General-partner

An honest, well written and fascinating account about Jubilee Partners. A must read for people who are interested in radical christian discipleship.

My favorite Christmas gift -- the cover is Red, the stock feels great to the touch, and there's plenty of white space. It's a book and an exhibition in one. It's filled with people who love their work. Work, Life, Tools qualifies as great design. (Hats off Milton Glaser, and to Steelecase for being enlightened enough to fund the exhibition.) This book cum exhibition guide ranks high on the visual, aesthetic and conceptual pleasure scale. My favorite aspect: the way the bios portray the multiple talents and the "I don't just do one thing" truth about their subjects. It's filled with lots of practical ah-has. You get to peek into people's work spaces. It represents a fascinating spectrum of thinking about work. And, it's amazing to me how loyal people are to their fountain pens (as one who's committed to Deluxe Uni-balls.) I loved it!

This is a great book on one of the top architecture firms in North America. The book features some of their best buildings in gorgeous photos and wonderful text. This is a must own for any architect or for anyone who enjoys beautiful architecture. I highly reccomend it.

Chip Bell takes the idea of customer service one step further -- make your customers "partners". Partners have responsibilities and are treated much more like the neighbor next door. Mr. Bell fills this books with lots of stories that underline his key points and make it real. I'm buying copies as Christmas gifts for all my frontline employees.

Chip R. Bell combines the practical with the heartfelt in a top-notch guide to creating a partnership with customers. He focuses on the elements of abundance, trust, dreams, truth, balance, and grace. The book uses intelligent and creative case histories and anecdotes to illustrate these essential components and, therefore, rises above the level of the basic how-to. The author pays close attention to intangible, human relationship concerns. The book is written well in an intimate, yet highly informative style. It weaves stories throughout each chapter. Although we at getAbstract recommend this book for people who deal directly with customers and people who supervise, manage, or lead others in a service-oriented business, the author correctly points out that the book's methods also can enhance anyone's professional and personal relationships.

Customers as Partners is an enjoyable book that cuts right to the chase on what customer service SHOULD be. This book goes well beyond getting and keeping customers; it is a roadmap for developing lifelong partners. Chip's examples are down to earth and can be related to by everyone from Senior Management right down to the person at the cash register or front desk. You won't find any quality jorgon or terminology here... just plain english thats easy to read in one sitting. Definately a five-star book. Be sure to buy more than one copy if you intend to lend it to a friend because you won't see it again.

That's what Barlow writes about in this read-in-a-day work. A popular science account of evolutionary biology, mostly in Quaternary North America, it explores the co-evolution of plants and animals. She points to traits like large size, seed retention, digestion tolerance, and abrasion tolerance as indicative of megafaunal dispersion and thus identifies megafaunal fruits -- pawpaw, avocado, guava, papaya, passion fruit, cherimoya, desert gourd, honey locust, and Kentucky coffee. Next the author considers the various recently extinct North American species (horses, mastodons, tapirs, sloths, camels, giant tortoise) and which might have been interested in the various fruits. An interesting background discussion compares and contrasts foregut (ruminants like cattle, deer and sheep) and hindgut (like horses and elephants) feeders.

"Ghosts" reinforces the sense I've had since visiting Africa that North America is empty of some large and important creatures that should be here. I can now better visualize what plants they were eating, and what their preferred habitats were like. I can also better visualize the cascade of extinction, past and present, from animal extirpations to the plants that evolved with and depended upon them.

As is often the case in my morning carpool to Kansas City, passions ran high when I raised the topic of megafaunal dispersal. George was at the wheel, I was riding shotgun, and Bob and Stan were scrunched up in the back of George's old Honda Accord. I was, to the best of my ability, explaining the arguments in Connie Barlow's new book about extinct seed dispersal partners: The Ghosts of Evolution. Connie asserts (along with veteran paleobiolists Paul Martin and Dan Janzen), that certain largish animals had big enough gullets to swallow fruits like Osage oranges whole and then poop out the seeds several miles away, thus expanding the plant's territory in the next generation. Unfortunately, nobody provides this service for Osage oranges anymore, which is why they all lie around rotting within a few yards of the mother tree every autumn.

In an attempt to confirm that a creature like a mastodon would willingly eat Osage oranges, Martin and Barlow persuaded the director of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago to offer the fruit (scientific name maclura pomifera) to three of the zoo's elephants. "Affie, the matriarch of the Brookfield elephants, did eat maclura--but just the first fruit she was offered. After that, she showed no interest in any more. The reactions of the other elephants were strongly negative. One wasn't even willing to smell the fruit when the offer was first made. Finally, she took it from her keeper and hurled it down the hall. The second elephant did the same thing but aimed for the public area." I can't say that I blame them. As a child, I was under the impression that Osage oranges (or hedge apples) were poisonous.

