Quality Time Books

Books help families and individuals cope with dying, death, hospice care, and grief. The best books I've found for this are the Bible, Kubler-Ross', and Barbara Olive's "Time to Say Goodbye"

With humorous and heartfelt stories from his own family life and beautiful illustrations that make you want to step into them, Kinkade inspires you to make your own home more cozy and fill it with laughter and good memories. This is a book you can quickly read again and again with family members or on your own.

I purchased the audio of A Wrinkle In Time for my classroom - I use it for my special needs students and also for students who have missed class while we read together (it is a quick way to catch up). I was excited to hear Madeline L'Engle read the story, but my students found her voice a bit tedious. My colleague and I have used this story as a science fiction genre unit for several years - the students love it!

I have often heard people comment about how good this book is, but I've never taken the time to read it before now. I can't say that I was mislead. This is a highly imaginative tale of good vs. evil, told from the point of view of young Meg Murry. Meg is smart but rebellious, fiercely protective of her unusual family. She and her brother, Charles Wallace, are about to go on a journey through space and time to find their long absent father, and in the process, confront an evil so powerful that it threatens to engulf them all.

Written with vivid imagery, this story is a fantasy wrapped inside some of the conventional trappings of science-fiction. Along the way, we consider the nature of evil, how it robs people of their individuality and choice. In the end, discovering the one thing evil can't do will be the key to Meg's victory.

I re-read this book from my childhood and I'm very disappointed with particular messages Madeleine presents to children. I think enough has been said about stars (angels?) being conceived as witches to "play a joke" on everyone and the centaur appearance of the other "angels". No matter what the rest of the story conveys, I am completely revulsed by the notion she presents that Jesus was a fighter. He is not a fighter, but represents peace & love spreading the word of the Father on this earth for all to follow. Also, Jesus has already won the battle for us. All of these ignorant statements in this book by Madeleine need to be pulled before I will even think about looking at this book or sharing it with others.

A book for children, but not too bad for that. A bored girl, her brothers and others get mixed up in an adventure across the space-time continuum by way of some nifty tesseract tricks.

When a strange older woman comes visiting they set off to find the father of all these children, who is a prisoner of one of your standard supervillains, a giant disembodied telepathic brain.

This has been one of my all-time favorite books since I first read it as a girl. It is excellent reading for elementary school children, but also fun for adults. Highly recommended!

I understand reservations about this book, but I think it makes a powerful case for applying the lessons of globalism to your personal life. There is no reason that only big multinationals and governments should profit from globalization - everyday normal Joes and Joannes can too. Globalization is one of the most powerful profit engines on the planet right now, and anyone who does not take advantage of it is a fool, in my opinion. Wealth will, as always, come to those with daring and initiative. The majority who lack the strength to come out from under their sedentary, suburban rocks will become an impoverished commodity class.

Whether or not you can in fact achieve a 4 hour work week, there is great value in hypermobility and global nomadism, for people with the imagination, intelligence and flexibility to make it happen. The author perhaps overestimates the imagination of his audience at points in the book. It has always been clear to me that nomads are special people, and it takes a renegade mentality to make much of this work. Whether or not the specific entrepreneurial wealth engine that he details will work for you is irrelevant. There are ways, and this book should be viewed as a crack in the ice of sedentary convention. It is up to you to come up with your own technique.

I strongly recommend a career in IT contracting for people who want to possess unique control over their time. Every contract typically lasts from three months to a year. Every time your contract ends, is a good opportunity to take a break and explore the world. If you have a home with a mortgage you might not be able to do it. But if you live without mortgage and a high fixed monthly cost of living, as I do, you could. Explore the ways that conventional ways of living might not be helping you.

Interesting, but I think many of the concepts are difficult to apply in corporate America.

Well-written and actionable, the "Four Hour Workweek" book delivers a step by step process combining a variety of techniques designed to help people make outstanding use of their time.

For fellow 'serial entrepreneurs' like myself, the outsourcing and 'boundary management' tips were particularly useful, including must-read tips for avoiding outsourcing pitfalls (eg time caps on projects and how to select assistants), plus more.

His model is a sound one, on page 185, for developing an info-business plan; though there's much more to it than is covered, it's a great overview and outline of key productivity concepts. I found it impressive that the author was able to articulate many effective productivity-boosting strategies so clearly.

