Research Books

I have read many many books pertaining to astronomy and cosmology over the years, but until this book, I had never read anything written by Carl Sagan. What interested me enough to purchase this book was not only the topic it covered, but that the book was itself written by Carl Sagan.

I best remember Carl Sagan from those TV specials he narrated that were aired on public TV many years ago. I was always impressed with Mr. Sagan's knowledge and manner of presentation of the material. His enthusiasm to tell what he knew about the cosmos was never masked by a scripted TV presentation; his enthusiasm was very infectious. So recently, I thought I had to rectify my having never read a book written by Mr. Sagan and I purchased the book Cosmos. I was not disappointed; I felt as if I was watching one of those old TV specials narrated by Mr. Sagan. In my mind's eye, I could see everything I was reading and I did not want the book to end.

Despite that the book may be dated, and cosmology has moved on a bit since the publishing of this book, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics and even history. I only wish Mr. Sagan was still alive to write something new. He is missed by me.

The best advice I can give, regarding this book, is to GIVE it to a young person interested in science or space. You will plant a seed that will grow forever. Sagan's masterpiece takes the mind on a wonderful journey through the stars as well as through other space centered events. Highest recommendation as a text for learning as well as a fine read for anyone interested in the subject.

Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" was my first book on astrophysics and was very instrumental in my growing love of Cosmology and all things Space. He is a great writer, a bit out there sometimes but like any great science writer, he makes the material accessable to the general public in a way that is thought-provoking and educational.

Imagine you are a wanderer, like our forebears, you gaze up at night, finding a spectacular image then tell you offspring what you've seen, you name these constellations, like telling a story. Millions years later, our species created enough fairytales, then science comes, evolves, battles, advances, imagine you are a reporter, and you need to write down all these. Not just the outcome.
That's how cosmos comes to be what it is now, but unfortunately, most of us just know the outcome, like Earth is a planet orbiting the Sun, a star. Carl Sagan did the rest of the jobs brilliantly in Cosmos. When reading this book, you will forget it's science but a story book as if you are surfing in the wave of history from the very beginning of everything.
unlike other science book, Cosmos not just tell us what when and how, but why, why it's so important for our species and survival. The book is full of knowledge, wisdom and a sense of responsibility as one inhabitant on Earth.
Everyone on Earth should read this book

You are doing yourself a disservice if you have never exposed yourself to the work of Carl Sagan. After reading this book I immediately checked out and fell in love with the television show as well. Even though Cosmos is nearly 30 years old now, Sagan's remarkable sense of awe speaks just as clearly now as I'm sure it did then. A quote on the back of the book says "Cosmos is like the college course in science you always wanted to take but never knew a professor teach" and I couldn't agree more. It's a great crime that no science class I ever took in school, college included, ever took the liberty of exploring the Cosmos in the way Sagan does effortlessly. If you have ever looked at the stars and wondered, this book is for you.

Grossman takes you deep into the many fears, hesitations and simply the unknowns that are faced by many that serve within the military and law enforcement. His studies are simply to understand and the many examples make the read hit home that much better. I would consider this a must read for anyone already serving or intending on serving in either the military or law enforcement field.

Order was quick and very painless. It was at my door step as promised. great service

This is a must read for anyone in law enforcement. It will inspire you to continue on in your chosen proffession. It explains the psychological and physiological impact of stress that is encountered throughout law enforcement. It provides ways to train which can increase your performance under the most extreme stress. Amazing and enlightening. It also includes how media influences children and is leading to an increase in violence in society. The media is not the only reason youth violence is increasing but it is probably the most controllable.

This book was recommended to me after an incident that required me to pull my weapon on a couple of people. I had a physical reaction that surprised me, and more to the point scared me. I ordered a copy of On Combat ASAP and began to read it. Frankly, it has helped me quite a bit.

