While some of the comments and insights are interesting, I question the credibility of such a homogeneous group of contributors as we enter the business world of the 21st century.

A book about business priciples in the future should represent a diverse global workforce and customer base. This book, without a single female contributor, stands firmly planted in the past.

Rethinking the Future is a collection of interviews with experts who examine issues related to organizational change for the twenty-first century. The book contains a framework for creating the future in business, economics, and society in an environment of rapid change. The book has six sections with contributions from various writers as follows:

Rethinking Principles - Charles Handy, Stephen Covey Rethinking Competition - Michael Porter, CK Prahalad, Gary Hamel Rethinking Control & Complexity - Michael Hammer, Eli Goldblatt, Peter Senge Rethinking Leadership - Warren Bennis, John Kotter Rethinking Markets - Al Ries & Jack Trout, Philip Kotler Rethinking the World - John Naisbitt, Lester Thurow, Kevin Kelly

These thinkers present diverse views about key issues within their fields at the dawn of the 21st century. There are some common themes. Technology is viewed by all as the catalyst for the rapid rate of change. The widespread availability of technology has led to the democratization of information throughout the workplace. The world's leading nations in the east and the west are experiencing a shift to a knowledge-based economy requiring knowledge workers. These knowledge workers must be highly educated and possess technology skills. Another theme with strong consensus is the notion that the path to the future won't be found by implementing models and strategies that have been successful in the past.

Technology has facilitated the globalization of the world economy. This trend has forced business to rethink itself in terms of competition, markets, and trade. Convergence within and between industries will continue. This is evidenced by project or product based alliances. The goal of business is the satisfaction of customer needs. The informed customer is demanding a higher level of products, services, and satisfaction.

The 21st century leader has a responsibility to generate intellectual capital within the organization. The leader focuses the company on its purpose and principles. The leader's key obligation is to articulate vision and lead by example.

This selection is engaging reading. Gibson provides us with a wide lens to view many pictures of the future. He showcases a group of specialists from different fields. Rethinking the Future dispels the myth that the future can be easily predicted.

Melanie Tucker Pepperdine University Doctoral Student Educational Technology

Este debe ser uno de los libros más interesantes que he leido. Lo recomiendo tanto para alumnos de econonomía como para ejecutivos de areas similares. Concentra a grandes autores del area producción y economía, de los cuales destaco Goldratt. Realmente es excelente el libro.

Ruth is much like many books of it's time. It often seems overwritten and contrived, and it is full of cliches and melodrama. It fails to question many sterotypes. However, it is not without redeeming value. It does have some interesting if not groundbreaking social commentary. Unless you know really love literature from this period don't bother to read Ruth. The bottom line is that there is a reason it is not a considered a great classic of literature.

Elizabeth Gaskell is often referred to as the forgotten classic author and "Ruth" is a prime introduction into this obviously complex and passionate woman. "Ruth" is a truly brilliant novel dealing with the issue of a fallen woman due to an illicit affair and subsequent birth of a bastard child. This, due to the societal assumptions of morality and righteousness, lead the main character into a series of deceptions and tribulations in an attempt at redemption. Gaskell's eloquent prose engrosses the reader into the lives of the multiple characters and as it is in three volumes, much time is spent developing each individual. This allows for a true feeling and understanding of the motives and meanings behind every action. The character of Ruth is obviously the most important and Gaskell allows her to develop into an almost Christ-like figure in her beliefs, faith and actions. "Ruth" is a novel that tackles incredibly sensitive and deep subject matter and reaffirms ones belief in a higher power. This is a novel that should be introduced back into the mainstream to achieve the stature that it deserves as a classic of literature.

