directors of any organization, whether for profit or not! Here is a unique insight into the upbringing, growth and mindset of one of the most well grounded individuals of the modern era. If you are interested in how to make the world a better place, drop what you are doing and read this book!

The story of Chuck Feeney is long overdue. Bright, modest, humble, he lives the Gospels without preaching them. By giving away his fortune he enlarged himself, which is the inherent nature of selfless living. Whenever we give away something in the pursuit to help others we are both benefactor and beneficiary. We grow in the process. Nothing is depleted.

At least that is the lesson that was reinforced for me in this fine book by Conor O'Clery about a philanthropist who leads quietly and by example. We should all follow.The Gospel of Father Joe: Revolutions and Revelations in the Slums of Bangkok

I had the pleasure of meeting Isaac a couple years back when he was in Milwaukee during the Ostara season. His "Evening with Isaac" program literally blew me away. He was charming, funny, but most of all, he was competent.

One of the things lacking in most Neo-Pagan books is scholarly research which can be easily peer-reviewed. Isaac, on the other hand, provides all the resources necessary to check his facts and figures. In areas of speculation (or potential bias) he lets his audience know what's going on instead of trying to pass his word off as gospel.

The Essential Guide is just what it claims....an essential text for any serious student of the craft. It debunks the junk, it provides a historical context, and it prepares readers (new and old) in the ways of the craft.

As a Pagan for 10 years, and as the coordinator of Milwaukee Pagan Pride Day for 4 years, I highly recommend this book!

This great book will become an established text on the Wiccan studies and procedures.I highly recommend anyone to read it.Not just the pagans,but curious outsiders,who have no concept of the Wiccan lifestyle.We have several generations,who have been brain-washed into thinking that the pentacle and the pentagram are the devilish symbols of evil-doers.Anyone who is a true Wiccan,knows this is completely not the case.In light of the military acceptance of the Pentagram symbol,on the head-stones and cenotaphs at the Arlington National Cemetary,why not a Druid Sigil emblem also? This book will educate,inform and assuage any uneasiness concerning the correct Wiccan dogmata code of civil conduct and the proper displaying of pentacle stars.(The perfidious rogues,who are involved with any malefactional act concerning the misuse of a pentagram symbol,should be forced to publicly recant any maleficence committed and face the punitions imposed upon them.-N.B.-This is my editorial opinion here,in brackets,not dear Isaac's rant.Yet,the wicked misuse of the pentacles evokes a rousing cry for justice from me.The Pentagram should be a symbol of rapprochement and not for division among people.)
And remember the Pentagon is a five-pointed star also.The perduring pentagram continues on.Read the facts in this great book.

This is BAR NONE the best book I've ever read on Wicca!

When I first got involved with Wicca, I was full of questions for my tearch: "how old is all this stuff, really?", "where does all this stuff come from?", etc. She was very good about telling me when she didn't know and kindly tried to tell me what she did. I turned to books to learn more about the new religion I was so enthusiastic about. While I don't mean to offend anybody, I, personally, found just about all the books out there had one or more things in them that really bugged me. Some made lofty claims that Wicca came from the Celts, Paleolithic humanity, the people who built stonehenge, the Atlantians, the Aliens or what have you. I found a strong woman-centric slant to many of them, which, as a man, made me feel excluded. I believe in gender BALANCE, not female dominance OR male dominance and for something as close to the heart as spirituality, it was a cruel blow to be delt woman-centricism. Other books were fluffy: so light weight that they seemed patronizing and to only deal with pleasant aspects of nature and humanity.

Isaac's book had none of these problems and there are many, many aspects to it that are wonderful. He's honest that Wicca is, as far as any real scholarship can glean, purely a modern religion. He also says something that none of the authors who try to convince us of some ancient origin say: that just because it's modern makes it no less valid! He is gender balanced and matter-of-fact. He's not afraid to talk about "dark" issues. After reading it, I FINALLY felt that I got a square deal for buying the book.

But, I can't sing the praises of this book high enough. It's informative as to the history of Wicca. It would have answered all of the initial questions that I would have had as a beginner and taught me a lot of good stuff to boot.

Perhaps its only weakness is that, unlike many of the other books that I looked at when I was starting, it is not quite as chalk full of exercises, spells, rituals and the like. I think that this is because Isaac doesn't want to limit Wicca to a particular set of techniques and, to be honest, while it's true that much of his competition packs this stuff in, it's also often the case that they present it as the "right" way or the "ancient" way. Isaac isn't trying to tell ANYONE what the "right" way is and admits that it's probably not "ancient".

