My heart felt as though it would break upon reading then, at this page, Vavra talking about such details as how they kept the horns stuck on the horses :( Then it occured to me...

Maybe he just wants us to THINK they were really horses, so that noone tries to hunt them down...to protect them and keep them sacred. To keep them Free.

Make no mistake, Owls in the Family is a family treasure that deserves to be read time and again. Pick it up without hesitation!

By now we have become well aware of the success of Six Sigma initiatives at major international corporations such as ABB, Allied Signal/Honeywell, Black & Decker, Dow Chemical, Dupont, Federal Express, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, Kodak, Motorola, SONY, and Toshiba. Once having read this book, I am convinced that -- with certain modifications -- Six Sigma could perhaps be even more valuable to small-to-midsize companies which, obviously, have fewer resources. What exactly is Six Sigma? The authors provide this definition: "A comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining, and maximizing business success. Six Sigma is uniquely driven by close understanding of consumer needs, disciplined use of facts, data, and statistical analysis, and diligent attention to managing, improving, and reinventing business processes."

The authors identify what they call "hidden truths" about Six Sigma:

1. You can apply Six Sigma to many different business activities and challenges -- from strategic planning to operations to customer service -- and maximize the impact of your efforts.

2. The benefits of Six Sigma will be accessible whether you lead an entire organization or a department. Moreover, you'll be able to scale your efforts, from tackling specific problems to renewing the entire business.

3. You'll be prepared to achieve breakthroughs in these untapped gold mines of opportunity -- and to broaden Six Sigma beyond the realm of the engineering community.

4. You'll gain insights into how to strike the balance between push and pull -- accommodating people and demanding performance. That balance is where real sustained improvement is found. On either side -- being "too nice" or forcing people beyond their understanding and readiness -- lie merely short-term goals or no results at all.

5. The good news is, Six Sigma is a lot more fun than root canal. Seriously, the significant financial gains from Six Sigma may be exceeded in value by the intangible benefits. In fact, the changes in attitude and enthusiasm that come from improved processes and better-informed people are often easier to observe, and more emotionally rewarding than dollar savings.

The authors organize their material as follows: Part One: An Executive Summary of Six Sigma; Part Two: Gearing Up and Adapting Six Sigma to Your Organization; Part Three: Implementing Six Sigma -- The Roadmap and Tools; and finally, The Appendices: Practical Support. According to Jack Welch, "The best Six Sigma projects begin not inside the business but outside it, focused on answering the question -- how can we make the customer more competitive? What is critical to the customer's success?...One thing we have discovered with certainty is that anything we do that makes the customer more successful inevitably results in a financial return for us."

If anything, it is even more important for small-to-midsize companies (than it is for the GEs of the world) to answer these two questions correctly and then track and compare their performance in terms of what their customers require. The well-publicized objective of Six Sigma is to achieve practically-perfect quality of performance (ie 3.4 defects for every million activities or "opportunities") and this is indeed an ambitious objective. Collins and Porras, authors of Built to Last, would probably view it as the biggest of Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs). In that book, they assert that the most successful and admired companies have the ability -- and willingness -- to simultaneously adopt two seemingly contrary objectives at the same time. Stability and renewal, Big Picture and minute detail, creativity and rational analysis -- these forces, working together,, make organizations great. This "we can do it all" approach they call the "Genius of the And."

Pande, Neuman, and Cavanagh suggest that all manner of specific benefits can result from following "the Six Sigma way." For example, Six Sigma generates sustained success, sets a performance goal for everyone, enhances value to customers, accelerates the rate of improvement, promotes learning and "cross-pollination", and executes strategic change. All organizations (regardless of their size or nature) need to avoid or escape what the authors refer to as the "Tyranny of Or." Here in a single volume is about all they need to seek "practically-perfect quality of performance." Whether or not they ultimately reach that destination, their journey en route is certain to achieve improvement which would otherwise not be possible.

If dialog is your demon Ray/Remick break it into manageable portions; the one-two rhythm, linking to setting, echo words and hooking to the past or future. If you have a tendency to explain dialog, this book makes you aware of authorial intrusion.

