Philosophy Books

I grew up in Kennedy country (Massachusetts). my middle name is Kennedy and I got married in the same church the same year as Maria Shriver. I loved and respected her as a journalist and I think she has found an even better way to share her wisdom and humor as a writer. I've given her books as gifts to countless friends and their kids. 'Just Who Will You Be?' is for all of us because like Maria Shriver, I don't plan on ever growing up.
The best thing Maria's book continues to teach me is to stay fluid, to never stop believing in my own potential and to remain optimistic about the infinite possibilities that exist every day for me. Maria is a great example of someone who isn't afraid to confront the whole of her life at every stage and take us along with her on this remarkable journey. Get this book. You WILL be inspired...Mary Kennedy Eastham, Author, 'The Shadow of a Dog I Can't Forget'

Both my wife and I enjoyed Just Who Will You Be? I started reading it at 10 p.m. and by the time I was ready to fall asleep, I had finished the book. Although it's less than 100 pages, Maria's message is much bigger than the book's page count.

What you do is less important than who you are. In other words, it's not as important to be a doctor, lawyer, taxi driver or accountant. What's most critical is how you live your life and the values you uphold. Don't be afraid to reevaluate your life from time-to-time and be receptive to the notion of reinventing yourself. The world is constantly evolving, why can't you?

JUST WHO WILL YOU BE? is worth the $12 I paid for it and certainly worth the 2 hours it took to read!

Matthew A. Martinez
Author of:
Investing in Apartment Buildings: Create a Reliable Stream of Income and Build Long-Term Wealth and 2 Years to a Million in Real Estate
www.matthewamartinez.com

I truly believe every parent should read this book and also give each of their children a copy!. Excellent!

Here's the complete title: Just Who Will You Be? - Big Question - Little Book - Answer Within. Wow, what can I say, I'm gushing! I rarely "gush" over a book but I am gushing over this one. You can read it in an hour or two. A little book with a big message - live your life listening to your heart.

I'm highly recommending Just Who Will You Be? by Maria Shriver. I thoroughly enjoyed her open honest heart-to-heart writing style. A five star rating from me!

Whether you've found your life's mission, been searching for years or are just beginning your path in life, you'll want to read this book. It's the right message at the right time, no matter where we are on life's journey.

Maria Shriver's openness, vulnerability and honesty is refreshing and inspiring. I didn't know what to expect from the author - a Kennedy, a news anchor, a journalist, Oprah's good friend and currently First Lady of California. Really, what does she have to wonder about? How could she possibly relate to me?

Maria Shriver has written a powerful message for all ages. Get ready for some thoughtful heart, mind and soul work. Just who will you be? Not what your parents wanted you to do, or the expectations of friends, employer, spouse - but what you want. Can you separate the expectations of others from your heart's desire?

Just Who Will You Be? began as a graduation speech to her nephew's high school graduation class. It was so well received that graduates and parents wanted copies of the talk. A book was born.

Around this same time, Maria was going through a life transition from NBC journalist to first lady of California. She faced a question many women face - am I actually motivating myself to succeed or is it the expectations of others that motivates me to "be" in life?

BIG MESSAGE: You're not your age, family history, looks, profession, net worth, social status or other "surface" factors. You are your own special and unique person. Maria Shriver began writing this book as a woman going through an identity transition and finished as a woman of purpose on a mission. That's how Maria Shriver related to me - she was open, honest and spoke from her heart to my heart.

Just Who Will You Be? by Maria Shriver is a great read for women, men, teenagers, mid-life or elderly. The message is the same for all age groups - live life from your heart. Living life is about what you are not who you are.

I didn't know too much about Maria Shriver before reading this book except for the fact that she is the famous Kennedy-Mrs. Schwarzenegger-First lady of California that you see in the headlines from time to time. Then one day the title of her book "Just Who Will You Be" caught my eye. Umm, why would she be interested in who she is? Doesn't she have all the fame in the world already? So I picked it up and read it; more than one time actually. I am so glad I did! She writes very honestly & directly and it is truly inspiring!


Maria had been living a life of privilege, power and fame gained from her background as a Kennedy, profession as a renowned journalist, and from her marriage to movie-star-turned-governor husband Arnold Schwarzenegger. Being a public figure with a historical legacy, Maria identified herself as a professional- this was all she wanted to be when she grew up and she worked hard to succeed in her work life.

She then became a stay-at-home mom bringing up four kids; however she did not approve of herself for not "working as a professional Maria Shriver". I imagine it was frightening when she quit journalism to become a full-time mother, based on her high profile past that equated self-worth with personal achievement. With a sense of humor, Maria shares with readers the journey of discovering who she is and who she wants to be. She is not at all afraid of admitting she felt lost at times, when she'd been answering her quest with a resume, not what her heart truly desired.


