Public Interest Books

I wanted more than just a regional book (I collect many anyway) and I found the new edition of American Lighthouses fascinating. It helped me decide what area of the country to travel to next and plan how many lighthouses to see each day. The photography is outstanding and the writing just perfect. Since I'm a camera bug, it has given me the incentive to get out there and take pictures again! I'm going to give this book as Christmas presents to friends and family.

American Lighthouses: A Comprehensive Guide was exactly what I was looking for. A way to find lighthouses during my travels. My AAA tour books and maps did not mark the lights and I found I had driven very close by some of the oldest and most beautiful lights in the country without even knowing it. Not again with this guild, divided up by states, I should not miss of the majestic old lighthouses.

After seeing the "move" of the Hatteras lighthouse this summer, we became intrigued by lighthouses. On the trip home, we made special effort to see as many as we could. This book helped us learn more about the lighthouses we were seeing. An excellent book for a short synopsis on these wonderful structures. I'm buying a second copy for my parents.

Some people, myself included, love lightouses. This book should be an essenial part of our library. Not only does the authors give background info on history of the lighthouses in this book but also alerts the reader of nearby attractions and gives directions for those who like to see lighthouses. Perhaps one of the best things I like about this book is the pictures. They're beautiful. The book itself serves as a reference guide for lighthouse lovers everywhere.

"American Lighthouses (Lighthouses)" by Ray Jones begins with a lengthy introduction about the romance of lighthouses. Isn't that the point of our enjoyment? The history and tales, and the architecture all draw us to wonder about the tall, bold and previously bright buildings. That's the approach Jones assumes throughout the book.

Filled with color photos of both recent and old lighthouses, Jones takes us through each region of the United States. He discusses 450 lighthouses in all, presenting facts about each. We learn the year it was built and, in some instances, rebuilt. He gives us travel information as well, helping us find our way there with general directions or a location.

This could be a primer for the average lighthouse seeker, but it is not the complete word on any of them. A book could be written on each, and we only get a few paragraphs. Most of us will be happy with that. If you need more, look at the more specialized volumes for each region or state.

The writing is crisp and interesting, but never scholarly. It is accessible in the same way as a short encyclopedic entry would be.

The pages are made of a stiffer glossy paper, and the dimensions of the book are awkward. It does not lay flat, and in general is hard to open. This production makes reading difficult, even though it is otherwise very attractive.

A newer edition has since been published and should be checked out, but if the price is low, this is still an adequate choice. "American Lighthouses (Lighthouses)" by Ray Jones will help as you vacation through the US.

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Who? Author William Parkhurst. What? A new edition of his public relations primer. When? Now. Why? Because small business needs an Internet-friendly PR update. How? Pretty good, thank you. Putting those five questions at the heart of your press release is only one of the techniques this book describes for creating an effective publicity campaign. Parkhurst focuses on obtaining low-cost publicity, including how to do your own press releases and Web-page designs. Much of the book deals with well-established strategies, including those described in an earlier edition. This edition's new material covers E-publicity and use of the Internet. We from getAbstract recommend this solid basic text to individual entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses.

As a writer, this book is essential to making a living. This book talks about getting pr on the web, and how to save money throughout all of your pr strategies. I also liked Guerrilla PR Wired, Michael Levine's book. These two are the only reference books a writer will need to successfully market his or her projects.

This is one of my favorite books; I've had earlier editions on my shelf for years. As an author and a publisher, I use Parkhurst's advice to promote books.

How to Get Publicity describes writing news releases, media kits, media campaigns, interviews on radio, TV & for print, adverse publicity, the press conference, satellite tours, and much more.

As the author of 113 books (including revisions and foreign-language editions) and over 500 magazine articles, I recommend this volume to anyone who has to promote him or herself or their book. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com.

Although the book's title is How to get Publicity, that is really not the best reason to get this book. In fact, there are other books that are stronger on how to obtain publicity, like Michael levine's guerrilla PR: wired.

No, the real reason to get this book is its secondary title--And Make the Most of It (Publicity) Once You've Got It.

Lots of books tell you how to get publicity, but that's where they stop. Fine, you're famous; now what? That's what this book helps you with. That is its strength and what sets it apart from all the rest.

How to Get Publicity teaches a writer everything he needs to know about publicity. It is easy to read and packed with great tid bits and gems. Buy this book- you will be happy you did!

