Audiobook Books

I had a mild interest in reading about Einstein, but frankly put off reading this biography for the simple reason that it seemed thicker than my interest. But what a wonderful read it is. Isaacson does a graceful job of keeping the pace moving, and an estimable job of explaining the science (to us non-scientists) without letting it bog down the story.
And, quite simply, Einstein is also a fascinating person to read about, especially his later life as an internationalist and world icon. Highly recommended.

Very interesting book. Easy to understand. A fascinating overview of WWI and WWII. Well-written, informative and enjoyable to read. Hard to put down.

Isaacson's biography comes in at 551 pages in the hardcover edition. Given the heft, if you want to hit a demographic of more general readers, you better offer more than just Einstein's contributions to science. Isaacson nails this higher standard by offering an Einstein who is an archetypical freethinker of Western Civilization in the twentieth century, providing the reader a personal glimpse into the technological, cultural, religious, and political movements that drove that century.

After quickly moving through Einstein's youth where Isaacson destroys many of the falsehoods regarding Einstein as a child supposedly not showing much promise; Isaacson then focuses much of the first part of the book on Einstein's development of the theory of general relativity and his development of relationships within the scientific community that allows him to work on a broad array of issues within theoretical physics, but also partnering with others on engineering projects as well. This part of the book will reward those primarily interested in better understanding the creation and progression of the theories in which Einstein contributed his expertise.

I would also recommend that readers monitor the online website sciencedailydotcom as they read this book. I was amazed at how many times news stories cropped up confirming some aspect of Einstein's arguments that Einstein was forced to infer or was weakly validated with evidence given the lack of modern day equipment. It's impressive to track what is mostly the validation of his arguments but also the occasional falsification with additional empirical evidence we are now collecting.

Isaacson explains the science so any high school student who passed physics can easily understand. For those that are not at that level, I still recommend reading the book since Isaacson serves it up in fairly small doses and concentrates much of it in the earlier part of the book, plus the explanations are simple enough anyone should understand some of the more major findings. This part of the book is a bit of dry read, but will serve the reader as a useful resource for future reference. I've probably got about 50 notations I marked on especially illuminating topics.

I found the last part of the book that focused on the non-scientific aspects of Einstein's life particularly interesting and well worth the investment in time given the size of the book. I'm not sure Isaacson consciously decided to make Einstein an archetypical freethinker of the twentieth century, but I've never read about a more worthy candidate to view the development of liberalism and its resultant benefits in the twentieth century with the possible exception of FDR. In fact, I would view FDR as the leader of the movement and Einstein as a perfect example legitimizing why we should strive for liberal democracies, especially given Einstein's fellow scientists' contributions to weaponry used against Germany, where most of these fellows resided prior to the rise of Nazism.

I was very impressed with how quickly Einstein was able to develop strong positions regarding his beliefs in politics, religion, and economics, starting in his early teens where he quickly realized the logical absurdities of organized religion. What has taken me decades to develop in regards to my core principles Einstein developed within a few short years as he takes on these topics. Besides being an especially prescient thinker about these issues, Isaacson's Einstein held positions that were often solidified well before such positions were popular. His positions were consistently predictive; where Einstein willingly discarded certain core beliefs if the evidence argued heavily against it - just like any good scientist does by constantly attempting to falsify their theories with the best opposing arguments.

A great example is how Einstein perceived the threat Nazism posed to Germany well before most people realized they were a threat to anyone, which caused Einstein to emigrate from Germany in the very early 1930's while many of his Jewish scientific colleagues stayed behind at that time, though many got out a few years after. By that time Einstein was a well-known pacifist, having been very outspoken about World War I, however when Germany started invading their neighbors and the war drums started pounding for a new world war, Einstein's fellow pacifists were shockingly disappointed that Einstein wisely discarded his pacifism and supported the free world using force against Germany, showing that Einstein was no blind ideologue even for his closely held beliefs.

Isaacson's freethinking Einstein doesn't just address the positive aspects employed by freethinking and secularism, but also the social risks that occur as traditional institutions like the sanctity of marriage and family if they are separated from the fear of ostracization by one's religious community - a non-factor for the secular Einstein. Isaacson's Einstein is an incredibly selfish husband and father to the point of effectively disowning a son though no fault of the son's.

