Hall Books

love it! very informative and has the best of the best artworks. but could use a modern edition strictly of the 20th century

This is one of the standard history of art textbooks. Of course it includes color prints of all the most famous art of the Western tradition, as well as numerous photographs and floorplans of famous architecture. It has a little coverage of Islamic art, but that is a topic that deserves better than it can be given in a textbook on the Western tradition. Painting, architecture and sculpture are clearly the focus, but photography and decor each get a nod. Other forms of art--from gardening to appliance design--although interesting, evidently cannot fit in this space.

The text is adequate: a little better than standard textbook composition, less dull, perhaps a touch less condescending, and of course perfectly informative.

Issues in technique, interpretation and so on are well-introduced.

If you, like me, are not a student but an adult just curious about art, this is a fine choice. I've also enjoyed work by Robert Hughes ("The Shock of the New," which I strongly recommend, and "American Visions"), Andre Malraux ("The Voices of Silence") and David Morgan ("The Sacred Gaze").

(I'm not widely read in this field by any means: those are the only books I've read about Western art history! So there could be various better books out there. But still, this textbook has been very useful to me, helping me fill out my knowledge in many areas.)

This book is incredibly comprehensive and covers all aspects of art in different cultures, including painting, sculpture, architecture, and burial sites. It is remarkably detailed (almost too much so), and has many great pictures.

The most distinctive aspect of this book is the primary sources it includes that explain the historical context of artworks. For example, there are numerous letters (translated, of course) from Italian artists in the Renaissance to their clients. Another text includes excerpts from the law code of Hammurabi, to accompany the sculptural piece on which it was originally engraved.

I used the original Janson when I took art history in college. I bought this for my son and started reading it on my own. What a wonderful rework of this classic. It provides very accessible descriptions of historical context as well as clear presentations of the impact of "technology" (i.e. development of various media) on the ability of the artists of various periods to express themselves. Love this book.

An excellent base for an art student to build upon; clear, informative, visual, and historical. Supplements and sources such as Wikipedia and encyclopedias and history texts will show how intertwined art is with politics and religions in depth where the book skims over.
A wonderful book, and covers some Eastern Art despite the focus title on the West. Chapters are organized and they get the point across; lovely descriptions of photographs that are present in the book, so you really get to study the subject and with the assistance of the text, see the inner beauty in the architecture.
What I found lacking was the mention of the Golden Ratio, and in fact, any mathematics whatsoever. As mathematics is very important to ancient-modern art, I found it rather confusing. However, as said before, an excellent base.
Very intriguing and not in the least boring or dry, Janson's History of Art is a prime choice coupled with supplementary books. If you're interested in overall art history, this is the one to go with...
Have fun!!!

The title is deceiving! This book is anything but a realigious poem book. A friend showed me this a while ago and I totally loved the poem "Take Things From Work" it's a must read for all opressed workers!! Ha ha

Okay, I'm not that big of a fan of poetry myself, but Hall's writing is genious. I first learned of Hall through King Missile- a band that basically takes John's poetry and places some wack music in the background. I loved the lyrics of the songs and Jesus Was Way Cool offers almost the same entertainment as the music.

All of the works here are extremely clever, funny and entertaining. Most of the pieces are almost stream-of-conscious and leave you wondering what it would be like to be in the author's head. You don't have to be well-read to enjoy this poetry even though it is obvious that Hall is. His references to history and use of words illustrate that point.

To really enjoy the poetry though, I highly recommend listening to King Missile. If you like this poetry, hearing John speak the words he writes will double your listening pleasure.

Really funny, more fun to read than most poetry books (whoops, that probably makes me sound uncultured) -- but you might have to be a King Missile fan to appreciate it completely.

Really great book. Lyrics to many of King Missile's songs, as well as regular spoken word pieces, all of which make really good reading. If you know any of King Missile's stuff (especially if you know pieces other than the overplayed "Detachable Penis"), then you know how funny they were. Even the funny pieces in this book -- and most are hysterically funny -- are also surprisingly thoughtful and have many layers of meaning.

John S. Hall knows where it's at. This book is my favorite & nicest collection of masterpieces of poems ever. His mixes of mysticism, religion, pop sexual blatancy & the essential concepts of world philosophy finesse into normal sentences that are so nice they can be sung or voiced to melody... & he does do that on cd's & on stages.
I've seen the title piece "Jesus Was Way Cool" quoted in dictionaries like Shakespeare to define language. My other favs like "Open" & "Sensitive Artist" are just a few more cornerstone watermarks for history. ( John, does that part make sense? please edit ...he didn't get back to me fast enough, im writing this on my own, usually he helps me, he wrote the intro to my first great Work, "document zippo" & i consulted him & referenced him in dialogue prose in "Xero, turn-of-the-millenia," he is also my attorney. i wonder if he can sue himself for this.)
Compared to his newer pieces like "America Kicks Ass" which is brilliantly...[i was going to have him edit this part & make this a sentence] his Work sustains itself blah blah [actually can you end it for me please? i asked him, but these are important times, & he is probably doing something important right now & perhaps even political!]

