Go Put Your Strengths to Work: Six Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: Six Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
Average customer rating:

Worth the read

How to take charge of your work

Follow-up book, much overlap with earlier books

Excellent book and great team activity!

While he also wants to sell you other stuff, the book is a good way to build your own positive deviance

Go Put Your Strengths to Work: Six Powerful Steps to Achieve Outstanding Performance
Marcus Buckingham
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Motivation & Self-Improvement | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform from Those Who Don't

ASIN: 0743261674
Release Date: 2007-03-06

Book Description

Beginning with the million-copy bestsellers First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham jump-started the strengths movement that is now sweeping the work world, from business to government to education. Now that the movement is in full swing, Buckingham's new book answers the ultimate question: How can you actually apply your strengths for maximum success at work?

Research data show that most people do not come close to making full use of their assets at work -- in fact, only 17 percent of the workforce believe they use all of their strengths on the job. Go Put Your Strengths to Work aims to change that through a six-step, six-week experience that will reveal the hidden dimensions of your strengths. Buckingham shows you how to seize control of your assets and rewrite your job description under the nose of your boss. You will learn:

• Why your strengths aren't "what you are good at" and your weaknesses aren't "what you are bad at."

• How to use the four telltale signs to identify your strengths.

• The simple steps you can take each week to push your time at work toward those activities that strengthen you and away from those that don't.

• How to talk to your boss and your colleagues about your strengths without sounding like you're bragging and about your weaknesses without sounding like you're whining.

• The fifteen-minute weekly ritual that will keep you on your strengths path your entire career.

With structured exercises that will become part of your regular workweek and proven tactics from people who have successfully applied the book's lessons, Go Put Your Strengths to Work will arm you with a radically different approach to your work life. As part of the book's program you'll take an online Strengths Engagement Track, a focused and powerful gauge that has proven to be the best way to measure the level of engagement of your strengths or your team's strengths. You can also download the first two segments of the renowned companion film series Trombone Player Wanted.

Go Put Your Strengths to Work will open up exciting uncharted territory for you and your organization. Join the strengths movement and thrive.

Customer Reviews:

Worth the read.......2007-10-10

I read this over a brief vacation during the summer. Ive found it has enhanced my abilities dealing with people both at work and my personal life. I plan on reading it again when my busy work schedule permits it.

How to take charge of your work.......2007-10-03

Marcus Buckingham is passionate about helping you identify your unique strengths and unleash their power. As you read and work your way through the program in this book, you will become convinced that growing through your strengths is the ticket to your future happiness, effectiveness and success. He refutes the approach of improvement by fixing mistakes as a dead end that cannot help you discover how you can be exceptional. The book constantly refers you to its associated Web site for materials that will help you work through the exercises. Buckingham wants you to act rather than just read a theoretical tract. Nothing presented in this book will help you without action and implementation. However, if you take up the challenge, you will become empowered as you take charge of your work through your strengths. We recommend this book because it contains just a few simple ideas that could change your life.

Follow-up book, much overlap with earlier books.......2007-09-30

Marcus Buckingham discusses six steps to identifying and putting your strengths to work:

1. Convince yourself that exercising your strengths is more fun and productive that spending your time shoring up your weaknesses.

2. Identify specific activities that exercise your strengths. For example, mine include
a. Determine true value
b. Learn and apply new and useful skills, knowledge
c. Creative problem solving

3. Build your job towards your strengths.

4. Stop / reduce time spent shoring up your weaknesses

5. Build a strong team by enabling each member to exercise their strengths towards delivering business value

6. Make a habit of ensuring that each person's activities around you are aligned with their strengths (including yourself :-)

The book could have been much shorter - the concept was repeated multiple times. More specifics on step 3 would also have been more useful.

Excellent book and great team activity!.......2007-09-13

I manage a team of Sales Professionals and found this book to be a great tool to help them stay focused on the positive aspects of their job. I really like the message and appreciate the fact that it does not immediately say that if you are not happy right now, you need a new job. It points them back to their current position and helps them be more productive and utilize their strengths where they are at.

While he also wants to sell you other stuff, the book is a good way to build your own positive deviance.......2007-09-13

If you really look at what is holding you back, from really using your best qualities and talents, you will almost surely find that most of it are the images and thoughts you hold between your ears. You are so sure about what could go wrong, or about what you HAVE to do, or about what is just not possible, that you just don't even try to step out.

Well, to say it simply, stop it! This book provides you with a six step process to help you build on your strengths rather than chasing and fixing mistakes. It is based on the ideas you will find in the business philosophies of Appreciative Inquiry and Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS). The core idea in these movements is that you can't build on your strengths if all you see are your weaknesses. If you want to be a master of something, you have to study those who do it well, not focus on the mistakes of those who aren't very skilled. The term they often use is "positive deviance". That is, that area of performance that deviates ABOVE the norm. The goal is to learn how to create more positive deviance.

In the first step, Buckingham focuses you on giving up belief in three myths: 1) As you grow your personality changes. 2) You will grow in your areas of greatest weakness. 3) A good team member does whatever it takes to help the team. He says that the truths are: 1) As you grow you become more of who you already are. 2) You will grow in your areas of greatest strength. 3) A good team member deliberately volunteers his strengths to the team most of the time.

As he discusses each of these he asks you to examine what you are getting out of believing in these myths. What would it cost you to stop believing in it? Then think carefully about the benefits you would gain by believing the truth. If you sincerely do this, you will likely be shocked and then energized.

