New Books

I probably would have liked this book a little more if I had read it before I read Ravished; it just seemed like a rehash of that book, only in a medieval setting instead of nineteenth century.

Also, the purple prose bordered on the silly side at times, making it hard to read with a straight face.

this book is fun to read. one of the only medeival books written by amanda quick.high in action.

This is definitely my favorite AQ novel. I won't go into a breakdown of the book, but I will say that besides enjoying the story, I learned more about how life was during that time.

A great read for any Medival novel or Amanda Quick fan!

I love these 1-title books from Amanda Quick. I know they are not a series, but each book has some similarities, but she always keeps it fresh!

I cannot believe all of the 5 and 4 star ratings for this book! I couldn't wait for it to end. Very formula and hoaky dialogue. If this is any indication of how Amanda Quick writes her best-selling novels, I think I'll pass up the next opportunity to read another. The purple prose was forced and ridiculous. If this was supposed to be a satire or comedy, it missed the mark and just came across as incredibly stupid.

"He found the valley that divided the luscious hillocks and followed its course to the hot spring that awaited him." (The words of Hugh the Relentless.)--Even though this is a medievil romance--way too hoaky.

"A cold, ghostly wind wafted from the dark corridor. It carried before it the promise of doom." (this is describing Hugh entering a dark cave and Alice, the heroine senses his presence by mental telepathy or something. OH PLEASE!

"Hugh was vengeance incarnate, a dark wind that would sweep all before it."

And these ridiculous passages were easy to find--they're everywhere in this book.

I say don't bother with this one.

The Never War was better than the first two in the series put together. This book was much more realistic than the first two.

The Never War (Pendragon Series #3) This book came as part of a box set containing the first 3 books in the series. They are quality paper backs. They will probably stand up to a lot of re-reads. I had been in search of a series to fill in the void left from the conclusion of the Harry Potter series. I have found that D. J. MacHale's series about time travel by a teenager and his friends to be an excellent transition from Harry Potter. I am currently finishing up book 8 in the series. I have purchased 7 of the books from Amazon and will buy books 8 and 9 when they come out in paper back. I would highly recommend this series to fans of Harry Potter. Trust me, you won't be disappointed and you will love the adventure.

The Never War is the third book in the Pendragon series. I thought this book was amazing this book I think was the best of all of the pendragons. This book brings back the characters Mark, Courtney, Spader, and Bobby and a new traveler Gunny. This book brings you back into 1937 on first earth. At the start of world war two and ends with a big ending that may shock you.
I would totally recommend this book because it envolve your own world and it makes you brush up on your history. This book is definitely the greatest sci-fi I have read. The Never War is a book that you never want to stop reading it keeps you on the edge of your seat through out the whole story and this book always has you thinking of what could happen next.

This is a really interesting book for probably one reason: the historical fiction.
This book takes you to First Earth, where life is eternally 40 yeaers behind our Second Earth. The plot of this story is where Saint Dane is trying to alter things that have already happened to cause chaos throughout Halla. This is about the Hindenburg. Saint Dane offers Bobby a chance to save the Hindenburg from crashing but what will happen if he doesn't?
This is book is chalk full of good historical fiction. I liked it, A LOT!

D. J. MacHale wrote for television for years before turning his attention to novels. He created ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?, a long-running series on Nickelodeon in the United States, but it also showed in Canada on YTV and Cinar.

For the last few years, he's been writing the adventures of Bobby Pendragon, a boy who's destined - hopefully - to save the world. Several worlds, actually. Bobby is a Traveler, one of those who have the power to "flume" from world to world. He's brought into the adventure by his Uncle Press. As Bobby was growing up, Uncle Press also took Bobby scuba diving, mountain climbing, to martial arts, driving, and several other things that gave him skills he needs to survive against enemies he encounters. All during that time, Uncle Press was training Bobby to be a Traveler.

Bobby's greatest foe is a villain called Saint Dane. Saint Dane has the ability to change his appearance at will and constantly hides in different worlds while working his nefarious plans.

THE NEVER WAR is the third book in this exciting series. In it, Bobby travels to First Earth, which takes place in the year 1937. The gangster era isn't new by any means, and I was slightly let down when I discovered I wasn't being taken to a new world. I especially loved Cloral, the world Bobby went to in the second book, THE LOST CITY OF FAAR, and I look forward to returning there hopefully in one of the later books.

Still, I'm older than the average Pendragon reader. The 1930s and the Hindenburg are familiar to me through several other books I've read as well as history I've researched.

For all the familiarity with the time period, though, MacHale tells a fascinating and fast-paced tale. Bobby and his new best friend Spader land in the 1930s while pursuing Saint Dane. They're immediately met by machine-gun toting thugs that try to kill them. Bobby figures out how to escape and gets Spader out as well. Spader is way out of his depth because he's never seen anything as "technologically advanced" as the 1930s.

One of the best things about the Pendragon books is that Bobby usually gets to save the day in a down-to-earth manner. He doesn't have any really special skills or powers that help him. At this point, he's fourteen years old and can do what most kids that age can. This makes the series more believable in some ways, and I think it draws the Pendragon audience in a little closer.

