Allen Books

Grasping the Ring is an impelling presentation of nine personal portraits of leaders in sports, the media and national governmental services including two U.S. senators. The author, Dr. Gene Budig, is a greatly respected and admired educational leader who was president of three national universities, president of the American Baseball League, a general in the U.S. Air Force and senior presidential advisor of the College Board in New York City. In reality, Dr. Budig is the tenth portrait in Grasping the Ring, a must read.

The biographies of these distinct and heroic individuals, so elegantly and masterfully nestled together by Dr. Budig's wise and artful hand, weave a delightful and illuminating tapestry of profound impact. The work is not only interesting and entertaining, but it also carries the freight of a stirring realization--that the human spirit can indeed overcome adversity and deposit experiences that shape human history. A very enlightening, thought provoking and enriching book!

These clear and concise biographies of famous individuals who
persevered thru challenging circustances is inspiring to read.
Gene Budig gives the reader the feeling that they are having
a personal interview with these heroic figures.Anyone who has
experienced a roadblock in life must read this book.

Gene Budig has given us an insightful snapshot into the lives of nine outstanding individuals who were driven to success in spite of adversity and sometimes outright hostility.

The essays are made more vibrant because Mr. Budig's personally knew these remarkable people. Reading about each person's strength, innate desire and determination to achieve desired goals makes this a most enjoyable and refreshing read.

Gene Budig has written a delightful and enlightening book about some major sports figures, a gifted newspaperman and the significant politicians, Bob Dole and Bob Kerrey.
He knows all well and profiles their achievements along with their vivid personalities in a riveting way. As a daughter of the Midwest, it made me cheer for my achieving brothers from America's heartland. It is a fast read and you'll learn a lot in an enjoyable way!

This inspiring book provides workable suggestions and practical examples on how to apply the power of thought to overcome problems and illness. The first part deals with the author's own discovery of universal law and gives examples of how others were helped. Part Two contains all the methods of harnessing universal laws and includes: - How to give a healing prayer treatment; Five different methods for setting the creative process in motion; Blueprint of parent (error) thoughts and the (corrective) master thoughts to overcome them. There are helpful summaries at the end of each chapter and at the end, a guide-list for overcoming specific problems. A very good read and a valuable reference work that should be on every healer's shelf.

Feeling down and out? Think that the world is against you? Frederick Bailes has this quick self-help tip for you: It's not how you feel that matters, but what you do. You may have thought it went the other way around, I did. I'd tell myself, "I'll get up earlier, when I have more energy. I'll return phone calls, when I'm not so moody. "

All the while, such thoughts weakened me. Bailes colors this entire book with stories that hit to the heart of how humans destroy themselves and all the while blame their suffering on an impartial reality. I will not divulge story examples here because it would soften the profound psychological impact that Bailes' words have on the reader.

I read "Hidden Problems for Human Problems" aiming to lift my spirits. Mission accomplished.

What can I say, this book by Frederick Bailes is FABULOUS! When I read about his description of 'parent thought' vs 'master thought', i said to myself "Wow! Why hasnt anyone written about this before!". Where has this book been, in all these years I was trying to find the correct method to treat my false beliefs! As a hint, there are only 7 False Core Belief that most people have that caused ALL their problems. Defeat those 7 Core False Thoughts, and you can be sure no negative thought can be 'created' by your mind anymore!

Dr Bailes healed himself of diabetes with New Thought, after reading Thomas Troward's book.

Even if you have read New THought books for years, this book is still a must! It categorises the False Beliefs of race consciousness, and teaches the True Beliefs to neutralize the false ones. Now we have all read in other New Thought books that "there is no loss" "no competition" etc, but those concepts by other authors were a little all over the place, don't you agree? They were great and knew what they were, but no one ever put them in categories (to be attacked/healed with Master Thoughts) like Bailes does!

FURTHERMORE, the author seems to be really creative and intelligent in coming up with ingenius visualization techniques (could he have been the first NLP practitioner??). Plus he teaches several verbal affirmations that make it easy for you to belief it, such as "Of course it is working even now, whether I can believe it or not".

Also recommended is Dr Bailes' Science of Mind Treatment book, which details all the mental visualization tricks he has. This guy is way ahead of his times!

It would be almost impossible to over-praise this book, which gives great practical insights into how our thought processes determine, not just how we feel, but what we actually experience.

The start-point for Bailes' teachings is instructive - and startling. As a young man, Frederick Bailes was diagnosed with diabetes, which was not only incurable but, in those pre-insulin days, untreatable as well. Indeed, he was told that he could expect to live for only about eighteen months.

Happening upon the philosophy of Thomas Troward, and having nothing to lose, Bailes decided to apply the 'thoughts determine outcomes' approach, with the dramatic result that he was eventually completely cured of diabetes, a healing proved by exhaustive medical analysis. He went on to apply the same principles in business, with great success, before embarking upon the teaching and publication of his remarkable approach to life.