I just finished reading Ruth last night. I could never seem to find it anywhere before, but I did and I'm glad, having now read all of Mrs Gaskells novels. Before I started reading I had a look over the chapter titles and after reading the first few chapters I had an idea of what would happen. There is a chapter called 'Nursing Mr Bellingham' and I began to suspect the story would be simialr to that of 'Sylvia's Lovers'. Mr Bellingham would have some proper excuse (being sick maybe?), then Ruth would meet up with him again after years of seperation. He would die, and then she. Of course I was wrong. We've had single motherhood in the 19th century before, with Adam Bede and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but in neither of these cases did we see the children surviving. Although Ruth is hidden behind a widow's identity we know how people would disown her if her secret was revealed. And when it is we see the hypocrisy of those condemning her. And Mr Donne disappears without any of our sympathy.

I do not expect a fairy tale, like that of Cinderella being carried off by her Prince Charming but I was quite disappointed that at the end of the story, John Eames had not managed to win the heart of his lady.

In my opinion, Trollope was unkind to portray too much of the hobbledehoyness of John Eames. He did not quite elaborate much of how John Eames came to become a man since he should be our hero in the book.

I really admired Eames's unquenched love and loyalty to L.D. Seldom we find such great exertions in men nowadays. At the same time, I do feel that Eames was a people pleaser to an extent except the time when he thrashed Apollo Crosbie and when he insisted on Sir Raffle Buffle giving him an extension of leave to stay in Guestwick Manor.

About Lilian Dale, I have to say she was a strong woman because to be jilted in the age where she existed was a great disgrace. How she managed to still sustain her love for the man who hurt and abused her, I cannot comprehend.

In conclusion, I think the book is quite okay even though it doesn't have the 'Oomnps! ' as it should have but it's sure a good way to pass your time.

Too much, probably, is made of this being one of "the Barsetshire novels," seeing that Trollope did not at first include it with the five others classed in that category, and that there is no need whatsoever to have read any of them to be drawn deeply into the world of its characters -- characters the creation of whose palpable, individual realness is the author's great gift. *The Small House at Allington* is remarkable for the balance accorded to six different social strata: (1) the upper reaches of the aristocracy (the De Courcy family and also the first appearance of Plantagenet Palliser); (2) the minor gentry, represented by the squire Dale of Allington and his presumptive heir; (3) their respectable but somewhat impoverished dependents (Mrs. Dale and her two daughters, Bell and Lily, whose love interests provide the main substance of the plot); (4) the world of men who must work to make their way in the world (in which category fall most of the suitors of the novel); (5) those on the fringe of "respectability" (Mrs. Roper's boarding house in London); and (6) the class of domestic servants (especially one Hopkins, head gardener at Allington -- but Trollope seems to make an effort to portray other members of this class when the occasion provides an opportunity). Dozens of other minor characters appear briefly and vividly in the spotlight, each animated with the spark of life.

The plot is unspectacular in the extreme, but for lovers of Trollope, the ability to understand the drama and heroism of ordinary life, as well as its tedium, pettiness, and villainy, will always be his special appeal. This novel is slow, perhaps, to seize the reader's interest -- at least, so I found it -- but in the end the volume acquires a remarkable momentum from the progress of its various subplots and possesses in the final two hundred pages a sort of urgency in its narrative momentum that carries it briskly along. For me, the "hobbledehoyhood" of Johnny Eames is sometimes hard to bear. Trollope even says at the end of the novel that "I feel I have been in fault in giving such prominence to a hobbledehoy." But biographers tell us that such was Trollope in his youth, so a grateful reader is, I suppose, bound to cherish a special feeling for Johnny Eames also.

At one moment a character arrives at his sister-in-law's house in London and is obliged to wait several moments while the servant changes into livery before answering the knock at the door -- for it is thus that the daughter of an earl clings to the trappings of her rank. I love such glimpses into the ways of a vanished world, and they are one of the charms of reading Trollope. But the ways of the human heart have changed less than its outward customs, and the twenty-first-century reader will encounter the shock of recognition several dozen times in the course of reading *The Small House at Allington*.

The handsome Oxford University Press edition, a bargain at the price, has an insightful introduction by James R. Kincaid. If only it were presented as an afterword! Is there really any point in giving away the plot of a novel?

