General-partner

I took a look at this book to see if it might be something Icould recommend to my son's father, now that we're separated. Whilethere is some good parenting information, there are also some serious problems. Brott clearly isn't completely over his divorce yet. Little digs against mothers crop up even when he is discussing unrelated topics (for example, when he is discussing becoming a stepfather, he feels compelled to claim that mothers are more likely to abuse children than are stepfathers (he gives no reference to back up this bizarre claim). He condemns giving the mother sole or primary custody for various reasons, but supports *fathers* getting sole or primary custody--in his discussions of custody, he fails to focus on the children's best interests, but instead emphasizes the father's rights. Ditto his discussion of child support--he seems to think that mothers use child support payments to indulge themselves, without considering that adequate child support is what is the children's best interest. Furthermore, his proposed visitation schedules for breastfeeding infants are ludicrous--for example, for a one month old, breastfed, he suggests at least 3 hours a day, plus 8 to 12 hours on the weekends--a schedule that is highly likely to prevent breastfeeding from being successfully established. He also claims that extended breastfeeding (past 1 year) is merely a ploy to interfere with the father's relationship with the child. He also suggests giving "tastes" of food to very young babies (newborn to 6 months), apparently unaware that early introduction of solids can increase the risk of allergies developing. One good thing about this book is that he has included lots of information for gay fathers throughout, but I suspect that there are other books for gay fathers which do not have the problems of this book. I decided not to recommend this book to my son's fathers. Instead, I gave him a copy of _Helping_Your_Kids_Cope_With_Divorce_the_Sandcastles_Way_, which includes a wealth of balanced, compassionate, realistic advice for divorced parents of both genders.

I'm adopting a 9 year old boy, and even I'm not in any of the categories this book describes, every page of it had become very useful. I live the same ups and downs, the same joy and the same frustration, so, I'm practicing every advice the author wrote, with extraordinary results.
For the first time since I took the decision of becoming a single father, I found an empathic word and a shoulder to cry in this book.

As a single father (never married to my child's mother), I've looked at as many books as I could find to get assistance in being a good father under the circumstances. I've only bought two - Live-Away Dads by William Klatte, and this one.

Mr Brott's book is informative, interesting, easy to read and easy to understand. Contrary to so many books on this subject, I didn't get any sense of anti-anything or anti-anyone posturing. Instead, I got the sense that Mr Brott values children and believes that they need fathers in their lives. His book is designed to encourage fathers to accept and embrace their relationships with their kids, despite limitations or changes in their circumstances. The thrust of the book is that the father-child relationship is important and necessary, and he suggests that fathers pursue and protect those relationships. To that end, he offers suggestions and advice about how to do so (from the big subjects, like meeting someone new, to the small, like setting aside space in your place for your kids, even if they don't live with you). I found it extremely helpful, if for no other reason than I felt less alone.

He seemed to me to be saying that preserving your relationship with your kids doesn't have to be to the exclusion of anyone else, and doesn't have to be a destructive process, which it all too frequently is. Would that more people agreed.

Scott, the attorney focused on becoming a partner in his law firm, is the downstairs neighbor to Lydia, a research scientist focused on completing her doctorate. Neither has time for a romance, and both have pesky interfering sisters determined to set them up with blind dates. They conspire to be convenient partners to family events to get their sisters off their backs. Events push the partnership past convenience, into real friendship and true love. But because neither wants to hold the other back from their goals, and neither wants to break their original agreement to stay uninvolved, their relationship hits a brick wall. Once their goals are achieved, they realize that dreams are more important than goals, and it is one of the sisters that changes her tack and steers them to the solution that finally brings them together.

The most commendable element of this story was the friendship between the hero and the heroine. What begins as a mild sort of meeting of minds broadens into a good friendship between Scott and Lydia.

Two career-driven people, Scott and Lydia are always under attack by their respectively good-intentioned sisters who want nothing more than to see them happily settled down. As well-intentioned as the two were, they really began to irritate a bit as meddlesome siblings do. In that respect, they were effective, yet a hindrance to the story.

