Resources Books

If business were a religion, this would be the bible.
Awesome, practical information that can be implemented immediately!

Neil has written a remarkable guide for the salon and spa industry. His tested business methods have proven to become the standard in the industry. If you follow the systems and use the analytical models, you can't go wrong! This book should be on every salon owners desk to use as a referrence.

Fast Forward is a must read for anyone in the salon spa business and for that matter any business. This book addresses topics from A to Z on Quality management. I found excellent guidance for my many qustions from finance to teamwork. The needs of any business owner in today's rapid changing business environment must be met with the right information. No one has time for costly mistakes. Neil's book is a "must have" tool for any salon leader.

Owning a copy of Fast Forward is like having a PDR (Physician's Desk Reference) for your salon. If you need any answer, it's in there. This is a great reference book for anyone in the salon or spa industry. It's just chock full of useful information. Just the other day I needed wording for a help wanted ad. I picked up my copy of Fast Forward and bingo - there it was. I highly recommend this book.

For those in the beauty industry and for others looking to make the salon and spa field a career, there is no better guide than Neil Ducoff's book. In a business where most Salon and Spa education focuses on technical skills, sadly disappointing those in search of practical and relevant business information, you will be pleasantly surprised. Whether its leadership, finance, employee issues, marketing or system building, you will find the help that leads you thru all the avenues. Neil's experience, wisdom and bits of humor run throughout this book. Well written, readable and in a "reference format", you'll find yourself turning thru its pages often. Five years later it still holds a prominent space on my desk. Highly recommended!

Don't let this book's small size fool you! It's filled with good, practical advice on staying fit and active while in the confines of an airport, plane and hotel room. Ms. Melanson offers some great tips on how to keep your circulation moving as well as your muscles limber and fit. As a personal trainer, I will be giving this book to my clients to take on their travels!

Ms. Melanson makes it possible for the most unlikely candidates to succeed in exercising. I know. I am a new convert to her way of thinking. This is a simple recipe book for stirring up better circulation, better metabolism and good energy. She explains the exercises clearly and made me want to try a few of them out.

Fly Fit is a fun book that gives good advice on keeping fit while traveling. Not only is it informative, but it's small size makes it easy to toss into your carry on bag and take with you. I highly recommend it. This book will go with me on my travels!

I love this little book. Ms. Melanson offers so much sound advice that seems easy to follow in an airport or sitting on an airplane. I can't wait to try it out when I go to Chicago next spring. The book, although small enough to fit in a purse or even a jacket pocket, is packed with practical tips and concise instructions on how to get the most out of its advice. A great stocking stuffer or office grab gift. I sure could have used this book on my trip to Italy last year!

It is an amazing book. A must read if you do alot of traveling. The book is not too long and easy reading. I would have liked this years ago before I started traveling.

This book is very helpful for anyone interested in putting attention getting signs on their church marquee. Lots of choices.

I am a Christian school teacher and I use these sayings on a board outside of my classroom for students to read as they are entering class. I change the saying every week. The students (and staff) look forward to seeing the new message each week. Quick way to get interesting Godly messages to students.

The United States of America has all kinds of unique cultural phenomena. American football is pretty much a solely American sport. Wal-Marts and McDonalds are now spreading around the globe like spores, but those multi-billion dollar business would never have survived past an initial store in any other country in the world. Another uniquely piece of American culture are billboards and road signs. A sub-category of these would be church signs which though contain all the pertinent information about services and such, often include some sort of short message that changes on a weekly basis. Mary Katherine and David Compton enjoyed reading these signs as they traveled through the country and began collecting them in a notebook. This book is the "fruit" of their efforts. In 134 pages the authors include around 300 messages that they have seen on church signs over the years. Some are humorous, some are thought-provoking, and a few are both. Just a few samples include:

"Creation bears God's autograph."

"Turn or Burn"

"Christians never meet for the last time."

"Experts made the Titanic, amateurs made the ark."

The book makes a nice little gift for a Christian friend or family member and is also a nice resource for churches to have incase the usual message writer goes on vacation for a week.

"Forbidden Fruit Creates Many Jams: Roadside Church Signs Across America" has been assembled by Mary Katherine Compton and David Compton. In the introduction the Comptons describe this compilation of church signs as "a soulful slice of roadside Americana."