MacHale's sense of timing and pacing is excellent. The story moves quickly, and I got a real sense of urgency throughout the book as Bobby tries to figure out what Saint Dane is really doing. Many of the chapters end up on cliffhangers that will draw you rapidly into the next chapter. The dialogue is fantastic and sounds real.

One of the other facets of the series that I really enjoy is Bobby's friendship with Mark Dimond and Courtney Chetwynde. The closeness they share, even through Bobby's journals, feels real.

MacHale also mixes in adult heroes with his young champion. Vincent "Gunny" Van Dyke was an excellent grown Traveler in this novel. He was kind and gentle, and guided Bobby and Spader throughout the adventure.

I did miss the world-building in this novel, but I know MacHale gets back to it in later volumes of the series. But for kids who haven't researched the 1930s much, this should be a fun book and on equal footing with fans of Artemis Fowl and Alex Rider.

Having just complete the Eckhart Tolle book, The New Earth, this book is exactly what I needed. It provides the practical application I felt Tolle missed, and it brought back the presence of the heart, which I didn't seem to find with Tolle. Perhaps it's just a cultural difference, but for me he is a bit too focused on the intellectual concepts.

I am now reading Passionate Presence for the second time, savouring the language, the feeling and the freshness of the author's approach. I strongly recommend this book to all who agree in principle about living in the 'now' but for whom the experience is elusive at best. This is authentic, well crafted and a joy to read.

This lovely book shares the wisdom of a teacher of silent meditation and Dharma Dialogues on awakened awareness. It is truly food for the soul.

Catherine Ingram describes her personal experiences in seeking and finding peace in the Now. While mindfulness meditation was a major path, a spiritual teacher catalyzed major shifts in her consciousness. Ingram now teaches mindfulness, through silence, through shared lessons, and (even through the pages of this book) through her personal centeredness.

Seven topics are highlighted: Silence, Tenderness, Embodiment, Genuineness, Discernment, Delight and Wonder. Each is illustrated with lovely stories of Ingram and other seekers on the Path.

Particularly helpful for healing are suggestions for acknowledging the presence of an inner observer who is detached even in the midst of crisis and suffering; for treasuring each present moment rather than living in the past or future; and for accepting that we need not torture ourselves with guilt and remorse because each of us has a lifetime of lessons to learn - and each experience offers us opportunities to develop deeper compassion for others who have their own lessons and make mistakes that may impact negatively on us. We can fester in negative reactions to life that is past or in our anxieties about our future life - or we might just let go of the negativity and move on to the ever-present Now.

I was surprised to discover this book was immediately helpful in finding a stronger connection with my own center of quiet awareness.

There is also a pleasant current of practical advice.

I warmly recommend this book for a good read and re-read.

After reading Passionate Presence, I realized that living in the past & future was such a waste of energy! Catherine's straight-forward advise is something so obvious, but something most of us miss....live in the present. You can't go back and change the past and you spend needless time worrying about the future and what might or might not be instead of enjoying what is right in front of us. I do know that I will spend less time worrying and more time enjoying what this wonderful world has to offer and not take things for granted. Thank you Catherine for providing such a simple but honest eye-opener.

When I think about the teachings in Passionate Presence, the word that comes to me is RELIEF: Relief from the burdening belief that one must make a prodigious effort in order to live an awakened life; relief from the burden of ideas of what an "enlightened" person should be like; and relief from the burden of believing one's "I" stories. Once the reader understands the concept of letting go of beliefs, explained so artfully in early chapters, the qualities and experiences that are described in the rest of Passionate Presence are immediately available.
Catherine Ingram's lovely images and stories entice the reader back to the awareness of the moment. She has crafted an artful companion for one who desires to live in the mystery and beauty of an awakened life.

I sent it to my son when he was in Afghanistan. It's a classic story

This book is one of the best books about the fire service I have ever read. I hung onto each and every word. It was though I was there sometimes.

During the tumultuous period of the 60s when author Dennis Smith wrote Report From Engine Company 82, the book was a cry for help from exhausted, frustrated men. Men who cleaned up in the aftermath of other exhausted and frustrated inhabitants of a society stretched to the breaking point.

As I type this, a younger firefighter in a comfortable, air-conditioned fire station among a population that by-and-large respects my profession, it's easy to forget the sacrifice of our past brothers who unceasingly fought fires, city hall and the population they served, until they had forged the modern fire service.

It's an important book for new firefighters to learn how the iron men of old did the job. And for the general reader it's a testament to both a volatile period in our nation's history, and to the timeless strength and courage by which good men have always worked to keep back the chaos of barbarism and destruction.

I spent 10 years in the fire service in both engine and truck companys. While I have many memories and stories to tell, the author, Dennis Smith, sums up the life of a fire fighter in an urban environment about as well as can be possibly told. Trying to balance the unpleasantries and sadness against the satisfaction of saving a life or helping a family overcome one of life's most agonizing moments is very well portrayed in this book. This is what a fire fighter's life is about folks. There is no other book that I can remember that tells it any better than this. If you're thinking of a career in a big city fire department or for that matter, if you're even thinking of becoming a volunteer fire fighter this book is a must!

