I first read the B.S. Syndrome back in 1988. I was so impressed with the material that I personally contacted Mr. Salupo by phone. I spent over 2 hours talking to him about the book, his personal life and the general topic of bullshit. Mr. Salupo wrote me back several days later thanking me for my insights into this topic which everyone practically acknowledges but does nothing about. I found the book very helpful and straight forward. This a work of literature that gets to the very understanding of why our culture has evovled into what it is today. We have bought into bullshit from the time we are born to those final days of life. The book does a splendid job of pointing out how not to become victimized by bullshit and navigating around its dreaded tentacles of self-destruction. Overall, it guide to modern indiviualism in an ever changing world.

For the first time in my life I now understand what people are really saying to me. And I can do it easily, accurately and quietly. The BSer never need know that I know they are Bsing! Learning the "hidden secrets of BS from the bedroom to the boardroom" has helped me regain control of my life. It has returned my power so that I can live a worry free life. No more broken hearts, pockets picked, wasted time by BSers. This book has also helped me on the job so that I was promoted and received pay increases sooner! Wonderful book. There are many benefits to gain in stopping BS cold. This book is guaranteed to change your life for the better.

The book was a real eye opener! I found it very easy to understand. Wish it could have been written 30 years ago - It would have saved me a lot of heartache and money!

While the concepts laid forth in the book are for mid to large companies, the strategies and goals can be applied to all levels. Comprehensive but still written in a fairly conversational tone, a must read for those who job or goals are to make the organization work better. And convince others they are right. Human Performance Improvement (HPI), what it is and how to make it work for your organization. The plan is clearly laid out. As someone who designs, delivers and sells technical training, Mr. LaBonte's book provides me with more than just buzz words, the book delivers a clear plan, a clear path on how I work with my customers, so I can help them achieve their goals. Standing in the trenches, striving to improve operations, it is great to have a road map that can resolve real problems for both internal and external customers. Thanks.

When Tom LaBonte decided to write Building a New Performance Vision, he created a template for moving training organizations "out of the outsourcing zone." But more importantly, he shared a secret weapon for companies to flourish even in the midst of mergers, reorganizations and technology change. That secret involves working across functional silos to partner, identify performance issues and enhance the organization's performance. LaBonte calls thus structure for change the Human Performance Improvement (HPI) organization. HPI organizations start by building support from the CEO of a company. They then organize for success by forming cross-functional teams with new roles, skills and knowledge. Building a New Performance Vision guides the reader through the entire process - from organizing to implementing performance improvement solutions.

If you are an HR leader, a line manager, a consultant or a practitioner, spending a few hours with this book will dramatically change the way you think and work within your company. Appendices include a glossary of terms, job descriptions and core competencies for Performance Consultants, Human Performance Improvement organizations and an organizational model for structuring a Human Performance Improvement department. Tables, charts and key points at the end of each chapter make the book easy to skim and navigate. But you will probably want to read it from cover to cover anyway!

Whether you are at an entry level position or a seasoned HR professional, this book is an excellent guide for promoting and maximizing total company quality and development. LaBonte takes you step by step through the process of integrating HPI into your company to pave the way for organizational success.

B. Dogancay The Artist, The Realist, The Visionary

Dogancay, the artist, through his art of the "Walls Paintings" of the innumerable cities that he visited has captured the mood of the masses of the second part of the 20th century.

Dogancay's art speaks to us of the reality- mainly of the concerns, daily lives, feelings and hopes for the future of the peoples of the world. He has presented us with the day to day reality be it of "Overpopulation 1960, Population Explosion 1960, Hearts-Two Plus One 1974" and others to give us a glimpse of ourselves.

This artist who is really a visionary has pointed out in his interviews the possibility of the rise of terrorism in the next century. As I read through the pages, I could not help but think of September 11.

The breadth and width of his talent and the subjects that he has covered is immense.

I have enjoyed Dogancay's art for years. I believe that he is recognized today and, will always be admired for what he has done through his art to preserve his observations of the second part of the most dynamic century of our world.

