Many of the ideas in "bodacious" will sound familiar, since Mary Foley is advising women to be more assertive, strategic, competitive and political. It's the formula men have long used to get ahead, but Foley addresses her counsel directly to women, along with tips on how to overcome traditional ideals about acting feminine. Hardnosed or not, Foley writes in an engaging way, as she combines personal growth suggestions with examples from success stories, including her own. After a ten year career starting as a customer service rep, she became an AOL millionaire and retired. Now an author, speaker and personal coach, she dispenses advice in a catchy, casual style, which makes even familiar suggestions interesting. While some men may find it interesting to eavesdrop on these lists and reminders for women in the workplace, we from getAbstract recommend Foley's breezy career boost to women white collar and professional employees who are ready to pump up on pep talk.

Bodacious is a true "wake up call" for any woman who has put herself second especially in the work world. Through Mary's personal experiences, the reader has a multitude of opportunities to examine her choices and come to terms with what is and is not working in her life. Bodacious is written in small bites, with depth and humor, and is very compelling. I've already recommended it to several friends who are stuck in their own lives and who I believe can benefit from Mary's straight-forward insight. Every woman can be "Bodacious". It's all about choice!

AOL insider Foley experienced vast changes in her life as she moved from a customer service job at a computer company to heading the exploding AOL company. Bodacious! is both an autobiography of her experiences and a behind-the-scenes examination of AOL's start-up process and what it means to be a businesswoman in today's corporations. Included here are tips on how women can take control of the corporate world.

Unbelievably entertaining. I recommend this to any friend with a joy for tongue-in-cheek humor. I enjoyed the absurd coincidences and irreverent look at the things we wll take too seriously. I've read it half a dozen times and will read it again when I need to put things back in perspective.

I have given this book to a number of friends and have learned that those who can laugh at the darker side of life love this book. Find it. Keep it. Share it.

Essentially everybody is having the kind of time that the Cary Grant character has in the movie "Bringing Up Baby," and it's all happening at the same time, and all tightly interrelated, yet it's not at all confusing. Somehow through all the silliness, real feelings are expressed and real "philosophies of life" interact. It's very funny and very clever.

When my daughter told me some of the storyline from this book, I thought she was making it all up. But when I read it myself, I couldn't believe it. This book jumps from one crazy disaster to another. Kids' books sure are different than when I was growing up.

I'm always having difficulties finding books that keep my daughter's attention, but she absolutely loved this book! She said it was one of the wackiest, funniest books that she's ever read. In fact, she's read it several times over now.

This is one of the most bizarre children's books that I have ever read. After my son read the book, he urged me to read it as well. I must say, I have never seen anything quite like this in a kid's book before. I can understand why kids would love this book.

Martha Finney's In The Face Of Uncertainty interviews over twenty top leaders on the future challenges of doing business in America. Major CEOs and Presidents from various sectors, from nonprofits to government, provide insights on the future workforce and its special needs.

In the aftermath of the horrific events of September 11, 2001, it was inevitable that publishers would rush to produce books that would respond to the events and move us forward in history. We could expect all sorts of quality in content and production. The AMACOM contribution is worth reading, sharing, and keeping.

The author is a veteran business journalist, management consultant, and speaker-the kind of person you'd expect to be able to communicate with respected leaders and draw out their thoughts, their feelings, and their advice. At a time that solid perspectives are needed, this book provides them.

Let's talk about content first-the people who contributed to this work through their interviews. One might expect the customary parade of overpaid CEOs whose public relations agents seek more opportunities to gain image-building exposure. All the major companies would be represented, including the ones that are flaming out because of deficiencies in the very leadership that we need.

Surprise! The interviewees are much more diverse, not always the top dog, and some are even retired. They're included in the book because they have something worthwhile to say...and be heard. While including lists like this are not particularly recommended in book reviews, I feel it's appropriate in this case. Their interviews, incidentally, are presented in alphabetical order to avoid suggesting that any is more important than another.

