I would highly recommend this book for those of you who are convinced big business will eventually destroy our earth.

I was impressed that a non-scientist/engineer would even attempt to write a book like this. His excitement about the potential for saving the environment came through in his text. He laid out the goals his company had set for achieving a state beyond zero waste, returning to the earth as much as was taken from it. I believe it takes a visionary to apply such abstract ideas and commit to making them real. And the fact that he was able to make a business arguement for sustainable development was reassuring because, realistically, if businesses can be convinced that this will help them make money, it is much more likely to happen. That's clearly what I saw with the pollution prevention movement and it just might happen here.

This book deserves more than five stars.

Mr. Anderson has taken an important step forward in leading Interface Corporation towards becoming ecologically neutral. By that phrase, ecologically neutral, I mean taking nothing from and adding nothing to the environment. This concept has become a popular one in Europe beginning in Sweden, in the form of The Natural Step, but has been much more slowly adopted in the United States. Those who are interested in understanding the processes by which a company can pursue improved environmental performance will find many helpful examples in Mid-Course Correction.

What if you don't care about your company's impact on the environment? Mr. Anderson makes a powerful argument based on his experiences at Interface that you should. First, it is much cheaper to produce goods and services if you use less materials and waste less. This means higher profits. Do you care about profits? Second, the pursuit of sustainability attracts many new customers and better supplier relationships. That also means higher profits. Third, people feel better about themselves. Do you like to feel better about yourself? Fourth, perhaps you should rethink your position about the environment. Even if we have enough for now, if we waste it, we are robbing our own descendents at some point of a good quality life. Mr. Anderson describes many cases of where despoilage of nature from overuse has been very expensive and undesirable by anyone's standard.

He also cites many of the leading books on the benefits of an ecologically sustainable business world. In fact, this movement will become a disruptive technology by making those who waste unable to compete with those who do not. Think about it.

To me, the value in the book is in Mr. Anderson's fine example of how to lead towards becoming environmentally sustainable as a company. I have been aware of most of the arguments in favor of this (including The Natural Step), but could not imagine how an American company would go about pursuing this goal. I also could not imagine how it could be reconciled with public ownership of stock. So much for my tiny imagination. Now, with Mr. Anderson's book, I can understand (and so can you) that becoming a sustainable enterprise is simply good business as well as being a good citizen. That will make sense to almost anyone.

After you read this wonderful book, I encourage you to share you copy with another person and ask them to do the same. This message needs to be spread if our companies are to fulfill their potential, and we are to have a world that we can all be proud of and enjoy living in. Then, I urge you to take this one step further, and think about how your family could become an ecologically sustainable unit.

Do good and do well!

Ray Anderson is the CEO of Interface Corporation, a manufacturer of carpet tiles for businesses and hotel chains. After reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce and Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, Anderson revolutionized his beliefs and how his company does business. He is now striving for 100-percent sustainability by having zero waste, reusing materials, not using non-renewable resources, such as petroleum, and by leasing his carpet rather than selling it. Why this is important: 1) The obvious reasons such as not being wasteful and polluting, 2) Interface is now a model for all industry, 3) Anderson shows how sustainability is more profitable, and 4) Anderson's model shows that it only takes changing minds to be a successfully revolutionary--not street protests, letters to the editor, petitions, meditation, spiritual consciousness, believing in God, lobbying Congress, protesting governments and/or corporations, and all the typically tried and often painfully slow ways to enact positive change. Brilliant.

Being an Eagle Boy Scout, I was prepared for everything. In fact, I was so prepared I could hardly carry my pack. Ray Jardine has shown me a new way: less is more. Less weight is more enjoyment while backpacking.

The book was great if you can keep an open mind. The book can really change your hiking style.