The messages include invitations, threats, puns, political comments, satire, and advice. There are musings on God, the devil, the Bible, prayer, and other topics. Along the way are a number of cultural references.

A number of the signs have an unpleasant flavor of arrogance or intolerance. Examples: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it"; "April First: National Atheists Day"; "Turn or burn"; etc. Some of the messages hint at a larger cultural war between Christian fundamentalists and secular society; this aspect of the book is particularly intriguing.

But culture wars aside, there are some delightful and thoughtful entries along the way. A couple of my favorites: "Road rage? How would Jesus drive?"; "Thank God for dirty dishes. At least you have food." Overall, a fascinating look at this cultural phenomenon.

The authors compiled a list of church signs they have seen while on the road. 134 pages of one, two or three clever eye-catching signs per page. It started with the title, on an empty church in North Carolina. Then they kept a notebook with them as they traveled and recorded these "snetence sermons" as they call them, adfter their epiphany in North Carolina. One of the catchiest, "When you meet tempation, turn to the light."

This is an easy read and a very enjoyable one.

One tip for cutting pieces from these books - Laminate the whole page first and then cut out the pieces. The lamiate will not pull off after cutting as long as the plastic is hot enough. You can also laminate the chart pages right into inside of file folders and use re-stick glue for the pieces. It keeps the pieces together so they don't get lost.

The concept of this book is great, and the pictures are very vibrant and inviting. My only problem with the book is that you have to cut out each and every piece, and they don't make them easy shapes to cut out! (Not a lot of straight lines; lots of squigly lines.) Plus, you have to cut them out once, then cut them out again once you laminate them. I know this sounds petty, but to a teacher who is already short on time, it's an important factor.

This book is so awesome, I bought the other 2 in the series. After laminating onto file folders and cutting out the pieces, I use Post It glue so they stick to the charts. This is an easy way to have meaningful, independent centers for ALL students. For advanced students, I copy the blank charts for each group. Then students sort the words and write them with dry erase markers onto the correct place (on the laminated pages). I've also found these a very good way to get parent helpers involved.

This is the PERFECT center activity!!!
I have been teaching for many years and this is by far the BEST product I have found for easy to use and make phonics word sort centers. I've always had to make my own- what a pain! My students love to use these in small groups because after I introduce the words with the whole group, they are able to complete the center on their own and then play the game that is included. Some tips- I laminate the charts to the inside of file folders. Then I use Post-it (or Avery?) restick glue on the back of the laminated pieces. That way, none of the pieces ever get lost and they stay right inside the folder. I also laminate the student pages if I'm using these with only a few students at a time. They can use white board markers and just clean the pages for the next group. ALSO these are perfect centers to set up for when parents are helping in the classroom!

I have been teaching for many years and this is by far the BEST product I have found for easy to use and make phonics word sort centers. I've always had to make my own- what a pain! My students love to use these in small groups because after I introduce the words with the whole group, they are able to complete the center on their own and then play the game that is included. Some tips- I laminate the charts to the inside of file folders. Then I use Post-it (or Avery?) restick glue on the back of the laminated pieces. That way, none of the pieces ever get lost and they stay right inside the folder. I also laminate the student pages if I'm using these with only a few students at a time. They can use white board markers and just clean the pages for the next group. ALSO these are perfect centers to set up for when parents are helping in the classroom!

Mike Veeck and Pete Williams will keep you laughing throughout the entire book. Great example why you shouldn't take yourself to seriously and have fun with life.

What a great formula for business success! I love the philosophy behind this wonderful way to run a company and a career. Laughter is definitely more than the "Best Medicine" as this book shows....it can lead to higher profits and a real jump up the ladder of success!

When I was 10 years, I wrote Bill Veeck--the innovative baseball
promoter--a letter . . . he responded, and that began a period
of occasional letters that ended when he died several years
later . . . his creativity inspired me then--and still does to this day.

I still chuckle at some of the things that Veeck did to enliven
the game . . . he introduced exploding scoreboards, popularized
postgame fireworks and provided nurseries at the ballpark for
children . . . in addition, he staged special nights for every
group imaginable and was the first to popularize ballpark
giveways.

