The Value-Added Employee contains some excellent tools to help create specific development plans for people at all levels. The book provides the reader with an understanding of "competencies" and job competency models, concepts that have become popular in recent years with many corporations. Thirty-one competencies are featured, organized into three clear groupings: competencies that are related to working with people, business-related competencies and self-management competencies. As a manager, I partcularly appreciated the suggestions on how I can help develop or strengthen the competency for those I coach. This is a practical book, more like a workbook than a traditional book. HR departments will also find it helpful.

The authors suggest "31 skills to make yourself irresistible to any company" and the 31 are indeed important skills to have mastered. If for whatever reasons you are not now currently "irresistible" to your employer, I strongly urge you to purchase, absorb, and digest this book's excellent content. There are others who will also derive substantial benefit from this book: Those in larger organizations who recruit and hire and/or who have supervisory responsibility for others, those launching a new company who can ill afford to make a mistake when hiring a key person, and those now entering the job market who wish to increase and enhance their appeal to prospective employers. In essence, if employees do not add value, they have no value.

This is an outstanding book. It helped me analyze my strengths and the areas I need to work on to get ahead. Most self-help books are too academic or "motivational". This book seems to reflect what real live corporations are looking for. The writers apparently are not egghead psychologists, but are common sense business people who have successfully implemented competency development systems in major companies. The simple, practical tools for self assessment and career planning included in the book are great. I'm surprised that more organizations haven't adopted this approach. Other non-management employees like myself who are trying to better ourselves would certainly appreciate it.

The Existential Pagan is a collection of essays that is good to read on your own - but where it works best is the basis for group discussions. The author takes deliberate controversial positions that beg for further discussion. His ideaology tends to stick close to the Ancient Matriarchy as proposed by Merlin Stone and M. Gimbautus. The books weaker points are that because many of the essays were written in the 1980's, so much of the science he bases his arguments on is getting outdated - also Davis' past as a SF writer shows thru in his rather strange and elaborate explination of the humans soul as a Tesseract.

Never, in any book, have I seen a witch more eloquently and perfectly describe what the craft is really all about.

He explains paganism as it is, and illustrates how integral the pagan world-view is to the continued existence of our marvelous planet.

Nowhere, in one volume, is it possible to get as full a picture of the craft as it is in "The Existential Pagan." By discussing science, magic, personal responsibility, history, mythology, philosophy as well as what witches take to be the standard practices of the craft, Rel Davis makes paganism not only a religion, but a culture as well, and provides us with glasses which allow us to get past our collective cultural stigmatism and see things the way they once were and could be again. Namaste ... - Roland WordStone

The book traces the contributions of Micheal Mansfield as Senate Majority leader, emerging from the shadow of LBJ thru the Watergate years.

His work as an instructor at the University of Montana prior to election to Congress, and his longstanding love of good pipes and tobacco proved that inside the Beltway, "A pipe gives a wise man time to think, and a fool something to put in his mouth"

In short, the book describes the most honorable man ever to hold political office.....either at the State or National level. I am proud not only to know Mike Mansfield, but to be a Montanan as well. Jeanette Rankin, C.M. Russell, and Mike Mansfield......what a trio! God Bless a GREAT American and his lovely wife, Maureen!

The author presents a very interesting and readable history of the major changes and the cases involved in the interpretations of the first amendment to the constitution. He shows how these changes have negatively impacted our society allowing us too much freedom without any real responsibility, leading to the degradation of society and what he sees as the eventual downfall of our government - perhaps even into dictatorship. He gives two appendices to help the reader (especially the novice to law) understand the cases. The most important part of the book is the first section and the conclusion, though the other parts are also important. The only drawback I see is that the author did not mention the presidents who appointed the justices to the Supreme Court who were involved in the changes in interpretation of the first amendment. It would have added interest and weight to the book to know the presidential involvement in the choices made for justices and the influence each president had over his justice choice, if any. Also, the recommendations for change and his call to action appear to be weak in outline and ability to actually be accomplished. Finally, anyone (perhaps students) without a thorough command of the English language better read the book with a dictionary in hand!!

The author beautifully demonstrates the intepretation of the US Constitution in modern times is contrary to that of its original intent. Well written and accessible to those without legal background, though extensively referenced.

He further shows that the original intent is superior politically, logically and morally to what has replaced it. That the current interpretation that has replaced it, due to its internal contradictions, must disrupt in time, taking any government based on it down with it.

