I am glad this book is so seldom read.

As a sales manager and professional of 14 years, I regard this as the most potent, career-changing, powerful book on the sales process (interpersonal relationships?) ever produced.

I have recommended this book to my sales people if not utilized for themselves then, for no other reason, to protect themselves from manipulation and control techniques in the marketplace.

This book unveils the secrets of NLP (neuro linguisitc programming) and reveals secrets to establish instant bonding and rapport with others, imbed emotional "anchors" in others, and to control other people in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

In the wrong hands, I can see these techniques as being devastating and used for evil.

In any salesperson's hands who executes the techniques and learns the methods, it will jump start his/her career or send a sucessful one into overdrive. Handle with care and ethics.

Reading this book, I have gained knowledge in how to connect with people. I have also learned how to read them, even if they don't know what I am doing. And it is one of my most favorite hobbies.

As human beings, we are constantly interacting with others. And it is up to us to decide what is going on, and how we can influence our experiences.

This is not about abandoning who you are. This book is your chance to enhance who you are.

You will learn how someone's breathing, their eye directions, and their gestures tell you more than their words. You will have the opportunity to step into their shoes -- see, feel, and hear their experiences, so that you connect with them, on an appropriate level.

As for selling, be that a product, a service, or an idea, when you relate to the person you are trying to sell to, you sell yourself, your idea, your services, and your product.

Everyone does this some time in their lives. We all have a method to change another's desires to fit our own. This book will help you to do this more often, and on a deeper level.

And if you can't find this book, read "Instant Rapport," which focuses upon relationship communication.

This book should be mandatory reading for MBAs. It's brilliant in that it takes a complex subject and makes it easy to understand. And the technology is incredible. I highly reccommend this book for those in business, management, and for those who sell.

Great book with great info and pics...but I don`t think a book focusing on a bands career is in anyway complete without details about the equipment used by the band on stage.

This is a brilliant book and one of the few about Queen which are worth buying. BUT - since I'm a collector of live shows myself - I MUST see the errors in setlists - after a brief reading I counted some 10-15 errors. Which of course isn't important to an ordinary fan but it's unpleasant for die-hard ones like me :-)

Greg was probably SOOOOOOO lucky to hear some of the early concerts such as the complete version of Golders Green 1973 gig which we (fans) won't be able to hear for many years... :-(

I thought it is really interesting the listing of all Queen's concerts and there are also some excellent photos, with a great text!! You should try it and add this book to your library!! Brilliant!!!!

I've been known to bristle: to bristle at condescension; to bristle at unsupportable proclamations of absolutes. Therefore, as I read the rhetoric of a Cleanth Brooks, whom I suppose I must admire since he is a very famous critic, I become very much in touch with the things that irritate me about literary criticism: the assumption that intellectual capacities have been too early stymied in the reader and the vacuous and malingering abstractions of those whose lofty intellects we are suppose to gasp at in awe as those intellects fly free of the boundaries imposed by earth's pull, demonstrated verbosity the apparent key to wingless flight. Of course, it may well be argued that I am insecure and find new ideas (even old ones examined anew) both threatening and difficult to understand. Or it may be that my philosophical underpinnings have been too heavily influenced by the Greeks, who were often irritated at hubris. It may be that my concept of literature is that it is an egalitarian resource for the mind, the accessibility of which offers more hope to the humble human than all the legions of self-help authors combined, and that my bristling is in part motivated by exclusionary rhetoric. Ideas need not pander, but neither do they need to float down from on high. So forgive my bristling, but Brooks's parenthetical rhetoric-"The underlying paradox (of which the enthusiastic reader may well be unconscious) is nevertheless thoroughly necessary, even for that reader" (4)-early in The Well-Wrought Urn sets off my hubris alarm bells and leaves me, since I have already been condescended to, alert for the unsupportable absolutes that will surely follow. The first one comes clipping fast upon the heels of "the enthusiastic reader": "The calm of the evening obviously means 'worship,' even to the dull-witted and insensitive" (5). This an absolute enforced through ridicule at dissent, and so far the only thing of substance Brooks has demonstrated is my simple innocence and the punishment that will follow disagreement; however, dwelling upon Brooks's rhetoric may cause us to miss the argument within it.
Therefore, let me leave those bristle-producing elements aside in favor of analyzing the argument, bearing in mind, nonetheless, that Brooks has attempted to hang an ad hominem argument over the head of dissention, much like Dionysius hung the sword above Damocles's head. Let us, however, fear not the snapping horsehair; but neither let us miss the feast for love of our defiance. To wit, writes Brooks: "We resent the arrogance implied in judgments which seem to have any tinge of absoluteness about them, and, as a rule, no profession of personal humility on the part of the critic who renders them is sufficient to assuage us" (216).
True enough, and Brooks anticipates the reaction to his own arrogance and rightly points out that "no profession of personal humility" can redeem the critic thus perceived. However, it is the dismissive reader who might then miss what otherwise flows from Brooks: a cogent and persuasive bit of work. So we must choose to ignore the ever-present condescension that drips off of Brooks like an overworked sweat and acknowledge that he has provided in The Well Wrought Urn both insightful analyses and well-considered argument.
This latter remark may seem a reversal of my intuitive bristling, a step away from my belief that what would follow would be an indefensible absolute. Pshaw. Brooks is, indeed, full of it; that's why he needed to hang the sword. Nonetheless there is a sharp edge to his argument, even if the conclusion fails to pierce with a valid point (Indeed, it is blunted by qualification and contradiction).
To the edge then, if not to the point: Brooks's argument has awakened me to a very profound weakness in my own readings, that weakness being an inattention to textual weave, the connectedness of ideas and imagery. Only inconsistently do I concern myself with the details of poetry and, instead, rely on the stuff to wash over me whole, and only here and there do I perceive its intrarelationships.
Of course, there is validity to having the aesthetic of a thing wash whole over its admirer. I for one can stand in front of a Renoir, mesmerized, over long, unbroken periods of time, sensing the beauty and, indeed, reveling in it. But I am no art critic, no expert on what I am seeing. I experience only effect. All well and good for an art admirer and all that is required. If, however, I am a student of art, technique suddenly becomes an issue. That is, if I am a good student. I must understand each brushstroke-each part-in relation to the whole. I must understand why the work is good. Were I to forgo that understanding, I would be a poor student indeed.
And, in fact, that is what Brooks is saying of poetry and those of us who are students of literature; we must immerse ourselves within the poetry we study and uncover the brushstrokes, the paint daubs, the relationships of colors.