His son, Mike Veeck, has carried on his legacy with a series
of equally unique promotions that he writes about with co-author
Pete Williams in FUN IS GOOD . . . but you don't have to be a baseball fan to love this
book, in that the ideas contained can be applied to any
profession . . . or as the subtitle points out, you'll learn
HOW TO CREATE JOY & PASSION IN YOUR
WORKPLACE & CAREER.

Many times, authors promise outrageous things in their
titles and/or subtitles . . . this is not the case here;
Veeck and Williams actually show you how this can be
done in a step-by-step approach that's both easy to
follow and apply.

I kept jotting notes down as I read FUN IS GOOD, which is
always a good sign . . . it means that I plan to go back to use
much of it . . . the only negative to this practice is that it makes
it difficult to choose just a few ideas to share in this brief
review, in that there were so many . . . yet that said, these
tidbits did stand out:

* If you're someone still trying to find your way, let your passions
serve as your guide. Look for environments where people are having
fun. When I hire people, I seek out passionate folks with an array
of interests, no matter how eclectic. If I need an accountant, for
instance, I don't look for just someone with the proper credentials.
I go in search of an experienced accountant with other interests,
someone I know might not only be fun to be around by perhaps
have non accounting skills that might be valuable. Perhaps this
person is a fly-fisherman or guitar player. That kind of focus
and creativity manifests itself in the workplace

* Jim Lucas, who was the assistant general manager of our Charleston
RiverDogs team a few years ago, issued pins to 10 or 15 fans before
each game, with instructions to give them to employees who
provided great customer service. The 3 employees who collected
the most pins at the end of the season received cash prizes.
These pins cost us only about 60 cents apiece, but you would have
thought they were precious gemstones. Employees proudly
displayed them on hats and worked tirelessly to obtain them.
Since nobody knew who had the pins, everyone was treated
extraordinarily well by employees with upbeat attitude.

* You don't need a ballpark to try things like Mime-O-Vision. [Veeck
hired a bunch of mimes to reenact plays before instant replays
became popular.] Years ago, people would win shopping sprees
where they had 90 seconds to grab whatever they could. Pizzerias
would award a year's worth of pizza to the winner of a pie-eating
contest. My dad used to say that it's barely noteworthy to give
one bottle of beer to each of a thousand fans, but it's a big deal to give
a thousand bottles of beer to one lucky winner.

Looking for an idea holiday gift this upcoming season? You
certainly won't go wrong giving FUN IS GOOD to somebody
you care about . . . or want to inspire.

This book was penned by the man who was lambasted for his Disco demolition stunt in Cominsky Park. In the middle of a doubleheader, the promoters put a box of disco records in the middle of the field with a bomb. When it exploded, fans ran onto the field and commenced creating their own disco record explosions. This eventually caused the cancellation of the second game is considered a travesty in baseball lore.

However, it has become part of baseball lore. From a marketing standpoint, it was brilliant. How many marketing stunts have 25th anniversary DVDs?

This is a book about embracing failure, laughing, trying something new, and of course having fun. The book largely follows Mike Veeck and his father's philosophies and antics with baseball (and a few other businesses they tried). It's a fun book that those who are a little disgruntled or inspired with their workplace should read. Surely, you will find something that will make you laugh and improve your own workplace.

Baseball and writing about baseball are my passions and being passionate about something is the heart and soul of the new book by Mike Veeck (and Pete Williams), "Fun Is Good: How to Inject Joy & Passion Into Your Workplace & Career" published by Rodale Press and to be released early next month. The book is part business philosophy, part autobiography, part confessional, part homage to his late father Bill Veeck, part salute to his 12-year old daughter who is fighting blindness as the result of retinitis pigmentosa, part a baseball love story and all fun. Because fun is what Mike, like all the Veecks, is all about.

Mike writes, "Somehow in our haste to seize the American dream, we've sucked the fun, passion, and creativity out of the workplace." How many of you feel that way? I guess that's why so many people say that work sucks. But as Mike points out, "Fun isn't just good; it's a necessity." "If you're not having fun, it's nearly impossible to project the upbeat, positive attitude necessary to service clients effectively."