Analysis of the 'thoughts determine outcomes' approach led Bailes to identify a series of negative thought-patterns, which he calls 'parent thoughts' because, unless and until tackled, they go on creating negative thought processes which adversly affect our lives. Such 'parent thoughts', described and detailed in this book, include fear, iritation, loss and inadequacy. Throughout his career, Bailes applied these processes, resulting in many seemingly-miraculous healings, many of which are described here. But the benefits of this process are by no means confined to matters of health.

This book is both inspirational and practical, and can be life-changing, too. A superb insight into how the world works, and how to improve your life and experiences.

Frederick Bailes was WAY ahead of his time writing way back in the 1950's. He presents truths about healing and having a richer life and creating pure desired results that are exceptional. These ideas/truths might be considered so deeply hidden to most people that they would most likely never find them without a CONSIDERABLE amount of time, effort and commitment to search them out and find them. Even then it might be decades of searching before they're found.

If you want to find out why things are the way they are in your life..and most importantly what you can do to change them EASILY..read this book.

Mr. Bailes most notably helps his readers understand that things are NOT hopeless no matter how dark or grim one's life has been. A GREAT life filled with success and happiness and love for yourself and others as well CAN be yours!

Follow his great lesson from the law of life which states.."learn or suffer". Surely great suffering can be avoided in life on all fronts by reading this book. Read, enjoy, and prosper!

This book contains an excellent compilation of speeches that cover John Bogle's career and philosophy of investing. Investors at all levels will glean important information and motivation from his recommendations and thoughts on indexing. His thoughts give important ideas to keep financial information and markets in perspective. The only limit on the information in the book is that how much more global investing has become a part of the financial markets. However much valuable information is relevant and available which is key to effective investing.

The book has five parts - the first four are speeches, and the last is his famous thesis. Part I is Investment Strategies for the Intelligent Investor, Part II is Taking on the Mutual Fund Industry, Part III is Economics and Idealism: The Vanguard Experiment, Part IV is Personal Perspectives and Part V is John Bogle's famous Princeton Thesis: The Economic Role of the Investment Company. All speeches are well worth the read, however, the book lends itself to a good ability to pick and choose what you are interested in. A clear and interesting read from a brilliant investment strategist.

I thought I was out of luck to own the book with Bogle's thesis...I'm very happy!!

A good, practical, no-nonsense book on investing that emphasizes returning to basics and tried and true approaches that have always worked over the long term. This advice is especially timely coming as it does in the aftermath of the recent bear market. Bogle points out that it's important to implement an investment program that matches your needs and risk tolerance, perhaps the most important thing in an investing program, since if you can't sleep at night, you probably won't be able to maintain it over the long haul. He also emphasizes that investing needn't be, and perhaps shouldn't be, rocket science, and that you can do quite well in the market over the long term just by matching the performance of the market. As many people found out recently, pursuing a momentum strategy in an era of already overheated PE's and buying the latest hot story stock can be very risky. Following a value-oriented fundamental approach with at least part of your portfolio can be a useful way of reducing volatility and improving your performance even if you're a died-in-the-wool momentum investor.

The best to do this is by following a strategy of just investing in a fund that tracks the major indexes, which does two things. First, it minimizes costs, so you won't pay any management fees as you would for your typical mutual fund. Also, most investors don't realized such costs as advertising and sales expenses are minimal for an index, compared to other funds, and those are typically passed on to the investor in the load or management fee. But the most important reason is that 90% of fund managers fail to beat the averages over the long haul. Since there are now more mutual funds than there are stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (which is over 5000) and as I said, 90% of them fail to beat the indexes, it's hard to imagine a more sobering reason for making an index at least a part of your investing strategy. So overall, a good book on investing emphazing a no frills, common-sense, and back-to-basics approach.

A brief side note here. I noticed the forward is by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve Chairman who was succeeded by the present Al Greenspan. Volcker went on to head up the World Bank after that job, and I was glad to see he's still around and working.

John Bugle, one of the brightest minds of our century raises some of the most important financial questions, of the last 50 years. Bogle on Great Ideas in Financing includes four criteria: 1. Simplicity - Buy the whole market haystack, an index capable of matching the market. 2. Focus (Seek the hard crusted but nutritious bagel of earnings, dividends, and interest yields rather than the sweet donut taste of price with its high price earning multiples) 3. Efficiency (minimize frictional costs of fees, commissions, and taxes with an Wilshire 5000 index). 4. Stewardship (keep the interest of the client first). Bogle's index was free of tax, include a small transactional fee, represented 8000 stocks in the market, and matched the market rate of return.