For more, be sure to study Brian Tracy and Dan Kennedy as well. I recommend Brian's "Eat That Frog", and Dan's "No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs" books (along with all their other products, which are essential for success).

Overall, highly recommended; it got me thinking about outsourcing more effectively, plus other actionable ideas, so that alone is well worth reading this for.

-Ken Calhoun

This is an excellent book which includes many, many details and suggested exercises. My suggestion is to read the book all the way through once, then start working on the exercises, slowly, otherwise it can be a bit too much to really get a handle on. Awesome, so worth the money spent to purchase it.

That pretty much sums up what this book should have been called. I just can't fathom how so many people have been duped into drinking the kool-aid that young Mr Ferriss expounds so carelessy in his book.

For those of you looking for the 'Cliff Note' version, I'll summarize in 3 points what this book is basically about:

1 - Look for ways to generate passive income (ie, make $$ with little or no work). In Mr. Ferriss' case, it's selling vitamin supplements online...yeah you heard it right.

2 - Make it your life's goal to become a slacker by outsourcing everyday tasks(eg, checking email, paying bills, online shopping, etc). Yes, everyone is as busy and important as Mr Ferris that they need to manage a team of personal assistants in India to check their email, pay bills and shopping online.

3 - Once you become a slacker, look for activities that will give you meaning in life. Young Mr. Ferris has some real gems of wisdom for you ;-)

The 4-Hour Work Week is complete utter waste of time and not worth the paper it's printed on. Check out at the library if you must waste 2-3 hours of your life skimming through the drivel.

One star for a Clancy book?? Yes, but I'll get to that later.

I've been reading Clancy for 20 years and read all his first half dozen or so novels as they were published. He is an amazingly talented writer. I think he is at times a genius in characterization. I've used him as an example of good writing in some of my classes; how he can completely round out a character on one side of a single page of paper. Clancy deserves the success he has achieved.

But with this book I began a personal boycott of his books; guiltily I'd still check them out from the local library, but I wouldn't pay real money for them any more.

It's the morality of the thing. Being a vigilante, being judge, jury and executioner . . . is not only a good thing, but an honorable and laudable thing; a thing to be strived for; a heroic thing . . . and wouldn't it be great if America was filled top-full of Clarks killing their way through our days and nights? Certainly there are real predatory criminals out there, and Clancy has made sure that the bad guys in this book have that character. But when it comes to making us root for a murderer (albeit a good and just murderer), I'm sorry but I just can't get on that boat with you.

And a major illustration of this is one of the climactic points of the book; using decompression equipment to torture and kill. Here's how it reads: first the omniscient voice of the author describes the equipment and its effect on the human body; then Clark captures the bad buy and explains to him in detail (once again) the equipment and its effects; then Clark actually does the deed and the equipment and its effects are laid before us (in detail) for a third time. I'm sorry but here's what I saw in my mind's eye: a naked sweaty man sitting at a keyboard typing out this description of gruesome torture over and over, breathing hard. Breathing very hard. I thought it was one of the most disgusting pieces of fiction, really pornographic, ever published.

All that said, it's still a skillfull and wonderfully crafted book. Although Clark's excape at the end is borderline supernatural, or at least invests him with the powers of Superman . . . a bit of jumping-the-shark there.

MS

If you have never read any of Clancy's books before, this is not a bad place to start. I have not read many of his works myself, but it appears to me that this is chronologically the first to take place in the series on John Clark and Jack Ryan. This book for me was one of those rare effortless reads where the pages turned on their own and I did not want to put it down. I found the story to be completely plausible - if you have ever wondered what would have to happen in the life of a normal, non-psychopathic person that would turn them into a highly-skilled, cold-blooded killer, this is the answer. I won't give away too many details of the plot, but it is basically a revenge motif - a decent guy seeking justice against some pretty bad people and the inner struggles he endures while doing this and trying to remain one of the "good guys." It kind of reminded me of Batman (without the cape and mask, and with Batman being an executioner). This is definitely a guys book, and if that's what you are in the mood for, you will not waste any time or money with this one. Truly satisfying.

