Economic-Life Books

Even though the book is somewhat dated, this is a highly entertaining read and full of information and history about the Plaza Hotel. If you are an experienced visitor or not of high end hotels, you will enjoy the tips on how to get the most of your visit at any 4-star hotel.

The perceptions and details of the staff positions are eye openers and will certainly give you another view of what takes place to ensure guests are comfortable and happy during their stay. The research that was involved and first hand observance is highly commendable.

This book gives an insider's view of a luxury hotel in New York. The author spends a week at the Plaza Hotel, visiting with various staff and guests. We get vignettes of the entire operation, from the doorman and front desk to the laundry, kitchen, concierge, security, bellhops, housekeeping staff, management, etc. The book is a running interview, the author records whatever was happening at the moment, while talking to the various staff. It also includes a bit of the history of the hotel. The week culminates with the visit of the King and Queen of Sweden.

One impression is that a great deal goes on behind the scenes of such apparent effortless luxury, especially dealing with the slovenliness or disorderly behavior of various guests. The reader will gain an appreciation for those who provide hospitality during future stays.

The only drawback to this book is that it is now a bit dated (1989), and as such is now more a work of history rather than a depiction of the current facility. One wonders what a modern reprise might include, with new wrinkles resulting from today's business travelers and their computers, cell phones, and post-9/11 security needs, modern concern with communicable disease, information security, etc...

I came accross the book listed on Amazon as an out of print book, but having stayed at the Plaza ONCE, in Dec 99, as a treat for my wife Carole who had terminal cancer [died 13 Oct 00], I wanted to have a better memmory for myself and the children, who came too, Alex 1, Bethany 7 and James 12 who has Autism. They adored NY and we adored The Plaza, we had a Junior Suite at the special rate of $350 [50% off] with Grandparents next door in a Classic Room again at 50% off [$250]

This book just SHINES, it tells a fantastic story of life at this world famous hotel, we live if England, and are NOT typical Plaza types.

If you love NY, you probably have visted or intend to visit if not stay at The Plaza, even if just one night, DO BUY THIS BOOK. I had to pay the extra search fee and the extra UK shipping, but it was well worth it. I sincreely recooment this book to nay NY or Plaza fan. Make the time - find a copy.

Robert rjh39@yahoo.com

"The Hotel" is a great book that goes behind-the-scenes of the Plaza Hotel. The author interviews maids, chefs, janitors, managers, and many others. The book is set up in chapters that go day-by-day - truly showing "a week in the life of the Plaza."

this book is a god sent it is like a real life bible to me and my family thank you amazon.com

this book makes alots of sense and saved us alots of money.

this book is a guide that everyone could find helpful and to simplfy personal and professional life

makes a great gift and just in time for the holidays, it has a lot of useful information

this book is a life saver thank you for helping me to find such a fantastic book

I suspect this book isn't as popular as David Allen's GTD for a few reasons.

1) this author hasn't ever been on Oprah, at least that I'm aware of.

2) there's no 'personality' associated with it ("Dave says..."). The word 'I' appears much less in this book. There's no color photo of this author anywhere, much less on the cover. Put another way, this author is less of a self-promoter. (I mean, who cares what the author looks like?)

3) there's no TLA (three-letter acronym) to describe this book's ideas, suggestions, and activities--whereas GTD is often called a 'system'. People like to give things names, and nicknames.

4) There aren't a myriad of software-widgets that people have built using this book's suggested activities. To draw a comparison with making paintings: people first like to focus on buying supplies. Why? It's easy and fun and tangible. After finding that supplies don't make you a great painter, they focus on 'secrets' and technique. Maybe a better painter, but still not great. Then they realize that design is what makes paintings great. Design is much harder and elusive than supplies and technique. Books are the paints, GTD-plugins are tips/technique, and figuring out what you really want to do is design. This book focuses 70% on design and 30% on tips.

5) The book is much older -- 1993. It has fewer computer-focused tips, and more tips on figuring out how to get from Your Big Dream to tomorrow's to-do list.

6) It's not in stores anymore so you can't tell without holding both books, but this book is simply larger: the type is larger (i.e. easier to read) and the margins are larger so you don't have to keep angling it to see what the inside gutter words are. This book was sized and typeset to be legible, and GTD was designed to look small-therefore-easy.

