Future Books

The tone of this book is both frank and positive in discussing the reasons working women may have a harder time saving adequately for retirement than men do and showing how women can make the choices now to take this matter into their own hands and solve it. I wanted to skim the book and summarize its high points, but the details were too good and I can only say, if you are a working woman, you will want to read this book now.

Lyn Camire Senior Editor, Pensions and Benefits Thompson Publishing Group

As a financial advisor who specializes in working with women, I am so happy to see something for the general consumer that has a lot of meat to it. Usually most of the retirement information gets briefly mentioned and then brushed aside with a note that it's important stuff and you need to understand it--but there's usually no help given on how to understand it! This book provides the help in an easy to read and understand format. Love it!

I read "The Working Woman's Guide to Retirement Planning" several years ago and was surprised to learn of the many reasons why women need to save for retirement differently from men. I put together my own retirement plan after reading it and now I'm retiring and taking my RV on the road for the next few years. I've read the updated version, "The New Woman's Guide to Retirement Planning," and hope many other women get as much out of it as I did the first one.

This book is so encouraging for anyone who has lost a loved one. And especially for anyone who has lost a baby. I ordered this while looking for Rebecca Springer's book, "My Dream of Heaven". These two books are both must reads for anyone who really wants to know what heaven is like with detailed descriptions that are uplifting and stunning! These are both page turners and I hope many of you will buy copies for yourself and your friends who will want to read these two books for themselves! Enjoy and spread the "Good News" to others!

Very insprational. I read many books about peoples' journeys to heaven and this is one of the best. I recommend this book highly for anyone who has lost a baby.

This seems to be a real vision and is line biblically. Her account of heaven and hell is very real and actually addresses some questions like why hell is needed. It also addresses the meaning of Jesus' sacrifice to humanity.

I would highly recommend it to anyone trying to gain deeper understanding of salvation. It will also inspire in living a right life.

The author opens in his preface by saying, "The purpose of this book is to stimulate imagination and activate energy and idealism in a Jewish context". He hopes to provide a vision of the Jewish future which will as he says 'build a new Jewish paradigm for the twenty- first century'.
I read a lot of books on Jewish subjects and found the idealism and inventiveness of the effort made here truly refreshing. The book is rich in description and analyses of the Jewish and most specifically Israeli situation and in prescriptions of how to change it for the better.
As for my father would have said I believe Tsvi Bisk " is thinking in the right way".
He does not wish to wallow in the past or in self- pity. He aims to move the Jewish people forward. Here he provides a vision of an economic and social revolution , a creative revolution in which Israel and the Diaspora will be true partners. He makes specific proposals for projects such as 'The Jewish Energy Project' ' The Tikkun Olam Boarding School Project' 'Urban Plantations' for new ways of cooperating together, of producing the kind of synergy between Israel and Disapora which will benefit the Jewish people as a whole.
In the course of the writing he presents dozens of ideas each of which is worth a lengthy consideration in itself. He connects the Jewish situation with the world - situation, with globalization and sees how a more creative Jewish people can make a real contribution to mankind. He cites Ben- Gurion and believes like him that the Jews to be a true light to themselves must be a light to the nations. And he says this while showing a real knowledge of the situation on the ground, the problems Israeli society faces in terms of income gap, poverty.
However with all my enthusiasm for this book and I do have great enthusiasm for it I have reservations about elements in it. At times Tsvi Bisk seems to give the sense that our situation has done nothing but improve with the years. He wants us to shift attention to the self- realization of individual Jews but nothing can change the difficult fact that the major problem Israel is still facing is 'survival'. The mentioning but not giving full weight to the security threats Israel faces from its neighbors and in fact from the Islamic world as a whole is the kind of optimism which borders on folly. It is wonderful to talk about self- fulfillment, but Israel has survived because thousands of young people have risked and many sacrificed their lives on the field of battle. I also while believing with Bisk that we should not remain mired in the past did not like the accusation of 'self- pity'. The Jewish people and so many Jews of recent generation have suffered such horrible losses that they are inevitably central in their consciousness.
The latter part of the book is an exercise in which the author looks back at Israel and the Jewish people from the year 2020 and points to all the positive developments that have happened in this time. Perhaps the idea is that by dreaming it you help it make it happen. I certainly hope most of what Bisk 'dreams' does happen. However between 'wishing' and 'making it so' the road is long indeed, especially in the Middle East.
On the whole, once again I believe this is an extremely valuable book which all those who care about Israel and the Jewish people should read.
Even if its predictions turn out mostly wrong and its plans not fully realized it is a step in the right direction.