You'll learn from Grant Aldonas, Under Secretary, International Trade, US Department of Commerce; John Alexander, President, Center for Creative Leadership; Charles Barclay, President, American Association of Airport Executives; Curtis Carlson, CEO & President, SRI International; Michael Carns, General (retired), US Air Force; Peggy Conlon, CEO & President of the Ad Council; Leo Daly III, Chairman & President, Leo O. Daly; Ronald Daly, President, R. R. Donnelley Print Solutions; Ralph Dickerson, President, United Way of New York City; Gerald Fitzgerald, President, PB Aviation; Joe Galli, President & CEO, Newell Rubbermaid; Stephen Harrison, President, Lee Hecht Harrison; Chester Haskell, President, Monterey Institute for International Studies; Sunir Kapoor, Founder, E-Stamp; Christopher Komisarjevsky, CEO Worldwide & President, Burston-Marsteller; James Lawrence, Chief Financial Officer, General Mills; Howard Learner, Executive Director, Environmental Law & Policy Center; James Madden V, Chairman, CEO, & President, Exult; Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman & CEO, Carlson Companies; Marjorie Randolph, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Walt Disney Studios; Leonard Schaeffer, Chairman & CEO, WellPoint Health Networks; Theodore Shackley, Associate Director of Operations (retired), Central Intelligence Agency; Ken Smith, CEO, President, & Founder, Jobs for America's Graduates; William Strickland, CEO & President, Manchester Bidwell Corporation, Tai-Chin Tung, Chief Financial Officer, Charles Schwab, and an epilogue with William Bridges, Principal, William Bridges & Associates.

The style of this book is comfortably different. As familiar as we all are with e-mail and chat room threads, this book is easy to read. The interviewer's question is shown in one type style, followed by the response in another. Reading this book is like reading a series of well-edited e-mail messages. This is a book you can get into . . . and get hooked on.

One more selling point, in my estimation, is the index. Just reading through the indexed topics is a lesson unto itself, to see what topical areas were addressed most frequently.

Diversity, depth, and determination make this book. The diversity of the participants, the depth of their remarks, and the determination of the author deliver for the reader.

Martha Finney's insightful interviews with 25 distinguished American executives (actually 26, when the fine bonus interview at the end is added in) present uncommon wisdom on a wide range of critical contemporary issues from an equally wide range of perspectives. The starting point is the terrifying attacks of September 11, 2001 and the new uncertainties they have suddenly thrust into all our lives; bur the breadth of responses is far greater, for this varied group from richly diverse fields -- from business to technology to education to philanthropy to the CIA, and more -- offers advice on lifetime concerns that challenge us all. What makes this volume especially valuable is Martha Finney's ability to ask penetrating follow-on questions that elicit equally penetrating answers. The format of the interviews is especially good in that each unfolds a line of inquiry specific to the interviewee, and then concludes with the same three questions for all: (1)What are you certain of? (2)What are you uncertain of? and (3)What is the essential ingredient for resilience? The result is that the reader has both a set of unique occupation-related perspectives and a remarkable comparison on the questions of certainty and uncertainty; and on the latter -- despite the variety of fields represented -- there is remarkable consensus. Read this fine book and find out!

20 years ago I read the incomplete memoirs they were excellent this edition adds some unpublished material, many cross-references and footnotes which I found nice to have, the compilers Rosell & Dupuis have done a great job. The book itself is very inspiring.

Mind you when I've drifted a little from God I found Finney objectionable, to hard to take! but when I've gone down the track of James 4:8 "draw near to God and God will draw near to you, cleanse your hands you sinners, purify your heart you double-minded" then Finney speaks as one who has faithfully gone down that path before me and as one who knows how to give good clear instructions on how to progress effectively! Good bye dead-religion, hello God.

I also highly recommend his "Revival Lectures". I have learn't more on answered prayer, effectiveness, revivals and my relationship with God from Finney's books than any other (outside the Bible) and I have many many answers to prayer to suggest it isn't just theory or dead words.