We know that's the trouble with baseball, don't we? Somehow it has becoming way to much about greed. We could handle it if were about drugs, sex, and rock and roll, at least that's fun. Mike writes that when his father Bill Veeck died in 1986, "we had him cremated so he wouldn't constantly be rolling in his grave."

In the workplace it's about passion, the right attitude and being happy at what you do. Mike encourages change and risk taking because if you're unhappy you can't afford to stay where you are. In addition, your role whether you are an Indian or a chief is to help create a workplace atmosphere that is fun, positive and risk taking. He writes, "How effectively you interact with coworkers sets the tone for the organization," because if you take a genuine interest in the people around you, you never know where it might lead.

I was particularly struck with this philosophical statement, "If you approach things with optimism and with the mentality that any obstacle can be overcome with good humor, preparation, brainpower, and a little bit of luck, nothing is outside the realm of possibility." It is that statement that clearly drives Mike's wonderful daughter. The book is filled with interviews and vignettes from business leaders in which they express, in their own words, how the importance of a "Fun is Good" philosophy has driven the success of their company. None is more powerful or moving than the section written by Rebecca Veeck who truly sums up much more than the philosophy of the book when she writes, "Fun is Good because that's the way life is supposed to be. It's the main feeling that we're supposed to have. I mean, if you're not having fun, what's the point?"

I will be giving this book to my daughter Elizabeth on her birthday on April 11 (the same date as Veeck's eldest, Night Train Veeck) because as she prepares to graduate college and face the real world she needs to know that if you treat every day like Opening Day than life will be fun, and fun is good.

I've read this cover-to-cover and had a chance to actually use a number of the activities in it with some of my clients. This book is a rare combination of background and context that will provide a powerful grounding for new trainers, inexperienced facilitators and managers asked to help build a team while also combining great explanation and setup for a wide range of activities that senior practitioners and OD professionals can use immediately. The explanations for each activity are clear and also cover what could go wrong as well as how to modify the activity and debrief instructions. I found the matrix in the book (talking about what activities could be used for what kinds of teams and what kinds of dynamics/needs) to be especially strong. If you do OD, facilitation,or work in teams, this is a very useful book. I don't find many games and activities books that are appropriate for a wide range of users--this one is. I very highly recommend it.

I manage an office of 70 lawyers that needed team building skills, but have a deep scepticism about the usual drills. I found this book to be clearly written, well organized and easy to adapt to my training needs. We used several of the games at a recent office retreat to great success. I strongly recommend Games That Teach Teams to anyone who wants to get their team to work, and play, better.

Games that Teach Teams by Steve Sugar and George Takacs, is a collection of 21 well-documented, carefully detailed, copy-ready games that help teams learn about cooperation and creativity, management and goal-setting, decision-making and communication -- and secondarily fun. It's the secondarily fun part that caught my eye. Any method that helps people develop team skills that has anything to do with fun is a method worth learning. Far too many team-building activities are built around "tasks" and "worksheets." These exercises are built around fun.

Each of the 21 games is described as a "frame game" The authors explain how ach game can be modified to focus on a different combination of skills or respond to a different team setting and composition, giving the reader more of a comprehensive instructional strategy than a collection of games. The authors also recognize that it's not just the games, but how they are led that makes for a good learning experience, taking great pains to detail facilitation techniques for each activity. They even include a table that carefully documents the skills that each activity emphasizes.

I was especially pleased to discover the inclusion of games like "ww.where and ww.when" that are specifically designed for building "CyberTeams." Here is an area of team development that is much neglected and critical to the successful deployment of the kind of communication infrastructure that technography is designed to implement.

As an in-house OD consultant, I am always on the lookout for new games to use with teams and energizers for off-site meetings. The collection of games assembled here provides a wide variety of time frames and a comprehensive set of objectives for team learning. The formats of the various games are simple and yet engaging -- and you won't be hunting everywhere for props and materials. I can't wait to try these out at my next off-site meeting.

if you are in the process for building a team and looking for activites to teach effective team behaviors, then this book is for you. This book can be used for a team just starting to work together or teams who have been working together for quite some time. There is much more to this book than the 21 teams provided.

The first section helps you determine what type of team you have by classifying teams. In the next section there is a model and structure for effective team development. Once you've determined the team classification and team development area, then you can use the handy matrix to select the most appropriate activity.

