Tools Books

Mary Greenwood, author of award-winning How to Mediate Like a Pro: 42 Rules for Mediating Disputes and How to Negotiate Like a Pro: 41 Rules for Resolving Disputes

I love this book about planning book events. As an author of two books myself, I got a lot of great ideas about launching events both outside and in bookstores. In addition, the author gives detailed descriptions and templates that she used in her own book events. I can see why this book has won awards. All authors have to market their books and this book is a must to give authors fresh and new ideas for their PR for their own books.

Most people think that writing a book is the hardest part of being an author - it's one of the easiest! Selling the darn thing after it has been written is the toughest part. If you are an aspiring author know this: There is no book-selling fairy and publishers can't sell your work either. It's the job of the author to get his/her work into the hands of the public. Carol Hoenig's new book is the perfect guide to how it should be done. in this book you will not find fancy tricks and make-believe exercises that will make you wonder why you ever put pen to paper. Instead, you'll find great examples of how it should be done. Carol makes it clear that book signings alone will not bring you the revenue that your hard work deserves. You must be creative and learn who your audience is, catering to their likes and dislikes. If you're a newbie author this book will give you the knowledge that would take 3 years to learn. If you're a seasoned keyboard tapper you'll find out why your book is not on the best-seller list and you'll learn what to do to get it there.

As a first time author Question Of The Day - Where Truth Is The Dare, I find myself full of enthusiasm and ideas. What I needed was a foundation to work off of. Carol Hoenig provides a blueprint that any self promoting author will benefit from.

Most important for me was finding out what to prioritize. Carol takes you through every aspect of planning your book event from the ground up in an extremely user-friendly manner. Carol speaks with a unique authority both as an experienced event coordinator and an author herself. Her perspective in this area is indispensable.

Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar for Reader Views (11/07)

Carol Hoenig's "The Author's Guide to Planning Book Events" is an excellent guide to the author about to be published, and seasoned authors may also find some good ideas for their own book events.

Hoenig makes it very clear in the book that an author cannot sell books unless the author is willing to promote the books. She cites many authors who are willing to sit behind a desk and quietly sign books, but she makes it clear that book signings are often not effective. Authors must entertain their audiences by having book events. As an author myself, I have found that even a book signing is going to require some public speaking skill. People will approach you and ask what your book is about, and you must be able to describe your book in a couple of sentences that grab their attention or they will walk off without buying. Hoenig tells authors not to sit behind the table but stand and talk to passers-by. She also suggests doing creative activities like bringing holiday paper and wrapping books for customers at the holiday season.

Hoenig is an excellent source for information about book events, not only because she is an author and can tell us what worked and did not work for her, but more importantly, she is the former owner of a bookstore where she had many authors come to sign books and give presentations. She has worked with everyone from bestselling authors and publishers to unknown and up-and-coming authors, and she provides many examples of what works and does not work.

The real strength of Hoenig's book is she makes it clear YOU MUST DO EVENTS if you want to sell books. She understands many writers are shy, so she makes suggestions to help them, such as finding other writer friends to interview you before an audience, or doing events with other authors, so you are not by yourself. She also suggests linking up with artists or musicians to cross promote the arts and provide your self with a new audience.

The only aspect where I wish Hoenig suggested more was in addressing authors' shyness. She provided many suggestions for book events, but I felt she needed to spend more time helping authors improve their public-speaking skills, such as providing more examples of successful speeches and ways to describe your book to make it interesting and ways to overcome shyness. She needed to address how authors can overcome shyness and improve their public persona and public-speaking skills. I am surprised she did not recommend authors go to Toastmasters or similar groups for public speaking.

Overall, I would recommend "The Author's Guide to Planning Book Events" to other authors, especially new authors. Then I would suggest they find a way to practice the activities Hoenig suggests and to get friends to come to their events and give them feedback on what was and was not successful. The bottom line: to sell books, YOU MUST DO BOOK EVENTS! And you must also figure out how to do them well.

In clear and concise manner, Hoenig explains how to promote your book, beginning long before the book is published...what works for your particular book and what doesn't. She even makes it sound fun and not overwhelming. This is not just another how-to book that I've started and never finished, but a valuable tool I will keep on my desktop and refer to often. The mere mention of the word Press KIt has always proliferated an instant growth of fuzz on my brain until Hoenig laid out step by step how to put one together. Now I know! This is a must read for all writers who want to share their work with the world. Nel Rand, author of the novel, MISSISSIPPI FLYWAY.

