Companies Books

In these trying and chaotic times, Firms of Enderament offers a refreshing new look at capitalism and what it really takes for a business to be successful in today's complex and ever shifting markets.
The authors start by identifying and studying the practices of comanies that honor and serve their customers, employees, suppliers,partners, investors and even the commuities in which they operate. After identifying 28 companys which score high marks in these areas, then and only then do the authors take a peek at the bottom line performance of this group. They then compare these bottom line results with their counterparts which are driven by the traditional and singular focus of shareholder wealth.
The results are eye opening as the FoE's profit performance is 8 times that of those companies which compulsively and almost exclusively pursue the bottom line in the interest of shareholder return. The book makes a compelling arguement that nice guys (business people) can finish first and that by paying attention to its stakeholders rather than just its shareholders a company can excel even beyond the paragons described in the works of Jim Collins.
Firms of Endearment is an excellent work and should be included in the curricula of business schools around the world.

Much like Gary Hamel's book The Future of Management, one needs to read this book with an open mind. It is an exceptional book and one that I am giving away to my clients this coming Holiday. It is thought provoking and enlightening. Above all it stresses that companies have a need above profit. That profit is the score, not the game itself. Perhaps had the management of Enron and others of that ilk truly believed in a purpose beyond profit, corporate America would not being wearing SOX today.

There's a difference when you fly Southwest vs. United. You feel different shopping at Costco than you feel shopping at Wal-mart. Why? That question is explored and answered in the book Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose by Raj Sisodia, Jag Sheth, and David B. Wolfe. This is one of those books that will cause you to think about why you feel as you do towards certain companies, and how those feelings translate into real profits.



Contents: A Whole New World; It's Not Share of Wallet Anymore - It's Share of Heart; New Age, New Rules, New Capitalism; The Chaotic Interregnum; Employees - The Decline and Fall of Human Resources; Customers - The Power of Love; Investors - Reaping What FoEs Sow; Partners - Elegant Harmonies; Society - The Ultimate Stakeholder; Culture - The Secret Ingredient; Lessons Learned; Crossing Over to the Other Side; Acknowledgements



On Wall Street, companies are usually judged on their profit. Squeeze as much out of your business as you can, cut costs wherever possible, and make sure you meet your numbers. To be sure, plenty of companies are successful under those rules (such as Wal-mart). But when you look at their performance over the last few years on the stock market, returns have been stagnant or have trailed the field. The alternative way to run a business is as a "firm of endearment" (FoE). These companies have a passion for what they do/sell, they have a strongly defined purpose for what they want to accomplish, and they look to contribute to society in more ways than just the quarterly dividend to shareholders. These FoEs, like Costco, Whole Foods, Harley-Davidson, and others, include stakeholders to mean all parts of society that they touch... shareholders, employees, the community, etc. The focus isn't on pure profit, but instead on contributing to the well-being of all the stakeholders. That's why a company like Costco can afford to pay their employees a living wage, have low turnover, and *still* turn a substantial profit. They have captured the hearts of their customer base, and that base will go out of their way to shop at Costco whenever possible. That's also why a company like Ikea can propose a new location and have nearly universal acceptance in the community, while a new Wal-mart location brings out protesters in force. There's obviously a lot more that differentiates FoEs from their counterparts in the marketplace, but once you recognize an FoE, you'll understand why they are successful by *not* following the same formula as everyone else.



It's tempting to think that all the FoEs covered in this book can do no wrong. That's not the case. JetBlue was/is an FoE that badly damaged their reputation during the winter when storms caused massive cancellations. It even led to the resignation of the CEO. Like other business books of this genre (In Search Of Excellence, From Good To Great), only time will tell how these companies will fare over the long term. It may well be that a decade from now, the stars of this book will have all fallen to the wayside. But I would venture to guess that the companies covered here will have a much larger margin of forgiveness than would other companies that are just focused on the next quarter...



This is a book that is highly recommended for anyone running a business. It should cause you to rethink the factors of success for your company, as well as point you in directions that could lead you to become an FoE in your niche.

This book identifies a batch of companies that have oriented their business model to providing a superior feeling in the minds of their customers. In many cases I absolutely agree with them.