Best wishes to all.

Charles Finney is THE posterboy for American evangelicals--at least when the subject of revival is raised. Finney is lauded for his zeal, the crowds he drew, etc. What so many fail to note is that Finney WAS A HERETIC. Plain and simple. He denied the sinfulness of man, the death of Christ for the sins of man (he denied the imputation of our sin to Christ, and Christ's righteousness to us), and salvation by faith alone. So why did I give this book a five star rating? Because Messrs Rosell and Dupuis don't whitewash a thing about Finney--they give us the heretic, warts and all. There have been sanitized versions of Finney's memoirs on the market for years, but now the curtain is lifted, and we can see Finney's fishy theology for what it is, and from the source. This quote from Chapter 4 is significant: "[I could not believe] that men were utterly unable to comply with the terms of the Gospel, to repent, to believe, or to do anything that God required them to do. That while they were free to all evil, in the sense of being able to commit any amount of sin, yet they were in regard to all that was good. That God had condemned men for their sinful nature, and for this, as well as for their transgressions, they deserved eternal death, and were under condemnation...That men were passive in regeneration; and in short...the fact of a nature sinful in itself. These doctrines I could not receive. I could not receive his [George Gale, Finney's pastor] views on the subject of atonement, regeneration, faith, repentance, the slavery of the Will [sic] or any of their kindred doctrines." (pg. 48)

It should be noted that George Gale was a Presbyterian minister, and held to the doctrinal stance outlined in the Westminster Confession of Faith. That Finney did not hold to the WCF is clear from his account of his ordination:

When they [the ordination committee] had examined me, they voted unanimously to license me to preach. Unexpectedly to myself they asked me if I received the [Westminster] Confession of faith of the Presbyterian church. I had not examined it--that is, the large work, containing the Catechisms and Presbyterian confession. This had made no part of my study. I replied that I received it for substance of doctrine, so far as I understood it. But I spoke in a way that plainly implied, I think, that I did not pretend to know much about it. However, I answered honestly, as I understood it at the time." (pp.53-54.) The Westminster Confession of Faith, while unashamedly Calvinistic, still contains an understanding of justification that all major denominations would agree on; even those who would reject its Calvinism. Thus, for Finney to repudiate the WCF shows his flaming heresy.

That Finney didn't have a grasp of orthodox theology is evident from the assessment of George Gale after hearing Finney's first sermon: "When I came out of the pulpit [George Gale] said to me:'Mr. Finney, I shall be very much ashamed to have it known, wherever you go, that you studied theology with me.'" (Finney refused a chance to study at Princeton Seminary, claiming financial hardship. When he was told his tuition would be provided for, he still refused, stating that the Princeton grads he knew, George Gale included, "were not ministers that met my ideal at all of what a minister of Christ should be" (pg. 47.) (Why Finney consented to study with Gale, when it was plain how he felt about Gale, and Gale's theology, is beyond me. But then again, how he could deny all the cardinal tenents of orthodoxy and still be licensed by Gale and others is also beyond me.)

There is much more to this book than the portion I have chosen to concentrate on, and it is all interesting. I am just happy to find, in plain English, and his own words, evidence of Finney's heretical beliefs. I am tired of people accusing me of slander when I charge Finney with heresy; now I can prove it. This book is full of fascinating history, bad theology, and juicy narrative. If you are a Finney fan or foe, you should read this book--you won't be disappointed.

I first read Finney's Memoirs when I was around 18, and it ignited within me a passion for revival that has not ceased. This edition, with all of its additions and footnotes, makes the Memoirs even more exciting.

Finney was used of God to birth revivals through intercessory prayer and preaching against sin in both America and England. Someone has said that 90% of his converts stayed true to the faith (about 10% of Billy Graham's stay).

