Journals Books

It is always interesting to hear 'the other side of the story'. This account of the Boer War is informative yet very personal. It is one of those books that most will find difficult to set down before it is finished.

The author had a most incredible life which is doccumented in Commando and two subsequent books. The adventures are so amazing that, in the preface, Jan Smuts is compelled to comment upon the truthfulness of the account. The book provides insight into the Boer culture and a turn of the century concept: honor.

It is always interesting to hear 'the other side of the story'. This account of the Boer War is informative yet very personal. It is one of those books that most will find difficult to set down before it is finished.

The author had a most incredible life which is doccumented in Commando and two subsequent books. The adventures are so amazing that, in the preface, Jan Smuts is compelled to comment upon the truthfulness of the account. The book provides insight into the Boer culture and a turn of the century concept: honor.

This is an incredible story of the adventures that a young commando endured during the boer wars. The narrow escapes, the victories, the defeats and the struggle to keep up the fight make this a must read for anyone interested in the Boer War. If there is one book to read on the subject this is it!

The memoirs of a soldier in the unsuccesfull war of independence that the Transvaal and Free State Republics in Southern Africa fought against the British Empire at the turn of the century. Reitz wrote the book in exile and left it for 20 years, then took out the emotion and bitterness and was left with a well structured, intelligent memoir that reads like the best fiction. His account of this guerilla war against the British empire can loosly be compared with Chickenhawk, Robert Mason's equally gripping memoir of the Viet Nam war

This book is a collection of 50 essays and speeches by the world's leading entrepreneurs-from the past to the present.

Barry Diller, Michael Dell, Richard Branson, and Phil Knight are among the successful entrepreneurs who share their best advice and strategies in the pages of this book. Filled with insights on a wide variety of entrepreneurial issues, the book discusses such topics as how to set and meet personal goals, how to create the right image for your company, problem solving, generating ideas, going public, and effective management. Editor Peter Krass introduces each selection and provides interesting and relevant background information on each entrepreneur. He also highlights significant comments and advice from each entrepreneur.

This book features each entrepreneur's ideas in his/her own words. Informative and inspiring, this book will appeal not only to entrepreneurs, but to all general business readers.

Peter Krass is an author and editor. He is the editor of The Book of Investing Wisdom, The Book of Leadership Wisdom, and The Book of Business Wisdom (all available from Wiley).

Reviewed by Azlan Adnan. Formerly Business Development Manager with KPMG, Azlan is currently Managing Partner of Azlan & Koh Knowledge and Professional Management Group, an education and management consulting practice based in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysian Borneo. He holds a Master's degree in International Business and Management from the Westminster Business School in London.

Peter Krass has compiled 50 essays by different spectacularly successful entrepreneurs, among them Barry Diller, Michael Dell, Richard Branson, Harvey Firestone and Steve Case, in which they share lessons they learned in their life the hard way.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone thinking about a career as an entrepreneur, and to any parents wishing to plant the idea of being an entrepreneur in their children's' heads.

This book is a fantastic accounting of many famous business owners and their stories. It shows the would be business owner that through hard work, dedication, and commitment, dreams and goals can be reached.

Peter Krass has edited the Wisdom Series series which includes this volume. Each anthologizes brief essays by various executives who are most highly regarded as leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, etc. Following an insightful Introduction, Krass provides a brief bio of each author which precedes her or his essay. Here we have "classic writings by legendary entrepreneurs" whose essays are organized by Krass as follows:

Part I: The Start-Up [eg Michael Bloomberg, Kim Polese, and Doris Drucker]

Part II: The Maverick Element and Other Qualities [eg Warren Avis, Andrew Carnegie, and Mark McCormack]

Part III: Venture Capital, LBOs, and Going Public [eg Tom Monaghan, Conrad Hilton, and Henry R. Kravis]

Part IV: Risk and Strategy [eg Richard Branson, Dave Thomas, and Steve Case]

Part V: Inventors Turned Entrepreneurs [eg Henry Ford, Steven P. Jobs, and Benjamin Franklin]

Part VI: Branding. Image, and Selling [eg Howard M. Schultz, John H. Johnson, and P.T. Barnum]

Part VII: Entrepreneurial Management [eg Alfred C. Fuller, Debbi Fields, and Anita Roddick]

Part VIII: Personal Stories [eg Herman W. Lay, Kenneth H. Olsen, and Samuel Goldwyn]

Krass has done a brilliant job of selecting and then organizing the 54 essays, many of which are otherwise unavailable or virtually inaccessible. (For example, Doris Drucker's "Mrs. Drucker Starts a Business." Yes, she is the wife of that Mr. Drucker.) If you enjoyed reading this book as much as I did, I urge you to check out each of the other volumes in the Wisdom Series, also published by John Wiley & Sons.