If the layout and the illustrations of this beautiful book are a feast to the eye, the life-story of Dogancay is a gift to the intellect! The artist's interest in life, in the human mind and soul has led him to observe the world around in unique ways, starting with impressive paintings of the cities he has lived in and of people he has known or not known, moving then to big-sized collages and depictions of walls and the language of the walls: graffiti. "Burhan Dogancay: A Retrospective" is a book that opens up a wonderful new world for anyone, artist or not. Some of the many colourful pictures of the works of the artist are a joy to look at, some are food for thought and yet others are instruments for us to really see what we so often look at but simply walk past.
After putting down this good-sized book (not too big so I could actually take it around with me), I was decided to not walk past any wall without seeing what is on it, nor to let life pass me by!

This retrospective catalog provides an excellent overview of this highly prolific and multi-faceted artist's life and artistic career. The texts, written by noted international art experts, are insightful, and the design of this lavishly illustrated book matches in its originality Dogancay's rich and diverse oeuvre. - The way Dogancay looks at walls and renders their messages in his work, is an eye opener for everyone and changes forever the way we look at walls and the world.

In this brave, bold, and frequently shocking report, Ehrbar goes beyond the wink and nod of world finance and thrusts us deep into the underworld of international licensing agreements. With courage and conviction, Ehrbar unravels the shroud of secrecy that weaves this international cartel together leaving this once untouchable creature exposed and naked before the reader's eyes. Using riveting investigative journalism, akin to Morrow, Woodward and Walters, Ehrbar risks his own personal safety to bring us chapter upon chapter of nail-biting intrigue and international espionage. Taking the reader through 14 key international markets, we meet the unscrupulous Dr. No Cho Low of The Peoples Republic who crushes his opponents with his trademark "fine-print". In Chapter 57, tariffs and international trade barriers are cleverly skirted through the underhanded loopholes of Vlad Solvaski. Finally, in Chapter 487, Ehrbar gives us hope that international order will prevail when Morry the orphan refuses to succumb to the "final offer" by making a counter demand that leaves the party of the first part weak and defenseless.

Page after page, chapter after chapter, this book is truly a one of a kind masterpiece. Unfortunately, but understandably, Ehrbar leaves us with many unanswered questions, most notably, the existence of the mysterious 15th key international market. These questions will undoubtedly be answered in the long anticipated sequel, provided, of course, Thomas J. Erhbar, himself, does not become then next victim of the International Market cartel.

Big little book; that is little and big both, and especially big in the ideas department. Big subject has to have big ideas, huge ideas in fact. Now take this licensing in perpetuity thing that EVERYBODY has to have these days. You know? What gives? What a perp got to do with it? Huh Ehbar ? What? WHAT? Great big black bat of a book I tell you.

This book rules! Never before have I been so entranced by the process of finding a suitable local partner for a license, for example. (Did you know this is generally conducted through private negotiations between the parties concerned? In Chile, at least. It's true. All true.)

It sure pisses me off that MacMillan let this masterpiece go out of print. Who the hell is Business International anyway?

Tom Nettles has put together a work that is quite surprising but yet very interesting. This book is essentially a history of the Southern Baptist Church and it's Calvinistic roots. Nettles give details of the history of certain Baptist ministers and theologians. He describes their lives and their Calvinistic theologies in great detail. Moreover, Nettles brings to the forefront a heritage that has been lost through the last dozen or so decades. This is a wonderful history of the Baptist Church and it's theology. Nettles discusses the tenets of Calvinism and describes famous Baptists who held to these historical doctrines. Some of the Baptist ministers and theologians that are discussed include B.H. Carroll (founder of the largest Southern Baptist Seminary in the country - Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth, TX), A. H. Strong, J.P. Boyce (Southern Baptist Theologian), Basil Manly, Sr. & Jr., and John L. Dagg (author of "Manual of Theology"). This book is a must for church history buffs, and also for those who simply like to study theology and Christian history.

