This is one of the most amazing books I have ever read! I laughed and cried with the Frick family. Everyone, no matter your denomination or degree of faith, feels the true presence of God in their lives when they read this book. I can't wait to read it again!

This story is one of sorrows, hopes, and many graces. It a testament to one family's faith as they face the loss of their youngest member. It is a beautiful story of a faith community growing ever larger coming together with prayers, faith and love.

It a story of many graces and miracles.

Life has a randomness that contains both good and bad elements, and the story of the Frick family embodies both. The bad for this family is the tragedy that befalls their youngest son Kraig, a vibrant independent child, who finds himself afflicted with an inoperable brain stem tumor. The good is the strong belief the family has in their faith and how this helps them deal with this unthinkable event.

The presence that Kraig has in his short life upon the people who come to know him is incredible. And, in his death, this presence is carried on through a Franciscan priest who gains courage and strength through Kraig to accomplish things beyond his own limits.

This is a story of courage, joy and adherence to belief that will stir readers' emotions, and help them deal with their own obstacles in life. Steeped in religion, the story is told in a very comfortable manner by author Marion Lee. She has a way with words that allows readers to believe they are sitting across from Karyl Frick as she tells the story of her son.

Lee brings to life the events surrounding this family in such a way that the reader lives along with the joys and sadness of this spectacular family.

Let us hope that we don't have to wait another twelve years to be show another story from this excellent author.

The art of gaining insight into personalities, sitiuations and future predicaments through the use of playing cards is as old as civilization itself, but Leeann Richards new book The Oracle of Love brings a whole new aspect to this highly entertaining subject.
Witty, informative, easy to read, these pages are laced with deep perceptions of men and women, their vulnerabilities, their ambitions, and what makes them tick. We learn to probe beneath the surface of human nature. As well as being an excellent instructional guide, this book is funny. Leeann Richard's quotes and examples are so good, you know EXACTLY what she is describing in terms of feelings and reactions.
A wonderful read, a valuable tool, this book is worht its weight in gold.

I loved this book. It was easy to navigate and the descriptions of the cards were much more fun than you would expect. Not just dry, dictionary stuff but lively and entertaining. This girl can write. I don't know for certain that any cards can tell the future but this book sure had some good thoughts about men and relationships and finding love. Pick it up, pop the cork and have a good hoot and holler. You might see things differently!

I've had the pleasure of using LeeAnn Richards' new book on a number of occasions. The Oracle of Love has proven to be a wonderful tool for myself and my girlfriends. It's incredibly easy to use. Richards offers several card spreads to choose from, so we've been able to tailor the book to our needs. Specific cards are siimple to find because of the easy-reference format used by the book. The advice given by the cards (via Richards' interpretation) has been amazingly insightful. In addition, the stories she tells both amuse and warm the heart. I would recommend this book to anyone who's looking to find out more about themselves and/or the person they're currently interested in. It's a real find.

The Oz Factors is a pretty good book. The author did a good job for not being well educated. He uses The Wizard of Oz story as a springboard for explaining his philosophy on everything. I think that anyone would enjoy the book. It may make a few people on the extremes (i.e. hard core liberal and conservative people)nervous.

"The Oz Factors" pulls back the curtain of misinformation and deceit carefully concealing the vested interests of the "great and powerful" of western civilization. What you have been taught about western history, science, archaeology and spirituality have been twisted, distorted and concealed from view to serve the self-serving lies and fears of wizards and witches.
Learn how to think for yourself. You don't have to be the victim of the "oz factors" any longer. Read this book.

You probably think it's a good thing to question assumptions. Well if a book helps to to discover assumptions that you forgot you were assuming, you might call that a revelation. I for one enjoy a good revelation. This book is full of them, and wasn't that the real story of the Wizard of OZ? I knew there was something about that movie.....

I have read several books on the subject and found this one to be very helpful.

when i search for filters book i found this book,
it's what really every one looking for,dont think
just take and you will thank me, it's very well
explained and good color photos and examples.

I own other books by Frost, and I've always enjoyed his writing style. His writings are easily understood so the average person can apply his methods and see improved results. Frost show before and after results of filter use, giving full details on the filters and camera settings used.

Unlike other strategic planning books I have read, which are mostly theoretical, "Plan for Profitability!" establishes its credibility early because the author clearly documents that the information and methods presented are gleaned primarily from his own professional experience - from actual strategic plans he has produced. Mr. Hargrave guides the reader through the logical thought processes required by planners to develop business strategies, and provides ample shortcuts to quickly resolve some of the stickier decisions. I found the book to be well organized and thorough, replete with charts, tables, and formulae to support the conclusions offered.