What he lacks in quantity, in this regard, he makes up for in quality. For example, he has a general outline for a Wiccan ritual that is top notch and shows his decades of practice and expertise.

So, I think this is a MUST HAVE for beginning Wiccans, because they should DEFINITELY READ THIS BOOK BEFORE THEY READ ANYTHING ELSE ON THE SUBJECT, and I also think it's a must read for experienced Wiccans, because it dispels a lot of myths that they were probably taught at some point. That being said, I think a beginner should THEN go on to read some other books, with the knowledge that they may have one or more of the flaws that I sited at the beginning of this review, to get some ideas for spells, exercises and rituals. The books by the Ferrars would all make good followers and, before Isaac's came out, they were ones that I respect as minimizing above mentioned flaws.

About what another reviewer said about being able to get the same information from reading other books, that may be true, but beginners aren't likely to know about them. I certainly didn't when I was starting. I had to wade through mountains of what to me is, with all due respect, nonsense in order to get to anything that I considered to be academically sound or remotely accurate. Yes, Hutton is great, but Isaac's book provides one starting point for the beginner.

Someday, I'd like to see a book as good as Isaac's that ALSO has a large collection of sample exercises, spells and rituals, but which notes that they are only examples and that there is great diversity among Wiccans. That way, we'd have one beginner's guide that I would actually feel good about recommending.

Usually it isn't a compliment to say that you plow through someone's books, but in Isaac Bonewits's case it is a compliment. I can never put his books down until I finish, including this one.

Specifically in this case, Isaac fits decades worth of study and involvement into a manageable book that's not too dense for the non-scholar. This book should be a standard for all Wiccans, and is even useful for the rest of us Neo-Pagans.

Have you ever read a book that made you laugh, made you think, and made you glad to be a part of something all at once? If you haven't then this book will do it for you. The writing is easy to understand, the language is not teacher to student, but rather a friend telling of an amazing journey. The journey wasn't a physical one, but rather a growth of spirit. The complete likability of this book isn't the only reason for having this book in your library.
The main reason to have it is the well-researched, informed history of Wicca. Isaac experience many of the bench marks of Wicca first-hand, and who else has had the chance to crawl through Gardieners personal papers and tell us the real truth found there. Most books about Wicca agrandise the "secret" history of Wicca, but if you want to know the real secret history of Wicca then pick up this book. I guarentee you'll learn something new.

The book written by the samurai warrior Miyamoto Musashi circa 1645 is considered a classic treatise on military strategy, and it enjoys an audience considerably broader than only that of martial artists: for instance, some business leaders find its discussion of conflict and taking the advantage to be relevant to their work.

The term "Ichi School", which is referred to in the book, Go Rin No Sho, when referring to such books, refers to "Niten No Ichi Ryu", or "Ni Ten Ichi Ryu", which literally translated, means "Two Swords, one heaven".

Throughout the book it is clear: what is primary for Musashi is The Goal, while the means of achieving the goal are secondary. He wrote "According to this Ichi school, you can win with a long weapon, and yet you can also win with a short weapon. In short, the Way of the Ichi school is the spirit of winning, whatever the weapon and whatever its size."

The same is in business: the leaders who are attracted by the goal rather than by embellishments are the true leaders. For example, the dot-com bubble of 2000 was caused by the managers who forgot about the primary goal of the business: net income. Those who were obsessed by their stock prices regarding of massive losses and the lack of revenue became bankrupt. They put attention to the fancy office buildings and furniture rather than to the assets that generate earning. Musashi wrote about it: "Just as a horse must have endurance and no defects, so it is with weapons. Horses should walk strongly, and swords and companion swords should cut strongly. Spears and halberds must stand up to heavy use: bows and guns must be sturdy. Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative".

Musashi also encourages to maintain a balance of your skills throughout your life. This balance could be thought of as Yin and Yang. The balance is to be neither over-familiar with something nor under-familiar. The over-familiarity or over-use of one weapon is not recommended by Musashi, as it would be seen to reveal your spirituality to your enemy, and thus your boisterousness, or over-calm. The over-familiarity makes you stick to a conviction. This is a very important for the business. Take, for example, mr. Warren Buffet.

A quality standing out about Mr. Buffett is his ability to morph. If you read his materials from the 1960s, he said very different things than in the 1970s and early-1980s. Early on he was buying dirt-cheap stocks by simple statistical standards and typically smaller stocks (smallcap), later he bought "franchises", then he entered a period of buying great managements of big companies and being a long-term holder, then, amazingly, he was buying smaller things dirt cheap again just as value came back into play as the twenty-first century began. He tactically morphed steadily over the decades. Trying to freeze his tactics from any decade and replicate them in the next few would never have led you to his actual actions. Musashi wrote about that this way: "You should not have a favourite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well. You should not copy others, but use weapons which you can handle properly. It is bad for commanders and troops to have likes and dislikes."

