I found this book to be very refreshing and uplifting as well as erotic. He uses eroticism just enough to get you to the edge without KNOCKING you over. My favorite by far was Check One, because of its simplicity. Love it!

There is no other way to decribe Mr. Williams except for Da Bomb. He definitely has it goin' on with his book Simple Love. The fact that it's so simple is what makes it so extraordinary. He is so expressive that by the end of the poem you feel every emotion that he was feeling as he was writing it. Keep it up Mr. Williams. I am definitely feelin' you (Especially on that --If I Could Hear Some Saxaphone--) I am awaiting the next release of your great works.

Ondrea Nicole Lewis

Simple Love is a misnomer. According to the brutally honest poetry of David Brian Williams, there is nothing simple about love. Williams has treated us to an unusally candid perspective of the often masked pain felt by men in love. His touches of eroticism reveal his desire to please, and his plea heard in "Check One" begs for an easier approach to dating and mating. There is nothing in "Simple Love" that any of us can not relate to. This man wants to love and be loved. Don't we all?

I consider myself an expert on Disneyland; I'm a former Imagineer and a collector of Disneyland information. Michael Broggie is not exaggerating his father's importance to the realization of Walt's dream. This book goes slightly beyond the sanitized "official" version that the Disney company promulgates and includes some stories and details that haven't been widely known. It's a beautiful coffee table book, complete and accurate (except for one or two nits someone like me might pick). I love it particularly for all the never-before published photos--you get so tired of seeing the same old approved shots when you collect Disneylandiana.

In case Amazon doesn't provide links, I would also recommend "Walt Disney Imagineering" by David Mumford, et.al. and "Inside Story" by the late Randy Bright. Both are "official," but just as authoritative as Broggie's.

I normally only read technical books. I picked this book up just to look at the pictures. Then I started to read the short articles within the chapters. I found them so fasinating that I found myself reading the main articles. My son asked my wife "what is Dad doing reading?". Walt Disney said that it all started with a mouse, but after reading this book you will realize that it all started with a train.

I have always loved the trains at Disneyland more than any other attraction. I always had dozens of questons about the trains that I wished I could get answers to. When I found out about this book I ordered it immediately. (My first experince with "one-click" ordering by the way, and WOW how easy!!) The book arrived on a Friday and I sat down to read it as soon as I got home from work. I could not put it down! I read straight through until 4am the next morning and finished it. It answered all the questions I ever had about the trains at Disneyland. It is a wonderful glimpse into the life of Walt Disney, and the group of incredibly talented people who worked for him. If you love trains, this book is a must. If you love Disneyland, this book is a must. If you could care less about trains and Disneyland, but you love a good story, this book is a must. Thank you Michael Broggie, for sharing this wonderful story.

A benchmark book that entertains, educates, and completely dazzles you with its incredible icon images! A "must-read" for anyone who believes in the magic of bears!

"Born to be Wild" is an excellent new children's book that people of all ages will enjoy. It is extremely informative while being engaging and interactive at the same time. The excellent organization and amazing photography make it a pleasure to read and accessible to a wide range of readers. Many of the poses in which Mr. Ward has captured the bears are simply delightful. The reader comes away with not only new knowledge, but a greater appreciation of bears.

Born to Be Wild is a wonderful book for children of all ages. Young children will be entranced by pictures of frolicking polar bear cubs and grizzly bear antics, as they listen to touching stories. What parent or child can resist a tender moment between a mother bear and her cubs?
For the independent reader, this book offers clear narrative and a helpful glossary. The format is interactive, as the authors have not only included substantial information about all kinds of bears, but photo captions that invite young readers to think and reflect.
I have found Born to Be Wild to be an invaluable resource for research projects and quiet reading time in my classroom. My students all fell in love with the endearing tale of Ferosha, an orphaned polar bear cub that makes her way into the author's hearts.
In these days of digitally altered photos and phony news stories, it is refreshing to find these photographers/authors attained all their photos the old-fashioned way: with hard work, dedication and artistic talent. I highly recommend this book to any bear lover, young or old.