This was the fifth Clancy book I have read but my first in many years. Without giving much away it is mainly a story of revenge. In this book you get to see how some of the regular characters in other Clancy novels come to be. I thought the book was fine & if you are just starting out the book does pick up the pace once you get one or two hundred pages in. I didn't rate this book higher because I feel the story could have been done with less than 750 pages, that's two pretty good sized books. Also much of the book takes place in Vietnam & details some Navy Seal / SOG action. I have recently read the book "SOG" by John Plaster & I have to say the action in that book is hard to beat - & it was hard for me not to compare the two. Without Remorse does finish with a bang just for me it took a little long to get there.

How can you not like a book with a line such as :

"Oh no, not in their wildest nightmares have they ever met anyone like me.
The name they had given him in Vietnam boiled up from the past.
Snake. "

corny, jingoistic, call it whatever elitist dribble you want, i think this book rocks!! Apart from this, the research he puts into the book should also be commended.
I only hope, if at all they choose to make a movie out of this, they stay true to the concept of the book. As mechanical engineer, i appreciate Mr. Clancy's work even more because of his minute precision level attention to detail. John Clark's workshop,

Hemingway meets John Rambo ...

Great fun read, gets a bit gory in the beginning, then snake takes over!! :) Enjoy it.

Umm yea this was my first experience reading tom clancy so I don't have any strong feelings one way or another. So yea it's very obvious that he does do a lot of research before writing so much so that i myself got lost in some of the military jargon and weapons lingo. But it was a compelling plot, straight forward and easy to understand. Sometimes it was a little confusing to keep track of characters especially the navy admirals because they mentioned like 3 different names for each character, first, last, and nickname. Then he wouldn't talk about them again for another chapter or so. So by the time you think you've figured it out you've forgotten the next time the characters come around. The characters themselves were a little two dimensional and the dialog also needed some work I doubt very much that people are straightforward. All and all I give it a 4 out of 10.

That day, through the television, I watched the buildings and tried to see through the smoke and the fire to the people inside. In fact, I remember saying to one of my sons, "The people! What about all the people up on those higher floors?" Then, in that first horrible instant, the buildings and the people were gone.....twice. For me, there was a horrible void, as if I didn't know something vital. I was haunted by the question - "What were all those people on the higher floors doing during the hour and a half?" I was almost beyond comfort.
Through this book, I met the people. I cried.

This was an absolutely amazing book. Not just because of the true-life accounts of many who survived (or, in many cases, didn't), but mostly because the authors pull no punches in telling the story of 9/11/01.

This isn't a book that bashes the government, both local and national, but it does tell both the good and the bad, the positive and the negative. While I was uplifted and encouraged by so many examples of human kindness, I was devastated to read that so very many deaths could have possibly been avoided, if there had just been better communication between political-minded departments.

Also, the fact that so many shortcuts were taken in building the World Trade Center, simply to create more rentable space, shows just how far people will go to make a buck. It saddens me that so many lives might have been saved if there were more staircases, if they had been spread out more, if they had had proper fireproofing.

If you're interested at all in the story that is 9/11, then this is a must-read.

There are times you want to put this book down. It is hard to take. But it is a superior record of what we know - or sometimes, what we have to assume - happened at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Even those stories I'd heard about, they take on another dimension in 102 Minutes. It is thoroughly researched and painstakenly recounted. The horrifying moments when people in the South Tower are watching people plunge out of the North Tower ... actually seeing their faces so close but not able to do anything. One part of you is saying: I don't want to read any more about this. But the other part is saying: We can't forget what the terrorists are capable of doing to us.

One of the best books I've read in a long time. Highly recommending to everyone I know.

It was hard to rate at 5 stars only because the subject matter is upsetting. I had started to read this book and put it down for some reason--but when I picked up again I read the rest (a little less than half) in short order. Reading the book has prompted me to read more about the events of 9/11. I will suggest my son--a high school freshman read it, to learn about this upsetting part of contemporary history.

gripping, horrific, this book will sear your memories and help you understand why so many things went wrong that day. It should dispel all 9/11 conspiracy theories if only those conspirators would read this book.

Excellent book. Very easy to read and understand. It makes so much sense. The author provides a step by step way to analyze yourself and balance all areas in your life. You can work this plan on your own or with a team. Highly recommended.