Haven't read it yet, but looking forward to reading both of the books within the text as it is. Thanks

The Book of Five Rings is similar to Sun Tzu Art of War in that is discusses strategy, fighting, and competition from a combat perspective. The book is small in size and easy for reading while traveling. While references can found that comment this is as a book for management, it is still very much a book about combat and the samurai warrior. Interesting nontheless.

Musashi, like every great warrior, knew that strategy was as important as tactics and techniques in combat. This book will teach you things that were learned in combat and will enhance your survival potential on the battlefield, street and life.

It is not the easiest book to interpret and understand, but that hardly matters, as for the information in this book is worth your time and effort. One good book is worth a hundred crummy ones, and this book is one outstanding book. This book is divided into various distinct sections, and the serious and professional warrior should extract as much information as possible from each section. Every time I pick this book up I learn something new. This is the warrior's bible.

I highly recommend this book to all readers.

This really is a great book. It contains a philosophical outlook on dealing with people and sword fighting/combat from hundreds of years ago, but it really translates very well into today's modern business world. Everyone could learn something from this old samurai who lived in 18th century. I highly recommend this book and the book Understanding: Train of Thought to everyone.

This book is the most complete and clear text about the transition that many companies are doing from product centric to solution enabler organizations. A must read, highly advisable if you are in the IT business.

This book is absolutely the best! It provides frameworks to structure and implement an effective professional services organization (PSO) for an IT product vendor. A product company PSO matures over time through various phases characterized by the types of services it offers. This book is full of practical yet winning strategies and tactics to maneuver the high risk waters of professional services. There are clear directions on how to manage key levers that increase profitability but it also sets realistic expectations. Although the book provides the `recipe' for a sample $100 million professional services organization, it lists all the necessary `ingredients' to cook up a PSO of any size.

I liked the fact that it is written in a style that is free of any jargon. Authors are professionals who clearly understand the industry from inside. My least favorite part are the diagrams and illustrations which are at best adequate but could be better. Highly recommend this book!

This is the absolutely best book devoted to building pro services organization in a product-based company. While there are a lot of sources on managing stand-alone pro services firm (i.e. accounting, law), this book addresses the common pitfalls in moving into services for product-oriented companies.

The book is easy to read, well organized, and packed with sound practical advice you can start applying right away, whether you're in delivery, sales, or marketing -- you'll be going back to it often.

This book absolutely is the best book I've ever ready regarding professional services. They describe a pragmatic approach from their experience at SGI services. This book will take you through planning an PS organization, development of various groups, reporting strucutures, templates for tools to help you.

It's focus in on a PS organization of a product company but you can take much away from this book if you are purely a services organization.

What I like the most is that it helps you do begin to address the various challenges where other books gloss over these topics and leave it to you.

This book as become my day-to-day bible to managing a professional service division within our product-oriented company. If you have your objectives and strategy clear, this book will help you getting organized with the tactics.

Christ in the Psalms is a first-class compendium of commentaries on the Bible's prayer book. Moreover, linking commentary with New Testament cites creates a rich repertoire of meditation -- personal or for small groups. The instructions on how to use the book, particularly not to pass quickly one to another, are accurate and meaningful. Written in user-friendly language, this book brings to life in unique ways material worthy of contemplation. Great resource.

Patrick Reardon has done me a wonderful service. I serve in a church that loves to sing the Psalms in worship (rather than hymns or other songs). One of my weekly goals is to show God's people that the Psalms are not just old covenant songs, but at their heart are truly centered on our Savior. Reardon's book does this, devoting a couple pages to each Psalm with the express mission of showing Jesus in each.

An example: Psalm 84 begins, "How lovely, Lord of hosts, are your tabernacles to me." Most of us could take a circuitous route to finding Christ in this phrase, but Reardon goes straight for the heart when he quotes Revelation 21:22, "But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple." Jesus is our tabernacle! Great stuff, great book - would be well-suited for personal and family worship.

As an evangelical protestant, I have significant theological differences with the author (and with parts of the book) and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that. But the substance of the book remains of a high enough quality for me to recommend it!

Though the writer is a Bible Scholar his writing style is both contemplative and devotional. He shows how each Psalm is a prophetic picture of Jesus Chirst. This is a great companion volume to read side by side with the Book of Psalms. I am a pastor of a non-denomination Christian church and have found this to be a great resource.

