Lead

The Will to Lead greatest benefit is that it is a first person account of a proven business leader in a dynamic business. What is surprising about the book is that it is very non-consulting-ease even through the author is a former Managing Partner from McKinsey & Co. The first person account and stories contain mulitple nuggets of what it takes to be a real leader. You may have to wade through a few stories that seem a bit self serving of the author. However, these are only the recollections of a lifetime of leadership so they are certainly allowable. Other books on leadership (Kotter et al) provide a more scientific view, however Bower's been there and this is what its like approach gives the book credibility and value

Too many book talk about leadership with hyperbole and abstraction. They view leadership as a set of mechanical traits that one can possess, or they perform hero worship by telling stories about various leaders. This book does neither.

Bower provides the right amount of stories as well as his views on what it takes to lead. The books conversational style and well thoughtout ideas make it well worth the time. This work causes introspection that is more valuable and more action oriented than the other tomes on leadership, self help, etc.

If all managers and bosses could read this book the world would be a better place. Marvin Bower has a simple and engaging style of writing that sets him apart from other business writers. I highly recommend this book for those looking for insight regarding their management styles.

Indeed, "Chicken Soup's" Jack Canfield has a promotional blurb on this book's front cover. Fans of his work & the "Teen Power" series might be delighted by this volume. I guess I'm not w/in that target audience. This volume is essentially an anthology w/ many "cutesy" mini-essays on various sub-aspects of learning about leadership. But I can't see it appealing to too many student leaders beyond those in Jr. High.

I've had the priviledge of hearing 4 of these authors speak in the last few years through FBLA. Their words are aimed directly at a teenage audience, there's no need to decipher the meanings behind the words. If you ever have the chance to see any of these extraordinary speakers give a presentation, take it. Their speeches and workshops often expand upon the excellent ideas they provide within the book. Check out the last chapter of the book which provides numerous ideas on how to raise money and awareness of projects.

Brilliant book for students in High School, it is an ideal workbook for teachers like me who want to give kids leadership skills. What I like best is it brought together the best of the speakers we have had in our schools -- The Kids Were Blown Away!

When Loretta Laroche was a little girl her mom bought her sturdy but ugly underwear. She owned one pair of pretty panties but she was only allowed to wear them on special occasions. Thus they were only worn twice. Since that time Loretta has been scrambling to enjoy the good life NOW not save the good life for LATER.

And this book is all about enjoying your life in the present moment. Loretta cautions you to not save your fine china for a rainy day use it now. Don't put off what you want to do, do it now.

Enjoy what gives you pleasure and make the most of your time here on earth. The book is written in an easy to read style. Quick and light. Each chapter sharing another nugget of Loretta's joy of life.

The one thing I did not like about the book was Loretta's continual references to her weight problem. This was mentioned several times throughout the book. It seems that if Loretta followed her own advice of moderation in everything, and if she set it as a goal she really wanted to achieve she should be able to solve her weight issue. Loretta - practise what you preach!

Aside from that the author shares a lot of lively insights that make you realize how much pleasure you will have if you focus and enjoy the present instead of thinking about the future.

I felt this book was an easy to read, motivating simple reminder that being to serious in life is pointless. But LaRoche's humorous approach is what is really unique and very refreshing.

Several months of being WAY stressed out and I decided to take a little stoll in the self help section to come across this book. I read it in only a few days (put it down/picked it up). It made me laugh out loud a few times. I'm now searching for more things from this author (I never knew she was out there). Several other women in my life are in bad relationships...this book made me think...what the heck are you doing in an unhappy situation? Life IS short. Why do we waste our time stressing ourselves out instead of enjoying life? And the mention of getting angry over being caught in traffic, etc...that was me. She makes you want to sit back, relax, and enjoy the little things around you that you never notice because you are in too big of a rush.

This book was the not the greatest if you have athletes in your classes. The games were general, some of them would be no fun to use. They certainly are not lead-up games, they are simply games teaching no fundementals of sports.

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This book would be perfect for a PE teacher who is having a bad day and didn't plan the gym class for the next session of third graders. Just grab this book and you will have 150 ready made ideas at your finger tips!

I was interested in a specific sport lead up games and found many new ideas that easily adapted to my needs. Also discovered some interesting ideas to spice up a Soccer Camp.

It's a reference book and so it sits on the shelf a lot but when you need a great idea for activities for kids, you will reach for this one.

I would recommend for PE teachers and youth sports coaches who want to add excitement and fun into practice sessions.
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Guy Bailey provides the physical education teacher as well as the classroom teacher with a complete and comprehensive guide that presents sports lead-up games for over 150 game activities. They are user friendly and the book is very organized and easy to use. My students have really enjoyed these lead-up games. I highly recommend this book. It can also be a great tool for substitutes.