I first read this book 20+ years ago, when I was under 20 years of age myself but streetwise from being the "wheels" (with a driver's license and a car) for various escapades all over Chicago in my raucous, hard-partying and utterly politically incorrect youth. Many aspects of "Report From Engine Co. 82" stuck with me through the years, and I've re-read it several times. Now I'm 40 and an ER RN in a Chicago hospital where we see more than our share of the extraordinarily dysfunctional lives of the people who live in poverty in the neighborhoods that surround our hospital -- the type of job and environment Smith portrays so well in "Report From Engine Co. 82."

"Report From Engine Co. 82." tells truths about the nearly inescapable poverty and illiteracy of people scraping by in lives that are marginalized in every possible way because they don't -- can't -- really care for themselves appropriately because they don't even know how. Poverty isn't what it used to be -- but it's still as screwed up as it was in Smith's first book. Most of our ER visits aren't really emergencies, just as most of the calls Company 82 responded to weren't emergencies, either. Nowadays, people call 911; when "Report" was written, that 911 system didn't exist yet. But not much has changed since then, in terms of what the firefighters/paramedics respond to and bring to the ER.

Most of the "emergencies" he sees are not emergencies. The non-emergencies, combined with the real emergencies, portray the dangerous and unthinking way poor people live through a combination of lack of resources, lack of experience with the "straight" world, lack of common sense, and minute-by-minute survival thinking. Most of these emergencies and non-emergencies are easily prevented -- if people had common sense, proper parenting, and a normal instinct for self-preservation.

These qualities, however, are surprisingly hard to come by in poverty, and this is what Smith dramatizes. The heroin overdoses. The stupid kids doing stupid things because they are constantly left unattended and to their own devices. Kids who shoot themselves in the thigh or foot -- or worse -- "playing" with guns. Fires that kill children because space heaters provide the heat slumlords refuse to provide in their code-violating buildings. The incipient hatred and distrust poor minority neighborhoods have of the white emergency personnel and firefighters who respond to their calls. The huge cultural gaps that make true communication and understanding so difficult -- even when you're both the same race and both speaking English.

What Smith accurately portrays is the way poverty-stricken people "live in the now" -- people whose entire lives are spent with no real financial or material stability or security. These are people for whom the concept of saving money for the future is impossible, either as a concept or a reality. People for whom making an appointment days or weeks in the future, and actually remembering to get to the appointment, is nearly impossible. Their main mode of thought is: what do I need to do now, what do I want to do now, what do I need or want to do in the next five minutes. This inability to think about and plan for the future is endemic, as is the inability to prioritize that which really matters -- one suspects because most of these people realize on some level they have no future that truly matters to the rest of society, and they're incapable of living as the rest of the "straight" world lives because they never have, didn't grow up with it, and don't know the language of living that life, let alone the mindset.

These are the people and children who have no insurance, no health care, no glasses when their vision is bad, no braces or dental care when their teeth are bad; who never use birth control (to prevent pregnancy OR to prevent disease transmission). People who don't understand why it's inappropriate to come to the ER with an upper respiratory infection and get pissed off when they wait hours for care while higher priority, higher-acuity patients (in respiratory distress, cardiac arrest, heart attacks, asthma attacks, and overdose, etc.) are taken before they are.

Conversely, these are also the people who shun health care until they are so sick they can no longer avoid it, and discover they have cancer... Cancer that could have been prevented or at least treated, often saving their lives, had they ever had regular health care -- but who are now consigned to an inevitable death they will blame on the healthcare providers who couldn't save them because they were at a stage beyond saving or treating in any way other than palliative.

Smith's New York is NOT the New York of Sex And The City. This is the New York of the infants whose welfare mothers don't immunize them, but have the latest, most expensive coats and boots because conspicuous consumption is how they live: you show how much money you have by wearing all that your money has bought you (rather than doing the far less glamorous but sensible things more responsible people, whose children were WANTED rather than accidental, do). The New York of the kids having kids who have kids, all of whom have never known proper parenting, nutrition, or health care. The overdoses. The children who come in with accidental poisonings or burns from household chemicals because no one was watching them. The attempted suicides with anything and everything -- cold medicine, knives, guns, illegal drugs. The kids raised by siblings because the parent is completely incapable, if they're even around, with or without the additional problems of substance use/abuse, addiction, or domestic abuse. The families which are largely single-parent families -- and where the parental figure may be an elder sibling, aunt or cousin who cares more for the children than their biological parent(s) does or is capable of doing.

This is also the world of the terrified illegal immigrants who wait so long to call for help because they're afraid of INS (now ICE) and deportation; by the time they do, they're often too sick to save. The penniless old people whose pensions don't cover their living expenses and who don't call for help because they're terrified of being discharged from the hospital to a nursing home and losing what little autonomy and material security they have left. The fractured families (with utterly dysfunctional dynamics) who interfere with the paramedics' jobs -- as well as the tight-knit families who are rich only in love for one another. The people who refuse help they desperately need because they fear and distrust the paramedics and firemen trying to help them, and because their healthcare illiteracy is such that they have no idea what is necessary to save their lives, and so refuse or avoid medical treatment that could stop problems in stages when they're still treatable. The mothers who speak no English, who superstitiously fear that emergency treatment will kill their children, yet who are so desperate to save their babies, they don't know what else to do, because all home remedies have now failed. The endless numbers of people who let their prescriptions run out or try to save money by taking less than the prescribed doses and then have severe health problems that wouldn't happen if they bought and took their meds as prescribed -- but who, for multiple reasons, can't and/or don't. The people who beg not to be brought to the hospital because "people DIE in the hospital" -- people who don't understand that their neighbors and family members who died in the hospital, died because they waited far too long to call for help, and were therefore were beyond saving when they finally got to a hospital.