The main attraction is the expansion of Scott and Lydia's friendship which only grows stronger with their developing relationship. I really liked the idea of a heroine who was determined to see her dreams through rather than push them aside. But most importantly, I enjoyed how Wilkins characterized Scott as a man who was equally career-driven yet willing to compromise because he saw something incredibly special in the strength of Lydia's mind and character.

I have always enjoyed Wilkin's works. This book is no exception. Wilkins has the talent to combine a relationship with romance and career. I liked Lydia's passion to pursue a career and Scott's willingness to support her. My favorite Wilkins' book is "After Hours" followed closely by "Doctors In Disguise."

Ross Dawson's book, "Living Networks," provides an exceptionally lucid and visionary framework in which to chart a succesful company or individual course in the Knowledge Economy. Through concise bullet lists at key points throughout the book, the author provides a series of critical considerations and steps to develop a solid plan of action for the reader to embark on a voyage into the future of high-value commerce that, in a globalized world of business, will be characterized in significant measure by networks and relationships. The writing is quick and lively and the advice and insight imparted are invaluable.

Networks, networking and relationship building through networks have become a very popular theme for business writing, the thesis being that strategic networking is one of the critical keys to business success.

Ross Dawson's first book Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, focused on relationships between knowledge working professionals and their clients. His new book has a much broader reach, being concerned with the development of network technologies and the implications for business strategy across the whole range of stakeholder and competitor relationships.

The author has demonstrated that the success of his first book was no mere flash in the pan. He writes excellent colloquial English, develops his argument clearly and logically and uses examples and illustrations well to clarify the main points in his argument (unlike the many authors who seem to use examples to overwhelm rather than enlighten). The subject itself is an important one and, although Dawson is not alone in tackling it, his book is the one I would choose as a guide to understanding and action for the practical business person. (For example, I find it more approachable than Verna Allee's The Future of Knowledge, which is written at a more conceptual level and is rather more difficult to read.) It is one of the few books I have read which is clearly informed by an implicitly (as well as explicitly) systemic view of the world.

Living Networks elucidates these systemic relationships and then proposes strategies to achieve successful competitive placement within the systems that the entity chooses to try to influence. Its prescriptions are also based on values that are made explicit in various parts of the book - for example the value on retaining and fostering diversity despite globalization and the importance of operating in ways that build trust.

The book is arranged in four parts: Evolving Networks; Evolving Organizations; Evolving Strategy; and Future Networks (the evolution of business). Each of the ten chapters in Parts 1 to 3 ends with a summary section connecting it to the argument in the rest of the book.

Part 1, Evolving Networks, is a short introductory section that starts by identifying five key issues that the author seeks to explore. These are the impact of networking technologies on:
* the nature of relationships between companies and those they deal with;
* ways of working and relating within organizations;
* innovation and intellectual property, with a particular emphasis given to the importance of open source models of innovation;
* strategy in an economy in which strategic positioning in relation to the flow of information and ideas is becoming critically important; and
* the need for styles of leadership that move beyond the box of traditional command and control and position their organizations effectively within networks, while developing their capacity to recognize, bring together and exploit intellectual property.

Part 1 provides the base for the main focus of the book in Parts 2 and 3. Part 2 describes the evolution of organizations in a systemic world governed by the rules of complexity, but from the particular perspective of networking, relationship building and innovation. The description is complementary to that in books like Moore: The Death of Competition, Hock: Birth of the Chaordic Age, or Youngblood: Life at the Edge of Chaos, all of which provide different insights on the same general phenomenon.
13 action steps are offered for building network presence. In order to keep the scope of the book within reasonable bounds, the important issues of privacy and of intellectual property are mentioned, but not discussed in any detail.

Part 3 turns to strategy. The thesis is that:
Devices, communications, and industries are all converging into one vast space for doing business. This is the flow economy, in which almost all value is based on the flow of information and ideas. Companies must continually reposition themselves in this flow economy, both to meet new competitive challenges ... and to take advantage of ... emerging opportunities.