Many of the sources used to report on Einstein's life were published for the first time in this book given the release of a huge cache of correspondence between Einstein and others that was owned by the family and never offered to previous biographers. Here we see a more humanized Einstein, even though his humanity always was evident during his life and subsequent biographies. There is also an almost comedic storyline regarding the ineptness of FBI surveillance against the perfectly harmless Einstein, with a kicker regarding Einstein's relationship with a spy that I won't elaborate on here since I view it as a spoiler. The spy story was never told in previous biographies given that a subject country just released its files on Einstein just prior to Isaacson starting this book.

Some of this new documentation also provides Isaacson the opportunity to effectively discredit a favorite meme going around in social conservative circles that Einstein was sympathetic to their beliefs in the existence of a creationist / intelligent designer providential God who fine-tuned the universe. Isaacson goes for the jugular and discredits any notion this falsehood is true. A certain creationist cretin named Ray Comfort, who is working with an ex-TV child actor, actually claims he is the next Einstein and this is getting a lot of traction with social conservatives. Given that social conservatives have been actively and massively involved in historical revisionism regarding Western Civilization and their role in it, Isaacson's focus on Einstein's religious beliefs was most welcomed by me to set the record straight to attempt to rebut this effort.

Isaacson dedicates a full chapter on Einstein's god after first explaining in another full chapter Einstein's perception of the Universe. Isaacson's reportage is nuanced and perfectly constructs and deconstructs many of Einstein's communications on these matters, some of which often appeared contradictory unless one understood how Einstein used certain terms and framed some of his perceptions regarding reality. For example, Einstein occasionally claimed to be religious, but his use of the term meant the challenge to obtain knowledge beyond what science knew regarding the underlying forces of the universe, and not blind faith in religious dogma that one could never know and therefore "God must of have done it".

As a summary, if one wants to better understand the twentieth century in terms of how we progressed from zero liberal democracies in 1900 to one hundred and twenty countries coupled with incredible progress in understanding the universe and leveraging that knowledge in technology leaps that is difficult to comprehend even looking backward; than Isaacson's Einstein provides the perfect archetype from which to view that progress at a more personal level. Einstein's approach to thinking and responding to societal issues will certainly now personally serve as a model for me on how to view civilization just like I was influenced by John Locke, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Crick & Watson, Gates, Jobs, Venter, and soon I hope, Obama. Therefore I am grateful this book was written and I invested the time to learn from it.

So much for so little! An enjoyable multifaceted look at one of the most brilliant minds of our time, Isaacson does a great job depicting the inner workings of Einstein's thought processes and his famous thought experiments. I frequently use thought experiments in my product development, so I really enjoyed that aspect. Given the numerous comprehensive reviews written, I will stick to the most important realizations or conclusions perhaps not touched upon.

Einstein, as a young bohemian was a free spirited and fearless free thinker with the knowledge that a comprehensive view was always best. Unfortunately, later in life he conformed to his own "conventional" wisdom, and as sophisticated as this wisdom may have been, this would prove to hinder his thought processes later in life. With Einstein's own thought process now "stuck" within a box he himself built, the rest of his life would prove to be an exercise in futility running countless equations, without the right tools, literally up until the day he died. The stubborn and rebellious nature of this great thinker, which led him to greatness in the first place, would now be the source of his torment, which he did seem to come to peace with at the end.

Einstein's reluctance to embrace quantum mechanics and his fear of accepting the "evil or spooky" quanta hindered any further ground breaking developments. I can't help believe that with the supremacy of Einstein's mind, had he only embraced quantum mechanics, he may have been able to understand the seemingly inconsistent continuity and realize there was no "conflict" between all of the theories; general relativity and the possibility of the unified theory included. Quanta could have bridged this in his mind, but his fear of nothing being left of his "castle of general relativity in the sky" was just too much for him to bare. At the same time, this proves Einstein more than sensed his own barrier, which turned out to literally be the cause of his failure. How sad indeed that the master of free thinking could egotistically conform to his own constraints, impede his own progress and turn into what he had fought against so passionately throughout his younger years! Einstein, Einstein, Einstein!

Well researched, entertaining and thought provoking, I give Einstein: His Life and Universe a huge thumbs up! Nichol J. Nelson

Isn't it amazing what a person can accomplish with quiet little "thought experiments" while looking out the window from a job that does not absorb all of the intellect and imagination? Isn't it also interesting that Einstein's best work was accomplished early in his career when he was struggling economically and involved in a tumultuous marriage? Perhaps it shows that a great intellect can function by detaching itself from the noise of daily life. Perhaps the subconscious mind is the source of the greatest thoughts.