The most fascinating point of the book, perhaps, is where the author shows the exact point in 1919 where the Supreme Court first lost touch with Constitution. Then again, in 1925, when it solidified that in a ruling written by Holmes and Brandeis:

"If in the long run the beliefs expressed in proletarian dictatorship are destined to be accepted by the dominant forces of the community, the only meaning of freedom speech is that they should be given their chance and have their way."

It was with this statement that US Constitution, as designed by the founding fathers, being based on centuries of experience and articulated in part by John Locke, was instead replaced by one based on John Stuart Mills and Charles Darwin.

Instead of the original intent of allowing citizens to protect themselves from those who seek to strip them of their inalienable rights (liberty as "We the People"), the courts adopted a position that supresses that, stating that our original constitutional democracy is only a "fighting faith" and cannot be held as deserving protection from other "fighting faiths", even if the people loath them and believe them destructive to representative government.

These poisonous seeds are buried in history but have been blooming throughout the century, as judges draw on precedence and their own personal cultural background as isolated legal elites.

The people who designed the US government and those who lived in it for the first 140 years would find the present situation a bizarre distortion almost beyond belief and rationality. Certainly not sustainable and actually the opposite of what was intended, achieving and surpassing the very European decadence they designed to prevent.

Here in LA, I've been vexed to go to the US Post Office and see the parking lots stuffed with pornographic literature blowing all over the place while children praying in school is criminalized. A demented society indeed. This book traces the legal development of the insanity.

What child does not want to be an astronaut when they grow up? Traveling in space, walking on the moon: How amazing! This book allows children to explore their curiosity and excitement about the moon. It is well illustrated and the narration is interesting and keeps their attention. They are learning, yet it is fun. It is unique because the story is supplemented with short teaching times referring the child to the pictures on the page. (Even I learned a few things about the moon.) My son has always wanted to ride in a space ship... Now he wants to live on the moon! "It is so cool," he said. I highly recomend this book.

I got this book for the little boy I nanny for. We always read it. He loves it as well as outer space. If yours loves life from out of this world, go buy it. he/she will love it

Like all devoted lovers of Jane Austen, I have long pondered why she chose to write this, of all books, at time she was experiencing the intoxicating success of Pride and Prejudice.

The protagonist is a loathesome little priss. Austen herself says so in her letters. Fanny Price is neurotic and oversensitive where Austen's other heroines are brash and healthy. Even Austen's own family found the ending as odd and disappointing as do subsequent generations of readers.

So there's a puzzle to be solved here. The answer may lie in the fact that this book was written when, after a lifetime of obscurity, Austen found herself, briefly, a huge success. As is so often the case with writers, the success of her earlier book may have given her the courage to decided write about something that REALLY mattered to her--and what that was was her own very complex feelings about the intensely sexual appeal of a morally unworthy person.

This topic, the charm of the scoundrel, is one that flirts through all her other books, usually in a side plot. However, the constraints of Austen's day made it impossible for her to write the story of a woman who falls for a scoundrel with a sympathetic viewpoint character.

So what I think Austen may have decided to do was to write this story using Edmund--a male--as the sympathetic character who experiences the devastating sexual love of someone unworthy. Then, through a strange slight of hand, she gives us a decoy protagonist--Fanny Price, who if she is anything, is really the judgemental, punishing Joy Defeating inner voice--the inner voice that probably kept Jane from indulging her own very obvious interest in scoundrels in real life!

In defense of this theory, consider these points:

1. Jane herself loved family theatricals. Fanny's horror of them and of the flirting that took place is the sort of thing she made fun of in others. Jane also loved her cousin, Eliza, a married woman of the scoundrelly type, who flirted outrageously with Jane's brother Henry when Jane was young--very much like Mary Crawford. The fact is, and this bleeds through the book continuously, Austen doesn't at all like Fanny Price!

To make it more complex, Fanny's relationship with Henry Crawford is an echo of the Edmund-Mary theme, but Austen makes Henry so appealing that few readers have forgiven Austen for not letting Fanny liven up a little and marry him! No. Austen is trying to make a case for resisting temptation, but in this book she most egregiously fails.

2. Austen is famous for never showing us a scene or dialogue which she hadn't personally observed in real life, hence the off-stage proposals in her other books.

Does this not make it all the more curious that the final scene between Edmund and Mary Crawford in which he suffers his final disillusionment and realizes the depths of her moral decay comes to us with some very convincing dialogue? Is it possible that Jane lived out just such a scene herself? That she too was forced by her inner knowlege of what was right to turn away from a sexually appealing scoundrel of her own?

