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Free Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Free
Infidel
Published in Hardcover by Free Press (2007-02-06)
Author: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
List price: $26.00
New price: $7.50
Used price: $5.90
Collectible price: $26.00

Average review score:

A must read!!!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-28
Ayan Hirsi Ali's account of growing up as a Somali woman in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Germany, and the Netherlands, what she endured, her search for religious meaning as a Muslim and her struggle to be her own person was inspiring and a must read for all!!!!!!

Honest, Life-changing
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-28
One of the few life-changing books that I would consider a must-read for all: honest, direct, and with inspiring moral clarity.

A story that stays with you
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-28
This is one of the most thought provoking books I have ever read. Ayaan Hirsi Ali gives a detailed portrayal of her life story and growing up Muslim. All that she writes about will stay with you and will make you think.
Her amazing life journey had me taken through several countries and through a culture as a woman I could have never in my wildest dreams knew existed. I had heard about female genital mutilation, but I never truly knew of the real horrors of it. I could also never imagine a mother telling her child to hit before you are hit as a survival of the fittest strategy. Alot of things she writes about are not what we in the westernize world are taught, and it seems very foreign to the point of culture shock.
Please pick up the book and read it with an open mind. I can definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about the struggles of women around the world.

A wonderful read and profoundly moving experience.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-23
This book opened my eyes to the truth of the world we all live in now - a world that is smaller than we think and much more evil and more perilous. It is the only book I have ever read that truly explains the reason for the 9/11 attack in a way that makes sense and is believable. It opens our vision to the future and to what we can know it will be. I feel that I not only will never think in the same way, I will never be the same. At the same time it portrays amazing courage and is absolutely inspiring, especially so to all young women everywhere.

This book is awesome!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-23
I am a Christian woman who feels strongly about the rights of women. In Ali's book I saw corollaries between the abuse of women in Islam and the abuse of women in Christiandom. I also saw corollaries between the way culture intertwines itself in the interpretation of the Koran and of the Bible.

Being an American, I had no idea what was going on in Europe in the Muslim communities. I also didn't know hardly anything about what it was like to grow up in the countries Ali did. This book taught me hard realities I was not aware of.

I think this is a great book and encourage everyone to read it. And remember, Islam is not the only religion that uses it's sacred texts to abuse women, there are Christians who do that also.

Free
The Little Prince
Published in Paperback by Harcourt (1968-06)
Author: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
List price: $4.95
New price: $3.97
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

Buy the Katherine Woods translation only
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-11
To get the most enjoyment from this beautiful book, buy the original Katherine Woods translation.

a teacher
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-23
This is a wonderful story and a great book I was able to share with my students. The only drawback with the book is that the pages are not in color, but the extremely low price allowed me to purchase the books for my students out of my own pocket.

Katherine Woods - The name to remember
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-09
Katherine Woods' translation is the only English-language version of The Little Prince which captures the beauty, simplicity, clarity, and profundity of the Antoine de St. Exupery's classic, penned in French.

(The newer translation is appallingly horrid and bland, mistaken, and frankly perplexing.)

This is really not a children's book, although older children will appreciate it.

Don't measure the value by the thickness of the book. De St. Exupery, himself a WWI pilot, writes with a great economy yet produces here the most beautiful poetry with a delightful playfulness and childlike innocence -- a fresh vision which thus sees clearly and does not obscure the profound.

Mr. Fred Rogers used to quote from de St. Exupery, whose image and illustrations once graced the 20-franc note (in the days before the euro).

There simply is no other work like this one. It is an exceptionally rare treasure, a masterpiece.

Be sure to read Katherine Woods' translation. Read it privately, when you have time to savor each word. And keep a box of tissues nearby.

The Little Prince
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-09-12
The Little Prince has often been heralded as a youthful book, required reading in elementary and high schools alike. In delivering it this way I think The Little Prince is missed by the only audience that is likely to truly appreciate it, that is adults. It is not an uncommon misconception that this is a children's book. Indeed, I keep the pictures stored on my computer, and am often asked where they came from. I reply that they are from one of my favourite books, and without fail the response is along the lines of, 'I don't mean to be rude but is that a children's book?'. 'No', I explain, 'it is not'.