The book provides very helpful facilitation strategies for before, during and processing each activity. Each of the 21 activities has detailed well though out instructions and reproducible handouts. You have everything you need to facilitate any of the activities in this book.

When you do, after reading this book you will be vividly aware of what is passing through your nostrils and into your lungs. You will have learned where the air you're breathing orginated, what assaults it's been subject to, and what you may have to do to improve it. The air you, and your children, breathe needs attention. This passionately written account examines the history of air, the people who have investigated it and the problems we're confronting in keeping it breathable. Although the story grows increasingly grim as it progresses, Sherman finds ways of offering some hope and solutions.

Air means breathing and Sherman laments his failure to see his son's initial breath. There were distractions - a Caesarean birth and the condition of Sherman's wife. A forgiveable lapse, one hopes. From that incident, however, the author derived a deeper interest in the air we, and his wife and son, respire. Air, transparent and ephemeral, still captured the interest and imagination of early thinkers. Aristotle's famous dictum of the four basic "elements" placed air after earth in importance. Few doubted that air was essential to life, however. Although the air was thought to hold things like spirits and deities, actual investigation of air didn't come about until the Enlightenment. Shedding the myths, people like Lavoisier, Dalton and others detected "new aire" and the idea of air comprised of several gases began to emerge. More than one experimenter put his life at risk investigating the properties of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Even with the new studies, the long-standing idea of the air containing "phlogiston" as evidence of burning was not easily dismissed.

Although all life has its effect on air, whether taking it in for use or expelling waste gases through breathing and less polite means, Sherman is most concerned with humanity's influence on our "breathable sphere". He offers a long discourse on the impact of various forms of smoke, particularly coal. In the Industrial Revolution, coal smoke was a sign of "progress", new wealth, restructured society with urban growth and gainful employment. That attitude carried across the Atlantic to the USA as industrialisation progressed there. As smoke and various other pollutants began choking the cities, objectors arose. Movements to curb smoke were organised, with minimal success. Britain's problem was exacerbated by the onset of fog. When combined with coal dust and smoke, the results were devastating. A Public Health Act was one of the first serious attempts to address the problem. Although the Act listed many noxious vapours, enforcement was lax and largely ineffectual.

With similar problems emerging in the United States, opposition grew apace. Again, smoke and "progress" equated. There, however, the incipient women's rights movements made clean air one of its subsidiary themes. Concern for public health generally and children's health in particular, brought many women into the fold. One businessman, W.P. Rend, declared smoke to be the "incense burning on the alter of industry". With other industrialists and many politicians echoing this sentiment, those seeking cleaner air through legislation faced firm resistance. While some progress was achieved, the onset of the automobile created a fresh problem. The USA's love affair with cars has been well documented. Sherman traces the rise of "smog" in the Los Angeles basin and the halting attempts to curtail it. One thing was certain, people weren't about to reduce car use and the problem could only be addressed at the factory with new means of curbing emitted compounds. The impact of such regulation hasn't kept the USA from being the planet's greatest polluter.

Sherman's answer is necessarily a little weak. Although he's covered the Western world, it is his own nation that provides the readership he wishes to convince. He wants his fellow-countrymen to be aware they inhale 19 thousand times per day. "What enters your nostrils and lungs each time?", he queries. Think of the dust, mites, bacteria and chemicals carried on that air into your body. He reminds us that there are delicate membranes in the lung, which, if spread out fully would cover a football field. That very expanse means a thin membrane easily affronted. It takes little effort to damage the lung. And those inside your rib cage can only be taken care of by their owner. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Oxygen may not strike you as a lively protagonist for a book. Think again.

In a masterfully inventive biography of air, Joe Sherman weaves between geology and history, myth and science, to retrace our understanding of life's most precious gas.

From the Ionian philosophers of ancient Greece to the eccentric chemists and scientists who tested daringly with air through the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Industrial eras, Sherman invokes a lively, little known chapter in Western history.

He also explores myths in Hindu, Maori and Viking culture, showing the ways societies tried to make sense of the invisible gas that surrounded and sustained them.

