Comparing Books

The clever title refers to our narrator, a cute white terrier-ish dog, who discovers from "mommy and daddy" that he's going to have a baby brother! After this initial excitement, however, Dino the pooch seems a little disappointed: The new baby doesn't look like him at all! Janice Savage's debut work teaches basic concepts such as "alike" and different", as well as introducing colors, numbers, and, briefly, emotion (for example, "excitement," "love," and "family").

Graphic artist Savage produces intense colors and clean lines, and wisely refrains from cluttering her pictures with computerized razzle-dazzle. (The only eveidence I saw of that were the neato eyes--the pupils are concentric circles of brown or blue that lighten as they reach the pupil!) There's only one concept per page, and the colorful backgrounds--and them thar hypnotic eyes--will draw your young one's gleeful attention. A dog, a baby, and some funny but simple comparisons ably illustrated--It's simple but entertaining. For example, against a common green and orange background, facing pages compare the feet of the dog and his non-canine brother. "I have four feet" describes a picture of four furry, smudgy, possibly dirty paws. The next page shows the bottoms of the baby's two pink and pristine feet, with the contrasting words "he has two feet."

The conclusion has a little paeon to the constancy of family love, and the acceptance of differences, but I would have preferred a little twist. Those virtues will certainly appeal to parents and gift-givers, but the story needs to get a little more playful with all those differences; It's just a little too safe. This is admittedly a minor and very subjective opinion, but enough for me to feel that the story didn't fully reach its potential.

Oh...I called this "innovative"--let me explain.

There's a running discussion at Amazon.com titled, "Picture books or chapter books or both," in which readers talk about transitioning between these two types of books. I think "I have 4 Feet, He has 2" bridges an earlier reading "gap," the one between board and picture books. Ms. Savage's work would be enjoyed by kids younger than the 4-year old bound of the suggested age range. The simple concepts, the contrasting closeups and baby and dog, and the bright, eye-cathing colors have the feeling of a board book, but in a much larger format. True, it may not survive a bathtub as well, but for time ashore, this is a smart alternative. A definite pleaser, I hope we'll see more of Ms. Savage's large format books in the future--and so will your dog and baby!

This is a great little 24-page picture book, especially for the toddler who's second in the family--after the dog.

The bright pages, with very few words each, are perfect for babies starting to turn pages on their own, and are less inclined to eat the paper than they were just a few months ago. (even if they chew a corner now and then the book is printed on heavy stock, likely to withstand the stress.)

This adorable tale is also a neat way to introduce very little ones to counting. Kids having two feet, and their older "brothers" (as it were) having four.

A good one, for sure.

This is a nice children's book about families in transition, with a deceptively simple twist- like the Beatles converting a simple love song to second person to make "She Loves You" unique- of telling the story from the point of view of a pet adapting to a human baby. It's a nice bit of displacement for discussing new family arrivals with kids. Of course, this book ends with a happy ending that doesn't necessarily reflect the fate of some pets, that function as psychological place holders for babies, when the real deal comes along, but little kids don't need to be burdened with that layer of reality. The illustrations are dynamic, and the book itself is a very quick read, so it's also a handy one to sneak in at night when the kids negotiate for one more book before lights out.

Janice Savage creatively came up with a new way to tell a familiar tale and deepens that accomplishment by telling the tale in a way that will entertain children AND help them learn simultaneously.

Wow. That says a lot right there. One would think tackling such a number of things at once would cause a landslide of word-picture-debris, but in this delightful case it is exactly the opposite.

Children want to hear more of it.

Primarily it is the story of "having a new sibling" albeit in this case the sibling is for the family's dog, who just so happens to be the narrator of the story. It quickly engages the reader (the adult) who can then share that enthusiasm contagiously with the child.

There are plentiful opportunities to turn the read-aloud session into a "learn even more aloud" session, making the book even more of a living-breathing experience.

Perfect for a little one who also is expecting a sibling, but is truly fine reading for every child in the preschool age (perhaps read-to by the older sibling who can tell tales of when the younger one was first born!)

Author/illustrator Janice V. Savage's debut picture book is a delightful story about noticing and appreciating our differences. She presents the story of a new baby in the family with a twist--from the dog's point of view! Fluffy white Dino is the adorable family pup who must figure out and accept a new baby brother who has pink skin and only two feet.

The illustrations are drawn in large, vivid blocks of color. I appreciated them for their simplicity and generous size. This book makes a big impact for its small format.