The book is wonderful. Very informative, up-to-date and easy to use. Beautiful illustrations. This really is a MUST HAVE for all collectors of Longaberger baskets. Especially handy to use while bidding for Longabergers on ebay.

I would highly recommend this book. I wish someone had told me about it when I first started bidding on ebay.

This is the book to use to evaluate your Longaberger collection or to help evaluate a basket before you buy. A must for any collector that trades on the secondary market! The book is divided into sections by basket type and includes an index for quick referencing. Take it along to the next basket auction you attend!

This was a great book. I wish that I had the book earlier, when I first started collecting Longaberger Baskets. This is a very good reference book I will use for years to come.

I RECENTLY BOUGHT A WHOLE COLLECTION OF BASKETS FROM A FRIEND WHO NEEDED MONEY....THE BENTLEY GUIDE REALLY HELP ME GIVE HER A FAIR PRICE FOR HER BASKETS.

I am a Longaberger consultant and have every Bentley's Guide ever published, including an autographed first copy. It is a great help in promoting the value of our products (the fact that they appreciate, not depreciate)! It has been of great help in increasing insurance coverage, not only for myself, but also for customers. I had one customer who lost items in a fire; we used the guide for the replacement value for the insurance company. I now have customers who purchase their own Guide.

Christian Writers' Market Guide 2005 is the 20th Anniversary Edition of this invaluable resource. Christian Writers' Market Guide is published on a yearly basis. Each year new markets are added and even more information is included.

If you write inspirational, self-help, spiritual, poetry, or Christian articles, ebooks, books, or music this publication needs to be on your bookshelf. The information in this book includes both online and print media for domestic and international markets with each entry detailing the contact information (snailmail, fax, and email), submission guidelines, genre specialities, payment rates, and tips. These entries are cross referenced by media, market, genre, and denomination.

In addition to this helpful information, this guide also includes entries for reviewers, publicists, and distributors as well as detailed lists of associations, books, and online resources for writers. There is even a section listing contests and awards for Christian writers.

This resource for Christian writers is very thorough, with the notable exception of website addresses for the listed publishers. Now that Ms. Stuart has established a computerized data base, I'm hopeful this will be included in future versions.

The "Christian Writers' Market Guide" is still the reference book every Christian writer needs. Consider this a gimmee. Buy this year's edition. Buy next year's edition. Plan on the following year as well.

What you need to know about this edition:

* 1,180 markets. Pick a Christian denomination (Catholic and Protestant), and their publication is likely listed.

* Almost 700 periodicals, over 350 book publishers. Think of how many you are aware of? "Christianity Today," "New Man," "Decision" are probably at the top of your mind for periodicals. Tyndale, NavPress, InterVarsity Press are probably among the book publishers you know. Maybe you know a few more. Here, you'll discover how vast the Christian publishing world is.

Literary agents, contests, advice for various markets, editorial services, market analyses, specialty markets (like greeting cards) all have sections.

If you are looking to connect with other writers, you'll be happy to find the lists of writers' groups and clubs, and for conferences and workshops. A key group is the Evangelical Press Association, but there are smaller ones geared for denominations and market.

The structure is similar to previous editions, but, as always, the current year provides the most accurate data.

Each publication starts with symbols indicating if it is new, if the data is confirmed, and if they pay. There's the title, the contact info including a URL, an editor's name, a brief description, the page count and circulation number, the subscription cost, percentage freelanced, submission preference, payment style, and general content needs.

Missing but I hope soon changing, is a purely digital version. Searching through a book to find, for example, what periodicals pay for poetry, can be frustrating when I know a sensible CD version would allow me a complete list within seconds.

Weak also are listings for foreign markets, but this may as much a fault of the publisher as the guide's editor, or may be due to the limited number of international Christian publications.

Add up the above, and you will see how any writer aiming for the Christian market at large would find this an indispensable volume. It fills in the gaps left open by the very useful "Writer's Digest" market guides, and provides the required tools for connecting writer and publisher.

