T Books

For the first time, I, and you will too, know how to "be" in a relationship. After having tried so hard in different ways in the past, Iam's (the author) way just lead me there in no time, and with ease. The book is thick and I thought that it maybe pack with "fyi, or good to know" but it's nothing like that. I read every single word; this is too unreal.
This book is a gem amongst books teaching about NOW WHAT? After WE said: I LOVE YOU, it teaches "how to be love and loved" not just descriptive information.
I am surprised that more people have not found this book...it is excellent. You could use the concepts of the book to create the relationships of your dreams. I recommend that book to everyone!

When I thought there were not any more sex "techniques" or "tips" about love I could learn from a book, this book just amazed me.
This book literally blew me away with its freshness, compassion,expert solutions and clarity. This is the relationships book I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn'tI had been waiting for a long time. From the first page I could put it down
This book just transformed my relationship and it is never going to be better than after reading it.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2MUJO4VDU1KKJ Just to refresh your memory, a Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry. The Americanized form consists of three lines. The first line contains five syllables; the second line seven syllables; the third line five again.

I hope you enjoy watching this Haiku Review. After writing reviews with hundreds of words, it can be challenging to sum up a book with a mere seventeen syllables.

Brian Douthit
Author Of Perfectly Said: when words become art

This book is full of eroticism, joy, tips about sex and love. This book is a manual comprising great knowledge for a wonderful relationship with your partner and, most fundamentally, with yourself. In the first part, the book offers solutions in the form of techniques, testimonies and advice to help people to grow spiritually and psychologically, and feel loved. It will also help you understand, change and transform the negative feelings you have about yourself and your partner, for the sake of harmony. The second part of the book is dedicated to different very creative sex techniques that can contribute to improve a relationship, be it a new flame or a well-settled relationship.

I really think it is worth your money, and more. This is a book that works. Try putting any of the suggested
techniques into practice... they do work, and wonders at that too. Everything's clearly explained with step by step guidelines. Iam makes you aware of things I'm sure you've never even imagined were relevant. It's a real epiphany, mindblowing. Guaranteed to make you change. And the approach is just so great I was going through a stage in my life when sex had become boring and routine and my relationship was on the rocks. This book is one of the reasons I got myself going again. Simply, it makes you want to try things out, which is something that cannot be said of many of the books of this type.

In just over a hundred pages, Julia Child wrote down everything she thought absolutely essential to cooking the way she taught her viewers to cook over four decades of television experience. From her very first TV dish, boeuf bourgignonne, to authentic French bread, to roast chicken, soufflés, and quiche, to steaks and cakes and french fries and vegetables and even American-style biscuits, the best of a dozen cookbooks and many TV shows appear here in a simple, readily accessible book that provides the basics of French cooking, American-style.

Mastering The Art of French Cooking is epic, From Julia Child's Kitchen is cozy and pleasantly rambling, Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home is reflective and lots of fun in its tag-teaming approach. All of those, and many others, are essential reads for any serious cook, useful for both the quick-and-dirty weeknight cook and the epic gourmand. But when you need the best, written by the best, and you need it now, this barely-larger-than-a-FAQ book should be right at your fingertips.

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking

While this book has many basic techniques and basic recipes, it is essentially a condensed version of the more-comprehensive book by Julia Child: The Way to Cook. If you purchase The Way to Cook, this book will disappoint you in comparison. It's a great cookbook on its own, but an unnecessary purchase if you already own The Way to Cook, since every recipe in Kitchen Wisdom is included in The Way to Cook.

When a cook stops regarding his work as
a process of rote food preparation from basic recipes, and
instead views it as a disciplined craft that transcends
way beyond the kitchen confines, then he/she is ready for
this book and others like it.

I have an enormous cookbook collection, but I still buy more... The title of this book says it all - Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking. It's slim but every page has valuable wisdom from Julia Child - you can almost hear her as you read each page. I have already purchased three additional copies of this cookbook as gifts for my two daughters and my mother. It is totally appropriate for the beginning cook as well as the most experienced.