Contrary our unfortunate tendency to consider Einstein only for his brain, Isaacson's book focuses on the humanity of the Professor, including his struggles, failures, odd quirks and ideas, and endless curiosity. In an age of mindless entertainment, how much we need people with minds that are vitally interested in peeling away the next layer of mystery enveloping the universe! If Einstein had one passion, it was just to understand how the entire mechanism of creation works from the sub-atomic to the inter-galactic. If Einstein had one unique talent, it was his irreverence for conventional thinking and a special ability to see and visualize from an entirely new viewpoint. His unconventionality ultimately made him successful AND endearing.

Isaacson's biography is well-worth reading and then sharing with a friend who also has a spark of curiosity about the man and his place in scientific and popular history. Einstein was a man of peace who loved sailing and music, yet in many chapters of his life peace eluded him due to events beyond his control. The reader can sympathize with Einstein when his last great quest for a unified field theory continued to elude him (despite newspaper headlines that he was on the verge of a breakthrough) and his health failed him while equations continued to flow from his pen. I hope his life story will encourage a new generation of thinkers to follow imaginations and never lose their curiosity. Debra Lawrence, Author of [[ASIN:097974590X THE 3:00 PM SECRET: Live Slim and Strong, Live Your Dreams]]

I bought Glickman's book and CD with the intent to read about the cleanse when I had downtime between appointments, etc. And, I'd listen to the cd during my commute to work, etc. I would not recommend the book. (See my review about the book.). I definitely would not recommend the CD either because it is poorly organized in its presentation of the program. Glickman seems to be in conversation with some guy who sounds like a paid DJ. The information was also repetitive in nature such that I got the impression that Glickman was using up "air time". However, I give Glickman his "props" for being creative enough to dawn a CD about the cleanse.

Having attempted the Master Cleanse years ago with disappointing results, I was skeptical when a friend recommended that I try again with the aid of Peter Glickman's CD. Well, I thought, I'm another fifty pounds heavier than before with about half the energy I had then. And my doctor is threatening to put me on blood pressure meds if I don't lose weight. What did I have to lose? I'm so glad I took the advice and ordered this excellent CD. In just an hour or so of easy listening, I realized that I had misinterpreted some critical instructions in the book, virtually guaranteeing my aforementioned failure. I now begin again with renewed optimism. Thank you, Mr. Glickman.

If you bought the book "Master Cleanser" don't bother buying the CD. It is a waste of money, as he is not really adding anything new. The book is $5.

I am so thankful now that I have the tools to become a healthier person. When I first heard about the cleanse, I had to go buy the CD right away. Peter does a great job of telling you exactly how to follow the cleanse to get the best results, along with things to expect from your body during the cleanse, which is so helpful on your first time. I love the CD because I can take it in the car and share it with others. A wonderful tool for improved health and well-being.

I am so excited about this! I heard about the MC when I was 7 months pregnant with my youngest. Now that he is almost 1 and I am almost done nursing I am so excited to do this! I have a count down calendar and everything. My friends who have done this rave about it and I can't wait to do it myself. I've done so much research and talked to so many people that I know this is what I need to do to get back on track and to clean my body of all wastes and toxins that seem to slowly be slowing me down.

A legal analyst with CNN News and a graduate of Harvard, Jeffrey Toobin brings forth an account and supberb evaluation of how he sees the Supreme Court at present which has resulted in his individual interviews with these justices.
The election of 2008 for a new President might very well change the status of our Judicial System. It is important to keep in mind that all members of the Supreme Court, the highest body in the United States, are appointed by the current President and confirmed by the Senate. In addition, the President selects individuals who share his idealogical views.
I recommend Mr. Toobin's "The Nine" to those who are interested in law and politics and what the Supreme Court is today.