I fully recommend the "Christian Writers' Market Guide," as it remains the best option for any Christian writer.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

This book is a great and plentiful resource for any serious Christian writer. It leaves absolutely nothing undone. Kudos to the author. Incidentally, she actually does answer emails and is very willing to help with her many other publications as well as her expertise. She is very approachable. Thanks for all the hard work!

My aunt bought this book for me as a gift and I have used it almost daily in my profession. The book is organized well and has listings of publications and publishers that are not found in other guides. It is easy to read and includes a wealth of information including pay rate, tips, and special needs. At the back of the book, it also includes workshops and conference listings. A must have for any writer!

This is simply the most comprehensive complilation of data for the Christian writer endorsed by author's, publishers and agents.

I needed this book for the locations of publishers and agents, it is a great tool.

Whether you dream of writing magazine articles or books for the Christian marketplace, you need this book on your shelf.

The key is beyond having it in your possession. Study the book and use the many tools built into the pages from marketing guru Sally E. Stuart. Every writer can benefit from her many years of expertise tracking the Christian marketplace.

Every aspect of publishing is constantly changing, Sally gives you the latest scoop in this solid reference book. Don't be caught using out-of-date information. How are you caught? When you submit to an editor who is long gone from a publishing house or a magazine. The annual edition of this book will serve you well.

Terry Whalin
www.bookproposal.ws or www.thewritinglife.ws

The first time writer faces a whole series of problems in even getting some to take them seriously. Can you imagine what it must have been like to go to a publisher and tell them that you were writing this seven volume series about a boy going to Wizzard's school.

The key is to find a publisher that likes what you do. And that is basically a numbers game -- contact enough people and you will find one that likes what you write. This book is basically a list of people to contact. It covers not only the publishers (book and periodical) but also such things as writing groups, promotional contacts (book reviewers, publicists, writers conferences, agents) -- in short everything there is to know about the writing business with an emphasis on the Christian marketplace.

This book comes out every year, so you get up to date names, e-mail and physical addresses and of course the new publications that may not have a stable of writers.

I attended a Christian Writer's Conference two years ago, a dizzying initiation into the subculture that produces much of the written material that American (at least) Christians read.

There I heard reverential references to Sally Stuart's annual publication and dutifully picked up my copy at the bookstand.

It truly is a marvelous reference work, published annually in order to track the rapid changes in the industry. Major sections include resources for writers (you never knew there were so many), topical/subject and alphabetical listings of book publishers, similar listings for periodicals and specialty markets, and a section on helps for writers. The latter includes an extensive list of literary agents who will pitch (after perhaps rejecting or reshaping) your work to the right publisher.

Sally's book is what it is: an indispensible gathering in one place of the data you need to get published in this sector. If this is your desire, you'll want to make sure you pick up your copy annually.

I absolutely love The Comprehensive Guide to Chocolate Molds: Objects of Art & Artists' Tools. It has beautiful photographs of molds with their values. This was of great interest to me since I have a mold collection. Also I use my molds for chalkware and have for more than 15 years. It was exciting to see photos of other chalkware artists' work. In all I love the book and hope Wendy comes out with Volume Two as there are many more molds to cover. Thanks, Carol

I have enjoyed the book on chocolate moulds and it is very informative for the antique moulds. I would recommend this book and am happy that I ordered it. It has many pages of information and pictures.

this book was well worth the money, it was well done. very informitive, unique and happy to own it

Wendy Mullen found her first chocolate mold over fifteen years ago and loves writing about chocolate. She has published articles about chocolate molds and this book displays a wide array of antique chocolate molds that include everything from Easter eggs to cats and angels. There are molds for butterflies, bunnies, frogs, turtles, goats, roosters, pigs, lambs, dogs, elephants, teddy bears, deer and just about any other animal you can think of including storks, seals and stylized dolphins. Fairy Tales are also featured and you can may enjoy seeing a Hansel and Gretel house, Red Riding Hood and Snow White Scenes.

All the prices are included so you can have an idea of how much you want to spend if you go looking for these molds. All the main holidays are represented, as are unique items like the the Krampus mold familiar in Austria. Neptune also appears and then there are may pages of Santa. If you love collecting Santa items, there is page after page. Christmas takes up at least one fifth of the book and is perfect for getting ideas if you make chocolates for Christmas. There are snowmen, angels, Christmas ornaments and even manger scenes.