The single chapter in Part 4 develops 10 propositions or forecasts:

* We will soon be immersed in connectivity [access will spread and bandwidth will become greater]
* Transparency will drive business and society [suggesting that privacy will vanish]
* Collaborative filtering will be the heart of the networks
* Information filtering will be an evolutionary battlefield [marketers trying to insert messages and technology and other means becoming available to exclude them]
* Open, accepted standards will predominate
* almost all value creation will stem from collaborative relationships
* Collaborative intellectual property models will flourish
* Highly virtualised organizations will be a dominant force
* The rapidly increasing pool of free agents will be polarized [the rich will get richer and the poor poorer]
* People and networks will merge [technologies for integrating the human and the machine are developing].

These are of course forecasts or bets on the future. The development of their implications makes interesting reading and provides a possible direction. Whether we want to, or do go that way is another question. As with the debate on globalization, what we can do, what we should do and what we will do are not necessarily the same and depend in large part on the underlying 'rules of the game', including the measures by which we judge success. What those are and should be is a debate that is taking place at the level of societal governance - a debate of immense importance to us all.

There's a lot of confusion out there about what technology means to business in the wake of the dotcom bust. Living Networks finally brings clarity to this field. It explains clearly where we are, and covers what managers have to do in organizations, strategy, innovation, and more. It really is exceptional to find a business book that is both very practical, and also such an entertaining read.

No point doing a synopsis. The book has a Website ... which has an overview and chapters to download. And a "blog", so you get the author's realtime commentary too. Bring on the day when all book's have this value-add!

Two (small) reservations. First, Dawson implies that everything he covers is happening now. Much of it is, but some stuff in the book (especially web services) will pan out over the next few years. Second (if you can call it a problem), the book is so broad in scope that it doesn't have the theory and richness of more specialist books. Want to know the latest on network theory and the social implications? Read Nexus by Buchanan or Barabasi's Linked. Want in-depth network strategy? Information Rules by Shapiro and Varian. Mathematical business analysis of networks? Buy Shy's Economics of Network Industries. The key issues in intellectual property? Lessig's The Future of Ideas. What the new dynamics are for individuals? Pink's Free Agent Nation is still a winner. Want the whole kit and kaboodle: what's happening in the economy today, and what to do about it? No question, Living Networks is the standout book. Hopefully it will get some good competition soon.

This book was written in a confusing and poorly written manner. The last chapters were especially dull and filled with a lot of psychological mumbo jumbo.

I have read this book with tears and satisfaction. I, too, am married to a woman who suffers from this terrible tragedy and have lived a similar life the author describes in this book. He has captured the utter sadness which can and does surround us all, hidden in the secret threats and tortured minds of many.

As I read this book the last numerouse years of mine, and my wifes life, came rushing back. The author has truely captured what it means to love another, to give whatever you have to give to see to it anothers life is changed for the better, to see to it the fear instilled by those who would hurt a child, and forever remain anonymous, are brought out into the open.

The courage of Diane, and her inner friends, is of the highest regard in my mind. Diane's determination, steadfastness and all around get-it-done attitude is, and will, help many lost children hidden inside so many grown women, to become free of their fear.

This book can help those locked inside to reach out with hope, to know they can trust, be free of the pain and live life with smiles.

You have the courage to read this book, your life will be changed, you will see others in a clearer light, you will believe.

For those who suffer now or have suffered in their life from the tragedy described here, this books lets you know there is help, caring, understanding, love and compassion. All you have to do is believe, let go the fears which keep the secrets hidden, which give the secrets power to silence, to see your abusers for what they really are, and become free at last.

My life has been and is changed by the text of the life this book reveals.

Great work.