Combat isn't something that most of us engage in on a daily basis. For those of us who are not in the military (or like me, not anymore) or in law enforcement, the odds of us getting into an altercation like this is rare. However, it does happen. There are a great many things that happen that are natural physical reactions that can cause distress to someone. Understanding these reactions, in particular the how and why they happen, can eliminate that particular stressor at a time when you don't need to worry about anything else.

Not only that, but On Combat tells how to deal with the aftermath of a fight, something that is all to often overlooked. This is something that happened naturally ages ago, but now is often overlooked completely. Understanding this has helped me develope a plan should I ever be involved in another incident. Most people will blame themselves for whatever happened, and having a plan in place will help a lot.

The only downside I saw to the book was Grossman's dogmatic feelings about children and video games, but this is really something that can be overlooked. It's not that I necessarily disagree with his take on video games contributing to kids becomeing desensitized to killing, it's just that I think parenting is much more important to prevent things like this.

In short, this book should be required reading by anyone who may find themselves in a fight. You need to know these things beforehand, so order this now and read it before you need the information contained within. It'll help. Trust me.

Absolutely one of the finest works on current human history both past and present. Mostly read by Cops and Military persons but a great read for everyone interested in the human race period!

The two stories paralleling one another in Flashback are that of Jack Koryan and Rene Ballard, both of whom are somehow connected to Memorine, a "miracle" drug that reverses the effects of Alzheimer's. Jack's connection to the drug and its effects is purely accidental -- after being surviving a jellyfish attack and ensuing coma, he begins experiencing bizarre, frightening flashbacks.

Rene Ballard is a pharmacist who finds herself involved with Memorine, which is on the fast track for FDA approval, during its trial phase. Though it does seem like a miracle drug at first, one of the elderly trial participants ends up committing murder. Soon we learn that the miracle of memory restoration comes at a price: The minds of the trial participants get caught in loops that replay traumatic events from their lives over and over.

As Jack and Rene search separately for answers, their stories eventually converge. Braver does an excellent job of paralleling the two characters, even though Jack is in a coma for much of the book. Although chapters alternate between different characters, Braver doesn't rely on cheap cliffhangers (a la Dan Brown or James Patterson) to keep the reader engaged. He also effectively balances the suspense aspect of Flashback with the larger ethical issues involving Memorine, the pharmaceutical industry, and greed.

Braver has written a thoroughly enjoyable thriller in Flashback. This is the first book of his that I have read and I will definitely be checking out his others. The story evolves around an ethical dilemma faced by a drug company. The company's decisions are certainly not surprising and definitely to be expected. One wonders almost every day whether decisions like this are made by the big drug companies in the world. I think they are. Very interesting storyline to involve alzheimer's a disease which surely we are all afraid of suffering.

Braver joins Lincoln Child, Douglas Preston, Greg Iles, James Rollins, Michael Palmer and others on my list of favourite thriller writers.

What distinguishes a Gary Braver book from the majority of other thrillers is that they are smart, very well-written, filled with fascinating details and fully fleshed-out characters. In the tradition of the best that thriller stories have to offer, Braver's characters are real people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. The real kicker is that Braver's books have something vitally important to say about the very foundations of what makes us all human, and they make a thoroughly entertaining study of the human condition. His books are thinking-person thrillers. In fact, they elevate the genre of "thriller" to a literary level. Flashback is no different, and might be his best yet. Flashback, like his other books, would make an ideal motion picture.

You would expect, after writing such intricate thrillers as Gray Matter and Elixir, that he would run out of steam at some point... yet Braver manages to splash a huge bucket of water on the coals with his newest masterpiece!

What would you do--what would ANYONE do--to save your memories? Without them, life isn't very worth living, and people take that straight to heart in this extraordinary tale. The story begins as Jack Koryan is looking out to sea, pondering his life and his past. But when a school of jellyfish overtake the rock he's perched on, he has to make a decision: wait for the tide to rise, or make the plunge on his own terms. Either way, his swim to shore is going to be a long one.