Even if you don't want to go looking for a three hundred dollar scallop shell, at least you can get ideas for what you want to go find online. Many of these molds seem to be useful for candy making and for making soaps.

Additional creative finds at the end include hearts in a postcard style which are very beautiful once painted or if you use three types of chocolate. There are castles, temples, crowns, shoes, cars, boats and even hot air balloons.

A special "Collector's Tips and Closing" section shows how to purchase antique chocolate molds, explains how they must be cleaned and handled to prevent rusting.

From the information in this book, you could actually buy a new chocolate mold that looks antique. Additional information on suppliers is briefly discussed. To find most of the molds, you only need to do an Internet search because all the items have collection information and the names of the specific items.

As a coffee table book this is highly entertaining, but the usefulness factor is especially enjoyable because of the way the book is organized. A lovely gift or a research tool for your own journey of chocolate art.

~The Rebecca Review

Wendy Mullen's The Comprehensive Guide To Chocolate Molds: Objects Of Art & Artist's Tools more than just a collector's price guide, Wendy Mullen, chocolate maker for 15 years, delves into the history of antique chocolate molds and their design and production, packing over 1300 photos of such antiques with discussions of all kinds of molds. Topped by an interview with the great-granddaughter of one of the best German mold specialists in history, Anton Reiche, The Comprehensive Guide To Chocolate Molds is unparalleled in depth and detail: there's simply nothing like it on the market, past or present.

This book is a product of the author's in-depth knowledge of the Intentional Communities Movement. Her intimate experience with successful ecovillage communities makes available key strategies and factors in community building. My only critique of this book is that the most important and useful chapter which should probably be first (choosing who to live with), is placed at the end. Incidently this chapter helped me take an honest look at myself and some of the issues i was carying at the time and made me aware i need to resolve them in order to be a more desireable community member.

As a cofounder of an aspiring ecovillage I've found this book to be uniquely invaluable to forming a community. Since November 06, a group of us have been using this book to guide us along the path towards making our dreams of a creating a community come true. At each step along the way, the advice that Diana dispenses in this guide have served as discussion tools, as examples and as warnings on how not to proceed. She offers up numerous examples of success stories and of failures. There are many books on life in cohousing, or general overviews of the community concepts, but as far as I know, this is the only one to tackle the nuts and bolts issues of creating a community from scratch. This book is absolutely essential reading to anybody interested in forming a community or cohousing project. [...]

The title's a little misleading. This book is more of a guide through the legal and financial pitfalls involved with creating and sustaining an intentional community. But as such it is unsurpassed. I've also met the author during my permaculture course and found her to be very insightful, intelligent, yet humble and open to new ideas. Even if you're not trying to form your own commune, this book is packed with useful information.

Note: Even for those who aren't interested in living in "intentional communities," there's great guidance in this book that is relevant to forming a nonpfrofit housing community.

Christian candidly explains the many ways that a group of people choosing to live as interdependent residents, whether of just one house or several houses on commonly held land, both complicates and facilitates adjusting to the inevitable quirky expectations, needs and requirements of different, even if simpatico, individuals. Although Creating a Life Together is intended for those who want to start something more like a modern-day commune, some of which qualify as ecovillages, the points and principles in this book are relevant to sharing one residence or living in separate dwellings but making a commitment to share co-owned land with multiple homes. Either way, you're sharing your day-to-day lives as an extended family bonded by choice, not by blood.

Only 10% succeed

Christian's guidance and opinions are based on many years of living in intentional communities and serving as editor of Communities magazine. She starts with describing what the 10% of communities that succeed have and in common and what tends to make the other 90% fail, over before they truly get started.

Then she explains how and where to start and what steps to take in what order - and that is not jumping right into looking for the ideal land or property, despite how tempting that is when you're full of dreams and enthusiasm. Before you even get to that stage - or at least before you make an offer on any kind of property - you'll need to learn a lot about zoning, financing, housing and land trusts perhaps, and certainly what kind of legal entity will work best for what your group has in mind and exactly what each of you have in mind, from contributions of money, time and labor to what's acceptable and what's not in day-to-day living. You'll need to decide going in what happens when someone wants out, so you can protect everyone, both legally and emotionally.

