Renewal

These precious grace stories are very encouraging and refreshing! I enjoyed them so much I purchased 12 of them and gave them as gifts to friends and family. Thank you Angela!

I have owned my copy of The Phoenix's Guide To Self Renewal for four weeks now and find it very useful, motivational and it helps me stay on track with my weight loss efforts. I wasn't going to reveiw this book until a friend told me about the most recent reviews that state the book doesn't have enough space in which to write which caused her some concern about purchasing the book for herself. I know everyone has their own opinions and that is why I decided to voice mine. I think this book has more writing space than any other diet journal on the market. I looked at many diet and exercise journals prior to purchasing this book and they had very little space in which to write. I know that no one book is going to fit the needs of every person but I do believe that this book is the best available and has plenty of writing space both on the food and exercise side and the journal side for each day. I love this book and it's motivational chapters and think the author did an excellent job and provided a well needed book for the dieting and exercise community. I know I will purchase another one if I am not at goal after the 6 months that this book covers. I have even personally written to the author and thanked her for such a great diet journal - that's how much I like this book.

I think this journal is laid out very nicely and for me it covers all the areas that I use daily. I'm a stay at home mom and I work out at home on a universal machine. I find that the format of the journal not only provides sections for all of my meals but for my exercise as well. I feel this is a wonderful book and during the past 6 weeks that I've been using it I have noticed factors that were keeping me from losing weight. After changing these factors I have been able to shed 20 pounds. If I had not have been using this book and writing my feelings and what I was doing on the blank page (I love that blank page!) I probably wouldn't have noticed what was keeping me from losing weight. I love this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who really wants to lose weight. This is also the only book that I have ever seen where the author gives you motivational chapters by sharing her experience in an honest, friend to friend, kind of way. The chapters are a very easy read and the author justs draws you to her somehow and makes you see things a little differently. Anyway it's a great book that has worked for me and I'd give it 10 stars if that option was available.

I'm so hyped!! I just found out you can get a printable Ebook directly from the publisher for $3.99. It's at www.NewAgeDimensionsPublishing.com

I LOVE THIS BOOK! I bought my before it went out of print and couldn't see paying 99.00 for one of the used copies but I'll definately pay $3.99 to be able to print it out myself!

DEAR AMAZON.COM:

DR. LIPMAN'S BOOK GOES DIRECTLY THE HEART OF LIVING A HEALTHY PRODUCTIVE LIFE. I'VE SUFFERED FROM FIBROMYALGIA AND CHRONIC FATIGUE FOR OVER 8 YEARS. MY HUSBAND HAPPENED TO SEE AND ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JOSEPH HOOPER IN MY MAY 2003 ISUE OF OPRAH MAGAZINE. HE WAS TOTALLY AMAZED BY DR.LIPMAN'S THEORIES AND ADVICE. WHEN HE CALLED DR. LIPMAN'S OFFICE DIRECTLY AND FRANK ANSWERED THE PHONE HIMSELF WE KNEW WE HAD FOUND SOMEONE SPECIAL.
AFTER EXPLAINING MY CONDITION TO DR. LIPMAN HE SUGGESTED WE GET A COPY OF HIS BOOK. WE IMMEDIATELY BOUGHT A COPY AND READ IT FROM COVER TO COVER. WE CAME AWAY FEELING THAT WE HAD FOUND AN ANSWER TO OUR PRAYERS. WE DECIDED TO SEEK HIS PROFESSIONAL ADVICE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. DR. LIPMAN IS KNOWLEDGEABLE, KIND AND A TRUE HUMANITARIAN. HE CARES ABOUT EVERYONE OF OF HIS PATIENTS AS IF THEY WERE HIS FAMILY AND HIS GOAL IN LIFE IS TO HELP PEOPLE BECOME WELL AND TO LEAD A FULFILLING LIFE. HE ADMITS THAT IT TAKES ALOT OF WORK AND GETTING ADJUSTED TO, BUT HE DOES NOT PREACH OR MAKE IMPOSSIBLE DEMANDS. YOU EITHER WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH OR WELL BEING OR YOU DON'T. MEETING AND SPEAKING WITH DR.LIPMAN IS TRULY A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE, BUT IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE MEANS TO TRAVEL TO HIS OFFICE OR JUST WANT TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF YOUR LIFE READING TOTAL RENEWAL WILL SEND YOU DOWN THE PATH TO BETTER HEALTH. I ONLY WISH I HAD READ THIS BOOK A FEW YEARS AGO, I KNOW MY QUALITY OF LIFE WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER AND I WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER PERSON FOR KNOWING DR. LIPMAN. WITHIN 2 WEEKS OF FOLLOWING HIS RECOMMENDATIONS I HAVE BEGUN TO FEEL BETTER THAN I HAVE IN MANY YEARS. I ONLY WISH I HAD READ THIS BOOK A FEW YEARS AGO, I KNOW MY QUALITY OF LIFE OULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETER ABD I WOULD HAVE BEEN A BETTER PERSON FOR HAVING KNOWN DR. FRANK LIPMAN.