The Little Prince is most needed, I think, by adults. It is easy to be caught up in, as De Saint-Exupery describes it, 'matters of consequence' and forget that it is not these matters which bring meaning to life. By pointing out the futility of professions practised endlessly and in isolation of other people, it becomes clear that the Little Prince, with his rose, is the only character with a life of consequence.

This book is beautifully written and translated by Katherine Woods. It speaks volumes through its simple tale, strange though it seems that matters such as these only become clear when they are somewhat removed from reality. Matters such as love, innocence, imagination and priorities. The Little Prince is a gentle and stirring reminder to never forget to see the boa constrictor from the hat.

Little Prince speaks to the child in me
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-11
I was an adult when i read this book, and i really appreciated the lessons in life that Saint-Exupery shares through the Little Prince.

A great book, full of beautiful illustrations, easy to read, while fun and sad at the same time.

I personally read it as if Exupery is sharing with us the conversations he has with his own inner child, in the image of the Little Prince. That is why the Little Prince would ask many questions, but rarely answer the ones he was asked. Like all our inner children he's been hidden inside and kept silent for a long long time, and now that he was given his chance, he will speak. And we better listen, for he is an integral part of our psyche, who will take us through the most unbelievable adventures.

Free
Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World: 75 Dairy-Free Recipes for Cupcakes that Rule
Published in Paperback by Da Capo Press (2006-10-16)
Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
List price: $15.95
New price: $9.00
Used price: $9.41

Average review score:

AMAZING!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-29
This book is the best thing that has happened to me in a long time! Not only am I vegan, but I'm allergic to gluten/wheat products! And she includes a scrumptious vanilla and chocolate version of GF cupcakes in here! All a GF vegan has to do is substitute the GF cupcakes into any of the recipes in here and voila! An amazing cupcake that all your friends at work will ask you to make over and over..yes, they're vegan...and many "non-veg-savvy" are frightened at the prospect...but these cupcakes are total, over the top crowd pleasers!!! Even my boyfriend likes them...and he's a real "I like meat" kinda guy...if this book can win him over, it can win your man over too...not to mention your boss, your friends, your relatives...the list goes on and on and on...buy it...it's the best book I've bought in a long long time! You will not be disappointed.

Mmmmmmmmm... DELICIOUS!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-26
I was craving cupcakes, and remembered seeing Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World at Whole Foods. So I ran over there and got the book as well as the ingredients to make the basic vanilla cupcakes, and the vegan cream cheese frosting (lemon variation). I doubled the amount of lemon zest in the frosting (1 T wasn't enough) - and the cupcakes are unbelievably good. I just ate two! Highly recommend this book. Only problem is deciding what to make next...

<3
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-24
i've been a vegetarian for about 10 years now and am also an avid baker. although i'm not vegan i have been trying to only bake vegan desserts. I got this cookbook for christmas and I haven't been disappointed. easy recipes, lot of variations and lots of pictures, which i think are a necessity for cookbooks. everyone that i've baked vegan cupcakes for has loved them. i would definitely recommend this to anyone, vegan or not.

It's a world I want to live in...
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-07
The cupcakes are delicious, moist, and gorgeous; there's a wonderful variety of offerings from the very easy to the uber-fancy, but Isa and Terry make it all very non-threatening. I made a batch of the lemon macadamia nut cupcakes for a party not long ago and they were devoured instantly; only my lactose-intolerant bf knew that they were vegan. The cupcakes I've made have all turned out to be moist (it's worth saying twice) and flavorful, and could stand alone nicely without frosting--strong words from someone who normally ignores the cake entirely in favor of the frosting! The authors pay scrupulous attention to flavor, mouthfeel, and texture in all recipes; the tips on baking and where to find some of the less everyday materials or ingredients are also very helpful.

Some of the ingredients can be hard to find for some of the recipes (I have torn the greater St. Louis area apart trying to find vegan cream cheese, to no avail), but that's sort of to be expected. Bottom line, I'll happily live in any world these ladies decide to take over.

They sure took over my world!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-06
These recipes are wonderful, and like Veganomicon (buy this too if you don't own it!), the cookbook itself is well written, instructive and humorous. There are also a lot of good pictures of the cupcakes too. The recipes mostly use ingredients that a vegetarian or vegan would have on hand (though there are some rather "gourmet" cupcakes that might stretch the limits of your pantry) and the cupcakes cook up wonderfully. I have brought them to work and to parties and my Omni friends and co-workers never knew the difference. In fact, most asked for the recipes, and were stumped when I showed them!