Wegman's supermarkets for instance presents an excellent shopping experience. I particularly love their cheese department where knowledge people stand ready to discuss their magnificant array of choices and even to giving you samples to taste seemingly without end or sales pressure. In turn I buy far more cheeses than I would otherwise. We both win.

But then they turn to Wal-Mart and repeat a litany of alleged problems with employees, suppliers, and communities. My own experience with Wal-Mart is limited to one store in the small town where I live. But my experience doesn't match the alleged problems. I go there, the people, from the greeter at the door to the most junor sales clerk are friendly and willing to walk halfway across the store to help me find something. I talk to people who work there (away from the store) and they universally say that it is the best job they've ever had. Does the Wal-Mart experience depend on the store? Are the alledged problems just that, allegations? And for that matter, does every Wegman's have such an excellent cheese department? And what about Microsoft? Everyone (nearly) uses their products and most people hate the company. What does this say about their future? I guess we'll just have to watch and see.

This is a book that describes one way of doing business that has worked for a lot of companies. It provides a good insight into what these companies do.

In the Prologue, when discussing The Age of Transcendence through which the contemporary business world is now proceeding, the co-authors (Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe, and Jagdish N. Sheth) suggest that it is "a cultural movement in which physical (materialistic) influences that dominated culture in the twentieth-century are ebbing while metaphysical (experiential) influences become stronger. This is helping to drive a shift in the foundations of culture from an objective base to a subjective base: People are increasingly relying on their own counsel to decide what the truth is...That shift acknowledges a long-suppressed idea in a world largely guided by Newtonian certainty that chemistry Nobel laureate Ilya Prigogine says is scattering to the winds: Ultimately, everything is personal."

Thus do the authors establish a frame-of-reference for the thesis of their book: That each stakeholder in an organization tends to thrive best when all stakeholders thrive. That is, no stakeholder group is more important than any other. "It is disciplined dedication to the well-being of all stakeholders that separates firms of endearment from their competition." Stakeholder relationship management (SRM), the authors suggest, can achieve and then sustain superior business performance that, in turn, will create n a decisive competitive advantage. They are convinced that SRM business models will increasingly be seen "as the most efficacious way to achieve sustained superior business performance in years to come" but only if (huge "if") the interests of all stakeholder groups are brought into strategic alignment.

Two Questions: Are all stakeholder groups of equal importance and do they have the same interests? Also, are all members of a stakeholder group (e.g. shareholders) of equal importance and do they have the same interests? These questions occurred to me as I read the first chapter, especially the brief discussion of the "distinctive" core values, policies, and attributes that firms of endearment (FoEs) share in common. Eventually, Sisodia, Wolfe, and Sheth provide answers to these questions, answers best revealed within the narrative.

If indeed "endearing companies tend to be enduring companies," how do the 28 FoEs that "made the final cut" for this book compare with the 11 companies praised by Jim Collins in Good to Great? "Over a 10-year horizon, FoEs outperformed the Good to Great companies by 1,026 percent to 331 percent (a 3.1-to-1 ratio). Over five years, FoEs outperformed the Good to Great companies by 128 percent to 77 percent (a 1.7-to-1 ratio). Over three years, FoEs performed on par the Good to Great companies: 73 percent to 75 percent." (FYI, there are no duplicates on the two lists.) As with the exemplary companies discussed by Thomas J. Peters in Robert H. Waterman, Jr. in In Search of Excellence, not all companies on any such list continue to meet the criteria that were the basis of their initial selection.

For me, some of the most interesting material is presented in Chapter 11, "Crossing Over to the Other Side." At one point, the authors cite Oliver Wendell Holmes's observation "I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity." They then quote one of my favorite passages in James O'Toole's The Executive's Compass:

"To move beyond the confusion of complexity, executives must abandon their constant search for the immediately practice and, paradoxically, seek to understand the underlying ideas and values that have shaped the world they work in. Managers who clamor for how-to instruction are, by definition, stuck on the near side of complexity."

According to Sisodia, Wolfe, and Sheth, the big challenge of the times is to transcend the zero-sum mindset because, given the profusion of new opportunities, absolutes (by nature limiting) are found everywhere on the near side of complexity. "They emerge from people's perennial quest for pat solutions, or `silver bullets,' as they are sometimes described. This is a key point because, as Sisodia, Wolfe, and Sheth explain, a zero sum mindset leads to the conclusion that one stakeholder group can only benefit at the expense of the other stakeholder groups...However, opportunities increase by an order of magnitude when the mind breaks free of zero-sum thinking."