Personal coach Cheryl Richardson outlines her 7-step program to create the life you want. Cheryl offers practical advice centered on being good to yourself. She explains the common obstacles to living your ideal life and how to overcome them. This is a great self-coaching book if you aren't able to work with a personal coach. She offers several coaching reminders to help you live your desired life. Another bonus of the book is the different resources offered at the end of each chapter. This helps the reader connect with a resource that might resonate with them. This book is a very good, basic approach to working toward getting the life you want.

I thought the suggestions were very good. However, I did not like how one is suppose to find someone else and do the program with them along the way. That has never worked for me.

There were good suggestions about getting rid of the clutter in your life and about spirituality.

I had never heard of Ms. Richardson until a friend recommended this book. I bought it, began reading and immediately connected with her personal story and approach. She is reader friendly and offers seemingly endless lists and exercises to help us reduce stress, simplify and create balance.
Some of Ms. Richardson's tips and suggestions resoundingly resonate a "Martha Stewart" style, which is at times cumbersome and a bit over-the-top with to-dos.
I like referring to this book, either when I'm searching for another book or URL (she lists many resources at chapter ends, very useful!) or when I'm looking to create new ideas for my women's support group.
Pie Dumas - Author & Life Coach

I can't say enough good things about the authors on Hay House and Hay House Radio. While this book is not a Hay House title (at least not the edition I'm reading), it certainly is one of the best self-help books I've read.

Cheryl is very action-oriented and quite generous when it comes to sharing her tactical secrets for success. Read this book if you're absolutely willing to do the work required to achieve your goals. This is not for the woo woo reader who is passively waiting for the Universe to deliver.

Compliments to Cheryl as well for the advice she gave me when I called into her radio program. She's a big champion of the idea that when you marry intention with action, miracles occur. I'm experiencing the results of putting her strategies into action as we speak. And am looking forward to achieving more happiness and success as more miracles unfold.

Think twice before hiring a career coach. Read this book first. The tone is positive and Cheryl is genuinely supportive.

What author Patrick Quillin wants people to know is that there is a direct, documented connection between diet and cancer. You will come away from this book armed with the knowledge you need to prevent cancer or to increase your odds of healing if you have cancer.

Malnutrition, caused when cancer shifts the metabolism into high gear and induces loss of appetite, kills 40 percent of cancer patients. Additionally, cancer researchers estimate that a large percentage of all cancers can be avoided with proper nutrition, low stress levels and psychological wellness.

Quillin, a nutritionist and medical researcher, has spent over 15 years working with 3,000 cancer patients in cancer treatment centers to improve their outcomes. The bottom line of Quillin's research and book is that a well-nourished cancer patient can better manage the disease, and has fewer infections, less side-effects from chemotherapy and radiation, as well as a better quality and quantity of life and improved chances for complete remission.

The book also explains how cancer forms, how various chemotherapies work and how vitamins, minerals and other nutrients (from supplements or food) can work in harmony with chemotherapy to improve treatment results. "Nutrition can make medical therapy more of a selective toxin against the cancer and less damaging to the patient," says Quillin, who advocates that nutrition therapy is an essential part of a comprehensive cancer treatment because:

* Proper nutrition protects patients against the toxic effects of chemotherapy and radiation without reducing their effectiveness in killing cancer;
* Nutrients support the immune system in sequestering and eliminating cancer; and
* Tumors feed on sugar, therefore certain diet restrictions are crucial. Food additives such as Aspartame (NutraSweet) and Saccharin have both been linked to cancer and should also be avoided. Sucralose (Splenda) seems to be safe.

Quillin does not offer prescriptions or treatment for cancer in all it's forms; rather he shows how patients can supplement their current treatment with specific vitamins, minerals and nutrient-rich foods to get better outcomes.

Beating Cancer With Nutrition is also a book for people who want to prevent cancer. People who are inactive, stressed, and have poor diets (high in processed food and low in vegetables and fiber) have an exceptionally high likelihood of developing cancer.