Maria inspired me to be true to myself. It reminds me of an awesome book by Ariel and Shya Kane, Being Here: Modern Day Tales of Enlightenment that I love very much! Instead of "doing" and trying to figure out how I can fix circumstances that are not my preferences, I can simply just "be" me- and feel no need to define myself by certain roles. I can be gentle and kind to myself and others, be open and let go of some beliefs that may have served me along the way, but just don't work for me anymore. Life can be magical if we allow it to be, and it's up to us! What an awakening! I highly recommend these three authors!

I can see both good and bad in Ron Paul's book THE REVOLUTION, but let me say right off the bat that I do not support his unrelenting libertarian attitude that government is the source of all evil. Paul rightly points out many problems that we face today - high federal budget deficit, runaway health care costs, belligerent foreign policy, presidential illegalities, and on and on - but in my view these are not the result of government per se, but rather are the fault of the astoundingly bad leadership we in the U.S. have suffered from in the last 10 or so years. There is an increasingly common view, which I sympathize with, that Republicans have deliberately tried to ruin government functions in this country in an attempt to cause more people to reject ALL government. See John Dean's 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches for a good example of this argument.

To take one illustrative example of the problems described in this book, Paul entirely blames government for the high cost of health care in the U.S. Here he quotes his hero, the economist Ludwig von Mises, who said that "government interventions create unintended consequences that lead to calls for further intervention, and so on into a destructive spiral of more and more government control." Yet one glaring discrepancy here is that most developed countries have much MORE government intervention in their health care systems than we do, yet health care costs in the U.S. are much HIGHER than anywhere else in the world! Nor does he mention the abuses of health insurance companies in this country. What can I as an individual do to deal with those companies? We need government to set some fairness standards here. But Paul would never propose such a thing, since that would dilute his black-and-white view that government is all bad and private enterprise is all good. So he just ignores the problem. The same is largely true with the environment, where he at least supports the concept of environmental protection, yet barely discusses the matter, and does not mention how to deal with the worldwide problem of global warming. Might we need government to do something here? Heavens!

But as I said at the beginning, I do agree with Paul in some regards, such as his emphasis that we must roll back our foreign empire for both economic and practical reasons. He has been an adamant foe of our invasion of Iraq, and here is an issue that we agree. What I am opposed to about THE REVOLUTION is Paul's relentless anti-government tirade that extends to virtually all issues, and which I believe is overly simplistic, sometimes to the point of absurdity.

In short, a liberal manifesto (although not nearly as liberal as the Bush/Cheney crowd.)

the bad:

* conservatives, by definition, do not go around calling for 'revolutions'
* his take on free trade is liberalism on steroids -- a conservative believes in free trade only as far as it benefits the interests of the home country. Ron takes it too philosphically, and believes in trade with no restrictions.
* liberals always have their heads in the clouds, and looking to establish utopias on earth. Conservatives roll up their sleeves and deal with the reality we have to face. Ron has his head in the clouds, just like Bush.

the good:

* I agree with his take on the military, the gold standard, and minding our own business

Overall, a good read with some good moments.

What an enlightening book and excellent call to action. It reminds voters why associating yourself with a 'party' is as politically productive as investigating why dirt has a bad taste. A real wakeup call to how far the US Federal Government has gone to ignore, destroy, and bastardize the Constitution. Fire Congress and lets elect some law-makers who will obey the law!

The United States has managed to go from being the biggest creditor nation (a good thing) to the biggest debtor nation (a bad thing) in a mere 30 years. We have our politicians and the federal reserve to thank for this. We can all continue pretending that there is not an 800 lb gorilla in the room and just wait for a total collapse or we can heed the advice of Dr. Paul and people like him. It's hard to believe that we fought for our independence from England less than 250 years ago and we've apparantely forgotten why we did so. The constitution is that reminder. It is startling how many personal freedoms and liberties we are willing to keep giving up. We need someone to fight for us. The government is supposed to serve the people; not the people serve the government. This book is a great reminder of the way things were intended to be and where we are straying from the path.

Too few people realize that our country was founded on the principles of liberty and limited government. Now, government has grown beyond the Founding Fathers' wildest nightmares, and much of the precious liberty that they fought for has been lost.

Ron Paul offers an insight into how things were meant to be, and also offers a glimmer of hope that things can be fixed. It's an easy, yet thought-provoking read.

Highly recommended.

This guy is insightful, funny, poetic and overall a great writer. You can tell he loves his craft.

Right out of the box, this book is the REAL DEAL!

The prose, struck me as similar to the popular video game, Max Payne, which is based on a detective novel comic book, moving from frame to frame. The writing style puts the reader there.

I worked in a restaurant environment for 7 years, and this book is the real deal.

It absolutely works, and is accurate and representative of the fast pace of a busy restaurant.