So far, I have made:

Cupcakes: Golden Vanilla, Basic Chocolate, Mucho Margarita (OMG you have to try these!!!)
Icings: Chocolate Ganache, Chocolate Mousse, Margarita Glaze

Free
Veganomicon: The Ultimate Vegan Cookbook
Published in Hardcover by Da Capo Press (2007-10-31)
Authors: Isa Chandra Moskowitz, Terry Hope Romero, Isa Moskowitz, and Terry Romero
List price: $27.50
New price: $15.15
Used price: $16.94

Average review score:

strange recipes
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-28
Too many very weird ingredients and strange unappetizing recipes. I am a long time experienced, good cook and have dozens of cook books, but I regret buying this book. I will likely not make a single dish from this book. The authors writing style is trying hard to be cutesy and ends up just being annoying.

The Best Vegan Cook book to date!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-29
From the moment I saw this book at the Borders where I work I was intrigued...a huge compendium of completely vegan recipes?? I had to investigate further. After borrowing the book from my store about 8 times (yes you can do that if you actually work there...rent brand new books out! WOOOT!) I decided that yeah...it was worth the price tag. I couldn't get enough of it.

Everything I have made has been satisfying and delicious. Everything you ever needed is in here! Need a lasagna recipe...yup..it's here, along with a heavenly tofu-ricotta that is amazing in other things too... Need something extra special for a holiday dinner? Don't want your vegan friends to be left out of a delicious meal? The "quiche" in here is so decadent, it'll be the people eating the turkey who'll be jealous!

Seriously though, for a person just starting out on the vegan diet, not knowing how on earth to turn her faves into animal-friendly dishes, this is for you! Been a vegan for years and want to add some new recipes to the table? This is the book for you. Next to Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World...buying this book was the best decision I ever made. It's like the Vegan bible! Delish! Get it, cook stuff, enjoy....and share! Seriously, your non-veg friends/family will dig things in here too (PS Don't tell them it's vegan til' they've cleaned their plates....it's more fun that way!"

just fabulous
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-25
I have made a recent change to living meatless and this book is an amazing companion on the journey! Every recipe I have tried is easy to follow, simple ingredients, and tastes excellent.

For anyone who says you can't have a hearty, "comfort food" meal without meat... this book will prove them wrong!

comprehensive
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-24
I am venturing into vegetarian cooking in a serious way only recently. This cookbook gives me many new ideas as well as the basics to get going. The author has a lot of experience; this is one of many cookbooks she has authored. Because it is "vegan" it does not rely on dairy as many vegetarian receipes do. The range of receipes is comprehensive. My friend who has been vegetarian for 20 years got excited when she read it and is ordering one for herself. I can recommend it to both novice and experienced vegetarians.

fabulous
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-24
for non vegans, my mom and I are having a blast with the book. it's easy to use, simple. totally user friendly.

Free
Debt-Proof Living: The Complete Guide to Living Financially Free
Published in Paperback by DPL Press, Inc (2000-01)
Author: Mary Hunt
List price: $14.99
New price: $3.00
Used price: $0.40
Collectible price: $14.99

Average review score:

Easy to read, easy to follow, easy to succeed
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-12
This is a great book. I found it very easy to read. Mary speaks from personal experience and it's like have a close friend right there with you in the trenches. We've begun to implement her plan and I can already see a difference in our monthly expenses. It's not an instant fix, but then we didn't get in this financial hole in a day either. Steady progress without any steps backwards, that's our goal.

Thanks Mary for taking the time to share what you've learned with the rest of us. You're making a difference one family at a time!!!

Debt Proof Living
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-03
Fantastic book! If everyone in the country read it and did what Mary recommends, this country would not be in the situation it is!

Everyone should read this book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-08
After reading this book and implementing Mary's plan, my husband and I were able to organize our credit and shorten our payments from 15 years down to 5! We are two years into it, and only have three more to go before we are debt free. I cannot express how great this book is. Mary addresses how to live without using credit, how to pay off the credit you do have, and how to make sure you don't need to fall back on credit in the future. She suggests in the book to use her website to plan your payments on current debt. It costs $20 to enroll, and I would highly reccomend it. It allows you to plug all your debt into the worksheet, and it tells you which bills to pay first, second, etc to get the debt payed off the fastest. Well worth the $20!