Zoo elephants' finickiness notwithstanding, the book argues that some species are obviously "overbuilt" for the ecological niche they inhabit today. Why would natural selection lead to such an outcome? For example, pronghorns can run not just a little faster but way the hell faster than any of their nearest predators (wolves and coyotes). This speed is apparently a relic of days when something faster than wolves or coyotes were chasing pronghorns, possibly a New World cheetah that became extinct thirteen thousand years ago. Well, you may ask, why haven't the pronghorns slowed down and devoted their evolutionary energy to something more productive, like jumping barbwire fences? More generally, what is a believable schedule on which a species reacts to changes in its environment?

As Connie Barlow analyzes the results of experiments with the exotic fruits and seeds in her New York apartment kitchen, she writes with delight and authority. She teaches us technical and colorful terms such as seed predator and pulp thief. The former destroys seeds by eating them rather than by defecating them intact. The latter eats the flesh around the seed and discards the seed without transporting it to a promising new sprouting site. We humans are guilty of both depredations, although with our compost heaps we have introduced a modest new dispersal path for domesticated fruits. Barlow's story is certainly not bereft of poetic lyric, as in the "paucity of pawpaw pollinators"--or of Conan Doyle-ian suspense: "Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Mrs. Foxie defecated persimmon seeds intact can be found in my collection of fox feces."

In her final chapter, Barlow preaches the gospel of "the great work:" the purposeful and painstaking reversal of the appalling history of extinction for which our species has, knowingly and unknowingly, been responsible. If the dedication to and passion for nature that is evident in this book can infect an emerging generation of professional and amateur naturalists, we may within our lifetimes see the beginning of this work.

As is often the case in my morning carpool to Kansas City, passions ran high when I raised the topic of megafaunal dispersal. George was at the wheel, I was riding shotgun, and Bob and Stan were scrunched up in the back of George's old Honda Accord. I was, to the best of my ability, explaining the arguments in Connie Barlow's new book about extinct seed dispersal partners: The Ghosts of Evolution. Connie asserts (along with veteran paleobiolists Paul Martin and Dan Janzen), that certain largish animals had big enough gullets to swallow fruits like Osage oranges whole and then poop out the seeds several miles away, thus expanding the plant's territory in the next generation. Unfortunately, nobody provides this service for Osage oranges anymore, which is why they all lie around rotting within a few yards of the mother tree every autumn.

In an attempt to confirm that a creature like a mastodon would willingly eat Osage oranges, Martin and Barlow persuaded the director of the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago to offer the fruit (scientific name maclura pomifera) to three of the zoo's elephants. "Affie, the matriarch of the Brookfield elephants, did eat maclura--but just the first fruit she was offered. After that, she showed no interest in any more. The reactions of the other elephants were strongly negative. One wasn't even willing to smell the fruit when the offer was first made. Finally, she took it from her keeper and hurled it down the hall. The second elephant did the same thing but aimed for the public area." I can't say that I blame them. As a child, I was under the impression that Osage oranges (or hedge apples) were poisonous.

Zoo elephants' finickiness notwithstanding, the book argues that some species are obviously "overbuilt" for the ecological niche they inhabit today. Why would natural selection lead to such an outcome? For example, pronghorns can run not just a little faster but way the hell faster than any of their nearest predators (wolves and coyotes). This speed is apparently a relic of days when something faster than wolves or coyotes were chasing pronghorns, possibly a New World cheetah that became extinct thirteen thousand years ago. Well, you may ask, why haven't the pronghorns slowed down and devoted their evolutionary energy to something more productive, like jumping barbwire fences? More generally, what is a believable schedule on which a species reacts to changes in its environment?

As Connie Barlow analyzes the results of experiments with the exotic fruits and seeds in her New York apartment kitchen, she writes with delight and authority. She teaches us technical and colorful terms such as seed predator and pulp thief. The former destroys seeds by eating them rather than by defecating them intact. The latter eats the flesh around the seed and discards the seed without transporting it to a promising new sprouting site. We humans are guilty of both depredations, although with our compost heaps we have introduced a modest new dispersal path for domesticated fruits. Barlow's story is certainly not bereft of poetic lyric, as in the "paucity of pawpaw pollinators"--or of Conan Doyle-ian suspense: "Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Mrs. Foxie defecated persimmon seeds intact can be found in my collection of fox feces."