This instantly became my favorite cookbook and I use it so much that it doesn't spend much time on the shelf. This cookbook transcends the "collection of recipes" style of most cookbooks; its style is more "how to improve your cooking skills."

Even so, some of my very favorite recipes are in this book. All the recipes adaptable and are presented in a way to make your own adaptations easier. For example, I love the braised rice recipe and found it easy to adapt the recipe for brown rice by a few minor adjustments. And this rice is good! Really, every recipe that I have tried is good.

In addition to producing wonderful tasting food, these recipes aren't the type that take hours of elaborate preparation. You can use this book to prepare full, decent meals after work in a reasonable amount of time.

This book is suitable for nearly all levels of cooking skills. It assumes some familiarity with basic cooking techniques, so a first-time cook might need a little help.

T. R. Pearson is probably my favorite author -- I look forward to reading his books and stop by amazon on a regular basis to check for his new works. Augie's Quest was a most interesting read for me for two reasons -- Pearson was the author, and I have been personally touched by ALS (my father and one of my brothers died from the disease). The story of Augie, his journey with ALS, his drive and determination to work towards a cure, to pursue new paths in search of a cure -- is most captivating -- and knowing T. R. put the words to paper assured me that many people would find this book and come away being touched by Augie's story -- for the story itself and for the superb writing. When you finish this book, think about a donation to Augie's foundation, and then come back to amazon and search out Mr. Pearson's other writings -- mostly fiction -- you will be glad you did.

Augie: Thanks for sharing your world past and present! Your book gave me a terrific insight into ALS and your fight for life and significance. You are an inspiration to us all and I came away with a better appreciation for my own life and what is important!

Thanks

Kim Megonigal

I was a little disappointed in Augie's Quest. I saw Shirley McClaine on a talk show and she was so hyped up about the book and about how Augie was so instrumental and amazing in his quest. True, Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) is a horrible and quickly invasive disease, but I was more interested in how Augie dealt with his disease than with the tremendous amount of research and technical aspects of ALS that are given in the book. I was looking for a more personal insight into Augie and his wife, Lynne, in their daily dealings with this disease. However,if you know someone with ALS, you will find this book very informative.

"Perhaps no other disease takes the physical and emotional toll quite like ALS, and I can think of no one who understands this more fully than fitness pioneer Augie Neito. Augie's Quest speaks to us all about life, how we choose to live it, and what can happen -- physically and emotionally -- when the unexpected hits us in the face. But Augie's story is about more than how one man chooses to face adversity, it's a playbook for how to live life on your own terms. Anyone who reads Augie's Quest comes away enriched by the experience."

Dr. Jeffrey Trent
President and Scientific Director, TGen

This is a different read compared with Tuesdays with Morrie. It contains a wonderful mix of narrative and personal testimony. While it tells the story of Augie's life, it is much more focused on what Augie has chosen to do with his life: find a treatment for ALS, and, cut through some of the academic/scientific red-tape that slows the process. As I was reading I kept thinking of a friend in Idaho who said, "I would never trade what I have learned from this disease for anything in the world!" I was especially struck by the quote: "Life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by how many moments take our breath away." Thanks, Augie! Well done!
John Free, Ph.D. (Psychologist)

I've been reading this genre (i.e., paranormal young adult fiction) with a vengeance and am writing reviews for the few that really kept me reading (like this one.) Intriguing with a nice romantic sub-plot.

i absolutly loved this book and it made me have to read the others knowing that legacy of lies was just as good so if ther where others who knows they could be better i cant wait to read the others