In "GASP!," Sherman--whose non-fiction book on General Motors, "In the Rings of Saturn," was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize--blames the auto industry, weak government policies and America's obsession with cars as key factors tilting the scales of climate change towards disaster.

But "myth came before science and will outlast it" he writes in a meditative, vaguely hopeful tone. After narrating a 20th century atmosphere filled with germ warfare, radioactive pollution, smog and global warming, hope is about all we have left.

Read this timely homage to air--and make sure you take a few deep breaths.

I found GASP to be invaluable in telling the story of air "up close and personal." After 17 years in the air quality biz, I was stunned to find out facts I never knew about this much ignored but vital natural resource. From its cosmic beginnings to current techno solutions to air pollution, GASP reads like a biography, with air as its mysterious main character - - unpredictable, brooding and misunderstood. This book brings air down to earth; it makes us want to do things in our own lives to protect "one clean breath" for future generations. Bravo Mr. Sherman on a thorough and fascinating presentation.

I am a Joe Sherman fan.

Gasp! is, by far, Mr. Sherman's best cultural history to date. This book can be read as a history of cultural perceptions, a meditation on the element we take most for granted, or a demand for social responsibility in an increasingly toxic world.

Mr. Sherman at heart is neither a fiction, nor non-fiction writer. He is a cultural narrator. Part historian, common-sense speaker and fabulist with Gasp! he invites the reader to join him in a wrestling match with Air. He extracts specific and telling details and riffs both on the facts that underlie them, and the possible consequences they leave for us living in a Tailpipe World.

I have read several of his previous books including: 'Charging Ahead', 'In the Rings of Saturn' and 'Fast Lane down a Dirt Road'. These previous books all explored odd and specific topics as metaphors for our culture and times. Electric Car Innovations, GM's Business Unit of Saturn and the 20th Century History of Vermont are topics which Mr. Sherman converted into stories unfolding larger cultural and social truths.

In Gasp! he reversed his usual manner process and come away with a stunning book. Instead of a strange and specific topic being explored as windows into larger social forces, Joe undertakes the entire history and scope of the atmosphere. It worked. Somehow, it worked. Mr. Sherman has left me aware and pondering of every inhaled breath as chemical process, spiritual process and an underappreciated act of biological chance.

Joe draws on an incredable knowledge of the Automobile Industry, cultural history and the sciences to this book a wonderful read.

This book is part Social History, Science History, and a meditation on a common-sense need for environmental awareness. If John McPhee and Studs Turkel had collaborated on work about the Air, it might be something like this book. But for those who have read him before, it is definitely the strange and insightful Joe Sherman writing this work. This book is some his best writing. Somethign to be thankful fo.

Last night, Mr. Bush the leading supporter of the Clear Skies Act, won the election. Unable to sleep, I instead finished Gasp!

Placing Mr. Bush's 'Clear Skies' into the context of Mr. Sherman's 'Gasp!' is something worthwhile for anyone who would care to better understand the Air and our relationships to it.

Among the big problems with air is that it is invisible (with luck) and that we don't have to pay for it. We get to regard with specific attention the food we buy, and if you don't like the tap water you pay for, you can always spring for bottled. Air, on the other hand, is taken for granted, and you usually don't even think of even one of the 19,000 breaths you take every day. Like any other big subject we don't think about, air is hugely complicated, but in _Gasp! The Swift and Terrible Beauty of Air_ (Shoemaker & Hoard), Joe Sherman has covered the topic fully in many different ways. He writes, "Understanding air, which is both big and amorphous, and small and right in front of you, demands a few mental oscillations." He makes the oscillations fun, from basic principles of gas exchange within your lungs to the different gods of the sky people have believed in to the evolution of our planet's atmosphere to the current worries about pollution and global warming. As if the subject isn't big enough, he has taken many discursive asides; he just has so many facts he has to disclose to the reader, but his grasp of his subject is sure and his ability to convey complexities in understandable terms is excellent.