We recently got our first dog, a cute little black mix, named Blackie, for our young boys Welsey and Paul. They will probably have many pets in their lives but since they are only 3 and 5 now they will not remembers many of the special moments of their first pet Blackie. My husband and I are using The Book of My Pet to capture the life of Blackie so our boys can look back on the joys and responsibilities of caring for their first dog and share it with their kids when they grow up. Great book idea for pet lovers.

I wish I had copies of this book for every companion animal I ever had! Right now, I have three copies I'm keeping memories in -- one for each of my three dogs. I will be sure to purchase a new copy for each new furry friend that I adopt in the future. The "memory joggers" are very helpful while making entries from a pet's birth to crossing the Rainbow Bridge.

I know lots of pet owners who would get into this. The design is handsome, not overly cutesy like some. The memory-jogging prompts are v. good...some funny, some reflective, some factual. I like the way they are organized into chapters with subsections: 1. How to Write Your Pet's Story 2. Starting Out (Getting Ready, How We Met, Family Tree) 3. The First Year (Settling In, Getting to Know My Pet, Making & Breaking the Rules) 4. The Prime of Life (Personality, Pleasures, Habits & Health, Talents) 5. The Advanced Years (Winding Down, Maturing Ways) 6. Saying Good-bye (The Passing, Looking Back)

When I was a child and then a young mother, keeping a "baby book" of those born into the family was common. It was a way of documenting the events of the life of this important person and celebrating his/her uniqueness. The Book of My Pet offers that kind of possibility for the beloved animals who become significant parts of our families. This book evokes those memories you might forget by asking thoughtful questions in many categories. The whole family can participate in creating this remembrance at anytime in the life of your pet. It is also possible to mount pictures in the book to make it a visual as well as verbal story of your shared life with this mysterious, special being. I am using it to tell the story of Gray, our cat who has graciously taken us into her life.

If there is anything in the world you want to know about the M1 Garand, this is the book. If you have a Garand, this book is a must.

Any modern day gun-bug reading Julian S. Hatcher's resume can hardly help but drool. This dude lived during what had to have been the golden age of military small arms development, and seemed to always land a job involving some fascinating aspect of the rapidly advancing technology. No wonder he stayed in the military so long. I can't think of any modern writer that even comes close to the experience and technical background he had.

This book gives very complete information about the development, functioning, and use of the Garand rifle up to the end of World War 2. Of course there were more changes made to the gun around the Korean War and even up through the 1960's that Hatcher could not foresee, but those would mainly be of interest to the more meticulous collector types anyway. Hatcher gives an insider's account of the long struggle to find a good semi-automatic rifle, and touches on many other interesting designs that were cast aside along the way.

As a former reviewer said, "If you have a Garand, this book is a must."

Major General Julian S. Hatcher is not just another author writing about just another rifle. He is talking about the rifle designed by John C. Garand (pronounced with a hard 'g', as in 'go,' with the accent on the first syllable, to rhyme with parent.) The rifle's name, however, is usually pronounced 'guh-RAND' by the men who used it.

And General Hatcher was in on the development of the famous old (WWII and Korea) rifle from the beginning.

This is the rifle to which General George S. Patton referred, when he said, "The greatest battle implement ever devised by man!"

During the Second World War, the United States Army and the U.S. Marines (except in the very beginning, in the Philippines) were equipped with this rifle, and thus were the only combatants on either side equipped with a semi-automatic main battle rifle. With it, they could fire eight rounds of .30-'06 ammunition as fast as they could pull the trigger. When the ammunition in the clip was exhausted, the clip popped clear with a 'tinny' sound, and they simply shoved another in, and kept firing.

For a time, their enemies though they were all equipped with machine guns. And, the rifle was accurate and rugged. It would take punishment, and keep right on shooting.

Everything you could conceivably need to know about the "U.S. Rifle, Caliber .30, M1" is in this book: the history of its development and trials, general description, the sights, the operation, care and cleaning, disassembly and assembly, malfunctions and stoppages, ammunition, its use in World War Two, its use as a match rifle, and detailed photographs and drawings of its component parts.

I own one. I earned the right to buy a Garand from the givernment by competing in a sanctioned rifle match, going through an FBI investigation and clearance, and filling out a bunch of government paperwork. Then I purchased it from the Department of Civilian Marksmanship, and the postman delivered it to my door.

Before I got it, I bought this book.

You can get one too, the same way I did, from the Civilian Marksmanship Program (a government program, run by civilians, out of Port Clinton, Ohio.) See your local gun club for details.