What a great book! Especially great for those considering careers in the food service industry.

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions Of A Cynical Waitier is a fresh, witty, intelligent portrayal of the restaurant business. The author, a career waiter, fell into the field out of desperation yet can't seem to get away from it. This memoir shows the pros and cons, highs and lows of one of the most underappreciated professions (at least in my area of the country).

This book is longer version of the Waiter Rant blog that the author founded on the internet. The book is not just about the restaurant business, it has interesting tidbits tucked in about various origins and historical items. It has appeal beyond those involved with restaurants.

Often hilarious, the humor is more Dennis Miller-esque than say, Larry The Cable Guy. Except that I don't have to look up any words in the dictionary the way I do with Dennis Miller.

I'm giving this book 4-stars. It's entertaining and informative. The author writes well while maintaining his own unique style. I would like to see the book marketed well so that others can enjoy the stories of the author. Hopefully this would be a break for a new career. I certainly would buy additional work by "The Waiter"...I just hope that, if he does release more by another name that I'll be able to figure out who he is. Overall worth a read if for no other reason than to discover why one should NEVER eat out on a holiday!!

Confessions, to me, implies that one will be sharing dirty little secrets, so I kind of went into this book expecting there to be shocking little tidbits about sneezers and that sort of thing but was somewhat disappointed in that department. Instead, I was treated more to the author's observations of patron's attitudes, employers less-than-successful personality and management traits, and brief glimpses of some co-workers lives. While this is not at all a bad thing, for the book is rather enjoyable, I didn't feel that what I got was what it was sold as. I would almost call it a coming-of-age for adults, for The Waiter frequently mentions what he would like to do when he 'grows up' and that seems to be the topic that he falls back on the most while navigating through the time period of the book. All in all, I would say it was in entertaining read, though perhaps others like myself who have worked in restaurants might feel that some of the subject matter is a bit been-there-done-that. Props to The Waiter, though, for braving to expose all of the quirks and bad behavior of the People. Maybe those nasty ones will think twice knowing that someone might be watching and that their behavior could become fodder for the next big book!

"We are never more ourselves than eating out with family and friends," postulates our cynical waiter. So it's at least partially reassuring to learn that 80% of us are normal and moderately well-adjusted, while 20% are raging sociopaths.

The good thing is, the seasoned waiter can spot who is who often in mere seconds. And they have their passive-aggressive ways of getting even...not spitting in the food (more of an urban myth), but saying with a straight face, "your credit card didn't go through..."

That is just one of the intriguing anecdotes from Waiter Rant. Although there's a fair sprinkling of laugh-out-loud moments and useful information, this book -- at its core -- is an in-depth look at one waiter, pushing 40, who is singing the "white apron blues" as he faces the prospect of a dead-end job leading nowhere. Like the Catholic priest he at one time aspired to be, he looks for salvation: that salvation is in a second career as a writer.

In all fairness, the waiter is a better story-teller than writer. I personally have never read his blog, although I hear it's highly entertaining. But I believe this book provides a great glimpse into the waiter's world -- including the self-esteem and financial problems faced by waiters, and the quiet sense of desperation that pervades their world. Recommended.

Nassim Taleb has written a very enthusiastic book, and provides some very tasteful food for thought. The problem is, Taleb himself is far too pleased with his own work.
Talebs confidence in his own ideas helps him write a book which is easy and fun to read. For an economist, interested in the philosophical background of the science, he offers plenty of very interesting references. I will most certainly dig more into the thoughts of Karl Popper and Benoit Mandelbrot.
But Taleb's confidence also helps him make several rather banal mistakes. His main adversary is the statistician Gauss and his normal distribution. Taleb is right that many economists and financial analysts rely far too much on normal distribution. But figure 7 on page 238 reveals that Taleb himself does not understand the concept pretty good: "..as your sample size increases, the observed average will present itself with less and less dispersion".
His confidence also makes Taleb jump to conclusions and make banal errors (the French Maginot Line, the main line of defence built in the 1930s, was not built where the Germans attacked France in World War One). Taleb even goes in his own primary trap: the confirmation bias. Every little thing happening by chance is counted as evidence of his Black Swan theory. But the story of penicillin is famous just because it was sensational, not because it is the normal way of making major medical breakthroughs.
It is probably not worthwhile to read this book, although there are grains of gold in it. The book is written in the spring of 2007, before subprime. In a footnote Taleb is writing about the risk of Fannie Mae: it "seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite." Touché!

In 1997 my cousin worked on Wall Street and suggested to her colleagues that the office keep a rubber raft in the storage room in case the World Trade Center gets attacked again. She had to leave soon after that. They thought she was crazy. In fact, she was dead right. She had predicted what this book calls a "Black Swan"...something that most people cannot or will not predict.