Anyone who works in public service as a fireman, cop, nurse, social worker, or psych intake worker in a big city -- and in poverty-stricken, crime- and drug-infested suburbs and rural communities -- can relate to Smith's book. For everyone who majored in something else, this book opens a door and exposes the lives of people you don't even know exist, people you don't acknowledge when you're forced to share a bus or train with them during rush hour (or who you intentionally avoid by driving in your own car, despite the expense of gas, insurance, and time spent on the commute): the people who don't work, or the people who work wage-slave jobs like janitor, maid, fast-food worker, security guard, who can barely pay their bills or care for their children with what little they make -- or who blow it all on liquor and/or drugs and/or gambling (or all three) to escape the miserable hopelessness of their lives. The kids who have the latest "stuff" -- whether it's the shiny ten speed bicycles Smith writes about, or today's video games and cell phone/mp3 player/cameras -- but whose parents can't or won't give them what they really need: breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a stable environment from which to emerge every day to deal with the life-endangering risks of walking to and attending public schools that do little more than babysit and warehouse kids whose futures include teen pregnancy (and the late-term, life-threatening miscarriages that go with total lack of prenatal care, with or without drug use), repeated incarceration, and shorter-than-average lifespans due to the daily likelihood of violence in their communities and their lives.

Smith's portrayal of this kind of poverty is not pretty but it is not unsympathetic -- there are glimpses of beauty and hope, mostly in the young women and children who haven't yet been ruined by their surroundings. Smith tempers it all with a matter-of-fact acceptance that although it is his job to care for these people, he may never really understand them because he's now too removed from that life, and he takes on faith that they possess human qualities they often fail to demonstrate. But some do show their humanity, and those are the people he does it for.

Smith does an excellent job of portraying the paradox that the job of these firefighters and paramedics is to help and save these people, which by its nature includes finding them WORTH helping and saving, at the same time as they move and live as far away from these neighborhoods and the associated poverty, crime and drug problems as they possibly can. This is not merely a racial difference. There are plenty of black and Latino paramedics, cops, firefighters, nurses and doctors who straddle the gulf (some might say 'minefield') between their class and the class of the people they help, in circumstances that are at best trying and at worst nearly impossible to help them transcend for any sustained length of time.

Smith portrays the sympathetic detachment required to know that this is what you do, all day, every day you work, with only the hope that one or two out of ten people will actually genuinely and sincerely thank you for what you do or have done for them -- which is that elusive reward you get, one that can make it all seem worth it when it happens -- and to hope that when you show up and give this of yourself on every shift, there might be one kid or teen who sees what you're doing, who still has enough time ahead of them to see this glimpse into another world... A world it is just *barely* possible for them to enter given enough determination, education, mentoring and drive, and sadly also given enough instinct to discard much of what they learn in their families about how they THINK the world works, versus how the world REALLY works for the more educated and better-off people who run it.

The fact that Smith can show all this without denigrating an entire class of people -- does, in fact, portray them with humanity and the grace one occasionally sees in these circumstances -- is because he also recognizes that he is not that far removed from the kind of poverty he sees on the job (he grew up poor, too). He recognizes and accepts that he is that kid who admired firemen as a boy and saw a different world -- he is that kid who made the leap to the next class up, to the working class and blue collar as opposed to poverty-stricken. He understands the dysfunction -- the drinking, the drugs, the abuse -- that occurs in the neighborhoods Co. 82 responds to because it occurred in his neighborhood, his family, his poverty, while he was growing up.

This understanding that few "get out" -- and that he was one of the lucky few -- underscores with sympathy his otherwise stark portrayal of the job of a NYC fireman in the 70s when NYC was not a desirable place to live and people did their best to escape "the city" as soon as their financial circumstances permitted it.

The uncensored version of this book (which is the one I've read multiple times) also shows the bizarre split someone who works as a fireman/paramedic, nurse, or doctor must negotiate within themselves -- the intimate knowledge you have of the bodies of the people you must save, which is merely part of your job but which you can't really talk about to any family member or lover who isn't in one of these fields. I don't mean merely intimacy with people's genitals -- though there is that, such as the way the Smith describes heroin overdoses getting icebags put under their testicles (negative stimulus, designed to bring unresponsive, unconscious people back to responsiveness and consciousness). I mean the intimacy of seeing people stripped of their modesty and dignity, voluntarily (prostitutes) or involuntarily (the terribly sick), whose personal space and body integrity you must necessarily invade, often in less-than-respectful or diplomatic ways because there is no time for those niceties when someone is dying and you're trying to save them. People who don't work in these fields can never really understand how you can be unaffected by the nudity, exposure and/or intimate knowledge you have of these total strangers, and the disinterest or casual attitude with which you greet what would shock most everyone else.