For all these reasons, I enjoyed this book much more. The primary difference of course is the focus: "How to Organize Your Work and Your Life" clearly accepts that without enjoying what you do (or some other strong motivation) everything's a chore. So, the first chapter gets going right away with clever ways of asking you to search for answers to Difficult Questions about what you really want to do in life. Then the author takes you through activities to determine the steps needed to make Big Dreams become Happy Accomplishments. You will really feel energized after reading this book, and more calm. Calm because you have more knowledge about yourself, and calm because you will have more acceptance of uncomfortable truths about productivity and priorities and how time is finite.

The other big difference is the tone. This author talks about his own experiences much less, and less author-ego shows through the text. An over simplification might be "Time is finite" vs. "Let me tell you that after working with thousands of overwrought clients, I've discovered that time is finite."

GTD has some useful information, and fun discussion and quotes. Many concepts (keep your desk uncluttered, re-evaluate your activities to see if they lead to your goals, learn how to delegate) are covered in both books.

But I preferred the focus, approach, style, and printing of this book much more.

I found this to be a well written, concise, and very useful and practical guide to organizing your life. As there are many such books on the market these days, I looked at a number of them before chosing this book. I found this to be one of the best, addressing all the things I wanted advice about, from organizing one's home and personal life to career and the office. Overall, a fine book on the subject with much good and practical advice.

Moskowitz has written an excellent title on different ways to eliminate the unnecessary clutter and techniques that rob us of precious time.

Now to save you some time, I will briefly mention some the topics covered in the book:

1. How to best use your garbage can (didn't they tell us the computer age was suppose to eliminate paperwork?!).
2. How to arrange the items in your office.
3. Getting control of your telephone.
4. Confirm appointments to save time.
5. A different plan for the homemaker or professional.
6. How to avoid unwanted meetings.
7. 5 easy ways to say no.

Now that I've saved you time by writing a short review, go get the book and read to find out how you can save more time!

Highly recommended!

This book has the expected material on organizing yourself, your home, and your office, that you'd find in any number of books. But it also has an extremely valuable and specific chapter on how to set goals for yourself. It does not define WHAT goals you should set, but describes a useful process for setting up goals and breaking them into steps to help you make a plan for reaching them. The goals chapter alone is worth the price of the book

I really enjoyed this book a lot. I am planning to start my own business and feel more confident after reading this book. It is funny, full of wisdom and makes you feel like you can overcome anything

THE TEXT WAS, THE BEST I HAVE READED IN A LONG TIME. TO THE POINT AND BLUNT. NO HOLDS BAR. THE BOOK IS REAL.......... VERY REAL AND TO THE POINT. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A PICK ME UP.. READ ON MY FELLOW MAN!!! READ ON!! BUY IT NOW!!!!!!

I would reccomend this book to anyone. Even a person that has no interest in business can learn something from this book. It has real world advice and examples of how to succeed in business(and life.)

This book,Ida Early comes over the moutain,is about a triky women. She tells tales that could be ture. She acts like the kid's mom because there mother deid. She brings cheer into the Suttons household. I would rate this book a ten out of 1-10 10 being the best because this book has laghter and exciting moments. The morale of the story is to always be yourself.

Ida Early comes over the mountain is an awsome book!It has a lot of excitement! Now that I have read the first one I want to read the seguel. The morale of the story is that you shouldn't doubt yourself. If I had to rate this book 1-10 I would rateit a 10 because of all the excitment and lessons there are!

"Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain" is a very good book with a lot of action. It is very funny. It is also sad. I would definetly suggest this book to friends. I think the moral to this story is to be yourself and always be nice to your friends. This was a very good book.

Ida Early comes over the mountain is an awsome book!It has a lot of excitement! Now that I have read the first one I want to read the seguel. The morale of the story is that you shouldn't doubt yourself. If I had to rate this book 1-10 I would rateit a 10 because of all the excitment and lessons there are!