There are specific reasons why endearing companies tend to be enduring companies and one of the most important is their having "the ability to transcend ruthless competition and embrace the fruits of cooperation [which is] the essence of evolved humanness."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Bill George's Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value and his later book, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, co-authored with Peter Sims. Also Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Adrian J. Slywotzky's The Upside: The 7 Strategies for Turning Big Threats into Growth Breakthroughs, Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson as well as Ram Charan's Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't, Lynda Gratton's Hot Spots: Why Some Teams, Workplaces, and Organizations Buzz with Energy - And Others Don't, Robert J. Herbold's Seduced by Success: How the Best Companies Survive the 9 Traps of Winning, Jack Alexander's Performance Dashboards and Analysis for Value Creation, and Michael Useem's The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide--Knowing What to Do and When to Do It.

For anyone newly diagnosed with Hep C the initial reaction can be one of shock and the result can be deep depression. This book helps to shed light on some of the common stages of accepting this disease.

Excellent book for patients. I would also suggest any patient, friend, or family alos read "Hepatitis C - through a patient's eyes", written by Suzy Smith, who went through the treatment, and wrote her book to help others with hep c get through the process with a positive outlook.

I work as a therapist in a teen counseling program, and one teen girl has just been diagnosed with HCV. She's experienced all the common reactions: denial, grief, "This is a death sentence and God doesn't want me to be happy," and fear. I bought this book for her and she devoured it. Her entire affect changed, and now she's teaching US how to relate to her, how to talk about this diagnosis, why certain things WE say are insensitive or incorrect (without knowing it), and what emtional and lifestyle changes she needs to make for health. This book alone reduced her fear in half, and made her feel confident rather than powerless.

This is an excellent work for the layperson with very little
knowledge about Hepatitis A,B, C or the more exotic strains.
The authors describe a 6-7 week incubation period. Those
persons exposed have a 75-80% chance of infection with the HCV
virus and a 70% chance of developing the chronic form of
the hepatitis virus. In addition, there is a 10-20% chance of
developing the liver complication cirrhosis over a 20-30 year
period and a 1-5% chance of dying from a chronic liver condition. Hepatitis C is an RNA virus as opposed to a DNA
strain. Vaccination helps for the Hepatitis A and B strains
wherein 3 shots are administered over a 1/2 year period.
To reduce the likelihood of the disease, it is necessary
to reduce smoking , as well as exposure to all toxins.
The disease may be monitored with tests for bilerubin, albumin,
PT time and the anti-HCV antibody test. Treatment is enhanced
with reducing stress, commitments and responsibilities
until the condition is well under control. This work is perfect
for the layperson who seeks to prevent the disease or treat it
in the event of exposure and relevant symptomatology of
the disease process.

Although I think this is a good book to start with if you have recently been diagnosed, I find it lacking the depth I was looking for. It gives some great resources which is why I think it is a good book to start with, but at the same time, I would also suggest that you buy the following in addition to this. These are essential:"The Hepatitis C Helpbook"by Misha Ruth Cohen OMD and Robert G.Gish MD, "The Liver Cleansing Diet" by Dr Sandra Cabot, "Herbs for Hepatitis C and the Liver" by Stephen Harrod Buhner, and see if you can find "Who Gets Sick;How Beliefs, Moods, and Thoughts affect your health" by Blair Justice. The treatments out there are scary and can hurt you more than help you, so if you don't feel like poisoning yourself with a biotherapy, this is where to start.

My husband first bought a copy of this cookbook at a yard sale. I didn't look at it right away, fearing another overblown, complex and difficult French cookbook. Mais non! Most of the recipes are fairly easy and reflect the fresh, authentic nature of country French cooking. We now keep this cookbook at our house in Southwest France, in Wisconsin AND in Florida. This is the only book of which we have three copies!! The recipes are a delight (Loomis' gougeres are the best and have several quite helpful hints that no other chef has given).

The food and the stories capture the essence of rural France--making the cooking, wherever you may be, pure delight a la Francais!