3. Fanny gets Edmund in the end, but it is a joyless ending for most readers because it is so clear that he is in love with Mary. Can it be that Austen here was suggesting the grim fate that awaits those who do turn away from temptations--a lifetime of listening to that dull, upstanding, morally correct but oh so joyless voice of reason?

We'll never know. Cassandra Austen burnt several years' worth of her sister's letters--letters written in the years before she prematurely donned her spinster's cap and gave up all thoughts of finding love herself. Her secrets whatever they were, were kept within the family.

But one has to wonder about what was really going on inside the curious teenaged girl who loved Samual Richardson's rape saga and wrote the sexually explicit oddity that comes to us as Lady Susan. Perhaps in Mansfield Park we get a dim echo of the trauma that turned the joyous outrageous rebel who penned Pride and Prejudice in her late teens into the staid, sad woman when she was dying wrote Persuasion--a novel about a recaptured young love.

So with that in mind, why not go and have another look at Mansfield Park!

Mansfield Park is the work of a mature Austen. Compared to her earlier book, Pride and Prejudice, it features a particularly complex plot structure (complex for Austen, anyway) that works especially well in the first volume, and somewhat less well in the second. The book also features Austen's characteristic nicety of interior character description, her really superior ability to follow the subtle nuances of thought and feeling. This ability is raised to a whole new level, however, in Mansfield Park since the heroine, Fanny Price, is a particularly sensitive, selfless, and considerate girl. Austen is up to the challenge, though, and develops stylistic techniques uniquely and perfectly suited to evoking all of Fanny's moral and emotional struggles. It is simply a joy to follow Fanny through all her travails.

The weakness of the book is the structure of the third and last volume. Here, Austen falls back a little to much on the technique of letter writing to move her story forward. This weakness IS offset somewhat by the wonderful scenes in Fanny's hometown of Portsmouth - scenes that evoke one of Dickens' favorite themes, the impoverished family - but overall, the structure here is not up to the standards of the first two volumes.

Another weakness, though this is more a comment on Austen's style than on this book in particular, is the paucity of vivid imagery, of truly original metaphors or similes. Compared to Dickens or Flaubert, two of her near contemporaries, Austen is decidedly inferior on this score. Her strength really lies in her ability to describe the subtleties of the emotional and intellectual lives of her characters with a fidelity and clarity that I think is superior to Dickens and the equal of Flaubert.

Finally, a comment on Fanny's 'likeability'. While I don't want to deny that a character's likeability can influence our enjoyment of a book, I also think that it should not be a consideration in our judgement of the book's merit as a work of art. Madame Bovary, the book by Flaubert, is populated by unlikeable people and there isn't any one we can 'identify' with (or so we hope), yet that book is certainly a great work of art. In the same way, our gut reaction to Fanny may not be favorable, but this should have nothing to do with our assessment of Fanny as a character or the book as a work of art. The only consideration should be, 'did Austen succeed in creating the kind of character she set out to create?'; NOT, 'did I like Fanny Price as a person?', or, 'would I like to have Fanny Price as a friend?'.

Anyway, a good book, flawed only by the somewhat weak final volume. Certainly one of Austen's best.

I am a new reader of Jane Austen and after reading the other reviews of this book, I was a little scared to read this one so I saved it for last. I was so surprised how much I liked it. Fanny, the main character, is someone I could relate to in ways that many other readers apparently have not been able to. Unless you grow up in a home where you are made to feel unwanted, and have a Mrs. Norris as an aunt in Fanny's case or a stepmom in my case, it would be hard to understand Fanny. Take it from me,the character is very real in many ways and not the wimp or doormat that many other reviewers find her. Alot of people said this book of Jane Austen's is her deepest because of the social issues she tackles. I will have to read it again to pick up on more of that, I was so busy focusing on Fanny's situation and understanding her feelings, knowing how her situation affected her responses, that I missed things. I look forward to reading it again. I think others will enjoy it too,don't be put off by the other reviewers. Of course, I look forward to rereading all my Jane Austens.

When I looked at this book, I thought "What a great idea!" It was just what a beginner like me needed. However, when I tried to go through the sessions, I found that I was unable to complete the exercises because of the numerous errors throughout the book. Those errors included missing code and sample programs that just plain didn't work. In frustration, I abandoned the book after the 10th session.

I know some of the other reviewers think the errors are actually "good" because it forces the reader to debug their code. If I wanted to learn in that fashion I would have chosen a book specifically designed to teach debugging skills. No, I wanted what the author promised, "30 step-by-step lessons that will have you programming in only 15 hours." Yeah, right.