Given the immense challenges facing the Jewish people today, a book entitled "The Optimistic Jew" would seem to be either a bad joke or wishful thinking. But it isn't. The title and the content grew from decades of deep thinking and study by futurist Tsvi Bisk, who points to a truly possible future for the Jews -- if we dare to hope for one and commit to making it happen. The author isn't stuck on his version of a future, and invites the reader to create a positive future that includes her/his own self-actualization. He leads by example - and the power of his example derives from values dear to the Jewish people: breadth and depth of learning, the courage to hold a redemptive vision, and down to earth practicality. Analyzing present world trends, understanding Jewish history, and rooted in the Zionism and the pragmatism of Ben Gurion, Tsvi Bisk shows us a path forward.

Some of us work to understand and mitigate the present threats to Israel's survival as a vibrant country and society, and the threats to Jews' sense of security and dignity in a world again rife with anti-Semitism. I call this work the "anti" work. Hard and painful as it is, it is essential work. But it acquires new meaning when we also work as cultural creatives - I call this the "pro" work. With the very real freedom we have today as Jews, and preserving our internal freedom from encroachment by hopelessness and apathy; with the enormous strength, inspiration and learning we can draw from our history and ancestors, and with the wisdom and learning we draw from other peoples and traditions, we can create a beautiful and powerful future.

Some of us work in this "anti" and "pro" directions not just relative to the future of the Jewish people, but of humankind, of the planet and all sentient beings. This book focuses on the first of these but doesn't exclude the others. Tsvi Bisk sees them as complementary. Depending on how comfortably and consciously Jewish identity fits for any individual Jew with the other levels of his/her identity, so will focusing on the future of the Jewish people complement their work for a positive future for all.

In my own experience of pointing out a path forward - a path which integrates but is not held back by the present obstacles - I have found that people very rarely dare to vision, and therefore also rarely dare to commit and act in a timely way. Staying within the herd seems to be a more powerful force for humans in general, than ensuring a good future for all. Leaders are generally far more interested in personal glory (requiring herd approval) than leading towards a good future for all. As a consequence, a bad future arrives - a deterministic future: determined by the forces that were at work in the present when people opted for inercia, apathy, divisiveness, powerlessness. Tsvi Bisk tells us that it doesn't have to be that way.

Just reading his understanding of Zionism is a balm to the heart and health food to the mind. (Zionism being a word so distorted and maligned in the world, that many Jews have become "closet Zionists"). Tsvi not only brings it with dignity out of the closet , but he is one of our best teachers on Zionism for the many Jews who know little about it and lack the sense of historical perspective. (His other book, Futurizing the Jews, goes into more depth relative to the historical origins of Zionism as a movement).

Bisk realizes that most Jews today live in a highly individualistic world. Collectivist cultural values and norms are on the wane in the experience of most Jews. (He likes the way the pendulum has swung. Others of us may prefer other combinations of individualistic and collectivistic cultural habitats). Zionism always held as one of its highest values Hagshama Atzmit, Self-Actualization, but the mix of individualistic and collectivistic values and feelings that brought about self-actualization for Jews 50 to 100 years ago is a different mix today. This is a fact, and Tsvi Bisk modernizes Zionism by acknowledging the real and potent integration possible today between what is meaningful for individual Jews and creating a good future for the Jewish people.

Having said all this, I don't agree with Tsvi on every single point. Neither may you. But this book has convinced me to become his ally in the creation of the future, and I believe and hope that many others that read it will be inspired to do so also. This is an excellent book for book clubs and study groups.It is available through the big book merchants, store and on-line purchasing...

With the sobering predictions from successive American Jewish population studies, it's easy to become pessimistic about whether it's going to be worth it in the long run to raise an increasingly smaller new generation with a strong Jewish identity. Is there a reason for paying thousands of dollars for a child's Jewish education?

Unequivocally, yes, says Tsvi Bisk in his new book, The Optimistic Jew (Maxanna Press, 2007). Director of the Center for Strategic Futurist Thinking in Kfar Saba, Israel, Bisk not only knows that there's a reason to be optimistic, he outlines exactly how we can create a strong, vibrant Jewish future, attracting younger generations of disenfranchised and unaffiliated Jews in the process. And we can do it in our own lifetime.