I liked this book a lot, it concerns the Supreme Court personalities and impacts from the mid Eighties to 2006, though the bulk of the book concentrates on the Clinton/Bush era. I read it after Woodward's `the Brethren', which deals with the years 1968-73. The tenures of the justices are so long, that this book is almost a continuation. The processes of picking and adjudicating cases are the same as described in the Brethren, as is the processes by which majorities opinions are shaped and preserved. However Chief Justice Rhenquist seems to have taken pride in the running a far more efficient process than his predecessor. One key difference seems to be that there is a more explicit process of caballing to ensure that a particular opinion becomes the majority, though still informal, it seems to be a more acknowledged behaviour than in the early 1970s.
The book's main focus is the political impact of the decisions taken - particularly on the `culture wars', and the more focused approach (particularly among Republicans) on getting candidates selected and approved who will take a conservative line.
The Rhenquist court, despite having 8 of 9 justices who were appointed by Republican presidents, was a disappointment to conservatives who wished to reverse the `liberal' trend of its predecessor courts. However, due in part to Rhenquist's focus on efficiency rather than philosophy and the peculiarly individualistic natures of Justice Scalia and Thomas, the courts opinions were influenced by those of Justice O'Connor; whose views were decidedly middle-of-the road - not against restricting abortion, but ensuring that the mother's health was given paramount consideration; not against school prayer as long as it wasn't promoted by school authorities; not in favour of forced integration, but in favour of desegration; not in favour of gay practice, but an upholder of rights to privacy, incorporating sexual orientation
The book is quite good on giving pen portraits of the character and concerns of each of the justices, and shows what a varied bunch they are. It is particularly good at demonstrating how the work, and its associated experiences, have changed Justices O'Connor, Stevens and Kennedy, while leaving Justices Souter, Scalia and Thomas almost unchanged. It's most telling impression on me was that both the Clinton (Ginsburg and Breyer) and Bush (Jnr) appointees (Roberts and Alito) were much more heavily scrutinised and their subsequent opinions were much more predictable, than previous appointees - Stevens,O'Connor and Souter were viewed a `squelches' by conservatives, appointed by Ford, Regan and Bush (Snr) respectively, they were viewed as having veered `leftward' upon appointment.
I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of the political machinations around the appointment process of new justices, from Bork onwards. Bush Snr's approach seemed detached, Clinton's haphazard and chaotic approach, while Bush Jnr's was focused and ruthless, but also impersonal, in the sense that it seemed run by a selection team rather than a personal priority.
The book is best on the processes by which Bush vs. Gore was decided. Toobin is of the view that the Court shamed itself on this. I found this argument convincing, it seems the court intervened early, and the Justices took pre-determined positions, in short became too political. However there is also an argument that if the Court was to decide on a vote, then it had to do so, rather than let the re-counts and re-runs continue until chaos ensued. However, given the Republican appointed majority and the partisan process by which the court was invited to decide the case, I think I agree with Toobin that it was this Courts least fine hour, and indeed tainted this set of Justices in relations to their predecessors.

I felt that this book took more of a gossip description of the justices--who likes eachother, who tried to set up eachother on dates, who hated eachother. That could have been fine as an addendum but I wanted more meat on the issues and how each jusitce came to form their opinion and their stand.

If you've ever wanted to know what happens in the cloistered world of the Supreme Court, this book will give you a brief glimpse. It details not just the kinds of cases that the Supreme Court has heard over the last 30 years, but also what kind of people the Supreme Court Justices are and where they came from. Others have suggested there's a bias in this book, but I fail to see it. If the author spends a great deal of time talking about what conservatives were up to in filling the current nine seats, it's only because the last 30 years have been dominated by conservative presidents attempting to satisfy their conservative base. Anyway I found this book quite eye opening, and I hope anyone who is interested in how the Supreme Court works will give it a read.

The Nine is an in-depth portrayal of the current Supreme Court. Not only does Toobin cover the personality quirks and politics of the individual justices and their relationships with each other over time, he also analyzes the development and the current state of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence on key issues like abortion, gay rights, and affirmative action. Other than a few interesting bits of trivia, I didn't really learn anything new from The Nine, but I was entertained, and I think this book is a good introduction to the Supreme Court for those without much previous exposure.

WHAT A CD ,,IF YOU LISTEN WHILE ON LONG RIDE IN THE CAR IT IS AMAZING HOW GOOD THESE CD WORK,,,YOU REPEAT AND THEY REPEAT TWO TIMES ,,I CAN ACTUALLY SAY THAT IT HAS MADE ME UNDERSTAND THE CHINESE LANGUAGE,,,AND BE ABLE TO HEAR KEY WORDS,,,IT IS A GOOD LANGUAGE TOOL AND WELL WORTH THE INVESTMENT,,