I loved this book, from the beginning to the end, I never wanted to put it down. So many emotions, so many feelings, all at once, and I could feel too, the pain, the mental anguish of all those involved. I recommend this book for anyone going through sexual abuse feelings or past emotions hard to deal wtih. This is a wonderful recount of one person's love for another.

Ok, this may seem incredibly biased because I wrote one of the stories in this book, but the option for the author to separately write something about his own work is not available anymore (or not on this listing anyway). The 4 stars in this review is entirely based on Lee's story and not my own, though. I was a huge Lee fan before I ever got the opportunity to do this chapbook with him, and I thought his story here was a riot. Like his other hardcore work, there are unfathomable depravities backed up by a very strong sense of characterization which generally goes ignored by his critics. He's one of the most entertaining writers out there, able to pull off the sickening delights of works like THE PIG or THE BIGHEAD alongside extremely layered stories like "The Ushers." Anyone who enjoys Lee's work will not be disappointed by his outing in PARTNERS IN CHYME...I wanted to say in defense of my own story that it was written for the Gross Out competition for the World Horror Convention in 1999. The brevity of the story -- a valid criticism -- was a result of trying to present a whole story in under five minutes. I disagree that it is "far from being memorable," however. I base this on the grounds that I read this story to an audience in 1999 and although the chapbook was proposed less than a week later, it was not published until December of 2001; despite this, I still had people quoting lines from the story to me a couple years later, so I think it has a way of staying with you. There's a very good chance you'll think of my story next time you go to Subway.

I've also heard of a few people who refused to finish reading the chapbook after my story because it was too sick, so it's at least made an impression.

This is definitely a hardcore horror collection, written with fiends for disgusting fiction in mind. It was written for the fun of the art of repulsion (hence the title) with no attempt to frighten anyone (though we might have done that involuntarily; we probably don't seem like the kind of guys you're dying to go to the opera with, to paraphrase Lee's story).

"Both authors are capable of better." This I agree with. You'll still have fun with PARTNERS IN CHYME, though, if you believe the gore, the merrier...

Ryan Harding (nonesovile@hotmail.com)

If you're looking for that perfect book to make yourself completely sick, this is it!

Partners in Chyme (pronounced KIME) is a 34-page chapbook, containing two stories by these masters of gross. When I first heard about it, I thought, "Two stories? Why only two?" Then I read it and understood. Anything else would have been overkill. Ed Lee and Ryan Harding achieve in these two stories a complete gross-out, enough to make you reconsider eating anything the rest of the day.

We start off with Ed Lee's "The Dritiphilist", a story about fetishes. You're wondering what a dritiphilist is, and what the fetish entails, aren't you? So was I at first. Now I'm kind of wishing I still didn't know. And I'm not going to tell you in this review. You wanna find out, order the book.

The last time I read anything that grossed me out, I was reading Ed Lee's "Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman," and here he is doing it again.

See, this is why I don't even bother trying to write this hardcore gross-out stuff anymore, because I know nothing I can come up with is going to equal Ed Lee's mind. He's a sick, sick man. He's also, from what I've been able to glean online, a very nice, intelligent, approachable guy. But he's still a sick, sick man.

And Ryan Harding's "Damaged Goods" is no better.

Great stuff if you like it gross.

What a pair of naughty boys Edward and Ryan have been. I like it. I ordered this chapbook on the strength of reading some of Lee's other works and not realizing that Harding was a co-author (co-contributor?) (and not the illustrator). My gain. While I'm already on the prowl for more works by Ed, I've now added Ryan to the hit list. I can't seem to get enough of a good thing.

Victor Schrager's images are gorgeous - every single one is a masterpiece - lovely, endlessly fascinating, wonderfully rich and complex and brilliantly intelligent in conception and execution.
The superb photography is accompanied by the delightful text of A.S. Byatt. For anyone who loves photography, birds, nature, art or literature, this is the perfect book. It will charm and delight you forever.