The Small House at Allington, one of Trollope's Barsetshire novels of provincial life, does not require a familiarity with the other books in the series. Its plot device, much like the slightly superior Framley Parsonage, is to show the effects of poor choices and the way in which life sometimes gives folks pretty just desserts for the silly choices they make. As with all Trollope, though, the plot is a jaunty cover for his real theme, which is a social satire of his era in an effort to illumine human nature. Sometimes Trollope's plot devices had a different effect on the reader than he intended. Lily Dale, placed in the novel largely to illustrate the consequences attendant to self-willed dedication to victorian ideas of true love, in fact became a celebrated character in her time as an example of a perfect jilted lover. It is somewhat amusing reading the novel today, seeing how Trollope showed Lily as a stubborn girl from a stubborn family, stubbornly devoted to "Love", and then to think that in his time, Lily was seen as a perfect avatar of true love.

This is a good read--lots of rich satire of persons of both high and low station. It is not Trollope's best, but it is a good read, and well worth a Sunday afternoon read. If you have not read Trollope, prepare for a richly human story laced with satire. If you have read Trollope, then expect a wit slightly less sharp but a story a bit more engaging than his others. His character Crosbie, the "villain" of sorts, is a fine creation, and this one is worth a read.

I would not recommend buying this book if you expect fabulous color plate images of Arthur Rackham (like I did); the images are all poorly scanned black and white (some of which are upside down in my copy) and do not do him justice. However, if you plan on reading this for the story and don't care about illustration quality, I would highly recommend this book.

Even though I do think that this is a great book , it is only half of an even greater. For those of you who don't know this book was just the middle few chapters of one of JM Barrie's books entitled "The Little White Bird". I would encourage people to buy that version instead of this because it includes the same text and more detailing story of a young boy quite in the same way like Peter Pan.

Like most, I read "Peter and Wendy" (which many know simply as "Peter Pan," and was the basis for the Disney movie) before reading "Kensington Gardens." I completely enjoyed "Kensington," and loved getting to spend a little more time with Pan, getting to know his history and his friends in the garden.

I would recommend "Peter and Wendy" be read before "Kensington Gardens," simply because "Peter and Wendy" will allow the reader to grow fond of the character, and "Kensington" will allow this further insight into his life.

Either way, read 'em both. It's well worth it.

Some popular fiction manages to stand the test of time, and EAST LYNNE falls into that category. For its contemporary readers, EAST LYNNE was one of the exemplars of that emerging genre, the sensation novel: its plot incorporates, among other things, murder, mistaken identity, bigamy, and adultery. Sitting awkwardly in this wild stew of criminal activity are the narrator's pious moral observations and the novel's didactic (and sometimes ponderously satirical) pronouncements on contemporary mores. The characters are mainly cardboard, with the possible exception of the termagant Cornelia Carlyle. The story remains highly readable, largely because the plot moves at a reasonably fast pace, but no-one should approach this book looking for high literature. Mrs. Wood wrote plain--some might say "simplistic"--prose with a minimum of stylistic embellishment, but most readers should find her writing tolerable. In other words, this novel exists in the upper reaches of Danielle Steele-land. It is, nevertheless, an essential text for understanding trends in Victorian popular culture during the 1860s and after.

This new edition, probably intended to replace the poorly edited Everyman version, contains a number of "extras." These include letters from Mrs. Wood, the report from publisher's reader Geraldine Jewsbury (herself a popular novelist), data on the novel's publication and serialization, contemporary reviews, contextual material, and selections from one of the many theatrical adaptations of the novel. Like most Broadview publications, this edition is obviously designed for classroom use, although casual readers should also find the additional material helpful.

Unfortunately, this edition has something in common with the Everyman version: the editing and proofreading. The text is rife with bizarre word substitutions, as if the MS had been run through a spellchecker without a second reading; typos; and improper accidentals (e.g., semi-colons for apostrophes and commas for periods). The often scattershot footnotes did not help: they were sometimes repetitive (e.g., annotating "Turk" more than once) and often too terse to be of much use. Many notes glossed old sayings whose meanings remain obvious even to today's students. To make matters worse, my own copy was badly printed. Instructors may want to keep these problems in mind.