The author of this book takes the reader through a wonderful series of images, most of them haunting, but all of them sending thoughtful sparkles through the mind, like a tart juice. It is refreshing, but it wakes you up. From the first page, the reader is confronted with a paradox. The story is told by Marianne who is dangerously depressed, but it is also Marianne who is telling the story in a beautifully competent way. So, hope and despair are mixed from the beginning. Once started, it is difficult to put down. Get it, and treat yourself to some real thinking.

Readers will feel nourished by the exquisite prose of this novel!

The Bullet Collection is an incredibly moving story set during the Lebanese civil war. The narrative chronicles the persistant influence the war has on a loving family.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to be a civilian in a city at war, this is the book for you!

This is one of the most honest, evocative books I've ever read on how it is to grow up in war ... every day we're seeing images of war, but rarely do we confront with such bare honesty the destruction visited on families and children. This book isn't an easy read, but the writing is so lyrical and beautiful you're pulled along almost helplessly ... into a violent, unpredictable world few of us can imagine, traveling the narrator Marianna's difficult journey in her effort to somehow come to grips with her past. The layering of past with present is so skillfully done, the reader experiences memory the way it really happens, the way our lives are made up of layers that communicate with one another all the time. I'd recommend this book to anyone who is a serious reader. It is brilliant.

Opening chapter does a good job drawing you into the story making you look forward to the rest of the book. The author did an excellent job in giving you a clear visual picture of each scene, makes you feel like you're in the story and makes you empathize with the characters. If you're not familar with how different cities of LA county are treated, after reading "Conspiracies and Groceries" chapter, it's an eye opener. Overall, GREAT story...didn't want the book to end. Looking forward to next novel.

Chameleon is an awesome book. This is a must read book for those of you who enjoy good stories. The characters are interwoven in such a manner that it is difficult to put down. Dr. Clark was ultimately given his due justice on all levels. The night club scene was hysterical. The established bond between Schafer and Dr. Clark was heartening. This author is to be commended for is writing style and creativity. Oh, the ending was phenomenal!!!! Can't wait for the next book by this talented author.

Chameleon is an amazing book. I could not put it down once I started reading it. The authors ability to make the charactors so realistisic made me feel as though I was there as the story unfolded. This book was enjoyable to the very end.

...

How to Build Better Boards

"The Family Circus", Bil Keane's winsome cartoon strip, focuses on the daily ups and downs of life in the often chaotic home of a young family.

Regular readers of the strip have learned that in addition to mother, father, four young children, and three pets, there are two other residents in the household who make regular, if furtive, appearances. Whenever the mother finds a broken dish, a piece missing from a birthday cake, or muddy footprints tracked through the house, we know that the ghostly characters "Ida Know" and "Not Me" are lurking nearby. All the mother has to do whenever she finds something broken, missing, or in disarray is confront her youngsters with the question, "Who is responsible for this?" to elicit the collective response, "Ida Know!" or "Not Me!"

These two troublemakers have apparently expanded their families and sent their children off to inhabit the most senior executive offices of many of the world's best known corporations. Their names are on the tongues of virtually every executive who has had to explain why his or her corporation has collapsed. Listen to the CEOs of Enron, Polaroid, Global Crossing, Warnaco, or Arthur Andersen, for example. The top executives of each of these companies have assured us that they themselves had nothing to do with the collapse of their companies, putting the blame squarely on "Ida Know" and "Not Me" in virtually every case.

Exasperated shareholders wonder whom ultimately to hold responsible for the collapse of these companies and their investments. Ever so slowly, the glare of the lights is shifting to the boards of directors, as questions are raised about board accountability and responsibility. The boards of these companies all seemed to have been napping as they waited for their options to vest.

For all the time, energy, and resources organizations put into training executives, it appears that they put considerably less into training directors and helping them to understand their responsibilities. Type the words "board of directors" or "corporate governance" into the search engine at Amazon.com and you will see a fraction of the number of books that you would find had you typed the word "leadership."