The purpose of this book is to help you take charge of your life and especially your work life. You will make it more rewarding, says the author, by centering your work on your strengths rather than just doing whatever comes to you as an assignment. It is a six step process. The first, as I noted above, is to bust the myths. Step 2 is to get clear about your strengths. Three is to free your strengths. Four helps you see and stop your weaknesses (not focus on fixing them). Five coaches you on how to speak up and get your boss supporting your strengths. Six is about keeping the process alive by building strong habits.

Now, Marcus Buckingham is a big-time, high-priced consultant. The book sends you to his website to use some free materials there (but also offers you others to purchase). Underneath this is the desire to sell your company consulting and seminar services with associated materials. It is interesting stuff, but the sheer "salesiness" of it detracts from it a bit for me.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson

Oh, the Places You'll Go! (Classic Seuss)

Average customer rating:

The Genius of Dr. Seuss, not just for children
"Life Lessons For Dummies"
Not just for kids...
Love Dr. Seuss
great surprise

Oh, the Places You'll Go! (Classic Seuss)
Dr. Seuss
Manufacturer: Random House, New York
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Humorous | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are? (Classic Seuss)
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Green Eggs and Ham (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books)

ASIN: 0679805273
Release Date: 1990-01-22

Product Description

Description coming soon...

Amazon.com

Inspirational yet honest, and always rhythmically rollicking, Oh, the Places You'll Go! is a perfect sendoff for children, 1 to 100, entering any new phase of their lives. Kindergartners, graduate students, newlyweds, newly employeds--all will glean shiny pearls of wisdom about the big, bountiful future. The incomparable Dr. Seuss rejoices in the potential everyone has to fulfill their wildest dreams: "You'll be on your way up! / You'll be seeing great sights! / You'll join the high fliers / who soar to high heights." At the same time, he won't delude the starry-eyed upstart about the pitfalls of life: "You can get all hung up / in a prickle-ly perch. / And your gang will fly on. / You'll be left in a Lurch."

But fear not! Dr. Seuss, with his inimitable illustrations and exhilarating rhymes, is convinced ("98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed") that success is imminent. As long as you remember "to be dexterous and deft. And NEVER mix up your right foot with your left," things should work out. (All ages) --Emilie Coulter

Customer Reviews:

The Genius of Dr. Seuss, not just for children.......2007-10-09

This is a beautiful and sensitive book.
I gave it to my "daughter" when she turned 18. I also put it in our school library.
It says exactly what people want to tell the kids they love when they go out into the world. You will have rough spots, but you can make it.

"Life Lessons For Dummies".......2007-09-20

The all-time BEST book by any author for any age. How true to life this classic story is. Could only be sequeled by "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are"? A must for every household.

Not just for kids..........2007-08-26

You thought the good doctor only wrote books for kids...

You probably also thought that both the story lines in the Disney movies were for the children, too...

This is a great book for adults, students, and children. It's a wonderful gift for anyone taking a turn in their life.

So, if you have not read it recently, get a copy today. And if you have read it, get a copy for a friend who has changed jobs (or even lost a job), been promoted up the ladder, graduated from high school or college, or had another change in their life.

Remind them of "The Places They'll Go!"

Love Dr. Seuss.......2007-08-23

Dr. Seuss was my favorite author when I was a child...I now share him with others...I'm giving it as a gift to others whom reach a certain level in their business lives...

great surprise.......2007-08-13

my girlfriends all time favorite book and now she has it a deluxe edition that came in great condition

The Language of Letting Go (Hazelden Meditation Series)

Average customer rating:

Daily Inspiration
Ok
Great inspiration - I love it
Recovery for Anyone a Woman or Man
best meditation book for me!

The Language of Letting Go (Hazelden Meditation Series)
Melody Beattie
Manufacturer: Hazelden
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Codependency | Mental Health | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0894866370

Book Description

For more than a decade, millions of readers have turned to Beattie's classic meditation book, THE LANGUAGE OF LETTING GO, as a wellspring for daily reflection, affirmation, and change. With honesty and encouragement, she reminds readers that each day is an opportunity for renewal.

Customer Reviews:

Daily Inspiration.......2007-09-12

I bought this book along with another of Melody's. I think she is a very caring and understanding person and this book gives me daily readings to keep up my spirits and know that I am not alone and I can fix my own problems. I wasn't expecting a daily devotional type of book, but I am so glad now that I have it. They say one day at a time.. and right now that's what I'm giving.

Ok.......2007-08-03

Not what I expected it to be. More religious than I prefer and definately works with the AA platform which wasn't what I wanted.

Great inspiration - I love it.......2007-06-03

Melody Beattie has an amazing way of inspiring and clarifying. I have loved everything that I have read of hers....Definitely buy this!

Recovery for Anyone a Woman or Man.......2007-05-17

This book has an inspirational meditation for every day of the year. I have had mine for 6 years and I purchased 4 for some friends and they love it. It gives me things to think about for the health of my mind and soul on a daily basis. I love this daily meditation book.

best meditation book for me!.......2007-03-15

Great daily meditation book for codependents. I love it! Every entry has something in it that really grabs your attention and has you saying "that's so me!" Great author, I love her.