As Jack lays in the hospital, lost in a coma, Rene Ballard has some problems of her own. She monitors patient medication records for a number of local nursing homes, and one of her Alzheimer's patients has just managed to escape and murder an innocent store manager. As she tries to unlock the mysteries surrounding the incident, she unearths hidden secrets within the very heart of the company she works for.

My heart didn't stop pounding the entire time I was reading Flashback. In some ways, I wish I had Alzheimer's so I could forget the book and experience it for the first time over and over... then again, I think I'll stay away from that "experimental treatment" if it's all the same to you.

Braver is a masterful storyteller, who manages to chill your blood book after book. What does he have in store for us next? Only God knows... and He's already scared out of His mind.

Flashback is a spellbinding medical suspense page turner.Besides being chilling entertainment,it raises some of the most important ethical questions of the 21st century.

This book contains very comprehensive explanations and descriptions with practical examples which are sometimes not so familiar with me (I'm a physician.). overall, this is an excellent book and I regret not being able to meet such a book in a way more focussing on medical fields. But this has a critical shortcoming in book-binding. you should not read this book so many times to keep the original shape. that's a reason why I gave 4 stars.

When I study my MBA classes, this book helps me a lot. The book provides essential review of all Statistic knowledge in the beginning of each chaper, and then lead readers use SPSS step by step.
Especially the practical examples and funny illustration, I will say the book is the only one interesting and powerful Statistic book I can find. I highly recommand it for readers work for Marketing, Medical , Engineering , Finance, and MBA classes. The book can lead you to resolve many "real" problems.

The book is excellent in all ways: easy to read, fun to read, easy to understand.

No one likes statistics.... well some do, but it's a necessary evil of the program I'm in. As much as I dislike stats, this book made the computer portion of it much easier to understand and left me feeling better about my abilities in the subject.The Power of Inner Guidance: Seven Steps to Tune In and Turn On

I love this book. It covers everything from the most basic t-tests and ANOVAs to factor analysis. It tells you the basics of what the test is meant to do, what sort of data is appropriate for it and it tells you how to actually run and read the test in SPSS.

It isn't the best book for someone who wants a detailed explaination of how to calculate a statistical test by hand and it doesn't give extensive detail on the assummptions required for each test. Nonetheless, it's a great quick reference book, particularly if you've already had a statistics course and you just need a refresher. Graduate students will find it useful.

How valuable is Bill White's famous "From Day One" book? And does it really help Top performing students?

I am finishing my master's degree at Stanford University in Management Science & Engineering. Having many doors open can sometimes turn into a nightmare: "Which opportunity to pick?", "Based on what criteria?", and all the "What if?" scenarios one can imagine, pile up one after the other.

If you are looking for a book that will give you accurate and precious advice on how to make the best start with your career, I think "From Day One" is definitely a must read. Here is why:

*It will help you avoid the "if I only knew" situations
*It will give you a good understanding on where you stand with your career
*It will teach you tips that will make you stand out

Not often does one feel more mature after reading a book.
Given that your coworkers are as smart as you; these are the 3 points on which you can count on that will make a genuine difference in your professional career!

Jack Ojalvo

As a former student of Bill White, one of the most respected professors at Northwestern University, I have experienced firsthand how his wisdom and insight can benefit others. As a result, I am happy to see that now even those outside his classroom can also gain from his experiences. From Day One gives practical advice, complete with real life examples from both himself and numerous other business leaders, which is bound to resonate with you for the rest of your career.

I highly recommend this book for everyone from a recent college graduate to a rising manager. Once you read it, From Day One will be one of your books with a coveted spot on your office bookshelf.

As a 30+ year-old career switcher and MBA graduate, From Day One resonated profoundly with me. While reading this book, I found myself nodding in agreement with much of his advice. I can only imagine how much better off I would be today if I had read this when I was 20.

Mr. White successfully articulates the key steps for building and maintaining a business career. Whether you are just starting a new career or are in the midst of improving your current one, this book provides invaluable advice on understanding where you should channel your efforts as well as the pitfalls to avoid. Using examples from his own personal experiences and those of others, Mr. White offers a sincere approach for the new general manager who aspires to know what skills are necessary to be both successful and happy.