I thought that I had a good understanding of the Doctrines of Grace until I read Prof. Nettles book. Chapter 12 - Christ Died for Our Sins, According to the Scriptures, is the most awe inspiring argument for Particular Redemption that I have read by a modern theologian. I once thought I was a "fish out of water", being a Calvinistic Southern Baptist. But, now I realize the depth of the soil from which I have grown. I wish modern Southern Baptists were as faithful to Sola Scriptura as the Founders of the Southern Baptist Convention were.

The book contains a history of the doctrines of grace against the backdrop of the early Baptist preachers. Dr. Nettles also includes a wonderful primer on soteriology at the end of the book. A great resource for Baptists who want to know their history and who are looking for an introduction to the doctrines of grace.

Partly there is a problem dealing with Celtic spirituality, or indeed, Celtic anything. It is comparatively recently in history that the coalescence of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Briton, Manx, and other 'Celtic fringe' cultural groups have been classified as a unified Celtic society. Certainly the early people in these regions (not to mention those on the continent) would have seen differences as outweighing the similarities, and would have found unity only in being non-Roman and non-Germanic.

Certainly there is a sharing of story, world view, and spiritual sense, however, that helps us make sense of describing Celtic Spirituality as a category. This relates both to the earlier non-Christian Celtic religions (yes, there was more than one) and the ways in which Christianity spread to the Celtic regions.

'While recognising the importance of Celtic primal religion at the earliest and most formative stage of evangelisation of the Celtic-speaking cultures, it must be recognised that the surviving evidence for Celtic religion in sparse, and often comes from widely differing places and times. But something of its general character does emerge.'

Included in this character are a sense of place (which often includes woodlands, water, glades, springs, mountains, etc.). Ideas of treasure, particularly hidden treasure, and that being a treasure that is not always what the world would value, abound. Heroism and bravery, often at dramatic cost with a deep sense of loss even in the victories, goes through many tales. Other worldly and pantheistic imagery coexist in many ways. Animals and birds are often seen as messengers, harbingers, or symbolic -- many of the illuminated manuscript from Irish monasteries show the continuation of this sort of influence. Celtic religions are also predominantly oral, hence the popularity of story, song, and poem as opposed to argued technical essays or homiletic forms.

The texts in this volume are divided according to the following categories:

Hagiography
These are lives of the saints, often told as heroic (and sometimes tragic) tales. Of course the greatest cycle known to us is the Patrick Tradition -- those stories and legends that have gathered around St. Patrick, who lived in the fifth century. These include letters, declarations, a life story, sayings, and St. Patrick's Breastplate, known to many as a very long hymn, but which actually exists in many different forms. Apart from the Patrick stories are stories of St. Brigit, St. Brendan, St. David, St. Beuno, and St. Melangell, all unique Celtic saints.

Monastic Texts
In a recently issued popular history, entitled How the Irish Saved Civilisation, Thomas Cahill argues that the preservation of culture and learning in the Irish monastic movement gives us much of our knowledge and continuation from civilisation in the past. There is much to be said for this argument, for the early Irish love of books, knowledge, and historical sense of preservation of the valuable gives us much of Celtic wisdom, as well as much of the Greco-Roman tradition as well.

Poetry
Early Irish and Welsh poetry are presented, most of it anonymous, and much of it seems very similar to Celtic devotional material of today. It still speaks to us with a very strong voice.

Blessing and brightness,
Wisdom, thanksgiving,
Great power and might
To the King who rules over all.

To the chosen Trinity has been joined
Before all, after all, universal
Blessing and everlasting blessing,
Blessing everlasting and blessing.

This could be a text from a modern hymnal. The Celtic peoples, with their love of number symbols in addition to natural symbols, fastened on the idea of the Trinity with very little difficulty. The trifold nature of the above poem, going several layers deep, shows this affinity.

Devotional Texts and Liturgies
These texts are meant to be used for lectio divina, a kind of spiritual reading, as well as prayers enacted in the community for blessing. Some litanies and excerpts from the great Stowe Missal give a sense of patterns of worship for Celtic peoples.