Getting Organized: Learning How to Focus, Organize and Prioritize

Average customer rating:

Practical ideas that produce results
a nice, integrated system
Look at the reviews carefully
Will only be helpful for a few.
Great Ideas to incorporate in everyday situations

Getting Organized: Learning How to Focus, Organize and Prioritize
Chris Crouch
Manufacturer: Dawson Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business Life | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0975868098

Book Description

Getting Organized is a collection of simple ideas that address at least six major issues that could be generating chaos and disorder in your life. These ideas are presented in a simple format, with specific suggestions on how to put each idea to work, so busy people can find the time to read and try them. Simply stated, Getting Organized will help you improve your ability to focus, organize and prioritize.

Getting Organized includes tips, ideas and recommendations that are being successfully taught by corporate trainers and professional organizers in GO System training sessions all over the country. Even if you've tried unsuccessfully to get organized before, consider reading Getting Organized. You'll find effective solutions to your organizing challenges and will enjoy the benefits for years to come.

Customer Reviews:

Practical ideas that produce results.......2007-07-13

You won't get rich from simply reading a "How to Get Rich" book and you won't get organized and productive from just reading any book - you have to take action and implement the ideas.

I have used the principles and ideas outlined in "Getting Organized" for several years and found them to be extremely valuable.

Becoming more organized and productive is not a matter of what type of filing system or PDA you use, it involves making a habit of organized and productive behavior.

This book provides concrete tools for forming those habits. Simply outstanding!

a nice, integrated system.......2007-07-03

Crouch has some very solid ideas here, with practical applications. Worth looking at.

More at: Some thoughts from the book "Getting Organized" by Chris Crouch
[...]

Look at the reviews carefully.......2007-05-10

I wish I would have looked at the reviews carefully before buying this piece of fluff! I now took the time to look at more than the gold stars and actually read those reviews, and it seems that 99.9% of them were written by people who have paid to have this author give seminars at their offices. I have a feeling they got a discount for each 5 star review they gave.

When you can't handle email or incoming/outgoing paperwork, no book OR seminar is going to help you ... perhaps your career path should begin with a McJob!

If you are looking for REAL organization books that apply to your home and office space, I suggest "Organizing From The Inside Out" and "Sink Reflections".

Will only be helpful for a few........2007-04-14

The book was NOT what I was expecting based on prior reviews. This is NOT a guide to life organizing and prioritizing but rather the author's idea of handling office incoming mail, a filing reminder system for phone calls to be made and work to be done, keeping things one needs to share with another individual in a central location, and scheduling and consolidating that sharing. For those who don't need a computer to do their job, have a memory like a sieve, or are super disorganized and don't know where to begin to start, this might be helpful, otherwise, save your money. His ideas are only practical in a low volume paperwork environment and with those who have non-technical professions. Some kind of portable, daily planner or calendar or a computer syncing PDA is much more practical.

Great Ideas to incorporate in everyday situations.......2007-03-18

Although the book was more concise than expected, I learned some values that I will always use. Recommend this book with its witty content.

Self-Discipline in 10 Days: How to Go from Thinking to Doing

Average customer rating:

Gets You Thinking
Excellent and accurate advice!
Utterly Enlightening
It simply works...
Unexpectedly changed my attitude

Self-Discipline in 10 Days: How to Go from Thinking to Doing
Theodore Bryant
Manufacturer: HUB Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1880115069

Book Description

Follow the system in this book and you will achieve more self-discipline in your work life, your personal life, and any other area of your life that you choose. You will go from dreaming, thinking, and planning to doing: Fast! You will quickly start to turn your ideas into actions and achievements. You will learn to apply simple techniques that will benefit you for a lifetime. Take your first step toward self-discipline today by ordering now! Youll learn: How To Overcome The 5 Common Psychological Roadblocks To Self-Discipline! How To Identify & Rid Yourself Of The Sub-Conscious Beliefs That Sabotage Self-Discipline! How To Program Your Psychological Functions For Maximum Self-Discipline! How To Use Simple Time Management Techniques!

Customer Reviews:

Gets You Thinking.......2007-10-13

I enjoyed this book a lot. It is organized well and has lots of "icons" that make the reading interesting. I think it works so well because it is almost set up like a workbook and has you do a lot of writing exercises that attempt to get at the root cause of things.

It also emphasizes positive self-talk and discusses some common barriers to self-discipline. All-in-all, its well worth a good look. Also found The Sixty-Second Motivator helpful too.

Excellent and accurate advice!.......2007-10-02

This book covers all the most common problems related to procrastination and "lack of force of will" to do those things that we all want to accomplish but never have the time nor the energy to do so. It has a direct and clear approach to the "Hyde" effects, or, using other words, the hurdles that hinder the progress to reach our goals. It's specially important that you write down all the proposed exercises in order to achieve the full strenght of the book's advice. Don't let your old habits overtake you, this method works and can help you!

Utterly Enlightening.......2007-06-13

Below you will find the epiphany I recently had that prompted me to post this review. It is written as a stream of consciousness. Needless to say, I highly recommend this book.

ESCAPE
The theme of my life for the past few weeks. I keep trying to escape. Escape from what I ask? I automatically assume it means I'm unhappy, depressed? Is this feeling..this need to escape a symptom of depression? What other symptoms of depression do I possess? Procrastination. Surely this is a form of depression. I conquered this one a while ago but alas, it has returned. Procrastination + Escape is a bad combination. It is self-defeating which again is a symptom of depression. All this defeatist attitude...wait come to think of it, cynicism. I've been very cynical of late. Wow, these are barriers, barriers to self-discipline, just as it was written in 10 Days to Self-Discipline: Going From Thinking To Doing. So is self-discipline a symptom of depression, or rather, is my depression a symptom associated with having no discipline? I hope that it is the case of the latter, and moreover, I hope that the inverse of the latter holds true. If be this the case, then happiness here I come.