This odd little book excavates a tiny corner of intellectual history from the 17th and 18th centuries. This was a time when religious sanctions were losing their grip on men, and social theorists scrambled to find a new basis for social order. They hit on the idea that the pursuit of economic interests could underpin society by promoting calm rationality in the population and keeping violent passions in check. The material is interesting and the writing is clear, but it's hard to see why general readers would be interested in this super-esoteric subject.

I much enjoyed reading this book, and can unreservedly recommend it to anyone interested in political economy and the history of economics (which grew out of the original 'political economy' into a separate branch of social science). Prof. Hirschman does a very good job in pulling together the various scattered ideas in modern history (so say from around 17th century onward) on the ideology and basic motivations for capitalism. This is a very interesting study on possible political motivations in a time that economic development through capitalism in Europe slowly started to take hold (large parts of Europe still remained a largely agrarian-based economy until end 19th/early 20th century). Even though this brought enormous political and social upheavals, the ideas on capitalism still largely were of a brave new world variety, and understandingly so. The observation that the desire for wealth does not seem to diminish as levels of wealth increase (an exception to the law of dimishing marginal utility) led a number of political philosophers to the exciting and hopeful idea that capitalism would channel human destructive passion or act as a 'counterweight' to other less socially desirable behaviour (of which the 17/18th centuries in Europe saw its share as well). As it turned out, this basic optimistic idea of course needed some heavy qualifications; e.g. to avoid abuses of power (such as the inevetable necessity for a strong role of government in capitalism, e.g. as enforcer of fair and equitable competition and alleviate market failures; or that economic interests do not necessarily stop any war). Nevertheless, the ideas on positive effects of capitalism on human behavior still stands in contemporary discussions as well, if only often implicitly. I liked his remark on how ironic, in historical context, the argument is that the strong focus on capitalism in modern society has led to impoverishment and alienation in the human experience. The idea in capitalism as described by its early protagonists was precisely to counteract or channel the human 'passions' that so far had not led to much constuctive behavior. As Prof. Hirschmann notes, a historical awarenesss of such arguments may not bring any clearer answers today but will certainly help to lift the level of discussion.

It's a bit of a miscategorization that this book is usually filed under "Economics." It's more about social and intellectual history. Hirschman traces social support for economic individualism as stemming from support for rational, predictable "interest" to counter irrational, unpredictable "passions." It's the old battle of Apollonian versus Dionysian, but it's very novel to see it played out in something as this-worldly as debates about political economy.

Hirschman's history of "interest" is similar to Weber's history of "capitalist rationalism," although Hirschman's attributed causal mechanisms are broader than Weber's: Hirschman says general desire to improve upon human nature, rather than specific Protestant religious concerns, was the justification for capitalist rationality. (However, taking Hirschman's tack, we cannot explain why capitalism elicited more support in some countries than in others.)

This is an excellent history of the concept of the "invisible hand," the idea that the pursuit of private gain can have socially salubrious effects. If you know about "the fable of the bees," you know a little bit about this concept, but Hirschman chronicles its history at a much deeper level.

My first reading of this material occurred in college as a requirement for a European History course in my second year. The 124-page text is readable in large type with wide margins for notations. In the Introduction (not counted in the text total pages) the author writes that his work, "could be considerably expanded, qualified, bent, and adorned." I appreciated that he did not add unnecessary pages.

The author's objective in writing was to reconstruct how capitalism went from being the sin of avarice to a counterweight for other, less acceptable sins. The work is an interesting history of an idea that is today accepted as the best alternative available for people. I found it amusing that capitalism actually passed through a phase in history where people had to sell it. How that sales campaign was designed and conducted is interesting reading.

The book details some of the advantages of capitalism for workers. While massing people in cities close to factories and raw materials helps owners, it also helps the workers by giving them the opportunity to protest and riot against a government that devalues the currency (apparently a frequent problem in days of yore) or factory owners that otherwise exploit their workers too badly. These advantages are not generally associated with the tenement districts of the late 19th century industrial revolution in America, yet the history of social progress always includes incidents of large-scale violence.

One idea that the book stumbles with is the marginal utility of wealth. Since greed seems to never be sated, it is incorrectly assumed that the pursuit of economic gain has no declining marginal utility. In fact, currency and wealth have no marginal utility at all, but can be transformed into any form of consumption as desired by its owner, and those goods and services have declining marginal utility. This is an important point. The early proponents of capitalism argued that greed would "harness" the destructive and diabolical passions of mankind. In fact, it really has had no effect on them at all, as wealth has become just an innocuous tool available for use or misuse as determined by its owner.