Lauren Brandt returns back to Wisteria, a small town where she was born, seven years after her famous mother's mysterious drowning. But Wisteria isn't like what Lauren thought it would be; it's not as peaceful as before. For some reason Aunt Jule, Lauren's godmother, refuse to get help for her mentally unstable daughter, Nora. Holly, Aunt Jule's other daughter, seems to be in charge of everything in their family. Nora seems to be haunted and obsessed with Sondra, Lauren's dead mother, and disturbs Lauren about it.
They said Sondra's death was an accident, but who knows. Soon Lauren begins to be curious about her mother's death and thinks it's not an accident but an, murder.
Dark Secret-Don't Tell is similar to The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes because they are both about mysteries and murders. But except Sherlock Holmes is more of an old book and Dark Secret-Don't Tell is more modern.
I think readers that like mysterious, murders, spooky, and fast-pace books would like this book.
I chose this book for this assignment because my classmate, Ariel, said it was so interesting that she finished in two days and I tend to like interesting and fast pace books.
The best parts in this book would probably be those scene where Lauren asks Nora about some but Nora just replied, "Don't tell, it's a secret." This is an awesome book overall and I would rate it a 10/10.

Lauren comes to Wisteria to live with her godmother, Aunt Jule and Jule's daughters, Holly and Nora. Lauren reunites with Nick, their childhood friend, who seems to want to be more than friends with her but then later on in the book he sides with Holly and Lauren is confused. Nora has been acting very weird towards Lauren and Holly tries to convince Aunt Jule to get her psychiatric help because she is also afraid of water and keeps saying that Sondra, Lauren's mom who had died here 7 years before, is still here. Lauren keeps finding everything in her room tied in knots, just what happened to her mom near the time she died. The news had claimed that her death was just an accident and Aunt Jule had stopped the investigations, but Lauren doesnt believe that, she believes it was murder. She has to find out the truth before she dies too, because the things that happened to Sondra before she died are happening to Lauren as well. Whenever something strange happens or Nora does something unexplainable, and Lauren asks her about it, Nora says "dont tell, its a secret". So to find out what really is going on and if her mom really was murdered, read this book.

Don't Tell is one of the Dark Secrets series that I highly recommend to be read - in fact I also highly suggest that everyone read all the Dark Secrets books. Don't Tell is about a seventeen year old girl name Lauren, who has finally came home to where her mother had died mysteriously seven years ago. While just arriving there, she meets her old friend Nick who flirts and tease with her before realizing that she was his old playmate. When she finally arrives to her Aunt's Jule's house, everyone seems to be very warm and welcoming - everyone that is except Nora. Lauren discovers that she wasn't the only one that finds Nora's behaviour strange, Holly, Nora's sister, does too but Aunt Jule doesn't believe that Nora really needs medical attention and wasn't planning to do anything about. Then unexpectedly Lauren finds things in her room twisted in knots - just like what happened to her mother before she died. Nick at first seems to be nice and acting more than a friend to Lauren, but then all of a sudden turns cold and hating towards her and starts to stick to Holly and take her side. Then Lauren experience many horrifying collisons - which she was told to be only 'accidents'. Was her mother's death really accident just as everyone told her? Someone wants her dead, just as someone had wanted her mother... Lauren better hurry and find the killer before they get her...

I find this book to be very thrilling a moment then strange the next. I read it in two hours or so because I kept wondering about lots of things and so I couldn't put it down. When you read this book everything may seem strange and odd, but at the end it gives you answers to all the questions you have been wondering about. I didn't really understand the whole book till I read the ending. However, I don't suggest you skip to the end till your there, it ruins the value of the book and then you won't find it thrilling any longer. Don't Tell definitely deserves a rating of five stars. In most hte Elizabeth Chandler's books the person you always least expect to be the 'bad guy' always end up being it, I found that many people have written that they don't like it. Well I find it an excellent way of writing, it keeps you wondering and guessing who actually did the crime, and at the end it makes you go oh why haven't you thought of it, and thats partly why I read her books so I don't really know why people are saying they hate it. In reality thats mostly what happens, the person who you mostly suspect ends up to be innocent. If Elizabeth Chandler writes that the person everyone suspect is the bad guy then it won't really surprise me and it won't be that good. I just wanted to clarify that. Other than that I hope everyone reads this book because is worth taking time to read!