..oh and, thanks for reading.

It simply works..........2007-04-19

The book is a REALLY short read. The exercises are quick and simple and they just work... Yes, the book is simplistic and the concepts deceptively obvious. I think that is the beauty of it.

Like some of the other reviewers, I have purchased other books about getting past procrastination. What happened to those books? They are on my shelf because I either put off reading them all together or got bored and did not finish reading them.

I was highly skeptical about purchasing this book and I still don't think that the best results were within the "10 days" promised by the title. WHO CARES? You will likely see a change in your thinking and more productivity before you even finish reading the book! The more you apply the concepts, the better your results become.

Buy the book. It is worth the price. You simply have to keep an open mind, read the book, and actually do the exercises. The time and effort invested is amazingly small for the level of benefits derived. Now, the next step is yours...

Unexpectedly changed my attitude.......2007-04-12

This book helped me finally improve my self-discipline attitude. The next thing I knew, I found myself getting on the right track on defeating a nasty habit of mine. As one reviewer said, it's like having a psychologist right in front of you. You won't regret buying this book. It's worth the price.

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Average customer rating:

A great life improvement tool book!
A stellar example of the meaning of the word "excellence."
Wherever You Go, There You Are
Fits great under the coffee table leg
Book Title Says It All!

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
Jon Kabat-zinn
Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1401307787
Release Date: 2005-01-05

Amazon.com

In his follow-up to Full Catastrophe Living--a book in which he presented basic meditation techniques as a way of reducing stress and healing from illness--here Jon Kabat-Zinn goes much more deeply into the practice of meditation for its own sake. To Kabat-Zinn, meditation is important because it brings about a state of "mindfulness," a condition of "being" rather than "doing" during which you pay attention to the moment rather than the past, the future, or the multitudinous distractions of modern life. In brief, rather poetic chapters, he describes different meditative practices and what they can do for the practitioner. The idea that meditation is "spiritual" is often confusing to people, Kabat-Zinn writes; he prefers to think of it as what you might call a workout for your consciousness. This book makes learning meditation remarkably easy (although practicing it is not). But it also makes it seem infinitely appealing. --Ben Kallen

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

A great life improvement tool book!.......2007-10-14

Jon Kabat-Zinn is the master of mindfulness. I was impressed with him as a person and teacher when attending one of his workshops last year. I think readers will be impressed with this solid introduction to his work.
I continue to regularly use this book as a resource and have gifted copies to friends.

Even if you are not yet familiar with mindfulness - or even meditation - this book is a great read for "busy" people who want more peace and tranquility in their lives. I think you will find that as you work through this book, you not only will experience more calm, but you also will experience more energy and joy within your day. Who wouldn't benefit from that?

This book is a great instruction manual for becoming more present in EACH moment of your day - whether at the office, at home with the family or anywhere else.

Use this book to learn to live more fully in the present moment and you will see your life improve. This is such a simple read, with many very brief (2-3 page) chapters. There are many gems within these pages.

Highly recommended!

Mollie Marti
Author, Selling: Powerful New Strategies for Sales Success

A stellar example of the meaning of the word "excellence.".......2007-10-05

If you are interested in spirituality and/or meditation and are looking for a book that is both deep and clear, this is the book to read. You will find that the book is worth several book on the same subject by other people -- and it does it in an articulate, elevated, succint, no-fluff manner that will impress the heck out of you as few books ever will. I must ad a warning, more about the subject matter than about the book per se: Not everyone is ready to assimilate its contents (or any other equally serious meditation book's content, for that matter). The saying that you have to be ready for something in order to understand it applies very much in this case. I can imagine that it could be taken as too ethereal by some people -- those who are not ready. You would need to have lived and realized that there are matters of the soul that you need to take care of to receive its message. But if you are genuinely thirsty about spiritual matters: order it right away! This makes what we normally take as "Eastern" concepts accessible to an educated Western mind, and you realize that there is no need to think of it as Eastern or buddhist or use any label at all. I am really thankful for this book. You will be too.

Wherever You Go, There You Are.......2007-09-28

This can be a life changing book. It clearly outlines the concepts and methods of awareness meditation. I keep a copy on hand to give to people who paths I cross who appear to be lost in the happenings of daily life or those who are suffering major crisis. Whenever it is best to stop the world and get off. If only for a breath.

Fits great under the coffee table leg.......2007-09-21

it's easy to meditate when the book puts you to sleep. oh yeah, don't forget to send more money for the tapes. must be so you can tape your eyes open while reading it.

Book Title Says It All!.......2007-09-16

I have read several of Kabat-Zinn's works and find they are terrific self-helps! "Wherever You Go . . ." is a short, cogent helper to enable the reader to break out of the rut and look at life from a different position. The book is non-denominational and not dogmatic! Any person of any faith or atheist can find the text helpful and instructional. There are eastern philosophical references and some of the meditational technique is based on centuries old practices & techniques. This is one of the books that helped me change my life and resolve some old internal issues. It has also helped my play in Tai Chi Chuan. I highly recommend it!