And, of course, you're not unaffected by this knowledge. Sometimes you're disturbed, or someone or something sticks in your mind -- the things you've seen or had to do -- and is recalled in inappropriate moments with your loved ones. You're not unaffected, you're just emotionally calloused or you compartmentalize it, in order to repeatedly perpetrate and endure this violation of the boundaries between strangers and its inherent power imbalance: you, as the emergency personnel, never have to reveal any of these intimacies to your patients... but they must necessarily, willingly or not, reveal them to you. This includes the mentally ill and the hopelessly drug-addled or dopesick (or both, combined) -- sometimes the most disturbing intimacy of all: the insides of their heads and their distorted, sometimes frighteningly unhinged, perceptions of the world around them.

I recently visited the Hawaiian Islands. The moment I stepped off the aircraft and the air hit my face I felt the magic. I started researching and reading everything I could get my hands on to discover the secrets of the islands. Pila's book was the most helpful in explaining the incredible energy of Hawaii. His book is not only a guide to the magical places you can visit, it is also a guide to connecting with spirit and healing your life. A wonderful book that I highly recommend. Although it was written over ten years ago, it is even more relevent as we watch our world rapidly changing. Mahalo Pila!

There are a couple of places where the author veers off a bit but for the most part he draws the reader into the mystical side of Hawaii that captivates the imagination and adds a new layer of "must do" items for ones next visit to the big island.

I particularly enjoyed the parts where he explores the subtleties expressed in the Hawaiian language and how they relate to place names and metaphysical practices and experiences. I think the author does a good job of connecting modern places and practices to traditional Hawaiian belief and faith practices. His chapter on the Big Island's place of refuge is exceptional in this regard.

The book is written in an easy to read fashion... But don't be fooled! Even if you gobble the words down like a good meal.. there is much more you will me digesting...
The essence remembering Joy is something that will forever remain in my heart..!

Pila of Hawaii takes you on a journey through paradise, all around the Big Island, but also through paradiscal realms within us all, while also sharing with us some of his own amazing journey. Pila opens the door to the little known esoteric world of Hawaiian spirituality, making it accessible to anyone willing to take to look and to open themselves. And he does all this in a style that is easy and fun to read. He leads the way joyously with a descriptive style that has you humming along as you follow his courageous. Thanks Pila. Whenever I get homesick for the islands, I just pick of the "red book" and I am back home again.

After reading many amazing books on Hawaiian Philosophy and more specifically Huna and Kahuna teachings, I must say - this is one of my favourite books. This book is so much fun to read and has many, many secrets to share.

Setting the Table by Danny Meyer provides lots of value for business leaders. I ranked this book five stars based on the value alone. The reader should be apprised that the book is written as a memoir of Mr. Meyer's experience in the restaurant business.

As a business leader you should study excellence in your industry and outside of your industry and there are numerous take-aways in Setting the Table that can be applied to any business. Here are ten excellent points I took away from Mr. Meyer's book.

1. The Excellence Reflex - "A natural reaction to fix something that isn't right, or to improve something that could be better." The excellent reflex is a natural reaction that some people have and cannot be taught. Meyer trains his leaders how hire those that have it.

2. Employees can be categorized as Overwhelmers, Whelmers, and Underwhelmers. It is easy to identify Underwhelmers and get rid of them. The most dangerous employees are the Whelmers because "they infuse an organization and its staff with mediocrity...and send a dangerous message to your staff and guests that "average" is acceptable."

3. Coaching is correcting with dignity.

4. You obtain valuable leadership skills while managing volunteers. It requires you to consistently motivate employees beyond their earnings.

5. Create a sense of "shared ownership" with your customers by taking an interest in them and making them feel important. They will view you as a partner instead of a provider.

6. ABCD - Always Be Collecting Dots. You should aggressively collect lots of little information about your customer (dots) as they interact with your product or service. Then make the connection between the dots as a mechanism to improve your product or service to all customers.

7. Customers may love your product or service but the relationship that they have with you or your employees is what builds loyalty. Therefore you should take every opportunity to exceed expectations to create a lasting relationship.

8. Enlightened Hospitality - "We would define our successes and our failures in terms of the degree to which we had championed, first, one another and then our guests, community, suppliers and investors." This is an extremely powerful concept and is rooted in the integrity theme Meyer has throughout the book. You can't expect employees that don't treat each other with respect, who can't be hospitable with one another to then turn around and treat the customer with respect and high levels of hospitality a customer deserves. Poor relationships internal to the organization migrate to poor relationships external to the organization. Ultimately being last on the list benefits the investor by long term organizational success.

9. Judge your staff on 51 percent emotional job performance and 49 percent technical job performance. You can always teach technical while emotional is much harder if not impossible to develop. Lack of emotional job performance skills destroys teams and alienates customers.

10. "The road to success is paved with mistakes well handled" and "the worst mistake is not to figure out some way to end up in a better place after having made a mistake."

The ten points above are obviously more powerful in the context of the book when illustrated with Mr. Meyer's stories and experiences.