As a creative writing teacher and proponent of Natalie Goldberg's creative writing technique, I have used 'The Weekend Novelist' in my creative writing classes. I look forward to utilizing this new book to enhance my own novel writing and to help my students develop their personal writing techniques.

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery is different.

Step-by-step methods for constructing a tight mystery novel plot with compelling and convincing characters fill every page. Examples of the authors' own novel process along with those of other masters such as Agatha Christie, Martin Cruz Smith, Sue Grafton, and Raymond Chandler illustrate each step.

There are no timid suggestions in vague jargon here. The authors have taken great pains to make sure each and every facet of their combined writing and teaching expertise is explained thoroughly and usefully.

The importance of a solid "backstory" is the focus of early chapters, giving the writer a solid view of their story before moving on to the writing itself. The far too common problem of writing oneself to a standstill is virtually impossible if the plot and characterization techniques are followed. The remainder of the book contains a treasure trove of specific techniques for creating scenes, convincing dialogue, and "real" settings. The reader will learn how to group their scenes into logical "acts", control the story's pace, and use the language to set tone and resonance.

While structured specifically for the mystery writer, the techniques can be applied to other genres with relative ease. Any novelist, whether still aspiring or already accomplished, will find a wealth of insight into the plotting and characterization process. The beginner searching for one all-around USEFUL how-to-write book would do well to pick this one.

This is no-nonsense book crammed with useful, week-by-week projects which will lead the writer to the successful creation of a well-written, satisfying mystery.

The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery puts the "HOW" back into the how-to-write book market.

It's too easy (and fruitless) to criticize the effort for that. The series gives you a look at Conan as he grows and matures, and presents as cohesive a picture of him as any literary (or even actual) character ever documented. Aspiring fantasists would do well to read this for an idea of how to build a lasting character.

Beyond that, the stories are just plain fun. Violent, of course, with a smattering of non-graphic... (less here than in other books), and lots of good weird stuff. Because these are short stories, you don't get the kind of cliffhangers you get from a "Tarzan" book, but you do get non-stop action from one of the best. And that ain't bad.

"The Bug Wars" are superb! I initially picked the book up at the local bookstore, as the title "The Bug Wars" indeed intrigued me. So I said, what the heck, I'm buying the book.

The story is divided into three books, all contained in the paperback (so think about it, you are actually getting three books for one?). Each book tells part of the military life of the narrator, a Tzen (reptile) known as Rahm. Rahm starts off as a commander of a flight squad, and then in the next book he is another position, and in the final book he is yet another.

Aside from that, we see Rahm go through changes in ways he thinks. He is an older Tzen, seeing new changes in his Empire as the days go on and we see how he treats them. The book is also loaded with action and some thrills. It keeps you interested.

Final analysis: Buy the freakin' book. It took me three days to read the 217 page story while reading another book at the same time.

The detail in this book is staggering. Melissa Muller did an exceptional job of tracking down every bit of information she could possibly find, not only on Anne herself, but her friends and family as well. (She even dug up personal information about the SS officer who arrested the Franks in the Annex.) She managed to interview surviving friends and family (even those who were initially reluctant to talk with her), including Miep Gies, the woman who helped the Franks while in hiding (and who writes a touching note at the end).

So if you've ever read Anne Frank's diary, I would highly recommend reading this book to get a more complete portrait of what she was like, the times she lived in, her family, and her experiences.

The Biography is the perfect companion to The Diary Of A Young Girl because it shows more trauma history than a teenaged girl would have noticed. It deeply delves into Anne's past -- the family tree alone is priceless. There is new insight on Edith. Of equal importance is the look at Anne and Margot's surviving friends.

When a child dies, it doesn't matter if he or she is rich or poor, plain or a princess. What matters is that history has been altered because the child won't get a chance to make a difference.

Millions of people -- six million Jews, Gypsies, gays, people of all religions, and soldiers and other innocent victims -- died in World War II. In the grand scheme of things, none is more or less important than another. Anne Frank, unlike most murdered children, has been immortalized by her writing. The world made her into a heroine for surviving two years more than many others.

The reason that she should be considered a heroine is that she brought forth a truth that might otherwise have been hidden.

This truth is more evident when partnered with Anne Frank: The Biography by Melissa Mueller.