LIKE I SAY NEE HAU MA MAYBE NOT CORRECT SPELLING BUT CORRECT SOUND,

Overall I really like this program, and it's helping me to learn some Chinese.
Things I like best: 1) They use two speakers, a man and a woman. In my opinion the woman speaks more clearly and I find it easier to hear and repeat after her lines, however having two speakers really helps when you're having trouble hearing exactly how they are pronuncing something. 2) There is sufficient repetition to really learn the material well.
Things I don't like about the program: 1) There is absolutely no written material for the course. I understand that the purpose of the program is to teach you how to speak (and not read or write), but how difficult would it have been to include a 1-2 page transcript of the words and phrases that are being taught? They can say all they want about how "that's not how you learn a language naturally...you do it by listening,"...fine, but I still want to know how the words look in writing. And why hinder the people who want to reinforce their learning through seeing it in print, when it would seem so easy to just throw in a cheap transcript and leave the options to the learner. 2) Although the amount of repetition is warranted, it gets a little frustrating when after an hour or so into the CDs you're still working on a few variations of a very few sentences. I don't really fault the program for this however, its just a difficult language to learn I think. I haven't tried others, so I can't make comparisons with other products, but overall I think it's a decent program at a pretty reasonable price.

I wanted to start learning a new language to broaden my horizons, so I chose this program with high expectations, and it far overreached them! The program uses common dialogue that a traveler or foreigner could expect to see everyday. The only concern that I found with the program was that I found it a to be a bit repetitive in some ways but others may find it to be helpful to thier experience.

All-in-all I highly suggest Pimsleur's programs to any who are interested in delving themselves into a new and different cultural experience!

I used Pimsleur's Basic Mandarin Chinese (which is just the first 10 lessons of Pimsleur's Mandarin I series) prior to a 10 day visit to China in March 2008 (Beijing and Liaoning provinces). I was aiming to pick up some basic language to help navigate my way around and order in restaurants (I was off the tourist trail some of the time).

Summary: Pimsleur is extremely good, but do NOT get the Basic Mandarin Chinese product. At the very least, get the Conversation Mandarin Chinese product (which is the first 16 lessons of Pimsleur's Mandarin I series). Here is my reasoning.

I highly rate Pimsleur's approach to learning Mandarin Chinese. Pimsleur has you listening to native speakers and doing intensive repetition. As a result, you acquire a very good accent - the Chinese people I spoke to on my travels all understood me perfectly, and those who spoke English told me I had an excellent accent. However, the vocabulary in the first 10 lessons is limited, and much is not relevant to the casual traveller. Furthermore, you really need to learn Pinyin if you're travelling - so you can say place names, etc, correctly in your conversation. Pimsleur discourages this.

Disadvantages:

1. Limited vocabulary - in 5 hours of lessons, and with all the repetition Pimsleur does, you naturally learn a limited set of vocabulary. You don't even learn all the numbers from 1-10! On the plus side, what you do learn you will know very well and will be able to use in conversation. I've written out the complete list of the vocabulary and phrases you do learn below.

2. Vocabulary and phrases not targeted to the causal traveller - the Basic series is just the first 10 lessons of the larger Pimsleur Mandarin I series, the latter of which is geared towards teaching you to speak conversational Mandarin. Many basic phrases useful to travellers are not covered, such as `How much is this?' - essential for bargaining in markets, or common phrases useful in restaurants, such as `please wait 5 minutes', `bill please', or directions such as `turn left/right'.

3. You don't learn any Pinyin or Chinese characters. Pimsleur worries that if you read Pinyin, you'll acquire an American accent. I think this is a valid concern, however, to learn additional vocabulary, and read place names and the like, you need Pinyin at some point. My solution was to do the whole Pimsleur series first, and only then learn Pinyin (there are lots of online lessons to learn Pinyin).

Advantages:

1. Great accent.

2. Everything Pimsleur teaches you, you learn, and learn really well. It becomes intuitive. You can and do use it in conversation with native Chinese. Although not everything was relevant to my needs, I was able to order drinks in restaurants and have some basic conversations with taxi drivers.

Recommendation:

If you are going to learn Mandarin Chinese, I highly rate doing one of the Pimsleur series. Chinese is not a language you can learn from a book. But if I were to do it again, I would do the Conversational Mandarin Chinese - the first 16 lessons. The first 10 lessons are insufficient. I suggest you start by doing a Pimsleur series, then once you're speaking confidently and your accent is pretty good, use online lessons to learn Pinyin/Characters and to extend your vocabulary as needed.