The use of the semi-fictitious company, International Microwidgets, to apply and illustrate each section of the strategic plan, was both instructive and motivating. I looked forward to each chapter to see how the company would solve its mounting market share and production-cost problems. I also liked reading Hargrave's Law: "[A]n unfavorable trend will continue unabated unless positive action is taken to stop it and ... positive action is also required to sustain a favorable trend." (p.217)

My first thought was, "Wow, a business principle taken directly from the Laws of Physics!" In Physics, however, you would assume that favorable and unfavorable trends are similarly "lubricated." Based on Hargrave's Law, we find that, in business, unfavorable trends are well-lubricated while favorable trends suffer from high friction. This accurately parallels media and marketing forces, too, wherein negative issues are heralded as "news" while positive information is virtually ignored.

In my opinion, only one area of the book's content needed some "upgrading" to fit the late-90s and beyond (especially since it was published in 1999). Since the majority of the materials used for the book were from experiences in the 1970s and 80s, decades that placed little emphasis on the "strategic" value of Information Technology (I.T.), the inclusion of I.T. as more than a part of "Central Services" would have been appropriate. Nowadays, a corporation's business vision and its I.T. vision must be in alignment, which often results in an I.T. department becoming a "profit center" rather than a "cost center." Hey, what can I say - I'm an I.T. guy who has been frustrated more than once by a singular lack of coordination between I.T. "realities" and corporate strategies.

Despite this minor, time-based nit-pick, I believe that I will get good mileage from "Plan for Profitability!" as I assist my client's firm with its first strategic business plan.

Finally, should the author be compelled to reprint this book (a good thing), he should consider a more professional publisher. By no fault of Mr. Hargrave's, I found the production and editing values of the book to be substandard, including over 15 typographical errors, crooked pages, ink that smeared when highlighted, and a weak binding, allowing pages to separate from the book.

Businesses have been through reengineering, consolidation, right sizing, and a host of methods to extract more dollars from their businesses. Unfortunately, most of these methods have been on the backs of the employees and have not made the businesses more competitive. Strategic business planning is a better solution than many of the methods that have been recently used in business and is a necessity in today's competitive business environment. Through strategic business planning you can 'plan for profitability' and be prepared for the competition and threats that may face your company. Plan for Profitability! is the only book of its kind that provides examples and step by step instructions on how to create a strategic business plan.

Mr. Lee E. Hargrave Jr. has distilled into the book the key elements in the creation of a strategic business plan. Many authors prepare short articles that focus only on theory and thought processes in an attempt to get you interested in using them as consultants. Mr. Hargrave is much more generous. He uses examples from strategic plans he has worked on and creates a fictitious company to step us through the entire process from start to finish.

Plan for Profitability! is the only book I found during my search of the available business literature, that steps you through examples that show you how to evaluate the competition and threats and also how to look for opportunities. It also shows you how the strategic business plan interfaces with the operational plan.

The following are some of the key concepts covered in the book:

a. The author firmly believes that with proper strategy you can plan for a business's profitability.

b. A successful planner would have a broad educational background, working experience in a business enterprise, be able to reason in both the abstract and concrete, able to read financial statements, have strong communication and team skills, and be able to work in the shadow of the CEO.

c. Both the operational and strategic planning cycles have four sequential steps:

i. Identification of key issues;
ii. Guidelines for preparing the plan;
iii. Preparation of the plan;
iv. Review and approval.

d. There are 11 sequential steps to a strategic business plan: mission, market, competition, self-evaluation, opportunities and threats, objectives, strategies, programs, goals, resources and financials.

e. The credibility of the strategic plan rests squarely on the credibility of your market projects.

f. Market share is the single most important measure of a competitor's position.

g. Projecting a company's forward resource needs is probably the most tedious element in the preparation of the strategic plan.

h. The preparation of the financial statements marks the point in the preparation of the strategic plan where ambition and reality confront one another.

i. The company with the highest gross margin is likely to be the most profitable and the market share leader.

j. Unfavorable trends tend to continue unless positive action is taken to counter the trend.

The author of Plan for Profitability! uses a logical hierarchical outline to present his process of creating a strategic business plan. He uses bullets to make important points and a summary at the end of each chapter to reinforce the important information. The book uses numerous real life examples and a fictitious company to show the complete financial planning process. In the end there is short and concise business plan of the fictitious company. All the information is easy to follow and understand.

The author's book treats the creation of a strategic business plan in a short, concise, and complete manner. This would be a great text for an MBA program on strategic planning, preparation of a business plan, or the reading of financial reports. The book could also be used as a guideline for creating your own strategic business plan. I could not locate anything that focused on the creation of a strategic business plan all the way from start to finish with a discussion of how to use financial statements.