I first read "The Well Wrought Urn" in 1978, when I was a first year grad student. Now I assign it for English majors taking their final undergraduate seminar. "The Well Wrought Urn" is a collection of essays on various poems. The essays were published in various journals in the 1940s. Why is the book still read? It is read because these essays are superb examples of literary criticism at its best: insightful, accessible, graceful, witty. It is read because when one reads a poem, then reads Brooks' essay about it, then reads the poem again, one learns a great deal about how to understand poetry and gain from it meaning and pleasure. Brooks' insights aren't the only valid insights into these poems, but they are good ones. It's not that we read these essays to understand these specific poems, but to understand how to approach any poem. There's a lot of interesting literary criticism available in libraries, though far more is not very interesting or graceful. Few essays, however, are more helpful to students as tools for teaching the technique of literary analysis. Of course, Brooks, as a New Critic, is using a style of literary criticism not presently trendy. Still, the technique of discovering insights about poetry is still the same, no matter what the theory one uses.

The review below this one is worthwhile, but I would suggest that the author misses the joke. What he takes as condescension is a condescension that includes the readers within the circle of initiates. It doesn't scoff at the reader. Thus, it is meant to help English majors think that they are a sort of blessed priesthood who have been initiated into the secrets of the fellowship. (When I was in grad school, that's what I thought we were.) Of course, this is all somewhat tongue in cheek and meant to be witty.

About twelve years ago I had the pleasure of hearing Brooks, then quite elderly (I don't know if he is still alive), present a paper at a conference. I remember him as slim, polite, self-effacing--the essence of the Southern gentleman at his best.

This book, written nearly a half-century ago, has never been out of print. To read it is to see why. With Cleanth Brooks, who taught at Yale for most of his career, you feel as if you are sitting in a seminar with the most brilliant professor you've ever known, one who is also a true gentleman with extraordinary solicitude for his students/readers. He takes you through the poems line by line and helps you to *see* the artistry of the poet at work. And so sparkling is his prose style that the essays are themselves works of art. This book is especially appropriate for students who are just beginning to appreciate poetry.

This book is definitely a motivator. Problem is though, the don't look at the down side. I mean sure they encourage you to sell homemade products to a store. Say the store needs about hundred of your homemade product by tomorrow. How are you supposed to do that? I doesn't look at stuff like that. A lot of the stuff in there is unrealistic, but at the same time it is realistic.

Ms Brooks did a extraordinary job by putting her heart and knowledge to work for young women. As a Dad I wish this literature was available years ago when my daughter was a teen. Anyone of the interesting chapters should be able to inspire a teen or young womam onto an exciting endeavor.

This book is an excellent resource for teens, parents, schools - anyone who knows and loves a teenager. Written in an easily understood and approachable way, Any Girl really teaches teens how they can empower themselves and make a difference in this world. Don't pass this up. Both my little sisters got copies for Christmas.

This is a very colorful book and catches the eye of the youngster. I would recommend it for basic/early bible learning for any toddler. It would be even better though if it came in a board book style so the little ones don't rip the pages, Moms or people with small ones around know.