One reason why I never bought real estate is because I have always been concerned about the effect of a nuclear bomb or nuclear reactor accident on said purchase. Most people would laugh at me for saying that. I hope that I am never correct, but I fear that somewhere, some day, real estate in a given area will approach zero value because of such a "black swan" event.

This is one of the best books you can read that describes how knowing what you don't know is more important than knowing what you know. It is interesting to know that the US Military takes this book and this author very seriously. Rumsfeld apparently quoted him several times when he was in office.

I bought the book because it is on best selling list, 4 stars and an interesting topic. However, quite a disappoinment. The black swan idea is quite refreshing but it is revealed completed in the first 20 pages. The rest are just repeative garbage.

I guess the author needs to make a living too and he is obviously paid by the number of pages. He simply turned a good article into a over-weight book.

Very nice book, explains how the tail (outliers) in a bell curve is so imporant. Must read for financial engineers.

I can't comment on the science behind this book. I will say that - at least from this layman's perspective - Taleb offers magnitudes of insight on the ideas of unpredictability and randomness, and does a bang-up job of upsetting the status quo.

The book is centered on the concept of a Black Swan - an event that lies outside the narrow periphery of our knowledge, has an extreme impact or causes a major upset (whether it be cultural, financial, political, et al.), and is characterized by a rampant slew of retrospectives - all the media, the so-called "experts", and the authorities suddenly have the details on why it happened.

For instance, we are told by historians of the outbreak of WW2: "tensions were mounting" throughout Europe, and that there were "escalating crises" abound, but according to bond prices (which offer a good understanding of history, says Taleb), there was no sign of this to speak of! "One would suppose that people living through the beginning of WW2 had an inkling that something momentous was taking place. Not at all."

The idea of retrospective distortion and over-interpretation fascinates me. How people attempt to fit messy empirical reality into neatly organized interpretations! The problem with our predictions, and our retrospectives, is that they are often framed from a naive perspective that we live in a place called Mediocristan, a place where randomness is mild, or Type 01, when we really live in a place called Extremistan - where reality is characterized by wild, unpredictable events that completely upset the averages of the bell curve.

...We come out the other side mistrusting the arrogance of almost all predictions! What does bird poop have to do with one of the most fundamental physical theories? Do we think that our wars are "under-control", or do we consider the unpredictability of conflict - that a small conflict might someday spiral unpredictably out of control and result in the decimation of the entire human race!?! How has the Nobel Prize been exploited to sell methods of market-interpretation that are completely unscientific, yet universally accepted and completely institutionalized? We are treated to an interesting investigation of this arrogance which dominates so many fields of study and indeed, we find that it is an arrogance deeply embedded in our minds!

Despite the seemingly bleak picture, The Black Swan is great fun to read and offers tips ("be as hyper-conservative and as hyper-aggressive as you can!") on how to cope and perhaps even thrive in this chaotic, simmering soup we call Civilization.

If you are like me, you will enjoy reading about things like the narrative fallacy, confirmation bias, the ludic fallacy, the problem of induction, et al. My only criticism of book is it's repetition, but honestly - I hardly noticed.

I like this one better than i liked satanic bible. But, actually, I like both.
Dawkins is very eloquent and persuasive. I think that everyone who is interested in religions should read this book

As an agnostic who believes in evolution and the possibility of God, I found the first half of Richard Dawkins book to be an excellent excercise in logical thinking and his refutations against a belief in God impossible to argue against. At first, I found his reasoning disturbingly air-tight (disturbing since I like to believe, as I think most people do, that there is more to existence than this life, and more meaning to existing than natural selection, which is for whatever reason unsatisfying to me). But as I gradually gave in to his arguments and became more skeptical about God, I started to become skeptical about the assertion that there is most definitely no God. Whereas Dawkins skillfully knocks down every argument one could think of for God, he seems frustrated by his inability to disprove God altogether. I will give in to the caveat that God is most definitely a more complex solution to life than natural selection, and is probably a result of natural selection himself . . . but so what? If there can exist a multiverse and collapsing universes of space-time of varying laws of physics, why could there not be an evolved supreme intellect out there, perhaps of infinite complexity that evolved from one of these other universes? And if the laws of physics breaks down beyond our own universe, what is to say that logic and science also does not break down? (Science is, after all, limited to human thought and human senses. How differently might a dog, if it had the brain, describe the universe? Probably as a series of smells.) Perhaps thought and imagination and faith have more substance in these spaces between universes. This isn't, of course, an argument for God, but an argument that atheists such as Richard Dawkins lack imagination when it comes to matters beyond their field of study. (Why must, for example, everything be described in evolutionairy terms? Dawkins views are almost too colored by his expertise.) Humans have been thinking about the mysteries of the universe and coming up with improved theories for ten thousand years, and neither Darwin nor Dawkins have found the ultimate truth. New discoveries will be made that will flip our world view upside down and be as upsetting to Darwinists as Darwin must be to Christians.