This book is an excellent inspiration for a Christian law enforcement officer. The author does a very good job at comparing God's armor to the equipment of a police officer. I am glad I read it.

Wonderful book! Great practical illustrations for the spiritual truths. Clear and concise allowing us to really be able to understand how to apply the full armor of GOD to our everyday lives. I am going to get a copy to send to my nephew. He is a marine being deployed for the first time. I think it will translate well to the military also. Thanks Tony for a wonderful book and your selfless service. Thanks also to your family for their support of you.

For me this book was so good I did not want it to end. So I read it slowly and let the words sink in each day as I learned more and more about how to be a better Christian. It was awe inspiring and very well supported with relevant scripture and great stories about real life as a LA County Sheriff Chaplain. Hats off, Tony for an excellent work of prose at its best.

I read this book last night and was just going to read a chapter, but before I knew it, an hour and a half was gone! I couldn't put it down. This book is incredible. It should be in the hands of every person who has a hard time grasping the concept of faith. The analogy and comparison is something that a person can really relate to. I'm sorry that I didn't read it long ago; I think it would've helped me to understand some things. I'm so thankful to Tony for putting all of it on paper and in black and white. God has certainly blessed him. I will be going into street ministry with my church and will be able to use the things that I read in this book. I'm grateful for the inspiration and understanding.

I greatly enjoyed "Take Up The Shield." It really drives home some points I've felt strongly about for a number of years. In the past when I shared with other officers, I normally took them to Eph. 6 to show how the Lord has spoken through Paul's writing of how we need to prepare ourselves for our daily battles. It will be a pleasure to share this book with others. I pray it will continue to touch hearts for Christ, and help those who know him but haven't been looking to him in their lives.

When I heard that Karen Davis was writing "The Holocaust & The Henmaid's Tale: A Case for Comparing Atrocities," I had to wonder: Do we really need more evidence, however persuasive, demonstrating how the genocide of Jews and other humans in World War II is similar to the institutionalized abuse of farmed animals? Will Davis shed fresh light on a subject already illuminated by other animal advocates such as Charles Patterson, whose groundbreaking 2002 book "Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust" is a comprehensive examination of the controversial and troubling connection between factory farming and Hilter's Final Solution?

But in reading her take on the subject, it is clear that Davis can indeed contribute something meaningful on this matter and furthermore offers an intriguing perspective on issues ancillary to the main argument. Davis, the president and founder of United Poultry Concerns, explains that her book grew in part from PETA's 2003 "Holocaust on Your Plate" campaign (which was, in turn, inspired by "Eternal Treblinka"). PETA toured the country with this exhibit, displaying graphic photos of chickens in crowded cages and stacks of dead pigs alongside disturbing images of concentration-camp inmates in their tightly packed wooden bunks and the piled bodies of Jewish Holocaust victims. The juxtaposition of these comparable scenes was meant to stimulate contemplation, but it also raised the ire of groups like the Anti-Defamation League and even Jews for Animal Rights.

No doubt hoping to avoid much of the criticism PETA (and Patterson) faced, Davis is sensitive to readers who may regard the Holocaust as such a sacrosanct point in human history that any parallel with the slaughter of animals for food is, for them, profane. "For many people," she writes, "the idea that it is as morally wrong to harm animals intentionally as it is to harm humans intentionally borders on heresy." Notwithstanding this sensitivity, she invites the reader to consider how the forced labor of the concentration camp is akin to the internalized forced labor of chickens on factory farms. (The "henmaid" in her title is an inspired allusion to Margaret Atwood's popular 1986 novel "The Handmaid's Tale," which describes a near-future dystopia in which a large segment of women have no control over their reproductive systems and are routinely inseminated, only to have their offspring taken away. Such an existence is no mere fiction for farmed animals, who have been deprived of their dignity and freedom.)

Although a slim book (it weighs in at only 133 pages, including the notes, references and index), this is a dense volume and not exactly what I was expecting from the author of More than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality. With its references to existentialists Kierkegaard and Sartre, "The Holocaust & The Henmaid's Tale" reads more like an academic text than your typical book on animal rights and seems intended more for scholars than those already well versed in the atrocities of animal agriculture. The writing, however, is lucid and compelling; indeed, chapter three stands out as one of the most poignant and thought-provoking descriptions I have ever read on the brief, tragic life of a battery hen. Davis takes pains to clearly contextualize our use of the very word "holocaust" and demonstrates that taking what the Nazis did to the Jews and comparing it with society's enslavement and slaughter of non-human animals is meant to raise the status of animals rather than demean humans.