My wife is French, her sole and all-absorbing passion in life is cooking. She has two armoires filled with cookbooks, including all the classics. This is her favorite. All of the recipes she has made from this book have been exquisite. Two thumbs up, and all eight fingers! This is a must-have!
Bon Appetit!

I served for two years in southwestern France as a Mormon missionary. When I came home to Calgary, Alberta I pined for the simple, fresh, unpretentious food I'd grown used to eating in rural France. Luckily the French Farmhouse Cookbook was first published about four months before I got home, and when I stumbled on it by accident in a bookshop I was overjoyed.

Not only are the recipes authentic and accessible, but the stories Ms. Loomis tells about how food is raised and grown -- how seriously the farmers and growers view their work -- ring absolutely true to my experience living in France. I've never found another North American book so true to real French family food.

Especially useful are recipes for small things that one can take for granted at any supermarket in France -- creme fraiche, sucre vanille, quatre epices, etc. -- but that are hard come by in most US or Canadian stores. You can substitute other ingredients (sour cream for creme fraiche) but it's not quite the same; the effort the author took to include everything needed to reproduce the authentic experience is another reason this is my favorite French cookbook. I can't recommend it highly enough.

This is one of the most practical and most referred to book on my cooking shelf. This book is extremely practical because Loomis uses easy-to-find ingredients and the recipees for entrees can be made in 30 minutes or couple of hours (but most of that is waiting time). The instructions are detailed but to the point and tips are delighful. There is also a good diversity in the complexity of the dishes but most are relatively simple, as they were farm-house cooking, meaning either they had to be put together very fast before dinner, or tossed into the oven or stove before doing the days' chores, and to be enjoyed at night after a long stewing/braising/etc. The dishes (esp the basque region dishes) are very flavorful and bring out the best flavors in the ingredient. Highly recommended for enhancing/inspiring your home cooking.

The stories about the actual farms and farmers who provide the recipes and ingredients in this wonderful book are fascinating. Nothing is taken for granted, and meals are extensively discussed and savored. Memorable is the story accompanying the recipe for Duck with Prunes in which the cook providing the recipe explains apologetically that the recipe is from another region of France, but "we love it so much, we cook it all the time."
The farmers' pride in the quality of their produce and livestock, and the care with which Susan Herrmann Loomis specifies exactly what kind of oranges, or chickens or asparagus are to be used in each recipe inspire a very unAmerican way of viewing cooking and eating, in which only the finest ingredients are perfectly cooked. The descriptions of the walnut farms, the Bresse chicken farm, the vanishing family farms are evocative of a great foreign film. After reading this book cover to cover, I feel as though I've had a course in French rural culture--with refreshments. Highly recommended!

Dr. Anderson's book is an excellent tool if you'd like to teach yourself aerodynamics and have the background in math to handle it (multivariable and vector calculus...get "Div, Grad, Curl, and All That" if you need a refresher). His derivations are very clear and his chapter maps provide a nice road guide to give you an idea of where you're going. This book is also very good at maintaining rigor in describing the limitations of the derivations, a necessary quality since a lot of us tend to forget that the results we see are only valid in certain circumstances (incompressible flow, irrotational flow, inviscid flow, etc.).

Very few downsides: a few typos and no answers to end-of-the-chapter problems.

With no doubt this is the best Aerodynamics book for college students ever written...ever!Very clear explanations,full of examples and a good set of exercises to challenge your understanding of the subject. The only negative point is that there no answers to the problems.

Over 5 years as an aerospace engineer at Boeing and Lockheed Martin, I have used this book far more than any other for aeronautics. This is not only a good textbook, but an excellent reference, and one of the few technical books I have found worth reading cover-to-cover. Many engineers simply say "look at Anderson" to find whatever answers you need.

5 Stars.

Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, by John D. Anderson, provides an excellent foundation in aerodynamics for engineers. Presented at the graduate or senior undergraduate level, this book covers all of the fundamentals in a student-friendly manner that also works well as a professional reference.

Dr. Anderson has quite a gift for placing information in appropriate contexts - both technically and historically. The book is well organized and promotes learning by laying a solid foundation and then building on that foundation. The sample problems presented through the chapters are clear and effective at illustrating important points.