The biggest problem I had with this book, however, is in Dawkins' anti-religious tyrade. While I may not be religious myself, I learned long ago, while arguing with a Jehovas' Witness who I nearly made cry, the value of personal belief. Dawkins compares religion to a side-effect of natural selection, like a moth that flies into a candle flame. His dogmatic contempt for religion is clear and belies the clear-headed and non-subjective attitude of a good scientist. In one chapter in particular, Dawkins is confounded by the pan-cultural phenomenon that is religion, but while he shows the ridiculousness of some of the beliefs of people around the world and mirrors that with Christianity, he oversimplifies and downplays the value of religion as nothing but hokum. The Bible, however, served in ancient times as the collection of all human knowledge, covering fields of academia from literature to poetry, history to science. Yes, even science has its roots in religion, and the same need for truth that so passionately drives Dawkins is what also drove early theologians to write the books of the Bible. Dawkins erroneously suggests that religion may have evolved as a symptom of knowledge passing between adults to children, and that children, whose minds are gullible, developed a trait of gullibility and superstition. I find this in error for two reasons: 1) Children are by nature rebellious and usually seek out their own truth, anyone who has a child will tell you this. 2) Dawkins presupposes that religion is rooted in the irrational mind, when this is not the case. A careful study of most ancient religions will find a considerable amount of reasoning behind its teachings, including the passing of moral and pratical lessons. To the ancient Egyptians, for example, it was rational to believe that gods caused the Nile to flood every year, and this knowledge was passed on to help plan for harvests; in this case, though the prime causation was in error, the logic behind the belief was sound. For this reason I postulate an alternate theory for the natural selection of religion, being simply that it was advantageous for humans to pass on genes for imagination, or the ability to see things not as how they are but as how they might be. Imagination helped the first humans make fire, build homes, and dig graves. Religion developed alongside these early discoveries, and early cave drawings can attest to the imagination involved in faith: recombining animals and humans to create god images, and myths about gods also developed. Imagination was a great tool that helped early humans survive; it's what developed into religion and later into science.

Perhaps Dawkins would benefit by putting down his scientific lens and trying to see religion from a different perspective.

Dawkins doesn't mince words or try to be politically correct. He's also not rude, so the book doesn't come across as whiny or angry.

Very compelling attack against all the mumbo-jumbo in the world.

Was immensely useful to me personally.

Someday, when all is said and done, and we come to accept the fact that God is not a superman dressed in an elegant white robe sitting on a golden throne with a notepad recording everything each one of us does from the time we are born until we take our last breath, this book will take its place as one of the more important works of the new millennium. It is sad that so many will give it low grades for its philosophical content vs. their mythical convictions. Dawkins' work is the great ally of Sam Harris's 'The End of Faith' and a lesser known work, Lucien Gregoire's 2008 biography of the 33-day pope 'Murder in the Vatican: The Revolutionary Life of John Paul & The CIA, Opus Dei and the 1978 Murders'.

John Paul's atheist father, who had spent a lifetime trying to change the Church from the outside, decided it could only be changed from the inside. He secured a grant from the Communist Party of Italy and placed his son - Albino Luciani - in a minor seminary at the age of eleven with the commission to bring change to the Church. A year later, the boy wrote an article in the school newspaper that reached all of Europe, demanding that nations live up to their copyright laws and place a warning on the Old Testament, "This is a work of fiction. Keep away from children." Most laughed at the boy. Yet, Albert Einstein brought world attention to the boy's article, when he called it, "The first bit of common sense to have ever come out of the Roman Catholic Church."

Often labeled the 'Atheist Pontiff' by right wing elements, in his last audience the day before his unwitnessed death, John Paul told a group of bishops, "The fundamental difference between the believer and the atheist is that the believer believes in ghosts and the atheist does not. We must always keep in mind that God is a ghost - a creation of man's imagination. . ." One reason for his demise was that he threatened to bring an end to mysticism in the Church, being a realist, he did not believe in apparitions and miracles claimed by the Church.

Anyone who picks up this book and seriously reads it in its entirety should not walk away the same person or at the very least would have to seriously question their faith. Unfortunetely, those who really need to read this book won't because of childhood indoctrination of faith. Those who think independently or think critically will appreciate it greatly. It's amazing that this world has reached the 21st century and we are still holding on to bronze age biblical rantings that are beyond logic, reason, and critical thinking. Thanks to Dawkins, he illuminates very eloquently the absurdity of religion, its dangers, and its stunting of critical thinking, science, and advancement of technology. Anyone who still believes in this day of age the virgin birth, being raised from the dead, or the turning of water into wine might just as well believe that the earth is only 6 thousand years old and it's still flat.