This book is a wonderful collection of poems, easy to read and casual. My family and I had a good time reading, in particular, "Grandpa Does Nothing in the House". "America Leads" summarized lot of events in a nutshell! Parry's reminder on "Nine Eleven" was emotional.
My ten year old daughter, although does not appreciate poetry very much sat and read this book all at once! I strongly recommend this book of poems for all, the young and the elderly!

I am not a person who likes poetry normally, but this book is well written and I actually enjoyed many of the poems in it. The reason it is so easy to enjoy is because the author, Parry, writes in a very clear and straight-forward manner. My favorite poems are "Parting of Dew Drops" and "Time is Such Never Still, Things Change No Matter." This book appeals to a wide range of people from the seriousness of some of the poems to the child-like manner of others. I would recommend this to poetry lovers and non-poetry lovers, alike!

When I was sued for causing the lead poisoning of a young urban child with an attractive mother, I had no alternative but to fight on. Mike Boulhosa's book really helped me along. I showed that plaintiff's attorney, who bore an uncanny resemblence to the late great Captain Kangaroo, who was boss!! This book should be considered a self-help guide because by being able to combat lead poisoning claims, I gained the confidence I lacked in everyday life. I now walk with a spring in my step because I can turn to that book as my personal affirmation. Thank you Mike Boulhosa.

Mr. C

This book is a decent review of an emerging toxic tort. It includes checklists, some history, the statutory and regulatory framework and a state-by-state review of the (now dated) caselaw. Pb is spread, not as thinly as we would hope, over the entire US landscape. We ingest, respire, and expire due to the physiological and neurological effects of this dull grey metal in its many forms.

It is a shame that this fine little book does not investigate, nor comment upon, the technical mechanisms of forensic identification of lead contamination.

This element has substantial bioavailability and thereby concomitant morbidity, mortality and teratogenicity.

The nature of Pb in the environment is that there are few ways to avoid some exposure. Absent some massive change in the way we use Pb, store Pb, remediate Pb and protect our children from Pb, this is the next wave of toxic tort litigation.

Pb is an interesting element. It has many, many forms in nature. The most common forms found in the mining process are "pure" lead, lead acetate, lead oxide and lead sulfide. Bioavailability is determined by the state of the element when it is ingested.

An interesting fact about the element is that the various lead ores found in Pb mines have very different and varying proportions of lead isotopes, depending upon the nature of the deposit. Some naturally occurring lead isotopes are radioactive, and decay by emitting an alpha particle (4He nucleus). Alpha particles are positively charged and are ejected at a high velocity. They are much heavier than beta particles (electrons), and given their high velocity, have a much greater ability to penetrate materials. As alpha particles collide they can strip electrons from atoms in the adjoining matrix. Low alpha lead is the "gold" of the grey metal market and is highly sought after by the computer industry (the fewer internal nuclear interactions in a complex circuit, the more reliable it is) at a premium price.

Lead can be tracked back to the mine it came from, if the search is made with diligence and an understanding of the chemistry, ore strata and isotope state of lead. One isotope of lead (204 Pb) is "primordial", or the "low alpha" isotope; it does not result from the decay of transuranic elements. Other isotopes are "radiogenic", being either fairly stable ( 206 Pb, 207 Pb, and 208 Pb) or radioactive and unstable ( 210 Pb, 211 Pb, 212 Pb, and 214 Pb) decay products of Uranium and Thorium isotopes. Isotope ratios and chemical state are the forensic tools of the lead litigator.

If you want to prove up your damages (or defend against them) the source of the contamination must comport well with the bioreserve in the victims. As is the case in most toxic tort litigation causation is usually shown by circumstantial evidence and limited forensic proof (usually provided by a treating physician and a neurological expert). The defenses to the tort are that Pb is ubiquitous in our environment and that primary toxicity does not equate to any one mechanism of delivery. You could argue that the victim does not have Pb poisoning, but even the defense experts will have to admit the presence of the element in the tissues of the victim. For either side in litigation, having a complete analysis of the chemistry and isotope ratios of the contaminated tissue will provide either litigation team with a far higher level of confidence in the result.