Joseph Pierre,
Author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books

The development process of the M1 Garand rifle is detailed in this book. The problems of developing a reliable semi-auto full power military rifle are detailed. The attempts, the failures, the successes, the problems, the solutions, all are there. The book gives insights into inventor John Garand's genius and the manufacturing/military process. The result is what Patton called "The greatest battle implement ever developed." A must for collectors and afficiando's. See also Scott Duff's books on collecting this rifle.

The people that Joseph Mitchell introduces the reader to in these character sketches are representative of a New York that no longer exists and their stories are nostalgic and sentimental. But there is more here than that. Mitchell writes with a respect for his subjects regardless of their circumstances that reveals a true observer of life at work. Without a hint of judgementalism he takes the time to understand and the reader is rewarded and enriched as a result.
This collection is particulary good and Up In The Old Hotel contains more of the same style. The latter book is more readily available although I found a copy of this at the Strand bookstore off Union Square.

He really does take you places. Places you may have been before, but in a time we'll never know again. As I'm reading, I'm careful to catch every word, afraid of missing out on the world he's revealing to me.

This is the first I've ever read of Mitchell, but he's already one of my favorite authors. Journalism at its finest.

Informative and very well-written short stories about life near and on the New York waterways in the 1940-1950's. A thoughtful and seemingly kind writer...I will definately read more of his work.

There are so many good things I could say about The Bottom of the Harbor. Mitchell's writing style is clean easy to read without lacking in depth and texture. The stories themselves are fascinating and off beat.

But the best part of the book are the characters Mitchell writes about. They come alive through his portrayals and you will find yourself thinking about them, their thoughts, and their ways of life long after you stop reading.

The book contains six separate stories, each about 40 (short) pages long, so you can absorb them at your own pace without losing the thread. Personally, I had a hard time putting the book down.

Bubbelah factor is a well written and fun read. Part self-help and part hyterical life observations, it really kept me interested and entertained.

Although it is full of fashion faux-pas, entertaining no-nos, and dating disasters, the message at the end is real and optimistic.

Enjoy!

This book was witty, inciteful, and just brilliant. You must buy it.

I was given this book as a gift. Although it is for the singleton readership, which I am not a part of anymore, it gives the kind of advice that an old friend might give. Sure there's laughs, but the book makes sure to laugh with us and not at us. A good read.

This book seems like an impulse buy, but it is not just a gimmick. It is really funny, like Nora Ephron or Fran Liebowitz funny! And it has great practical advice on everything from dating to fashion -- but it doesn't hit you over the head with it. I laughed out loud a bunch of times. A really great gift for single girls with a sense of humor. Also, FYI, I don't think you have to be Jewish to "get" this book. It is funny for everyone.

This author has a great style of writing and everything she writes about encompasses some aspect of your life. It is a fun way to look at some of the mishaps in our lives-- and to have a good laugh; many times at ourselves.

My morning, mid morning, afternoon, late afternoon, and evening (did I miss any?) coffee breaks just aren't the same without a healthy topping of humor--and when a group of gal pals can't gather with me to share the often hilarious details of their lives, Caffeinated Ponderings is a refreshing companion that never ceases to make me laugh out loud as I struggle to keep the last sip contained in my mouth.

Shana is a modern day Erma Bombeck, with non-stop whimsical wit and hysterical humor wrapped into this delicious book. Everyone will relate to and relish her ponderings on life in today's society. Caffeinated Ponderings is a must read with your daily coffee --her words are the cream and sugar behind the best latte you've ever had."

Great book, really cute and funny. I found myself chuckeling out loud while reading. I totally realted to many of the tales talked about in this book. I felt like I was sitting at coffee with my lady friends listening to the stories being told and laughing. Thanks Shana, I'm so glad to know I am not the only one who is warped after too many Latte's (or Mocha's). She really knows how to touch on the real things in life and make you laugh.

Great book! Really cute and funny. I found myself chuckeling and smiling as I could totally related to so many of the short tales talked about in this book. I felt like I was sitting at coffee with my lady friends listening to these stories being told. Thanks Shana, I'm glad I am not the only one who's mind warps after too many Lattes (or Mocha's). She truley knows how to touch on all those real things in life and make you laugh!

Dr Allgood's pictoral and detailed account of this wonderful journey makes me long to go back to this magical place. Once I picked up the book I could not set it down until I was finished. Then I read it again. His photographers eye captured moments you only dream of. Well done!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading and experiencing The Call of Africa. The descriptions of the adventures were so well documented and written with a wonderfully warm, comfortable style. It was like being on safari in bedroom slippers! The excellent photographs brought me right to the Savannah, and the other exotic locals described in this wonderful journey. The photos alone make the book worth getting! I can't wait for the DVD!

