family-economics

This is a neat little book.

The author, Jay Arthur, was apparently motivated to write a book designed to instruct you and me in how to motivate ourselves and everyone we come into contact with, but without manipulating them. He is very clear on that. It's apparently not nice to intentionally manipulate people, as long as you can get them to do what you want without such nefarious methods and intent. There's apparently a subtle shade of difference there!

There are several very funny, professionally drawn cartoons in the book, as well as aphorisms, quotes and witty sayings on about every other page, in large bold type which help to illustrate his thoughts. They are almost worth the price of the book all by themselves.

The meat of the book is advice on how to motivate yourself and others, and to change opinions and attitudes from those with which you disagree (negative thoughts) to those more in line with your own opinions and desires (positive, reasonable, healthy thoughts).

Mr. Arthur is a motivational speaker and consultant who works with people who "want to master the mysteries of the mind and companies that want jungle medicine for the corporate soul."

Through the book, it is apparent that he also hopes to merchandise his motivational videos and other books on the same subject matter.

This is a small (145 page) hardcover book with large, easy to read type. If you are interested in this kind of subject matter it would probably be money well spent. At my age, simply awaking every morning is a major accomplishment. Changing the world is no longer one of my primary interests.

It's a good little book.

Joseph H. Pierre

Joe Santana,
Coauthor of Manage I.T.

A full-color Drug Identification Guide starts out this book. Then most of the book is an alphabetical list of prescription drugs. I didn't have any trouble finding the ones I was looking for. From the coumadin my mother-in-law is on, to the protonix my mom is on, to the Celebrex I take for osteoarthritis to the Allegra my daughter takes for her allergies, it's all here.

One of the features I like is that there is a range of dosages. I've seen books that have NO dosages at all. Of course, this has to be determined by the doctor for each individual patient, but it's nice to have an idea of what the range is.

After the section with all the drugs, there are articles on various health problems. While that might be helpful, what I really appreciated was the 13-page "Disease and Disorder Index". The diseases are in alphabetical order, then the drugs commonly used to treat that problem are listed below, with the page numbers where you can find more information. With so many medications have similar names - for instance, Celebrex for arthritis and Celexa for depression, it's great to have a quick and easy way to find out what drugs are prescribed for what conditions.

I love these small books full of great little inspiration and motivational quotes. I believe John Maxwell's book, The Power of Leadership, is an even better read for those looking to better themselves and get a peak at how the world's greatest businessmen and politicians think.

The key to ranking this book depends on what you are seeking to get out of the book.

They key to getting long-term value out of a book like this is to highlight the quotes you love and integrate them into your daily life. Practice what you read essentially. Hope this helps everyone.

The authors of the sayings include John C. Maxwell (the author), the Bible, outstanding people, philosophers, business people, and politicians.

In some cases, it wasn't clear who was the source of the quote. That was the only drawback I saw here. Unlike some books of quotations, this one had a consistent theme that was intelligently developed through the many quotes in the book. I especially liked the lead-in on page 4 which is a list of 10 commandments of human relations (best practices for copyright law suggest that lists like this not be quoted in reviews or I would give it to you in total).

Here are some of my favorites from other parts of the book:

"Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by the wrong tone of voice." -- John C. Maxwell

"Ninety percent of the art of living consists of getting along with people you cannot stand." -- Samuel Goldwyn

"People aren't sales resistant -- they are salespeople resistant." -- Mark Hebenstreit

"I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any other ability under the sun." -- John D. Rockefeller

"We cannot forgive another for not being ourselves." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The only way to have a friend is to be one." -- Emerson

These are good reminders of things we all know, and forget to do. So overcome your procrastination stall by reading and applying a few of these bits of good advice daily! You'll certainly like yourself better if you do. It's not a bad idea to have a valid reason for thinking better of yourself.

There are photographs of every recipe, which is helpful, especially when making a dish for the first time.

I don't find the shopping lists as useful as some readers have, mostly because they don't specify quantities, and the binding of the paperback edition isn't made to stand up to long, hard use.

But those are minor quibbles with an otherwise excellent cookbook.

There are lots of checklists and worksheets in this book...