In his Memoirs, written when he was in his 70's, Finney shares how God saved him, baptized him with the Holy Ghost, and immediately began using him in the conversion of souls. Formerly he was a lawyer, but he gave it up in order to become an evangelist. He tells stories from various revival meetings, including the humorous (and awe-inspiring) revival in the town of Sodom, with it's one righteous man -- Lot! He also shares how the Lord led him to give a series of lectures on revival, which were later published in book form and used by God to bring revival in various countries, including China through the ministry of Jonathan Goforth in the early 1900s.

If you're hungry for revival and more of God today; if the state of the modern church upsets you, then read this book.

Delightful. Thought provoking. Deeply spiritual. Humor filled. Visually beautiful.
The haikus are excellent. The photographs provide additional meaning. This is a generous offering of quick bites of love.

We have read and re-read this gem of a book of haikus, being always drawn back to it to experience again the essence of one and then another poem. Each is in its way like a melody that resonates and haunts. Lynne Finney's "Windows to the Light" shows us the miraculous power of a few inspired words, accompanied by wonderful pictures, to illuminate the truths that bind the spirit and the manifest. She reminds us that:
Hidden within us
is a bud of light we are
here to make blossom.

Lynne D. Finney's collection of poetry is a wonderful book that celebrates life with wisdome and humor. The art which accompanies each poem significanlty enhances the meaning. This is a book which everyone will enjoy. I plan to give copies at Christmas.

This is one of the most charming children's books I've read in ages. I bought one copy for my neice and another for my god-daughter. The author is really gifted.

Isra the Butterfly is a delightful and charming book for children ages four to eight. Isra is young, but wants to play with her older sisters and wants to leave Butterfly Land so that she can venture out into the outside world. Warned by her mother and under the supervision of her sisters, she's still convinced that she can move her wings quickly enough to escape any danger. Unfortunately, she's not as quick as she believes and is caught and taken to Show and Tell.

Young-Robinson has given us a careful blend of adventure for the children as well as lessons on obeying parents. I loved this book and would definitely recommend it to others. Finley's illustrations are an added bonus to this book and beautifully portray Isra, her family, and the children in the outside world.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal...

This is a thoroughly delightful little tale of Isra the Butterfly and her desire to see the world where boys and girls live. Isra gets her wish, has a great adventure and gets a wonderful lesson about the importance of family and home. This is a book to read while curled in a comfortable chair with your child. A great story with a sweet, wonderful butterfly as the main character. Your child will love it.

I was reluctant to read another tell-all by yet another transsexual. As a "trans" person and sociologist studying these issues, who has read a thousand books on the subject, the last thing I wanted to hear was another account of playing dress-up at age three and all the sordid details thereafter. Yet friends insisted, despite myself, that I read just the first chapter. I was hooked by the author's delicate, nuanced brushstrokes. The short story format and staggered chronology gave me the feeling of how this life had been interrupted and jerked around by the social forces of stigma and conformity. I felt intimately connected to the author and, ultimately, to my own life.

Jennifer Finney Boylan presents her story with courage, humor, and intelligence. Many autobiographies of transsexuals end up being read mostly by other transsexuals and transgendered people, but this one is a good story and entertaining--not to mention informative--for everyone. Boylan is such a wonderful writer that one can not help but be carried away by her story. I found this book hard to put down. And, be sure not to skip the afterward by Richard Russo, which brought tears to my eyes.

First, this book should be read with Richard Russo's Empire Falls. Russo plays an important role in this book as Jim/Jenny's best friend, and he was writing that book while Jenny was undergoing her transition. He also contributed a beautifully written afterword to Jenny's book. Buy both books together!

Second, only a comic writer of Boylan's skill could take such an incredibly sad story and find so much humor in it. This book isn't so much a story of a transgendered individual as it is a story of the triumph of humor over even the most difficult obstacles. As in Boylan's novels, this book confronts the essential absurdity of human existence, and finds hope in love and loyalty and friendship. The gender bending premise of this book may attract curious readers, but Boylan doesn't sensationalize this subject. She simply tells a good story that both enlightens and entertains.