Dr. James T. Brown PMP PE CSP
Author, The Handbook of Program Management

Danny Meyer is now one of my new heroes. I'm at a point where I will be opening a new restaurant in the coming year and I plan to buy a copy of Setting the Table for all of my employees and all of my investors. I can't wait to have the time to visit all his restaurants one by one. This book or cd should be required listening or reading for anyone going into the restaurant business. Thanks for stocking this amazing informative book.
All the best,
Danny Quinn

The restaurant business begins with a vision well founded on food knowledge. Having had great and many good meals helps. But the lessons of this book are many: the best is his order of priorities....first the employees, then the customers, then the suppliers and last the investors. Brilliant.

One of the best business books I've ever read. Danny really "gets it" as far as treating his employees and customers like family and VERY important people. THIS is why he is so successful with the top restaurants in NYC. A MUST read for anyone in sales or who deals with customers and employees on a daily basis

A great book that describes how to create customers for life, with "enlightened hospitality", creating an outstanding customer experience, based on a dialog with the customer. As he puts it "picking up the rocks" (to find the info) and "connecting the dots", a process that could and should be copied for every business.

His passion for food comes across the written page, its contagious.
I'm not a wine drinker but his passion made me want to give it a try.

I never been to one of his restaurants but I now see a trip to New York to visit his restaurants.

Highly recommended not only for restaurateurs, but for every business that has contact with customers.

I like this author's writing better than Kathleen Norris. Unfortunately, her book never really gets to the point. She talks with each sister, but sums it all up in a paragraph or two. She never really describes their life in the cloister. Although perhaps the point is that she's never allowed in close enough to find out what their daily life is like. Throughout the entire book, one reads as if to discover some compelling mystery or truth, but it's just never quite there.

This author is a bit less self-absorbed than Norris; still, this book leaves a lot unwritten. It's almost as if she keeps writing her way around some huge cavern that she wants to reveal but doesn't quite know how.

Best to get it from the library if you're interested in reading it.

What a wonderful story Ohlsen has written. I heard of this book in an audio tape of a talk given by Paula D'Arcy, called Spirituality for the Second Half of Life. Ohlsen stubbornly pursues the Poor Clares in Wisconsin, a Franciscan order of nuns whose ranks were becoming depleted. The congregation of the downtown church was also diminishing quickly. Ohlsen writes about the church and the poor Clares journalistically and restoration of individuals to both the nuns' ranks and the church's fold begin. Parallel to this exploration of the lives of these interesting women, is Ohlsen's articulation of her own spiritual search...fascinating and comforting all at the same time. A must read.

I can see how this book might apeal to some, but I found it far from a "spiritual classic." While touching in many ways, the author kept throughout a sort of superior tone that began to grate, as if she was amused at everything she saw and heard. I think she was trying to be witty, but it often came off, at least to me, as a little snotty. But the book has its moments.

Kristin Ohlson stumbled onto the Poor Clares at just the right moment. It was Christmas morning and she was feeling bereft. A former Catholic who no longer believed in God, she impulsively decided to attend Mass at a church where she could hear the Poor Clares singing. Thus begins this intriguing saga of a search for faith and a newspaper story.

I would call this Divine Providence. Others might call it serendipity. Ohlson needed inspiration, and the Poor Clares needed the attention her journalistic interest would generate. True to the mentality of those who place their trust in God alone, the Poor Clares did not seek her help. It took her months to get the Clares to respond to her requests for an interview, and as she waited, she became involved in the ailing parish community attached to the convent.

Ohlson is an engaging narrator -- open, warm, and honest. She brings her full journalistic skills to this story. Despite my sadness at seeing the diminishment of vocations to contemplative living, I found her presentation of the life of a once flourishing community totally engrossing. Though I cannot claim, as another reviewer has that this is the current "Seven Story Mountain," I will say that I am very glad that I bought and read the book.

You might also call this book 'self-absorbed journalist works out truce with the Second Person of the Trinity.'

I bought 'Stalking the Divine' after reading the glowing reviews on Amazon and elsewhere. What closed the sale was one reviewer's description of it as a latter-day 'Seven Storey Mountain.'

Yet for every expression of admiration for the Poor Clares, Ms. Ohlson is compelled to share, say, the icky feeling she gets when she utters the word 'Jesus.'

On page five, Ohlson describes stumbling into a Catholic church in Cleveland after a lengthy absence and being horrified to hear a priest wag his finger about the evils of abortion. This reviewer has been a Catholic for thirty seven years, yet not once have I heard a priest address this subject outside the petitions at Mass. A lapsed Catholic wanders into an anonymous church and hears a pro-life homily? Call me skeptical.

When I was a stand-offish boy greeting my visting aunts at Christmastime, they'd tell me to 'quit arm-hugging' and to give them something real, heartfelt. Ohlson's book is a 272-page Catholic arm-hug.

She is excited about reading this book after reading silly moods, but is happy to wait so we can read together on next visit.

My favorite teacher at my son's daycare was leaving - going to a new job. I found this book to be a perfect gift for her. I thought it could also represent the balloons as a metaphor for someone going away. Excellent story with beautiful illustrations.

As an elementary school counselor I used this book to help students cope with grief and loss.

I wish there was a way to promote her books more. I bought one of Jamie's earlier books for a little boy a couple years ago. Recently, I was very surprised when his Mother said that it was the only book he enjoyed reading and wanted "Where Do Balloons Go?" for a birthday presnt. This little boy doesn't read very much but spends a lot of time in front of the television or computer, so it was very uplifting to know he realized there is more to life than visuals.