First of all this is a very basic book. I have big issues with page 30 right from the get go. He says the word is powerful and is a force....I beg to differ. Things are just symbols of symbols, thus twice removed from reality, and the word IS the symbol! It's the thoughts we think that give us power and give us light to see what we REALLY are, not the word. He states a familar bible phrase, "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God,and the word is God." No.... I'm sorry, God doesn't DO words or any other "idols" He only does creation... in the form of loving, expansive thoughts. Yes we, (as children of God), are thoughts in the mind of God, and have NEVER left. Ideas leave NOT their source. He also gives a definition of sin, which I don't beleive in, and therefore can't possilbly be correct! The truth MUST be the same for eveyone! So while this book may have some good things to say, I so disagree with most of it's main premises, that it will serve no good purpose to reccommend it or reread it.

Using and applying these four agreements has improved my relationship with myself and others. I highly recommend them to anyone drawn here. The work is powerful yet simple, beautiful in its simplicity, and washes away emotional pain like the ocean sculpts the shoreline. Other of my favorite book about self-help and love is I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

Great for anyone struggling with the injustices of society and religion. This is an EXCELLENT cd. A little /new agey/ at first, but after the 1st 10 minutes or so, it gets really good. Of course, for the new age folks out there, you will love it right from the beginning. I'm telling everyone I know about this cd.

I strongly recommend that anyone who has a yearning to BE their authentic self, but is unsure or afraid of this process, to buy this book. This beautiful intense book of wisdom is the step-by-step process of uncovering the Authentic Self for anyone. I have begun working with the Companion Book that is sold seperately, and I cannot imagine being the same again. I have created 4 new agreements to honor the Real Me, as Don Miguel suggests. I feel lighter, happier, and so much less afraid. You will not regret the purchase of this book, or his other books.

This has been one of the most helpful and enlightning book for me and my family in recent history.

I really enjoyed this book. I borrowed it from by Boss and read it in about three days. You will never think about statistics and human behavior the same way again. I would especially recommend this book for those of us who deal with human behavior for a living. There are a lot of good antidotes in it which really help examine why human beings act in the irrational ways they do. Their writing style is excellent and it drags the reader through the book rather than a simple forced march to get to the end; it is a page turner. I actually found myself wanting to make it home so I could read more!

Sway is a very quick read. The brothers Brafman tell a story that is very reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink. This is another way of looking at what irrational beings we humans are, and how hard we try to prove that we aren't.

Like Blink, the book provides some interesting food for thought, and great cocktail party filler, but it doesn't give solid, useful things that one can do to take advantage of this new knowledge.

If you love pop-economics and pop-psychology books like "The Long Tail", "Tipping Point", "Freakonomics" etc... you'll definitely love this. Although it's not as groundbreaking as these books, it's equally (if not more) entertaining. Packed full of case studies, this is a fun and quick read. Highly recommended!

Fans of social psychology or economics books like Freakonomics, Blink, and The Tipping Point will love this book. It is for anyone who wants to understand why people (singularly or en masse) make choices that don't seem to make any sense, and what guides that decision-making process. Those choices are influenced by things none of us have ever thought about. Even though it's not really a business book, I highly recommend it for marketers or other business people who are trying to understand their customers. It's also a good read for anyone who wants to understand his own decision making process in order to make better choices about things like what you buy, what you eat, and how you treat others.

While not a grammarian, I became so frustrated with the grammar mistakes that I almost gave up. This book is by no measure scholarly, and in fact it is comprised of poorly written summaries of research conducted by others, and for which credit is given in the notes section. An interested reader would find the original research better and more informative. The title is catchy, but this is not "Blink." This is an interesting subject; if the authors had the skill of Leonard Mlodinow ("The Drunkard's Walk")this could have been a worthwhile book. They don't, and it isn't - save your time and money.

Plainly this book has been out for quite some time but until it showed up on audio I didn't even know it existed. Why? Because it was well hidden by the major book stores that typically hide anything conservative on the bottom shelf of some sociology section in the back of the store. If this were a fascist-liberal tome like Al Frankens "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot", there would have been 500 copies stacked at the front of every store. Meanwhile, even the "mainstream media" reviews chosen by Amazon were dismissive. What Mr. Goldberg has attempted to do is tell liberals that if you want to uproot fascism in our midst, you best start by looking in the mirror and studying your own history on Eugenics, Abortion, Racism, Class Warfare, Political Correctness, etc. What is more fascist than getting wayward blacks to step back into line by threatening them with Sexual Harassment lawsuits (ie, Clarance Thomas, Juan Williams, and Bill Cosby!!!). To Mr. Thomas' credit, it didn't work on him but it sure seemed to work on Mr. Williams, formerly of the Washington Post, who hasn't said a kind word about conservatives since and on Mr. Cosby who has muted his community responsibility comments. While liberals have educated us all that WWII was a just war for freedom over fascism, what it really was as proven (but perhaps left unsaid), was a struggle for the ideological heart of socialism. As Mr. Goldberg did say, the Soviet propaganda machine (a fascistic organ if ever there was one) successfully painted Hitlerism and Mussolini Fascism as "right wing" and pro-capitalist when they were only such in comparison to Communism. Drawn to its logical conclusion, todays liberals who yell "fascist" at every turn relative to conservatism (ie, "classical liberalism") are in fact, communists. Three cheers for Mr. Goldberg. Its unfortunate that the liberal response to challenges of their orthodoxy is to stick their fingers in their ears and yell "nyah nyah nyah....".