HR From the Heart is a must read for human resource professionals, and anyone hoping to more effectively lead and manage their organizational talent. In a time where human capital offers perhaps the greatest opportunity for productivity gains within businesses, dealing with our human resources in a strategic, yet personal way is more important than ever. This book provides concrete advice combined with inspiring anecdotes that make it well worth time spent for managers everywhere.

Finally, here's a book that gives us the tools and wisdom for navigating a career in human resounces. While there are hundreds of management and organization development books or books that describe one aspect of the human resource function, this is the first book I've seen that offers itself as a trusted friend that will help you not only do your job better but also take your career to the top. Coming from Libby Sartain, it's not just theory. She's been there herself every step of the way. Warning. If you're used to the typically formal business book personality, HR From the Heart will come as a shock. Sartain's person-to-person style breaks the mold. Read this book and you'll want to invite her to your house for dinner. In fact, you'll feel as though you already have!

Libby Sartain lives what she writes. She's truly "been there, done that", and now she's finally sharing her hard won expertise with a worldwide audience. Having served valiantly in every HR job from entry level recruiter to Senior VP, she is no academic peering in from the sidelines, but an impassioned, veteran player in the heat of the game. And having built world class HR teams for such top performing organizations as Southwest Airlines and now Yahoo!, she uses real world experiences and stories to vividly illustrate " a day in the life of an HR leader". Don't let the title fool you...this book is not only for HR folks; it's an indispensable guide for any manager in any discipline keen to learn more about the human side of entreprise. This no nonsense coaching playbook is the first ever aimed at "new breed" HR professionals who are business people first and HR practitioners second. It's packed with useful anecdotes, success stories, tips, and "how to do it" advice that's clear, cogent and cost effective. It's especially useful for HR leaders here in Asia who want to become trusted business partners with what Libby calls " a seat at the table", ie., the respect of top management. She shows them, in simple, practical steps, how to apply "best of the best" HR practices in their own rapidly growing organizations. Speaking from the heart, Libby eschews buzzwords...she's terse, tough minded and definitive...she has a clear, unambiguous agenda and she pulls no punches. Reading this is like sitting in with her for a one on one coaching session... and best of all, you can put the game plan into practice straightaway! Underlying the stories and lessons is Libby's passion for her profession, her love of the game, and her warmth, wit and sense of humor that she uses so effectively to bring focus and pespective to to the task of building a world class talent machine.

Some books get to the heart of things. "I Don't Want to Talk about It" is one of them. I could say that it's a skillful psychological examination of the feelings a girl experiences when her parents announce that they plan to divorce. That would be true. But this girl expresses real emotions in ways a kid can completely understand with gobbling crocodiles and prickly porcupines. The animal metaphors make room for energetic pictures by Kathryn Kunz Finney. The lively text and illustrations raise this book head and shoulders above the standard divorce books.

The text covers the issue of divorce excellently. The "Note to Parents" at the end of the book is a wonderful tool for parents considering divorce or at at any stage of the process. This book is a "must have" for helping children sort through divorce issues AND it is SO MUCH MORE! Less abstract than 'My Many Colored Days' by Dr. Suess, this book is very effective! Through the use of animal imagery 'I Don't Want to Talk About It' covers the range of emotion a child might feel during ANY transitional time. As Director of Children's Ministry, I have used it to open discussion with assorted ages of children dealing with various issues. The kids compare their feelings or situation with the girl in the book. In my book 'I Don't Want to Talk About It' transcends the ages, the issues, and is a lot to talk about.

Children have a hard enough time dealing with their parents' divorce without getting patronizing advice from grownups who think they know better. This book speaks to children on their level, and gives them a chance to realize that although their lives will change, their parents' love for them will not. Children need to know that the things they count on the most will always be there, and this book helps reassure them that they will be OK despite what's going on with mom and dad.