There are several keys to achieve this, according to Bisk. One is embracing cultural pluralism, and he likens it to an environmental paradigm:

"Environmentalism recognizes that "monoculturalism" (the cultivation of a single crop over extensive areas) endangers the health of the entire ecological system. Ecological systems that have an increasing variety of species and ever-increasing interactions between these species are healthy, vigorous, and robust. Ecological systems that have a diminishing variety of species and diminishing interaction between these species are sick and susceptible to collapse." (p. 31)

And Bisk dismisses the idea that one has to choose between cultures: Jewish versus American versus Israeli versus any other cultural heritage, stating, "Individuals who cultivate within themselves a plurality of cultures also have a much better chance of succeeding. [...] To the extent that Israel and the Jewish people at large can make this cultural attitude a norm, we will truly be a light unto the nations." (pp. 139-140)

Another key is redefining Zionism for the 21st century. While Zionism was indeed a success, it is no longer applicable either to Israelis or the Diaspora. Writes Bisk, "Many young Diaspora and Israeli Jews have grown distant from Israel in recent years because Zionism is a 19th century ideology trying to come to terms with a 21st century reality." (p. 57). In clear, down to earth language, Bisk retraces the history of Zionism, how it grew, how it succeeded, and what needs to happen to reinvent it for today and the future.

The third key relates to the role of Israel, within both Israeli and Diaspora culture. Since the creation of the State of Israel, the primary relationship has been one of the Diaspora financially funding Israeli organizations, ultimately directed by Israeli politics. Some Israelis, Bisk writes, claim that not only have these contributions had little effect on Israeli citizens, they have actually become detrimental.

"The time has come for a new paradigm wherein these relatively small sums go directly [...] to more efficient and effective public administration, innovative educational initiatives and national projects (such as energy independence) that could mobilize the energies and skills of large numbers of uninvolved Jews." (pp. 68-69)

Bisk casts a sharp eye on the secular European Enlightenment, citing it as the basis for a global return to fundamentalism in any religion. While Jewish responses to the Enlightenment brought us this far, he writes, they cannot sustain Jewish identity into the future. This is not simply a case of changing beliefs or creating belief where there was none, but rather creating entirely new Jewish expressions.

Pulling together politics, psychology, economics, history, sociology, and ecology, Bisk describes where we've been, where we are, and where we can be. He offers specific ideas and suggestions for creating the optimistic future he envisions, and cites actions we can take as both individuals and a people. Of particular interest is his outline for the Jewish Energy Project, which can all at once invigorate today's Jews, reassert Israel's place in Jewish life, and tackle the growing dependence on foreign oil.

For anyone who is interested in what the future of the Jewish people can look like--if we will it--this is a highly recommended solid read with a potentially real outcome.

Without echoing other people's reviews completely, this book is truly an outstanding collection of speeches and writings on the topic of indigenous worldviews. I highly recommend it.

Melissa K. Nelson's ORIGINAL INSTRUCTIONS: INDIGENOUS TEACHINGS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE will appeal both to New Age and Native American collections, following the relationships between biological ecosystems and human cultures and using indigenous storytelling traditions to present ideas from the annual Bioneers conference, a yearly meeting of environmentalists and social visionaries. Teaching follow ideas on community, creation, kinship and ecology and make for an eye-opening survey of sacred geography and a spirit-driven world.

I was blown away again and again by the contents of this incredible compilation. I am inspired, awe'd by what these writings speak of and overwhelmingly grateful that this information has not been lost and is making it's way back because of the committment the Bioneers have made to humanity. This perspective is largely unacknowledged by certain factions and unknown by most. Bless all of these Relations for sharing, caring and keeping their faith not only in the Creator but in us. Please read this book and tell everyone you know to read this book. I run a non-profit bookstore and this will be my top staff pick.

The Personal Compass: A Visual Workbook for Exploring Your Future by The Grove Consultants International

WOW! This is a very powerful personal strategic planning tool!

I am very familiar with the technological know-how of and the many presentation products created by Grove Consultants as I have used them in my consultancy projects as well as training workshops. I consider them to be one of three industry heavy weights, and also a pioneer/innovator, in the field of embracing group genius through visual-graphic facilitation.

Therefore, I am very excited with their visual workbook for visioning and goal setting. It is a template-based system for determining & achieving your desired future, with a blend of personal analysis, imagination & strategic planning. The graphic templates in this workbook ease the challenge of self-exploration by structuring & focusing your thinking.

The entire system comes in the form of an A3 sized drawing block, spiral-bounded for easy folding/handling. Tactically, it is very easy to use as the instructions are very vivid. Plus, the seven step process steps as outlined are very easy to follow. They are really great stuff!

