Block

Unfortunately, Block lives in a "what if" fantasy. Politics is a "real world" subject.

Fourteen years have passed since the original publication of this book, and we are now in what is called the post-empowerment era. Nevertheless Block's text remains its fundamental status, and its relevance and value have in no way diminished.

"The Empowered Manager" would be on any short list of the most important management books ever written if only on account of its classical exposition of one of perhaps the most significant idea in late twentieth century management practice. In addition, every page contains sage practical advice of benefit to anyone who wants to be more than a slave or a drone at work.

Check out Bergmann et al's "Everyone a Leader" and Hirschhorn's "Reworking Authority" for some more recent developments in this area. But do not fail to read this book: its wisdom is inspirational, and Block's fine style makes it a treat to read.

Block gets to the bottom of what leadership is all about -- Love and Trust. Love for one another, the love to serve, the love to help others rise. The courage to do what would cause traditional, stoic managers to turn their noses up and jeer. His words, however taboo by traditional management standards, are priceless. I always felt this way, but was so glad to see Block put it in print. I realized I was not crazy after all! My ideas were not so weird or unconventional :-) There is so much more. READ THIS BOOK!

The recipes in this book are very unrealistic for the average chef. The receipes are more suited for vegetarians that have more of the unusual spices in their kitchens that these receipes suggest/require. e.g. Main Course Hummas Plates (Does that sound tasty to a child ?)

Shelly Null's Healthy Cooking for Kids... is an absolutely wonderful book! She provides many alternatives to classic American favorites such as carob chip cookies in lieu of chocolate chip without using butter,eggs or chocolate. The cookies were delicious and my non-vegetarian husband enjoyed them very much.

Being a vegetarian myself and wanting to extend the nutritional and health benefits of a vegetarian diet to my daughter who is 15 months old and not being sure where to begin, in regards to making sure my daughter receives the proper nutrition, this book is an excellent place to start! I feel so much more confident in being able to provide a healthy diet to my daughter (beyond breastfeeding) now. Ms. Null has a very informative section in the beginning and her recipes are very easy to prepare and fun to eat! If you are concerned and dedicated about making sure your children eat healthy wholesome foods this book is for you, since the book provides very useful information on why to eat organic, non-dairy foods and provides very helpful delicious alternatives.

There are those parents who buy bulk foods at the health food store and thoughtfully plan a variety of nutritious meals for their vegetarian children every day. Then there is me, who considers herself a candidate for mother of the year if she manages to feed her child spaghetti for supper, rather than peanut butter and jelly. This book helps. It is filled with nutritious, creative recipes that please adults as well as children. For the most part, the recipes have simple ingredients and are quick and easy to prepare, although the book does contain some more time-consuming recipes, such as Mama Palma's Pizza, that would be strictly weekend endeavors at my house. My favorite of the recipes I tried was the Razz-Matazz-Berry Salad. Mario's Stuffed Shells were a big hit with my husband and 18-month-old son, and my son and I really liked French Toast of the Town (try it with the maple glazed bananas). The book begins with a section called "A Healthy Approach to Feeding Our Families," which contains information about food and water safety, basic necessities of a vegetarian kitchen, and food allergies. It also has menu and party planning sections and a helpful section on nutritional requirements and food values. However, the bulk of the book is recipes, all of which are vegetarian and most of which are vegan (there is honey in a few of the recipes). This book would be a godsend to any parent who needs new ideas for imaginative, nutritious vegetarian meals, when peanut butter and jelly just doesn't cut it anymore. -Reviewed by Susannah Ruis