A poorly researched book that ignores history in favor of partisan pablum for its target audience.

Anyone who knows anything about the history of nationalist populism (a better term for fascism) and its rise from the ashes of the losers of World War I knows full well that the notion of a paternal autocratic state with emphasis on nation, race, religion and creed took root in several countries at roughly the same time. Fascism and its brethren aren't left wing in the slightest and the fallacy put forth that Mussolini was a stealth socialist because of his affiliations in his teenage years is just ludicrous and ignores the reality that he later went and smashed the presses at his old paper and had socialists, communists and liberals rounded up en masse.

Horrible book unless you like being told you're right regardless of the facts.

This book shows what we Conservative and orthodox thinkers have known for a long time. The Left is not liberal, they are leftist. We are the true descendants of classical liberalism and the promotion of human dignity. The Leftist (self proclaimed liberals) have much in common, not only with their fascist-socialist past, but also, with Nazi eugenics. This is an undeniable truth. Every American should read this book carefully.

Aside from the political bickering, Jonah set out a thesis and went about defending it throughout the book. Of course, his references supported his thesis, however he was sure to make attempts at answering some of the criticisms. For fans of his articles on NRO, this is not his typical witty writing style, instead much more formal.

Some very thought provoking sections discuss the political platforms of Mussolini, Hitler, Wilson, FDR, JFK, and Johnson and compare them to today's political environment. Whether you agree or disagree with his position, Mr. Goldberg did an excellent job supporting his thesis with lots of supporting texts and documents. My only complaints were that he uses too much complicated language, making for a slow read and makes reference to obscure historical events that might require a history degree to follow.

"Liberal Fascism" is Jonah Goldberg's marvelously provacative, innovative and thorough book that looks at American history through a new lens: the lens, that is, of fascism. Goldberg argues, rather successfully and after an intense examination of the actual historical facts, that the ideology behind the Democratic Party and other "social engineers" has much in common and, in some cases, derives from the same ideology behind fascism. As Goldberg himself states, he does not intend to call liberals fasicts. He merely wants to point out the danger behind thinking as if we could create a perfect utopia at all, much less through poltical policy. Many fasict characteristics, Goldberg notes, are also observable among American political impulses: the need for strong leadership, the desire for a sense of community, equaling the playing field for everyone, etc. Goldberg is a clever guy, a fantastic writer and really knows his stuff. This important book spans a wide variety of study: historical and cultural, national and international. It should be treated with an open mind and the reader will truly be rewarded--stretched and challenged, but MUCH better informed.

Very smart book. Has some very unique and useful tools. I don't agree with everything but I like the book and I will use some parts. I try to treat people as I would have them treat me....The Golden Rule. But with trouble makers or bad people this book can be very helpful.

Why do you need this power in the first place? Here is a quote from 7 Habits, "Standing near the graves of famous people, we understand all the silly wars in which they fought."

I will not be surprised if this book is used as a required reading in terrorist camps to show the "real Americans". Clearly, it is against democracy, Christianity, and all other values.

Read 7 Habits by Covey instead.

this book is absolutely ridiculous, it was written for the idiot's notion of what they believe power is, and just affirms what the dim witted already suspect; "Use a person until they are no longer valuable to you......" AH HA! says the ignoramus who has just been convinced of the vercity of this childrens book.

Decent book but all the laws aint the greatest. Follow this book and you can get killed.

Many people have found books like these, essentially "how to manipulate people," to be useful in achieving certain goals. However, in my experiences, people that succeed through these techniques almost always seem to grow a void within themselves. One might be able to convince others to the point of submission, but are they really happy? Books like these do not offer advice on life balance and personal relationships. Do people really like you? What do others really think of you and your ideas?

Another point to think about, to take from Stephen Covey: How many on their deathbeds wished they'd spent more time at the office? Even Maslow at the end of his life put the happiness and fulfillment and contributions of his posterity (self-transcendence) at the top of his famous "hierarchy." What kind of overall life balance will manipulation techniques bring you?