Our grandson has this book & loves it so much that we purchased another as a gift for our nephew.

If you love C&H, you'll like this book. For me, Calvin is like pepperoni pizza... when it's good, it's really good, and when it's bad, it's still good.

Unfortunately, I say it rather cynically.

My, there are so many monsters peopling this strip. The kid's a monster. His parents are monsters. The tiger's a monster. The teacher's a monster. The babysitter's a monster. And the only character who's not a monster (and more of a victim) is naturally enough, a young girl who is never bad or gets into any trouble. And the strip, while a rugrat's fantasyland, also smacks of extreme adolescent rebellion.

The strip is so overrated even after its demise a decade ago that it's been ensured that no cartoonist alive or yet to be born would ever create a strip as well-worshipped as it is for all eternity to come. So why not just remove the whole comic section from the news for good?

This book combines material from both Yukon Ho! and Weirdos From Another Planet!. Perfect to read with a blanket and a cup of tea on a rainy Sunday afternoon. It lifts my spirits up and makes me laugh, even when there's no one around. Really, that could be said about any Calvin and Hobbes book, though!

Whether the collection is the "Indispensible" or "Essential" or "Quintessential" Calvin and Hobbes, it doesn't really matter. Watching this hyperactive, hyperimaginative child and his willing though wise accomplice, Hobbes, take on evil babysitters, Susie Derkins, the class bully and all creatures (real or imaginary), is a pleasure and laughter without stop. "The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes" is another in a long list of the great comic work of Bill Watterson. This is an indispensible/essential/quintessential collection for all Calvin and Hobbes and humor fans!

Calvin is a beam of light, a dinosaur, Spaceman Spiff, a pollster on the election of new parents, a robotic explorer from Jupiter (in search of chocoloate) -- well lots of things. He's all the best and all the worst a boy about five can be, and that covers a lot of ground.

If the others around him never quite see things Calvin's way, that's really not his problem. Hobbes will always understand, and generally offer some understated commentary on events. I prefer not to say too much about Hobbes. It's really best if you let him introduce himself.

This book is a treasury of daily and sunday color strips. It captures a part of one of the best strip comics ever. If you already know C&H, you'll surely want this collection. If you missed the strip when it was still in the papers, this will give you a wonderful introduction.

It's never too late to have a happy childhood, and Calvin offers his for your enjoyment.

//wiredweird

I had purchased the book after reading a few reviews which were very positive. If you want to know more about the person, Mani Bhaumick, this book is a good one. If the topic of Quantum Physics and its journey towards explaning the universal truth in the same manner as old religions interests you, this book offers a good start. Unfortunately, I got bored reading the past of the author (which is no doubt interesting but why spend money to know this!!!). Further,the portions relating to developments of Physics went over my head - I guess this may be because I am a normal Accounting person or I am not be very intelligent. And then, there are photographs of the author with various celebreties (why was this necessary?). And I felt the end of the book was also very abrupt. The book could have been more simple and focused on the subject. I guess persons of normal intellect may avoid this book. It will be useful if someone can recommend books that are more simple (with illustrations, where possible) and where the focus of the book is purely Quantum Physics rather than spice this up with avoidable diversions.

It was a gift to read of Mani Bhaumik's life and history, and I found the first third of the book completely fascinating. When the scientist mind came in and we were offered a look at the world through a very wide spread net of intelligent perception, my reading slowed down, but my fascination lit up.
This book successfully attempts to weave personal narrative, life passion, spirituality and deep science into a one-size-fits-all-wear-it-anywhere-package. The amount of personal research Dr Bhaumik has done is evident in each page, yet he has brought it into an engaging form: science filled with metaphor and anecdote that keep the reader curious and involved. I can imagine any age level from middle school on up benefitting from this work. There is a genuine desire to share insight; so the book is devoid of the pomposity of rhetoric so often obscuring most scientific treatises.
I had a hard time letting the book go, so i spread it over time. This isn't a light ramble though it reads like one; it is a dissertation on the nature of the universe. I so appreciate the way he includes the reader into the active process of understanding. The final revelation would seem to be that by meditating, (which in itself adds a huge gift to the entire system), one will automatically develop a profound awareness of the answers they seek on the nature of existence.
Rarely has such a vastly over arching viewpoint been so distilled; we go from an understanding of the cosmological history of all, and offer a way to balance the perceptions so that they are no longer elusive abstract phenomena, but are included in our life path.
Thank you for the great ride, highly recommended.

Dr. Bhaumik nails this most difficult task of wedding his personal story as a beautiful metaphor, to the greatest story ever told - the unfurling of our universe. He pursues the question that his father refused to answer and aren't we lucky for it. His formidable intellect and acquired rags-to-riches wealth gives way to a humility and innocent passion that can only reflect what he is and always will be: pure unadulterated spirit. I flat out love the way he presents meditation as the sacred portal of entry to our birthing ground, the unified field. The description of our holograhic universe by using the analogy of the human genome replicating whole humans brought tears to my eyes. The implication that we ARE the united field brings me to my knees because it resonates with every fiber of my being. By celebrating the similarities rather than the differences, Dr. Bhaumik honors what we all know at some level: What we're looking for is looking for us. His is an invitation to step up to and behold an idea of God that we can all live and die with. What a wonderful additional gift for more of us to get and live the Big Idea. Thank you Dr. Bhaumik for your remarkable contributions to our little parenthesis in eternity. - Dr. Herby Bell

I think this book is wonderful approach to the science of God's existence. If you've ever seen the "Elegant Universe" (I think it is called) on PBS where they delve into String Theory and explain quantum physics to the layman, this book is a perfect follow-up. I think that because I had seen this show, I absorbed much of the physics he presented very quickly. I remember stopping at one point and thinking, "this is some scientific stuff."