Apocrypha, Exegesis, Homilies, and Theology
These four categories include expansions of the biblical text (such as the story of The Creation of Adam), and interpretation of particular pieces (a Gloss on Psalm 103) which gives insight into how Celtic peoples interpreted the biblical texts, which come from a culture so foreign and yet so similar to their own. Also, the Homilies give a sense on what preachers found important; that these survive may give us a sense also of what the hearers considered important (most of my homilies will not survive the week they are delivered!). The theology texts here give a good flavour of the academic and spiritual side of Celtic learning and reflection. The theological treatises are introduced and interspersed with verse that drives home the spiritual dimension far better than any learned discourse could do.

Seventy pages of notes on technical and academic aspects of the texts (translation, interpretation, history, cultural notation, etc.) and a generous fifteen-page bibliography help round out this text, and make it useful both for spiritual direction and insight as well as for academic research and historical and literary investigation.

Edited and introduced by Oliver Davies with collaboration from Thomas O'Loughlin, Celtic Spirituality draws primarily from Latin, Irish and Welsh manuscripts to show the texts that have been 'rediscovered' frequently in Christian history as providing an 'alternative' to mainstream' Christian thought and practice. Perhaps it is the legacy and the gift of the Celtic peoples to always provide a fringe, from Roman times to the present, and from that fringe a freshness of ideas, approach, and insight comes forward to renew culture and civilisation in many facets.

This is part of a series of spiritual and mystical writings from many religious viewpoints, produced by the Paulist Press. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim texts are presented with clarity, careful translation that works for accuracy both of word and spirit, and interesting historical insight.

In my eighteen or so years as a Celtic Catholic, and especially in the past five years, I have seen the term "Celtic Christianity" applied to everything from the sublime (love of nature and the saints) to the ridiculous (giving communion to your dog) to the utterly intolerable (worshipping pagan gods). Some modern writers on the theme do an excellent job of interpreting this strand of the Christian Faith for the modern reader; others are better left unread. So where is a serious inquirer to go for "the real goods"? Where to find out what our ancient Fathers and Mothers in the Faith really believed, thought, and did? Davies's book is an excellent resource.

Limiting his own comments and interpretations to the introduction (and with an excellent preface by James Mackey), Davies contents himself with providing clear and easily readable translations of original source material. Some of the most important documents for understanding the mind of the early Celtic Christian are here. You can read all of St. Patrick's own writings and the ancient biography by Muirchú. Discover the most ancient accounts of St. Brigit, St. Brendan, St. David, and even the dear but little-known St. Melangell and her hare. But that's not all. There is the monastic Rule of St. Columbanus, ten Irish poems, twenty Welsh poems, and several devotional prayer-poems. You can find some of the oldest Celtic liturgical material, interpretations of Scriptural passages, ten ancient sermons, and some theology courtesy of Pelagius and John Scottus Eriugena.

This is all original material, carefully translated and presented in an easy-to-use format. But it's not dry dusty stuff: it breathes a freshness from the early days of the Faith that is sometimes missing from more modern writers. We've perhaps been around too long, thought about it too much. Our Celtic saints got the good news "hot off the press," and embraced it with a shocking enthusiasm which is good for us jaded post-moderns. I hope you read this book and enjoy it as much as I have.

This is an excellent book, edited by the founder of the MA program in Celtic Christianity, at the University of Wales, Lampeter. The book brings the topic to life, and allows the reader to gain an insight into the spiritual world of the Celts. Dr. Davies presents the reader with a wide variety of works, that give an excellent representation of Celtic writing and thought. It is a book that must be read and reread, in order to gain the full effect of the excellent pieces of work offered. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Celts and/or spirituality.

Each time I reread this book it takes me home. I grew up in the 50's,60's in Humboldt Il. Mr Thomas deserves a big plus for bringing out the closeness of people in a small town. I knew and loved many of the people he wrote about in this book. If I could locate Mr Thomas I would invite him to walk the streets of Humboldt with me. We could relive the best days of our lives.