I wish I had this wonderful workbook with me when I was charting out my own life (my second half, to be precise) in the early 90's.

In the course of my own exploration in the field of visioning & goal setting, I have played with many methodologies which include futurescaping, mindscaping, life mapping, goal mapping, treasure mapping, vision collage, etc. My end analysis: I would like to rank this one #1.

The Personal Compass is a very powerful personal strategic planning tool. From the visual planning perspective, it is unsurpassed.

I love the COMPASS tool. As a career development consultant, I like the creative way that the tool can help people with their personal career strategizing by looking at multiple angles/issues that are involved in the career/transition process. It's easy to use, clear directions, and very fun and creative because of the visual focus of the tool. For folks wanting to do some right brain strategizing about career directions, this is the tool to use.

This workbook is engaging and substantive for those who are in a transitional period of their lives. It is about you: your past, present, and possibilites for your future. The templates provide structure and freedom to record/draw/write/list how you "do yourself". You don't have to be an artist or writer, yet you will begin to see what is deeply important to you.

It is designed to provide you with simple, yet powerful documentation of your history and experience with many of
life's important questions. As an Organization Consultant and midlife mother of teenagers, I have found it personally and professionally useful.

It was such an interesting subject and one that I previously didn't know much about. For me, I found the older history more intriguing than that of the Soviet portion so after the first few chapters, I flew through the rest of the book.

Nicely written and provides great visualizations.

This book can provide great topics of discussion with friends and book club members.

One of the most difficult and important talents for a scientist is to communicate difficult material in an understandable way. Dr. Orent has an astounding ability to communicate complex material coherently enough for a nonspecialist to understand. She has made sense of an enormous amount of plague history: why did specific plague eruptions throughout history emerge? Why did some eruptions self destruct while others kept going for many years? Why did some plague eruptions seem to require transmission through rats and rat fleas while others transmitted directly from human to human? Why do researchers in some countries consider plague virtually always fatal while researchers in some other countries consider it primarily a disease of rodents with little potential for human infection?

Dr. Orent traveled as far as Russia to meet with leading plague researchers (and biological terrorists) in the process of preparing this book.

I had the pleasure of discussing plague with Dr. Orent a couple of years ago when she was in Maryland doing research for the work. At the time I was stuck in the mind set from my days in college, when we learned that plague died down in Europe when the brown rats (essentially imune to plague) forced out the black rats (vulnerable to plague). While Dr. Orent told me that some forms of plague transmitted directly from human to human, the horror of the situation did not come through until I read her very convincing book.

I strongly recommend this book, one of the finest nonfiction books I have read in many years. As an experienced author, it takes a lot for an author to impress me with writing ability. Based on this book, Dr. Orent is one of the finest pure writers I have encountered in many years -- as well as an excellent scientist.

Plague is the world's most dangerous bacterial disease, a frightening bioterrorist threat to the world, and yet largely misunderstood by the general public: enter Wendy Orent's Plague: The Mysterious Past And Terrifying Future Of The World's Most Dangerous Disease, which uses the science journalist's background to easily explain the history and function of the plague germ to lay audiences. From the labs of the former Soviet Union where Russian scientists worked on engineering strains of plague to be vaccine-resistant to other threats of plague's potential as a bioweapon, Plague is a hard-hitting discussion with social and political ramifications for international public health decisions.

Linda Thompson is knowledgeable and resourceful. Her book is the life planning guide we all have been waiting for. No matter how smart you are, you WILL learn and benefit from the valuable life planning skills outlined in this book. There is more too. Among other things, the author's treatment of caregiver issues and her assessment of future social and economic trends, especially for us babyboomers, is perceptive and on the mark. If you read any book this year, you owe it to yourself to read this one.

This book is not only essential reading, it has become an invaluable resource as I struggle with aging parents. Ms. Thompson's suggestions are sage, straightforward and timely. I also owe it to my children to make their tasks easier as I age. This book will become dog-earred in time, as I continue to refer to it in the coming months.

I couldn't put this book down. It was easy-reading on a tough topic. You'll laugh at the obvious insights Linda shares and want to put into action the practical solutions outlined in the book. "Planning for Tomorrow" is critical reading for everyone over the age of 18.

This is an excellent book that is definitely worth reading. It is one to make you think.

I have read many of Jack Cavanaugh's books, and I have always felt he is a very gifted writer. This book is simply amazing! How Mr. Cavanaugh was able to write with such emotion, insight, and perspective is beyond my understanding! This is not a book to speed-read through. It is a book to savor; to read slowly and meditate on. It really helped me to give perspective to some areas of my life that needed to be reviewed and re-prioritized. The book was touching, heartwarming, and encouraging. I plan to pass this book on to many people!