Debt proof living
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-24
Everyone should read this book and follow her steps. This is a great way to get out of debt.

Best Budget and Money book out!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-16
I first checked this out of the Library but after the third time decieded I needed my own copy. Positive and not degrading like some of the other budget cash only spokes persons.

Free
A Grief Observed
Published in Paperback by Bantam (1983-03-01)
Author: C.S. Lewis
List price: $6.50
New price: $4.72
Used price: $0.01
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

Best book for grief
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-31
This book obviously already has plenty of praising views, but I read this book and found it so great that I can't live with myself if I don't write a review. Coming from a kid who grieved a traumatic death, this book *IS* the book to buy if you're grieving, want to understand death, or want to find a book to help out a confused friend (no matter what age) who's grieving. It's worth the price.

Deep
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-05
I am new to the genius of CS Lewis. I read the Narnia series as a kid, but have not read books for years, until recently. This book was deep, and full of the genius Lewis is known for. He expresses the pain of losing his wife, and the questions that those who mourn often work through, but are too guilty to express publically. The work is awesome, and may help some who are going through similar feelings of greif. Skip the aknowlegement at the beginning by Madeline Engle, I am not familiar with her writing, but have heard the name. I am surprised she was chosen to write the aknowlegement, but it is an amusing contrast to Lewis' intellect and spiritual understanding. The aknowlegement exudes an attitude of confidence in spiritual issues, yet reveals a cluelessness and spiritual blindess found largely in todays new age books. It does not belong in a CS Lewis book.

A Book of Great Beauty and Intelligence
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-23
Although Lewis was, of course, a renowned and devout Christian, this book will speak to anyone who's lost someone with whom they shared real love. All of the questions, angers, and doubts that fill the mind during the numbing time following great loss are shared in the first person, generously, by Lewis. This is, I think, a beautiful, powerful, and deeply healing work.

A Grief Observed
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-19
This small book is a blessing to those who have experienced a deep and pressing grief. It shows a bit of the journey C.S. Lewis made through his grief experience. It was a brief, beautiful read.

A Grief Analyzed
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-03-27
Originally published under a pseudonym, this short book is a thoroughly reasoned but heart-felt analyzation of grief from the private writing journal of intellectual author and academia giant, C.S. Lewis. The object of his grief is the love of his life, his rare intellectual equal and friend whom he met later in life and fell deeply in love with, making her his wife.

Born Atheist, C.S. Lewis became a committed Christian, but spent part of his journalized pages in honest reflection of his anger at God and acknowledgement of fragile faith while in the throes of traumatic, life-altering grief. He boldly wonders and writes the thoughts and words most familiarly held at some point in the minds of others bereaved over their most beloved and cherished.

From page 23: "Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief. Apparently the faith - I thought it faith - which enables me to pray for the other dead has seemed strong only because I have never really cared, not desperately, whether they existed or not. Yet I thought I did."

After other thoughts about risks and beliefs, this is said, "And you will never discover how serious it was until the stakes are raised horribly high, until you find that you are playing not for counters or for sixpences but for every penny you have in the world. Nothing will shake a man - or at any rate a man like me - out of his merely verbal thinking and his merely notional beliefs. He has to be knocked silly before he comes to his senses. Only torture will bring out the truth. Only under torture does he discover himself."

On page 25, C.S. sees the human side of grieving when others try to console him with spiritual avenues of comfort: "Talk to me about the truth of religion and I'll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I'll listen submissively. But don't come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don't understand."

The social leprosy of bereavement is also mentioned on a couple of pages, including this: "Perhaps the bereaved ought to be isolated in special settlements like lepers."

At the end, C.S. Lewis seems to reconcile himself to a conclusion about grieving: "For, as I have discovered, passionate grief does not link us with the dead but cuts us off from them," as he tries to go about cherishing his beloved's every memory with gladness, a smile and a laugh. Not for long, however, is this a workable plan as he writes the next day's journal entry more in line with the natural phases of grief: "An admirable programme. Unfortunately it can't be carried out. tonight al the hells of young grief have opened again; the mad words, the bitter resentment, the fluttering in the stomach, the nightmare unreality, the wallowed-in tears. For in grief nothing `stays put.' One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats. Am I going in circles, or dare I hope I am on a spiral?"