Christ in the Psalms is one of the rare books that one can consider a true "blessing" to have read. It gives the reader a lot of spiritual 'meat' to chew on, and yet it is entirely readable and accessable. Erudite without being academic. Spiritual without being maudlin. Entirely orthodox and filled with dry wit and wry observations. Sometimes a passage was like a hand on the shoulder whispering kindly advice in my ear; other passages sharp but much needed criticism. Simply outstanding. At a time when I had a very poor spiritual director and so much unhappiness in the seminary, Fr. Reardon provided sorely needed mercy and respite through his book.

I have read this book twice, and in two ways. First, cover to cover, but in two or three chapter bits as an aid to meditation in chapel. The other way was skipping from psalm to psalm as I progressed through the (Roman Catholic) Liturgy of the Hours...praying the Psalms of the hour and then reading Fr. Reardon's commentary on the Psalms just prayed.

As I write this review, I cannot help but to think of the words of the Disciples on the road to Emmaeus: "Did not our hearts burn within us he opened the Scriptures to us?"

Perhaps the best thing I can say about the book is that it showed me the love and friendship of Christ in ways I had not known before. Therefore, I am compelled to recommend it to you and hope that you will get as much out of it as I did.

It's hard to believe that Reardon can pack so much depth into such brief and elegant essays on all 150 Psalms. If all you have is ten minutes you can read a Psalm and his essay and you will have both a heart-glow and a mind-challenge for the rest of the day. Filled with appropriate quotes from the church fathers and information about the formation of the liturgical life of the church---how a particular psalm is used in the church's liturgy.

This is a very moving account of a heartbroken man who was betrayed by a person he loved dearly. The pain, the trauma, the love, the anger, the frustration is evident in every single well-written sentence. This book is not only a window into the mind of one of the best British writers of the late 19th century. It is also a timeless lesson on what can happen when one falls in love with someone who doesn't truly appreciate what they have before them. Of course there are other lessons to be learned in this book but rather than point them out here, I'd much prefer you pick up a copy of "De Profundis" as soon as you can.

Not actually a "letter," though it had to be originally presented as such for him to be allowed to write it while in prison, *De Profundis* is Wilde's masterpiece--one has to have really lived and really, really suffered to have written it and it's amazing that he achieved it.

I only very recently read it--and "got" it. It rings true to me, and is very, very moving and "profound." It ain't summer beach reading.

Wilde is still and will probably always be best known as a "Personality"--that and the author of a couple of decent period plays, a short novel, a few stories, and lots of forgettable poems and such. But THIS--THIS is IT.

He really WAS a great writer, it turns out, after all.

So many people concentrate on De Profundis' accusations cast towards Alfred Douglas. Yes, it's true that the letter was written to him and that Wilde is ruthless in letting Douglas know exactly what he thinks of him but that's not why De Profundis is a great piece of work. It is great for three reasons. Number one - It contains the best account of the life of Christ. Christ as the romantic artist is the only account that has moved me to tears and the only account I can personally embrace. Number two - it is chock full of the Oscar Wilde voice and wit and as a result it reverbates as a true work of art and number three - It is ultimately a work that celebrates the things in life worth feeling - failure, love, injustice, strength and forgiveness.

Don't waste your time with the accusations towards Douglas. He is unimportant. Oscar Wilde is what's important and De Profundis is Oscar Wilde bare.

Ah, me...one doesn't know which to be more irritated
and exasperated with: whether it be Walt Whitman doing
his dissembling shuck-and-shuffle about the children
he had sired (to throw off a probing, serious John
Addington Symonds) -- or Oscar, in this "j'accuse," which
he should have spoken while looking in a mirror, rather
than writing it on paper to Lord Alfred.
This is without doubt a fascinating, horrifying,
and yet in places humorous, "piece de Miserere mei"
(to combine a bit of French with Latin).
If one chooses to believe Oscar, his only fault
was weakness in "giving in" to Lord Alfred. Oh,
come now. Blinded by Eros, reason flies out the
door...if ever reason was in control. There are
some sentences which are devastatingly revealing,
but Oscar doesn't seem to see it. "The trivial in
thought and action is charming. I had made it
the keystone of a very brilliant philosophy expressed
in plays and paradoxes." Ye gods, and little fishes!