Toxins - The average person comes into contact with 20,000 known carcinogens.
Distress--Scientific studies have found that people with severely stressful lives can be 1500% more prone to developing cancer.
Poor nutrition--The body is built and repaired by the nutrients in our food. We need certain nutrients to fight cancer.
Lack of exercise--40 percent of Americans will develop cancer in their lifetimes, but only 14 percent of highly active American will develop cancer.

Quillin's discussion of what causes cancer shows that we can reduce our chances of getting it by adopting nutrition and exercise habits and avoiding stress and toxins. Quillin offers lengthy explanations of which nutrients are necessary to keep our immune system strong enough to destroy cancer cells as they form.

Cancer patients and healthy people alike will find this book to be eye opening. We seem to have some measure of control in avoiding cancer. This book will make you think hard about your diet, your stress levels and how you can give yourself the best chances of recovering from or avoiding cancer.

I've purchased this book on two different occasions and given it to friends with cancer. It is a great resource for the recipes alone, and also the vitamin therapy that Quillan outlines in detail. The first edition I bought also came with an accompanying CD, which was very helpful. Nutrition is incredibly important in daily life, but especially a battle with cancer. Elaine Williams, author A Journey Well Taken: Life After Loss.

My name is Dr. Douglas Husbands ([...]) and I've been practicing holistic health care for about 2 decades. As a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, Chiropractor and Functional Medicine health practitioner, I have many patients who seek my help for multiple health problems including cancer. I always recommend that any patient who has cancer purchase, read and immediately begin to implement the recommendations Dr. Quillin makes in his book. This is THE most excellent, straightforward, easy to read self-help book with practical, scientifically-supported and valid information designed for anyone with cancer and no prior background in nutrition or health care. It should even be standard reading for many medical oncologists, which would result in many people's lives being saved!

I recently found out I have a relative with cancer who lives too far away from me to provide adequate care for. Besides referring them to a holistic health care colleague closer to where they live, I've advised them to immediately purchase, read and implement the advise outlined by Dr. Quillin in Beating Cancer With Nutrition. If you have cancer, or want to prevent it, buy this book and take the steps outlined NOW!

Lastly, I get no financial benefit from recommending this book, but I feel so strongly about this that I wholeheartedly urge anyone with cancer to benefit from the recommendations provided in the book.

"Beating cancer with Nutrition" is my bible as I fight colon cancer. I bought many cancer books after my diagnosis but this is the best one. Some of my friends who don't even have cancer have purchaseed it after looking thru it at my house. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

The book was a big disappointment for me. It is a typical happy book about the awful way that Americans eat and encouraging more of the same..
Bad advise on diet and eating.

I usually like business fables. This one was unfortunately well below par . . . and not because the business described was uninteresting. The business was very interesting.

But the book spent too much time going away from talking about the fable and into attempting to be an elementary class on how to run a very small business. I admit it. The unending repetition of the 4 P's (Passion, People, Personal and Product) got to me.

Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know that good products sell better than less good ones? Are there any small business people who don't know that your people make a difference? Have you ever been annoyed if people gave you more personal service? Do you enjoy buying from passionate people?

If you know those things, you can skip this book. You've already passed this course.

I liked that the book was based on a real business where anyone would want to buy their coffee. I also liked that the advice was to give great service and products.

But aside from describing how they run their coffee business, this book was pretty boring and simplistic. For me the upside of the book was the description of peddling to work by bicycle trailed by cookies you've baked yourself and enjoying a half-hour ferry ride in between. That sounded very great indeed!

A short easy to read book with profound principles. The ideas are common sense, but achieving the correct mix and right balance may be difficult to implement.

Moreover, I like the fact that this book has a "discussion forum" via the internet. A useful read for people studying marketing / management.

On second thought, a MUST read for all (employers + employees) on how to improve the enjoyability of their working lives!

This is not a great book. It is short and sweet but general knowledge. It can serve as a great reminder but unless it is in the clearance bin don't bother.

Although there are literally tens of business cases presented in short book if not parable form for popular audiences, BEANS, recommends itself as one of the best ones by virtue of its usefulness for both managers and employees.

It tells a compelling story that presents real world challenges and realistic solutions. It presents a scale of business almost everyone should be able to relate to since it isn't about the sometimes otherworldly power plays the Captains of Industry like to write about. For the rest of us, the human-sized, daily dilemmas of making one's vision work while surviving to make them work, is sensibly and warmly expressed in BEANS.