Mutual funds have become a vehicle for short-term speculation, a trend fostered in part by the industries focus on marketing. Today the average fund holds stock for 400 days compared to six years when Bogle graduated from Princeton. Most investors hold their mutual fund for 3 years rather than 15 years. Since 1980 - 2000 mutual fund assets have risen 70 fold from $100 billion to $6.5 trillion and assets of stock funds have risen 120 fold or $4.0 trillion. In a 15-year span there were 426 mutual fund boats and 113 sunken mutual fund boats. Survival was strong because of the generous returns of the market. However, Mutual fund efficiency was problem: 1. Sales tax, excessive fees, spending too much on marketing, failing to share economy of scale with the investors, and 90% turn over of the portfolio each year suggested one thing, "short term speculation" was becoming the norm. Mutual fund sites charge costs included a front-end sales commission of 6%; opportunity cost meaning held cash positions equal to 7% of assets with these asset earning smaller returns than available in stocks; a transactional cost of 1.7%; and operating cost equal to 1.2% per year.

Bogle's outlook of the stock market is brilliant. Bogle states: financial economist cannot predict the future. The DOW may hit 36,000 and it may not. Who can predict accurately what the market will do? The market is not a machine. The market is not an insurance actuaries spreadsheet. However, the market performed remarkable well with price gaining 17% a year and at this rate doubling every four years. To understand the market lets look first too dividend yield and earnings growth because these elements provide the steady underlying force over the long pull. For two decades dividend yield equaled 4.5% and earning growth paced at 5.9% producing a 10.9% return. In 1970, P/E fell 50% from 16 times to 7.3 and dividend yield equaled 3.4% and annual earnings equaled 9.9% producing a 10.4% investment return and Bogle preached "stay the course". By 2000, dividends equaled 1%, earning growth rate reached 8%, and P/E ratios top 30. Again, Bogle preached, "time, risk, and control" raising a cautious outlook and a cry for investors to return back to investor basics of earnings, dividends, and yields.

What were the factors associated with the 87 crash? 1. Stock prices were simply to high to the underlying earnings and dividends in comparison to higher yields available on fixed income securities. 2. Deterioration in economic outlook with no progress to reduce the federal deficit, no improvements in the trade imbalance, and inflation in the air. 3. Program trading in the futures market sparked massive computer driven sales. The impact being 35% of the equity traded out of the market. In 87, if you're a Contrarian, it is a good time to buy or hold.

Thinking about 2000, Bogle observed for growth to remain constant over the next ten years, the P/E ratio would need to move from 30 to 67 an unlikely possibility. If in 2000, the P/E ratio fell too 12 then the market level would be 580 rather than 1400 with a P/E of 30. If the P/E fell from 30 to 20 then market return would drop to 5.5% less than the percentage rate of high yield bonds and such an event would be the first in stock history. Is the market comfort zone, a P/E of 15.5 and this fact suggests the market has moved to a level of high risk and possible correction? Bogle states, "Looking back 70 years, major market highs were almost invariably signaled when the dividends yield on stocks fell below 3%, or price earnings rose much about 20 times earnings". The purpose of any stock investment is cash now with the expectation of future flows of cash. A high P/E ratio means investors are expecting a large flow of future cash. The high prices are based on speculation about the cash flow in the future. If the future cash flow expectations are not rational does this mean short-term profit taking is picking clean the amateur investor?


Bogle was left to reflect on two questions: 1. Will the bagel of investment fundamentals give us its usual sustenance? 2. And will the doughnut of speculation get even sweeter than it is today, or will it finally sour? Bogle concluded, "We are in a new era of investing".

Warren Buffet said, "The art of investing in public companies is ... simply to acquire, at a sensible price a business with excellent economies and able, honest management. Thereafter, you need only monitor whether these qualities are being preserved."

Bogle suggests two principles when dealing with risk 1. Get your asset allocation right, maintaining a long-term horizon, and stay the course. Bogle observed that the long term real return on stock is 7.5%. Assuming one has a million dollars that is $75,000 annual income. 2. Diversity some of the risk away by introducing equities with reliable different correlations with the U.S market. Maybe, we will see the creation of a worldwide index, 60/40 - 60 percent U.S stock and 40 percent other? Bogle stresses investors not too speculate, however, life is short and if one needs too speculate they should limit the amount too 5 percent in the gamble for higher profits. Bogle's is betting on the performance of the whole market index rather than one sector mutual fund. Bogle is saying the market price is too high and a risk at its current levels. Bogle thinks mutual funds should be able to buy bonds and other stable securities as a part of the mutual fund mix.

Thinking about bonds, bond yields drop as the economy moves to a recession because investor flee from stocks into bonds and since money is easy to acquire the rates drop. In this scenerio, short term traders buy bonds now with the anticipation the yields will drop more in the future and investor will pay more for these bonds with a higher yield. Again, a short-term speculation to capture a quick profit. However, if haystack of stocks continues producing 7.5% real returns then stay the course.

A good, practical, no-nonsense book on investing that emphasizes returning to basics and tried and true approaches that have always worked over the long term. He points out that investing needn't be, and perhaps shouldn't be, rocket science, and that you can do quite well in the market over the long term just by matching the performance of the market, and not trying to beat the market. As many people found out recently, pursuing a momentum strategy in an era of already overheated PE's and buying the latest hot story stock can be dangerous to your portfolio's health. Following a value-oriented fundamental approach with at least part of your portfolio can be a useful way of reducing volatility and improving your performance even if you're a died-in-the-wool momentum investor. This advice is especially timely coming as it does in the aftermath of the recent bear market. Another important point that many experts emphasize is that it's important to implement an investment program that matches your needs and risk tolerance, perhaps the most important thing in an investing program, since if you can't sleep at night, you probably won't be able to maintain it over the long haul.