It was necessary to make capitalism something good in order to squelch early critics who opposed low wages and inhumane working conditions on moral grounds. Before then, the Invisible Hand just couldn't compete.

In this delicious wafer of a book, Hirschman describes the process by which a Renaissance-era desire to discount the classical "heroic ideal" in order to account for man "as he really is" in formulating an original and, ... "Machiavellian" statecraft (to be promulgated without respect for a new *spiritual* ethic for the individual) gave rise to a re-examination of the role and motive force of the mortal Passions. Considering the works of such as Vico, Mandeville, and Smith, Hirschman excitedly argues the case for this novel "state" project: the idea that the act of "harnessing" the Passions (e.g., avarice and "cupidity") would serve to parlay the sins of envy, resentment, and petty spite into a value-neutral drive (i.e., "interest") to acquire great *personal* material wealth, which (and this is the rub) would serve not only to break the monopoly of the church over the affairs of men, but to bring about a residual and necessary *collective* prosperity. Behold the Invisible Hand! (Then read your Tocqueville and Marx for 19th-century perspectives on the United States and Britain, respectively.)

Got this for my wife. She was amazed it was available through Amazon. Man, the stuff you can find here !

I brought this book because I was thinking of retiring to the Philippines.
That plan is now on hold, however I found very few ideas that were useful in building my dream home.
"A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander et al was really much more useful. It enabled me to see what I wanted to do in a wider context.
A very good idea in the Philippines!

Like some other books on tropical living, this one features some amazing pictures. However, it also boasts floor plans and drawings which really add to the book. Good value too.

For the past 5 years I have been aficionado of Asian style; architecture, arts and crafts, landscape design and travel/lifestyle. Whenever a new book becomes available I purchase it and my love for this particular part of the world is enhanced. Tropical Asian Style, Bali Style, Thai Style, The Tropical Garden, Tropical Garden Plants have all in their own way contributed to presenting Asia as one of the more beautiful sports on earth. However, the standards set by the aforementioned books have been surpassed by Tropical Paradise. Beautifully photographed, spectacularly designed, Tropical Paradise delivers. A veritable feast for the eyes, this book is truly a must have if you appreciate tropical landscaping and vernacular architecture. Two thumbs up! Way Up!

I love this book for its beauty. Whenever I open the book, it transports me to places far away from here. I imagine that I'm actually walking past and gazing at all the wonderful architecture, design and artifacts featured within the book.

I loved the book so much that I decided to actually visit and stay at a couple of the hotels photographed. I went to visit the Novotel Benoa at Bali and the Sheraton Sengiggi Beach Resort at Lombok. Whilst on Lombok, I also visited the Novotel at Kuta Beach.

All three experiences were out of this world; infact, the photographs in the book did not do the properties the justice they so deserved.

This is my own personal holiday brochure and I'm already looking forward to my next destination ......

Excellent book for anyone involved in the planning of worship. Masterfully created by using the artful principles encouraged and putting it into published form.

THANK YOU!

Every pastor responsible for planning and leading a worship service should buy this book, read it, and then do two things. First, find an artist in your congregation who will help you understand how important this book is. Let that artist, or better yet several artists, teach you how the arts can assist you in creating moments of transformation and wonder during that hour on Sunday. Second, honestly respond to the "Questions to Explore" at the end of each chapter. Write out your answers. Discuss them with your staff or leadership team. They are outstanding discussion starters for weekly staff or leadership meetings or even for use in a retreat setting. Dealing with these questions will intensify the impact of this entertaining and informative read.

I read this book from the mindset of a Christian educator who fears that an hour on Sunday is what the average Christian invests in their Christian education. Nancy Beach has provided a timely challenge for we who teach to embrace the value of creativity. She writes from her passion and experience as one dedicated to communicating the truth of God's Word to a culture overwhelmed by information and to generations who learn as much by seeing and experiencing as they do by listening. If you want to make the most of an hour on Sunday you'll be well served by this book.

P.S. If you lead creative people, the bovine metaphor on page 80 is worth the price of the book!