From Day One is a great read for those who are looking to learn the ropes of corporate life from a seasoned professional. I was a student of Prof. White at Northwestern. The tone of the book reads very much as he teaches his class: instructive, personable and populated with fascinating antidotes from his experiences.

The most important thing I learned from the book is to do as much for others as you can and build out your personal network. In the beginning stages of your career you will have much to learn and not much to offer. However, by spending the extra time to make the lives of those around you easier, you will be noticed and appreciated. The hard work that you do up front will pay dividends down the road.

Highly recommended!

Outstanding advice for anyone building a career! Forget abstract leadership philosophy - Mr. White provides concrete, tangible means to assert yourself as a leader from day one. I recommend this book to people at any stage in their careers as its concepts are universal. Buy the book - your career will thank you!

Clearly this book provides the basics on writing letters of complaint. Most of it is just common sense (not so common these days). If you treat business people the way you would want them to treat you, it usually works out in the end. I didn't find much new in it. The contact addresses are helpful, but then most of them can be found on the net.. and more current

Very insightful and useful. I have used some of her template letters for airline complaints. In the past, I used her writings for a labor complaint and got $18,000 from my former employer.

I wish this book was available in downloadable electronic form which will make it more useful in practice by cutting and pasting.

I have the book for several years and its contents have saved me time and money over and over again. It is rich in samples of real letters and complaints, with real cases.
I recommend to anyone that ever needs to write a complaint letter and/or need to reach government agencies.

Anyone who has made enough transactions with Amazon.com can tell you, Amazon.com has its share of foul-ups. And when mistakes (that are bound to happen from time-to-time) do happen, the biggest errors occur in their customer service department. For me, I know that I have written e-mail after e-mail complaining about RUDE, ERRONEOUS and downright FRAUDULENT communication emanating from the unskilled and unsupervised excuse for a customer service department only to have other unskilled, unsupervised hacks respond. I kept explaining that I was not seeking compensation, I was trying to complain about Amazon.com's customer service, but Amazon.com either doesn't care or doesn't have a mechanism to care. My e-mails which always started, please forward this to so-and-so's supervisor never were. I can't wait for the follow-up to this book. "How To Write Letters Of Complaint to OUTSOURCED INDIANS WHO DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THE AMERICAN CONSUMER WANTS TO BE TREATED!!"

This book was my favorite (as written by a homeschool mom) to describe the Charlotte Mason philosophy and how one can use it in a practical way to teach their own children at home.

It is not only easy to read but a charming book. I have passed it on to my oldest child, who has begun homeschooling her daughter and son.

A book that makes the ideal childhood including education feasible and practical to implement. It shows that education does not have to take place in a chair and behind a desk. It shows that learning takes place all the time and the most important lessons are taught outside of textbooks.

This book gave me more inspiration, enthusiasm and direction for homeschooling than I ever expected to have with my oldest child still just two years old. Written by Karen Andreola, an intelligent, well-written and passionate mother who has homeschooled three children Charlotte Mason-style, the thrust of the book is not how to mold intellectually superior children (though that may be a natural result :) but rather how to nurture their natural curiosities and cultivate in them a love of learning. Reading "whole" or "living" books is foundational to this method, that is, books written by authors who have a personal passion for the subject, an enthusiasm that the reader may catch. Charlotte Mason is critical of most textbooks as they are over-stuffed with information compiled by committees aiming to meet generalized standards of what a child should learn in a particular grade. Charlotte felt that to know about something was not the same as knowing it personally. "Children are educated by their intimacies," was an oft-repeated theme which Charlotte was convinced of. A necessary partner to the reading of whole books is the "narration" of them, when a child is asked to re-tell what they have learned in their own words. Naturally the child will begin to incorporate the words of their authors into their own vocabularies. As they get older, they may narrate in both written and oral forms. In a child's early years (the first 6), no formal schooling is recommended but rather abundant play and exploration in nature, that they might experience the world through the five senses, as well as songs and books and practice at helpfulness in the home. Most importantly, Charlotte Mason recognizes Christ in her theories, placing spiritual formation as central to the child's education "...because knowledge without virtue is nothing to God."
A perfect compliment to this book in its emphasis on spiritual formation in the home: "Family Driven Faith," by Voddie Baucher.