I imagine that the book has some marginal value as a reference tool. After all, I did pay for it. But it certainly didn't turn out to be the jump-start on Visual Basic it hyped itself to be.

My advice: save your money. Look for another book without the glaring errors, omissions, and faulty code.

I liked several things about this book. I think it was well written, with a good layout of the chapters and lessons. It was easy to read and the examples were detailed enough for me.I had experimented with VB6 on my own, and have a programming background but had no real grasp of VB6 before I read this book. I completed the book in about 2 hours more than the outline was set up for.

I did read the other reviews before writing this and disagree with the others that had problems with the code examples. I can't remember any problem with mine. The book gave a good outline of the basics and was easy to read. I agree with most of what KCGIRL reviewed. This book is a good way to get started and includes a working model of VB6 (very limited, but it's included!). I have also referred to it a few times after getting more involved in the language. It will suffice as a basics reference while you are learning the basics.

OK, so it took a effort approaching that of Hercules, and I'm an experienced programmer with quite a few other computer languages under my belt -- but at least we know it's possible!

I finished the book in 14 hours, 15 minutes -- including all of the review questions (usually just a mental affirmation when I knew the answer), plus 10 minutes to set up the included version of VB on my computer.

One of the greatest things about this book is its motivating format. It's a challenge -- learn the essentials of Visual Basic in a weekend!

And it was that challenge, plus the generally very positive reviews at Amazon.com, that motivated me to pick *this* book instead of a different title. Simply put, I decided this past week (because of a couple of opportunities that came up) that I ought to learn VB -- preferably, by Monday!

I finished the book 15 minutes ago, at 11:35 p.m. Sunday night.

My advice: start earlier in the week, and try to get in a bit extra time as you go along. Other matters took some of my time on Saturday and Sunday, and if I hadn't gained an hour and a half on Thursday evening, and half an hour on Friday, I couldn't have finished tonight.

The other great benefit is that Mansfield majors on the things you'll use a lot, and skips the things you'll use less, to produce a package that actually *can* be completed in a short (and hence motivating) time frame. He claims "the VB vocabulary has been carefully surveyed to determine which commands you need to know for nearly all programming." Obviously, I can't verify that from experience -- but throughout the book he seems to know what he's talking about.

Compare my experience in learning VB via this book with, say, my Java expedition: I began an 1100-page Java text almost a year ago, and I'm still stuck on page 257.

Negatives: yes, it could definitely use some better editing, including, in places, editing of the code supplied. For humor, my own favorite example of this was:

--------------------------------------
For I = 1 to Numberofcopies
Printer.Print Text1.Text
Next I

Notice the convention of indenting the code inside a For...Next loop. This graphically illustrates the loop.
--------------------------------------

(Did you see the indentation? Me neither!)

Far less amusing is that the author should've included on page 279 or so the code for cmdNew_Click() that's on page 302. Also, my main finished application didn't behave quite as expected -- and if I'm "keeping to schedule," I didn't have time to debug it (that's OK, I learned enough from it).

Incidentally, though, another reviewer's complaint of illegal names -- as in "1stSearch" (a variable name can't begin with a digit) -- was INCORRECT. The previous reviewer misread the text, which reads, e.g., "LSTSEARCH" (as in LIST BOX) -- *not* "1STSEARCH".

For most chapters, you'll need to use your computer to really follow and learn the material. Unfortunately, the version of VB on the CD-ROM won't allow you to walk through all the steps in some of the final chapters, but the author (obviously knowing this) has provided more screen shots, allowing you to follow along.

A time-saving tip: don't type in the code! Simply cut and paste it from the CD-ROM. Then review it line for line, either from the book pages or on your screen.

A perfect book? No. But all in all, this text got the job done for me. I'm by no means a VB expert after one weekend and 375 pages, but I sure as heck am on my way. I give Mansfield's book a quite solid 4 stars out of 5.

The book On The Way Home by Laura Ingalls Wilder was in my opinion the best book I read all summer becaus it tells the story of a girl (Laura) over coming obsticals. Such as realizing and excepting that they (Laura and her husband Almanzo)could no longer live were they were.They could not grow any crops so she made the disition to go "home" so that they could make a living of what they were good at.

"On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894," by Laura Ingalls Wilder, really brings to life this era in American history. The book is actually a collaboration between Laura and her daughter, writer Rose Wilder Lane; Rose's introduction and concluding chapter "sandwich" Laura's journal entries.