Vocabulary and Phrases taught:

1. Vocabulary: Excuse me, please let me ask, English, Mandarin language, American person, I, you, can (not) speak, to be (am), (yes/no question particle), a little
I can(not) speak English. I am (not) American.
2. Vocabulary: Chinese person, hello, how are you?, (very/not) well, thank you, goodbye
I don't speak well.
3. Vocabulary: how about (you), but
4. Vocabulary: to understand (the situation), what, road, street, where, located, here, over there
I don't understand what you're saying.
You speak Mandarin very well.
Where is Long Piece Street?
College Road is over there.
5. Vocabulary: to eat, to drink, would (not) like, something, to know
I would like to eat something.
Do you know?
6. Vocabulary: my place, your place, when, now, later, to go
Where do you want to go to drink/eat?
7. Vocabulary: tea, beer, (not) OK
8. Vocabulary: restaurant, hotel, lunch, or (for questions), to do, to buy, to want(order), two (glasses), with, whom
I would like to order two beers.
I would like to eat lunch with you.
9. Vocabulary: o'clock, what time, one, nine, eight, or (for statements), impossible
What don't I understand?
10. Vocabulary: anything, five, three, four, am going to (want to), as for me,
What time is it?
Is it four o'clock?

Since I am planning a trip to Beiing, China for the summer Olympics in 2008, I was looking for a book that would simplify the emergency and polite words of the Chinese language. This book will allow me to honor the people of China by showing respect for their language and their culture.

This is a great Read Along Collection. The voices are great and the story is read enthusiastically. There is a chime to remind the child to turn the page. Our 5 year old loves it!

My 5 years old daughter loves to listen to the Cd and look at the book. I also use this books and Cd with my students. I teach English as a second language to little kids (4 to 9 years of age)and they love to learn English this way. I highly recommend this item.

I love this book.

I understand it is a stereotype of the Chinese immigrant man. However, every single Chinese immigrant I know has trouble with the Rs and Ls in English, and I live in a big city surrounded by many immigrants.
Chinese Americans do not have this problem.

Tony Shalhoub (of Monk and Wings fame) does an excellent job narrating this story. His voices are right on. The cricket's voice is a little annoying, but he doesn't talk much, and he's a cricket.

I read this story when I was a child, and when my daughter read it at school a few years ago, I was so happy that she enjoyed it as much as I did. We've all (even my 4 year old) enjoyed this audiobook as well.

I preview all of the books I assign to my kids to read. I enjoyed this one. Vivid descriptions allowed me to vividly imagine the scene and hear the music the cricket plays. This is a book I will have my 11 and 13 year-old read.

My daughter loved the book, and we have given copies of it several times as birthday presents, to 7-9 year old friends. I bought this CD as a gift for my 7 y.o. nephew, who wanted Books on CD so could listen in the car. This is a quality children's story, which adults can enjoy too. A good adventure, without buying into a whole series and marketing machine! Boy and Mom love The Cricket in Times Square book on CD.

An engaging dramatic reading of this fabulous animal adventure and story about friendship. This is great for a car trip.

Fist time (5years ago) i tried the south beach diet i lost 18 ponds and i really look forward to lose a few more with the new ideas and tips that comes with this book.

This diet makes sense and it works. It does however require a time investment to prepare the meals and snacks. We are enjoying the new menu items in this book.

This is a great book. The food and reciepes are out of this world. The main thing is that you can diet and the rest of the family can eat the same food and not know they are eating "Diet" food and you don't have to make several different meals.

I was surprised at how flavorful the recipes were for Phase I. While I do miss starchy foods from time to time, the diet allows you to eat and snack quite a bit and encourages you to do so until you're full - and the food I'm eating now is healthier, so I don't feel guilty about it.

Reasons for the guidlines, good food habits for life, an exercise plan that eases you in to a more active lifestyle--this book has it all.

Patrick Lencioni highlights both good and bad meeting practices in "Death by Meeting." Meetings are a central component of the day-to-day operations at most modern businesses, and this book addresses the "practice" of meetings in a direct, head-on and meaningful fashion.

Some of my take-aways from this book were...meetings can be run poorly in many ways and the downstream effects of bad meetings are potentially significant and many.

Written in Lencioni's "fable and Model" style, I found the Model for good meetings to be, in large part, useful. Different teams/organizations will likely need to modify the Model as put forth in this book to be most effective, but I found the overall framework to be quite useful.