In her final chapter, Barlow preaches the gospel of "the great work:" the purposeful and painstaking reversal of the appalling history of extinction for which our species has, knowingly and unknowingly, been responsible. If the dedication to and passion for nature that is evident in this book can infect an emerging generation of professional and amateur naturalists, we may within our lifetimes see the beginning of this work.

I am a CPA and my wife is a full-time education student. I enjoy reading about accounting and finance. She does not. I like to pay the bills and do the household bookkeeping. She does not. However, my point is, we BOTH agree that this book is the one to have if you want to learn about saving and investing, building a nest egg for retirement, and having the financial independence to realize dreams, AS A COUPLE. I found this book very easy-to-read and informative, and I know I will use it often for future reference. As a CPA, I am accustomed to reading finance books and articles that are loaded with technical finance jargon. However, David Bach presents this information in a much more refreshing manner, and in a way that is easy for those unfamiliar with financial terminology, to understand. It gives you a wealth of information about 401(k)s, life insurance, trusts, wills, mutual funds, DRIPs, and much more. Most importantly, Smart Couples Finish Rich emphasizes personal financial planning and management as practically a lifestyle, not just an exercise or process. It shows you how to determine, as individuals and as a couple, what values you hold dear and how your view of money, investing, consumption, etc., should be aligned with your values. It really helps the reader to see that everything that one does in his or her life is a reflection of their values, including how one plans and manages his/her financial future. I highly recommend this book to those couples who are looking for an effective tool to learn more about personal finance and how to provide for their rich future together.

Investing for your future is sound, strong advice at any age. As a teacher of business management and having counselled an overwhelming number of people in the area of finance, I believe investing is particularly critical for young people today. I am so happy to read that previous reviewers, in their twenties, have learned from this book and are planning for their future. If you are starting your career and in your twenties, now is the time for financial planning, even though you might not be able to put a lot of money aside, "every penny saved, is a penny earned."

There are many books on the market today on investing and financial planning. Some I would highly recommend, others are not worth the time it takes to read the book - save the money you would spend on those "guaranteed get rich quick books" and invest the money where it will guarantee a return. "Smart Couples Finish Rich" is filled with a wealth of information on money management, retirement accounts, living trusts, types of insurance and investing in general. After reading it, you will be better equiped to manage your money and save for the future. That not only makes "smart cents," it makes smart sense. Hopefully, with some financial peace of mind and stability, couples will not only finish rich, they will finish rich... together!

There were three things I especially liked about this book.

The first was the way the author presented the fact that small things do add up. In the beginning of the book, he states that most people overestimate (financially) what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish over many years. He includes graphs that illustrate this dramatically.

The second was the chapter on values. This chapter had a number of exercises for each partner to complete independently. Then, together, they can begin to draft a plan for their finances that embraces the values they each hold most closely. If the financial plan is customized to fit the values of the particular couple, taken together, it makes all the sense in the world that it will be easier and more satisfying to LIVE with that plan and carry it out over time (without either of the partners sabotaging the plan).

The third is somewhat tied into the first point I mentioned. It is a chapter called "The Couples Latte Factor." This chapter discusses "small," daily expenses and how, if a couple decides to eliminate or reduce even one or two of these daily expenses and invest that money instead, it can result in a lot of money, over time. This and most of the other chapters include real-life examples of couples whose experiences illustrate the principles being discussed.

I recognized the value of all of this advice right away as I was reading it, but initially felt a bit overwhelmed, thinking: "This is great, but how am I going to do it ALL?" Because I imagine that other people may have the same feelings, I will share the answer we ended up coming up with. A little at a time. I still haven't gotten up to investing 10% of my income in my company's 401(k), but as a couple, we ARE very near to reaching our goal of setting aside a year's worth of expenses in an emergency account and we HAVE adjusted the amount of life insurance we carry and had estate documents drafted by an attorney. Once we do have the complete year's worth of expenses set aside, I'll change my 401(k) investment to 10%.

Is this the order Mr. Bach or another financial planner would advise us to do things in? I don't know. I DO know that doing things the way we have, gradually following more and more of his advice has GOT to be better than being paralyzed and doing nothing...which is what we would have been in danger of doing if we hadn't taken it a little at a time.

A book I would recommend in conjunction with this is The Laws of Money, the Lessons of Life by Suze Orman.