YOURS TRULY,
CHRIS & JACKIE QUALEY
HAWTHORNE, NEW JERSEY 07506

As the mom of a toddler, wife of a competitive athlete, daughter of octogenarian parents, and owner of a small business, I feel like a lot of people depend on me. And the only way I can be that dependable person is to be vigilant about my own health.

This book has become an invaluable partner in my ongoing quest for more energy, vitality and a better quality of life. Information is presented in a straightforward, easy-to-grasp format and Dr. Lipman doesn't preach or nag. He gives you the tools the improve your health ... you can pick and choose what makes sense to you and take it from there.

By the way, one of the best features of the book is the "resources" listing at the back. Twelve pages of websites list everything from green products to children's health to nutrition. These resources help me make better choices.

Wow.....if only I would have found this book sooner. Total Renewal is definitely worth reading no matter what your views on eastern medicine. Dr. Lipman presents his experiences and knowledge very eloquently. It is not an all or nothing deal; he encourages you to make just a few changes to make your life a little bit better. It defintely opened up my mind to areas that I had never really understood nor explored before. Integrated medicine just might be the wave of the future.

For those that have practiced any sport, it is obvious that energy is what makes people succeed. However, based on my experience in corporate America, this book will be very useful for most, since it provides a nice well-balanced approach to managing the daily stresses of life. Regretably, most of the discourse focuses on common sense, and there are not many practical tips and suggestions fr putting the book's insights into practice.

Those of us who are retired and not living with others are a perfect market for this book. Without jobs or family members making demands on us, with most of our time our own, we can fall into habits that work against us: watching TV at all hours of the day and night, sleeping erratically and at all hours, napping during the day even when we're not tired.

This book provides us with both the rationale and the know-how for setting up routines that can transform our lives. After decades of productivity, I found myself rattling around the house wondering,"What am I DOING with my life?". With nothing pressing, my "well-earned rest" turned into an unfocused waste of time and an uncomfortable feeling that I was wasting my life. My mood started to sink, as did my energy.

This book has galvanized me to action. I started with bedtime and arising routines, which quickly led to an exercise routine, then regularly scheduled meals. My energy has returned - I feel like the "old me"! - and my time is now filled with pleasurable and stimulating activities. This book has stopped me from growing old, and I am extremely grateful.

This book teaches so well about how to manage energy for all types of people in different stages of life. I helped develop a training based on this book (each trainee received a copy), and the content consistently received rave reviews. The trainees all agreed that using these concepts would help them gain more from their lives and wanted to share their learnings with their co-workers and direct reports. I used the concepts while I was working full-time for a large corporation, AND I use it in my very different life as a first-time mother. Recommended for anyone who wants to accomplish more and gain more meaning from life. (Of course, this requires the abililty to take what you read and apply it to your unique station in life.)

If I had wanted a thesis on nutrition, I guess I would have looked for one. I found this book waaaaay too complicated (with a chart for everything) which some people like, I don't. I want something simple and easy to follow. You can't figure out what to eat without breaking out the slide rule and going through charts galore. The idea's are good but the execution is decidedly way too complicated. I don't want to have to break out a calculator to figure out what to eat!