I recommend this book to anyone who spends some of their time in meetings...if nothing else, the book offers a refreshing and unique viewpoint of meetings in general.

This is one of the most practical books I've ever read. He does a great job of working you to the point and the thoughts behind his ideas. We've used this concepts a lot and it has greatly improved our meetings and communication.

The Meeting - an inevitable annoyance or a worthwhile opportunity? Though I'm not the CEO of a corporation or even an office manager, I found this simple book to be a worthwhile. As a recent graduate in business management, I've been picking up books like this to keep myself sharp. There was information in this book that really resonated with me.

First, I have to say that "Death by Meeting" is an amazing title. Is there anyone who hasn't at least once felt the urge to drop during an incredibly long-winded ordeal of lip-service? We've all been there. The title sold me right off the bat.

The writing is in storybook format, so it is relatively easy to follow. It tells of company owner Casey McDaniel and the challenges that arise with running his startup software company. The story is ultimately about meetings and how the company's poor management thereof puts Casey's job in jeopardy. With some fairly realistic dialogue, some pretty fleshed-out characters must come up with solutions to increase meeting effectiveness.

While working in different capacities, I've experienced situations where meetings have worked and where they haven't. This book brought up several interesting techniques, while unveiling common stereotypes associated with meeting. Instead of focusing on common hot buttons like timeliness, agendas, and getting along, the author stresses the importance of meeting even more, encouraging conflict, and focusing on decision making. I sincerely enjoyed going through this and agree with much of Lencioni's rational. Due to the narrative, he probably could've made the book shorter than it actually is, but it makes for an engaging read while teaching relevant concepts.

So my boss recommended I read "Death By Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni. I'll admit I wasn't too excited about the prospect of reading it. I thought it would be about as dry as the textbooks and case studies I read during a couple of required management classes in college. When I sat to read it, I was happy that it was a very quick read. There is a lot of white space in this book, and that's not really a bad thing. It makes you feel like you read a bit faster, and accomplish more with each page turn.

The book itself is mainly a story (a leadership fable) about a company that sells itself to another company and the top executive is then worried about his job. He becomes worried about his job when a VP from the parent company tells him their meetings are horrible, and if that's how they run their meetings, their company couldn't possibly run much better. The book then breaks into a rather interesting story about a young worker who comes up with several ideas to improve their staff meetings and meet goals.

I was pleased that my team was already executing a majority of the recommendations from this book, before reading it. (My boss hadn't read it yet either). While the topic sounds boring and dry, the author did a good job of keeping my interest and keeping it short. This took me probably less than 2 hours to read cover to cover.

This is Patrick Lencioni's new book published in 2004, again a fiction and management book. I think this one, for the story, is better written than his previous books. The description of the characters and the scenes in the story are more interesting and with more depth.

The story is about a company, having been acquired, facing its new boss. It sensed a death threat by the man from headquarters. The white knight who came to the rescue was a temporary administrative assistant to the CEO. Seems to be a proper EO job and I therefore call him the EO.

The lethal aspect of meeting has two meanings in the book.

First, meetings are the most important activities of an organization. All major decisions are made, strategies are formed, actions are planned during meetings. If the meetings are not effective, they will lead to the death of the organization. This was exactly what happened in the story, that staff meetings were boring and ineffective and did not came up with clear direction for everybody.

Second, the impending meeting to be attended by the man from headquarters would mean life and death for the CEO. He would be assessed on whether the meeting was really so bad as to affect the company, and if so, that would mean death for his career.

The story proceeded to saving the meeting, from the insight of the EO. He drew inspiration from his academic studies on film and television and compared meetings with headline news, television series and movies.

Drama - for meetings to be interesting, there needs to be drama and conflict. The EO suggested the use of the skills of script writers and directors, and compared the conducting of a meeting to making a good movie. The first 10 minutes should be used to set up the drama and suspense, and to focus the attention and interest of members. Then the chairman would mine for conflict and expose all different views. Meetings are better than movies as there is real-time interaction instead of passive reception of information. The chairman would encourage constructive ideological conflicts and arguments before coming up with a decision.