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood

Average customer rating:

A Traumatic Childhood?
Horrible, Horrible.
Fascinating setting, frustrating storytelling
Remembering Zambia
A favorite

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood
Alexandra Fuller
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0375758992
Release Date: 2003-03-11

Book Description

In Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with candor and sensitivity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.

Download Description

In Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller remembers her African childhood with visceral authenticity. Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, it is suffused with Fuller's endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller's debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time.

From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller -- known to friends and family as Bobo -- grew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. Though she loved her children, she was no hand-holder and had little tolerance for neediness. She nurtured her daughters in other ways: She taught them, by example, to be resilient and self-sufficient, to have strong wills and strong opinions, and to embrace life wholeheartedly, despite and because of difficult circumstances. And she instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation.

A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller writes poignantly about a girl becoming a woman and a writer against a backdrop of unrest, not just in her country but in her home. But Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is more than a survivor's story. It is the story of one woman's unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt.

"This searing memoir of a white family clinging to lives in Africa as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe lays out, without moralizing or sentimentality, the way in which turmoil and injustice in society distort the lives of families and individuals."
   MARY CATHERINE BATESON, AUTHOR OF COMPOSING A LIFE AND FULL CIRCLES, OVERLAPPING LIVES

"Nobody has ever written a book about growing up white in rural Africa the way Alexandra Fuller has. Her voice is mordant, her ear uncanny. Her unsentimentality is a pleasant shock. Her sense of humor is extremely sly. Without a trace of pretension, she quietly performs what is really a major literary feat-nailing both the poetry and the myopia of a child's experience in a brawling, bad-luck family on the losing side of an anti-colonial war."
   WILLIAM FINNEGAN, AUTHOR OF CROSSING THE LINE: A YEAR IN THE LAND OF APARTHEID AND COLD NEW WORLD: GROWING UP IN HARDER COUNTRY

Customer Reviews:

A Traumatic Childhood?.......2007-10-02

I read this book before Ms Fuller's "Scribbling the Cat". I am the same age as Ms Fuller, and also grew up in small Rhodesian towns. I found the racism and generalisation that all white Rhodesian are racist very offensive. Some of my best friends when I was growing up were black children, and if I or my siblings had behaved towards black people the way Ms Fuller and her family did we would have been severely disciplined. This book made me ashamed to be a white African, and I actually have no reason to feel that way.

Horrible, Horrible........2007-09-29

This is one of only two books I've ever bought that was so boring and weird that I could not finish it...and I've been stuck in a hotel room in Mexico for 2 weeks with nothing else to do! It is fully of details of bodily functions; it's crude; and it's just plain dull. This is one of the worst books I've ever bought.

Fascinating setting, frustrating storytelling.......2007-09-10

This memoir really brings its setting to life. It pulses with the sights, smells and sounds of Africa, and does a great job describing civil war, droughts, dysentery, fleas, floods, poachers, scorpions, terrorists and very bad roads. I actually cringed when I read how the putzi flies lay eggs on clothes, which then burrow under the skin, "becoming maggots, bursting into living, squirming boils, emerging as full-blown, winged flies."

Unfortunately, the narrative is weak. The author has a staccato writing style that really gets in the way. In fact, that, and the book's casual racism, made it hard for me to keep reading. It didn't help that so many of the characters are impossible to respect. The alcoholic parents seem to revel in putting their children in harm's way. The mom in particular is hard to take. I kept wanting to slap her, and tell her to stop crying in her beer.

-- By Julie Neal, author of The Complete Guide to Walt Disney World.

Remembering Zambia.......2007-08-23

We can recommentd this book to anyone who has lived in Zambia during and post UDI. We have sent copies to our friends in UK who were with us during our stay there. We all know people who we can relate to with the characters in this book. The story took us all back to places like the "Elephant's Head" in Kabwe - a stop on our treks to Lusaka from Ndola.

A favorite.......2007-07-28

I'm and avid reader, and i must say this book is one of my favorite reads, if not my favorite. I lived with a family in Malawi Afrifca for awhile, so the book, for sure, draws my sentiments. But Alexandra Fuller spills guts and soul into the sharing of her African childhood experience. As a child, she writes with a child's voice, a child's soul, and as she matures, so does her expression. What a gifted writer! Her writing rings true, and I am hungry for more!

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (Giant Little Golden Book)

Average customer rating:

Eternal delight
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go
Timeless!
Great book for kids, and nostalgic for parents
Lots to see

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (Giant Little Golden Book)
Richard Scarry
Manufacturer: Golden Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Picture Books | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Best Word Book Ever! (Giant Little Golden Book)
Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day
Busy, Busy Town (Giant Little Golden Book)
Richard Scarry's Cars and Trucks from A to Z (A Chunky Book(R))
Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever! (Giant Little Golden Book)

ASIN: 0307157857
Release Date: 1998-06-01

Product Description

Description coming soon...