Among the books that stand out are two by Ralph D. Ward: The 21st Century Corporate Board and its follow-up, Improving Corporate Boards. Ward, the editor of Corporate Board magazine, has filled the pair with well-written and insightful case studies, along with specific recommendations for changes in practices and procedures. Together they make an excellent handbook both for companies and for individual directors. In fact, "required reading" is the term that best describes them.

The 21st Century Corporate Board focuses on the turbulent era of the early 1990s, which saw a series of sackings of CEOs at corporate giants GM, Kodak, IBM, and American Express, among others. The frenzied era of hostile takeovers and leverage buyouts in the 1980s was still fresh in the minds of corporate boards. If a CEO failed to keep his company's stock price high enough to ward off potential raiders, boards were not hesitant to send CEOs packing.

Ward divides the book into two sections - an examination of how things got so bad as boards grew increasingly somnolent, and then a prescriptive section, with specific recommendations for changes. Among his most powerful suggestions is that the board have its own office and staff within the organization. Typically most boards rely on assistance from the CEO's or corporate counsel's office. The board needs more independence and autonomy, especially as the prospect of increased government oversight grows.

His more recent book, Improving Corporate Boards, provides more detailed and specific recommendations for improving each branch of a board's function. The audit committee of Enron's board might have spared themselves and the rest of the company more than a little trouble had they read Ward's pithy chapter entitled, "Smarter Audit Committees." Two suggestions seem especially on point: "Make sure the company is looking at the real numbers" and "Learn where right and wrong really are for the company's financials."

Polaroid CEO Gary DiCamillo managed to work the stock price of his company consistently down over his six-year tenure: from a high of ... per share to its recent value of pennies following the company's bankruptcy. Amazingly, near the end of DiCamillo's initial three-year contract, with the stock price at half of what it had been when he first took over as CEO, Polaroid's board paid him a ... cash bonus, extended his contract, and affirmed their support for him. DiCamillo banked the bonus and bankrupted the company. He is still CEO. We can only surmise what might have happened had Polaroid's board members read through Ward's two books and then acted on even a small number of Ward's sound suggestions. As it is, the board has no doubt provided Ward with an unfortunate but instructive case study for a future edition of either of these two solid handbooks. ...

Now that the capitalist/communist divide in eastern Europe has fallen, perhaps the greatest remaining human barrier is between those who have served as directors of public corporations and those who have not. From the inside, boards look like groups of honest, smart, hard-working earnest people trying to do a very difficult job with inadequate tools. From the outside, people automatically use words like "entrenched," "greedy," "co-opted" and "lazy." When the stock is going up, no one thinks of the board. When it goes down, everyone is disgruntled and everyone blames the board. Ralph Ward has bridged that gap with a book that brings the outsider into the boardroom, to see real day-to-day board operations. At the same time the book will show the insider the view from the stands. The author is neither a cheerleader for nor an enemy of boards. He shows how a board can add real value to a public company, but he does not hesitate to criticize bad practice. Any board member can use this book to improve their board. Any investor can use it to understand boards, and to encourage improvement. On top of that, it's actually fun to read.

So you've been a director for 20 years and you think you've read it all. Think again. As he opens "21st Century Board," Ralph Ward sets the stage for adventure. "In editing a national magazine for the past six years, I've had a ringside seat for the wildest era of corporate governance change since the New Deal," Ward begins...and proceeds to bring the era to life in 350+ comprehensive pages. It's all here--the issues, the players, the research, the war stories, the trends--from Archer Daniels Midland to Westinghouse--in a tome so comprehensive that any reader is guaranteed to find something new (even this reviewer, who has spent nearly two decades covering the governance scene). But beyond information, this book offers unbiased, well-reasoned, and fair-minded opinions on the most important governance controversies of our day. Readers joining Ward will soon find that their companion is no mere ticket-holder, but a narrative ringmaster who can put even the "wildest" things in their proper place.

Excellent book. Well written, easily read, thought provoking. Is long, but not cumbersome.