This is another in the Mountain Man series that those familiar with Johnstone's work, and those new to the author, should definitely read.

Smoke Jensen gets a letter from a relative while home at his ranch. He takes off, of course, to help out family.

For those who keep track, it is 1882, and Smoke and Sally's twins are one year old.

With the help of his old mountain man friends, Smoke saves the ranch for his cousins, brother and sister, and with his friends to help, a bunch of bad guys cease to populate the earth.

Even his prissy cousin, as Smoke describes him, finally turns out to be quite a man after all.

The story is just as exciting as all the others by Johnstone, and I highly recommend it.

In a review that I read on the book The last mountian man(where Smoke Jensen first comes into play) he is known as Kirby Jensen.
Not untill later on in the book is he referd to as "smoke".Also Preacher didnt take Smoke under his wing after Smokes father had been killed.Preacher had taken Smoke to teach him about being a mountianer and and teach him how to hunt and fight,basicaly train him in living in the mountians.Befor that winter Smokes' father was killed and Smoke spent the winter with Preacher praticing on pulling those 45's in a blur.Also it never mentioned that Smoke was a big man even when he was just a boy.
The only thing that the person got right on his review was start from the beginning and read all the books it will make everything come into play when you get to where you are going.

Smoke Gets a Letter from a cousin asking for help. Smoke nevers turns away people in need, and definetely not family. So Smoke packs up and heads for Montana. On the way he looks up some old tough mountain men friends. He knows the battle will be tough and he might even loose. But if he did how would we be able to read another book? Maybe he will win!!

William W. Johnston writes the best, hardest to put down series I've ever read. His books are facinating. They talk about men that my dad talked about when he'd tell his growing up stories.He could have been an old mountain man. This particular book, JOURNEY OF A MOUNTAIN MAN was the first one of the series I read.It takes place in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Since I was born and raised in Montana and lived in all the rest of these states made the books even more readable.Then when I finished the book I went to the used bookstore I trade at and found many more of the series that had come before. I have not went wrong with any book Mr. Johnston has written. He has several series out such as THE BLOOD BOND SERIES, and THE EAGLES SERIES, and THE LAST GUNFIGHTER SERIES. They are all great reads. I just loved them all. They talk about the magnificent West and the totally magnificent men that populated it. The books display humor (in some),honor,courage, and chivilary. This is what being a man is all about as far as I'm concerned. My husband even read all the ones I found, too. He was a strictly a Louis LAMour reader. I was thrilled to have found something he could read and enjoy that was not a repeat. Myself included.

A boy growing up, starting at the end of the Civil War. His father comes home after the war and they head west. They make friends with a famous mountain man who takes in the boy after his father dies. He teaches the boy everything to survive in the mountains.He becomes Smoke Jensen, a gunfighter by necessity and has many adventures. Marries and together begin ranching and fighting the badmen from Colorado to New York. Smoke fights for the helpless and his home. This is a series of books the start with "The Last Mountain". Also a short series about the mountain man, starting with "The First Mountain Man". Both series never get boring. In fact, they are hard to put down. The only western series I've enjoyed next to Louis Lamour's series "The Sackets".

I found this book yesterday in my search for a 'spiritual' book for my 13 year old female cousin. I started to read it to see if it was appropriate for her and ended up reading the whole story in less than two hours. It is beautiful- my thoughts are with it today. An adult wanting a short story...get it, also it could be read outloud to a small child, it is basically an animal story. Any reader of any age would enjoy its inspiring simplicity. Hint: The powerful Falcon becomes conscious of its predatory nature and chooses not to kill. Humanity's same struggles of right and wrong begin to stir in a Falcon's thoughts.

This is truly a lovely allegory. Kara, the central character in this story is a large, powerful falcon. He is a predator by nature, devouring smaller creatures. During one attack, he swoops down on a dove. The dove begs for her life and when Kara looks into her eyes and sees her fear, he relents and releases her. From then on, Kara changes his priorities. He learns to eat berries and vegetables because he can no longer bring himself to kill another living creature. The gentle dove in turn, welcomes Kara into the woodland creatures' community where they bond and welcome even more animals of all species.

Kara is a symbol for St. Paul, the former Saul known for his persecution of Christians. The gentle dove is a symbol of the Angel who appeared to Paul and who helped him rethink his priorities and become a Christian. (The dove, long recognized as the symbol of peace is often referred to in Scripture). The woodland creatures could be the Disciples or as a Christian community of caring. The end of the book reinforces the Christian theme beautifully by describing Kara's ultimate sacrifice -- he eats Manna (communion, perhaps) and takes a swan song (falcon song) flight into the sun. At the end of his life, he is transformed into a myriad of beautiful colors that his woodland friends know as being him. It is one of best books in Christian literature. It is a heart warmer. Please read it. It will really touch your heart.