Amazon.com

Although this book was around when many of today's parents were youngsters, it has remained a steadfast must-have in every toddler's library. For starters, it's a great vocabulary guide that names the many things that go (and some that haven't a prayer of going, but are great fun to imagine anyway). It's also teeming with detail-rich scenes and characters on every page, teaching children the rewards of looking long and closely (such as finding the hidden "Goldbug" in each spread). Along the way it entertains with the silly and slapstick--everything from toothpaste and toothbrush cars to six fire department vehicles that show up to extinguish a ladybug-size fire in a miniature pink convertible. What's most amazing about this book, however, is its longevity. When you purchase it for your fledgling talker, you should consider it an investment. Even 11-, 12-, and 13-year-olds are known to pore over the book nostalgically, cooing at Lowly Worm and eagerly tracking Officer Flossie's book-long chase after that irresponsible, speedster driver in a cowboy hat. (Ages 2 and older) --Gail Hudson

Customer Reviews:

Eternal delight.......2007-10-08

You will be asked to read this every night. Your child will sleep with it, and bring it out to breakfast. The hardcover binding thankfully is up to repeated page-turning by a toddler, and the printing is vibrant and clear. I prefer "What Do People Do All Day" as it tells more stories, but who can tell a three-year-old!

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.......2007-09-29

I have been sharing this wonderful book with so many new mothers of boys ever since my 32-year old enjoyed his book as a child. It is so colorful and eye-catching and it is such fun to find Goldbug. It is a wonderful way to share with your child and to help him use his mind.

Timeless!.......2007-09-28

My 37 year old daughter loved this book, especially searching for the Goldbugs. I bought a copy for her almost-three year old daughter and she loves it just as much. Makes me happy!

Great book for kids, and nostalgic for parents.......2007-09-19

My husband wanted to buy this book for our two year old daughter because he remembered it very well from his childhood. Even though there are many pages our daughter loves to flip through them and see the different types of automobiles and trucks, and she loves to find the little goldbug on each page. The book is a little larger than most of her other books, but she doesn't have any trouble turning the pages, especially if it is laying on the floor. As she gets older she should not have any trouble with it if it is in her lap. I think that this book will entertain her for years to come, as there are so many different things to look at on every page, plus the fun of finding goldbug.

Lots to see.......2007-09-14

It probably helps that my son is obsessed with "things that go", but this has been one of his favorites for some time. He could sit and stare at the pages for a long time - well a long time for a 2-year old. There's a lot going on on each page, so I thought he might be a little overwhelmed with it all, but there are things on each page he focuses on. Dingo the dog and Goldbug help tie all the pages together. It helps his observation skills to search for them.

Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map: The Leave-Nothing-to-Chance, Worry-Free, All-Systems-Go Guide

Average customer rating:

A Financial Guide, not a Complete Guide
Enough info for a..
Comprehensive and Infinitely Practical--A Must Buy for Every IRA Owner
Mastering the complex with simplicity
Same Rules, Easier to Understand

Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map: The Leave-Nothing-to-Chance, Worry-Free, All-Systems-Go Guide
Ed Slott
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Introduction | Investing | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Retirement Planning | Personal Finance | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Retirement Savings Time Bomb...and How to Defuse It
Parlay Your IRA into a Family Fortune: 3 EASY STEPS for creating a lifetime supply of tax-deferred, even tax-free, wealth for you and your family
Retirement Income Redesigned: Master Plans for Distribution: An Adviser's Guide for Funding Boomers' Best Years
Retire Secure!: Pay Taxes Later The Key to Making Your Money Last as Long as You Do
You Can Do It!: The Boomer's Guide to a Great Retirement

ASIN: 0345494555
Release Date: 2006-12-26

Book Description

This is the same diagnostic system I use with my own clients and with the financial advisors I train. So, going through it will be like having me sitting beside you, whispering in your ear, guiding you every step of the way.”

–from Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map

Corporate pensions are disappearing. Social Security is in trouble. And the sizable postwar generation is reaching retirement age. With the futures of millions of Americans at stake, Ed Slott, the country’s foremost retirement planning advisor, now offers expert advice on weathering the perfect storm of financial instability that looms on the horizon. Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map, Slott’s most essential and accessible book yet, provides clear step-by-step directions through the highways and byways of IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other major accounts.

In five helpfully focused sections, Slott combines crucial facts with interactive checklists and questionnaires (those he uses with his own clients) to teach investors and beneficiaries alike the best way to save and to maximize an inheritance. Inside you’ll discover

• My Account Inventory: an overview of every retirement savings account you own, whether you’re thirty or sixty-five–from what it is and where it is to who gets it and how, plus where to put important data for easy access and where to store your essential documents (hint: not in a safe-deposit box)
• The Account Owner’s Care Solution: how to properly fill out retirement account beneficiary forms so that whatever amount of money is left in your account after you’ve fully enjoyed retirement will go to whomever you choose and not to relatives who suddenly pop up out of nowhere
• The Account Beneficiary’s Care Solution: what to do when you inherit so that you won’t lose any of the tax benefits and other opportunities your benefactor has created for you, or make a mistake that could wipe out an inherited fortune that took years to build up
• The Special Issues Care Solution: how to handle the out-of-the-box issues that could affect you or your beneficiaries (e.g., life events such as divorce or incapacity; tax issues for unmarried partners; decisions about trusts)
• The Follow-up Care Solution: how to keep your planning on track and make adjustments when circumstances change, and how to determine whether your professional retirement advisor is really up to the task of preserving and protecting your money
• Plus: the most up-to-date information on tax laws, including the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which provides major new retirement incentives that you can take advantage of

Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map is an indispensable planning solution that is sure to become the standard how-to on a complex subject that is becoming relevant to more people every day.

Customer Reviews:

A Financial Guide, not a Complete Guide.......2007-02-19

To me the title of this otherwise excellent book is somewhat misleading. It should say something like 'Your Complete FINANCIAL Planning Road Map.' That is, it doesn't go into things like should you move to the sunbelt, or how much money will you need, or medical aspects or any of these other subjects. Instead it is a very complete discussion on the tax issues of investing for retirement.