Last summer I walked 515 miles using the techniques in Jardines book. I walked through the entire state of Washington. I encountered rain, snow, mosquitos galore and a host of other problems that were all easily handled with the techniques outlined in Ray's book. I even made my own backpack on an old Singer sewing machine with the plans in the book. I wore running shoes the whole way. I finished the hike in 23 days, counting the five rest days I took. This book is excellant, not to mention well written.

"At this moment, there are a hundred thousand madmen of our species wearing hats killing or being killed by a hundred thousand other animals wearing turbans and that over almost all the face of the earth this has been the custom from time immemorial?" Voltaire speaking, possibly on the Iraq crisis?--In fact, Voltaire has something to teach us all on practically every subject I could think of in my free-wheeling literary comedy, 3A Visit From Voltaire,2 (amazon.co.uk) and this book was one of the most basic texts I could find in English before moving on to the French originals. It1s helpful to have read a biography of Voltaire--and Ben Ray Redman's introduction is one of the best quickie bios available with real insight into the man's personality--in order to put all these riches of Voltaire1s thoughts and writings into some kind of political context. I shamefully abused and excused the Wigged One's sayings and witticisms in my novel, but especially students need this delightfully condensed resource with a reliable feel for translation.
Dinah Lee Küng

With a shelf-full of books about the man to work from, this was my most dogged-eared English-language source for his many quips used and abused in my literary comedy, A Visit from Voltaire" (amazon.co.uk) because I needed to know how he actually sounded, to complement in-depth research into his struggle to Ecrasez-infame! It's well-organized, and checking the translations, I found they captured the spirit of Voltaire very well.
Voltaire afficionado
Dinah Lee Küng

This volume provides a wonderful introduction to the writings and thought of one of the great cynics of the ages. Voltaire exemplifies the age of reason in his questioning of both authority and the prevailing beliefs of his day. His writing as presented here is very accessable and this book can be picked up and opened to any selection and read with enjoyment. An excellent intro for the general reader.

This is the kind of book you can't put down.It has many charecters.Well its basicly a group of kids who can turn into monsters\myths\ legends.Anyone,no everyone should read this book.It's a suspence\thriller\ action\adventure put togethether in one.I've read it about 4 times.If only it had made it or got more publicity it'd be a top seller.You just have to read it.If you have the chance to buy it BUY IT!.You wont regret it.

This book was almost the best of the series. nI mean you wouldn't expect a normal kid like Joel Cook to be the only one with the ability to talk to the chipekwe through the mask. You would expect either Rilo of one of the kids with powers to be the one to talk to the mystical creatures. I guess it is good that Joel came on the trip. I don't think the kids would have been able to survive without him.

I've read this book and I think that it is great.It's not as good as #4 but it's still good.

The Civil War had many campaigns, and numerous battles. Most of them have been chronicled at one time or another. The battle of Fort Fisher, in North Carolina near Wilmington, was wonderfully written about a decade ago in Confederate Goliath by noted historian Rod Gragg. Gragg's book however, finishes with the end of the battle, and has nothing or next to it to say about the ensuing campaign to capture the city of Wilmington itself. The campaign as a whole is the subject of Chris Fonvielle's book, which has a larger scope than Gragg's excellent work, and is equally skilled.

Fonvielle is a southerner, and was a resident of Wilmington at the time the book was written. Since I had just finished another book that was originally published by Savas publishing (Last Chance for Victory) and I had hacked it to pieces here as unreasonably pro-Confederate, I was somewhat apprehensive when I started this book. No worries, Fonvielle is balanced, forthright, and very careful with the issues and participants on both sides. The result is a wonderful depiction of the campaign and battle as they occurred, with a number of wonderful anecdotes. The author also does a masterful job of depicting the strategic context of the campaign and battle, and their impact on the war's last phase.

I've read a number of books on the Civil War. This one has excellent maps and illustrations, is well-thought-out and concise, without being either cursory or overly brief, and is well-documented. I would recommend this book to any Civil War buff.