Kara, the Lonely Falcon is among the earliest writings of Joseph Girzone. This charming allegory parallels common Christian themes including mercy, sacrifice, and friendship. While it is written for young adults, it can be enjoyed by all ages.

Kara, who is a bird of prey, makes a decision. He no longer wants to use other animals for food. This comes as a shock to the other creatures of the forest. Many creatures are not convinced of the change in Kara until he protects the creatures from other birds of prey. An alliance is formed between Kara the falcon and the creatures of the forest. A conflict arises when Kara must find a new source of food. While he can eat berries during the warm season, the winter months are more problematic. The food donations of the forest creatures are not enough to maintain the large falcon. A mysterious food that resembles a flat mushroom appears near Kara's perch. This food gives Kara warm feelings which makes him want to share the food with his friends. Kara is never able to share the food with his friends because of the day in which he mysteriously disappears. However, the creatures do discover the mysterious food.

For animal lovers and fans of Christian fiction, this is a wonderful book. I can envision myself using this book as a gift for young nieces and nephews in the future.

I found this book yesterday in my search for a 'spiritual' book for my 13 year old female cousin. I started to read it to see if it was appropriate for her and ended up reading the whole story in less than two hours. It is beautiful- my thoughts are with it today. An adult wanting a short story...get it, also it could be read outloud to a small child, it is basically an animal story. Any reader of any age would enjoy its inspiring simplicity. Hint: The powerful Falcon becomes conscious of its predatory nature and chooses not to kill. Humanity's same struggles of right and wrong begin to stir in a Falcon's thoughts.

I found this book yesterday in my search for a 'spiritual' book for my 13 year old female cousin. I started to read it to see if it was appropriate for her and ended up reading the whole story in less than two hours. It is beautiful- my thoughts are with it today. An adult wanting a short story...get it, also it could be read outloud to a small child, it is basically an animal story. Any reader of any age would enjoy its inspiring simplicity. Hint: The powerful Falcon becomes conscious of its predatory nature and chooses not to kill. Humanity's same struggles of right and wrong begin to stir in a Falcon's thoughts.

I have never read Michael Innes before, so I was not prepared for this book at all. It is wonderfully complex, and the characterizations are truly masterful. The setting of the book is also noteworthy since it takes place at a remote Scottish castle right at Christmastime. The book does not spare the reader. It will take you on an emotional roller-coaster ride that never ends until the very last page. Innes' portrayal of a a mad Scottish lord is chilling. And Innes' detective John Appleby has to be one of the the most unique in the whole industry. I cannot say enough good things about this book, and about Michael Innes. Whatever you do try to find it and read it, read it, read it. I got my copy from the library. Luckily one library in our wonderful system saw the merits of keeping this very old book.

Pulls one solution of the hat, then another and another, and unlike some of the later books, Sir John Appleby himself is far from being the last word on thr truth. Appleby gets some of the clues, but his distance from Scottish culture leaves him at a loss when it comes to contextualization. Sometimes he can't see what's right in front of his face.

To tell you the truth, I got tired of the constantly shifting explanations of what Sybil Guthrie is said to have seen in the tower. Okay, okay, so it's the old Rashomon/Three Coffins story about how even eyewitnesses can be fooled into believing something that isn't true, and that the "evidence of things seen" should really be the last resort when trying to piece together what actually has occurred at a crime scene. For all the credence the several detective figures place on Miss Guthrie's account, I never saw why none of them doubted the essential tenor of what she had to say. Why shouldn't she have been lying her American heart out? She was the heiress, for goodness' sake. She's the one who had more motive than any of them to throw Ranald Guthrie down to the frozen maelstrom at the tower's distant base.

However that's neither here nor there. The eventual explanations for Hardcastle's inquiry about, "Oh hi, are you the doctor?" and for old mad, Ranald Guthrie, the legendary miser who picked the pockets of scarecrows hoping for some forgotten change, now changing his pitch and serving his guests caviar, are both excellently done and you will never guess! Michael Innes is famous for his witty, erudite crime novels but here he has actually come up with a novel that has atmosphere too, some of the dark, spooky John Dickson Carr kind, and some almost human characters about whom you might almost feel something

Speaking of Carr, this novel seems very much like his similarly Scottish slash tower novel THE CASE OF THE CONSTANT SUICIDES. Coincidence? Or were both men working out some kind of internecing Highlands feud, like that of the Guthries and the Lindsays in LAMENT?

This is an excellent and atmospheric piece of light mystery fiction. The plot is gradually revealed through the narratives of different characters (an old Scottish shoemaker, a young socialite, an observant young man, Inspector Appleby, and others), persuasively written by Innes. The writing is superbly witty (the Scottish laird who's the subject of the tale is described by a group of psychiatrists determining his mental fitness as "having a warm and affectionate nature fatally warped by the trauma of birth."). Considering that the book was written before WWII, it has a remarkably contemporary feel. If I had to take one mystery with me for a stay on a desert island, this would be it because of the quality of the characters and the writing, and its tolerance for being repeatedly read with delight.