I checked this book out of the Los Angeles Library on the recommendation of the previous reviewer, who, in a glowing 5-star review, lauded it as a "wonderful companion to Hayakawa," referring to his seminal "Language In Thought and Action" which I've always considered one of the great and accessible works concerning human communication. Now that I've read it, I would like to caution those who would read it as I did, on that reviewer's description alone, to be very wary... this book, although a quick and easy read, and not without some merit of its own, is in a class far below a great work of linguistics theory, like Hayakawa's. This book's purpose is a noble and important one: to establish basic language protocols and universal societal rules, whereby truth and opinion are expressed as such and are easily distinguishable from one other. This, in an attempt to remedy the state of perpetual confusion caused when opinion is stated as truth, a mistake which according to our author, is the cause of most of the world's strife and bloodshed historically and presently. He does have a point, albeit a rather unoriginal one, and despite the fact that, "in my opinion" he does a reasonably good job of expressing his ideas, one feels at book's end that the treatment was so brief and simplistic as to be a bit banal. A point in the book's favor is that these very factors might make it a useful introduction for readers new to such subject matter. I, for one, felt like I was reading a children's book when the author was setting up his hypothetical societies and morality codes, all the while peppering his text with original terms to season his ideological burgoo. Particularly annoying was his arrogation of "PC" to mean, "primary code" in his special language, an abbreviation I never ceased to equate with "political correctness" no matter how many times I tried to train myself to react otherwise. Furthermore, there is an unmistakable vibe running through the text in which the author, apparently a bit drunk on his self-perceived gravitas, seems to think that via this book he has singlehandedly taken the first giant leap towards solving the world's worst problems, this despite the brevity of his text, his lack of a particularly impressive or intellectual writing style, and the abundant typos which get worse and worse towards the end of the book. Lastly, and please forgive me for making such a superficial observation, the picture of the author on the back cover, in which he looks like a cross between Chuck Conners a.k.a. the Rifleman, and hairdresser to the stars Jose' Eber - complete with hat and holding a favorite pussy cat of his no less, fails to engrave the image of a trenchant philosopher of language on one's mind's eye, at least in this reviewer's opinion.

If you're a person who's always been fascinated by the link between language and reality, or just someone who is so dazzled by Hayakawa's "Language in Thought and Action" that you're just chomping at the bit to read more stuff that expands on some of the ideas he explored in this book, "Truth and Opinion" makes an excellent companion. It's short, but the length of the material only reflects the succinctness of Cooney's ideas and not a lack of depth or insight into the subject.

The subject matter? An exploration into the question of why differing opinions cause so much strife and conflict in the world. Cooney speculates, like Hayakawa, that it all boils down to the misuse of language-- that in using verbal shorthand to express an opinion, people create "linguistic errors" that result in a confusion that causes them to start violent conflict, kill each other, or even die for opinions that they believe are *truths.* On one hand, I am inclined to question whether this is entirely accurate. It seems a bit of an overstatement to me to say that all of the religious wars and bloody persecutions of human history all boiled down to people making linguistic errors. However, I am convinced that Cooney has truly shed light on the fact that linguistic errors *do* play a major part in conflict-- not so much in creating it, but in perpetuating it. Why is it that if a king or ruler says Nation A or People B are the scorn of the earth and should all be killed, many people will simply accept his words as truth, die and kill in the name of this truth, and continue the madness he started? If you too have been troubled by this question, you will find the answer here (or at least a highly plausible one). As an added bonus, this book also makes a foray into ethics and answers the question of why people seem to sharply contradict the very morality they so staunchly defend.

Terrific and thought provoking, and a must-read if you're interested in linguistics or just a person who likes to think of ways of solving the world's problems.

On the plus side, the book does explain why women and men often find themselves frustrated in fruitless marriages. It mentions, for example, the lazy, couch-potato husband who finds responsibility inimical to his (lack of) thought processes, and the wife who finds herself, in response, either enmeshed in the irresponsibility, or avoiding him completely.

Therefore, descriptions are good, if not overly simplistic. The descriptions are interwoven, unfortunately, with references to the life of David, which the Bible is a little fuzzy on. I wish it had been interwoven with precise quotation of Scripture that deals specifically with marriage, instead of extrapolating on the quality of David's mariage, which we know little about.

The solutions part is a problem, since I also find them too simplistic. For example, the author states that a woman caught in a marriage to an escapist should not fall into the morass herself. However, the author never gives a broad explanation of the "how." How exactly does she not fall into it, yet maintain her attitude of submissiveness to her husband? These are the kinds of questions I could not find answers to.

In addition, solutions, as simplitic as they are, are not combined with a prayer program, meaning that God doesn't seem to enter the picture very clearly. I wish the author would have used prayer passages from the Bible so that a woman, or a man, could learn to pray to God appropriately for help in marriage.

All in all, then, the book is good at offering basic descriptions of dysfunctionality in marriage, but does not seem to offer good examples from Scriptures, nor a sound prayer program, to allow a man or woman to see what the Bible says about the problem, or to utilize God's partnership in the marriage through proper prayer.