Like an earlier reviewer, I'll look for more books from Jerry Apps. My mother's dad was a farmer in Iowa. They moved to "The Valley" in Texas (near Brownsville) when she was 14 and then to NW Arkansas before she graduated from high school. In all three areas, my grandad farmed. When I was a child, he milked a few cows and put his 10-gallon milk cans out at the rural train station for pick-up each day. He worked at the local BUSH canning plant part-time to supplement his farming income. My grandmother was a grade school teacher until she retired. This novel helped me to understand more about my family history and some of the challenges that must have been faced by my grandparents. This story is good food for thought.

Jerry Apps zeroes in on the importance of the small family farm in the community and the challenges that are facing the farmers and their families. I enjoyed getting drawn into the story of the pickle factory and its importance as a source of income and gathering place. You will look at pickles differently after reading this book. I live in Wisconsin but never knew about the role small cucumber patches played in the life of the farm areas. Buy local, support the family farmers and help them creatively survive the challenge of agribusiness.

No need to repeat Jim Pope's comments. I like books like these as a nice "break" from the "murder & mayhem" novels I usually read. Very nice and informative book, indeed. I'll be looking for more of Jerry Apps' works.

Novels are typically not on my 'to read' shelf. But I picked this one up because Apps' non-fiction has always been so much fun and chocked full of right-on memories for me. IN A PICKLE is about the time when I grew up and about a place only half-a-county from where my family's farm was. This book is right up there as one of Apps' best, and it superbly captures the essence of the culture and the times. It tells an engaging story in a down-home and straightforward style that shows why Apps should be on everybody's list of really good storytellers.

The book is a character-driven tale that's not only a fun read, but it will give you an effective insight into what small-farm life was really like half-a-century ago in middle America. After the first couple of chapters of IN A PICKLE, I found it to be one of those few books that is so enjoyable that I forcibly (and with difficulty) limited myself to just a chapter or two a day - that way I knew I would get to enjoy it for a lot longer. The book has several layers to it: 1) an enjoyable novel about the relationships of a cast of characters trying to get through tough times together, 2) a chronicle of small farm families documenting some of the everyday realities of that life fifty years ago, 3) a commentary on how progress in the big picture of things can impact the lives of the individual people being swept through those changes, and 4) a depiction of how the modernization of technology can be a good thing, but how, whether it intends to or not, and for better or for worse, it can significantly disrupt the traditional order of things and much of what goes with that tradition. Those aspects can all be enjoyed on their own merits with IN A PICKLE. But the book also gives the reader a combined experience of all those things fitting together in one place and one period of the American landscape, an indispensable part of our country's character.

If you're old enough, IN A PICKLE will jog your memory about the old days and tickle your funny bone at the same time. If you're younger than that, the book takes you back in time to a part of your parents' world, and it does that in an entertaining way that leaves you appreciating some new things about that world your folks grew up in. In either case, you're apt to see some things in a way that you maybe hadn't considered before - until Jerry Apps let you know about it with IN A PICKLE.

Started listening to the audio version of THE INTERNAL FRONTIER each morning on my way into work. Boy, did it make a difference in my day! It really made me take a look at myself and it helped me to see that some of the stuff I do really gets in my own way. At the same time, though, the author gives hope and help to make a change so I don't have to keep doing the "same-old-same-old". 1999 is going to be a better year, thanks to this book!

For those who are truly motivated to pursue their dreams, whether personal or professional, this book is essential. Shechtman's premise is that we all have underlying emotional patterns - our "familiar," as he refers to it - that keep us stuck. To get un-stuck, he offers a six-step process for creating new "familiars" which are in line with our goals. He also stresses the importance of creating accountability groups to help us follow through with our actions steps. I have taken a number of positive - and uncomfortable - action steps as a direct result of the book. Very well written. Full of "beef."

Morrie Shechtman is a futurist who focuses on how information and change impact individual performance. Peak performance, personally, professionally, and financially, is achieved by understanding who you are, and why you are the way you are. Shechtman examines how self-information and an internal focus removes the barriers to tremendous personal achievment. Shechtman's material is hard-hitting ,and forces the reader to examine his or her own "internal frontier." Shechtman's first book,Working without a Net,discussed living and working in a high risk culture and economy. The Internal Frontier looks at what you know (your "familiar") and examines how your decision making is affected by your natural inclination to gravitate to the your familiar. The book is filled with useful information with which to make substantial changes in how you see yourself and make your decisions. The book uses numerous real life examples to illustrate how people have achieved great success by understanding their "familiar" and breaking the patterns which have kept them from achieving their full potential.