I was teaching Huck Finn to my junior class this year, and I tried getting to some of Twain's extra writings so that I'd have a little more background information to offer. This was the gem that I found. I've read plenty of Twain, and I've loved just about all of it, but Eve's Diary, especially, was something that both entertained me and moved me.

It is hilarious. Eve's observations on men are priceless, and her naivete is just so charming. More than that, though, Eve's Diary urges the reader to look at the world with the same innocence and exuberance as Eve does. I know that this little book was Twain's love letter to his deceased wife, but it's also a love letter to human life. This is Twain at his least cynical.

This edition blends the diaries of Adam and Eve together, but they were written separately, and I actually prefer them that way (I much prefer Eve's Diary by itself). I also sort of prefer the original edition's woodcuts, though the engravings in this edition are nice. Those originals are readily available online for free.

However you read it though, don't miss this one. With the exception of Huck Finn, this is the essential Twain read.

I have always wanted to get a copy of this particular work of MT's under one volume. This appears to be it!

It doesnt take comments from people such as myself to speak of the brilliance of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons). His body of work simply speaks for itself. If you are new to Twain's work I would highly reccommend that you try reading this novel first. It is short, entertaining, witty, and beautifully portreyed. This novel is worth absultely every penny you pay for it!

Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice

Short and very sweet. The Diaries present a charming and enlightened view of the relationship between the First Humans. Written late in Twain's life, the Diaries are considered his most personal work. Contain typical Twain wit, iconoclastic thinking and sardonic good will. Adam's later entries are believed to reflect Twain's feelings for his beloved, deceased wife, Livy. Adam and Eve's love for each other and Adam's grief for Eve moved me to tears. Beautifully illustrated.

I truly loved this book and have shared it with many people. Few books are so funny and end with such a good heartwarming message. Not everyone, I have found, thinks it is as funny as I do as their humor obviously needs a little refining. I would highly recommend this to anyone who likes to laugh, has a sharp wit, and likes the Twain type of writing style and charm it posesses.

An absolute necessity for any fiction writer, whether new to writing or used as a refresher. Easy to understand with crucial points listed at the end of each chapter. Discusses the pros and cons of using mystery and suspense elements, pacing, prologues, creating a hook and completing the cycle of hints, red herrings and resolution. This would be a perfect book for a writing class. After manuscript completion, every writer should revisit this book to evaluate their project before submitting to agents or publishers. There are many books on how to write mystery or suspense, but this is by far my favorite. Well Done!

This edition covers just about everything to do with the craft of writing. Serious and succinct, it covers all stages of the craft and offers valuable insight.

Recently published in 2006, this how-to book of "24 Fiction Writing Techniques to Save Your Manuscript" has already garnered 26 reviews, all of them top-rated with five-star! As the reviews all agree, fiction writers of any disposition or genre will find this book beneficial and delightful! The suggestions are exactly right for improving fiction manuscripts, the examples clear and valuable, the author's tone amusing, the book's presentation entertaining! Without qualification, I recommend this book to fiction writers--be they literary, mainstream, or genre writers.

DON'T MURDER YOUR MYSTERY is a remarkable book. Not only is it a boon to mystery writers, but also it has excellent examples, techniques and tips for authors of all genres. I plan on gifting this book to friends and all authors who write for Dog-Eared Publications. Nancy Field, Publisher

This book is a terrific primer for first-time or relatively new writers -- and not just writers of mysteries, but all fiction and even non-fiction. The examples of poor choices and better alternatives that Chris Roerden chooses are clear and relevant. My only nit to pick is the negative construction of the book: with some background in teaching, my preference is always to suggest the right thing to do first, rather than to point out what not to do or how not to do something. A valuable addition to the library of anyone who wants to become a better writer, editor, or reviewer.