First 6 crucial steps

She calls these six elements "crucial" to address in the formative stages:

Identify your community vision and create vision documents.
Choose a fair, participatory decision-making process appropriate for your group. If you choose consensus, get trained in it.
Make clear agreements - in writing. This includes choosing an appropriate legal entity for owning land [or a dwelling] together.
Learn good communication and group process skills. Make clear communication and resolving conflicts a priority.
In choosing cofounders and new members, select for emotional maturity.
Learn the head skills and heart skills you need to know.
Not a dream for dilettantes

Christian also offers fair warning that if you have a burning desire to start a new intentional community, you'll need that kind of passion and more: "It takes enormous amounts of time to pull off a project of this magnitude. Even if you meet weekly, you'll still need people to work on various committees that work and/or meet between scheduled meetings - gathering information, calling officials, crunching the numbers, drafting proposals, and so on - for at least a year, or even two years or longer, " she says. "The larger your group and/or the smaller your assets, the longer it'll take."

Judith Broadhurst
editor, publisher and bag lady doyenne
The Bag Lady Prevention Plan
Realistic Strategies for Secure and Fulfilling Futures
An online community women over 50
www.BagLadyPrevention.com

As a longtime member of an intentional community I've made good use of this book in introducing people to the promises and conflicts that surround the concept. Although it's aimed more at founders than at people joining established communities, it provides enough background (and interesting stories, to boot!) for explorers to develop a certain familiarity with the issues that will serve them well as they seek their own special place.

Do your employees have the knowledge, information, and skills to make decisions and take action? According to the author, the answer to such a question lies in one word: learning. The author argues that a workforce of employees in a learning mode is the key to a company's success both now and in the future.

This book addresses four key issues that workplace learning must address: learning stages, context, learning styles, and desired outcomes. These issues are addressed with a learning system, for which the author presents a five-phase plan to creating such a learning system: exploration, envisioning, planning, development, and implementation/improvement.

The author also includes a sample of specific tools for developing an interest in learning, strategies, and programs for individual learning, learning in groups, one-on-one learning, and learning integrated into work.

'Linda Honold has produced the best book in its field. She shows clearly how learning and development can be a real force for positive change in organizations. The book is especially useful in focusing on practical, usable methods that can be applied in real life situations. It's also valuable because the approaches the book suggests are tried and tested. She comes from a background in organizational life so it's not some arm-chair theorising by an academic. Indeed I'd wish that the theoretical 'learning organization' folks would take note of this book. We need more practical, concrete approaches to improving learning not meandering theories.

This is a book that all trainers and developers should own.'

Linda Honold describes a system for helping everyone in your company learn to become more creative, responsive, efficient and team-oriented. She describes various techniques, including methods for developing an interest in learning and in self-knowledge, individual learning tools, mentoring, coaching and peer learning as well as strategies for helping people learn in groups. She pays particular attention to learning styles, drawing on the Myers-Briggs personality type system. This book speaks primarily to human resource professionals and to executives who might be setting up learning systems for their own companies. Others may find the book dry and overly concerned with the details of systematizing the serendipity of informal learning. But we [...] recommend this book to HR practitioners, and also to professionals delving into knowledge management, who will certainly benefit from this theoretical look at how people in companies actually learn.

Developing Employees Who Love To Learn: Tools, Strategies, And Programs For Promoting Learning At Work shows how any business scan create and implement a successful learning system that will improve employee performance and enhance company profits. Linda Honold (president and founder of Empowerment System, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) draws upon her years of experience and expertise to provide step-by-step, "user friendly" instructions on laying the groundwork for, and implement, the activities and programs that will generate meaningful, applicable employee learning. The informative text is augmented with numerous illustrative examples and features "The Learning Toolbox", a compendium of ninety practical tools and resources for creating a dynamic environment for both individual and group learning. Developing Employees Who Love To Learn is very highly recommended reading for corporate managers and human resource directors.

This book came to me just as I was grappling with the problem of providing a fresh learning experience for some 40 managers in a major retail company located near Los Angeles. The book was just what I needed to develop a learning plan that goes well beyond classroom-type training. The book provides a sophisticated learning model that is easy to understand and very practical.

The book is well organized. Ms. Honold provides a useful and up-to-date review of adult learning theory, but quickly moves on to present an impressive array of tools aimed at meeting the needs of people with widely varying learning styles. When it comes to learning one size does not fit all. (We seem to accept this idea for adults -- why not for younger students?)