As do we all of bereavement ask ourselves when finding that as much as we try clawing our way up the spiral, we suddenly lose our grasp, totally at the mercy of our humanness and that quality that never dies - love.

Free
House to House
Published in Hardcover by Free Press (2007-09-04)
Author: David Bellavia
List price: $26.00
New price: $5.75
Used price: $5.00
Collectible price: $26.00

Average review score:

Best read
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-28
Best read this year. I could not put the book down. It is a war memoir not a literary masterpiece.

Amazing, I couldn't put it down.
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-26
I already had a high view of infintry soldiers as I have a former Army warrior who is my partner and manages the business. My appreciaion of the training, commitment and sacrifice of the FEMF,to modify an acronym from the book, increased ten fold. Thanks David, thank you Deanna, Evan and Aiden. Exodus 15:3

Great Book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-25
This book was truly a great way to see what sacrifices our armed forces make to keep Freedom Free. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the war we have been in for the last 8 years. After reading this you will truly appreciate our military and the sacrifices they make so that we don't have to make them. Thanks again to all of our men and women of the armed forces.

An Infantryman's Memoir From Iraq
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-25
Thank you SSG Bellavia for putting into words the story of the great sacrifices being made by our military in Iraq. Reading this made me appreciate those in uniform even more. This memoir was so real and so compelling, I could not put it down. For those wondering what it's like to be in combat in Iraq, this book nails it. It will make you feel like you are there. What a great book. God bless our troops and their families.

Americans - Read It!!!
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-08-21
One of the most interesting and inspiring books I've read in years. It should be required reading for all Americans who have not had an opportunity to serve in the military. It makes you think about the difficult and sometimes fatal consequences our political decisions have on the men and women who wear the uniform of freedom.

Free
Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating
Published in Hardcover by Free Press (2001-07-31)
Author: Walter C. Willett M.D.
List price: $25.00
New price: $17.92
Used price: $1.05

Average review score:

Simple, Common Sense Nutrition Advice and Guidelines
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-07-15
This book was recommended to me by my doctor when I asked him some questions about nutrition. I quite enjoyed this book and most certainly feel it was worth my while. There's not much that's mind-blowing here, there's no easy or magic secret to good health, but it spells out proper nutrition clearly and concisely and does recommend some foods you may not know of or consider, like quinoa as an example. The book is based on years of research, and I have no doubt that anyone's health would improve by following the advice in Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy.

Exactly what I was looking for
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-22
This book is exactly what I was looking for: scientific information related to nutrition and health. It is clear, easy to read, and provides practical ideas for implementation. I have already changed my diet and feel great. I've even lost weight without trying. I really appreciate a book that takes all the research that has been done and boils it down into a readable text. This book has done that better than I expected.

A Comprehensive Aid in Nutrition Decision Making
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-09
With so much news constant inundating all of us on the most recent nutrition fads it's often difficult to decide what the right choices are when it comes to eating.

This book is an excellent source of advice citing which studies make sense to pay attention to and what sorts of dietary changes we can all be making to improve our lives. I purchased 2 copies, one for myself, and one for my parents.

Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-20
This book does a wonderful job of taking the scientific information available regarding nutrition and puts it a format the lay public can easily understand. Very professional.

Great customer service!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2008-06-05
The quality of the books are excellent. I had a problem receiving the books, though. When tracking them I was told they were delivered, but I had never received them. I got connected with customer service through the website and they helped make things right by re-sending my order. These books came in the same time I should have received my other books. I feel confident that I can order through Amazon again and they will make sure that I am satisfied. Thank you, Amazon!

Free
The Mouse Driver Chronicles: An Entrepreneurial Adventure
Published in Paperback by Free Press (2002-09-02)
Authors: Kyle Harrison and John Lusk
List price:
New price: $3.00
Used price: $2.96

Average review score:

An unexpected enjoyable truip
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-01
I was in a book store and I was attracted to the title and the cover color. I picked up the book and read the jacket and I was hooked. I hardly ever buy non-technical books -especially non-fiction. But I was hooked after reading the jacket so I bought the book and assiduously read and enjoyed it. Also I am a Wharton alumnus. I also took classes with Len Lodish.