This is a very interesting book that proves life is more interesting than fiction. The improbablity of searching for those notebooks....
I like the calm approach that Mr. Hansen took to the most unpredictable of circumstances he was in.
If you need a prod to get up and go on that trip you have been dreaming about for years, let this book fuel the fire.

I have read many books that fall within the "travel literature" genre; Motoring With Mohammed is hands down my favorite. I rarely read books twice, but I read this book once every few years and never tire of the way Eric Hansen describes his experiences in Yemen during his quest to recover his lost journals. His eclectic combination of anecdotes are simple but beautifully written. Upon reading this book, you are left with the essence of Yemen, her people, and Mr. Hansen himself. A warning: If you lend this book to a friend, you will never get it back. I am on my seventh or eighth replacement copy!

This is a fascinating (and educational!) travelogue about the geography, environs, people, culture and customs from a part of the world that too few people are familiar with. In an odd coincidence - while I was reading this book - a veritable storm-in-a-teacup whipped up, as US DEA cracked down on qaat (khat) chewing across the country.

"Khat ... also known as qat, gat, chat, and miraa ... is a flowering plant native to tropical East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula... Khat contains the alkaloid cathinone, an amphetamine-like stimulant which causes excitement and euphoria... Traditionally, khat has been used as a socializing drug, and this is still very much the case in Yemen where khat-chewing is predominantly, although not exclusively, a male habit... Khat consumption induces mild euphoria and excitement. Individuals become very talkative under the influence of the drug and may appear to be unrealistic and emotionally unstable. Khat can induce manic behaviors and hyperactivity... A recent British study found khat to be much less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol." - from Wikipedia

Peripatetic scribblers wander to such obvious destinations as Italy, France, Greece, China, India, Australia, the Amazon, or Alaska, then write a book to tell the rest of us vegetables all about it. Here in MOTORING WITH MOHAMMED, accomplished travel writer Eric Hansen immerses the reader in North Yemen. (Where, you say?) North Yemen squatted next to the Red Sea just to the south of southwest Saudi Arabia, and joined with South Yemen in 1990 to become the Republic of Yemen.

Hansen's narrative is served up in two parts. Well, three, actually. The first takes place in 1978 when, after a 7-year period of wandering in other backwaters, the author is shipwrecked in the yacht "Clea", on which he was part of a five-person crew, on the uninhabited North Yemen island of Uqban. The first four chapters describe this experience, during which, for safekeeping, he buried on the island the wrapped journals of his previous adventures. The trouble is, he forgot to take them along when he and his companions were eventually rescued after fourteen days.

The book's second part - thirteen chapters - takes place during a ten-week period a decade later when Hansen returns to North Yemen to retrieve his cached journals. Unbeknownst to him, however, is that Uqban Island lay in a security zone virtually inaccessible to foreigners. This fact becomes frustratingly clear as he unsuccessfully conspires with local help to cross the twenty miles of water separating the mainland from the island. Meanwhile, he cools his heels exploring, and falling in love with, much of the rest of the country. It's this developing love affair with North Yemen that's the basis for most of MOTORING WITH MOHAMMED.

Whether he's tiptoeing across a precarious slope in the interior mountains, or witnessing the execution of a murderer, or participating in a communal qat chew, or sweating in a bathhouse, or feasting on stewed sheep's heads, Eric has a talent for observing the details that enrich the subsequent tale:

"There is a trick to cracking open the skulls. You place the thumb of one hand in an eye socket (with the eyeball still intact), and span the skull and grip the roof of the mouth with the fingers. The other hand grasps the lower jaw. A sharp twisting motion is accompanied by a sickening snap and a popping sound. When done properly, the slippery skull and jawbone come away in two pieces. Then you prise open the cranium." (Happily, this passage refers to the feast, not the execution.)