This book is stunning in every sense. A beautiful collection of bird photographs, interesting & insightful essay, with classic yet modern design marrying the two. This book clearly illustrates the delicate interaction between man and nature. I think this book should appeal to many different individuals-- fans of Schrager's work, fans of Byatt's work, those interested in photography, as well as the birding population in general. I loved it!

These pictures are a fresh look at the interplay between Nature and Culture - the photographs are beautiful, the text rich and entertaining, and the fusion between the two is great. One of the nicest photography books in a long time.

As the leader of the Project Management Office and the initiator of project management standards for a large metropolitan school district, I needed a reference to give my new project managers an introduction to the things I was asking them to do. I found this book to be an excellent reference for that purpose. Also using the associated training program, I have offered very effective training classes for many people throughout our school district.

In adapting project management standards for our district, I also drew upon many of the princples outlined so effectively in this book. It makes project management easy to understand for people who have little or no exposure to the concepts.

I also found that I, as a veteran of many years of project management, found many excellent refreshers and reminders for the best practices of how we should pursue project management.

I would recommend this book to new and experienced project managers, alike.

As the leader of the Project Management Office and the initiator of project management standards for a large metropolitan school district, I needed a reference to give my new project managers an introduction to the things I was asking them to do. I found this book to be an excellent reference for that purpose. Also using the associated training program, I have offered very effective training classes for many people throughout our school district.

In adapting project management standards for our district, I also drew upon many of the princples outlined so effectively in this book. It makes project management easy to understand for people who have little or no exposure to the concepts.

I also found that I, as a veteran of many years of project management, found many excellent refreshers and reminders for the best practices of how we should pursue project management.

I would recommend this book to new and experienced project managers, alike.

I have used this book for 2 purposes. Along with the facilitator's guide, I've conducted introductory project management work sessions to introduce people to project management concepts, terminology and processes. Session evaluations from attendees have been overwhelmingly positive. We have also used many of the tools on the disk, some in exact format, some with revisions, to build tools for use in developing our project planning documentation.

Also use the tools, worksheets and checklists for both work projects and personal projects at home. The book and the tools are very helpful to ensure projects get off in the right direction. The terms, concepts and exercises have been extremely well received by participants. Have so far had 75 particpants in six 2 to 3 day sessions.

The book provides great insight into Stalin's almost paranoid fear of a Sino-American rapprochment, even before the end of WWII. In fact, the book dedicates the entire first section to detailing this concern of Stalin's. And, it is well-researched. The problem is that when assessing Stalin's interests in getting China to enter the Korean war, the authors list vague and anecdotal reasons as to why Stalin might want a direct Sino-American conflict on the battlefield. They even acknowledge that this was the result, but oddly never consider that this was Stalin's intention all along. Otherwise, a useful work to understand how the war fit into the larger strategic calculations of all three players.

Interesting book. Focuses on the evolving relationship of Mao & Stalin. Both men had immense egos. Fascinating to understand that at one time even Mao had to rule thru consensus. Stalin by 49 rules thru fear, having already had shot anyone whose consensus didn't jive with his. But the title is misleading. The decision for war in Korea is only a factor in the last couple of chapters. These chapters are fascinating, to the point one wishes the book contained more info on the Korean war and less on the political relationship that developed from 45-49 between these two evil men.

In an overall sense, this is an outstanding book. Uncertain Partners deals with many of the issues surrounding the nations of China, Russia, and Korea immediately following WWII. The authors, a Russian presidential advisor and two Stanford political scientists, reveal and report about many of the confidential documents of Stalin, Mao Zedong and Kim Il Sung. These documents, never before seen previous to the 1990s, describe the inner-workings and deep-seeded relationship between Stalin and Mao. In many ways, Stalin and Mao were uncertain partners. The authors makes the reader understand that Mao was simply a puppet of Stalin and his form dictatorial communism. For a greater understanding of this partnership, I would undoubtably recommend this book. Concerning the topic of Russian and Chinese relations, this book has to have profound implications. With that in mind, it's a must read.