There is one major problem with the works of Michael Innes: his love of fantasy, which either gives strength to the story in the eccentricities of the convoluted plot (see Gladys Mitchell), or it ruins the story completely, especially in his later works.

His third novel is set in Scotland - a Scotland of miserly Lairds, of rat-infested castles, of unpleasant retainers, of scarecrows, and of snow and religion. The plot concerns the death of the miserly Ranald Guthrie, who falls to his death from the tower of Glen Erchany, Kinkeig, on Christmas Eve. Was it murder, suicide or accident? Enter Inspector John Appleby of Scotland Yard in order to investigate the death - he sifts through the rumours of handless corpses and arsenical poisoning, and pries into one of the most extraordinary cases of murder in crime fiction.

The denouement is one of the most ingenious and dazzling ever done, making it one of the ten best detective stories ever written, ranking with the best of John Dickson Carr and Gladys Mitchell. Well-written and a dazzling tour de force.

Threaded throughout "Lament for a Maker" (1938) is the haunting strain of William Dunbar's (1465-1520?) medieval dirge of that name:

"I that in heill was and gladnèss
Am trublit now with great sickness
And feblit with infirmitie:-

Timor Mortis conturbat me."

A bit of Scots dialect and a little Latin wouldn't hurt in making sense of this Appleby mystery, and it is well worth the effort as "Lament for a Maker" is considered to be one of Michael Innes's best genre novels.

Inspector Appleby doesn't appear on scene at Erchany, Guthrie's castle until the last third of the book. There are five narrators in all, each with his own distinctive voice. There are also several solutions to the murder, and Innes makes each solution seem like the correct one when presented by one of the narrators. I think this is his most rigorous and plausible mystery---well, except for the intrusion of the messenger rats---this author cannot resist a slight touch of the surreal.

The Laird of Erchany, Ranald Guthrie has two outstanding traits: his miserliness, which is causing his castle to fall down around his ears; and his fear of death: he chants "Lament for a Maker" through his rat-infested halls, and the villagers of Kinkeig quite rightly think him mad. He is served by the Hardcastles, a seedy old couple, and Tammas, a brain-damaged boy. Even as Ranald Guthrie might remind you of an evil Prospero, and his niece Christine of Miranda, Tammas will make you think of Caliban.

Two guests are stranded at Erchany on Christmas Eve by a snow storm, and one of them just happens to be the Laird of Erchany's American heir. When Tammas struggles through the snow drifts and into the village of Kinkeig on Christmas morning, the early kirk-goers are interrupted by cries of murder most foul.

Inspector Appleby, a solicitor, a cobbler, a physician, and the Laird of Erchany's unwanted guests must work together to prevent more lives from being destroyed by a plot that seethes in fratricide, incest, and a centuries-old clan feud.

I read this book when it was first out in paper back, since then, I think I've read everything Johnstone has written. A true storyteller.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. IT IS HIS BEST ONE. I AM GLAD THAT I GOT ONE OF THE FIRST COPIES BEFORE THEY CHANGED COVERS.

The book The Last Mountain Man is about an 18 year old boy named Smoke, who swears to get revenge on the men who killed his father and brother. Smoke lives with a mountain man named Preacher, who teaches Smoke everything he needs to know about the west. I would recommend this book to any one who like westerns and/or action books.

I was in awe reading about the adventures of Smoke Jensen and Preacher The action was fast and brutal, a real page-turner. You can almost smell the gunsmoke! I'm glad I finally discovered Mr. Johnstone.

"The Last Mountain Man" is the beginning of the Smoke Jensen story. Smoke is a raw naive kid, who learns fast, and won't take any crap from any outlaw murdering thief. If you like the Western genre you'll LOVE William W. Johnstone's "Mountain Man" series. Smoke Jensen is genuine.

Of the many books I've read on 6 sigma, this IS the book on how to plan and deploy a 6 Simga initiative in a company. This is not a book on the tools and how to use them in detail. It is discussed, but more in terms of highlighting the training required and the caliber of people assigned.

There is a comparison and contrast of successful deployments and less successful deployments. The authors disect why they failed. They have a GE bias, in that at least on of the authors is heavily versed in the GE system. This is not to the detriment of the book, but it does color the successful path they advocate. That path is well trod and proven successful. There are variations to that that can be successful, and will depend heavily on the culture of the company.

The path they advocate attacks the common organization barriers that ANY initiative will face. So in that sense, the book is broader that just 6 simga. Those elements are:
* Active and strong leadership from the top

* Appropriate resources, people and funding
* Demand results
* Be willing to change internal policies and procedure to support implementation

This is a must read for anyone planning an implementation, or looking to fix one.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how to successfully deploy Six Sigma in a large organization. Most books on Six Sigma are either technical (focusing on the tools and methodology) or are high level explanations of the basics of Six Sigma and descriptions of the wonderful impact it has on organizations. This is one of the few books I have found that focuses on the details of planning, organizing and managing a Six Sigma deployment. It is thorough and comprehensive. I led a corporate-wide Six Sigma deployment for a Fortune 1000 company and can confirm that the advice they provide is right on target. They have good, practical guidance based on real experience.