This is a user-friendly book of great value to anyone who is looking for a fresh perspective on how to share information in an organization. There is a major emphasis on motivating the learner, a key point that often gets short shrift in books like this. Finally, and most importantly, Ms. Honold is obviously an experienced practitioner in creating enthusiasm for learning in a work setting. That experience is reflected throughout this excellent book.

I got this book for a reasonable price at a quick shipping services it took about a week to arrive and shipping was free WOW I'M LUVN IT!!!!!!!!!!

I would recommend this book to anybody who is interested in the development of children. This book covers a wide spectrum of theories and real life examples from conception till late adolescence. What is more, it is very easy to read and every single chapter is incredibly knowledgeable and attention-grabbing to go through. It was one of the best psychology books I've read so far!!!

Overall it's a well written, illustrated and researched book that keeps with the most contemporary of scientific and specialist knowledge within this area and sustains throughout right from the chapters on conception and prenatal development through to the formative years outside the womb that the roles of environment, culture and the human organism itself, all in their different contexts, work together and in sync to create the overall eventual development of the human being. One such example in the book where these forces come into play focused around the fact that exclusively looking for genetic causes for intelligence and other psychological and physical attributes is flawed. Geneticists have found that many genetically related diseases and other diversities arise from genetic anomalies and mutations that are not inherited e.g. Down syndrome. This goes some way to questioning the validity of Eugenics programs that in part aim to `breed out' genetic code or traits from the human gene pool that is seen to be unhealthy.

Other information that was of interest;
1. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and some of the research done in this area and ways to help prevent it, there is a program called the "Back to Sleep Campaign" run in the USA by NICHD, The Back to Sleep campaign is suitably named for its recommendation to place healthy babies on their backs to sleep. Placing babies on their backs to sleep reduces the risk of SIDS.

2. The Utilization of what they call `Kangaroo Care' as a means to help premature babies thrive.

3. One thing I found intriguing was the suggestion that infants who are allowed to simply actively engage and explore their environment progress better psychologically, cognitively and socially.

4. The beginnings of a sex role identity start to occur around 3 years of age when children's strong attachments to their mothers weaken. During this period of early development, "wanting to be near" (their parent) that is the dominant force in infancy is taken over by "wanting to be like".

5. The in depth discussions to do with schooling and the different modes and forms that this takes on in modern times and also the types of influence that formal education exerts on both the social lives of children and also their academic faculties.

6. The beginning of the reasoning of moral issues and Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of the six stages of moral development.

My only complaint is this; given that I am colour blind it was quite a job to often try and distinguish one line from the next on the graphs and tables throughout, so that would be my only criticism but its relatively negligible. Obviously the views of both psychology and early childhood development do overlap so I would recommend that anyone interested in this area of study read Psychology 7th Edition (Myers) first, you don't have to by any means but it does make some of the concepts and text in this particular book seem easier to understand which makes the flow of reading the content much smoother, though having said that, the authors who as it turns out also have children of their own, have done an excellent job of explaining theories and ideas first then following up by giving a working and easy to understand example in laymen's terms of where those theories and ideas have been put to work, both under scientific conditions or in the real world. Furthermore the authors have somewhat followed the basic format of briefly talking about what they are going to discuss at the start of any particular section of the book, then discussing it and finally at the end of each chapter they review and summarize the content which helps to round out the discussion.

The reference sections at the back of the book containing the definitions of the different terms used throughout the text were a nice and helpful addition to the hardback. This was my second book purchase from the `Worth' Publishing press and the style of their books, in particular the pedagogical features seem to be uniform throughout their range, also in addition to this is the accompanying website that is full of didactic features and a great way to learn interactively about this subject. Overall this book is a fascinating insight into the development of children and certainly worth reading if you're planning on starting or already have a young family as the knowledge will help give you an idea of what to expect as a parent, but it would be equally suitable to others that may be simply interested in academia or just have an interest in this general area and want to add to your knowledge about the human condition.