Take into consideration another alternative: Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This book gives ideas on how to look at the world and yourself, and gives basis for a lifelong challenge in personal change. Practicing these habits can give you the "manipulation" you want through building genuine relationships all while being able to sleep at night knowing that you have real friends, self worth, and above all, a positive life balance.

This book is a classic - a (very) long novel that puts forth a cohesive presentation of her conservative point of view. Now, fifty (50) years later we can see the reality of her brilliance with the crumbling of our government and society.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is not just a novel; it is an intellectual illustration of the author's philosophy. It is also a suspense thriller, a mystery, a love story, and a self help book all rolled into one. It has been in continuous publication for over fifty years and people are still reading it. Why? Because though the philosophy is not perfect, it is not nearly as flawed as the other philosophies dished up and accepted for the last couple of thousand years. Ordinary man is not a worm; he is an individual and the values he adopts as an individual matter, they are the things that keep civilization moving, or freeze it into a static corpse. In reading Confucius one learns everyone and everything has a place and in this there is harmony, but there is no place for change. This is a major fault found in most philosophies and religious doctrines. The acceptable strategies for achieving happiness are all based on yesterday and today, none of them work when pitted against the only true constant of the universe, Change. Tomorrow always brings change, whether embraced or rejected, it comes and must be dealt with.
The characters in this story at the time of their creation were considered to be much larger than life, but life has gotten bigger since then and in today's world they feel only a little above real people we see in the news all the time. The story exposes the dark side of communism and the dangers of government meddling with the market, while inventors and entrepreneurs struggle to move the world into tomorrow. It begins with the sensing of change, the world is sliding into decay and stagnation. People have adopted cultural philosophies that are not logical and their civilization is not just slowing down, it's starting to fall backward. Instead of admiring achievement, people vilify it, feeling they should support those who can't achieve because this is a more noble way of behaving. Their philosophies are a lot like the recent acceptance of PC (politically correctness), where the truth and validity of an argument was not as important how it was stated and some things could not be discussed at all because such discussions were deemed not PC.
This is a book that will entertain and enlighten you and it could change the way you feel about those who criticize your achievements. At the time it was published the book had a message, but times have changed and interestingly enough the message has grown larger.

By far one of the best books I have ever read. Whether or not you agree with Rand's philosophy, this book will make you think.

Despite the ramblings of those who are hostile to Ayn Rand, and her passionate defense of human liberty, the fundamental issues she addresses are not that difficult to understand.

Do you believe that your life should be the property of others, to be disposed of as they see fit, or not? Ayn Rand took the stand that your life belongs to you, to be lived as you see fit.

Critics of Ayn Rand must agree, at least to some extent, with folks like Adolph Hitler (and his beneficent National Socialist party) that the individual should be considered the property of others (in this case, the state). These people really should think more carefully about the company they keep, at least on an intellectual level. But, then, what's a "little" slavery?

The first thing that I would like to note about the negative reviews is that there always seems to be disparaging remarks about the length of the book, over 1000 pages. Essentially, these reviewers are saying that Ms. Rand is belaboring her points. Well, the idea is to make you THINK about what is being said. It took me six months to read this the first time through; it was like a very rich meal that I took in courses. I recommend other readers consider doing the same.

I just read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett at nearly 1000 pages. According to many of the negative reviewers, Mr. Follett must have been belaboring his points about building cathedrals and surviving the tyranny of 13th century Europe (which, by the way, was the logical result of a Christian philosophy, fully applied).

To go on, many of the positive reviewers have done a great job of talking about some of the intricacies of the plot. What I would like to talk about is the significance of the philosophy in the character development. The heroes and villians are often described as cartoonish and one-dimensional because no one could be so idealistic; either to the positive or the negative. I disagree. Being from Northern California and currently living in Seattle, I am aware of many, many people that have devolved into the kind of creatures that Ms. Rand describes in her characters of Wesley Smoot, James Taggart and Betty Pope. Walk through the streets of Seattle or San Francisco and it is also easy to pick out the sullen, depressed, dismal faces of the nameless crowds she describes that cry out for the perverted "social justice" that society is currently idealizing.

I also know a few--a very few--of the Dagny Taggarts and the James Reardens and the Francisco d'Anconias of the world. They keep my hope for this world alive. And they have something in common. If they are not already explicitly Objectivists, when I describe the basic tenants of the philosophy (its really very simple to understand, with layers that are simply iterations of the three axioms upon which it is built) the singular response they give is "What else would you believe?" Really, those are the ones that give me the most hope. I've met two.

Keep in mind that this book was named as the second most influential book in the United States (after the Christian bible) in a survey conducted jointly by the Book of the Month Club and the Library of Congress. What that says is that the leaders and thinkers of this country are adopting this code or at least considering it important, whether they agree with it or not. If you would like to be a leader or a thinker, I suggest you hop on the bandwagon.

David Batson
Trader