This book differs from most other Six Sigma guides in that it identifies, by name, companies that failed at Six Sigma. So many authors have presented Six Sigma as something magical that it is refreshing to see its warts. Make no mistake - the authors are not out to debunk or dethrone Six Sigma, a management philosophy and method that has been their professional life for many years. They clearly believe that Six Sigma is worth the investment of time, brain power, leadership and political capital that it requires. But they aren't afraid to point out the fact that it does require serious investment, and that management must sustain its commitment for years to unlock the full benefit of the Six Sigma approach. The book is a tolerably good read, albeit dry. It mercifully spares the reader any puffery or promotion, and it lays out the axioms of Six Sigma life in a very lucid format. Occasionally, it stoops to cliché, but not terribly often. We recommend it to those who need to know what it really takes to achieve Six Sigma performance, and how to begin.

This is a book about getting your organization to adopt Six Sigma. This book focuses on excellent techniques that are needed for convincing upper management of the value of Six Sigma. The target audience seems to be CEOs and their top assistants. In fact the authors pretty much concede that implementing Six Sigma is impossible without CEO intervention. Little can be found to help line managers implement a culture appropriate for Six Sigma. This fine book would have been even better had they addressed line issues more aggressively and had more on how to communicate Six Sigma in a manner that would not leave the "rank and file" thinking Six Sigma is just "old water in new bottles".

I dare say in many companies, the rank and file will assume that Six Sigma is ineffective jargon. Further, this will to a large extent be due to oversimplified misunderstandings of Six Sigma. Most Six Sigma training emphasizes that Six Sigma is used when the solution is unknown. Yet I only hear people mention Six Sigma when they have a solution (sometimes a solution in search of a problem). "We need to finish this project to improve our Six Sigmas" and "we should [insert project goal] so we can all get our green belts" are typical of the comments I hear that are laughable to someone who understands Six Sigma.

This book's weakest sections are the first few chapters. The authors compare companies who had successfully adopted Six Sigma and those who did not. The authors believe that the successful adopters shared (and the unsuccessful companies did not have) the following characteristics:
- committed leadership
- use of top talent
- supporting infrastructure

The authors eventually come out and say that the CEO should dedicate a percentage of his/her time to Six Sigma: money is not sufficient! Having worked at GE, this conclusion seems inevitable: Jack Welch did, in fact, put a lot of personal attention into adopting Six Sigma. However, we don't all work for someone like Jack Welch.

In his autobiography, Welch describes not giving bonuses to those who were not working on Six Sigma. This was his way of ensuring that all the top talent were working on Six Sigma projects because otherwise managers would be unable to reward their top talent.

GE had another thing going for it that set the stage of Six Sigma: a culture of managing by facts and numbers and not opinion. Remember, when other companies were "focusing on core strengths" in the mid 1980s, GE was expanding in finance, particularly leasing. Why? It supported their other businesses and created tax shelters that saved tremendous amounts of cash. As long as these subsidiaries could demonstrate ever-increasing profits, they could get ever-increasing resources. Subsidiaries that could not come up with the numbers were sold or shut down, debates about "core" or not core did not enter into the picture. In this environment, if Six Sigma could demonstrate results, the corporate culture would adopt it. Certainly, Welch's actions made Six Sigma happen more quickly, but he had won the battle long before when he fostered a results-oriented culture.

Being able to briefly and clearly describe what you are trying to do has become a critical tactic in modern leadership. In business we call this a "mission statement", in politics, its called, somewhat derisively, a sound bite. The next edition would benefit from the reworking of one of the early chapters to one that would help management create a Six Sigma mission statement.

I've read some other books NOT on Six Sigma that by analogy bring home the weakness of Six Sigma literature. To learn how to create a mission statement, I recommend Carville and Begala (2002). They used a passage in the Bible, John 3:16, as an excellent example: "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son so that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have everlasting life." They assert that this passage summarizes in 25 words the essentials of Christian theology. To paraphrase Carville and Begala, if the Bible can explain all the important tenets of Christianity in 25 words, surely 25 a word sample mission statement for Six Sigma can be provided for those who want to convince an organization to adopt it.

I would also recommend Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" as a companion book. Lewis (author of "Liar's Poker") uses Wall Street trading as an analogy to explain why the Oakland Athletics baseball team is one of the successful franchises with much less money than most. But I also see an analogy relevant to the topic of Six Sigma. "Moneyball" shows how one can achieve superior results by testing what everyone thinks they know with fact gathering and rigorous analyses. Moneyball will inspire anyone trying to implement Six Sigma to value testing assumptions with measurement.