Still, the author is well aware that many people remain indignant about this issue, and consequently she has an extra hurdle to overcome. It's difficult enough to convince the average meat-eater that animals have as much right to live in peace as humans do. Add to that a topic as emotionally provocative as the systematic murder of millions of Jews and you're likely to incite anger. (To wit, a typical anti-animal-rights site posts this sentiment on the topic: "I cannot wrap my mind around the fact that there exists a group of people who put the Holocaust on the same level as meat packing.") Davis manages to diffuse the controversy, I believe, by focusing much of her attention on the link between language and attitudes. She discusses, for example, how Holocaust victims have described being "treated like animals," but that for many people such a comparison does not work in reverse. She writes: "To be `treated like animals' is an insult because the experience of animals is assumed to be vastly inferior to that of any human being, most of all one's particular group.... Presuming an immeasurable gulf between humans and animals allows one to appropriate animal abuse as a metaphor for one's own mistreatment while simultaneously dismissing the metaphor, and hence the `animals,' as `just an expression.'"

Not surprisingly, Davis has found much inspiration in "Eternal Treblinka," which contends that the Nazis applied the efficiency of animal agriculture and science to their own fascist agenda. But she takes Patterson's premise a step further. She asserts that the controversy that surrounds comparing the confinement and mass murder of "undesirables" with the abusive system of factory farming - comparing the suffering of human animals with that of non-human animals - emphasizes the very speciesism that allows animals to be exploited. More to the point, turning a blind eye to abuse gives us both "They were only chickens" and "They were only Jews."

I believe we need "The Holocaust & The Henmaid's Tale," if for no other reason than to remind us that the oppression of animals serves as the model for all other forms of oppression and therefore must not be ignored. There is, after all, a correlation between the activity of scholars and activists and how much the consciousness of the general public is raised. As Peter Singer observes in his introduction to the 2006 edition of "In Defense of Animals," in 1970, when the modern animal movement was just gaining currency, the number of writings on the ethical status of animals was tiny; yet today, he estimates, it must be in the thousands. Consider how far the movement has come in the last three and a half decades, and how much the writing of advocates has inspired us. Let's hope Karen Davis' new book will raise more awareness than it does anger.

Mark Hawthorne, author of Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism

I first discovered Dr. Davis' organization, United Poultry Concerns, while doing an internet search for animal rights superstar Pamelyn Ferdin (and she would HATE to be called that!). I have been a fan of UPC and Davis' pioneering work ever since.

I was already a Vegetarian, but Davis' book "Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs" helped me make the decision to go Vegan, which has been an amazing force for personal change.

Earlier this year, I finally got around to Davis' "More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual and Reality", and found its compelling arguments to be all the more reason to celebrate UN-Turkey Day as an antidote to the wholly noxious Xtian holiday "Thanksgiving".

With "The Holocaust & the Henmaid's Tale", Davis has emerged as a leader in articulating the philosophy of the animal rights movement. Davis delves deeply into man's history of cruelty to animals under the guise of scapegoating and ritual sacrifice, and the reader may conclude that today's meat industry is little more than an ongoing mass slaughter-ritual updated to the age of the machine.

As for relative sufferings and their hierarchy of importance, Davis tackles the penultimate emblem of mass suffering, the Holocaust, and compares it successfully with the daily slaughter of millions of sentient beings in the name of human gluttony and imperialistic perfidy. Just as the claim that the 9/11 attacks in the US were more "tragic" than the slaughters in Columbia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq, etc. is laughable, so too is the notion that non-human suffering cannot be compared to human suffering. Suffering is suffering, and seeking an end to same should be the goal of all reasoning beings.

Health and political motivations notwithstanding, the only really good reason to become a Vegetarian and/or Vegan is if you believe that kindness is a virtue worth practicing. As Davis herself concludes, "Who but the Nazi in us disagrees?"

An intensely engaging, disturbing and ultimately uplifting experience, Davis' "The Holocaust & the Henmaid's Tale" takes its place alongside classics such as Pete Singer's "Animal Liberation" and John Robbin's "Diet for a New America" as essential animal rights texts.