This is history written right. From the details of the major battles for Fort Fisher, the defense of Fort Anderson, right down to the smaller actions around this important port city, the author covers all. Being a student of Maj. General W.H.C. Whiting, I was amazed to see the only known, full length photo of him, published for the first time. The maps are wonderful, especially the fold outs. Written portraits of all the players are included in the text, without bias. The author is a native of Wilmington, and his love for the area shows with this work. 130+ years after the final battles of the war were fought, Wilmington's story is told.

A great book covering the entire Wilmington expedition. The maps really set it apart from any other Civil War book, being very detailed. As far as the Fort Fisher portion of the book, I think Rod Gragg's "Confederate Goliath" is an easier, more engrossing read. The closing of Wilmington is by far my favorite series of battles during the Civil War, but I must admit that after the capture of Fort Fisher, its a pretty big bore.

Katie Wood Ray has made a very readable, very usable book to help teachers teach students to 'read like writers'. I use the ideas when I am reading and reviewing new children's literature and each time I begin writing instruction with my elementary remedial students. Truly shows how to integrate student writing and good children's literature.

As a writer of children's books and a second grade teacher, I refer to this book often - for support, guidance, affirmation, ideas, writing help, and more. It is perfect!

I hope to have the opportunity to cross paths with the author one day...I'd love to see her speak!

I recommend it all the time to teaching colleagues, friends, writers, and editors.

I have enjoyed everyword of this book. I am an aspiring English teacher who is fortunate enough to have Katie Ray's guidance as a professor and mentor. This book is one of the few that I will not sell back. This unique way of teaching writing writing is creative, relaxing, and enjoyable for both the teacher and the student. No matter what grade you teach you need this book! Katie has an amazing gift as a teacher and a writer which she expresses wonderfully in this book.

Though this text is certainly an excellent attempt at rethinking the problems in which film studies has become trapped, it is also a useful model for new approaches within the wider disciplines of English and cultural studies. Top notch and very readable!!

Wow! The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy is the best book on film that has ever been published. Ray's use of Andy Hardy is a perfect vehicle for understanding film in general. This book's scholarship is deep without being obscure or boring in any way. Ray's clear writing allows even the most novice reader to understand his most profound ideas. Yet, serious cinema afficadadios still have a great deal to learn from this master. Ladies and Gentlemen, Harvard publishes this book for a reason. The Avant-Garde Finds Andy Hardy is film study at its best.

I am a film student from Australia and Ray's book 'A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Film' was one of the best texts I have read on American cinema. I haven't read this, his more recent book yet but want to deperately. I live in Japan and would like to know its availablity.

I really enjoyed this accesory. All the charachters are fleshed out and belivable. Its added a lot to my planescape campaign.

This book is alot of fun to read! Instead of just giving game information on the NPCs (Non-Player characters), the reader is also given an idea of each character's believable personality and story. These guys aren't cardboard cut-outs. Before long, the reader starts to feel like they're actual people who live next-door!

The best part is that each characters' story is connected to each other in some sort of indirect network.

TSR did a good job in making a living, breathing book. Not only is this a game reference book, but a well-crafted story book too!

This book also has strong connections to FACTION WAR and IN THE CAGE: A GUIDE TO SIGIL. It also has some connections to the other Planescape products.

In this book you can see people in Sigil that think in very strange forms. people that think in your factions and they living for something.

This book changed the way I see the world around me. It's one of those rare books that effectively help make sense of the "sublime" natural of reality. Books like the Celestine Prophecy try in their new-age way to address this concept of symbolic language around us, but this book is not fluff; it marries the esoteric with psychological principals, and does it in a demonstrably REAL way.

Fantastic reading. Buy it now.