As a final word I'll say that although the book was mainly meant for academic study which usually makes these class of texts somewhat cold, prosaic and uninspiring, all of which I might add this books suffers none of, you can't help but come to the conclusion that the underlying message in my view is that the more children are nurtured, shaped and prepared both psychologically and socially in a positive and interesting way, then the chances of a superior eventual outcome for the child in question and society at large are improved enormously. To the casual reader of this review that previous sentence may seem blatantly obvious, but to arrive at a greater and much deeper understanding of the what, when's, where's, why's, and who's of childhood development and advancement, then one would be wise to invest some time and money into this book because it is surely worth it. Conversely, this is not a `how to' manual, rather it may be best viewed as an intense analytical overview of the different theories, conclusions, studies and the people who have influenced this area of scientific enquiry over the last 100 years or so.

Edward Gibbon wrote the "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" and Mike Cole and his colleagues have written a work of equal stature on the making of human beings. This is an encyclopedia of human development from single cell to adolesence. Though a leader of the cultural psychology school of development, this work includes every theory and subtheory of development around, each bringing its particular insights at the appropriate point in the story - part eclectically, part critically, but always comprehensively. Frequent break-outs take up issues of controversy, the photographs and illustrations are magnificent. Each chapter is constructed with study questions, summaries etc, making it suitable for systematic study, written by a consummate educator. This book will do you for life; use it from your first lecture in your "Early Childhood studies" course, or for that matter, libguistics, anthropology, neuroscience, till your first research project, keep it while your kids grow up, use it when composing your journalistic articles about social issues, and re-read it for sheer enlightenment. I can't say that this book is the last word on the topic, because I know that the Coles will put out a sixth edition before long and the story will go on!

Cole & Cole's work is by far one of my favorite textbooks. The reason? The authors methodically lay out child development from a biopsychosocial perspective, which is no small feat.

They write with a thoroughness and efficiency that you will rarely find in a textbook. Their treatment of child development is evenhanded, not privilaging either the bio, psycho, or social perspectives.

Anyone who has to hire film or video crews and other production personnel should consider this book. The author covers nearly every production category imaginable - so much so that it's like NAB in a book. With so many new digital and film products on the market today, this book makes it a lot easier to talk the right lingo with essential crew members and stay informed of what new and old options are available for any production budget.

Anyone who has to hire film or video crews and other production personnel should consider this book. The author covers nearly every production category imaginable - so much so that it's like NAB in a book. With so many new digital and film products on the market today, this book makes it a lot easier to talk the right lingo with essential crew members and stay informed of what new and old options are available for any production budget.

I purchased this book as a graduation gift for a friend in film school
and then I bought myself a copy. I've been using it in production
meetings to discuss equipment options with my crew and I plan to add it
to the list of required reading for all of my production interns.
This book really covers an incredible spectrum of production tools
available to filmmakers and video users alike.

This book is full of toys that I didn't even knew existed. I was really impressed with the depth of product and information that they gathered in this book. There is some great gear in this book that I have to get. It contained things that I never would have imagined. And they will help speed up and drastically improve my next film shoot. Good find.

I purchased this book as a graduation gift for a friend in film school and then I bought myself a copy. I've been using it in production meetings to discuss equipment options with my crew, and I plan to add it to the list of required reading for all of my production interns.
This book really covers an incredible spectrum of production tools available to filmmakers and video users alike.

This book is a life saver for anyone going through change and transition! I love the tools Heather lays out for each of the four elements as it has helped me to see where I am out of balance and what I need more of...am I too emotional? Perhaps I need some more Air, clear seeing, to help put things in perspective. This book is a must for anyone on the spiritual path, and I highly recommend it. Very practical with useful, powerful tools!

I have yet to get through the whole book but so far it has created alot more thoughts on getting to the "root" of habits in out lives.

This intriguing, insightful book is a straight-forward, hands-on approach to clarity and personal growth. With a new approach to the Rational Emotive school of thought, and the reader being in charge of accessing powerful tools for new directions, this is a carefully thought out, easy-reading gem!

This book is lovely, the perfect "medicine" for our hectic lives in this constantly-changing world. It has a lot of information packed in, yet is presented in a clear, straightforward manner. As I read the book, many things about my life and the way I react to change fell into place for me, and this book gave me not only new insights about myself, but also practical, positive ideas for better ways I can deal with change in my own life.

As I am on the road a lot working and managing life and health in all its forms I've found that this book is helping me to simplify my practices, I can leave my physical practical tools at home. Her words are simple, direct and beautiful intertwined with her own experience of the elements and how they are relative to the body, mind, spirit and emotions. This information has really helped me to take stock, clear up and accept things about life that were a definitive waste of energy.