In her bold and insightful book, which she dedicated to "all the soft and innocent lives who are at our mercy," Karen Davis, a longtime animal activist and president of United Poultry Concerns, examines the parallels between the Holocaust and the current abuse of billions of animals on factory farms that culminates in their cruel murder in slaughterhouses.

She passionately makes a strong case for comparing the two atrocities--different with respect to the identity of the victims and the purpose of the killings but chillingly similar in so many other ways--the designation of the victims as expendable, inferior, and unworthy of life; the herding and confinement; the industrialized slaughter; the complicity of the bystanders; and the pervasive arrogance and indifference that allows it to happen.

This compelling book argues convincingly that we have a mandate to think about, protest against, and learn from these twin atrocities--one completed in the middle of the last century, the other continuing every day. Not to do so is to condone and support the fascist mentality that produced them.

Davis is also the author of "Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs: An Inside Look at the Modern Poultry Industry" and "More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality."

Her years of hands-on experience rescuing and providing shelter to the feathered "soft and innocent lives" victimized by the poultry industry gives her latest book its special urgency and poignancy. Highly recommended.

--Charles Patterson, author of "Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust"

[...].

Karen Davis' short, intellectually rigorous, historical, sociocultural, and imminently readable book is a **must** read. Davis is an excellent writer with years of personal experience working for all sorts of animals who find themselves in factory farms and feedlots, and her message is clear and convincing - there are striking parallels between the interminable and inexcusable suffering we bring to billions of food animal beings each year and the treatment of human beings during the holocaust. While it may move some - perhaps most - readers outside of their comfort zones, this is good and necessary for stimulating us all to act more strongly on behalf of all animals who suffer innumerable disturbing and unspeakable atrocities at out hands. And, nowhere are these atrocities more apparent and "in our face" than in slaughterhouses and factory farms which are truly prisons of torture where animals interminably suffer and die and also see, hear, and smell the senseless and ruthless pain, suffering, and death of others, often family members and other friends. One doesn't have to be sentimental to "feel" for food animals, for there are plenty of scientific data that support that claim that they are sentient beings who have preferences and a point of view on what is happening to them and to their friends. Their emotional lives aren't secret, private, or hidden, they're public. Animals tell us clearly what they're feeling and we must not deny what is so very obvious.

Let me emphasize that Karen Davis' book isn't just another Holocaust book. There are many new ideas and some of the major themes that distinguish this book from others include Davis' account of the life of a battery hen from the hen's point of view, her characterizations of internalized forced labor, chapter 5 on "Procrustean Solutions," a rich discussion of ritual sacrifice and genocide as identify destruction, not just physical extinction, Davis' distinctions between pain and suffering, and her chapter on her 9/11 controversy with Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation.

I'm sure that this book will make you shake your head from side to side in disbelief, wondering how things ever got to be so horribly messy and how any human being can ignore what we do to innocent nonconsenting animals every second of everyday. How do we live with the moral boundaries we draw almost solely for our convenience? How did this mentality arise?

Our relationship with nonhuman animals is a complex, ambiguous and challenging affair, and we must continually reassess how we should interact with animal kin. This book will make you do just that. Let's not forget that animal emotions are the gifts of our ancestors. We have them, and so do they. We aren't alone in the emotional arena. It's "bad biology" to argue against the existence of animal emotions. Scientific research in evolutionary biology, cognitive ethology and social neuroscience, along with our own personal observations, support the view that many animals have rich and deep emotional lives and that they are sentient beings.

I strongly suggest that you read this book, think deeply about the numerous issues that Karen Davis raises, share it with your friends and family, and thank Karen for writing such a moving and bold book. I continually go back to it because it is so rich, deep, clear, disturbing, and novel.

Speaking of the Unspeakable

Founder and president of United Poultry Concerns, Karen Davis has played the major role in taking domestic fowl - the most abused and violated animals in America - from the neglected margins of the animal protection movement to their present status as a central focus of campaigns against factory farming. Her books, Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs and More than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality are the standard animal rights works on domestic fowl.

Her newest book, The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale, is an invaluable contribution to one of the most contentious debates plaguing the animal rights community. But to understand why, we have to make a quick trip back in time.

A Holocaust: It's What's for Dinner
Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Europe whose haunting novels and stories form an extended meditation on the Holocaust. In one of those stories, "The Letter Writer," the protagonist observes that "In relation to [animals], all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka."