I am an MBA student and just wanted to say thanks to Lee Hargrave for a wonderfully written book on strategic planning. It was explained well and in my research, I found this to provide the best flow with great material. I know I will refer to the book for many years to come in my business career.

I very much recommend this book. It was a quick read on my daily train commute and I actually resented getting off the train and walking home (it is difficult to read in the dark while you're walking). However, I found a few things "aggravating" about it.
First, the term "aggravating" is being misused here since the word is not synonymous with "annoying", which would have been the correct one to use. "Aggravating" means getting or making something worse but it has become one of those slang words currently en vogue (similar to "impact", which has lately become an annoying substitute for "affect"). Second, there are at least half a dozen misspelled words in the book (not typos, mind you, but misspelled words - the difference being that misspelled words are spelled that way on purpose, and for the wrong reason).
One example is "respiratory track (sic)". These misspelled words are distracting and do not inspire confidence in the thoroughness of the research.

Nevertheless, my overall evaluation of this book is overwhelmingly positive and I can't wait for the sequel (quite a few more annoying things I can think of!)

Using the word "aggravation" in the sense of "annoyance" is not incorrect. While most dictionaries list the first definition of "aggravation" as "to make things worse," they also list as a second or third defnition the use of "aggravation" as a synonym for "annoyance." The American Heritage Dictionary, for example, gives the definition of aggravation as: 1. The act of aggravating or the state of being aggravated. 2. A source of continuing, increasing irritation or trouble. 3. Exasperation. The Cambridge Dictionary lists a definition of "aggravation" as "adj informal annoyance." So this use of "aggravation" is accepted.

As for mispelled words in the text, I would not use that as a guage of how well or poorly a book is researched. After the author writes a book, it goes through the hands of several editors. This book has copius notes at the end that point to a great deal of research including scientific journals and personal interviews. This seems relatively uncommon for this type of light entertainment reference.

Incidentally, "respiratory" is the correct spelling according to Mirriam Webster, The Cambridge Dictionary of American English, Webster's Revised Unabridged, and The American Heritage Dictionary which I have here at my desk.

This book is awesome, not only does it discuss the things that aggravate and irk is, but Laura Lee goes in depth and explains the reason and science behind them, from crinkly candy wrappers to lost luggage to slow drivers in the fast lane! I enjoyed this book and its humor so much, I hope Laura Lee writes another book on the things that aggravate us!

The Scarlet Letter puts even the most morally secure people's beliefs to the test. The line between what is really sin and what is "different" in this novel is one that most cannot define at the end of finishing this book. It makes the reader think about the choices in their own life, and the choices they would make in situations such as those of Hester Prynne, Dimmsdale, and little Pearl. The Scarlet Letter has a wonderful way of depicting the exclusiveness of the early Puritans that is not outwardly horrible, but chips away at the patience of the reader until their feelings towards the Puritans are nothing but distain. The novel uses light and dark in ways that subconsciously show what is Godly and reverent and what is evil and sin. So many elements in The Scarlet Letter just capture the reader into wanting more, and I recommend this book to anyone who wants to challenge their beliefs.

I first read this book in high school, and i didn't like it much, which was surprising because i really enjoy Hawthorne's short fiction. i again picked it up recently, and found that loved it. There no doubt that it is a difficult book to read, Hawthorne requires the reader to think as he reads. everything is symbolic of something in this book. Hawthorne has a mastery of the language that you just don't see anymore. think this is one we should re-read every few years, as we mature. I got the Norton edition, which helps a little with understanding the story, but most of the articles were not that helpful.

This was an interesting book. I liked the plot, but the author really needed to wrap up those words that I didn't understand. I mean, I can define any one of the words in the book, save few, but using about 5 of them in one sentence just makes me too confused to try to get into the story like I normally do.

This is a book that you don't want to end. I wanted delve more into the characters lives as the book went on. They were so fascinating and varied. I liked the way Helen Elaine Lee integrated telling of folktales so closely with the story as well. That aspect gave the book a magical feeling and hope to the characters lives.

I will add this book, and Ms. Lee's most recent accomplishment, Watermarked, to my Good List.

Ms. Lee's novel weaves the tale of two families whoses lives are forever entwined. Cleverly, she uses the image/symbol of the serpent through the important passages of the main characters. LaRue, an accomplished story teller also helps to convey the symbolism of the snake. Through powerful metaphorical images and symbolism, Ms. Lee leaves readers contemplating about the two families, the Staples and the Smalls even after the very last page. A powerful tale from an eloquent writer. I am still in awe of the fact that The Serpent's Gift is Ms. Lee's first novel.