This is a great book! The recipes are simply delicious--I never have been able to bake bread before and have it turn out, but the whole wheat recipe here comes out beautifully and it's delicious. Some of my favorite recipes are the banana barley loaf, the lentil loaf, the oat pancakes and topping (I used apples rather than pears for the topping), the corn bread, the lentil soup, the marina and pasta sauces, the Indian Subzi. There are too many to name them all! And too, I use the advice in this book to convert older favorite recipes with unhealthy ingredients to heart healthy yet delicious alternatives. I love the approach too, with a focus on not only nutrition and fitness but also emotional and spiritual health-- I found that once I was used to not adding salt to food, and consistently followed the advice in the book, I no longer craved foods as I used to, achieved my target weight, and felt better than I ever had in my life. I have never had heart disease, diabetes, or high blood pressure, but all are very prevalent in my family. I wanted to do something to lose weight and to keep myself fit. I think the advice in this book is for everyone, those with heart disease and those who want to keep their hearts healthy. Heal Your Heart is an awesome book that can change your life.

Heal Your Heart is simply one of the best texts on nutrition and diet one can buy. The menu plans are easy to read and flexible building upon the idea of exchanges for particular food groups. The diet emphasizes low sodium which many similar diets don't include to their detriment. One can choose from a variety of caloric levels, 1000 calories, 1200 calories, 1500 calories and so forth to adjust the exchanges to your personal situation. I found the text easy to read and straightforward. Rosati's discussion of physical activity and especially spirituality round out a holistic healthy life style for the motivated reader. Superb.

This book is disappointing in that the content is well-researched and important, but the organization is quite poor. It just rambles all over the place. I would suggest picking up a copy of Suburban Nation or something by Calthorpe or Moe, for more user-friendly tomes, and of course it is always helpful to reread Jane Jacobs and Christopher Alexander (Pattern Language).

In this text, Gratz and Mintz set out to establish guidelines and tips for city leaders, community activists, businesspeople, and regular citizens who seek to improve the status of their communities. They carefully outline what works, what does not work and why. Anyone interested in revilatizing downtown areas, setting up shop in a city, or running for office in an urban area should read this book as it will undoubtedly be helpful in creating a better understanding as to how cities can thrive in a new modern era.

very informative. some experts may not wish to hear the truth in this book.

A funny and insightful beginning slowly becomes an enlightening mirror. Ms. Gandy encourages self examination that ultimately stimulates self renewal. I took a retreat one weekend to read this book and get it together.

I'm still working on applying some of the practical principles. My attitude is different now - not cocky but more confident and peaceful because Ms. Gandy made me realize that I can't take care of someone help without taking care of myself first. Although some of the principles are not my style, the overall theme and development definitely woke me up!

Debrena Jackson Gandy puts it all in a nutshell. It is time for all women (not only Afro American) to take time out of our lives do times that brings "us" joy. We as mothers, wives, teachers, etc...spend much of time nuturing other and we fail to realize that "we" are our main priority. I really enjoyed this book. Please read this book, it can make difference>>>Take the time! You deserve it.

(originally posted: July 30, 1998)

A funny and insightful beginning slowly becomes an enlightening mirror. Ms. Gandy encourages self examination that ultimately stimulates self renewal. I took a retreat one weekend to read this book and get it together.

I'm still working on applying some of the practical principles. My attitude is different now - not cocky but more confident and peaceful because Ms. Gandy made me realize that I can't take care of someone help without taking care of myself first. Although some of the principles are not my style, the overall theme and development definitely woke me up!

The authors of this book are experienced urban planners who have a real grasp on why suburban sprawl in America is such a disaster. The key insights in this book pertain to the regulations and business practices that have made sprawl a failure. The traditional cityscape of places like San Francisco, in which all types of business and residential zones are intermixed in an organized street plan, allows people to mix in the most beneficial ways, reach all essential destinations on foot, and gives everyone a stronger sense of community and quality of life. Unfortunately, this type of pleasant urban environment is now illegal in most of the country due to zoning regulations. The authors have a firm grip on the social and political causes of this problem, and solid (if sometimes wishful) recommendations for new policies and regulations that will encourage socially and environmentally beneficial "neighborhoods" rather than stifling subdivisions.