And this man dared to call himself a "Classicist?!"
Yikes!!!
The best exercise for the reader is to just take
many of the things which Oscar accuses Lord Alfred
of, and turn them toward the self-blind, self-
justifying Oscar, to see their devastating hitting
of the mark. Never having met the young man, but
only having the "benefit" of hearsay (mostly from
Oscar's literary defenders) Lord Alfred seems to have
been calculating, temperamental (using anger to get
his way), manipulative, etc., etc., etc. The best
description of him may be Wilde's referring to him
with the lines from Aeschylus' play AGAMEMNON,
about the lion cub being raised in a house and
being let loose to wreak havoc and ruin.
But Oscar bears his share of blame -- more than just
that of the "sin" of weakness which he constantly falls
back upon in his own justification. Even in the midst
of what purports to be some sort of penitent cry from
the depths of hell...Oscar still is ever the poseur:
"And I remember that afternoon, as I was in the railway
carriage whirling up to Paris, thinking what an impossible,
terrible, utterly wrong state my life had got into, when
I, a man of world-wide reputation, was actually forced
to run away from England, in order to try and get rid
of a friendship that was entirely destructive of everything
fine in me either from the intellectual or ethical point
of view...." Er, when was the last time that the
"everything fine" had last seen the light of day?
Was Oscar an "Artist," as he consistently claims?
Was he the wronged, harmed Artist? Perhaps only the
reader can decide that for himself. Without doubt
he was witty, acerbic, funny, cute, clever, perhaps
even charming (to some -- sort of like a Pillsbury
Dough Boy with flair and a clever tongue), perhaps
stylish (in a frumpy, velveteen sort of way). Was
he wronged by a predatory clinger and manipulator,
and a hypocritical social prudery and class power
play (Oscar is no Socrates--that's for sure!)? He
hardly seems worthy, in some ways, of being a poster-boy
for Gay Pride parades. More likely, he is a better
warning poster boy for the self-excusing, and never
take-responsibility-for-your-own-actions crowd.
But this is an incredible piece to read and think
about. There is some of it that is mordantly hilarious.

One of the most famous - and infamous - letters in all of literature, De Profundis is a strange little piece of work: either much more than it appears on the surface, or much less. It is something I think everyone should read, if only for its insight into the human character, particularly that of one under great personal suffering. Wilde wrote this extraordinarily long letter from prison to Lord Alfred Douglas, his friend, lover, and the man who - by all accounts - was the reason Wilde was in jail in the first place. Despite repeated assertions in the first few pages alone to the contrary, Wilde seems reluctant to blame himself. He clearly blames Douglas to the hilt, and harbors a certain bitter resentment towards him. And yet... he clearly still hold much dear affection toward - and even loves - Douglas. He still seems to be asking for forgiveness - despite the fact that, by all accounts hardly excluding his own, he was the man wronged. It is quite clear from reading this letter that, desite the view history holds of him, Wilde was clearly a man of very high moral character. Certainly, one would not put Wilde atop a pedastal as the zenith of ethics - he himself says that morals contain "absolutely nothing" for him, and clearly admits - and is proud of - his having lived the high life to the hilt during his youth - but Wilde was a man of principles, and he stuck to those principles to the tragic, bitter end. Perhaps you might say he carried them too far. One gets the sense in reading this letter - or a biography of Wilde - that, not only could he have stopped his immiment imprisonment, but could have severed his ties with Douglas completely - had he wanted to. Apparently, he had his own utterly compelling reasons for not doing so. Whatever the case, Oscar Wilde is one of the most fundamentally and perpetually interesting characters in the whole of history. A self-described man of paradoxes - Wilde was subsequently the true essence of his time, while also being far ahead of his time - De Profundis makes for required reading by one of the most endlessly fascinating individuals you'll ever read about, and also provides a startling - indeed, perhaps too much so - insight into human nature.

De Profundis, though long for a letter, is not a long work in the conventional sense. Consequently, as many editions of Wilde's collected works are available, buying this on its own may be deemed questionable. I highly reccommend purchasing a Collected Works of Oscar if you have not done so already - it's well worth the price - but, should you desire to have more compact editions of specific works, an edition such as this will be privy to your needs.

That's what this first book in the Father John O'Malley series is about. This is an excellent mystery with a wonderful storyline as well. Ms. Coel's characters are believable and she keeps the plot moving along at a really nice pace. I really enjoyed this look at the life of the Native American on the Indian Reserve and also it gave me a chance to learn a little more about the Arapaho history. Father John is a wonderful character, and I look forward to reading more of his adventures in future books. And he and his sidekick Vicky have lots of motives to follow up on when an Indian tribal chief is found knifed in his tipi.

Margaret Coel's mystery novel debut is a well-crafted, compelling thriller about how the ghosts of the past continue to haunt the present. I cared about all of her protagonists, but what's more, I also cared about the fates of minor characters. I wanted to know if Ernest would get his act together and reunite with his family and if Homer Lone Wolf's baby would live as much as I wanted to see all my questions about Harvey Castle's murder answered.