I'm glad that you've come. It shows that you believe in looking ahead and being prepared. A little bit of that action would have saved General Custer and his men a whole lotta' headache. With a bit of luck, reading this review will do the same for you. Hopefully (because you'll be ready for what's coming), by the time you finish this book you won't want to put a bullet through your head and forcibly remove your own scalp (in that order). My initial reaction to the book wasn't as bad as it might be for others (I have a high tolerance for pain and boredom), however I would like to do my best to prevent any Dubliners-induced tragedies. I will admit, when I first read this book I did not enjoy it at all. I don't know about you folks, but I enjoy a book where at least some of the characters have at least one redeeming quality. You're hard up to find so sweet a gem in this anthology. From open to close the reader is bombarded with every class of loser imaginable. If it's not some gutless nobody without the heart to even attempt to go after his dreams, it's a drunk who beats his children. Of course there was that one part where Ransom got into a fistfight with Satan-oh, wait. That was from a book I enjoyed (C.S. Lewis's Perelandra-check it out). Let's not get confused about this. Saying that I did not enjoy the book does not imply that I do not like it. Often in life, things look entirely different in retrospect. Dubliners is one of those things. James Joyce wrote this book at about the time he expatriated. There have to be some pretty powerful feelings behind a decision to leave one's own country. In this book you get a glimpse of what he saw, the things that he dealt with everyday. You see the world that he put up with, and you see it through his eyes. In that regard, this is one of the most powerful pieces produced in recent times. Nevertheless, I write book reviews with people like my dad in mind. If it gets too real or hits too close to home, he won't take it. You can visualize it like this: Quigley Down Under = Good; Dingoes Ate My Baby = Bad. If he doesn't get a huge kick out of it, he will have nothing to do with it. So, if you're looking for huge explosions, karate chops, or campfire flatulence, this is not the book for you. On the other hand, if you like 'em slow, powerful, subtle, and poignant (and moderately depressing-cough, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, cough) Dubliners is your sack of oats, Mr. Ed. I find myself caught in the middle of the two types: which means that if it can blow up and move me at the same time, I'm sold-kinda' like a Tchaikovsky finale. The book is classic-quality literature; I won't deny that. I'm just saying that it's not for everyone. It's definitely not my dad's cup of tea (technically, nothing is his 'cup of tea.' He won't touch the stuff. He says it makes him gassy-but I digress).

Best book on the subject, goes hand-in-hand with Guyton's book. Common pathologies of each system or organ is described sometimes with nice colored pictures. Explanations are very simple and easy to understand. Each system is first explained in terms of structure and physiology and than followings chapters in that section takes on pathologies of the system or its components, number of chapters depending on the system complexity. It is a perfect book for pathology or parallel book with physiology to understand physiology with its applications.

As a graduating student in Homoeopathic medicine this is without a doubt the best general book I have read so far in this field. It uses a great variation of diagrams, charts, pictures and text, thus allowing for differing styles of absorption. It's subjct headings are broken into logical chapters and the recent addition of chapters for infant and elderly pathology is a fine improvement. The text is friendly and well written but remains professional. It also come with an A drive disk carrying a basic exam based round the books content. This is the first book I would recommend to students starting in this field.

As a writer with a mood disorder, I deeply appreciate the efforts of writers/psychiatrists, such as Lauren Slater and Kay Redfield Jamison, to delve into the creator's psyche without overly pathologizing it. While some find Slater's poetic style too distracting, I enjoy it, which may be why I had such difficulty with this book.

First off, it reads like a psych textbook, and as I assume it's being marketed to a more general audience, this is not a plus. In fact, I found it even harder to follow and duller than my old psych books from college. I was hoping to learn more about various disorders that seem to predominantly affect writers, but not at the expense of skimming over their quirks and lifestyles. What do I mean by that? Well, I'd have my interest piqued by a description of a writer, only to be unceremoniously plunged back into four-syllable word paragraphs.

Here's a random sentence: "Also unlike Broca's aphasics, patients with Wernicke's aphasia have much more trouble with semantics than syntax, suggesting that syntax is primarily a frontal lobe function and semantics a temporal lobe function." (pg. 157) While it's understandable, it's hardly the sort of thing you want to curl up by the fire by. It's also hardly the sort of thing someone with depression would want to plow through in order to gain insight into their condition.

My suggestion: Read Jamison's works on manic depression if you are a writer who would like to know why you have some of the unusual habits you do.