As Bogle points out, since 90% of fund managers fail to beat the averages over the long haul, the best strategy is to buy a fund that tracks the major indexes, which does two things. First, it minimizes costs, so you won't pay any management fees as you would for your typical mutual fund. Also, most investors don't realize such costs as advertising and sales expenses are minimal for an index, compared to other funds, and those are typically passed on to the investor in the load or management fee. Since there are now more mutual funds than there are stocks on the New York Stock Exchange (which is over 5000) and as I said, 90% of them fail to beat the indexes, it's hard to imagine a more sobering reason for making an index at least a part of your investing strategy. So overall, a good book on investing emphazing a no frills, common-sense, and back-to-basics approach.

Although Bogle amply documents and demonstrates that most fund managers can't beat the averages over the long haul, and so the best way to invest in a mutual fund is to buy one that invests in the indexes and avoid the costs of managed funds, this doesn't mean a small investor can't beat the averages. The reason most funds don't is that most own so many stocks, as in the case of the Magellan fund, which used to own 1400 stocks, that they're forced to buy too many second and third tier stocks (or worse), which degrades their performance. The individual investor, however, can cherry-pick and do much better that way, assuming he's successful at it. But the point is that mutual funds have an inherent disadvantage in terms of owning a quality portfolio that inevitably stacks the odds against them, a limitation which small investor doesn't have.

A brief side note here. I noticed the forward is by Paul Volcker, the former Federal Reserve Chairman who was succeeded by the present Al Greenspan. Volcker went on to head up the World Bank after that job, and I was glad to see he's still around and working.

This is one of my favorite books folks. Yes, she dishes up a bit of dirt and gossip about the stars she worked with but, she does it with such class and a healthy dose of sensitive editing. The respect she felt for her co-stars is evident and her life story a pleasure to read. Ms. Russell takes you right along with her through the joy, sorrow, and crazy fun that made up her life. I found this book to be both uplifting and motivating. What a smart,witty,enthusiastic lady! If you don't love her yet, you will after you read this.

Rosalind Russell's autobiography is full of stories about her movies and Broadway career and her friendships with Hollywood stars like Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. She discusses in detail her breakthrough movie, The Women and all of her early MGM films. My favorite Russell movies came later in her career and sadly, she devotes only a few quick sentences to Picnic (never mentioning Kim Novak), Auntie Mame (nothing about her costars), and Gypsy (not a word about Natalie Wood).

Much of the book is a testament to her long marriage to producer Freddie Brisson, who writes a very loving and revealing preface. She was strong and dynamic, a talented and dedicated actress, but her family always came first in her heart. Although she was quite ill at the end, she barely mentions her problems and indeed, spends no time in self-pity. (She was still editing the book at the time of her death.)

It was disappointing that she glossed over her later movies, but her strength of character and humor shine through on every page and the book is quite inspiring. Many personal and professional photos are included.

I could (and have) read this book over and over. Rosalind Russell takes you through her life as a child in Conneticut, her career with MGM, and her marriage to Freddie Brisson. I found each story engrossing, none of it was disinteresting. She tells the story of her life as if she was speaking to you personally. This book is a must read for any Rosalind Russell fan.

I read this biography years ago, but after reading a recent article about Rosalind Russell, decided I just had to have it. She was the real deal - actress, star, no-nonsense dame. I love her.

Reviewers don't mention the ghostwriter of this autobiography which is told in the first person, the hilarious and wonderful Chris Chase who also wrote Betty Ford's biography.

Anyone familiar with Chase's articles in the NY Times and her book would recognize her voice here.

The book is wonderful but while it's honest about Russell's deep religious feelings and patriotism, it skates over her right-wing sympathies (to which she was entitled) and her friendships with Nazi sympathizers.

Russell was indeed a multi-talented and fascinating woman who had an amazing life. I liked and admired her--- I enjoyed this book immensely, but I wish she had been challenged more.

though i dont have this book my friends say its an excellent book and I've seen it for my self and it is definatly a must buy

If you are a mtg collector, you definitely need this book. Although it is much "thinner" than Volume 1 but it's still a must for any serious mtg collector

It so good it has tempted me to buy alot of Magic cards

Richard Garfield is the creator of Magic The Gathering card game. This book gives the reader an in-depth look into the game and shows the beautiful illustration that each card contains. This is a must have for all players and collectors of the card game.

I collect the cards and I don't know how I would have known if they were rare or common cards if I hadn't found this book. It's the best!

Powerful stuff, excellent book. I highly recommend it without any reservations whatsoever. It contains 'pearls of wisdom' for marketers. I gained a great deal of knowledge reading it.