BEANS is the kind of book that could pay for itself, if a saavy entrepreneur who resonates with its commonsense, promoted its message in their own enterprise.

This book is so poorly written it is laughable. This is a fable for yuppies who are fascinated by Seattle and expensive coffee drinks. The points it tries to make are so obvious (treat customers well, etc) that anyone who still needs to learn them has no place in the business world.
The author keeps inserting street names and places in Seattle as if to say "I know Seattle, isn't that cool?", but the writing is so bad and the points so obvious it could be condensed to a three or four page pamphlet.
I read the author's bio, and apart from working at Amazon (that's in Seattle!) he does not appear to have any real world experience. This is a bad book written by two "consultants" looking to cash in on the self help business book boom.
Leaf through it in a book store sometime and you will see what I mean.
Utter crap. Don't waste your money.

The three stars are for James Spader's sexy speaking voice. I wasn't all that fond of the story but picturing the handsome Spader reading it, and listening to him was a real pleasure! I wish he narrated other books!

This is a great thick hard cover book filled with short stories by Dean Koontz. He is entertaining & suspenseful as usual. If you don't want to have to commit yourself to a long novel, then this book is perfect! It's also great if you don't have a lot of space considering you get lots of little stories in one place. I am a huge fan of Koontz. His older works are far superior to the newer stuff of the past 10 years or so. This is a must have!

In this book, you will find a story entitled, "Chase". This is one of those rare stories that make the entire work worth purchasing. The character development is strong enough to elicit tears from the reader. You're only disappointmet is that this story was a novella, or short story, and you will mourn that it had to end. THAT is always a good sign..........enjoy!

If this book consisted only of the short story KITTENS, I would still recommend it, no matter the cost. When I reached the ending of that story, I was so frightened, I literally threw the book across the room, just like you might see in a horror movie or something. The other stories in the collection were great, but Kittens is one that showed a dark side to Koontz I had never seen before. I enjoyed that extra dark look into his soul... If you pick this book up, you simply MUST read KITTENS!

Strange highways

This is a twisted story about a man that must confront his past and gets a second chance by choosing the highway road he didn't take 20 years earlier. It will take him back to when he was 20 years old and will enter new people to help him along the way. He is able to rewind for a few minutes until he gets it right. It was a very short story. A bit too descriptive for me, I felt like the story dragged.

The Black Pumpkin

I could see this in Tales of the Crypt. You get what you give. Very good story about being good and being evil. The choice is ultimately up to you!

Miss Attila the Hun

A great story that Love does conquer all. I loved the storyline that this teacher was able to protect her children she taught and the town she loved to live in.

Down in the Darkness

What would you do if you came in contact with a door that just appeared everytime someone was being mean to you? Would you use that door to the cellar to your advantage? Would you let the "things" take what you could not stand anymore? When would it end? Loved this one! I wish I had a cellar door like this!

Snatcher

When evil encounters something even eviler than oneself. What happens? Will it survive? This is about a young man who loves to steal and to will steal at any cost. Enter a fragile old woman and her purse. What lays beneath her purse is bound to cure the thief!

Trapped

Total Sci-Fi and a bit cartoonish. What happens when the BioLab up the road finds out its inhabitants escaped. Will mankind survive or will they triumph?

Bruno

What a strange character Bruno is. He has hands with power to heal and powers that enable him to mend with ones mind. How much invasion of ones thoughts is too much? Is it worth letting yourself go and giving yourself 100 percent?

Hardshell

I really liked this. Total Sci-Fi feel. A dark creature is on the loose and only one cop - hardshell can apprehend him. What happens with Hardshell comes face to face with this thing??? Very good story!

Kittens

Very short story that goes like this - what goes around comes around. A little girl wants to know why God always takes her cats kittens. The parents respond that its Gods world and up to him. They also have twins and take a liking to them more than this little girl. She hides one night in the barn to find out what happens to the kittens. Absolutely frightening! But the little girl has the last word............

The night of the storm

What happens when man and robot come face to face. Who will be the victor. That is what this story is about. It puts us in the minds of the robots, how they feel, how they live, how they move. How mankind wants to extinguish them. Very good story.