A quick read of the reviews on Amazon will give you a feel for why people are skeptical of 6 Sigma: the feel-good tone of most writing on 6 Sigma and the insistence that it "is not a flavor-of-the-month management trend" make many of us suspect that 6 Sigma is not much more than hollow jargon and acronyms. The readers are left with the essential difficulties of positive change in any organization: you need to overcome assumptions that your organization's subculture may not even realize it has. What a corporation does by accepting Six Sigma is that it empowers people to gather data to challenge what "everybody knows". Most importantly, it sets a standard of very high quality, which reinforces the sanctioning of data-driven change.

I feel that this book comes up short in this regard, as do the other books I've read on Six Sigma, but otherwise is a good description on how an upper-level manager can bring about organizational change in general and implement Six Sigma in particular.

Without a doubt this is one of the best books ever written on Six Sigma and I should know as I have read nearly every book written on Six Sigma over the last three years. However, let me clarify something up front. This book does not delve into the tools of Six Sigma nor the actual statistical methods of Six Sigma like Air Academy Associates excellent books `Basic Statistics' or `Understanding Industrial Designed Experiments'. What this book does, however, is address the following topics which so far every other book on Six Sigma has failed to cover and clarify:

1. The right projects, the right people: Identifying your company's most promising Six Sigma opportunities and leaders.
2. How to hit the ground running: Providing leadership, talent, and infrastructure for a successful launch.
3. From launch to long-term success: Implementing systems, processes, and budgets for ongoing Six Sigma projects.
4. Getting the bottom-line results that matter most: Measuring and maximizing the financial value of your Six Sigma initiative

What makes this book such a good value is that the author's of the book clearly know what they're talking about and their wisdom from implementing actual Six Sigma projects is priceless. This book is really a blueprint for implementing and sustaining Six Sigma and provides excellent advice on how to avoid the pitfalls that so many companies have run into during their failed attempts at implementing Six Sigma. The book is written in clear, easy-to-understand language with just the right amount of graphs and charts so even people who know nothing about Six Sigma will benefit from reading it. My advice is to buy this book and Michael George's outstanding book `Lean Six Sigma' together so that you truly get an appreciation for what Six Sigma is and what it can do when combined with Lean.

This is the book that provide the experience for real Six Sigma implementation. If you are looking for real method from Expert Experience. I reccommend this book.

Very detailed & specific; you can find what you want easily. Keeps you away from theory of Lean Six Sigma, rather brings theory close to practical applications.

I agree with the other reviews and will not repeat their praises here. Keep in mind that, as Wedgwood says in his book, you need a statistical reference to understand the details of statistical tests; he does offer a high level view of the statistics to help a mathematically challenged person better understand what the test is all about and why it's being used. To execute a particular statistical test will require more than is found here but that is not a problem. I find his explanations of tool use to be generally more understandable than in other references. Wedgewood has an uncanny sense of exactly what it is you need to know and understand about a tool and it's use to be effective in using it. We adopted this as our text for the Six Sigma Black Belt training because the students most often needed help when deciding which tool to use and when to use it. Wedgwood is unique in creating 25 categories of problems into which most projects can be sorted. During the "define" phase he urges the practitioner to decide where in these 25 categories the particular problem best fits. Such a task forces a special attention to the nature of the problem and once it is properly categorized there is a set of sensible suggestions offered to point the way to generating a solution. As a result of the categorization this book is not designed to be read through from beginning to end. It is a useful reference and self directs attention to where the problem solver needs to go. No other book is like this hence it needs to be on your shelf!

The key to Lean Six Sigma's success is the effective combination of two things: roadmaps that lead the practitioner down the problem-solving path and the tools that he or she will use along the way. Dr. Wedgwood's new book is as complete an exposition of both as I have seen. This volume is a very cleverly organized work as well. He begins with the matching of roadmaps to process problems - each of some 25 specific problems (high schedule variation, broken measurement system, etc.) has 3-4 pages devoted to the correct roadmap to follow to fix it. These roadmaps reference the tools that can be used, and these are then described individually and in depth in a following chapter. There are also a couple of short and helpful chapters devoted to tools for discovery and process control.

You won't become a Six Sigma Blackbelt by reading Dr. Wedgwood's book...but if you are one, "Lean Sigma, A Practitioner's Guide," will be a great addition to your bookshelf. It's an excellent book and bound to become the standard for Lean Six Sigma classroom instruction and a best friend of the practioner in the field.

Ian Wedgwood has written a book that is a roadmap in itself to problem solving using the combined toolset from six sigma and lean. This book is not just another book of tools. It shows the reader how to define the problem and then how and why to apply tools to solve the problem. This book is the best book I've read on six sigma or lean that is focused on helping project leaders find a solution. It is designed as a roadmap for business leaders to understand the nature of their problem; know which tools are best to solve their problem; know when, how, and why to apply each tool; and how to get a problem solution. An aspect I found most useful was the section on identifying the problem and defining it in measurable terms. I known much about the tools individually, but this book has helped me get projects started the right way. I now see that the section on "Define Tools" would have helped me get to a problem solution much quicker had I applied the principles outlined in this book. It seems so simple after reading this book, but I can see where a simple roadmap to identifying the problem first would have made me much more efficient in the application of six sigma tools. This book helps make the not so obvious simple to understand.