This book's gorgeous photographs, combined with the "right in the moment" style of Dr. Allgood's writing, make this a perfect "armchair trip" to Africa! I recommend it to anyone thinking about going there -- it feels as though you have good friends who've come back from their once-in-a-lifetime trip and are now sitting with you sharing amazing stories and pictures. The wildlife photos in particular are spectacular and of professional quality. The stories really make the places come alive -- this is no ordinary 'tour book'. A great gift, too, for anyone who travels, loves animals, etc.

I have long been a fan of Dr. Allgood's photography, he captures the beauty, the essence and a subtext of his subjects, allowing personal interpretation. This book fulfilled my expectations and then some. The easy reading allowed me to be a travel companion with this wonderful couple. I loved the stories that introduced me to some very interesting people and animals, plus added a greater debth of understanding of the africa that he and Sharon enjoyed so much! A journey I will not forget. I recommend this book to anyone contemplating a trip to Africa, it will provide you with descriptions of places you will probably want to visit yourself after reading them. Or, if armchair traveling is what you enjoy most, you will be thrilled with the quality of the photography and text that allows you to put yourself in the authors jeep.

As an historical fiction buff, I'm glad to see someone is writing good historical novels. I hope Mr. Seiden continues along the path of this book with meticulous research and weaving in a love story, intrigue, adventure and of course, historical events. I can hardly wait to read his next masterpiece.

The first Columbus voyage was described so clearly, you really felt like you were there and gratefully so, because the struggle to just get the ships was so trying. This gives the reader a perspective into Columbus that doesn't exist in the history books - perhaps because it is too controversial. Who cares - I loved it!!! You will too. Great book!

Maybe because also in 1492 - There was the Spanish Inquisition, Christians burning at the stake, Moslems and Jews being expelled from their homelands in Spain.

No history book ever mentioned Columbus' spirituality - why? Was he hiding a secret that the world is just now discovering? This historical fiction begs that question... using his private journal and understanding the political environment he was forced to deal in, author Othniel Seiden paints a picture of intrigue surrounding Christopher Colombus as has never been seen before...

On the pages of this book unfolds an adventure where the characters are crisp, real and well defined and in the case of Christopher Colombus - legendary.

In the history books, we learn mostly of the voyage itself, but not too much attention played out on what was happening culturally around the events. The Inquisition and persecution of Christians was constant. This historical novel is based upon Christopher Colombus' private journal.

Reading between the lines of the journal, the author Othniel Seiden sees a pattern of spiritual practice that has never been discussed about Columbus and one that might shed a new and deeper dimension on this historical figure and the times he lived in.

It was a great read and a fascinating subject!

This historical fiction novel is set in ancient Spain during the time of the Inquisition and the dark ages, one Don Jacob Duponte (fictional) was falling in love and enjoying his career and travels as a cartographer. Unbeknownst to him, someone called him a heretic and in those days, that is all it took to have someone thrown into a torture chamber or worse all in the name of the Inquisition.

Don Jacob was rescued because of his talents as a cartographer by the explorer Christopher Columbus, who at the time of their meeting was still trying to get Queen Isabella of Spain to finance a journey across the Atlantic.

Thrown then into intrique and a secret world where one's personal spirituality had to be kept hidden for fear of the Inquisition, Don Jacob found himself protecting secret Jews; Jewish people who had to keep their faith and their heritage totally secret.

The adventure unfolds right from the pages of Columbus' own journal - with these amazing characters woven in.

This novel takes the reader aboard the Santa Maria to experience the superstition of the crew and the hope of the man in charge. It takes the reader to the shores of the new world where they were warmly greeted and told of vast treasures.

Then sailing back across the sea, through storms that should have killed all on board.

The writing is exquisite. The adventure is captivating. The story is based on fact. The humanity of these explorers and their loved ones is compelling!

Love these notecards! Cute designs, ample room for dedications/text and great for inky and ballpoint pens! Nothing bad to say about this set :)

I was given this set of cards for Christmas last year and absolutely love them. They are very high quality and convenience. A great investment that will bring many smiles.

Extremely well done. The images truly capture the essence of Catwoman! A treasure for any fan and admirer alike. Check out the Batman set, too!

I need to begin this review with a confession: I am a stationary junkie. I have a huge Rubbermaid container filled with stationary and notecards of every imaginable kind, and these Catwoman notecards are hands-down the best part of my collection. I bought my first box years ago and have since ordered several more because I want to make sure I never run out! The paper stock and artwork are both of very high quality, and every design is fabulous! As a huge Catwoman fan, I have a hard time using these notecards because I simply do not want to part with them! Chronicle Books also offers a pretty cool Wonder Woman notecard collection, but it doesn't even begin to compare to this one. Stock up while you can!