Coel lets her readers in on who the villains are fairly early in the novel, but the story remains compelling because you want to learn about the motives behind their actions. What terrible information did Harvey find in his historical research that someone would kill him for it?

Coel also excels at capturing the quiet dignity of the Arapaho people and at describing the Wyoming setting. I grew up in Wyoming, and her writing stirred memories of the bleak, oddly beautiful landscape I once knew so well.

This is a first in a new series set in the Western US. It centres around an Arapaho reservation. The principal characters are a Jesuit priest and an Arapaho lawyer. The story itself is well written, the plot moves along at a good pace. The clues are fairly given, allowing the reader to follow along with the protagonist. If there is one thing that I found a little sterotypical was that all that the white people, with one exception, are out to rip off the Natives. I have no doubt that this goes on and went on. Yet, it would be better to have a mix, such as in the Tony Hillerman works. Still, an excellent read and an author I would continue to read.

Margaret Coel hits all the right notes in this first book of her series which takes place on an Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Father John O'Malley has been sent to the reservation after his battle with alcoholism during his previous post in Boston. His struggles with drinking have given him insight into the alcohol problem which is so prevalent among the Arapahos that he serves. Just before a festive powwow is to begin, Father John discovers the dead body of Harvey Castle, one of the tribal council members. He teams up with an Arapaho attorney, named Vicki Holden, and the two begin an investigation in order to protect Harvey's nephew who has been accused of the murder. Coel creates interesting characters, and both Father John and Vicki have past problems which give them more depth than many characters in mystery stories. Coel also does a good job of portraying the Arapaho culture and adds interesting details about things such as funeral customs, "Indian time", and the "moccasin telegraph". I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

My mom gave me six Margaret Coel novels, all about Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden. Let me say, that at the time of this review I have already started the second book and it is even better than this one.
First off, the characters are realistic, painfully so. Real problems and real life issues insert themselves through-out the story. Yes, there is a murder on the reservation but Father John O'Malley has to worry about everything from a new assistant to his fight against the bottle.
The detailed pages within these books allow me to feel the wind off the plain, smell the food at the powwow and see the colors of the sky. A mixture of Rex Stout and Zane Grey!

I've never hunted before - game or fowl. I grew up in the city, and have never held a shotgun in my 40 years. I had no understanding of hunting - it's potential for beauty and forging a connection with nature - until I read Dan O'Brien's Equinox.

Dan's connection with nature through falconry is moving, and at times tangible throughout Equinox. He reveals hunting as a truly noble sport - if approached with reverence for nature and respect for predator and prey.

Dan's prose is straightforward, without frills or fancy, well-suited to the rustic life he describes, stalking grouse on the South Dakota plains with bird and dog.

I think most people will enjoy Equinox, regardless of background, but I especially recommend it to people who have negative feelings about hunting but are open to thinking about it in a new way.

I just finished reading the book in two settings, spending most of a Sunday afternoon and Monday evening enjoying this excellent novel. I was captivated by the people, dogs, birds, and environment. This is a must read. I loved it.

I liked this book. At times, there may have been too much emphasis on the dogs, or too much on just falcons (red-tailed hawk coverage would have been great, but the author caters to peregrine falcons, so it is obviously his choice). Regardless, the amount of detailed coverage is impressive and written very well. Fortunately, the author eases you into the detail and doesn't toss it in your lap like some books. Whenever a new falconry term is mentioned in the text, there is a small side-bar definition of that term.

Some have said that the author's attitude gets in the way. When I read the few pages from the website, I also got a little of that. However, when I read the rest of the book, I did not get that at all. Often, appearances can be deceiving.

I was surprised at how good this book was. I expected it to be a primer for my interest in falconry but found it to be so much more. It is a fantastic account of the training of a raptor and the relationship between man and bird. Obviously passionate about his undertaking the author describes the training process in vivid detail making a compelling story to the end. With an equally interesting personal story that parallels his bird of prey adventure this book makes for a very enjoyable read.

Having begun working with birds of prey (in a rehabilitation center) in the last couple of years I have searched for books that gave more personal insights into the practice of falconry. Mr.O'Brien certainly knows his subject and does a fine job of describing the sport and the birds themselves. His accounts of hacking (early training) young peregrines in particular are excellent. I found his descriptions of what can go wrong, as well as right, in the caring and training of these birds quite illuminating and engrossing. His use of falconers-speak is well balanced with the story and the annotations quite helpful for those unfamiliar with the sport.
I unfortunately found the overall concept of a man in midlife attempting to convince the reader that he is on a quest for some sort of middle age epiphany a bit trying. His relationship with his wife - an anesthesiologist who spends the majority of her time in a sleep deprived state, taking hospital call, and generally supporting his rather indulgent and self-centered lifestyle- frustrated me and was distracting from an otherwise interesting story about the training of a gifted young peregrine falcon.
I give much credit to Mr. O'Brien for being a man in touch with nature and clearly environmentally sensitive and conservation oriented. But, as my wife said after finishing the book, he comes across as something of a jerk in his personal life. Given that Mr. O'Brien's skills in describing the beauty of the land he lives on and the animals he has the great privilege of interacting with are most enviable, it's a shame that this aspect diminishes an otherwise excellent story.