After helping the project leader know how to define the problem correctly, Dr. Wedgwood then explains each tool in a unique way. He actually helps the business leader know why the tool is important in addition to how to use the tool. Wedgwood makes sure that the belt knows more than just which tool to use, he makes sure the belt knows why the tool is essential to business improvement. Charts and roadmaps make the task of process improvement easy. And, since everything is explained so well, the project leader is better informed and can answer questions from others. Although not written as a textbook, its clear roadmap for problem solving makes this a book I would want all my students to have on their professional bookshelf. It has already helped me in getting started on a new project myself, and I've been around the academic side of six sigma for many years.

Probably more books have been written in the last 50 years on "pop theology" in the religious book market than any other type of book. Now here is a book on the ancient faith that was delivered to the ancient church.

It is not "easy beliveism" but is rich with the words of the Apostles and those who sat at their feet.

Both comforting and challenging, it is a most valuable resource for a serious seeker.

Learning Theology is the second in Christopher Hall's three-volume introduction to patristic theology. The first volume, Reading Scripture with the Fathers, recounts the approaches to biblical exegesis of eight theologians of the catholic tradition. The third proposed volume, Praying with the Church Fathers, will examine the spiritual disciplines and worship of the ancient church. Learning Theology explores the major loci of Christian dogmatics, (for example, the Trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, soteriology) as articulated by major patristic theologians. Hall confesses up front the problematic nature of the division of the trilogy. On the one hand, the Fathers would not have separated dogma from Scripture. On the other hand, theology for the Fathers was never separated from the life of piety. Rather, faithful theology arises only out of the life of spiritual discipline and within the corporate worship of the Church. As a "primer for beginners," Learning Theology must, for pedagogical purposes, operate within this artificial division.

One of the strengths of the book for which Hall deserves commendation is the range of the audience for whom he has written. Although he assumes that it might serve as an introduction for seminary students, it does not replace the classic introductory textbooks on patristics, such as J. N. D. Kelley's Early Christian Doctrine or Francis Young's From Nicaea to Chalcedon. Hall is not interested in explaining the historical development of Christian doctrine. The ideal audience for this volume is two fold: first, pastors who have been out of seminary for some time but now want to explore how the wisdom of the patristic traditions might aid their proclamation of the gospel; and second, curious laypersons who wish to explore the language of the Church they have heard in the creeds, hymns, or sermons but have never understood. More specifically, the pastors and laypeople to whom Hall is writing are those whose religious roots are evangelical. Himself an evangelical, Hall hopes to correct the tendency to place confidence in a "highly individualistic" approach to exegesis that suffers from "theological and historical amnesia" (24).

At the same time, Hall is conscious to address attitudes towards theology common among most contemporary Christians. He therefore begins his discussion of each locus explaining why it is relevant to the modern reader. For example, in his chapter on the Trinity, he begins by quoting Thomas Jefferson's dismissive judgment that the Trinity is "incomprehensible jargon" and Kant's insistence that the Trinity "provides nothing, absolutely nothing, of practical value" (53). Having exposed the reader's prejudice, he uses Nazianzen's Theological Orations and Augustine's De Trinitate to explicate the logic and boundaries for the Christian's contemplation of and speculation about the mystery that is the Trinity. Hall also demonstrates his sensitivity to problems in Christian God-talk that feminist theologians have pointed out.

My one major frustration with the book is the relative lack of historical context given to the texts and authors discussed. For example in his account of the Arian controversy, Hall gives his readers the impression that the Trinity and the divinity of the Son were not a problem for the early church until the third century. Although he makes a passing reference to Sabellianism, he offers no discussion of second-century views of adoptionism or modalism. Moreover, Hall's treatment of Arius's theology does not provide an explanation of why Arius and his followers denied the divinity of the Son. Hall's explanation that Arius wanted "to preserve God's simplicity and indivisibility" (36) does not give attention to the soteriological concerns (How can the savior die if he is divine?) that accompanied the philosophical and theological issues. This problem applies to his account, not simply of Arius, but of Athanasius as well. Hall focuses almost exclusively upon the intra-Trinitarian questions, omitting the soteriological issue that necessitated the divinity of the Son. By separating the doctrine of the Trinity from soteriology, Hall, contrary to his own goals, actually makes the debate about Trinity to be principally a philosophical dispute about the conditions for the divinity of the Son. Moreover, the conspicuous omission of any serious examination of certain major theologians, such as Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Theodore of Mopsuestia, means that Learning Theology does not provide readers with the multitextured and developmental character of patristic theology. This problem is particularly evident in his chapters on sin and grace, and eschatology. Unfortunately, the new student of theology will come away without a sense of the theology that provided the foundation for the ascetic piety that shaped monasticism East and West. Perhaps this will be coming in the third volume, Praying with the Church Fathers.