My other complaint is how lightly Flaherty seemed to present her hospitalization. Nine out of ten patients are probably too ill to care where the room with the Capn Crunch is, so I assume her visit was atypical. You don't get a strong sense that she identifies with the mentally ill people she sees regardless of in what capacity. (Although I believe she is sincere those times she does express sympathy, it just doesn't pervade the whole book.)

This book is a hybrid of memoir, neurology, essay, confessional, and anxious monologue. It veers between rationalism and passionate loquacity, itself intensely hypergraphic. I read it all the way through and decided, after I had finished, that I hadn't learned much more about the neurological basis of writing but I had learned a great deal about the innards of Flaherty's interestingly informed but manic consciousness. Fortunately, it's not badly written, and the anecdotes, quotations, and summaries of current research are informative and interesting.

The Justice poem, which I looked up because it seemed so apt, is only quoted in part and isn't nearly as striking in the original.

I picked up this book after hearing the author on NPR, and I figured I'd skim through it. Instead, I was completely drawn in by the mix of science, historical anecdote, and moving personal story that Dr. Flaherty has assembled. We've all suffered from writer's block at one point or another but I'd never heard of hypergraphia, and the things she has to say about how the brain works and can cause creative disorders are totally fascinating. I plan to recommend this book to all my writer friends.

Either you write or you don't. There is no book that can tell you how to do it or unleash something that is inside you. I like the idea that anyone can write and I highly suggest everyone do it. But I can surmise the entire book in a few words and save you the religious babble. If you want to write or think you can write, then do it. Eventually you WILL get better, or you will turn to something else. If you think you can write then start writing and prove everyone else wrong. You don't need to spend the money to learn that if you want to write, than the best recourse is to write. No one is fooled into to thinking the first thing they write is good. It takes practice. And this is one of two things this book preaches. The other is religion, mostly Christianity.

This book is very helpful if you do the Artist's way morning pages. In fact, if you are not doing this, I'm not sure what else you would use this book for.
I gave it a 4 only because the number of pages for each week were off and it was an awkward book to write in. Other than that it was great.

GIVES YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT THE AUTHOR INTENDED FOR 3 PAGES OF WRITING
When you do the Artist's way journaling, it states you should do 3 pages of writing per day. This book gives you a sense of what the author meant as 3 pages. By the way 3 pages this size took me not the 15-30 minutes the author implied, but more like 45 minutes to 1 hour. It could also be the morning grogginess too.
I get up at 5:15AM to do these.

NOT ENOUGH PAGES FOR EACH WEEK PLUS A CHECK-IN:
As this book is by the same author that did the Artist way 12-week program, I am surprised that the number of pages provided did not meet the authors requirement. Per week you should have at least 21 pages and then 1-2 pages for a weekly check in. I found that I often wrote into the following week though I never wrote over 3 pages/day nor more than a 1 page per check in. 23 pages per week should be what the author provided as a minimum.

BOUND-BACK MADE IT AWKWARD TO WRITE AT TIMES:
This book would be better as a spiral bound book, so that you could fold back the areas you did not need. At times in the AM, it was all I could do to write much less trying to hold the book open.

INSPIRATIONAL SAYINGS EACH DAY PERTAINING TO THAT WEEK WAS NICE:
The author paraphrazed the Artist's way book providing page numbers as well, each day. That was nice. It often helped to get my writing jumpstarted.

SUGGESTION TO THE AUTHOR:
As you recommend to your readers to continue the morning pages a follow on set of books would be handy with the same type of inspirational phrases each day. Buying this book again with the unmatched set of pages and difficulty to hold open, does not appeal to me.

This program is a good one and I plan to continue the morning pages. It is a very useful thinking practice.

When I purchased the journal, I didn't know exactly the impact the journal would have. As I followed Ms. Cameron's instructions, I became amazed as to what was happening with creativity in my life. I recommend the book and the journal to anyone who is willing to be challenged by the concept of creativity.

Heavy in history, light on useful technical details. This book does little to fill in the details of Y-Block information. Missing are things like engine casting codes. Also missing is something usually included in these types of engine-specific books; performance tuning tips. This book is a must-have but only because nothing else is available.