I'm not sure just how much thought went into this book. It's also very hard to figure out how many hours the authors Roy A. Young, Allen M. Weiss and David W. Stewart contributed to the over all preparation of the concepts put into this book.

But after countless hours reading the chapters of this book before the advance uncorrected proof, scrutinizing the first five chapters with heavy introspection and experimentation of the ideas I can tell you the following: It would take you countless personal hours, unmeasurable amounts of interviews, and the experience of CEO's from dozens of companies to amass the wealth of knowledge that you can easily pull out of this book.

So would you want to try to attempt what these authors have personally done for you in order to give you insight beyond the competition? If you wouldn't do you dream of failing in your endeavours as a marketing advisor, consultant or company? Well I'm very proud to say that some of the above endorsements from Phil Kotler and Seth Godin are more than advertising endorsements by some of the leading marketing experts. But they are geniune endorsements that really help you to recognize how rare this book is. More importantly how different the perspective of these three gentleman really are.

For example their input about what is a marketing compass?, How does a marketing compass work?, and what you can do to put your own marketing compass in order are sure to cause you to think more deeply about these concepts.

Part one and two are so full of marketing ideas, so architectually rich in sound marketing concpets that truly the authors could have clearly pulled their stop sign out and said "hey were going to stop right here" but thank God they didn't. They went on in part three to go deeper than a scuba diver in their exploration of how to manage east. Exploring ideas that show you how you can "Bust Silos and Build Bridges" giving you five techniques to apply some wonderful ideas.

And this is afer a wealth of information where they show you how to break down your Myths of Marketing. I'll admit first that my myths were trapped but what I discovered from Roy Young is quite an eye opening list of good marketing strategies that work. Their input on how to improve upon your Marketing language will make a huge difference in your marketing relationships. Whether they are in the company or outside of the company the language barriers with in your grasp are very limited.

Here's your chance to break the marketing code. This really is a great book with so many ideas I put it in the reference part of my library. Why? Because I'll be using it to reference for many years to come. Thanks for your time....................

Your Servant & Dr. of Marketing,

Deremiah, *CPE

Marketing Champions. Practical strategies for improving marketing's power, influence, and business impact. Young, Weiss, & Stewart. 2006. ISBN 9780471744955 This book is a distillation of hundreds of articles, case studies and research papers from MarketingProfs.com. If you have not checked it out, this website is home to some very valuable and pragmatic marketing ideas, info and research. In any other year this book would be my choice of marketing book of the year. I classify it as the getting things done in marketing book!It is a landmark book in that in one volume you have the best advice for marketing your value to clients, internal executives, internal groups and your own group. The section on how to talk in business terms is worth the price of the book. I recommend it to CEOs, CFOs, VPs R&D, Sales and Marketing as well as those just graduating from school. Its also a great read! A library keeper and re-reader.

I cannot tell you how big a difference the `speaking the language' strategies made. The silent pauses down the end of the phone when I took a particular marketing or strategic idea and translated it according to intangible assets, goodwill, when I talked about the inventory turnover and leverage, actually spoke volumes!!!

I was also able to connect the goals the CEO has for the new company we are launching and connect them directly to downstream and upstream marketing to drive profit growth and top-line profit.

The relief I could here in my CEO's voice was awesome... I know I've gained credibility and put in place the beginnings of a great marketing foundation.

THANK YOU!!! I knew I needed to be doing what you say in the book.... I just didn't know HOW. You make it clear and doable!!!

If you are tired of the label, "promotions guy or gal", then this book is for you because it expands on the true definition and role of a marketer. Many companies like to put marketing in the advertising, promotions, communications box, and this is where most marketing professionals reside in the organization. However, this is a recipe for marginalization.

A true marketing professional masters promotions, advertising and the like, but expands the marketing role to own the customer relationship and experience. For marketing professionals to be taken seriously and have a "seat" in executive circles they must be concerned with terms not usually associated with marketers like cash flow, earnings, shareholder value, and reputation. Even more important, marketing must contribute to corporate and business strategy with daily input and research from having a firm pulse on customer wants and future needs.

Roy Young, Allen Weiss and David Stewart show that marketing can and should focus on more than just the "Promotion" aspect of marketing. Chapters detail how to work closely with others in the organization from sales, operations, finance, R&D and even the executive office.

The book has very limited treatment of many of the technologies (CRM, data warehousing, analytics etc...) that help enable the measurement of marketing results. But overall, its message is too powerful to not give the book five stars.

As a marketer, if you like staying in the promotions box and limiting your career opportuniites then don't read this book. If, however, you have aspirations of the executive suite, or at least the invitation to executive level discussions, then pick up this book and dive in!

Let me start by saying that I have a large interest in both the fields of mathematics and neuroscience. And so when I came across this book with its outstandingly positive reviews, I decided to give it a try.