Very insightful toward the elements of the mind that allow one to continue on their familiar path, over and over again, like the eveready bunny! The path that gets you where you have always been. This book does a fine job in communicating breakthrough technology that can allow real change in our abilty to set goals and not repeat the familiar. By understanding past events one can see where there habits and decisions have come from and then, hopefully move on to a higher level. Great book for sales people and people looking for a way to access their next challenge!

You, as well as I, or lot of people more have heard stereotypes of Japan and its people, for sure. Maybe you use such stereotypes when talking about any topic on Japan. However, there are very good explanations for them, and I recommend you this book to know such basics.

In the first half, you'll read about Japan's history and the evolution of its society. In the second, you'll use those arguments to understand the behaviour of the groups of Japanese identified through the book.

The book set clearly two distinctions:
1. Talk about groups of Japanese, not "the Japanese," that is, don't use stereotypes.
2. Consider the time. Any argument is valid only in a certain period of time.

On that second point, the book was edited in 2001. It has arguments for 2005 or so. After that, you should look for new arguments.

McCreery is an anthropologist who has spent years working in the Japanese advertising industry -- not working in the sense of anthropological field work, but actually earning a living in the Japanese advertising industry. His book draws both on his insights into the industry and its products from this perspective, and his anthropological training. It is a data-rich book that ingeneously makes use of advertising or marketing research to create portraits of what advertisers think about different generations or sub-sets of Japanese consumers. It is a fascinating mosaic of materials and in many ways an experimental ethnography. Highly recommended.

The expertise gained from years of experience in Japanese advertising is supplemented with interviews and translations from Hakuhodo's think-tank newsletter on consumer mindsets. Highly recommended.

Japanese Consumer Behavior is a challenging book. There are multiple frames of reference: an analytical outsider, analyzing insiders analyzing their own culture, and changing trends within that culture. And that is just the approach. Then there is the data, relatively rapid changes across generations within a culture in response to major post-World War II, economic, gender-role, urbanizing, and, well, other real big changes. In essence there is a real fine grained analysis coupled with an analysis of the larger trends. And then there is the weird sense of dislocation, of finding "sneaker middles" in Japan bearing an almost but not quite resemblence to "yuppies" and trying to put a finger on what that "almost" but "not quite" is. The traditional anthropological road map one acquires does not apply very well to this book, hence it is an active reader book. If anyone is interested in what anthropology is going to be like in the future this is a good place to start.

I am thankful of the day that Al sat on the other side of my desk and
asked if I would take a journey with him. A Journey with Mac is an
insightful, practical gift to help you improve your Planning and
Communication skills. Al's well crafted story is both engaging and
instructive. A must read for those interested in taking their personal and business lives to the next level.

"WOW", What a Brilliantly Simple & Simply Brilliant Book about How to have a Better Business and a Better Life; with a comfortable & wise friend as a guide.

Ed Pendarvis, Citadel, Class of '65
Founder, Chair Emeritus, Sunbelt Network
Author, "Buying a Business to Secure Your Financial Freedom", McGraw-Hill,2005.

"A Journey with Mac" is a delight. Al Katz provides the reader with all
the tools necessary to effectively lead an organization. His creative
story telling leaves a lasting impression, and helps each of us to absorb
his business leadership Process. The concepts are not new, yet the
approach to solving the most basic and sophisticated business issues are
fresh, on target, and proven. You will enjoy the ride."

D. Maybank Hagood
President/CEO Southern Diversified Distributors, Inc.

It is a brilliant book, easy to read and follow. The author is teaching by telling real life stories and summarizing them at the end, so nothing is overlooked. The book inspired me to think how I could apply each new fundamental of business introduced by each chapter to running and growing my own company. It is written in a humorous and entertaining style, and I really didn't feel like I was reading a business book. I would recommend it to anyone who is "stuck" and cannot grow their business. I think many of us feel like there must be something more that one can do to motivate employees, find more time for family and vacations yet at the same time successfully grow their business. This book will motivate and show you how to find your anchors and move forward.