In 2002, holocaust historian Charles Patterson picked up on Singer's theme. Eternal Treblinka: Our Treatment of Animals and the Holocaust argued that morally, psychologically, and logistically our imprisonment and murder of animals is equivalent to the Nazis' treatment of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other victims of their blandly efficient murder machine.

In 2003, PETA launched a traveling display inspired by Patterson's book. Juxtaposing photographs of human prisoners in Nazi concentration camps with eerily similar pictures of animal prisoners in factory farm concentration camps, The Holocaust on Your Plate was a vivid and moving indictment of animal enslavement and murder.

A firestorm of criticism quickly ensued, summarized in an Anti-Defamation League press release calling the display "abhorrent," and asserting that "Abusive treatment of animals should be opposed, but cannot and must not be compared to the Holocaust. The uniqueness of human life is the moral underpinning for those who resisted the hatred of Nazis and others ready to commit genocide even today." The issue split the animal rights community. Some activists defended the PETA display; others worried that the animals' cause would suffer from the backlash.

Into these whitewater rapids, Roberta Kalechofsky, founder and president of Jews for Animal Rights, launched Animal Suffering and the Holocaust: The Problem with Comparisons, a small book (59 pages) in which she argued that while our enslavement and murder of animals is a horrific crime that must be stopped, comparisons to the Jewish holocaust are illegitimate. (Kalechofsky's bona fides as an animal rights advocate are unassailable. For more than two decades, she has been a powerful and pioneering voice for animals.)

First, Kalechofsky argues that the Jewish holocaust was the end product of centuries of historical and cultural evolution that make it a unique event that cannot be meaningfully compared to anything else. And second, if the Jewish holocaust is allowed to become a "generalized metaphor" (pg. 34) for every kind of atrocity, it becomes devalued and loses its meaning.

From Treblinka to Tyson's
The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale is Karen Davis' rebuttal. Her "henmaid" is a battery chicken on a factory farm, whose life of deprivation, devaluation, depersonalization, and early uncomforted death reminds Davis of the eponymous "Handmaid" in Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel - and of the victims of fascism in Hitler's camps. When she is talking about her beloved chickens, Davis' compassion for the plight of our animal victims makes any merely intellectual argument against comparing their suffering to ours seem facile and self-serving.

It is on this foundation of bone deep compassion that Davis constructs her defense of comparing atrocities. First, she argues that while every atrocity is a unique event in terms of the historical, social, economic, and cultural conditions that led to it, they are all alike in the suffering that they cause, and from a moral standpoint, it is the suffering that matters. Thus, Davis argues that "An atrocity can be both unique and general." And since one sentient individual can never truly feel the pain of another, comparisons of pain - metaphors of pain, if you will - are the only way that we can feel empathy and compassion for others, and the only way that we can learn to become moral beings. Thus, comparisons of atrocities are an essential part of the process by which we become ethical individuals who create an ethical society.

It is not the Jewish holocaust that is unique - from ancient times, genocide has been a commonplace of human history - it is our sensitivity to it that is unique, and if this unique sensitivity can be used to awaken a heightened moral awareness of other atrocities, including the atrocities we commit against animals, that is a valid and valuable use of the holocaust metaphor.

The Holocaust and the Henmaid's Tale is not a diatibe. It is, in fact, solidly within the tradition of the best kind of academic writing, judicious, carefully reasoned, free of jargon, and accessible to the general reader.

Quoting Isaac Bashevis Singer, Davis reminds us that, "[T]here is no evidence that people are more important than chickens." Then she adds, "There is no evidence, either, that human suffering, or Jewish suffering, is separate from all other suffering, or that it needs to be kept separate in order to maintain its identity. But where, it may be asked, is the evidence that we humans have had enough of inflicting massive, preventable suffering on one another and on the individuals of other species, given that we know suffering so well and claim to abhor it?"

Norm Phelps is the author of The Dominion of Love: Animal Rights According to the Bible and The Great Compassion: Buddhism and Animal Rights.

This is a great book and has given me a lot of ideas on how to help my son with math concepts in ways I wouldn't have thought of...his teacher recommended it and I'm glad she did.

I'm an elementary school teacher and since I've purchased this book, I've used it countless times to develop lesson plans! Kathy Richardson is a master at creating activities that invite children to gain a true understanding of math concepts through investigation. I love this book and would recommend it to anyone who teaches math to young children. Parents could also do these simple activities at home with their children. Excellent investment!