Mrs Henry Wood's novel itself doesn't need any recommandation: generations of readers have literally devoured it. My rating however is valid only for the novel in itself.

What I should like to comment upon is the edition -- and here my rating is just 2 -- published as a volume of "Everyman's Library"...The text is disfigured by dozens...of misprints -- from a philological point of view, this edition is just useless.

The volume is out of print at the moment. This should be welcomed by the editors as an occasion to correct those numberless misprints. If they don't do so, there is only one comment possible on their edition: forget it.

I loved the novel "East Lynne" and am now reading it for the 2nd time. I could not put the book down and kept reading and reading. I recommended it to my mother and she also read it and loved it. It is Mrs. Henry Wood's greatest triumph. The reader feels so greatly for Lady Isabel, one wishes the ending were happier for her. The deaths of little William and finally Lady Isabel bring many tears. No wonder it was such a success in the Victorian era and it should be printed again in this time, to counter so much trash and vulgarity that is written.
I certainly can believe how successful it must have been when it was first printed in 1861. I also believe anyone who reads it wishes Lady Isabel back in her ex-husband's life and Barbara Hare out! Wonderful!!

In the case of Larry Meiners new book, the answer is clearly yes. Being a casual gibson collector, I've been startled by how many times I've grabbed this wonderfull little book off the shelf. Clearly formated so the information you want is instantly available, if you have ever wondered how rare your Les Paul is, or when they started making that J-45 you love, this book is for you.

This book is a useful reference to find out the numbers of guitars shipped by Gibson over a certain period of time. This information should be available online somewhere, but strangely enough it isn't. So, any vintage guitar enthusiast should peruse this book if you are interested in Gibson guitars and their collectibility.

Excellent reference work. A must have for players, collectors, and vintage guitar fans.
Should be on every dealer's reference shelf!

Lady Molly of Scotland Yard is an enjoyable collection of stories in the Sherlock Holmes manner, although the accounts aren't quite as detailed. Is this where Carole Nelson Douglas got her inspiration for Irene Adler's expanded character, in addition to "A Scandal in Bohemia"? Both Lady Molly and Irene bear remarkable similarities.

I do not profess to know much about Sherlock Holmes, but the style is much the same as the Sherlock Holmes tales I have read, but with a feminist...and feminine...spin. The Baroness Orczy lays the stories out quickly and the stories don't drag on, as some mystery stories and novels do (although you may lament the shortness at times).

While some may find Lady Molly's feminine intuition somewhat unbelieveable, the stories are nonetheless delightful. Just as I was eager to find out whodunit in each story, so was I eager to learn of my lady's interesting history.

Highly entertaining!

The Lady Molly stories are fun, semi-feminist, Sherlock-Holmes-like tales. The attention to servants, clothing, and the ambiance of the era is delightful. The heroine is out to save her man and is both "ladylike" and a little feminist--although she gives up her job for love at the end of the book.

This installment of The Daily Study Bible Series covers the Pastoral Epistles and the letter to Philemon. William Barclay has given us a good devotional study firmly rooted in biblical scholarship.

Scholars have disputed Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles (I and II Timothy, Titus). Barclay's introduction covers the issues involved well. He takes a middle position where a later teacher expanded genuine Pauline fragments. Unfortunately, he does not expound this view in the commentary itself; he is silent about which sections are genuine and which are later. Since "we are still hearing the voice of Paul" (13), it probably did not occur to him to make the distinctions. Barclay's introduction to Philemon includes an interesting if speculative account of how this short letter became included in the New Testament.

The commentary itself is best described as expository. Barclay does not only analyze the Greek text. Using exhortation, anecdotal stories, and other sources, he also suggests what these texts might mean today. From a strictly academic viewpoint, this commentary will seem superficial. For the popular audience for whom Barclay has intended this work, it should serve as a springboard for further study. Barclay provides a list for further reading for this purpose.