I just finished a complete teardown and rebuild of my 292 Y-block engine. This book was at my side through the entire process. The author does a good job of explaining *most* of what's going on.

However... Upon completion of my project, I discovered an egregious error in the book that caused me to make a costly mistake. The illustration showing the timing mark alignment showed the marks aligned facing the wrong side of the engine! The marks need to be 12 chain links apart facing the LEFT (oil filter) side of the engine. The original factory manual explains this, but Eickman does not. His book shows them incorrectly facing the right-hand side and makes no mention of which side is correct. Because of that error, I had to tear the front of the engine apart after it was assembled, and align the marks using the factory shop manual's illustration.

Some of the book's other illustrations are out of sequence, but they don't pose a problem like the timing mark illustration did. The author's overall attention to detail seems to diminish toward the end of the book. In addition, the book makes no mention of the 1963-64 Y-block engines used in Ford trucks.

If you are going to rebuild a Y-block engine, I'd say you should definitely buy this book - but verify the details against factory procedures whenever possible.

For those interested in the Ford Y block this text is very helpful, depending upon your level of knowledge (or expertise). It is a combination of the motor history and some technical information regarding engine parts and casting codes.
I find this book interesting and helpful for two reasons. First,this book seems to be in a class of its own. Perhaps that is because many people are not familiar with this engine series relative to the 302, 351, 427, etc. Second, I do not know of any other books compiling general information comparable to this one. You could gather the information in the book from several different types of shop manuals, etc. but it would be difficult.
If you are an experienced Y block person, you may already know much of the information, but even after a long time with these motors, I still found some new information. Of course, for price you really can't go wrong.

"Time to Murder and Create" is the second novel in the Matthew Scudder series. Like many of the earlier Scudder tales, it is relatively short and not a greatly complex story. The plotline is clever; an extortionist gets a premonition of his own murder and hires Scudder in advance to investigate if anything happens to him. The story is well told, and this still being Scudder's drinking period, it is full of plenty of despair and loneliness. One major flaw exists however. One of the people the extortionist is blackmailing is politically connected figure who has sex with underage boys. Scudder's lack of outrage at the man's activity leads to a less than approriate conclusion of the story. If this had been Andrew Vachss' Burke, the pedophile would have gotten his just desserts. Overall, this is a fairly conventional mystery by Block standards. But it does have its moments.

A small-time hood and grass who was an acquaintance of Matt Scudder's during his days as a cop comes calling when he fears for his life. The man, known as 'The Spinner' was stringing along 3 different blackmail victims, but became aware that one of them was trying to kill him. Unfortunately, he doesn't know which one. He wants Scudder to hold onto a package for him that is to be opened in the event of his death, which is all too inevitable.

Naturally enough, Scudder accepts and then honours his agreement to find out who the murderer is. In order to flush out The Spinner's murderer, Matt decides to confront each of the people being blackmailed with the news that they're still not off the hook in the hope that one of them will blink. The obvious downside to this plan is that he would be making himself a target which, if you forget about the subsequent 13 Matt Scudder books for a moment, makes for some very tense and exciting reading.

This is quite a fast-paced mystery that gives us multiple suspects to choose from with the wrong choice possibly proving fatal. Scudder is still an introspective soul who seems to view the world and his place in it with bemusement. Lawrence Block doesn't waste a word in his narrative which serves to move things along nicely.

It's another compelling entry in a series that I think fans of hardboiled crime books would love.

The second in this series of 14 mysteries, soon to be 15, finds our unlikely hero Matthew Scudder further along on his trek to alcoholism, mixed up in unsavory mahem, and trying to get by day to day. It's an interesting case: A blackmailer posthumously hires Matt to determine which of his three pidgeons killed him. So the quasi-detective sets himself up as the blackmailer's replacement to entice the murderer to strike at him so he can solve the case. Matthew, because his mind is becoming benumbed by booze or maybe he just isn't a very good detective, bumbles this case every step of the way, and comes to a less than satisfactory conclusion -- the type of ending only Block has the nerve to create. It's book noir at a higher level. The dialogue is terrific and true, the settings in Manhattan are recorded with exactness, it's a fine tale that kept me reading well into the night. One aspect I especially appreciated, Block didn't seem to feel he needed gratuitous foul language in this second in the series as he did in the first. The book is a great example of why the series is so popular.