Unfortunately, when the authors start editorializing they become rather arrogant and unfocused. The authors are clearly not sociologists but try to be in this book, with plenty of questionable assertions about the elitist influences on sprawl, and a tendency for big statements. Examples include "[real estate developers are] challenging drug dealers and pimps for position in the public's esteem" (pg. 100), and "the default setting for architecture in America is not modernism but vulgarity" (pg. 211 - which is followed by a condemnation of the entire architecture profession). The biggest flaw in this book is economic, as the types of neighborhoods envisioned by the authors can only be successful if their property values increase, which places them out of reach for the type of people who would most like to live there. In the long run however, such stretching of the authors' credibility can be mostly forgiven as they deliver a solid examination of the evils of sprawl and how they can be counteracted.

Would you like your children to walk to school? to the dentist? to the Boy Scouts at the Community Center? Would you like to walk to the library? to the movies? to the Post Office? Would you like to take a short and comfortable ride to work on public transportation?

Only a generation ago all of the above were common. Most people lived in mixed-use neighborhoods. But the suburban life-style that is so dependant upon and so influenced by the automobile has substituted wheels for legs. It has replaced farmlands and woodlands with building sprawl-separate housing developments; separate retail malls; and separate office complexes.

Suburban Nation argues for a return to the neighborhood. It describes: how the existing system developed; what factors were responsible; how inefficient it is; and how we can restore neighborhoods.

Government was a major impetus for suburbia with: VA and FHA mortgage guarantees; zoning regulations, subsidies and government funding. Encouraging these governmental programs were the auto industry, the oil industry, the road and home builders. What has the suburban life-style brought? Many auto trips each day-for all those things we could accomplish on foot. Car upkeep has reduced the amount we could spend on housing. Despite extensive road building over the years congestion is worse, trips are longer and road rage increases. Thinking has become distorted. Government funding refers to "Highway Investment" as opposed to "Transit Subsidy"; and pays a $300 billion subsidy for trucking while scrutinizing every dollar for transit-yet trucking uses 15 times the fuel for an equivalent job; and 15 lanes of highway move as many people as one lane of track. One-half of air pollution emissions come from motor vehicles. Living in the suburbs is not safer for children. Auto accidents are twenty times more likely than gang activity to result in death. Suicides of teenagers, 12% of youth mortality which sociologists attribute to "teen isolation and boredom", are higher in the suburbs.

Restoring the neighborhoods will require regional planning and major rethinking. Multiple use building--housing, stores, offices-will constitute the neighborhood and must be coordinated on a regional basis. Public transit to be successful requires a minimum of seven units per acre.

If you answered "Yes" to the questions in the first paragraph, you will find this book valuable; if you answered "No", don't waste your time.

I found this book intriguing, because the authors understand why I like my neighborhood. Even better, they understand why I hate so many new housing projects. This is an important book, as vital as Jane Jacobs' work, and it has some uncomfortable truths to share. The US has become a Suburban Nation; a nation of badly-designed suburbs. The newest, more expensive ones are some of the worst.

My neighborhood has houses that are smallish, but sidewalks are everywhere. There are stores within reasonable walking distance, and not too many cul-de-sacs. Three parks are less than a mile away. That means I can walk more than one route to get places. More importantly, others walk the neighborhood too, so I actually meet my neighbors. A neighborhood built almost 50 years ago, the trees are mature (a rarity in Silicon Valley burbs) and provide shade, coolness, and beauty. 8000 square foot lots are neither so small that the houses are crushed together nor so large that walking seems to get you nowhere because it takes too long to pass each property.

Contrast this with the new developments going in: miniscule yards (and therefore little greenery), matchstick trees that don't receive any sun, overly wide arterials that offer only one way into or out of the development. Walls around the complex not only keep outsiders out, they prevent insiders from going out, too, unless they get in the car and crowd onto the only access road. Once in one's car, there is no opportunity to talk with neighbors on the inside, either.