As a preschool teacher I found this book invaluable indeed! It definitely has everything you would ever need. The games are self explanatory and the blackline masters are wonderful! My class loves them!!
Cheri Massachusetts

This book is a great teaching tool. I teach kindergarten and have really enjoyed the activities enclosed in it.

Last year, I took a continuing ed course and this book was a part of the curriculum. I am a homeschool mom who was formerly a classroom teacher. But, I taught middle school not early elementary. At first, because I didn't have a lot of experience with this age, I didn't know how effective the activities in this book would be. But, after using it for a year, I would enthusiastically recommend it to both classroom teachers and homeschool teachers! It is a wonderful approach to helping young students really grasp and understand math--not just learn wrote mathematics. One of the things I love most about this book is how she clearly identifies what children need to learn, conceptually, in order to truly learn how to count, understand patterns, and grasp more/less. What's also wonderful is how little prep the activities in the book take! They are so easy to prep for! As a homeschool mom of a 4 year old and 2 year old with one on the way, my time is already stretched. But, this book allows me to do interactive lessons with my daughters (and modify them for my 2 year old) with very little prep involved.

What a fantastic source of information on wide variety of what different Network Marketing companies bring to the table. If you believe in the industry this is a must read to make sure you follow a viable company down the road to financial success!

This book is a must read for anyone contemplating becoming a multilevel marketer. The book is well researched and clearly written, for the most part. I was disappointed with the chapter on compensation schemes. I realize that it is a very difficult subject for beginners to grasp (the author warns you so, at the beginning of the chapter), but, in my opinion, compensation could have been explained better. In all honesty, I did not understand most of what I read in that chapter. The book, however, is a gem for the information provided by the author on selecting a successful MLM company. I recommend this book without any hesitation.

This is must reading if you have the dream of owning a successful home based business, and you want to build it using the network marketing business model. Daren is well qualified to show you how to choose the right company because he has spent years researching, studying and scrutinizing hundreds of MLMs. More importantly, he has built his own successful organizations using exactly the same methods he shares in his book.

On a personal note, although already part of what I believe is a phenomenal opportunity, reading Daren's book gave me even more confidence knowing that it matches up to his six keys. Even better, I'm applying the principles he outlines with great success, and sharing them with others.

How to Select a Network Marketing Company: Six Keys to Scrutinizing, Comparing, and Selecting a Million-Dollar Home-Based Business will definitely help you avoid the usual pitfalls and to select the right opportunity to help you achieve the time and financial freedom you want... without wasting a lot of precious time, energy and money.

How to Select a Network Marketing Company: Six Keys to Scrutinizing, Comparing, and Selecting a Million-Dollar Home-Based Business

I've been in Network Marketing since 1961. If I'd had this book I could have avoided many of the pitfalls I've experienced through the years. Now, this book is helping me to help others to avoid similar mistakes. And, I'm patting myself on the back, because last year, before I'd even read this book, I joined the company which is on the top of Daren Falter's list in this 5th Printing. I was lucky, because finally, after all these years, I knew a really good company when I found it. But, even with all my Network Marketing experience, I've still learned a lot from this book which is extremely valuable to my current business. I can't recommend this book highly enough --to anyone just beginning their career, and/or for "old pro's", as well!

I met Jenny, the author, at a 2006 summertime Dylan show, spontaneously bought her book outside the venue, and immediately read it cover to cover with tremendous joy. Her insights are incisive and succinct, and while her conclusions are not phenomenologically scientific in the Aristotelean sense, they are perfectly true hermeneutically in addressing the enigmas and parables embedded within the textuality of Dylan's verse. Plus, she is absolutely dreamy and delicious, as are all holy beings! I recommend this meditation to any person interested in peace through art and song in these modern times, and who cares to expand the limits of his or her perspective and the diminishing horizon of contemporary creativity.

this excellent book will interest dylan fans especially. heart-warming, sincere and inspired analysis of dylans mystical nature.
thank you jenny!!!!

I enjoyed reading this book. It really does great justice to Dylan and Dante. This book is a wonderfull read. It is really interesting and insightfull. I happen to know Jenny Ledeen and she is a true Dylan expert. I will be happy to get you a copy of her book, signed and everything. I will also talk with Jenny soon and get her to write a review for you. If you want this book email me I will send you a copy.