After having read it I can say that this work definitely deserves the positive attention it has garnered thus far. This book is a very comprehensive start to what may be an ultimate understanding of the human (and indeed even animal!) affinity to numbers. Like others who reviewed before me have said, it is very cleanly organized, presents a wealth of compelling evidence from a variety of fascinating and ingenious experiments, and is a pleasure to read by both experts and laymen alike. In short, I recommend Dehaene's The Number Sense to anyone who is curious about how our brains deal with math.

Dehaene covers a wide range of topics throughout the course of this book, discussing what he calls the "number sense" in infants, adolescents, adults, and animals in the context of both classic and more modern experimentation. Fascinatingly, he talks about how even animals have a basic ability to approximate numbers and how some (such as chimpanzees and macaques) can even be trained to perform rudimentary arithmetic with Arabic numerals! Furthermore, he asserts that even human infants are born with an innate knowledge (albeit extremely limited) of numbers that can be detected using very clever experiments. In this way Dehaene has perhaps dispelled forever the long-held notion that mathematics is a purely human science learned after birth by means of human language. In all cases he provides solid, detailed evidence supporting his arguments and clearly explains every conclusion he reaches such that the information is readily accessible by even those modestly educated in the subject.

One of the more interesting and readily appreciable points Dehaene makes is the animal (humans included) inability to comprehend large numbers. He posits that we innately understand and grasp numbers only up to the number four; thus we are to able estimate and differentiate these discrete quantities quickly and accurately. Naturally Dehaene provides satisfactory experimental evidence to this conclusion. Beyond this however, our ability to discern exact quantities fades dramatically. What's more is that our ability to discern the difference between two nearly equal quantities drops rapidly as a function of quantity magnitude and the distance between them. More concisely, given two sets of chocolate chips, many higher life-forms can distinguish between the set that contains one versus the set that contains two, but none can distinguish 99 from 100 if they were laid out randomly. However, one could probably distinguish between sets of 50 and 100, but would be unable to accurately approximate the number of chips in either. This is perhaps something that we've all thought about (I know I have), but Dehaene takes it several steps further by giving it a name, establishing its ubiquity in all intelligent organisms, and by providing an evolutionarily sound explanation to this phenomenon.

Among other topics, Dehaene talks of the notion that a small percentage of people associate numbers with color and position in space, the ability of humans and some monkeys to understand fractions, differences in mathematical abilities based on the language one learns to count in, whether or not the human brain is a logic machine that calculates based on set algorithms like a computer, and why the number crunching capacity of a trained prodigy is still vastly inferior to that of a modern calculator. In all, there were a great number of highly fascinating topics about the science, psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy of mathematics to be read about in this work.

Perhaps the part I least enjoyed about this book was reading through all of the data that Dahaene provides. Make no mistake, Dehaene writes in great form and provides ample support for every claim he asserts. Equally importantly, he clearly labels his own conjecture as such. He writes how a scientist should write in my opinion. However, he provides so much detail in the way of experimental evidence that I found the reading to be rather slow at points. Long after a point Dehaene is trying to make is firmly established in my mind, I still find myself reading evidence in support of his argument. But among the list of things that could be considered wrong with a book, my grievance ranks pretty low, and by no means did the reading get slow all the time.

In summary I highly recommend this book to both experts and laymen alike. It is full of fascinating information and interesting experiments that elucidate some of the neuoscientific basis of mathematics. Furthermore, it uses clear, concise, and at times humorous logic to explain the number sense that is so obviously present in humans and animals alike. My only complaint is a very minor one about a slight excess of detail in some areas. But I would nonetheless say that this was a highly enjoyable read and a great learning experience for me. If I've piqued your interest in this review, then make sure to read this book!

This is a masterful account of how people, and animals, use their number sense to bring mathematics into their world. It uses recent advances in neuroscience and evolutionary theory to create a coherent account of how we evolved our mathematical abilities. For instance, he shows how and why we have a marvelous analog capability, a subitization capability for immediately recognizing the numerosity of small collections, and a natural knack for counting.

But he also explains how and why we are very bad at digital computations and 'unconnected' memory tasks, like remembering multiplication tables. Not much use for knowing what 7 * 8 is amongst hunter gatherers! His solution -- let children use calculators! This pragmatism, and caring attitude, pervades the book relieving math anxiety like a wine French wine reduces stress.

He attacks the "Bourbaki" school for demolishing mathematical education in France (and elsewhere) by forcing axioms down children's throats instead of gently stimulating their intuition and allowing them to use their inborn number sense. Piaget also comes under attack for not allowing that children are born with number sense, and can do 'hard sums' much earlier than Piagetian dogma allows for. This attack is backed up by references to dozens of research papers that make his case conclusive.

The final chapter is a tour-de-force overview of mathematical philosophy , with a devastating attack on Platonism and a harsh critique of formalism. He comes down (mostly) on the side of the intuitionist mathematics of Poincaré, but is quite harsh on the constructivist Brouwer.

All in all, a jaw-droppingly brilliant book on the philosophy and psychology of mathematics. I've read a few such books, and this is by far the best I've read. Start here if you want to begin to find out what mathematics might really be about. He also has a superb bibliography to lead you to more mathematical wonders.