Much of the book is devoted to the history of our understanding about the air and the thinkers who have tried to break down the invisible to see what it was made of. For instance, in 1648, the mathematician Blaise Pascal repeated the experiments of Torricelli with the new invention, the barometer. Not only did he check air pressure at the bottom of a tower stairs and at the top, he went to the mountains to try the effect. Pascal reasoned that air would weigh less and less the further one ascended, eventually winding up in a void. This sounds sensible to us, but it was anathema to the church; if there was a vacuum way up there, there was no Aristotelian scheme of higher spheres, especially the one that was where God lived. Pascal's ideas were attacked by the Jesuits. Lavoisier and Priestley eventually helped do away with the concept of phlogiston when they discovered oxygen, but the air explorers were not just at work in their labs. There is Other chemists took to the air in hot-air balloons and later hydrogen balloons. In 1862, Henry Coxwell and James Glaisher rode their basket gondola beneath a hot-air balloon to become the first to reach the stratosphere. Their altimeter indicated that they had reached 35,000 feet, but like most of the equipment and procedures of the flight, it went wildly wrong. They had a truly heroic battle against cold and a new malaise, altitude sickness, that imperiled their judgement and their lives.

The universe has spent a long time producing our atmosphere, and Sherman starts from the Big Bang to the Cambrian explosion of half a billion years ago, when oxygen was boosted to current atmospheric levels by plants, enabling the eventual takeover of the land by animals. The final third of _Gasp!_ is devoted to our very recent destruction of the atmosphere that was so long in coming. He has lived in Los Angeles, and he has written before about American car culture, and he is disdainful of how little attention governments in general, and our government in particular, are paying to air's problems. The phasing out of Freon and other such chemicals because of their destruction of the ozone layer that protects us from the ultraviolet is actually an environmental success story. Sherman shows, however, that just as in the current debate over global warming, such anti-regulation politicians as Tom DeLay insisted in 1995 that banning chemicals that destroy the ozone layer was all based on dubious science. The current administration is eager to relax rules that might bother business, and has wanted to relax pro-ozone rules as well, despite the documented reaccumulation of ozone since the rules were enforced. Profit-making corporations, Sherman shows, have a good history of making profits, and a bad one of serving public health. We have industrial (especially automotive) pollutants and the potential for weather changes that are going to reshape civilization; but he reminds us that "Clean air is about as public a concern as it is possible to imagine." It might be that corporations will get eager to forego profits for health, and it might be that government will get eager to draw up rules to make this happen; but don't hold your breath.

This is an excellent book, absolutely necessary for any geologist or geology student. What more can I say? Maybe: Amazing!!!

This book, by Guilbert and Park, is the "Bible" for any economic geologist on ore deposits. As a graduate student in geology, I am constantly using it as a reference and use it more frequently than any other book I have. We used another textbook for my economic geology course, but all of us referred to "The Geology of Ore Deposits" when some info was needed. It is also on several professers shelves as well. Well organized and easy to find specific info.

This a very good clasic ore deposit book that must have all economic geologist. I recommend the ore textures chapter.

This is a book on the geology of ore deposits. It is not a book on exploration techniques. Although most of the geology described in this book is on land, there is also discussion of submarine volcanics and oceanic manganese nodules.

Carbonatites are mentioned as bearers of various metals, notably the REEs (rare earths). The authors treat carbonatites as strictly igneous rocks, comparable to kimberlites. The REE-rich Mountain Pass carbonatite of California is mentioned, but not the larger one at Bayan Obo, Inner Mongolia.

Pegmatites are featured as important carriers of precious metals. These include common metals, as well as exotic ones such as niobium, tantalum, rare earths, and many more. REEs are often found concentrated in the contact-metamorphic aureoles of pegmatites (p. 198). Most pegmatites are late-stage magmatic products, enriched in volatiles as well as elements that don't "fit" the matrices of the common granitic minerals.

Many economic deposits are the result of concentration by alteration processes. Apropos to this, a helpful table of the relative mobility of ions is included (p. 780). Attention is also devoted to skarn deposits.

Details are given about such things as porphyry copper deposits, various hydrothermal deposits, massive sulphide deposits, BIFs (banded iron formations) Mississippi-Valley type deposits, uranium deposits, bauxite, and much more. The chapter on placer deposits includes sketches of important auriferous placers.

There are several schematic sketches in this book. These include such things as the zonal distribution of metal deposits in a lithologic sequence.