If you've read the Charlotte Mason 6 volume set, there is no need for this companion book. My hope in reading this book was to get a modernized take on Miss Mason's educational theories. I was sadly disappointed. I find this book to be just about as victorian as the original. I do believe that the CM method will work in today's homeschools, but let's be honest, my children (and my home for that matter) look nothing like the rosy picture painted by Karen Andreola. I was hoping this book would break down the meat of CM's philosophy into what works for the modern home. I guess I'll have to do that myself.

I first must start of by saying that I am not a Christian, but I do find bits of wisdom and truth in a combination of different world spritual and religious beliefs. I very much enjoy and relate to the ideas espoused by Charlotte Mason, Edith Schaeffer, and Susan Schaeffer Macauly on education and family. That being said, I find Karen Andreola's book beautiful to read, but a bit... surrounded in a bubble (naive), and less worldy in tone in comparison to the other authors mentioned above. Even the Victorian illustrations within the text, although giving a sense of tranquility, paint a picture of family life as mostly seen through rose colored lenses, and imply a very homogeneous idea of humankind. Some of the judgments laced throughout may be a bit of a turn-off to non-Christian readers, but if you are able to dismiss them, or interpret them in another light, this book may work for you. It is not the best homeschooling book that I have read, that would be, "Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery", by David H. Albert, but it is an inspiring look at a way of home life that many people aspire to.

In this uniquely informative volume, Barletta answers three separate but related questions: What makes women a worthwhile market? Why market differently to women? and How do we get beyond gender generalities to actionable tactics? In her Introduction, she lists "Eight Myths of Marketing to Women" which, during the course of her book's narrative, she convincingly repudiates. For example, #5: With women, marketing is all about relationships. "While it's true that women put more emphasis on relationships -- personal and corporate -- than men do, their purchase decisions and response to communications are affected by far more than `relationships.' From word meaning to word-of-mouth referrals, product priorities to Internet usage patterns, women differ from men in many, many marketing dimensions. And, to overlook their complexities would be to undermine the effectiveness of your company's programs." According to Barletta, there are four components of the women's market: earning power ("What's in her wallet?"), high-net worth women ("the ultimate asset-holders"), consumer spending power (the "household chief purchasing officer"), and women in business ("controlling the company checkbook").

A majority of consumers in the U.S. are women. Research indicates that online spending will increase 26% this year to $96 billion. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy and women influence 95% and make 85% of all consumer buying decisions; moreover, the majority of corporate purchasing agents and managers are women. Female entrepreneurs account for 70% of new business start-ups. If you are still unconvinced of the upside potential of marketing to women, consider these facts:

* Between 1970 and 1990, the number of women living alone doubled from 7.3 million to 15.3 million and this pattern has continued.

* At least 55% of those online each day are women.

* By the year 2010, women will control 60% of wealth in the U.S.

* College students were responsible for $210 billion in sales in 2002 and 58% of them were female.

* Women purchase more than 50% of the cars and own more than 46% of the homes in the U.S.

* More than half of all business travelers are women.

In Part II of her book, Barletta introduces and then explains what she calls the GenderTrends™Marketing Model, a systematic and simple tool to help her readers understand, reach, and increase their share of the world's largest market -- women. The model is designed to achieve three objectives:

1. "Structure the complexities of the gender differences into an organized view of female [in italics] gender culture."

2. "Show you how gender culture interacts with each of the 12 [in italics] marketing elements [end italics] in the marketing mix."

3. "Apply the resulting insights to the four stages of the consumer's [in italics] purchase path." FYI, the four are activation through market entry, nomination of purchase options to consider, investigation and decision with regard to nominees, and finally, succession (i.e. repeat business and, hopefully, evangelistic loyalty).