Major topics include: Incompressible non-viscous flow, Compressible flow, and Viscous flow (including an introduction to boundary layers). Significant time is spent on potential flow theory and it's application to the prediction of lift and induced drag.

Also recommended for students of aeronautics are Dr. Anderson's other titles, including:

- Introduction to Flight

- Modern Compressible Flow with a Historical Perspective

- Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics

"Fundamentals of Aerodynamics" is an excellent book by a knowledgeable author that provides the basic know-how and skills that an aeronautical engineer will find useful and helpful. The book is well written in a readable and easy to follow format that provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of aerodynamics. The author reinforced his message with numerous helpful examples and several illustrations which should help the reader to grasp the aerodynamics concepts and principles.

This is among the best aerodynamics books on the market for those studying the subject. You will find the aerodynamics concepts and theory well presented and explained.

This is recommended reading for those studying aeronautical engineering at undergraduate level. Practicing aeronautical engineers will also find the book to be a useful reference.

I have owned a copy of this for years, such a good reference book I bought two more copies for my friends son's who are starting to make their sausage.

Very informative and great explanations! No pictures, but very good book for the beginner.

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME! (Please note: I am only ¾ of the way through the book so I can't give it full accounting.)

This book should be called, `The Bible of Cured Meat!' It contains or reaffirms or explains in-depth everything I have ever read or heard about dry curing meat. (Not to mention every other curing method known to man.) It not only tells you what you need to do, it lets you know what your results will be if you stray either way on a temperature or ingredient; very helpful for trouble shooting, or keeping you out of trouble if you are trying a new cure.

I like the brief history behind each of the curing methods and their places of origin. I also appreciated the FDA discussion and where cured meats are at in the U.S. and abroad.

As always, I find that the cover jackets of these books look like you are going to find a national geographic photo essay inside and then when you open them you only find a few pages of glossies. This book is no exception; it's lacking in actually production photos which I find almost as helpful as the written text.

I think it would be safe to say that Rytek Kutas' book is the authority on meat curing. I think every other book I have is just suplimentary.

As a beginner I was very worried about making venison sausage. This book took all the fears away. Everything is explained in great detail while maintaining an easy to read style. This book mixes the right amount of technical knowledge, personal stories, and personal experience to make the book very interesting to people of all skill levels. This is a must buy for the beginner to the professional. The huge bonus is that I bought this book for the sausage making but it really encompasses the full breadth meat curing to include drying, smoking, pickling, etc. If you only want to buy 1 book, buy this one. It will be a long while before I make it though all the recipes in this book.

I am just getting started in sausage making and was looking for a guide for making sausage at home. After reading all the reviews here, I purchased this book. It is a fairly large volume and includes a lot of detail on equipment, meat selection, meat handling, spices, recipes and techniques. There are many recipes for most of the types of sausages that readers would be interested in. The batch sizes are pretty large for the home sausage maker but can be scaled. There is a lot of detail on smoking and smoking equipment. The reason that I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that in my opinion, it is a bit too detailed for the average home sausage maker. Much of the book deals with details that a meat processor may need to know but not needed for the average home sausage maker that is only going to process a couple of pounds of meat at a time. That being said, the recipes are straightforward and should be easy enough for anyone to follow.

An excellent intro to freshwater invertebrates. A good dose of science and terminology for people who want to know how things work. It starts with a conceptual approach of what affects biological life in fresh water But it doesn't go too far off topic; it stays focused on invertebrate life.

The illustrations are superb. You don't need a college level understanding of chemistry or biology to read this, but the biology would help. This book stays on topics specific to limnology addressing substrate, water chemistry and other topics. You'll learn about lotic and lentic and other words to confuse your friends and spell checker, and impress the biologists within hearing distance. The only thing it runs short on is variety of bugs. But at 400+ pages adding the somewhat less common would create quite a tome.

The first section is the only part that needs to be read from beginning to end the rest is written for reference starting with illustrations, then going into detail first on the order, then on specific (common) families. You wouldn't want them all, this part takes up more than half the book.

A great book for a hobbyist that isn't afraid to put plants in an aquarium and find out what else nature keeps in its limnos. Best of all you won't have to feed your fishes after reading this book. They'll feed themselves after you've collected a few invertebrates to fill out the food chain.