As usual, Phil McGraw is steps ahead of the rest of us in sorting out what is *really* going on in relationships. Refreshingly, he begins the book by questioning the therapeutic standards too often given to the thousands of couples in trouble. "The divorce rate in America refuses to drop below fifty percent, and twenty percent of us will divorce not once but twice in our lifetime. Clearly, pleasant and generic instructions on how to communicate better or theoretical musings that give you great insights about relationships just weren't going to cut it fifteen years ago and won't cut it now. " Obviously (to paraphrase him), couples therapy as we have known it isn't working.

You can watch him often on Oprah, but this book is the next best thing to either watching him there, or having him as your personal therapist.

This book is primarily for relationships 'on the rocks' - the first steps are set up to evaluate and understand what your relationship is, how it got this way (no surprise, it didn't fall apart on its own, or because of your partner). The Seven Steps are not simple or simplistic, but provide structure for thought and more. This book is not about what's wrong with your partner and how to fix him or her. It is about the person reading the book -- you!

This would be a great book for new couples to read together (and for this price, why not order one for you and one for your loved one, and read them first in private, then together), not just before they are in crisis, but before they decide to marry. When the relationship is still strong, new, fresh, it is more likely that both people will be willing to talk openly about what they expect and want, and to be able to use the truly helpful instructions on how to stay together.

For those in a troubled relationship, you might want to read this yourself first, and work on your own issues. Dr. Phil has a directness that can be intimidating to some - but for some of us, we need that extra push. This book is on my must have list for newlyweds as well as those in trouble.

Highly recommended for those who truly want that special relationship to work!

As a physician I have recommended this book to many of my patients whose relationships were in trouble. I feel Dr. Phil's approach is right on: you have to work on yourself first. Most people who feel their relationship is doomed tell me, "Well, my partner won't listen to me...", or "he/she isn't willing to do the work...". He has you look and work on yourself FIRST then involves you in seven steps. The couples I have recommended this book to have found it very helpful. There have been a few cases I have seen where the partner never participated in the process and my patients happily ended up moving on with their lives with the aid of this book.For those people who cannot afford or do not have access to therapy this book/program is wonderful (actually even if you do!). He "tells it like it is", and drills the point home that we are each responsible for the state our relationship and life are in (excepting cases of abuse). As Dr. Phil says you have to "get with the program" and work on yourself and relationship "until". A great self-help book.

My last ray of hope was relationship rescue. My marriage and my soul was/were broken. I was not sure what I was in for-but if you can be brutally honest with the answers to the questions he ask's and follow through with the actions that need to take place-Your life will be brand new. We no longer fight, We no longer mis communicate-Life Rocks! Thanks Dr.Phil!!!

While waiting for the spies from Moscow to show their hand, Tommy and Tuppence, aka Mr & Mrs Beresford, took over a detective agency known to be associated with the Moscow spies and masqueraded as the real owner Mr Blunt and staff. A fair number of legitimate cases unrelated to the spies came their way, and the two played the game by pretending to be famous fictious detectives, including Father Brown (creation of GK Chesterton) and Sherlock Holmes (creation of Arthur Conan Doyle). They solved the cases with more than an element of fun, typical husband-wife oneupmanship, female intuition etc.

While entertaining, the backdrop of the detective agency being a Trojan horse for counter-intelligence was rather naive and unrealistic. It presumed the Russians did not know the faces of the English traitors they recruited, and once the trap was exposed, they would prefer to spring it rather than leave it alone.

Tommy and Tuppence are what one would get if Poirot and Marple married...(and then knocked off 30 years)... These charactes are a bored couple who desire to give up the doldrums of normal life to go fight crime. The husband is a bit of a straight man and the wife is a witty hellcat. They often attempt to solve crimes using the M.O. (method of opperation) of famous litereary detectives...with varrying degrees of sucess... However, even when they dont solve the crime its still a delightful romp...

this book is set up into about 17 short stories...each one a new adventure that will leave you satisfied...

Well Done Ms. Christie.

This is one of Christie's best efforts. Every story moves smoothly and is satisfying throughout til their expert conclusions. I really like her Tommy and Tuppence books. It's too bad she only wrote 5 of them, but this one I think is her finest. The 2 meld well together and even argue delightfully. A must addition to any Agatha collection. You will not be disappointed.

This book has potential, but some of the high tech features leave a lot to be desired. The Essential Study Partner CD doesn't work in older CD-ROM drives (my computer is 3 years old) but since it works with either a PC or a Mac so I was able to use my husband's new I-Book, but how many other poor students can upgrade? The on-line tests are downright horrible though. There are numerous times where the answers that were considered incorrect were actually correct, such as being told in the book that osmosis is the diffusion of water across a membrane and being told by the quiz that it's the diffusion of oxygen. There are other times that it tells you that you put the wrong answer and shows what you had entered as being the correct answer. A little (OK, a lot) of proof-reading prior to publishing would have been very nice, considering that I am getting concerned about remembering the wrong information during a test. The flashcards and matching are very good though and the text doesn't have many more mistakes than I have seen in other textbooks so that's why I am giving it 3 stars.