As the eighteenth and last chapter reveals, the author made the fortuitous acquaintance of the Yemeni ambassador to the United States at a Washington, D.C. photo exhibit of his nation's architecture eight months after the former returned to America sans journals. In the Middle East especially, it's all about whom you know. Thus, five months after that, Eric, shovel in hand, is sloshing through the Yemeni surf to a "fishing boat that smelled of rancid shark oil and pureed dates", which, Allah willing, can convey him and an agent of the National Security Police across the sea to Uqban. Truly, as the title of this chapter implies, "It was written."

I shall most certainly never make it to Yemen. Yes, researching "San'a", the capital of Yemen, on the Web does almost compel me to visit on a whim. But, being married, my own happy-go-lucky journeying days are over. Besides, Yemen seems at times to be, um, a bit too raw. But, through Hansen's eyes and wonderfully evocative prose, I'm taken there in fine style, and that's what a five-star travel essay is all about.

It is truly a gifted writer who sets you down in a strange and foreign land such that the boundry between the narrative and your personal grasp of the story is effectively blurred. Eric Hansen is such a writer.

Hansen is pursuing the grail of his buried notebooks in a off-limits military zone on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. His story, and it is a great one, is about the cultural adventures he experiences in his hope to retrieve a lost part of himself, the journals he had buried 10 years previously.

"So intent was I on uncovering the traces of my past that no object or thought seemed too insignificant. Even the litter spoke to me that first morning. I wandered aimlessly, searching for deeper meanings."

His depictions of Yemeni culture are riveting & compelling, a culture that is still holding on to its ancient orientations. Hansen becomes captivated by the Yemeni people & their customs. His search for the buried notebooks moves to the background as his visa is extended and he settles into the daily round of an ancient way of life.

"That morning, for the first time, I was willing to admit that the search was not going well, and that maybe it wasn't important anymore. Accepting this fact, I caught a glimpse of my own fate. Regardless of what the notebooks contained, it was clearly my need to wander to remote places and lose myself in strange situations that had drawn me back to Yemen . . ."

Narrative entertainment doesn't get any better than this - most highly recommended.

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

For someone who is interested in religion and who is taking his/her Kabbalah studies one step beyond the book is delightful. It includes around five different versions of the Sefer Yetzirah and it comments you the reading fragment by fragment, therefore providing you a full understanding of the whole text and also a detailed, useful, and interesting explanation of Kabbalah as a whole, even providing you with spiritual exercises or a way to practice what the text says

Most impressive representation. While the subject is deep and extremely thought provoking, the writer has made every attempt to explain the subject in explicit detail.

I especially appreciated the use of root words in Hebrew to further clarify definitions. As well as the explanation of pronunciation of Hebrew terms, as in where to place the tongue to make the correct sound.

I would like for there to have been more direct instructions for meditation.

photoartist4u

I am not Jewish, nor am I an expert on Kabbalistic text, but I know a precious gem when I find one. As others have said here, this is NOT for the beginning student of Kabbalah. I really enjoyed how Aryeh Kaplan included the Hebrew text, along with a translation, then followed by extensive interpretations of each line. It is an intense read--really enjoyed the section on the 231 gates (ironically, I nearly flunked geometry in high school).

If you are truly ready for more intense study of Kabbalah, then this translation of the Sefer Yetzirah may be exactly what you are looking for.

Rabbi Kaplan does a wonderful job (as he does in all of his works) of explaining the primary text says and of opening the way for further study (through his copious footnotes).

The diagrams are extremely helpful, as are the recommendations concerning the "practical" use of Sefer Yetzirah.

However, even for those grounded in Jewish studies (as a spiritual path, not as an academic field), this work is NOT recommended as a "first step" in the esoteric. Try Rabbi Kaplan's "Innerspace."

One copy is at my bedside. One copy is in my study scrawled with notes, quotes and notations! I found the second copy at a bookstore bargain table! I didn't even blink, it was bought by me. I knew a second copy would give me one to share. This book is what Kabbalah is. An amazing book. Simply, amazing.

It took me a long time to get through it but I found it was worth the effort. In my business, it's important to keep abreast of what's happening globally and Haley came through. Very insightful.