As others have already reviewed, I am a fly fisherman who purchased this book to get a better understanding of freshwater invertebrates other than mayfly and caddis species. (For a highly detailed description of mayflies and caddis for the fly-fisherman, I would recommend the titles "Nymphs, volumes I and II".)

This guide is well-written and not too difficult to follow, even for the beginner. There is a focus on stream ecology and some tips on how to collect and identify various species. Be clear - the focus of this book is not specifically on fly-fishing, but more of a biological guide to aquatic invertebrates.

For a beginner, this book is a great place to start, but is also a nice reference for those with a little more experience. The color drawings are detailed enough to help determine the differences in various species. All in all - Excellent Book.

This books is easy to comprehend, and the plates are well defined. Extremely useful for ID'ing aquatic creatures.

My teaching partner and I will use this in our Freshwater Ecology class at the secondary level. It is a great basic guide that will be used as a reference tool and identification resource at an introductory level. Excellent for the money.

This book contains easy to understand pictographs for beginners, plus distinguishing characteristics for experienced entomologists. A major plus to any and every watershed association out there, and every limnology, water pollution biology, fisheries, etc. class offered at the collegiate level.

A definate must have for nymph fishermen as well!

Well done for a price that doesn't take a bite out of the pocketbook!

This cookbook is wonderful. The recipes are easy to follow and turn out great! Would recomend to anyone.

This book is full of delicious and unique recipes. The recipes are very detailed--the writers do not leave out any steps (which is good for a beginner like me). The book is also fun to read through--there are interesting tips on a variety of foods and stories about the original markets.

One of the best I've used and I have a lot. The recipes are well written along with advice and stuff tastes great.

Words cannot describe how great this cookbook is. The pages are all covered with my exclamation points that I don't give out easily. I don't often repeat recipes...except the ones in this book. Inventive but also classic, seasonal, informative, fresh, healthy, flavorful, yum yum yum yum. If you don't like this book I will refund your money--just kidding, but that is how much I love it and want to spread the gospel.

I received this cookbook as a gift, and bought another copy for a friend from Amazon. This is my favorite cookbook. Everything I have made is delicious, fresh and has an original twist. The recipes are simple to make and fabulous. Everyone that eats one of these dishes asks me for the recipe.

After reading Hope I realized how insignificant the glitches (which I thought were problems)in my life really are. Knowing the suffering people with AIDS go through and everything they must endure really put things in perspective. I believe there is a message in this book for any reader who is seeking a greater understanding for compassion, inner peace and what the true meaning of unconditional love really is. When I read Hope I must admit, I cried, however the strenghts of the author filled me with light and "hope" for anything I might encounter in the future. Thank you Joel, you're truly an Angel in the lives of many people. Thank you HOPE for giving me the message I needed to hear at the time I read you.

This is one of those amazing books that you can't put down! And although it can easily be read in one sitting, the insights and inspirations will stay with you for a lifetime.

In "Hope", Joel Rothschild describes his life (his struggles & his joys) since he was diagnosed with full blown AIDS - which was nearly 15 years before the writing of this book! In it, he shares what he's learned about the importance of living each day as if it's your last, as well as how your thoughts have a direct impact on your experiences - "as a man thinketh, so he is...".

I would highly recommend this book to everyone - it is very uplifting, and has a lot to offer each & every one of us.

Thank you Joel for taking the time to write this book!

i read this after reading Joel's first book "signals". i read it at a time in my life when i was in despair, and this book helped my immeasurably. i would recommend it and encourage everyone to read it

Hope is an inspiration to all! No matter what a persons present or past life situation, from the terminally ill, to those suffering through deep loss, to those of us who are blessed to be healthy. (As am I.) Joel has opened up his life and struggles to us to show that it is indeed possible to triumph over whatever life has to offer, transforming perceived diversities into tools for tremendous personnel growth. If you are as blessed as I am, to be in great health and have a great life, Hope will most assuredly fill you with gratitude for the blessings bestowed upon you. A wonderful book. Thank you Joel!

Joel Rothschild relates how he learned from others how to find "new meaning in times of mortal danger...I took those lessons to heart and began to search for ways to reinvent myself and give new meaning to my life."