You have to be a computer geek to understand the humor. If you are, and especially if you have a unix/linux background and/or have worked with internet or other computer support you will find this one of the most hysterical comics around.

"Three steps to completing your initiation as an Evil Genius:
1. Adopt ominous accent."
"Checkski."
"2. Never, ever smile."
"Checkski."
"3. Bring a wealthy, monopolistic multinational corporation that sells crappy operating systems to its knees."
"Am thinkink there is no way of doink number 2 and 3 at same time."
- Pitr, reading EVIL GENIUSES FOR DUMMIES

The comic strip USER FRIENDLY maintains a continuous storyline, so EVIL GENIUSES IN A NUTSHELL picks up where the first collection, USER FRIENDLY, left off. The main characters - the staff of Columbia Internet - were introduced in the first book.

Written and set during 1999, the year that THE MATRIX and STAR WARS I: THE PHANTOM MENACE were released, there are lots of then-topical references (such as the completely empty offices of Columbia Internet on May 19 and the ultimate possible evil release date for Quake III).

For instance, during one of Stef the marketing guy's dust-ups with Erwin the AI, Erwin is temporarily loaded into a Furby's toy body. (Gentle readers might remember the talking stuffed toys after a little thought.) After Stef destroys it and Erwin retaliates, Stef finds himself in big trouble with the NSA. :) At one point, Erwin ends up talking like Yoda after being stuffed into a reverse-Polish-notation calculator.

And there are plenty of fantasy elements (at least, if you're in management, you can tell yourself that's all they are). Crud the demonic entity, saying that Microsoft is passé, changes over to AOL. The techies have a holy war over which of the various flavours of Linux is The One (TM). Erwin tries to nuke a spammer, with Russia and China joining in. Pitr tries to solve some budget problems by seeking refunds for all the copies of 5 different versions of Windows Columbia Internet has acquired with their hardware. When Microsoft's anti-Linux team arrives, the coders do the logical thing: they sic the thugs onto Stef. Erwin messes with Stef's head when they get him back, almost turning him into a techie ("I'm thinking I should've taken the blue pill"), but Delilah from MS sales re-education changes him back. In between, the techs play with Half-Life, Alpha Centauri, and Rainbow Six. (When a Terminator-like engineer's brain is replaced by a Pentium III chip, our heroes only notice him because his shotgun is a cool Quake weapon.)

*No* real life techies would try to shop a colleague onto the graveyard tech support shift, would they? No sleazy marketing guy would order sleek new computer gear just to impress a good-looking female techie would he? Just fantasy elements.

Right.

Not many Y2K strips, although the techies do prepare, because while Columbia Internet is compliant they're betting that Windows isn't, and that their clients will blame them. (The next collection, THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, deals with the post-Y2K letdown.)

New characters:
- Artur the possessed engineer, who talks like Ahnold
- Matt the sea urchin, a new friend of Dust Puppy's rescued from a sushi bar

If you enjoyed User Friendly, you'll want this sequel. If you
haven't read User Friendly, then you'll want to look at that one
first, since this one follows it. Or go to userfriendly.org and
sample a few of the strips there -- but it's hard to take the
website to the bathroom with you or leave it on the coffee table
for family or friends to discover. Hence, the printed book.

This book picks up where User Friendly left off, and it's more
of the same. The quality of the strips has not dropped off; if
anything, these strips are better than the first ones. I quite
thoroughly enjoyed it. See also Root of all Evil.

Follow the guys from Columbia Internet as they work through the day to day tasks of tech support with really stupid customers, deciding which Linux distro to install, and tips on fragging the enemy. As you read you will find that there really is such a thing as a stupid question.

This book holds a little entertainment for anyone that is interested in computers. Admittedly, there is a certain level of Linux understanding to enjoy the Microsoft jokes. I would not buy this book for the technophobe in your life.

The book is dated now (who really remembers what happened on May 19th 1999?). But that is part of the fun, trying to figure out what the world events were at the time of writing.