Eric Ericsson

Great for Entrepreneurs!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-31
The book spells out tips for starting a business (use credit cards instead of banks) and the mistakes the authors made along the way (when do you enter the market). You can even contact them after reading and talk to them about your ideas. The encouraging aspect of the book is that while they are starting their business, they spoke to their classmates who were making $200,000 on wall street and working for the dot-coms, but John and Kyle were not discouraged. I am happy that they were able to take an idea like a computer mouse shaped like a gold club and turn it into THEIR company. Congrats guys!

An excellent snapshot of a real business during the bubble
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2004-11-10
There is so much in this book that I can relate to, having started my own company around the same time in Silicon Valley (although in software). John and Kyle made the same mistakes that many entrepreneurs thankfully make - they followed their passion instead of their senses, and didn't buckle under the pressure and the unknown. One other valuable lesson from this book -- document your process. This is a great way to share your successes and your mistakes with others. I wish we had more stories like this when I was working on my MBA - something more than the dry, non-applicable case studies stuck in front of us. And John and Kyle also provided one other important gem: how to save a few bucks a month at the neighborhood gym. Thanks guys.

Greg Fisher
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-03-22
The Mousedriver Chronicles is the story of 2 Wharton MBA's who take a business plan developed on their entrepreneurship course at Wharton and decide to make a go of it. In 1999 they turn away high paying jobs at investment banks and over funded dot.com startups to go it alone.

Their idea: to make and sell a computer mouse that looks like the head of a golf driver.

They fund the venture themselves, find a manufacturer in Hong Kong, move to San Francisco (to be part of all the start up vibe in The Bay area) and run the business from the kitchen of their rented flat.

Their story is brilliantly relayed as they grapple with manufacturing, marketing and distribution hassles. The single product focus of their new company, named Platinum Concepts Inc., makes for a wonderful entrepreneurial story with excellent lessons about what it takes to succeed as a self funded start up. The two founders quickly learn that they need more than the theoretical knowledge acquired on their MBA at Wharton; they need to be street wise. They experiment with different mechanisms to make things happen and end up categorizing their execution strategies as follows:
Plan A: Make use of their business school network and contacts
Plan B: Hit the streets and the shops to find a creative solution
Plan C: Work the Yellow Pages

More often than not, plan B and C worked far better than plan A.

One of the founders, John Lusk, began sharing their entrepreneurial adventure with friends and family via a monthly email called "The Insider". The Insider was a real, often humorous, sometimes highly insightful newsletter about their adventure. The insider subscriber list grew and grew. MBA lecturers began distributing The Insider as prescribed reading. In 2001 Inc. Magazine featured a cover story on the company and its two founders. The Inc. cover story entitled "An American Start-up" focuses on the impact of The Insider e-mail newsletter. The email newsletters were used as the foundation for the book published in 2001 entitled The "Mousedriver Chronicles".
The company has since been shut down but the Mousedriver website still serves as a portal for entrepreneurs and copies of The Insider newsletter can be found in PDF format on the website: www.mousedriver.com

Amazing Book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-08-24
MouseDriver is about two guys who graduate from Wharton with MBAs in 1999 (the heart of the internet boom) and start a business manufacturing and selling a computer mouse that looks like the head of a driver golf club, turning down high paying jobs at dotcoms, investment banks, consulting firms etc.

As a small business consultant (Transcendence Consulting, LLC tcllc.net) I can tell you right now that if you are looking to start a busines, buy this book TODAY. It is an amazing look at the entire process of starting a business, from the ability to jump head first, manage yourself during
the highs and lows, deal with self doubt and solve an endless supply of problems. It is an easy read that will take you no time at all to complete.

Free
The 2,000 Percent Solution: Free Your Organization from "Stalled" Thinking to Achieve Exponential Success
Published in Paperback by AuthorHouse (2003-08-14)
Author: Robert Metz
List price: $21.95
New price: $13.72
Used price: $8.50
Collectible price: $21.95

Average review score:

Measurement Meets the Stall
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-12-01
To 'stall' is human, to measure divine, is the key message from this book that highlights the tendency of us humans to resist change and thus accept less than perfection from our selves or our organizations. By naming `stalled' performance drivers - tradition holds you back, disbelief of new possibilities based on past experience stops you, misconception of actual facts, perceived unattractiveness of other options, poor communications, bureaucracy or just plain procrastination stalls things - the authors supply motivational materials so the reader will consider their eight-step process for 'stall-busting'.