When reading James Walker's book I was struck by it's honesty and hard-hitting style. It's like he had been an uninvited guest in our home for many years. His book deals with Male passivity and how women go crazy when they feel like they are carrying the whole load. He also gives practical suggestions on how to save your marriage along with your sanity. When I read it I wanted to colapse and breathe a huge sigh of relief.

Sabriye Tenberken is a young woman from Germany who happens to be blind. She has written one of the most amazing and uplifting books I have read in years. MY PATH LEADS TO TIBET is an account, in her own words (translated from the original German), of how Sabriye fulfilled her dream of helping the blind children of Tibet achieve independence and attain a sense of dignity. She has done this by establishing a school for blind children in Lhasa against incredible odds -- all alone and before she reached her 30th birthday.

There could be no better introduction than her own words: "Strange as it may seem, whenever I'm about to take a leap into the unknown, I always have the same dream. I'm standing at the top of a sand dune, looking down at the sea. The sky is clear and blue, the sea flat and dark. The sun is bright, the beach is filled with people. Then all of a sudden, on the horizon a huge towering wall of water is moving slowly toward us in total silence. Everyone is running in my direction. The wall of water, growing ever more menacing by the second, blots out most of the sky. Instead of running away, I walk toward it. And the wall of water crashes over me. To my surprise, however, instead of being crushed by its mass, I am in my dream left feeling tremendously light, filled with new energy. And I know that from now on nothing will be impossible." (pp.11-12)

Sabriye was diagnosed with a serious eye disease in childhood and became completely blind at age 12. She uses a white cane when she walks and travels around the world without assistance. In a place where she has never been before, she relies on strangers to help her and trusts that they will. She is rarely disappointed. The faith she has in herself and in the best of human nature is extraordinary --- and extraordinarily rare to read about at a time when, more often than not, we are being bombarded with words of worldwide deceit and destruction.

The book is written in a flowing, straightforward and easy-reading manner in first person, much like a journal. Yet Sabriye never forgets that we who are reading her book have never had the experience of being blind. She takes us into her world and shares with us her experiences in such a way that we gradually begin to realize what an extraordinary teacher she will be, when and if she is able to get her school started.

On a previous trip to Nepal with her mother, Sabriye spent a brief time in Tibet and learned that blind people are viewed as having been cursed at birth and are treated very much like lepers, or worse. She developed a burning desire to teach Tibet's blind children that they can have full lives, that they do not need to be ashamed or handicapped and that they can live as Sabriye herself lives --- to the fullest.

Tibet, now a part of the People's Republic of China, is famous for its exotic isolation. Yet she set off with only a few pieces of luggage, her white cane and a promise of a small amount of financial backing from sources in her native Germany. She had to apply for permission to the Chinese government and faced bureaucratic obstacles that must have seemed as insurmountable as the mountains themselves. She doesn't give up. She makes friends. She buys a horse that knows its way through the mountain passes.

Not only does Sabriye have to get permission to build a school, she must also go out among the people --- some of who are nomadic tribes --- and find the blind children who will become her pupils. Because their parents are ashamed of them, these children are often hidden away. Thus she travels on horseback and tells us of her travels, the hardships, the joys and the people she meets along the way. Even though you know she will achieve what she has set out to do, the fact that she was able to do it is so remarkable that you will read with your heart in your throat much of the time.

The publisher has included a selection of color photographs that, for us sighted folks, add much to the book.

Reading MY PATH LEADS TO TIBET is an unforgettable experience. Sabriye Tenberken has done us all a kindness by taking us with her on her incredible mission.

--- Reviewed by Ava Dianne Day

You have to read this story yourself or you simply will not believe it. Sabriye Tenberken knew that Tibet has a high rate of blind children with no access to any education. So she developed a Braille language for the Tibetian language, decided to go to Tibet on her own to open a school for blind children, and then went there and did exactly that. Sounds impossible to you? - Then get this book and read it yourself.

Being blind does not restrain her from anything. Sometimes I think it gives her even more energy to focus on the really important things. If someone tells her that she could not do it, you can be sure she will proove him or her wrong. In fact, she does more with her life than most seeing poeple. Winston Churchill once stated that perseverance is the secret to success. Guess he is right.

And Grace Will Lead Me Home is a tender portrayal of friends surviving and even enjoying contemporary life, children, and work. I especially enjoy the setting--the references to old time and church music right out of my own culture. The mystery holds up and the characters are a delight. I keep thinking I'll run into one of them in town some weekend! Read and enjoy!