...this would be a neat way to do it. If, when I died, I could be chosen, like the four who were chosen in this book, to write letters that people on Earth would read, I'd love to do it. Each letter, though fairly short (most of them were 5-10 pages, some shorter), expressed some pearls of wisdom in a personal way - most of the people who are writing these letters from heaven sacrifice, at least temporarily, the "no pain" blessing heaven offers, and remember their past struggles, pains, lessons learned, (and triumphs, too - it's not all pain and loss) and relay those life experiences within the letters with the goal of benefitting other people. The four people lived during different time eras and had different experiences, all of which I found very interesting - my heart thumped in my chest when Theodora was rescued from rape and certain death (condemned because she refused to deny her faith) by a fellow Christian, who planned to die in her place. I was fascinated also by Shankala's experiences - how she refused to give up her faith in Christ and would not obey rituals and then was cursed by a witch doctor. Dr. Everett Parker talks about a special nurse who administered to a wounded enemy soldier. The experiences are vivid and evoke emotion in the reader. The "lessons" that the reader learns based on the experiences of these four characters through the letters they write don't feel like "lessons." Because each letter is short and illustrates some different idea (though they are related to one another in their purpose to offer words of comfort, advice and hope, and often there are "categories" of ideas which the letters each speak to in their own unique way), it's easy to read this book any time - you can stop if you're called to do something else and not feel as if you've missed something or lost your place. Though there are heart-wrenching moments and tears in abundance in Postmarked Heaven, there is also joy and laughter within its pages, and your heart will feel revived, refreshed, and open once you've read this book.

Don't be alarmed by the word radical, being truly honest appears radical these days becuase very few people are telling you the truth. There are hundreds of books on the market, touting tactics, strategies and ways to manipulate how you feel and programs for communicating with others. Programs are for computers! Tell the truth. We were always told to tell the truth, but did you ever really learn how?

Practicing Radical Honesty teaches and demonstrates how. Radical Honesty is invaluable, and is guaranteed to deliver. What else can I say, the truth is the truth.

Awsome read. Brad tells the truth point blank! If you really want to get free, be prepared for some hard work! Cause telling the truth is not easy!! This book is funny, and very enlightening. Not everyone that reads it will get alot out of it, unless they are "ready"! I highly recommend this book. It's up there as one of the best.
BW

I like this book alot. I just bought ten copies to give to friends. What I like is that Blanton clearly describes how peoples' minds interfere with us seeing what is really going on in our world. The mind tries to support the delusion that we are safe, when really we are in denial much of the time.

He shows us how to get back the freedom to see things clearly and simply--by telling the truth. How radical! I wish everyone would read this book and buy a few copies to give away. Then maybe if we did the things Blanton recommends, we really would feel safe.

I was happy to see that this remarkable little book is still around. Back in 1979 my first year property professor (the excellent Shelly Kurtz, then visiting at U. Va.) required this, along with the standard casebook. He felt that no other book handled this topic so well. All these years later, it is the only one of my law school texts that is still in my library.

Tom Bergin, who is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia School of Law (not North Carolina as stated above - *gasp*) and his writing partner Paul Haskell, have produced what may be the only entertaining read in the history of real estate law. Bergin, a lawyer, academic, teacher, former minor league baseball player, lets his unabashed enthusiasm for puzzling over legal issues and taking them apart come through in this short but very useful book. If you are a first year law student, or someone interested in a unique, intellectually challenging book that will give you insights into the fast departing "art" of the law, buy this book!

I've decided to review this book because it was one of my favorite books in law school and no one else is ever going to write a review here.

PTELAFI -- as I like to call it, is a very "wet" book on what is usually considered a very "dry" topic. Sure, feudal enfoeffments are not everyone's cup of tea. BUT if you ever wanted to understand that tax avoidance was invented long before checking accounts, or, just as important, why all the girls in Austen and Bronte were always trying to marry their cousin in order to keep living in the house in which they grew up... then this is the book for you.

Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but "future interests" (basically dealing with how real property rights were held and cut up in the early part of the last millenium) is kind of like a fun big puzzle, isn't really that hard once you get the hang of it, as the writers of this charming little hornbook seem to understand, kind of fun when approached from the correct angle.

This was also one of the clearest (and shortest) books I was assigned in law school.

So bravo to Messrs. Bergin and Haskell.