This is one of the most delightful "how to" books I have read in a long time! This book will help both ministers and lay leaders in the planning of the Sunday morning service. The suggestions given are sound, biblical, and can apply to both a traditional setting or a more contemporary setting. The reader is challenged to make the worship hour on Sunday morning more meaningful by first examining his own heart and motive. The goal is to have the worshiper leave the church changed in a more positive way than when they first came. The advice of this book is both timely and easy to follow.
Many times "how to" books are dry and boring to read. The delivery of the material in this book is as entertaining as it is enlightening. The use of illustrations and drawings are intermingled with the text, many times becoming the text. For example, when the book discusses music, you find the text in a sheet of music, like the lyrics of a song. Humor is very much a part of this book. In the first part of the book, the author gives you permission to skip to a page later in the book if you feel you don't need to read that particular section. When you skip to the page indicated, you are admonished and told to return to the section you wanted to skip. All in good humor, of course. There are also thought provoking questions at the end of each chapter that enable you to celebrate the good things you are currently doing in your organization and encourage you to explore new ground.

Good book to give you an idea of how to lead and work with artists in worship.

This is the best general architectural guide to Chicago and the suburbs, but get the new Fifth Edition ISBN: 0226740668. It's much more up-to-date and the maps are easier to use.

This is one of my favorite mini-books on Chicago architecture. It is perfect if you are in need of a comprehensive guide with short entries to shape your exploration of the city. Unlike, say, the AIA Guide, photographs are provided for every entry. Photos are small but nowhere near as tiny as the AIA thumbnails. While the entries are brief, they cover most of the important highlights. I am anxious for a new edition, as many of the descrpitions (and their accompanying photos) are in need of updating in order to cover recent restoration efforts and newer major buildings as well.

I love this book. It is fairly recent overview of the famous buildings in the Chicago area. It covers downtown, the city, and the suburbs. It also has some good buildings featured from the Sears Tower to the Amritech Building at Hoffmann Estates. Though the photos are in black and white, and the entries are a little short, this is a definate buy if you are interested in Urban Architecture or Chicago.

Although, I do not have any aspirations to become a Washington lobbyist, I wanted to know how they do it. How do organizations send their minions into Washington and create laws for the rest of the people. Needless to say, this book tells you the tricks of the trade (which in Washington is all one big trick).

One of my aquaintences read this book and began lobbying on a small scale in New Jersey acheiving some success in the field until he got bored and became a lawyer. So that is the only proof that I have that this book works. It details the method which the lobbyist must follow in order to get into the system, to talk to the politician and his staff, and to lead a grass-roots movement.

Everything is described in an easy to read way, and reading the book will take you at most a few days so, if you got the $50 for the luncheon, grab a copy and get your butt over to Washington. Anybody can do it, you don't need corporate backing to acheive your agenda, as long as you control the lobby.

This is one of the most excellent and at the same time, simple book on lobbying. Off the several dozen I have read on lobbying and campaign management, this is one of the best and most appealing book I have encountered.

The book starts with assuming that it represents the political agenda of a "Flat Earth Society" (association of believers in earth being flat). It takes the defense of this ridiculous premise and weaves around it a web of very sophisticated arguments around issues pertaining to this premise. These arguments are presented piece meal at a time to thwart off elimination of flat earth dogma from various govt and school texts etc.

The author has, using this premise as an example, shown all the necessary steps that a lobbyist will have to go through to convince the congress of his agenda and issues.

Overall, an excellent book.

while we used this book as a text for our class in lobbying at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to lobby congress. It gives a good basic understanding of the steps and tips on how to find a good lobbyist if you decide you need more help.

A great gift for Catholics and others. This book and especially their book on Novena prayers are two of the most precious books I've ever seen!

It really is a good book; lots of pix. The book description tho' says there's a chapter on the Gargano caves in Italy where St Michael appeared. THAT is not in the book I received. That's why I gave it 4 out of 5 stars. I'd like to see a sequel with the Gargano caves and Fatima and San Miguel Milagro in Mexico and the Holy Sepulchre among others.

Holy Places is a visual delight, filled with gorgeous color photographs of 10 sacred sites around the world. It is a book about saints, prayer, miracles and recovery, art and religious history and architecture. The reader is transported to ancient Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, Mexico and New Mexico. The book is a pilgrimmage into Catholic history and devotion. I gave a copy to my elderly aunt who called me to say that she had just been to Italy and Mexico and was about to travel through Spain -- that reading the book was as good as being there (and by the way, she would try to make it to Chimayo, New Mexico).

It is a concise and richly crafted book on some of the most famous holy places in the world.