Before reading Suburban Nation, I still had the same sense of what made a neighborhood compelling and we bought our home accordingly, preferring the old small house over the big new ones despite my need for closet space. Authors Duany, Plater-Zybeck, and Speck articulate these principals clearly and enjoyably. With many photographs illustrating both good and bad examples of city planning, Suburban Nation shows the consequences of bad assumptions as well as bad results. The authors like Winter Park, FL, because its downtown is walkable and residents, most of them retired and many who have given up driving, can easily participate in community life. They hate most of the new burbs being built because there is no there there, there's just a road from here to somewhere else with no central gathering point.

Most of the failure of the modern suburb is due to the automobile. Wider roads make a community less cohesive, because a wide road encourages speeding, while a narrow one encourages drivers to slow down, regardless of the posted speed limit. New communities have ridiculously wide roads, which not only lead to unsafe traffic but also discourages pedestrians. Cul-de-sacs, corners, and curves are overly wide as well, to accomodate uneeded 40 foot fire trucks; completely unneeded in a suburb where no building is over two stories but purchased by town councils wanting their fire chiefs to be happy. The net result is a 120 foot walk to cross a street instead of 40 feet because the corners are shaved to allow the stupid fire truck access, the fire truck the suburb DOES NOT NEED because a smaller truck would do just as good a job.

People claim to want to live in the suburbs for a smaller community, but the way they are built frustrates any chance of finding it. Planners consider schools to be traffic nuisances and build them away from central locations, yet larger schools are what leads to disconnection. Putting them on the boundaries instead of the center of town destroys a chance of meeting other children from the neighborhood, and further increases car usage. The authors ask why a school is considered a traffic nuisance rather than making them smaller to be community assets?

Duany and Plater-Zybeck have designed some marvelous new communities, and hope this well-written and ground-breaking book will publicize why they succeed. The first step is repealing the planning rules that prevent all these elements of vital community. Read Suburban Nation and find out how community building begins with good design.

This is an insightful look at what the church must do to survive into the twenty-first century. Anderson's premise is that the church is in the midst of a major transitional phase and the congregations that survive this transition will be the ones who recognize the change and adjust to it. Those who cling to the old ways will suffer decline and eventual death. This change is the result of profound culture and economic upheavals that are happening in our world today which involve a paradigm shift- a new way of looking at the world

Perhaps the greatest strength of Anderson's book is his refusal to give pat answers to complex problems. He reminds us that geography, demography and local culture must all be taken into account when developing a strategy for change. Such change is not compromising with the world, but fulfilling God's holy prose for the church.

The doom and gloom economic analysis at the beginning of the book was enough to make me put it down and not read it. I am glad, however that I read the book. Despite this flaw, it is an excellent book and gives insightful analysis of what we must do to survive into the 21st century