The moment I read one of this book's reviewer responses, I had to comment. He pasted the following commentary from...of all people...Dan Rather (liberal extraordinaire):

"An eloquent paean to surfcasting, this blend of angling wisdom, history, and craft moves with the unceasing rhythm of the tides and will tug at the heart and--dare one say it--the soul of every fisherman."--Dan Rather, CBS News

Tug at the soul of every fisherman? Ok, it is fitting that Dan Rather recommends this book. The author actually goes as far as to pontificate that fisherman who use live bait are "neanderthals." Essentially, he believes that, if you use live bait, you are not truly a fisherman, but instead a remnant of caveman-times. It really gets him angry. He reiterates his belief several times throughout the book (I read it all). How would this "tug at the soul of every fisherman?" The author's arrogance is almost awe-inspiring. He is so out-of-touch with society that it's borderline pathetic. Please do not throw your money away on this forgotten book.

Dull ruminations on fishing off Block Island by a privileged yet simple man gone poetic.

Roy put into words what most Surf Fisherman feel. I have already recommended this book to two friends who now will try surf fishing. I even enlisted my wife to accompany me on a trip to Block Island. Thanks Roy for this wonderful look into a place that is free for the taking.

Interesting and funny at times but overall it put me to sleep.

My first introduction to Lawrence Block's Evan Tanner was in his 1998 book, "Tanner on Ice." The spy-hero had been absent for twenty-five years was brought back by Block. There were seven previous novels, all out-of-print and now available in paperback. "The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep," was Block's first Evan Tanner mystery. We learn early in this first work Tanner had his sleep center destroyed during the war and therefore no longer needs to sleep. He spends all of his time awake that may or may not be to his benefit. Tanner probably never planned on being a spy but here in our first encounter with him he led a revolution in Macedonia treks from Ireland to the continent and across Europe to Turkey in search for missing gold. Tanner is an interesting character although not as humorous as Bernie Rhodenbarr in Block's The Burglar who series or a serious as Matt Scudder in the long standing series with that New York City based detective. None the less "The Thief who Couldn't Sleep," is pleasant to read. I am pleased that the powers-that-be decided to reprint the entire Evan Tanner series. I am looking forward to the others, which I was able to order from Amazon.com.

The first Evan Tanner Novel, where our hero, a bit of a con-man and thief, who has a disorder which prevents him from sleeping, accidentally finds himself on an espionage mission.

While the later novels are spy stories with satirical overtones, this one is a crime caper with spies in pursuit and a comedy of errors in progress.

I can't recommend the series highly enough. It's literate, it's funny, and the commentary on European ethnic nationalism is still extremely valid.

You buy a program that will print paper pieced creatures, then you learn once you start printing that WHOA! this author didn't even bother to make the printout user friendly!!! She chose to limit the sizes of the blocks but for crying out loud there is PLENTY of room on an 8x11.5 sheet of printer paper to break down the patterns so I don't have to cut, add on boarders, etc etc.
This author requires an editor that quilts and won't let such over sights go to press.

This software includes all the patterns from _The Quilter's Ark_, pluse some new patterns, including DINOSAURS for your little boy! (So many quilts look feminine that this is a bonus!)

However, I am getting indifferent results on my computer. It takes forever for the patterns to print, and some, like the flying eagle, will not print at all.

I have no problem with the limited sizes, but I do wish that the author had broken the patterns down into sections and included the standard 1/4 inch seam allowances for each one.

This is a really wonderful book. The directions are excellent. I found it inspired a lot of creativity. Even if you're not a paper-piecer, you'll find the animals just too cute and engaging not to just give it a try.