This book talks about IRA's, and Roth IRA's, and 401(k)'s, and all the other alphabet soup of the tax system in the United States. It is complete and up to date as recent as the 2006 changes to the tax laws.

A major part of the book consists of check lists that you should go over as part of your retirement/estate planning. These also are very well thought out and force you to think about things you would otherwise ignore.

A minor complaint, these checklists are printed in the book. I'd much rather see them on the web or in a CD bound into the book. He says you should fill them in using pencil in case you later want to make changes. I'd like it better to fill them in on a computer and then print them out. Once again, the information is there and more complete than you'd imagine, so you can consider this a minor complaint.

Enough info for a.........2007-01-26

small pamphlet, not a full size book. Rambling and repetitious. Read it twice and couldn't extract any useful information that wasn't available in other sources.

Comprehensive and Infinitely Practical--A Must Buy for Every IRA Owner.......2007-01-23

Ed Slott's latest book, Your Complete Retirement Planning Road Map provides the most comprehensive, infinitely practical, hands-on set of checklists I have ever seen for IRAs and retirement plans. Ed, perhaps the best known and most trusted author on IRAs and retirement plans, takes the reader step-by-step through important concepts regarding IRAs and retirement plans and provides the reader with an action plan. Ed really rolls up his sleeves and gets into the nitty-gritty. Another outstanding feature of the book is that Ed has included the best questions--with complete answers--gathered from his clients and readers over the years. Chances are if you have a question, it has been asked of Ed, and you will find your answer. If you buy Ed's book and follow his recommendations, you will be better prepared and better documented than 99.9% of all the IRA and retirement plan owners.

James Lange, CPA/Attorney Author of Retire Secure! Pay Taxes Later: The Key to Making Your Money Last as Long as You Do

Mastering the complex with simplicity.......2007-01-22

I have personally been studying with Ed Slott in his Master's Elite IRA Advisory Group for the past two years. This new book is a composite of the various modules we have been studying in depth. This book gives an excellent overview in a version to be understood and simplified so that many can be aware of the many issues present in dealing with the one asset that for many represents their largest financial position. I applaud Ed's efforts to make such a text available and appreciate the opportunity I have had personally to train in depth in all of the issues detailed in his book. I would also commend serious readers and investors to his two earlier books my favorite of the two being, Retirement Tax Time Bomb and How to Defuse It. Anyone with a large IRA should be aware and get the book. It could make a tremedous difference in who ultimately winds up the beneficiary of all your hard long years of labor.

Same Rules, Easier to Understand.......2006-12-30

I have read all three of Ed's IRA books. As a Financial Planner, I find the Retirement Savings Time Bomb to be the best. However, if you are slightly less versed in tax code than a professional planner, his newest book is an excellent tool. I strongly recomend it to all (non-financial professional) qualified account owners. Good Job Ed!

Average customer rating:

mesmerising
Lovely
Thought-provoking premise, skillful writing, but author fails to engage deeper meaning, premise is faulted. Moderately recommend
Dystopia Now
A Sad Yet Hopeful World

Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Psychological & Suspense | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

The Remains of the Day
The History of Love: A Novel
Saturday
The Inheritance of Loss
On Beauty

ASIN: 1400078776
Release Date: 2006-03-14

Book Description

From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Remains of the Day comes a devastating new novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is a young woman. Ruth and Tommy have reentered her life. And for the first time she is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day

Customer Reviews:

mesmerising.......2007-10-08

Describing Never Let Me Go to a friend, I realised how prosaic it all sounded. These precious children, cocooned in the rarefied atmosphere of English public school ( so we are led to believe) and acutely attuned to any emotional discordance in their isolated groupings. Describing it as such, it all seems so snobby and trite. And yet Ishiguro somehow imbues it with such portent that it seems terribly weighty, as if more than the couplings of a few twenty-somethings is at stake. Which of course it is, we pity these individuals, for what society has done to them, for the situation they have been born into. That is Ishiguro's genius here, that the novel works on so many levels and invites so many interpretations. Is this a dystopian vision of the UK's future? A commentary on the class-blighted present? A critique of amoral scientific rationalism? The protagonists live, breathe and act as though entombed in a gigantic social test tube, which in one sense they are. This is a fascinating, important novel, that will outlive its age. Nothing Ishiguro has produced in the past suggested he was the new HG Wells, but after Never Ler Me Go, the comparisons will not desist.

Lovely.......2007-09-29

This is one of those wonderful books that you just want to press into someone's hands without saying too much about it. It's a book to figure out as you go along. Even the genre remains a mystery for awhile, something I don't think I've encountered before.

Beautifully written, heartbreaking in the good way, and it really stays with you. I feel like I really know the people in it. I can't recommend this highly enough.

If you're a Margaret Atwood fan, by the way, try this. And vice versa.

Thought-provoking premise, skillful writing, but author fails to engage deeper meaning, premise is faulted. Moderately recommend.......2007-09-27

As a child, Kathy H. attended Hailsham, an elite boarding school where children were raised to be both healthy and artistic and taught to believe that both their health and creativity were essential to themselves and to the world they would one day enter. Now an adult, Kathy reflects back on her life. She charts the very slow progression of her growth, her friendships with fellow students Tommy and Ruth, and her knowledge, as she herself gradually began to learn about her role in the outside world--and what this role dictates about her identity. A combination of heavy introspection and soft-scifi, Never Let Me Go has a thought-provoking premise and is brilliantly written, but fails to reach its potential, spending all its time in excruciatingly slow buildup and none of it in impact, theory, or debate. Enjoyable, but somewhat empty, and so moderately recommended.