This book transports you to a time and place where people passed their days doing the big and small things that weave a time and place in history that should not be forgotten. It is a wonderful book that talks about Humboldt, Illinois and individuals living there during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This is a story of German immigrants and their descendents as well as others, making a living by farming or whatever else that would make a living. It is a treasure of everyday life on a farm or small town in the midwest. For those who lived in Humboldt, it evokes powerful sensations, memories of a time that was........ Even those who have not lived in Humboldt will appreciate the way Mr. Thomas has ensured that those unique individuals in his book will never be forgotten.

I was raised in Humboldt and this book brought to me many hours of history and memories. This is a very laid-back farm community with a real midwest lifestyle.

Have you ever said..."today is a perfect day to stay at home and watch a movie"? Then this book is for you. Not only do you get a large selection of movies to choose from... you get three sometimes very different opinions from three very different women on the movie itself. One is sure to fit your own! I recommend this book to every woman who has ever rented a video and plans to do so in the future (Need to let the girfriends know for our "girlfriends night" which consist of movies, chocolate chip cookies, popcorn and lots of girl talk). I might go as far to say that it wouldn't hurt for your "insignificant" other to read it too!

I love this book! Finally some women's voices in the almost all-male bastion of movie reviewing. I think the format and writing is fabulous - concise, witty, insightful. And i love the way the 3 writers play off each other. I'll be recommending Chicks on Film to all my movie-going friends. It's an antidote, a refreshing breath of air and extremely intelligent to boot. We need more books likes this. Bravo!

At long last the world can breathe a sigh of releif. The book the 20'th century (I know I spelled that wrong so don't gripe about it) has awaited hath arrived. Bow down before the pages of this imaculate masterpeice of modern critical film review. (or a movie as you Americans call it) The insights are amazing, the prose deep, the reviews well thought out, and the cover cheesy. What more could you want?

Ok enough deadwood. What is this book really about? Well this is the first book to specifically look at movies from the female point of view (at least to my knowledge). Three marvelous women spent many hours comparing their thoughts on countless films. Each has a unique outlook so a true multitude of taste is represented in their magnificant reveiws.

In other words I highly recomend it. It is if nothing else FUN!

Being a retired boxer/kickboxer and now in my 40's, I was looking for ways of keeping fit internally and seeking relief from the numerous aches and pains aquired while participating in extreame sports for so many years. This book not only provides many remedies for sports injuries, but for ailments of all kinds. I especially like the way he translates the chinese herbs into botanical language as many of the herbs can be found in our own health food stores.
The only slight complaint is that he doesn't say much about our own american ginseng as it is highly valued by the chinese.
Otherwise I find it to be highly informative for both the novice and advanced student of the ways of herbal healing.
Deep bow.

this was a really good book. It gave herbal remedies for illnesses, and also gave the symptoms for those illnesses. This book acted as two books; it gave info on illnesses, AND the herbal formulas to correct those illnesses. my only problem with this book is that in the index, it gives an illness, and then says: see so and so. This is good, but then it gives you a page number. You turn to that page, and there is no info on the illness there, except a little thing saying, illness-see another illness. while this is a little annoying, you have to put up with it, because this book is worth it. Great job!

Hey! This was a great book. Not only because it gives lots of chinese herbal cures to the ilnesses talked about in it, but because it gives symptoms for all those diseases. This book was a relly good guide to staying aware of health. I had never even considered Chinese herbs as effective medicine before i red this book, but now i know better. good job Richard.

this book is great and should be read by all who want an alternative to Western Medicine!

The recipes in this cookbook helped me to make the lifesyle change that I was ready for. The recipes are quick and easy. I love the vegatable chowder. I lost more than 30 lbs. Whats more, this in not fad dieting, this is a new way to eat -- for good.

An amazing book, especially for beginning vegan cooks. Cheryl even includes lists of what is in her own pantry! Very informative and the pictures make your mouth water!

I have three of Cheryl's cookbooks, but this one gets the most use. Cheryl includes all the information needed to complete her recipies, she also includes variations which are really helpful. I would also highly reccomend her most recent book "More Choices for a Healthy Low-fat You." If you're looking it up by author, keep in mind her last name is now Peters. Great book, a must for all Vegetarians