I really liked the 6th edition of this text, which I used for both semesters of General Biology. The illustrations were clear and I think Mader had a clear grasp of the concepts of biology. However, as a molecular biology major and as a person who has seen no evidence that macroevolution has occurred, I object to her characterization of creationism as unscientific. Mader is bold enough to actually state in Chapter 1 (in a connecting concepts box)"When faith is involved, a hypothesis cannont be tested in a purely objective way." She neglects to consider the exorbinant amount of faith it takes to believe in macroevolution. This is a theory which in all actuality is untestable. Furthermore, her statement which was quoted above would be considered by many to be "bad science"! She makes no reference to any studies which support her hypothesis. And I don't believe I've ever heard of any. In the fields of genetics and molecular biology, as we come to understand the complexity of living organisms, the theory of evolution just becomes more and more untenable. It's fine if Dr. Mader believes in evolution. That's her choice. But to go out of her way to rip the growing number of scientists who disagree with her was gratuitous and mean-spirited. This caused me to question HER objectivity throughout the rest of the book.

I used this text for a course that I took from Cal Berkeley Extension - online. That is an internet course. I am considering a career change from physical sciences to biotech and need to come up to speed rapidly.

The course covered only the first 2 units (first 17 chapters) so I will only speak to that. This text, with CD ROM (2) and internet learning center is GREAT! Looking at the entire package this is a great way to learn biology. The material covered in those first 17 chapters are exactly what one needs to know - elementary biochem; cell structure; genetics; gene expression; biotech. The illustrations are great and consistent (eg., phosphate groups are always orange-yellow) throughout the text. Actually, I would say that it is about the best illustrated text I have ever seen in my life. The on-line quizes (about 64 questions/chapter) let you know if you have really mastered the material or not. Independent questions at the end of every chapter all have answers in the appendix - so again you can check your understanding. The web site has shockwave art match the parts of the cell to the labels all as part of a package to independently learn biology.

I would say it would be helpful to have a year of college chemistry before plunging into this course - but the chemistry is not too sophisticated. The focus is on essentials - but with understanding. For people considering a switch into biology and want to study independently, I reccomend this book highly. I do not easily give 5 stars - but this book earns it.

Save your money. Not only does this book not offer any possible solutions, it doesn't even provide a comprehensive analysis of the problem. It is heavily documented with endnotes (which is good) but the multitude of studies, op-ed pieces and surveys are never really brought into the text and explained. Instead, the book reads as if Ms. Minow summarized each source into a single sentence and then haphazardly strung the sentences together.
The reader is bombarded with constant repetition. Given the subject matter, repetition might not be a bad thing, but here it seems to result more from disorganization than an attempt to clarify important points. Indeed, the reader is left with the impression that the constant citations are meant to make up for the fact that the book reads as if it were dashed off in a series of odd moments stolen from more important duties.
Ms. Minow may be granted some latitude because she is a lawyer and brevity adorned with citation is bread and butter to the bar, but she is not writing for lawyers here and I would suspect that even lawyers would find her polemics redundant and unenlightening. I was eager to read this book, hoping to gain greater insight into the issue of privatization. I was sorely disappointed.

I enjoyed reading this book because it is both accessible and sophisticated. In a discourse too often characterized by polemics and sound-bites, Minow offers a thoughtful view of the trend toward privatization. Reading her book helped me see how complex these issues are, and gave me new insight into arguments I might otherwise have dismissed. I found it a rare treat.

Martha Minow's book is a tremendously valuable, engaging guide to thinking about the respective roles of the public and private sector in promoting our common good. With great insight and fair-mindedness, Minow identifies the promises and problems of the shifting roles of the public and private sector in many areas of our lives; schooling, welfare, legal services and health services. I think how we allocate public and private responsibility will have a huge impact on the future of our democracy. There are, as Minow points out, advantages in creating more private responsibility in education, for example. But these pros need to be weighed very carefully against the disturbing prospect of abandoning our commitment to public, integrated schools. As she has in her other books, Minow brings great wisdom to this vital topic.