I first read 'About Face' written by Col. David Hackworth during the late 1980s. I found it extremely valuable in helping me...a woman with little knowledge of anything military, understand better my children's dad, a land based Viet Nam combat vet and the problems he had to deal with before his death.

As the wife of yet a second Viet Nam combat vet, special forces, I suggest this book for anyone who wants a better understanding of the debt of gratitude and respect we citizens owe those willing to serve in The United States Military.

Reviewed by: molly martin

I first came to hear of ABOUT FACE from a friend and fellow NCO in Korea. He said I might think it was good, Was that an understatement. I read About Face in one fourteen hour plane ride back to Korea. I've read it three more times so far and recommend it to all my friends deserving the title Non-Commisioned Officer. I truly believe that all military leaders should read this and take from it; Hack's wisdom and experiance dealing with the military, Integrity and soldiering.

I bought this book when I was about 11 years old and a big fan of "war stories". I am now approaching twenty and have read this book at least once a year since first purchasing it, to the extent that it is now in three parts and the photographs have fallen out. This book is an intense, gripping, readable but most of all honest and believable account of one of America's greatest warriors and his experiences...from the forested slopes of Trieste in 1946 to being chased around Washington DC by Army Intell goons in 1971, this book, while entertaining, will also teach you everything you need to know about duty, honour,bravery and honest patriotism, qualities that come hard to find in the era of Iran-Contra, Tailhook, Whitewater and the like... This book will make you laugh, cry and think. Please, read it.

First of all I must admit that I am related to one of the authors of this book, but I write without bias. I am not an avid reader. In fact, I don't read at all. I find it trying to do even assigned reading for classes at school. So it was with much badgering that my sister got me to read "her" book. These First Time Writer's exceeded my expectations and managed to keep me flipping the pages. I especially enjoyed The Perfect Story not because it is set in my home town and I recognised alot of the places mentioned, but because it was a story that I could relate to. It was witty and at times very funny. I was very surprised that it was soooo good. Then there was LaTwaan Green's Ties That Bind. That story was a page turner. It had me sucking my teeth and wanting to rip the pages out of the book, but it was all good. Tracee Lydia Garner's Family Affairs and LaShell Stratton's The Trouble of Meddlin' were both also good reads. I think that this book was appropriately titled All That... And Then Some because it was exactly that.

Great Writing.Family Affair is the best story I have read in a long time.Give me more by this author,Tracee.this story had everything in it.WOW!!!

Family Affair was the best story for a first time writer.I felt as if I was at the Thanksgiving Dinner.The realness of the people made me feel as if I knew them.Keep writing

As a kindergarten teacher, and a fan of the Ant and Bee series from the time I was a little girl, I highly recommend these stories. I have vivid memories of my grandmother reading me the stories, and now my kindergartners love them as well. They are quite new to my students, but they love the characters, drawings, vivid imagery and repetition. They often "read" them during our free choice time. Of course, they now want me to add to my collection, so I'm working on it!

I could hardly believe that the Ant & Bee books were still available. A neighbour lent my two young children some of her's which her (now) adult children had as toddlers. My children have become obsessed with reading them on a daily basis. They have been wonderful for building my five year old's confidence with her solo reading. I urge the publishers to consider reprinting the whole series. Believe me there is a new generation of readers itching to get their fingers on the Ant & Bee books!

Our first experience with Ant and Bee was in 1975 when my own grandmother bought Ant and Bee ABC for my daughter. It soon became a book that I read many times a day, in fact I have it memorized to this day. We have a favourite family story that we still laugh about today. My father came over to our house when our daughter was 18 months old. She sat in her grandfathers lap and of course wanted him to read her favourite book, "Ant and Bee ABC". As he began to read, our daughter suddenly took over and began saying the words to the book, word for word. My father jumped up and came running into the kitchen. "She can read!!" my father announced. "She is a genius!! We should put her on TV." We began to laugh so hard that we could barely speak. Our daughter had memorized this book word for word by the time she was 18 months old. You should have seen my father! It was a moment to remember forever. Thank you Ant and Bee books.