Few books fully deliver on the promises stated or implied in their subtitle. Barletta's book is the commendable exception. She offers a wealth of information and an abundance of wisdom which will help decision-makers in literally any organization (regardless of size or nature) to understand, reach, and increase their share of "the world's largest market segment." This book provides just about everything you need to do precisely that. What are you waiting for?

This book could change the way you think about marketing.For some reason when i think marketing i think men, not any more. This book has some valuable insights into who spends the cash and what on, and most importantly how to get your hands on some of that money.

The book was somewhat useful, but her unprofessional pinching, whenever she could fit it in, littering her otherwise helpful work with jabs against males, left me nauseated after every reading.

Following are just a few examples:

page 23 "You realize what this means--rather than women being "Adam's rib," men are actually the derivative model!"

page 26 "Men have no such luck (or no such constraint, depending on how you look at it)..."

page 63 "Married women have a chronic condition (if you'll excuse the analogy)"

page 122 "[Women] don't buy into the competitive "game" that prevails when men are expressing divergent opinions, and because women are less likely to interrupt, hold the floor, or insist on their opinions, they simply won't volunteer as much information."

page 135 "Although I'm sure it's not true in every category, I think it's safe to say that in most categories, women are more pragmatic than men. With less interest in the one-upsmanship of novelty, less interest in the inner workings of tech-mech products, and more time pressures than men, women just want products to work easily and reliably."

page 185 "After the meeting, she said to him, 'I was interested to note that you're meeting and greeting--just not with any of the women.' His response? 'Oh, were there women there?' She laughed and said, 'Sure there were. There were 15 or 20 of them.' Apparently, something in his internal software was registering the women in the room as 'background noise.'"

page 199 "Women are marksmen, not cowboys." (women are markspeople, if anything; not marksmen; but how is that a comparison anyway? marksmen and cowboys, marksmen and cowboys.)

page 193 "A guy will talk about how good he is as a way of proving he can do a great job: 'Half of my clients are worth over a million dollars,' he'll say. Or, 'I doubled his return in six months.' They talk about achievements, drop names, and let you know where they stand in the company hierarchy. I call these 'credibility displays,' because they remind me a little of a peacock who's very proud of his tail feathers. Don't get me wrong--this is the right thing to do in male gender culture." (please tell me I'm the only man who finds this patronizing)

Do read the book though, if you can stomach all the carp. It will prove enlightening every few dozen pages.

As a consumer group, women represent an enormous opportunity, but chances are your company is missing out on them. Author Martha Barletta says most marketers fail to capitalize on this lucrative market. They don't realize its potential or understand fundamental gender differences. As a result, their marketing fails to communicate with women, let alone persuade them. Barletta, a consultant specializing in marketing to women consumers, offers a book heavy on theory and long on detail. Except for a few examples of how ads are executed, the book lacks case studies that would bring these theories to life. Still, Barletta provides good advice on practical applications of these ideas about gender culture. She sheds light on the myths and realities of marketing to women, and provides essays by female experts in the field. What a pity that it all reads like a textbook. Given that, we target this rather educational tome as more appropriate for people who study marketing than for people who do marketing, although thoughtful marketers might still want to take a look

First off, I'm a guy. I found this book had a lot of information that I never knew before. I asked a few women I knew and was suprised that their responses were identical to the information in the book. For example what they liked to see in advertisements and what they said their aspirations were, were identical to what was said in the book. Some of it made no sense to me but it made perfect sense to the women I asked.

I have to say I'm disappointed with the minor male bashing in the book. Some of her male point of views are a bit extreme, for example: "Men, on the other hand, are more likely to hold the view that people are important, but no more important or interesting than current events or new ideas in computer animation, or something more material like cars or cameras." I value my relationships and found this a bit extreme. Do all women think this?

I took off one star for her point of view on men, but other than that this is a good book. If you are marketing to women, this book will give you insight on the subject.