Dehaene is a witty, gifted writer with an invisible style. He elucidates his subject matter so plainly that no one could be lost. Even a complete neophyte such as I am would have no trouble following his constructs. Or better to say if I was lost, I never knew it because the book made a lot of sense to me.

As a math teacher, I had long suspected mathematics was an unnatural act of the mind. Dehaene confirms my suspicion. The chapter on patients with severed corpora callosa put me in mind of similar split brain findings in the field of linguistics.

I'm not sure about the limits on subitizing. The handful of my students with innate math reasoning seems to be able to subitize beyond what Dehaene suggests.

Dehaene is a bit heavy-handed with the evolutionary build-up. Can we just observe the increasingly complex organization of living things along a continuum without making the presumption that nature is showing us a time-lapse film?

This book is a tour de force of neurology as it applies to mathematics. From anectodes and case studies of mathematical greats and autistic calculating prodigies to brain scans and theory of the evolution of our calculating ability.

The only reason I give it four stars is its obvious political correctness is parts where it fails to even consider taking group differences into account (read genes) before ascribing differences to culture. For instance, the bulk of Chinese superiority in math at grade school level is ascribed to the fact that chinese sounds for numbers is smaller than english, allowing chinese students to keep longer strings of calculations in their short-term memory. Well, this could very well be a contributive factor, but what about American second or third generation chinese who speak only english who also show heightened mathematical ability? Not a peep about that!

Of course the above is just a small complaint in the end. The book on the whole is fascinating and well worth a read.

Fascinating. That's the word I've been using to describe this book. From the information on numerical experiments with animals to the solid evidence presented for the hardwired concept of numbers from birth, the author ties together an amazing work.

The clear organization of the book, described from the onset, was my first clue that this was a bit more polished than other works. From a gradual examination of an innate "number sense" in even lower animals, through babies identifiying that 1+1 is not 1 or 3 but 2, up to the examination of innate calculatory facilities, this book covers it all. By the end, you will have been presented with practically all the evidence you need to make your own conclusion--and the case for the existance of the "number sense" is incredible. Psychology and neurology are both linked to the examination.

As a math teacher, I've even gleaned a few points to help in the presentation of the topic to my students. While I don't agree with all of the authors views on education, I do think he made some very profound points (the comment that standardized education has probably stunted natural development ofthe culture--specifically language--is a good example.)

Probably my only real disappointment with the book is the author's overemphasis on evolution throughout the text. Yes, most technical types unfortunately seem to be passionate about evolution's role in everything nowadays; it wouldn't have been that big a deal had the last few pages of the book not delved wholeheartedly into a philosophical expository of how mathematicians of the past were silly to have attributed the apparent design of the mind to match the universe numerically to a God, when evolution is an available alternative. However, this small distasteful thread didn't really detract from the research. (In fact, in practically all other maters the author is refreshingly objective and unbiased, examining counterpoints to his theories and conclusions.)

In all, the book still earns its five stars for rigor, fascinating material, objective examination, and clear presentation. Well worth the read, well worth the purchase.

This is a wonderful book. I found it hard to put down once I started looking at it. Each caption is very heartfelt from those who served in Vietnam and those who know someone who did. I love the fact that with books like this, "they will never be forgotten". Some of the words are very small and I definately needed my reading glasses, but the pictures are worth a thousand words. A huge thank you to those who served and those that sacrificed.

This is a moving book about the artifacts left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington,D.C. Reading and seeing the pictures, about the different artifacts: stories, letters and notes are of interest on there own admission, but to tie it to the individual name on that black slab of granite, America's tombstone of the Vietnam War is mythical.

Have picked it up a number of times, since reading and digesting its contents.

No matter how you may feel about the war, the humanity revealed in this book will touch your heart. A little keepsake or memento left behind to a buddy, brother, husband or father is more than politics or justification of warfare it is about an offering to a loved one that died. That old saying a picture is worth a thousand words is true with this book, I found myself just staring blindly at insignificant objects that in any other place could easily be looked over, but here its is given to pay homage to the dead and maybe give a little peace to the living.

Eventhough I do not understand the Vietnam war, and I was not alive at the time, this book really touched me. The guilt, pain, and loss that the offerings people had left made me cry. There was a picture with a little girl and her dad, and a veteren was telling about the day he met the man in the photo. I think that story will stick with me forever. I saw the pain of innocense lost through the artifacts, and the truth of the poeple in that war was revealed. I reconmmend this book to anyone from that era to the youth of mine.

I sobbed through Offerings at the Wall. Sobbed for the loss of innocence and young lives lost. For anyone raised in the 1960s this should be a must read to understand and come to grips with the imapct the Vietnam War had on our generation. God speed to our veterans and to the brave young men and women of today's military still fighting for our freedom. Please take the time to thank a veteran for his/her service to our country.

This book is all about let bygones be bygones and moving on with life. If you think life treats you unfair, then it's up to you to change. It teaches how to pray and forgive.