Contextual structure - The other fatal mistake of meetings is the lack of contextual structure, i.e. a meeting stew of everything that smothers the important issues. Drawing analogy to television and movies, the EO suggested that there should be different types of meetings dedicated to specific purposes:

1. Daily check-in for 5 minutes similar to daily headline news which people watch briefly for snapshots of information.
2. Weekly tactical meeting for 1 hour same as sitcom and crime drama that people watch weekly for short stories.
3. Monthly strategic meeting which lasts for 2 hours as a movie for detailed discussion of a particular strategy or a complete story from beginning to end.
4. Quarterly off-site review for two days like mini-series which draws people's attention for a longer period of time.

A remark in the book I like is the myth of too many meetings. Interesting and effective meetings will not waste time but instead save time. Lencioni points out that very often sneaker time is not accounted for as consumption of resources. They are the time spent by managers outside the meetings just to find out what others are doing, clarifying actions, clearing doubts. The matrix of a large number of managers consumes a huge amount of sneaker time. If the meetings make effective and clear decisions with all stakeholders present, a lot of sneaker time will be saved.

Anyone familiar with the ancient Greek myths will wonder "Why so skimpy on the details." The myths told here simply don't come to life. The music tries to push some life and excitement in the storytelling, but unfortunately it follows a Wagnerian playbook -not well suited to Greek mythology. All-in-all this is a bland retelling of some really great stories.

Wonderful stories. Good choice for anyone looking to introduce the Greek legends to children, and good for those who just love to hear a good, enthralling story.

We started off getting one of this series for a vacation. Now we have collected eight more for any and all trips in the car, and for our enjoyment at home. I put this in when asking the kids to help with chores and clean their room. We love the Greek Legends one. I have a very old set of the Junior Classics books that I got at a Half-Price Books many years ago. Listening to this has made my kids want to read the Myths and Legends volume (Number 3). I think they are learning and enjoying learning.

I bought this audioook for our girls (aged 7 and 9) to listen to on long journeys. We enjoy listening to it also and it certainly does make the journeys more bareable. Our 7 year old particularly loves this audiobook, in her words "it's brilliant. I love Jason and the Argonauts best."
I feel it's better than simply watching a DVD all the time. At least they are using their imaginations to visualize the images and they are often inspired to sit and draw what they have imagined. I heartily recommend this audiobook. We also enjoyed The Groovy Greeks by Terry Deary from his Horrible Histories series. Although Deary has a much more comical and irreverant take on history, he's still very informative and educational.

I bought the Tales of the Greek Legends for my children when they were only 5 and 7. They are now 14 and 16 and they still love these stories. I highly recommend this version of the Greek Myths.

The story has been told by other reviewers, unfortunately one gave away the ending. The reviews are accurate. The story flows and kept me turning the pages. If one takes the time it really does not make any sense but it is summer and who cares. The characters are all predictable but that is what is expected. It is hard to rate this book but I gave it 4 stars because it delivers what is promised.

The major question I have is why the prologue is there. It gives away a lot of the story early on and it did not add to my enjoyment.

This was one really good page-turner. Eventhough I'd figured out who did what it still didn't detract from this well written novel. Once again, Mr Margolin has given us a wonderful, suspenseful, compelling read. I highly recommend.

An associate lawyer doing pro bono work and an ex-cop turned part-time PI both come to the conclusion that the President may be a serial muderer.
Mr. Margolin weaves a pageturning tale bringing the disparate storylines into one great read.
With the sexual-political shenanigans of recent years adds a hint of possibility to this story.
I could not put down this book and read it in one sitting. This is the first book by this author that I have read. Definitely will check out his previous works and am looking forward to the next book.

Private Investigator Dana Cutler is given an assignment by an unknown client to follow a pretty college student, Charlotte Walsh and to report on her whereabouts at all times. Dana follows the girl to a secret assignation with the President of the USA where she takes some night photos which clearly show both the girl and the President. The next morning, Walsh's body shows up and Dana goes into hiding to avoid reprisals from the President's Secret Service. Meanwhile, young attorney Brad Miller is given the job of trying to prove the innocence of a jailed serial killer, Clarence Little, who protests that although he is willing to confess to other killings, he didn't commit this one. He is a truly evil man who mutilated the bodies of his female victims and kept their little fingers as a souvenir. It's a very good read with lots of twists and turns and enough suspense to keep the reader up long after bed time.

What a roller coaster of a book, I loved it. Who did it? Was it the President of the US? It couldn't have been. I read this in one sitting. I won't give a way any juicy details, but as I got halfway though the book, I knew who did it. Read it, I think you will enjoy it. Phillip Margolin never disappoints.