More than 20 years after its publication, this book is still (and deservedly) probably the most widely used text on the origin, description and classification of ore deposits. It is written in an entertaining style and provides enjoyment to the reader on a subject that could easily become dry. In 1986, when this book first appeared, many processes of ore formation were suspected but not scientifically proven. Most have since been proven, and Guilbert and Park have been proven correct in their assumptions. The book is in general very comprehensive, although it lacks any description of iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits, the first of which (Olympic Dam in South Australia) was discovered in 1976. For an up-to-date text, the reader can consult the "recent classic" by Robb Introduction to Ore-Forming Processes. The community of geologists has been extraordinarily industrious over the period between the publication of these two books.

This was an excellent introduction to high-speed internet access and the "pipes" over which it runs, very appropriate for anyone who needs to connect a LAN to the internet.

It provides a nice bridge between the beginner's guide to the internet and the serious gearhead textbooks that make up the majority of internet books today. Very little fluff and not too much that the non-technical reader will have to skip.

Read it!

Andrew Sullivan

I've always been happy with my readings in the nutshell handbook series from O'Reilly, but this book tops the heap. A survey of all the hardware and software necessary to set up a dedicated link from any organization to the internet is contained herein, from HDLC to setting up networking on a mac, from SONET fiber rings to ISDN lines. A must read for any user who's ever wondered, "What does T1 REALLY mean?"

Here at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas we are installing a T1 line from our ISP. I wanted to understand the real technology that's behind all the hardware we are installing. This book is perfect.

If you are looking at installing and configuring large bandwidth lines or backbones, start with this book. No matter how much you already know about Windows, Unix, Cisco, you will definately learn something. It's staying on my desk forever. Worth every penny!

After working at an ISP for 6 months, i still had questions that no one could answer in a way that made sense to me. This book answered all my questions and more! If your serious about learning how an ISP really works, buy this book. It won't sit on a shelf like all those 1500 page books you wasted money on, you can actually READ this one!

I just started work at a company offering Internet connectivity, and this book was the best learning tool I used. It came highly recommended from the company's VP's. The boss is always right, it turns out! You can pick up this book and learn, whether you're a pro or not.

The book looked a bit simplistic at first-- short, straight-forward outline... I thought I'd probably read through, mark if off the list of things I've been referred to read, then never look at the book again.

What a surprise!

Callahan walks you through several principles about giving-- and how these principles, when enacted, help reach the potential God places in each follower of Christ through His Spirit. He speaks of people wanting to give to winning causes, and how the fact that we speak the vision in a positive (or needy) way changes people's perspective and willingness to give. He speaks of "the ask" and of other great concepts, many of which have much to do with leadership in other areas besides the finances of the Church.

I'm impressed by the practicality of this work, as well. And, of how Callahan offers useable space in the actual text for you to jot your ideas, thoughts, and how you might implement some of these principles.

Also, if you've ever wondered if "special offerings" willl detract from "general funds" (i.e. "Will people give to this and forget about that...?"), KC addresses that, in depth, as well.

A great book. You can read it in a few hours, but it will take much longer to digest-- even though it can be implemented immediately!

Far too often, "stewardship" in church parlance means "money". In this book, Kennon Callahan explains in simple terms that individual generosity comes from inspired corporate stewardship. Churches with compelling missions of social action engage their members' hearts, and their pocketbooks follow. Callahan's book reminds sincere church members that stewardship isn't a financial decision but a spiritual decision. All priests, pastors and lay leader who want their parishes to grow should read this book.

I found this book to have just the information I was seeking. I serve on our church's Fundraising Task Force. We needed information that made sense and guided us through the minefield of improving stewardship and giving to support the day-to-day activities in our church. I have used other Callahan books and found this one to be very useful in our work. It refocused our efforts toward taking care of our givers to improve our giving and stewardship. Great book that is very easy to read, understand, which makes our task of fundraising more congregation and community based.

An excellent book that outlines seven principles of stewardship, such as the importance of linking mission to giving and that people live into the expectations that are set for them. The book has information useful in diagnosing a parish and includes a lot of practical advice. A must-have for those interested in Christian Stewardship.

I appreciate Callahan's practical tips on training, teamwork, and positive expectations. His emphasis on vision and mission, rather than meeting the budget, is at the heart of understanding giving. If your church wants to know how to grow stewardship responsivness this is the book for you.