Presenting to Win is a terrific book. I got a clear, structured, sensible system to create presentations that will skyrocket the level of mine. I will keep this handy every time. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Jerry.

I have read through numerous books with similar titles on the topic and this one was by far and away the best. He does a great job at organizing his arguments into a logical and intuitive flow. The result is an easy to read and motivational book that will definitely help you tell a story.

In fundraising, the basic exercise is called "making your case." Which is, you make an argument that persuades prospective donors to invest their philanthropic dollars in your particular mission or vision -- you hope. True, Jerry Weissman's book is intended for a traditional business audience; he learned his secrets coaching companies like Yahoo prepare for their IPOs. But don't be fooled by his for-profit credentials: this book is all about making your case effectively. And fundraisers desperately need to know the stuff that Jerry Weissman reveals here: how to tell your story so compellingly that buy-in is virtually guaranteed. If you're a fundraiser entering a capital campaign, save yourself the false starts: buy this book.

Excellent book. It's well written, with very good examples. You will recognize your mistakes and as myself you will probably improve your presenting skills.

My boss gave me this book as I had to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for a major client. I thought "oh great, just what I need, another book telling me how to make PowerPoints. Whatever!"

So I started paging through the book and decided maybe that this is a little different after all. And next thing I knew, I went through the first two chapters devouring every word!

Conclusion? This book is not just about PowerPoints, far from it. This book is about presenting and selling: whether you are presenting a product or presenting yourself. For example, most people don't know how to go about asking for a raise. Why? Because they walk into their boss's office saying "I want a raise or I'll quit" or "I want a raise because I'm expecting a child soon" or "I want a raise because Herbert is making more money that I do and we do the same job!"

And of course, this leads to confrontation, and you end up getting either a little or no raise.

But the book points out that whatever you do in life, you are constantly making presentations. Whether the presentation is for your customer, your boss, your wife, or your colleagues, you need to convince them to do something for you. And the simplest way to get them to act on your presentation is to tell them how they will benefit from doing what you want them to do.

For example, you are going to make a presentation on some new electronic widgets and gizmos your company makes. You spend hours telling your customer the features of the widgets and gizmos but in the end the customer walks away without ever intending to buy your product. WHY? Because you neglected to tell them the benefits. If you had told them how the widgets and gizmos would make their job easier, used less electricity, etc., then they may have made the move to buy the product. SELL THE BENEFITS NOT THE FEATURES!

So, the book tells you how to make your presentation into a story that will move the audience (e.g. customer, boss, spouse, etc.) rather than having a presentation that drolls on giving the audience fact after fact, feature after feature, with no clear beginning and no clear ending.

I finished this book in a weekend and radically altered the presentation I had to give to my client. My presentation was well received and my company ended up with the contract we were seeking.

To put this in Ebay's terms, I give this book an A++++++++++

I bought this on the recommendation of Dr. Stanley Krippner in a lecture on ayahuasca. It is absolutely the best book I have read on the history of the psychedelic movement during the past 100 years or so. Timothy Leary is not dead - he's only outside looking in. :-)

This is the definitive account of the 1960s psychedelic drug scene. Stevens does a great job of conveying the highs and lows of LSD and its proponents. His ability to relate endless facts while retaining a fast-paced narrative structure is amazing. I found this one of the most "addicting" books out there about the significance of drugs in American culture. Stevens reviews all the major personalities: Albert Hoffman, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead, Alan Watts, Jack Kerouac, Aldous Huxley, and more. If you're interested in this electric decade, the power of psychedelics to warp the mind, or any of the poet-prophets who were compelled to experiment with and sing the praises of acid then this book is sure to delight.

This should be required reading in American History. Who knew Canada had legal LSD centers? And the characters- Nin, Huxley, Kesey, Leary and Capt.Al Hubbard (??). Will we ever see their like again? Really a very sad story, and a fascinating one. Nice to see the Chief Boo Hoo, old Art Kleps in there as well. Sen. Kennedy: "Is your title really Chief Boo Hoo?" Art Kleps: "I'm afraid so, sir."