Though this book is a good introductory work overall, the reader should be aware of a couple points. The first relates to these epistles' stances on women and slavery. Any casual reading of the letters will strike the reader as bordering on misogyny and condoning slavery. Barclay places these tests in the situation of the Roman/Greek world in which Paul wrote them. He makes a valid point that doing almost anything else would be scandalous (with women) or even dangerous (with slaves). To his credit, he says those circumstances no longer apply. However,considering the history in which these texts were and are used, I have to think he soft-pedaled these issues. After all Christianity is supposed to be "light for the world" (Matt. 5:14, NJB).

The other issue concerns Barclay's treatment of other religions. When Barclay mentions them, he almost invariably creates straw men of them. He makes at least one anti-Semitic accusation without evidence. Against these straw men, Barclay over idealizes Christianity. Even granting this work is now more than twenty-five years old, Barclay should have been above that.

In his series of New Testament Commentaries, William Barclay gives us a commentary on the "Pastoral Epistles" and Philemon. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are called the Pastoral Epistles because Paul had written them to encourage and advise two pastors in Early Christianity. They give advice concerning the character and conduct that Christians should have, specifically the character and conduct of a church's pastor.

Where Barclay's strength lies is in the meticulous analysis of the text. Paul tends to pack a lot in his sentences; Barclay picks the sentence apart and brings things into clearer view. While he does an admirable job discussing Paul's world in the light of the times (when slaves outnumbered free men, when women were neither to be seen nor heard, etc.); how Paul's words can be applied to a modern, slave-free, woman-respecting society; and spends a great deal of time analyzing Christian conduct.

While the commentary is generally good, it wasn't much that I hadn't heard or read before. It can be argued that this was Barclay's intention. Since he translated the entire text from the original Greek, quoted many other Bible verses and Paul's pagan contemporaries (to illustrate the thinking of the day), etc., he could have written a pretty good commentary series intended for Biblical scholars. Instead, he wrote one for the regular chruch-goers.

I do have to throw in one comment concerning the inerrancy of the Bible. Barclay speculates that Paul may not have written the entire epistle, but rather that someone found one of Paul's old letters and re-wrote it to address the Gnostic heresy in the Church. This speculation is dangerous as it encourages one to pick apart the Bible and throw away the parts that he/she doens't like. It makes the Bible subjective ("I don't like that part about no murder. I don't believe the Holy Spirit wrote that, so I'll ignore it."). The Holy Spirit doesn't need an editor; It will have what it wants in the Bible and make sure that any "false teachings" are not included.

In all, this is a pretty good commentary. It gives a thorough, Biblical analysis of the conduct of Christian pastors and lay-people. It also gives a healthy view of the historical period in which these letters were written.

I have found Barclay's Daily Bible Study Guides of the New Testament the best in-depth commentary of the bible books. He presents scholarly analysis in very easy to read passages. Reading this book in particular greatly increased my understanding of Paul's extraordinary letters to Timothy and Titus on Christian leadership principles.

The usual kind of story where bad aliens keep killing people and they just keep coming back for more. Somewhat politically dated (written before the fall of the USSR). Good marks for fairly interesting ideas for the aliens. Bad marks for unfinished storylines, and predictability. Half-way though the book i thought... geez this is a total rip-off of 2001.

Gibson does a very nice job of creating a new type of villian. I found his explanation of black holes to be the most clear, and the best for laymen. Nice interplay between characters. Author uses his 84 days on orbit on THE FIRST SPACE STATION-SKYLAB (not Mir!) to bring a sense of realism to the voyage.

Alien life is NOT friendly and peace-loveing, but neither is is evil. It is simply, terrifyingly, ALIEN. "Reach" swallows one in a universe both otherworldly and familiar - the more so because the logic of it is inexorable, the conclusion inescapable. Good treatment of scientific/technical issues, while scaring you to death. A fascinating, new conception of first contact