If you read "The Four Agreements", you will enjoy this book. It's a good one to sit down with at any time you need some quiet time for meditation.

I really recommend any book written by this great man. This book truly gets to the essence of what praying is all about. I was touched by these prayers, reading them was like a peaceful meditation.

Thank You Miguel...Paul

With reverence, at the very least! I came to this book after the author's 4 Agreements and found the prayers and guided meditations here very effective as I learned meditation and began to deepen my spiritual practice. It doesn't matter which denomination or religion you claim to belong to, because these truthful, poetic insights and encouragements transcend labels and unnatural boundaries. It is as if Ruiz discovered a coven of saintly horses who taught him these golden words. Read and recite these prayers and meditations like that, like you're reading and reciting poetry, and you will feel it, yes. You will feel transformed as your skin tingles, as all of your senses awaken to the wonderful world we share!

--Robert McDowell, author of the forthcoming Poetry In Spiritual Practice

This is a beautifully written book. I have read alot of spiritual books. This one I couldn't put down, read it in one sitting. The Prayers at the end of the chapters are wonderful and the Circle of Fire Prayer is life changing. Some books I read and then recycled, but this one is a keeper. Thank you Don Miguel Ruiz for another great book!! Love and Blessings to all!

Excellent book! I've been using Seam since 1.2 and this book is by far the best and provides the most detailed coverage on a very advanced and deep topic like Seam integration framework. It's the best Seam book I've read thus far (I have read three previous Seam books on Seam 1.2). I especially appreciate the copious pics and tables (summarizes a lot of info quickly/easily); those should be added to the Seam ref docs. Very nice job on the editing, looks very clean so far! I use the pdf version for reference a lot now as well as the Seam ref docs. Index is very good as well.

You'll learn interesting concepts and technical details like:

* JSF lifecycle and how Seam's phase listeners work
* Seam lifecycle
* Seam interceptors
* bijection = dynamic injection + outjection + disinjection
* how Seam's contextual container works and details on the added conversation and business process contexts
* new features in 2.1 like Identity Management
* heavy detailed coverage on conversations and transactions (e.g. SMPC and Hibernate manual flushMode)
* seam-gen
* Spring integration and jBPM integration with business process contexts
* Drools and security management for authorization and permissions
* Seam Application Framework (framework in a framework for CRUD app support)
* Seam internals like how the components.xml works, Event/Observer, @Factory, @Unwrap annotations and patterns
* Page navigation in pages.xml
* Unified EL and JBoss EL
* I18N support
* Seam email support
* how Seam fixes the dread LazyInitializtionException seen in many Spring/Hibernate apps
* facelets as a view layer technology for JSF
* Seam remoting (calling session bean from javascript function)
* iText PDF support
* ajax4jsf vs. Icefaces (with coverage on Concurrent Ajax requests contending for ownership of the conversation)

You will learn a lot of stuff in this book that you will not find elsewhere all in one place and so well written. Also, the open18 golf course project and code examples are very helpful. There are many tips and warnings in this book that are very valuable and can't found be elsewhere. For example, the author discusses the dreaded PermGen out of memory error that happens a lot with Sun JVM and how to prevent that with options when you start the VM (i.e. JVM tuning).

Also, the author is a Seam core committer, so rest assured that you're getting the info from the horse's mouth, so to speak. Enjoy.

I am completely new to Seam and I found this book to be really helpful.

Just browsing the seamgen section convinced me and the rest of the chapters are also top quality.
The level of technical detail is appropriate and the examples help you understand the concepts discussed.
Highly recommended!

I found this a really well written interesting read on an interesting topic. I am now going to try out the examples in the book more and give a more thorough review on my blog

Based on perusal of sample chapters, I will likely buy this book, and will undoubtedly learn a lot from the author's expertise.

However, I would like it lot better, had the author omitted the silly and distracting metaphors of Seam as the classic car with the J2EE engine, or Seam as the application-stack-dinner-party-planning-sous-cheff. Enough already with the goofy florid stylings! Such is just distracting fluff. I hope the author didn't fall into this style throughout the text.

Not too many months ago, I was evaluating a number of Java frameworks for a project I was starting. One of those frameworks was JBoss Seam. Seam brings together J2EE technologies such as Enterprise Java Beans 3.0, Java Server Faces, POJOs, and a wealth of rich web components.

Many of us are familiar with the "In Action" series of books from Manning. They are quite simply some of the most highly respected technology books available. I purchased this book knowing the kind of quality I could expect, and I wasn't let down. The presentation and quality of the material was as I expected. Some of the key areas of focus were those that are most important in Seam; the Seam life cycle, inversion of control, state management, persistence, and transactions. Obviously many of these topics exist outside of Seam but what the Seam framework does is provide added features for these key items. The book focuses heavily on each and really drills into the improvements made.

I've done a lot of scrounging around the web for tutorials, guides, and articles about Seam. This book is far and away the best resource I've found. Everything else has been a mere reference. If you are like me, and want a real resource on the topic, you'll be happy with this purchase.