There was a bit of a delay in the process, but the seller notified me right away and it's exactly what I had wanted.

It is brief, detailed, colorful and in conjunction with the related Web-site, (which offers and grades quizes on line) it is PERFECT. Thumbs UP!!!

PS: I haven't checked the Study Guide yet, which is (by the way) not available through the Amazon.com, but I've heard it's pretty good and helpful.

Think how much fun it would be if Grafton's Kinsey Millhone went to visit Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski and they solved a crime together. Jance has done it with her two leading characters! After 15 Seattle-based (Jance's home) Detective-extraordinaire J.P Beaumont stories, and 9 Arizona-based (Jance's former home) feisty Sheriff Joanna Brady stories, our author has brought the two crime solvers together in a suspenseful and complex plot spanning both locales, with most of the action in Bisbee AZ.

Early on, "Rochelle Baxter", an aspiring Bisbee artist getting ready for her first exhibit, suddenly turns up dead. As Sheriff Brady's team deploys, before long foul play is suspected. Soon it turns out Baxter is really Latisha Wall, in the witness protection program of the Washington State Attorney General. Enter Beaumont, who is now a member of the AG's special homicide team - he's sent to "observe" the proceedings in Bisbee and protect the interests of the Washington case. Of course, this goes over like a cement cloud with the whole Brady team and at first the hostilities between Jance's co-stars are pretty hilarious. Then as the investigations proceed, and another murder crops up, together with some sinister implications of a mole having led to the witness to begin with, Brady and Beaumont unite out of mutual respect and form an effective team. Some rather surprising developments at the end of the book, including a moment of pretty high romantic tension between our two leads, is plenty to keep even the skeptics entertained and turning pages rapidly throughout.

As icing on the cake, Beaumont's brief marriage to a woman hailing originally from (coincidentally) Bisbee is discussed and illuminated in considerable detail as a very intriguing human-interest sub-plot. Reprised from Jance's (and Beaumont's) "Until Proven Guilty" is Anne Rowland Corley. In "Partners", we get to learn all the background of this fascinating and unusual woman and what lead to the deaths she caused, including her own.

As yet another gem, the murder "weapon" turns out to be sodium azide, a horrible and deadly poison found in unexploded car air bags. Jance uses her story to lobby for controlling this substance, which at the moment is totally uncontrolled and hence readily available for acts of terror. She doesn't beat us over the head with this issue, but does create a compelling case for action, with a short plea in an "Author's Note" as an afterward that gets our attention.

We think this is one of Jance's greatest efforts. The only worry is that it looks a little like a swan song, bringing together her great stars, her great locales, and weaving a story hard to put down. Little wonder we hail this as a dream gift to the Jance fan club, which must number in legions anyway! Those that haven't spent 24 or so books rev'ing up for this one may not be quite as enthused, but we suspect we speak for those same legions in telling Jance thank you again and again for this 5-star outing!

I just received this book via UPS yesterday afternoon. I started to read it and before I knew it it was very late but I just could not put it down, it was that good. Ms. Jance has managed to place the 2 main characters of her 2 different mystery series together in a flawless manner. JP Beaumont and Joanna Brady are both tough people used to doing things their own ways, without interference from others. Imgaine being able to take 2 such alike people, blending them together and actually making it work And work very well it does too. The story reintroduces a number of characters from earlier Joanna Brady books. At last we know what happened to Angie Kellogg and Dennis, The Parrot Guy, Hacker, Willy and Archie, Bobo Jenkins, Kristin and Terry Gregovich and Junior Dowdle. The book goes in a side trip about JP Beaumont's 2nd wife Anne Corley who grew up in Bisbee. It was interesting to see how that secondary story was woven seamlessly into the main story line. The story was a three hanky weeper in places, during Yolanda Canedo's funeral and when Sadie the hound had to be put to sleep. All in all a terrific book from an outstanding author.

This book got me back into reading. I haven't sat down and read a book in years. This book was so great that I couldn't put it down. I had to read it everynight and missed by favorite shows on TV just to finish it. I stayed up late nights because I couldn't put it down. I encourage everyone to read this.
Thanks J.A. Jance for writing such a great book.