Each of us has the opportunity to reinvent and redefine our lives when going through a major challenge or loss in our lives. Often, we don't seize it willingly, and instead let ourselves walk unconsciously through our healing. Joel Rothschild offers a path of awareness, a path of conscious choice for living a life with meaning, purpose and grace.

Through his own multitude of challenges, Mr. Rothschild has given us the gift of wisdom gained the hard way, or shall I say, the "heart" way. No other book that I have read in the last l0 years has stated so much, and so eloquently, what I have come to believe about life's lessons.

All suffering and pain has meaning and purpose. For me, I have had to experience several life challenges to feel the truth of this statement, to my very core. In his book, Joel Rothschild illustrates this so beautifully, and we are elevated by his faith and trust in the life process.

He states that "These days all people seem a little more beautiful." Thank you Joel for shining your light so brightly and allowing it to be the mirror for us to see ourselves more clearly!

Marcia Breitenbach[...]

"How to find your Soulmate" is an excellent guide for women of all ages. A must read for anyone who is trying to find that special someone in their life. The workbook included is a wonderful tool to help you make the right decisions along the way. This is an easy to read book and it is packed full of useful tips.

Joyce Dolberg Rowe has done a great job with this book and anyone who reads it will not only have a better understanding of how to find their soulmate...they will also learn all about their own personality and discover the person that they really are!

Finding Your Soulmate by Joyce Dohlberg Rowe is a great compilation of inspiration, exercises and motivation to help you find your soulmate. Geared towards women, it gives men helpful hints that can help them understand what qualities their soulmate is looking for. I've found the workbook, exercises and questions especially helpful in working with my coaching clients and thought provoking in my own marriage. Read it today if you are tired of looking and are ready to FIND!

This book was easy to read and interesting, a page turner. The author shares her personal story which I found to be inspiring. This book is written in a style that feels familiar and comfortable - not clinical. I feel that I am better able to evaluate what I am really looking for so as not to waste time with the wrong person.

As a Relationship Therapist, I am always curious about new work in my field.
I read Soulmate on a plane from New York to Washington and couldn't put it down. Rowe's advice is smart, supportive and heart-wise.
I especially appreciate chapter 14 "When to Have Sex and the Warning" where in an honest straight forward tone brings to light what is important before becoming sexual with a partner.
Rowe takes us thru first to third dates and helps us become bold, discerning and discriminating in declaring our intention to find a mate. Reading this book I think any woman will be more prepared to begin her search for partnership.
Soulmate is a breath of fresh air in the relationship literature.

If you're serious about looking for a soul mate, Joyce Dolberg Rowe's book, How to Find Your Soulmate will help you find the way. In a clear, easy-to-read style, she helps you discover what you're looking for, what to do, and what not to do in your search.

Joyce Levine, author of Breakthrough Astrology, Transform Yourself and Your World, Beginner's Guide to Astrological Interpretation, and Meditation tape series.

Simply a great book to read! It is a quick read (I read it in under two hours) and keeps you interested. Perfect for anyone trying to balance work and family.

Kudos to Todd Hopkins for putting something down on paper that can be so impactful on one's daily life. This book is so inspiring and challenging. It makes you want to be a better person. I actually have bought over 3 dozen now, and I give them out to my business acquaintances and friends. I have seen some changes in them, and they have credited it to the 6 directives from the book. I encourage anyone to take the time and read this book!

This book should be required reading for every working adult that has a family. The authors make their point through the story-telling format - wrapping their message within the context of a fictional story. Most working parents deal with how to balance the demands of work, and family life, on a daily basis. The Janitor will help you regain that balance.

A deightful little read. It caught my eye at the bookstore the other day and I had to look at it! Some of the jacket reviews were enticing and one said that they cried at the end. Hmmm... I thought let's have a look. This was an easy read and boiled down to simplicity. Took me the just over an hour and a half to read the entire thing and in the end I did well up a bit. The six directives are excellent! Take them to heart. This book is really about life itself and not a business book. Some reviewers in the future may think that the directives are too simplistic but I think that they're just right and very easy to do in my every day business dealings and in life too! I do plan to read it often. Take time to read this! I hope that it'll recharge you the way it did me.

Very well done story format for delivering six points for better living. Easy and enjoyable read.