1. Understand the importance of measuring performance
2. Choose an important process to measure
3. Find best practice for that process
4. Move beyond best practice
5. Imagine the world if perfection of the practice were possible
6. Act on this perfection now
7. Match people and rewards to induce perfection
8. Repeat steps 1 thru 7

As the authors say, most everyone talks about continuous improvement, but talk is not action. If it gets measured, it gets done, the saying goes. For the authors, if it gets measured, it gets improved. I should measure the time taken to read books and write reviews; well, maybe tomorrow.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

Free yourself and your organization from the stalls!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-07-20
The 2000 Percent Solution is not merely a strategic business thinking book but something more. It is a book that can lead you to find your personal stalls and eliminate them so that free from them, it will be easier to discover and eliminate the organizational stalls. These steps are essential in the effort to apply the author's suggestions for obtaining the 2000 percent solution and finally achieve exponential business success. The book is very comprehensive, it contains sixteen chapters. In the 1-8 chapters the authors explain the various kinds of personal and organizational stalls and propose an effective busting method, while in the rest chapters, there are various techniques for achieving the 2000 percent solution. It a great book!

Out Getting out of the stall into the gate and the race is on!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-17
How fast? Lots of tools to retread wheels of enterprise to increase productivity are in The 2000% Solution. This is not a one read book, but a series of valuable clear disciplines to habituate. Thank God for humor- the spoon full of sugar.

Don Mitchell makes a point, illustration from a wide range of business vignettes threaded with the funny sides of life. The flow of information is linear to me, one point connecting to the next. Some business reads are jumpy and harder for me to follow. I became self employed in 1973, (not knowing the term!) by 1979 hired my first employee. When recognizing I was in `business' I joined the local Chamber of Commerce and began reading business books. Some helped me sleep, not this one!

The 2000% Solution is the first book that has given me a quantum leap thinking process, to think in big significant moves forward. Dr. Mitchell gives simple methods to `do' these processes. One action I took was to chart my actions by the hour for several days to review what I am doing and what actions move me forward. This uncomfortable process is powerful.

Most traditional reads are usually from one person's view of one business or industry. The 2000% Solution malleable big leap `thinking process' alone is worth the read. The value of real stories of real people in real company activities- well - that makes it real to me.

The best thing reading this is FUN- the humor! Some are deliberate jokes and cartoons strengthening points made- then there are the funny real stories happening in business. Many times I laughed out loud. Humor is the no-calorie whipped cream on this delight!

The 2000% solution
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-12
I found this book a great help and have read it several times. It defines in simple terms how to unstall your life and business. It sets out a plan to find and eliminate various types of obstacles or stalls that impede the success in your business or personal life. The book has helped me reorient and remove the obstacles that are a hindress to the exponential growth that is possible within any business. I recommend this book to anyone looking for a way to get out of a rut and start moving forward and upward again

My 2000 Percent Solution - A Whole New Life
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-12
I first read "The 2000 Percent Solution" as part of a course for a Rushmore University doctoral program. It sparked in me the desire and determination to get more "bang for the buck" from my efforts, and provided a clear 8-step guide for doing so.

The guide to creating 2000 Percent solutions essentially helps you to see differently, and acknowledge the reality of your personal and organisational biases. It helps you undertake a wider search than you normally would in the quest for a solution. And it doesn't leave you content with the best solution you may have found, but has you project into the future to "see" what the future best practice is likely to be, and then begin now to implement it.

Applying the authors' ideas to my personal circumstances helped free my mind (an ongoing, never ending process) of a number of personal stalls and led directly to the creation of a management training and consulting company. And in spite of limited capital, the momentum of my take-off amazes acquaintances.

I keep my copy of "The 2000 Percent Solution" in my office, within easy reach, because I intend to read it over and over, to create an upward spiral of exponential gains in my life and work.

The skill of creating 2000 Percent solutions is a valuable one. Combined with the ability to engage in continual business model innovation (as taught in "The Ultimate Competitive Advantage" by Mitchell and Coles), it will guarantee business success long into the future.


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