It is no fluke that this book has an average rating of five stars from amazon.com readers. This is simply one of the most informative, enjoyable and engaging presentations ever written on the subject of hallucinogenic drugs in modern history, and how they made their way from the obscurity of laboratories and clinical research to become a fixture in the counterculture of the 1960's and beyond. The complexities of the story make it a formidable challenge for any narrator, but Stevens proves easily equal to the task. In the pages of this book, the reader is introduced to the dramatis personae with an immediacy as though meeting them in person. Many of the facts discussed herein have been recounted before by many capable others. But never have they been put into such a vivid and vibrant perspective as this, so thorough and rich with nuance. That's important because the depths of this story, stranger as it is than any fiction, are where its meaning emerges most clearly. Ever since the impact of LSD and its profound, pervasive influences on our life and times, modern society will never be the same. And it is impossible to imagine what popular culture would now be like without the psychedelic revolution of the 20th century. "Storming Heaven" offers the best single account of how and why this is so. This is a real page-turner, very difficult to put down, and is highly recommended for the interested reader.

This was a very good book. You get lots of interesting stuff about Aldous Huxley, the famous beat writers, Owsley, Timothy Leary, Ken Kesey and the evolution of the so called counterculture as a whole.

The problems that I have with Storming Heaven is not for what was in it but what was left out. For one Stevens was WAY too easy on Timothy Leary. The author seemed almost like a school girl with a crush when he recounts his visit to Learys home for an interview for the book. He comes off more as a fan than he does an objective writer at times when he deals with Leary. Why wasn't it mentioned that it has come out that Leary was a government informant and information he gave led to the death of two members of the Weather Underground? Its also a known fact that Leary was surrounded by CIA assets and there is a lot of evidence that he was a government agent himself, and at the least he was feeding them information.

There is also a fleeting mention that wasn't elaborated on about Ken Kesey that he had LSD experiments done on him at Stanford by the guy that ended up in charge of the CIAs Mkultra mind control program. This really makes me wonder about Kesey. Its more or less accepted history that the first LSD to get out on the street level was what Kesey stole from the medicine chest at his job as a night shift janitor at a mental hospital and distributed it among his elitist friends. Kesey went from writing what was probably the best novel written during the 1960's to, while becoming a counterculture hero, never writing another thing worth reading again. Did doing too much LSD scramble his brains and ruin his creativity or was his creativity nullified by Mkultra programming? Its hard to say for sure but I have to wonder if Kesey was not under some sort of mind control or was being used by the CIA in one way or another. There are a lot of unanswered questions in my mind about Kesey.

They also fleetingly mention the Brotherhood of Eternal Love who were major LSD distributors and were known to be full of CIA people and had a close association with a Jewish man named Ron Starks who was a CIA spook that also happened to the biggest LSD dealer in the world. Starks was not even given the first mention in this book!

I mean with all these ivy league, Mkultra and CIA connections to the elites of the so called counterculture I have to seriously wonder how much of the hippy movement of the late 60's was an organic rebellion against what was (and still is) a very repressive society both socially and politically and how much of it was intentional social engineering that came from the highest levels of the power structure. Many people believe that the anti-war movement was flooded with drugs, in particular LSD, by federal agents. Its well known that the government tried to subvert and destroy the anti-war movement with the cointelpro program so why wouldn't they also use drugs to try to destroy it? While it can't be denied that LSD has enhanced many an artist, writer and musicians work can you honestly say that sitting around frying on acid all the time is going to do anything but disable political activists who in many cases were in a life and death struggle? Besides that the fact remains that many people became permanently damaged as result of doing acid.

All that said I would definitely recomend reading or of you can get it cheap, buying Storming Heaven. I could hardly put it down once I started reading it. I realize that this book was more geared toward looking into what psychelic drugs can do with the mind and its exponents history and theories on the subject than any conspiratorial maneuverings by the US government involving LSD but it just didn't go deep enough into the rabbit hole for my tastes.