This book represents the best, most comprehensive, exposition of the symbolist world view in a single volume. Infact, if I wanted to truly understand the deep, fundamental roots of mysticism or occultism, this is the book that I would read first. Symbolism stands in contrast to stark materialism in that it assigns inherent Meaning to the world. Symbolism holds that this physical, material world is the lowest level of reality and not it's totality, as "science" would have us believe. The lower levels merely reflect the archetypical currents, patterns, and laws of the higher: "As above, so below." To personally validate this mode of thinking in one's own life is to experience permanent mind shift. You never see creation as dead, sterile, and meaningless again. What more can one ask of a book or a teaching?

Ray Grasse clearly outlines many thought processes which open the reader's mind in several fields of metaphysical studies. The reading level is some what high, so a good base of study on archetypes, Eastern theology, and all around understanding of the Crusades of the Light Warriors are helpful. Great book. A must have for reference and study.

Francis Ray's, "Until Christmas" is a touching novella about a young woman who not only touched the heart of the high school principal, Ethan Rawlings, but Samantha also won the hearts of Ethan's twins, Alan and Alex. Samantha, aka "Sam," was hired as a combination housekeeper, babysitter temporarily, but only until Christmas. At least, that is what Ethan told the twins and Sam, as well as himself. However, it was much too late for all of them to abide by this decision. Each was starved for the other's affections and each had become too attached to give up. The twins, not only saw Sam as their housekeeper/babysitter, but they saw her as a friend. She could play ball and was not afraid of their dog. The twins' affection went deeper still. Although they were in contact with their grandmother, they were still minus a mother figure. Sam with her winning ways, not only because she was a good cook and let them help her in the kitchen, but because it was who she was, had become special to them and they wanted her with them full time. Not only had Sam become special to them and the twins had become special to Sam, but Sam had also affected the twins' dad. Ethan's feelings for Sam were more than that of an employer, more than that of a friend. Somehow, in that short time, Sam had imbedded herself into Ethan's heart. Was he willing to allow a new love interest into his life or was he still shadowed by the deceit and experience of his ex-wife and the deceased mother of his twins. Ethan thought he had a solution to the problem when he reluctantly agreed to keep Sam, "but only until Christmas." However, love does not have a set time to go away. Therefore, until Christmas, turned out to a lifetime of love for Sam, Ethan, Alan and Alex. "Until Christmas" was the best. Way to go, Ms. Ray.

"Kwanzaa Angel" was a sweet remembrance into the past with a chance to correct the future. Erin had been hurt in the past by Raimi, who had reentered her life. Would Erin give in to her feelings that never dissolved for Raimi and become involved in a new relationship or would she revert back into the past? "Kwanzaa Angel" was about the Kwanzaa celebration, but with a twist of love for Erin and Raimi. Good story.

"'Round Midnight" was about the New Year's celebration. I loved the story of Dr. Summer Lane, the psychologist who now has a job at the radio station as a counselor on the air. Her show airs around midnight. It is at the radio station where Summer meets Tre Holland, one of the bosses. Everyone thinks Summer is a snow or ice maiden because Summer stays to herself and does not socialize with the others. However, Tre is attracted to Summer and sets out to melt the snow. Summer also has feelings for Tre and wants the ice to melt from around her heart. However, after getting together, somewhere while the ice is melting another freeze comes along and the ice around Summer's heart becomes another block of ice. Summer and Tre suffer heartship and are temporarily separated. Tre sets out to recapture Summer's love and to permanently melt the ice. He knows a new year will be approaching and is determined to be in Summer's life when the new year begins. So, he sets out around midnight to make it happen. Will Tre succeed in his endeavor? Read "'Round Midnight" and see what the New Year has in store for Summer and Tre. Great story with just the right amount of heat.

Again my girl Ray out did herself with another great read! "Winter Nights" kept me up all night! I encourage everyone to go out and get a copy. They even have it in paperback now!

Winter Nights was a beautifully written book by three extremely talented authors. I really enjoyed reading the book. Ms Ray, Ms Hailstock, and Ms Hill are some of my favorite authors. They have brilliant writting styles that not just I enjoy! The novellas by the above authors are a must read. Much love to all three authors!