Each individual Bible story is short and easy to read. The colorful pictures keep their attention. Our children have grown to know the characters and have learned a great deal about them. This is a terrific tool for making children readers of the Word.

I bought this for my 2 year old daughter, and she loves it. She can now identify (and often acts out) the basics of these 39 Bibles stories. They are easy for the young child to understand. They teach only the basics: people, significant event, God's love. On a cognitive level, it teaches what toddlers can understand. There have been times when I have expanded on the details of a given story when my daughter's interest has been high. All in all, it is a great start.

The book Beyond the Myth: The True Story of Joan of Arc was quite good. It provided many facts about Joan: including information on the battles she fought, the people she met, her personality, and her trial. The book also contained facts about the time period in which she lived. With many illustrations and photographs, this book made an interesting and educational read. The only reason why I did not give this book five stars is because in some parts it got a little dull, but overall it was really great. I do recommend you read this book, it's super!

Like many females, I enjoy learning about female historical figures. I want to know as much truth as I can find. The author does exactly that for the reader. This book is a detailed account of the events that triggered Joan d'Arc's dedication to her country and its rightful king. The author traces the history based on documents and other works that have been carefully researched. She provides the reader with the personality traits and beliefs of the time which drove the events that led to Joan's trial and death. Accusations of witchcraft and sorcery were used by church and secular leaders to destroy the young life of a heroic woman because of jealousy, superstition, and shady business surrounding the church and state. In addition, health and medical issues of the times are revealed that are shocking and entertaining. Read this book to learn about Joan, but also about the way people lived. Just learning about the reasons for the need for all those castles made the read worth the time.

I don't generally read non-fiction (I have the non-fictionattention span of a gnat). I'm glad I got my hands on this book. Itwas very well written, and so interesting that I ended up retelling it to several friends. Joan had a fascinating life and the author recaptures it very well.

I found this book both helpful, yet at times it made assertions (generalizations of certain people) that were unsubstantiated.

His development of what he defines as the "centerfld syndrome" was very enlightening for me. I liked the detailed group therapy sessions (he changed subjects names) where he clearly carried the burden of proof (in my eyes) for what comprises the centerfld syndrome - objectification, trophyism, etc. My wife and I read this portion and it helped me to uncover and debunk my own flawed thinking.

His narrow characterizations (on page 74) of anyone who is believes in scripture - that "Such people will have no use for this book" - he clearly shows his lack of judgment and a distinct bias against anyone with a faith in scripture. Not everyone who believes scripture fits his cookie-cutter fallacy of thinking. His ignorant statements to such people can quickly turn off a large population of people who (really need help and) could actually find help through his book if he would simply keep his unfounded opinions of religious people to himself.

I still found his very book helpful. It helped me to see women (and particularly my wife) in a different light and to see a little deeper into the root system of this problem.

There are portions of his book that helped me to see the flaws in my patterns of thinking. This has helped me find some freedom and has helped my relationship with my wife to a degree.

I really wish he had spent more time at the end developing the topics that were supposed to help a person find freedom in the last chapter "Overcoming the centerfld syndrome". I wish he would have spent more time on pesonal change rather than changing culture. The areas for personal change were very under-developed. I was eager to find more information on that. It was really disappointing. I read this book to help me to change and to enhance my marriage. I have more power over changing my own life and marriage (with God's grace) than I do an ENTIRE society.

He could have moved much or all of the descriptive content of cultural change to the middle of the book describing and supporting the tenants of the centerfld syndrome.

The best part of the book is where he develops the tenants of the centerfld syndrome. He develops this area masterfully.

I will still keep this book on my shelf, I just know what parts were helpful and which ones were half-baked.

Finally a man who can see the dangers and manipulation of pornography. I am glad that the other side of the story is being told as porn seems to be filtering into all aspects of our lives. Men are conditioned to look at women as sex objects from an early age. I do not see how anyone can argue that this does not have an impact on their views (especially in relation to women). Men are taught to look at numerous women - one is never enough - women who are naked and ready for them. Plus with airbrushing and computerization the pictures are not close to reality furthur adding fuel to the fire by reducing womeans self esteem to the very core - by judging us solely on how we look naked. Another area of concern is the number of women willing to deform and distort there bodies (usually with excessively large implants) and how this is glamourized in our society. Pornography is damaging to all members of society not just women as the book explains. Its time women and men were educated on the dangers of pornography. A great first step is to read this book.