There is something for all you computer geeks. A parody of Lord of the Rings and quite a few references to the Phantom Menace will keep you in stitches. There is even a romance that buds at the end of the book. I think it is all fake though, or at least cannot be long lived. Have you ever heard of geeks and romance going together?

This is one funny book. It truly captures the the world of IT, but puts a humorous slant to it. I read it almost from cover to cover and now frequently pick it up when I am in need of a laugh. I also like to post some of the topics on the door of my office. That bugs the heck out of our NT server folks, the jibes are a little too close to home for them.

In Getting Results, all logical arguments are backed by solid research studies. What is more impressive, in most cases the raw numbers are included, allowing the reader to analyze the data themselves. The author recognizes the need to substantiate all of his claims with measurable facts. The book also includes real world examples of how each of the 5 steps to getting results works in practice. This book is a solid foundation from which any manager should be able to develop a business strategy that will truly make their business get results! What is better, the book could easily be completed in a week; arming you with the tools you need to combat poor performance in a timely manor.

Getting Results: Five Absolutes for High Performance is a must read for every manager. It is an excellent book and it gets every mamager ahead of the game. I got real understanding of performance monitoring amongst many other issues. Thanks

This is a wonderful book. I would recommend it highly to anyone interested in reading how most of the successful companies are getting the job done. The survey and follow-up interviews from thousands of companies are well documented. It is easy to read and easy to ferret out solutions to specific problems that you may be experiencing in your business. What was striking to this reader was the general lack of the use of self-directed work teams in the businesses that were surveyed, and the continued reliance on the use of individual performance reviews and appraisals to motivate and direct employees. Successful businesses today are still following the basic rules of top down management that have been in place for many years. One must draw their own conclusion about whether this is the BEST way to do business. It certainly appears to be THE most popular and maybe the easy way to do business.

This is one of the volumes which comprise the University of Michigan Business School Management Series. According to Longenecker and Simonetti, there are "five absolutes for high performance" and they examine each with both precision and eloquence. Few (if any) are original. The most effective managers probably practice them (and others) to achieve superior results. Whichever "absolutes" are embraced, they are obviously worthless without effective implementation in combination with both a determination and an ability to adjust to circumstances which can change quickly at any time. Here are the five absolutes:

#1 Get Everyone on the Same Page: Focus on the Purpose of Your Organization

#2 Prepare for Battle: Equip Your Operation with Tools, Talent, and Technology

#3 Stoke the Fire of Performance: Create a Climate for Results

#4 Build the Bridge on the Road to Results: Nurture Relationships with People

#5 Keep the Piano in Tune: Practice Continuous Renewal

No doubt each reader can easily rephrase each of the five or at least cluster several synonyms which suggest each absolute's key point. For example, #1 suggests the importance of agreement (or consensus) on which teamwork always depends whereas #5 suggests the importance of constant attention to the progress of any initiatives so that appropriate modifications can be made. The Japanese word "kaizen" means more than continuous renewal; those involved in such efforts must always be aware of maintaining proper balance (or proportion), especially when responding to a crisis of some kind.

For whom will this book be most valuable? The authors wrote it for "managers at all levels who are looking for ways to improve the performance not only of themselves but also of the people they are directly responsible for." I presume to suggest that this book would also be valuable to recent graduates who have only recently begun a business career. Every organization (including non-profits and family-owned businesses) needs to have an easily understood system (as well as sound strategies) by which to achieve the desired results. Longenecker and Simonetti provide such a system in this book. It remains for decision-makers, especially, "at all levels" to modify the system to their organization's specific needs and objectives. In the Afterword, Longenecker and Simonetti suggest how to "get the ball rolling" toward getting results: Always start with the end in mind, build a model of the absolutes to your organization to be effective as a leader, identify the practices that are most critical to your success, and develop the talents needed to implement and sustain the absolutes for high-performance. Heard all this before? Probably. Are you satisfied with the results you and your organization are now achieving? If not, here is a source to help clarify and assist your initiatives in weeks and months to come. Longenecker and Simonetti conclude their book and I conclude this review with an especially appropriate observation by Henry David Thoreau: "This time, like all time, is a great time, if we simply know what to do with it."

Business is about getting results. And "Getting results" gets down to business in a very direct fashion, using research and the authors' work with senior executives to construct basic guidelines for enabling and empowering managers and organizations. The survey results on the top twenty things a leader needs to do to be effective is probably worth the cost of the book. Some of the ideas and data went straight into my classroom. This might even work for many business faculty as a text for a basic graduate course in management or leadership.

The book lacked a little bit of the 'Tom Peters verve' that wins over large numbers of readers and gets books recognized by business magazines. But serious, thoughtful students of the science (and art) of business will not be disappointed.