This book's greatest strength is its writing style, but it is also one of the most irritating aspects. Kathy, the narrator, is intensely thoughtful and analytical, breaking down her personal history into eras, important moments, and developing themes. She walks the reader through the story of her life much in the way she lived it, slowly, very slowly, bringing to light her final realizations. In other words, there is a lot hidden in this book, and it takes the book's entire length--literally until the last fifteen pages--to reveal it all. In between are circuitous examples, where Kathy starts to talk about one event, goes back a bit to explain why the event was relevant, explains the event itself, and then goes on without having drawn a major conclusion--instead, she's just mapped another point on her gradual arc or argument. The resulting pace is excruciating, both artful, brilliantly thought-out and executed, and simply painful as the reader is lead along, disappointed, and lead along again. The book's pace bring the characters to life (although both Ruth and Tommy lack some dimension) and, with it, the life that they lived, through Hailsham and beyond. As such, it is the highlight of the book, worked like an artform, but it is also intensely irritating and makes the book (which actually reads quite quickly) seem longer than it is.

There are a near-infinite number of issues, from the ethical to philosophical, that could be brought to question and debate in this book. The very premise almost begs them--both the science of the base culture and the purpose of Hailsham itself. Unfortunately, however, none of these topics are brought to issue in the text. Instead, the book is consumed by the very slow progression of the story, the creep towards the "twist" revelations of who the children are and what purpose they serve. When finally revealed, these revelations are not all that big--not because they lack the potential to be, but because they pale in comparison to the immense buildup that leads to them. The characters just barely exceed the gradual revelation of the book's premise and are largely just passive carriers of the story, and so the other various issues, the possible debates, never enter into the text. So when other reviewers talk about the questions this book raises, what they're really talking about is the potential for questions--and that is not the same thing. The burden of meaning for this book, everything that the reader could take away and continue to think about, rests entirely on the reader, who must pull out the themes and ask the questions himself, carry on the debates himself. The author shirks his responsibility, and the book suffers for it, failing to live up to its potential.

My final complaint with this book is that the underlying concept seems, blandly, unrealistic. **SPOILERS** follow, so be warned: The fact that in the book's contemporary culture the clones are considered non-human despite looking, acting, and living like humans seems entirely impossible. Consider: Humans never viewed the first cloned animals as different than their original counterparts; indeed, we were amazed and drew attention to the fact that they were identical, that they were clones. So why would cloned humans be any different (especially that these clones pass in human society as normal and indistinguishable)? Outside of the huge wastefulness of cloning entire humans just to harvest their organs, the fact that the cloned humans were not considered humans seems unreal to me, no matter who the gene donors were, no matter what brief attempts Ishiguro (though Ms. Emily) makes to justify it. **END SPOILERS** This is the underlying basis of the book's conflict and plot, and so problems with this concept create problems throughout the book. They weaken the foundations, making it difficult to accept the book and, as a result, even more difficult to take on the work of finding and analyzing themes, which the author fails too do. In the end, Never Let Me Go has a thoughtful premise with heavy potential for thought, theory, and debate, and it is skillfully, even artfully written, but the book fails to live up to its potential: the author does not tackle his own themes, and no matter how interesting the premise, it is an unreasonable one. I wanted to enjoy this book, and I did, but I felt cheated at the end: the final product was surprisingly empty, with the burden of meaning placed entirely and unfairly upon the reader alone.

Dystopia Now.......2007-09-18

In the novel Never Let Me Go, while employing an engaging premise, Kazuo Ishiguro explores the black chasm between "the unfortunates" and "those who would presume to aid the unfortunates". Although this is a dark hole indeed, the author succeeds in shining enough light in there for us to want to learn even more about the shadowy forms we've glimpsed scurrying into its fissures (now that I've killed that metaphor...).

Told from the point of view of Kathy H. (one of these unfortunates) Never Let Me Go, a sort of recent past dystopian chronicle, reveals her abstrusely horrific plight as a "carer" (those who help to guide "donors" to a peaceful end) working within the boundaries of Ishiguro's imagined minority group. Kathy and her "boarding" school friends, Ruth and Tommy, attempt to unlock the truth behind some hidden doors of their early life, learning some hard lessons in the process.

On the surface, Never Let Me Go becomes an almost science fiction, a `what could've been' or `what could still be if we're not careful' kind of a moral caveat. But what saves this book is its underlying implications; it asks questions for the real world like: Are we truly helping when we endeavor to comfort and protect groups (racial, ethnic, political, religious, class, etc..) who are perceived as less fortunate than our own? Should we instead educate these groups so that they may empower themselves in time? OK. I'm being a bit leading here, but still these are important questions to ponder in this global society.

Overall, Ishiguro deftly blends science fiction (bio-ethics) and more general socio-political themes to concoct an enjoyable thought-provoking experience. I happily recommend it.

4 stars

A Sad Yet Hopeful World.......2007-09-09

This book is sad, yet still offers glimmers of hope. The characters are naive. But they're this way because it's all they know, because of their upbringing. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it to people who like suspenseful, thoughtful books.

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