This is a very worth while book. I've got 6 other books on the matter and this one by far gives men the most credit and options for improving their sexual outlook. I am a women who recently found out that her boyfriend had been hiding a cyberporn addiction even though he promised no more porn once we moved in together. He is 37 years old and picked this porn habit up from his father. He has gotten past much of his upbringing (the good ol'south) to see most women in a positive light--at least professionally. Big problem though that he compartmentalizes porn mentally as something that has no effect on our sexuality as a couple. I believe that he was enculturated to see women as objects for his pleasure and the book's author makes strong cases for this. Part of the problem is the Madonna/Whore thing and that the women in porn don't really seem like they are human at all to these guys--just parts to fixate on. Porn persuades men to seek self-indulgent fantasy and to shun intimacy with real women. This has really hurt our relationship because he's so fixated on himself/his body, that it becomes difficult for him to reach out to me even though we used to have a fantastic rewarding relationship just this time last year. I have read the book and feel better--I only hope that he will read it and do the work in the last chapter. We are in therapy now--but this sort of thing has all types of defenses wrapped around it and is fortified by denial and shame. Anyway--get this book, it is worth it. Just wish there was a workbook to go along with it. That would really help.

This book, though unenjoyed by adults, will fascinate teenagers. I felt strange chills and goosebumps when i read this book, many of the things that Maggie, the main character feels, are similar to the normal feelings of a fifteen year old. The feelings of "envy" over a more "perfect" friend, that fear in losing trust, but that fear of losing the person altogether at the same time. A compelling read.

I am a teenager that has gone through almost everything that this book mentions. This book tells what it is like to be a teenager with all the pressures and hard times in todays world. The Empty Summer made me laugh and cry. I have thought about suicide and have friends that have too this is a wonderful book and shows that no matter what you do have friends who care. I would love to read another book like this but I feel that no other book could be this wonderful!

I thought this was one of the best books that I have read. I could relate to Maggie. Not being satisfied with yourself. Always wishing you were someone or something else. I feel that this is a common feeling teens have today. I highly encourage you to read this book. If you are like me, you'll love it!

Funny, more tightly plotted than usual, maybe the all around best Freddy title.
When I was a kid, I started reading "Flying Saucer Plans," found it not particularly compelling, and forgot about Freddy for many years.
Recently, I was casting about for something to read to my six year old son, who doesn't like much of anything except Esther Averill's "Cat Club" books (and we'd read all of those we could find), and decided to try "Florida," and we've been reading Freddy non-stop ever since.
I'm growing very fond of Brooks' gentle, character driven, sometimes satirical humor. I do have a few problems with the books. Brooks' relentless use of "pretty" as an all-purpose intensifier drives me up a wall, and if some editor had only crossed out "pretty" on sight I'd probably enjoy the books about twice as much (I drop "pretty" when reading aloud). I also wouldn't mind if he used "were" instead of "was" for the subjunctive occasionally. And the less of Freddy's poetry we get, the better.
But "Florida," "Detective," "Wiggins for President" (his best title, too bad it had to be changed), and "Ignormus" are certainly classics, and all the ones we've read have had their moments. I'm happy they're back and that I'm finally reading them. Eventually I'll work my way back up to those 50s sci-fi Freddies and see if I like 'em any better...
Never trust a man who would steal from a rhinoceros,
Edward

This is another one of the Freddy books written after Walter R. Brooks began to hit his stride as a writer. Here, the Bean farm is being terrorized by the minions of a creature, called the Ignormus, who lives in the Big Woods. As usual, lots of fun and excitement, and several excellent lessons, none of which are preached at the reader.

I consider this the best book in my all-time favorite children's book series. It has humor, wonderful characters, a tight plot, and even a hint of symbolism worthy of another American classic, Moby Dick.

Back Cover description: When Hawk Mallen took over the company Joanne worked for, it seemed he'd taken over her life, as well-expecting his new assistant to be at his command day and night! And when he offered Joanne a dream promotion, she realized she'd be at his side almost twenty-four hours a day....
Working so closely with Hawk, Joanne found it hard to ignore how irresistibly sexy he was. She was determined not to have and affair with her boss, but what if Hawk wasn't looking for a mistletoe mistress-but a wife?

OK, I liked Hawk's character, but I wasn't crazy about Joanne; as much as she stood firm in her convictions she also seemed to whine. The first couple of chapters were a little hard to take. She confronts the new boss with info based on gossip, finds out her mistake and resigns (or is going to). When she gets the new promotion, she doesn't change the secretary? Bits and pieces worked, but the whole plot came across as fragmented. Also, she never becomes his mistress--who chooses these titles?

Again a wonderful book from Helen Brooks about having a relationship with the boss.First resistance then love and acceptance...

One of the most romantic books I've read. Hawk is everything you'd want the hero to be, except that his proposition is lacking in the marriage department. Nevertheless he makes it very obvious from the start that he wants a commitment but doesn't believe in marriage, something he views merely as a legality, not necessarily more binding. Joanne, a virgin is independent, highly intelligent and successful. They sizzle. Great story.