In spite of these issues, Hall has given evangelicals and nonevangelicals, clergy and laity alike, a helpful introduction to the world of early Christian doctrine-an introduction that both offers a sympathetic reading of patristic theology and is also sympathetic with the modern Western reader's frustration and confusion with the language of the ancient church that can seem so alien.

This book is the second in a three part series surveying the various aspects of early church history.

Book 1 - Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (examination of various hermeneutical methods, focusing upon the differing schools of Alexandria and Antioch).

Book 3 (forthcoming) - Praying with the Church Fathers (deals with sacramentology and pietism among other things).

This second book details with the basic components of theology, showing how the fathers wrestled through the major issues. HOWEVER, this book does not detail all the major players. Hall instead has opted to take the major names associated with the various positions and deal with those two (or three) in detail, rather than having to paint broad strokes about everyone.

Among the issues are:
(1) Christ the Son, Begotten and Not Made
(2) Mystery and Wonder of the Trinity
(3) Christ Divine and Human
(4) Holy Spirit
(5) Sin, Grace and the Human Condition
(6) Providence
(7) The Sacred Scriptures

(8) One Holy, Apostolic Church
(9) Resurrection and Eternal Life

One of the things I like best about this book is its broad appeal. It not only deals with the heady theological problems, but also seeks to affect the heart as well. Consequently, whether you're well versed in historical theology or not, you should read this book (meditatively) at least once. You will not regret it.

I found this book to be very useful, but in a rather limited way. While Hall clearly is a master in his field, he falls into the common pitfall of most books of this sort. In a sense this is unavoidable, but then the title should not be taken to mean (or meant to mean) that the book covers all the main themes on a given subject in the fahters. I do not mean the minor opinions of some main fathers either. For example, in his discussion on the human condition, ,Hall fails to represent the Eastern Orthodox tradition in any way. What is represented is the typical Augustine vs. Pelagius dispute with the mediating roman council's declaration on the matter. This misses so much of what the eastern fathers have to say on the matter. Again, this is a great book, but it is not representative of the fathers as a whole. It fails to capture the patristic mind.

I guess my qualm is more with what I expected thebook ot be based upon teh fathers and not with the book as such, but the title should really be something more like "Selected themes from selected fathers". But who, besides geeks like me, would read a book with that title?
Enjoy the read!

This is an excellent overview of the theological approach to Christian doctrine as practiced by the early Church Fathers. While Hall's previous book in the series lacked some degree of practicality, this book is full of useful historical and doctrinal detail in dealing with how the Church explored issues such as the Trinity, the Divine-Human Nature of Christ, and Original Sin and Human Nature. A must for anyone interested in rediscovering the ancient ways of thinking about the Christian Faith. I can't wait for the third in the series dealing with spirituality, prayer, and the sacraments.

I read every pet-loss book I could find when my beloved dog, an 11-year cancer survivor on all natural remedies, died in my arms at the age of 19.
This was one of the very few books that truly spoke to the depth of my pain and provided solace. It gave me a way to be with my grief without plunging me face first into it.

This is Boone's timeless, poetic, and insightful journal, which documents his inner journey while outwardly, he travels and observes the world after the passing of his beloved dog, Strongheart. It left me feeling comforted, introspective, and no longer so alone. A beautiful and wise book, one I have given as a gift to many.

I bought this book many years ago and it has been my very favorite book ever since. I love animals. I believe all sentient life is interrelated and the feeling of love and belonging is the greatest emotion possible. I would like more information about the author. I also have Kinship with All Life.

I read this book when I was in high school, and it changed the way I interact with animals, and my outlook on life. I couldn't find it until I looked for it on Amazon.com. 25 years later, it still inspires me the way it did then. Now I'm excited to share it with everyone I meet. It teaches the unconditional love of animals for the humans who are willing to share their lives with them and learn from them. Everyone should read Letters to Strongheart.

If you love animals, most of all pets this is a must read book as it reveals insight about how to communicate
and understand your pets with respect and love. Boone's timeless book was published in the late 1930's and because of his British background his use of words may seem 'dated' to some readers. I found this to be a wonderful book. I recommend it.

Boone lived - and no doubt still lives - what he believes. He believes what he learned from a receptive and appreciative relationship with a very special dog. Because of reading Boone, I've greatly enhanced my relationships with All Life and it has become easy (most of the time) to love and appreciate life for itself - no matter what shape it comes in. But it is still somewhat difficult to fully love centipedes, for example. Not only are they fast-moving crawly beings whom we cannot keep out, but they are moderately toxic to our cats - all of whom are hunters. So the cats invariably catch the centipedes and get bitten in the act of dispatching them to centipede heaven. Our flies stay out of trouble by staying just out of reach, although a huge moth lost a battle a couple of days ago! I've had communications from many of my animals who have passed out of physical form but who are definitely still alive, as is Strongheart. In my list of Strongheart's (and Boone's) qualities are those that have taught me to hear more clearly what my animal and human friends are sharing with me from the "other" side. My life has been - and is still being - greatly enriched.