In A Church for the 21st Century, Leith Anderson seeks to describe the current state of churches in America, and attempts to discover and relate how the church will find success in the next millenium, or at least the very first part of it. Anderson's method of doing this is primarily by telling stories, and pointing out what churches are currently doing. He begins by examining the trends that seem to be leading into the new millenium (though as the book was written in 1992 this is shown to be a bit presumptuous). Prediction is difficult, as is clear even before the new century has come. His statement on page 88 of the decade of the nineties being one of "no growth" shows how quickly trends can change. For the first three chapters he looks at these trends and seeks to show the direction which the church is heading. A few comments I especially agreed with. He discusses the old approach as being more theoretical" and "standardized" while the new is more "practical" and "customized". I certainly agree with this. On the next page he discusses the fact that discipleship will be outcome-based, reflecting a change in life and behavior rather than learning a prescribed curriculum. I find my own church already very much having moved in this direction. In this first section I also found his description of the various styles of churches very interesting. In just a few pages he conveys the different models which are going to be prevalent. This will stay a good reference for me to refer back to.
The rest of the book seems to be a shift in his purpose. Rather than spending the book looking at trends and trying to figure out what will happen, after the first three chapters he attempts to encourage and show what can be done now in order to accomplish success in the future, as well as trying to help put churches which have lost a sense of purpose back on track. I found that his discussion and awareness of the current situation is very impressive and informative. By relating not only theory, but talking about specific churches and styles which are finding success, as well as those which are maybe no longer the best he presents a quality picture of the state of the modern church.
My initial impression was that while he was good at relating what is happening now which is successful, there was no sense that he was able to say anything new about what will happen in the coming years. The difficulty lies in the fact that this is a transitioning time for the church and for society in general, so any attempt to predict what will be effective is difficult. I was also a little disappointed that there was little or no reference to Church History. I have found, and have heard others say, that the modern church will need to look more into the past than it has done in a while. Anderson's technique is to look at the situation in the present and by this draw conclusions about where the church is heading. There may be some points he makes, but overall I am unconvinced to the overall value of what he is saying because of this lack of historical reference. My appreciation grew, because I was able, after a few times looking over the book, to draw out some poignant statements. But as a whole, I found that this book did not say anything really new or valuable, and its style seemed unconvincing and rather unhelpful for my situation. It would be interesting to read an update of this book, to see how the last seven years have adjusted his predictions.

I read this book a couple of weeks of taking over my first church. This book saved my job (and the church). It made me ask the questions that I needed to ask and allowed me to avoid some of the pitfalls of change.

This book is exceptionally powerful, reasonably well-written and blatantly self-serving. The good aspects overwhelm the bad by a wide margin.

Everyone has heard the story by now, but what makes this so powerful is the reality behind the story. First-hand accounts of the horror, and perhaps most importantly, the aftermath within the whole of the Cantor family are especially moving.

Even though this book was clearly written "through" Lutnick, his journey through the aftermath of 9/11 and the importance of his actions cannot be diminished. The ways in which the national news media sensationalized the tragedy for their own ratings is nauseating - although not surprising. Despite the fact that Connie Chung and O'Reilly no longer remain in the national arena of respected journalists, it is frustrating that they worked so hard to sabotage the healing process of the victim's families, and exploit the emotional fog which overcame them by instigating fear and helplessness.

Throughout the last few months of 2001, Lutnick does well to counter the national media's feeble attempts at honest story-telling, and shows in his actions what he had promised from the very beginning of the aftermath. He did in fact take care of these families, and in a way that goes well above and beyond what most would consider "reasonable."

A great read, impossible to put down. Just keep in mind that the author is great friends with Lutnick.

This well-written, easy-to-read book follows the ordeal of Cantor Fitzgerald, which lost more than 600 people in the World Trade Center attacks. The company was at the top of the first tower, right under Windows on the World and no one who was in the office at that time escaped. Fortunately, Howard Lutnick, who ran the company, went in late that day because it was his son's first day of kindergarten. He lost his only brother, his best friend and obviously a huge percentage of his employees in the attack. Lutnick, who before Sept. 11, had a barracuda-like reputation, was first exalted then vilified by the press (and the survivors of his murdered employees) after the attacks. (Largely because he stopped the employees' paychecks while families were still in denial.) The book follows him as he struggles to do the right thing -- which ultimately is keeping the company alive so that 25% of its profits can go to the survivors. A lot of people get fixated on the paycheck issue but it's obvious that if Lutnick had also died in this attack, the company would have gone under and there would have been no money at all. The book also describes many of the personalities at Cantor and the ways they interacted in a much more real way than the NYT Portraits of Grief. The full list of the dead is at the front of the book -- the fact that there are pages and pages of names from just this one company is horrifying. It's really a fine tribute to the strength of a bunch of spirited people, both living and deceased.

When September 11, 2001 began No one would know the evil that they were going to witness that day. By the end of that day company Cantor Fitzgeral would face the heavyest losses with nearly 700 employees gone. "On top of the world" by Tom Barbash, takes a inside look at the days,weeks,and months as CEO Howard Lutnick and remaining staff trys to move foward for the families of lost employees.
This is really good book that show each of us as human and our quest to help others.