Who might like this book?
Travellers
Spiritual seekers
Pilgrims
Artists & art lovers
Children
Historians
Lovers of religious relics
People who like pictures

I highly recommend this wonderful book.

A book of tremendous importance. Communism committed suicide, and Capitalism needed the rescue this read can provide. Individuals, business leaders, educators, governments, economists plus some others can get extremely valuable guidelines here in how to steer the world to a safer and more enriching destiny, if they listen to the Caux Round Table's 7 principles.
I have already recommended it to some important people in my reach (and beyond)

The corporate scandals of recent years have led to much hand wringing about corporate values. Now comes Stephen Young, head of the Caux Round Table - an international network of executives focused on corporate responsibility - with simple rules for turning the hand wringing into action. Some of Young's advice seems to be common sense: Tell the truth, for instance, and follow the law. By encouraging capitalists to go beyond following the letter of the law, Young offers a useful guide to ethical decision making. At times, though, he seems to give capitalists a free pass. For instance, Young argues that moral capitalists have little responsibility to withhold harmful products such as cigarettes and liquor from consumers who want to buy them. We recommend this easy-to-digest study to anyone intrigued by the ethical implications of capitalism. The book is a useful presentation of the argument that capitalism, the most powerful economic system in history, must balance might and right.

Written by Stephen Young (the Global Executive Director of the renowned Caux Round Table, an international network of business executives), Moral Capitalism: Reconciling Private Interest With The Public Good showcases the "Caux Round Table's Seven General Principles for Business" which are the collective antidote to the destructive sides of dog-eat-dog corporate world and the crony-favoring insider deals that come with "brute capitalism" unmitigated by justice or fairness. Discussing moral capitalism as the only system that can truly counter poverty, tyranny, and the needs of individuals and nations alike, Moral Capitalism is an impressive and strongly recommended collection of ideas, ideals, and real, useable principles, as seen through the eyes of a prosperous businessman striving to balance public good with the corporate bottom line.

Finnemore's text is frequently assigned in International Relations seminars and comes from the constructivist paradigm. Future texts of this nature might focus more on norms that depart from the "sunny optimism" that many constructivists seem to hold close to their hearts.

As the author mentions in the preface, National Interests in International Society is about defining national interests not about defending them that neorealists and neoliberals do the latter (p.xi). She starts her work by problematizing state interests and preferences since they cannot be considered as given. Then she begins to search for factors that shape state interests, preferences and policies. And finally she keeps international social structure, norms, international organizations and institutions as the most relevant causes of changing state preferences and interests. First of all, international social structure or social fabric of international system influences greatly states when they define their interests. Second, internationally hold norms and understandings about what is good and appropriate to change state policies. Internationally shared norms and values influence perception of interests and behavior of states without any external threats or domestic demands. States do not always know what they want. The normative context of international social structure helps states to define their national interests. Third, international organizations socialize states and teach states how to behave. They also shapes state interests. Moreover, international structure, normative context of international system and international organizations change over time and the change will also lead to changes in state preferences and interests. Finnemore develop these arguments through three case studies. In case of UNESCO, she demonstrates that internationally developed norm of science policy not their demand lead states to create science bureaucracies. In case of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), however, Finnemore reiterates that war is highly regulated social institution and the norms regulating war change over time. Individuals rather than states led to the establishment of the ICRC that has a mission to govern the rules of war. In this process, principled concerns, morality and individual action mattered a lot that neorealist theory ignores these elements (p.87).In the case of the World Bank she emphasizes the importance of international organizations in determining international outcomes. The World Bank developed the norm of poverty and development in the early 1970s that changed a great deal states' perception and policies of economic development. In sum, National Interests in International Society has many insights for students of IR theory to understand the role of normative/social fabric of international system and international organizations in international politics.

The book gets straight to the point on some fairly complex issues, making it read quite well. One of the other reviewers apparently disagreed with Finnemore's political leaning, yet I dont see this as justification for giving it such a low rating. Finnemore explains throughout the book how Constructivism compliments previous International Relations theories. It may seem to have liberal leanings because IR liberals place emphasis on non-state actors, inparticular, institutions and regimes. This is unheard of in the realist world, in which, states are the only relavent actors. Finnemore examines three case studies where institutions were the method for reform to demonstrate that institutions can govern our preferences, and to give us insight into how they may change our preferences. Overall, well written, and to the point.