Even if you've never heard of String Theory or Quantum Mechanics, it is worth reading this book. Dr. Bhaumik's book presents complicated physics theories in simple terms, and then ties those principles into his statement that everything from human consciousness, to the farthest stars, to the smallest particles are all interrelated and have a single name: God.

When I got to certain points in the book, I could hear my brain frying ;-) These were some increbile points he was making and I was blown away.

The only reason I gave it four stars is because he spends a little too much time in my opinion on his upbringing in India. Yes, it helps set the stage for the life eventually goes onto, and underscores several of his ideas, but it should have been cut shorter.

We live today in a world so divided by disparate religious ideas that there is a very real possibility that we as humans won't survive these differences.

The spectrum of this divde is great and varied. Extreme Christian fundamentalists longing for a biblical Armageddon promote political choices that could bring on an ultimate nuclear holocaust. More moderate Christians eschew science in favor of a literal reading of the Bible and turn a blind eye to scientific "theories" as varied as global warming, the evolution of our species or the age of the universe.

Extreme Islamic fundamentalists scoff at earthly political goals altogether and wish only to live in a world governed entirely by the Koran. Unfortunately, like the Judeo/Christian Bible, interpretation of these sacred scriptures is subject to whoever perceives that he/she has been selected by his or her god to do so. This has resulted, in many instances, in the wide-scale destruction of people by those convinced by these chosen spokesmen that they will achieve heavenly rewards by their own and their victims' deaths.

Obviously, examples like these can be found everywhere in the world and in many other religions as well.

In a fervent desire to get beyond religious misconceptions of basic spiritual concepts, many thoughtful people have followed one of two divergent philosophical paths of inquiry concerning the universe and our place in it.

Science and spirituality (as opposed to religion) both seek the answers to this most fundamental question. While never quite at physical odds with each other, proponents look askance at each other for the others' naive understandings of reality. Yet a few individuals in both camps have been able to take a "quantum leap" of understanding and realize that science and spirituality should not just "agree to disagree".

For some scientists, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake, Karl Pribram and others, the deeper science goes towards discovering the most fundamental nature of Matter and Energy, the more the paths of science and spirituality merge into one.

On the spiritual side, a person such as the Dalai Lama honors the discoveries being made by science; to the extent that he says that if science proves a concept that is counter to his own Buddhist tradition, then the Buddhist idea must succumb to science! Truly a remarkable statement in view of most religious orthodoxies.

Mani Bhaumik is one of these "leapers", whose early life happened to be suffused in mystical Hindu traditions. Yet, the talents for science and mathematics he displayed at a young age allowed him to escape the poverty and ignorance epidemic in his community.

Finding his way to the West and his subsequent invention of the Exemer Laser (known commercially as Lasek) culminated in his enjoying a fabled lifestyle of the rich and famous; coincidentally the name of a popular television show of the day in which he displayed his wealth. His Hollywood star-studded life of parties and luxury in Beverly Hills is the stuff of dreams.

But somewhere along the way, the dream ended. Like many others throughout history, he finally had to ask himself, is this all there is?

Even while climbing the ladder of success, however, he never forgot the ground below from where he began. His political and spiritual grounding as an acquaintance of the "living saint" Mahatma Ghandi (in the political struggle for independence by the Indians against Great Britain) demonstrated to him how true spirituality can be manifested in the everyday world.

Throughout his early life in America he used his practice of Hindu meditation as primarily a method of remaining calm and centered in the high-flying academic and business worlds he was increasingly a part of.

But when he began to ask whether "this is all there is", he wanted to explore the deeper realms of reality found through mediation; those spoken of in the Gitas, the sacred writings of his religious tradition.

As a man with one foot in Western science and one foot in mystical Hinduism, he came to realize that it was perhaps his dharma to create a bridge between the two.

The result is the narrative of a wonderful, poetic journey through his own life before he begins the even more fantastic journey into the realms of quantum theory and sublime mystical states.

In the process, he does a truly amazing thing. He makes the underlying scientific field of all physical reality--which is, in fact, non-reality--move so closely towards the highest mystical states that it makes the a non-belief in "god" the most non-rational and least plausible conclusion one could make for a human being.

As a formerly agnostic seeker of knowledge, I've spent the past few years, trying to reconcile the remarkable scientific discoveries of DNA, quantum theory and consciousness with the fantastic realms of mind explored and written about by mystics, shamans, artists, users of entheogenic plants and others throughout the ages.

Mani Bhaumik's journey is a wonderful stepping stone on our own journey through a life that offers so many unanswerable questions. I've found that the most wonderful thing about our journey is that once a stepping stone is reached, another one appears almost magically.

And it's only one step away.