As the author of the "Little House" book series and as the subject of a long-running television series based on those books, Laura Ingalls Wilder is a truly beloved figure in American popular culture. "On the Way Home" offers an excellent opportunity to "hear" her speak directly from a real-life adventure. Her trek with her husband, Almanzo, and daughter Rose is a classic pioneer tale.

The book is well complemented by a wealth of black-and-white photographs of the family, as well as of the architecture, artifacts, landscapes, and animals that were part of their world. There is also a map of their route.

Laura's prose is very engaging. She writes of the natural landscape, plants, and animals they encountered along the way. She also gives a sense of the ethnic and religious diversity of that time and region. Her journal entries capture the excitement of the growing cities and towns.

This is a short book (120 pages), but it is full and fascinating. When Laura writes of such pleasures as wading in a warm river or picking wild blackberries, you can imagine yourself standing beside her. Recommended as a companion text: "O Pioneers!", by Willa Cather.

For the children who love Little House On the Prarie, this book is for you. On the way Home is about an 8 year girl traveling with her family towards their new home. There were many adventures that the Wilder family encountered "On the way Home." There are parts in this book that will keep you on edge. This book would appeal to children under the age of 10. Laura Ingalls Wilder has published many interesting books for children including,On the Way Home.

The last review is title "the best book I've read" - could this possibly be the author himself or at least a relative? Evidence

1) From Nashville TN, which as another read points out is where the author is from.
2) "Best book I've read" is a little too strong even if you did like it. I mean its not exactly Catch 22 or Hamlet.
3) The author advises people to read "other books by Mansfield".
4) Knows a few too many facts about prizes "Amway book of the month" - wow what a recommendation. Amway, not exactly Nobel Prize in Literature (which actually Churchill won, so I think there are is a least one book on Churchill that is better written i.e. anything by the man himself).

Anyway, onto the review itself. I am an avid Churchill fan and have read almost everything on the man - I was therefore initially pleased to see an potentially interesting book on his leadership style. Unfortunately this is the first book in my entire life I have actually thrown in the garbage. It was that bad. Forget about the authors "intrusive voice" as one other reviewer puts it (quite rightly) - it is just poorly written and poorly researched. I urge you to read almost any other book on the great man apart from this.

This book can be divided into two main parts. The first half is comprised of short summaries of key events in Winston Churchill's life and political career. These include his adventures during the British/Boer war of South Africa to his more famous role as head of England during WWII.

The second half of the book is a group of short (most being 4 pages long) stories and descriptions of Churchill's perspectives on elements of human life and character. These chapters have titles such as: the Bible, family, loyalty, marriage, death, etc.

For an in-depth biography of this amazing leader, you will need to find another book. But for a short, interesting background on the mind and beliefs of Winston Churchill, this is the perfect buy.

This is a wonderful small book that describles how a man could overcome overwhelming difficulty and oppositions with a firm belief and an exemptional moral courage. In this book you will find Churchill was a fallible, ordinary man who mistakes, but yet achieved extraordinary things despite his limitations. The development of his life shows us how a weak, self-doubted, shy boy to become a strong, energetic, effective leader with nothing but a deep inside guidance to do good. Never give in is the main theme of this book and each chapter reinforces the theme. This is not a "self-help" book that usually tells you how to feel good about yourself. This is a book on character development that takes duty, pain, responsibilities, and more importantly, a deep inside moral guidance. These concepts are quite foreign nowsday and that's what it makes this small standing out.

I found the book to be well laid out and written to allow a wide range of users to understand the operation and configuration of Windows 2000. The examples contained are precise and step by step so that the novice or expert can easily find the path to a well structured operating system in their home or office PC. The forward references found in the initial chapters allow the reader to fast forward to places of special interest or need and delve into the details or specific functions they are searching for. I believe this will be a valuble addition to any Windows 2000 users library.

I found this book to be exactly as advertised. The indexing was easy to follow and the book well written in plain English. There seems to be an understanding for the people that buy this book really need it. My enjoyment of Windows 2000 improved 100% and is still on the up swing. I can, without a minute's hesitation, recommend this book for the beginner and up; I was a beginner in Windows 2000 after all. Thanks for a great book.

I bought this book expecting the usual coverage of how to work with Windows and some theory. I got a lot more. When I ran into problems with my printer, I was able to go into the troubleshooting section and get useful advice on how to fix it. I also found the MSMQ coverage helpful. The company I'm working for is looking at this technology and knowing how to set things up is a real plus.