A timely and compact work that delicately invites religious followers to understand the roots of the most influential Western religions. Never condescending and exceedingly inviting to anyone honest and curious about understanding religious belief. Professor Fink (a minister's son become philosophy professor) invites you on a pilgrimage to investigate the similarities and logic of these belief systems. Designed throughout to invite discussion, the book is impressive for its breadth of scriptural evidence used to provoke religious understanding. The book combines fairminded analysis of the key religions, but more importantly delicately challenges the reader to see the interconnections of these religions and their potential destructiveness to those who follow them uncritically. Fink is aptly concerned that a world so influenced by Western religious thought must honestly consider the inherent contradictions that human religious thought traverses. While of course pointing out the places in the scriptures where positive, peaceful and society building advice is found, the book bravely and respectfully points out where the scriptures reflect extremely contradictory and destructive advice concerning war, a veangeful creator, vindictive motivations and attitudes, that if taken too seriously (as many throughout the globe have) are actually the antitheses of civilized behavior. In the end, Fink conscious of the challenges he has presented, asks the honest thinkers out there, religious or otherwise, to consider the implications of their beliefs, to either become a more critically minded believer and/or become a more philosophical peace-driven human. Overall, the book's presentation would be valuable for the thoughtful and spiritual, for those in living room discussions, for the religious minded, and for students worldwide.

For some time I have been curious about Islam and Mormonism, and have been concerned about religion's role in current events. This book definitely helped me to better understand these topics. The author begins by explaining the interrelationships among the various scriptures of Western religion. Then he identifies a large number of shared problem passages. The book's concluding chapter describes two modern approaches to scripture--approaches that are designed to diminish the historical/traditional tendencies towards antagonism and intolerance. I found different parts of this book to be informative, controversial, insightful, and thought-provoking. I highly recommend this book.

For those interested in this subsection of IPE this is a great introductory textbook. It highlights the various systems under use and the last third focuses on very interesting phenomena that has been occurring recently, privatization. It is very clearly written and you do not need much background in economics to get a lot out of this book.

This is what every economics textbook should aspire to be: detailed, clear and compelling to read. Perhaps the greatest resource is the notes and extensive suggested readings after each chapter (grouped by topic).
There is however one downside. Since this is such an extraordinary text you may not find too many used editions to purchase. This one's a keeper!

Good reading for those who are interested in the field of quality. And would like to learn more.

This book cuts through the fog and confusion surrounding the three of the four main approaches to software quality (the fourth is Software Process Capability Determination, a.k.a. SPICE).

My goals in reading this book were to find the best framework with which to apply to service delivery, and to integrate this framework into application delivery. Since these terms are ambiguous in the software industry here are my definitions: service delivery encompasses the maintenance, operation and support of applications after they have been released into production. Application delivery is the analysis, design, construction and testing of applications prior to release to production.

This book compared and contrasted each quality approach and provided some surprising facts. For example, until I carefully read this book I was under the impression that the SEI CMM was the most process-oriented approach. As it turns out ISO 9000 (specifically, ISO 9000-3, which addresses software and services) is more heavily oriented towards process. Another surprise was discovering that the SEI CMM places more emphasis on leadership than the Malcolm Baldridge approach. Each of these facts were easy to discover because the author did an excellent job of correlating criteria of each of the approaches and displaying results in graphs and charts.

Prior to reading the book I was confused and frustrated by the competing standards and frameworks. This was exacerbated by the fact that there is a large body of knowledge devoted to each and these bodies comprise thousands of pages of dry material. After reading this book I felt as though I had a grasp of the focus of each approach, and their relative strengths and weaknesses. More importantly, I was able to determine which of the three is best suited to service delivery and its integration with application delivery (the Baldridge approach appears to be the best choice).

I appreciated the author's efforts in clearly outlining the what's and why's behind each approach, and the succinct manner in which each was compared, contrasted and correlated. This is an extremely valuable book for individuals and companies trying to sort through the buzzwords and assumptions on quality frameworks to select one that is most appropriate for their goals and objectives. I strongly recommend this book for software engineering managers, including members of program management offices (PMOs) and software engineering process groups (SEPGs), as well as service delivery professionals (production services, tier 1 and 2 support, etc.).

A wonderful little book for anyone at any point in their faith journey. It gets you to look at your faith in a whole new way!! Are you an Eagle?

The author introduces you to the life of an Eagle from birth until leaving the nest. During the whole process, he defines a Christian's walk with the Lord. The parallelism is fantastic. The book gives the reader the desire to "Mount up on the wings of an Eagle" while he is living for Christ.