This is a serious book with some counter-intuitive conclusions. Logical, easy to read and based on a solid theoretical foundation - I recommend "chinese tao" heartily. At a minimum it will force you to think -- at its best it should bring about a serious retructuring of what it means for us to do business in China, and vice versa.

So you are doing business in China and are spinning your wheels. You've read the culture and etiquette books and the ones on market potential. STOP! Read no further until you read the Chinese Tao. This unassuming (though not little) book packs a punch. If you want to make money in China as a private business, everything is conspiring you -- history, culture, laws and managers -- and mastering them, or atleast anticipating the punches, is key to success in China. A thoroughly enjoyable book, and Usha and George display wry humor through the sometimes weighty material. Recommended reading!

I found this book very well-written, full of anecdotes and personal nuggets as well as statistical backing. In sum, it explained for me the contradictions, opportunities and pitfalls behind the "China miracle". I have read several books on China and I recommend this one over the rest.

A book of this kind is very difficult to write, as the authors chose to incorporate history, culture, modern business practices and the law (among other things!) to explain business success and failure in China. However, depsite their tall task, they did a good job. I especially liked the historical and political grounding combined with really fabulous personal interviews with CEOs. Some of the stories were fun (the golf story with Li Ka-Shing) and some were insightful (Pan Shi Yi's rise). I found the chapter on legal affairs in China useful but heavy going. However, regulatory risk is a big component of operating in China (just ask all those companies that have lost their patents there) and there is probably no "fun" way of communicating this. The authors' insights and recommendations were very useful.

This book should be read carefully and digested. I certainly do not advocate an overnight read (300+ pages!) but some chapters must absolutely be read before foriegners go to China -- and I think before the Chinese go abroad. George and Usha Haley have cut behind the hyperbole to reveal some very disturbing truths about this super power and the global business environment which it has changed for ever. More importantly, they have given us some ammunition to help us to control our destinies in this brave new world. A must read!

I found some information useful and interesting. However, what was disappointing was the stilted writing of the authors. I often got the impression that they were too repetitive and presented the work as if it were an instructional manual. Also, there was the feeling that the book was edited in a cut and paste format. Overall, there were interesting anecdotes, but this book will never be a THE reference for foreigners trying establish businesses in China.

This is a very insightful journey of transition from a person who planned everything down to the last detail into a person who learned that just showing up is more important.

John Crewdson
www.camptaichi.com

I loved this book. I bought it as an aid for designing training, but it's really a manifesto for living. It is indeed full of wisdom - read it, enjoy it and use it. And just show up.

I devoured Improv Wisdom the first time through, recognizing immediately the value on each page. Then I gave a copy to each of my adult children and to two of my best friends. And now I keep the book by my bed so that every morning I can open to a page at random and make the message on that page be my focus for the day.

It's amazing what small shifts have resulted from this practice. After two months these small shifts in attitude and behavior have led to some major positive changes in my life. Life is happening NOW; Madsen's maxims give you a way to milk each moment as it unfolds.

I just finished reading Improv Wisdom this morning and was ready to start again. Patricia's ideas are immediately useful and applicable to everyday life. Writing this review is proof, as I'm not typically prone to do so.

How many self-help books have you read that leave you shaking your head saying - well, that was 3-4 hours of my life that I can't get back? (I have read many!) You won't find yourself saying that with this book. Patricia Ryan Madson offers up 13 strategies on how to lead an inspired and satisfying life by facing challenges in an unscripted manner. The book is beautifully written. It is filled with anecdotes and helpful techniques that will enhance your everyday life. Where was Ms. Madson when I needed her in college?

1) Say Yes
2) Don't Prepare
3) Just Show Up
4) Start Anywhere
5) Be Average
6) Pay Attention
7) Face the Facts
8) Stay on Course
9) Wake up to the Gifts
10) Make Mistakes, Please
11) Act Now
12) Take Care of Each Other
13) Enjoy the Ride