change Books

I AM VERY PLEASED WITH MY PURCHASE OF THIS BIBLE. EXCELLENT SERVICE ALL THE WAY AROUND.

A copy of the Dore Bible is a fantastic idea, but the only reason to own it over any other version is for the stunning Dore images. In this version, the images come across as muddy and useless.

My wish would be for a future reworking of this version, except for the Dore reproductions to be the same quality as the Kindle screen savers.

That would be worth owning!

I really like the NASB translation. As for the bible itself, the letters are nice and big, and the hardcover is nice too. The only problems would be that the pages are a little on the thinner side and the words of Christ are not in red lettering. But despite this, I am very satisfied witht the product.

I had usd KJV all my life and when I joined a new SBC church I had found that they use NASB. When questioned. I was told to give it a try, So, not really knowing what I was going for I bought this version.

What I really wanted was a NASB "Study Version." I donated this one to my church when I found a study version locally.

A good read because of the larger print. So if you just want a NASB that won't cost you a fortune, get this one.

This electronic version of the Bible is not engineered for the Kindle. When you search for a text string you find it, but nowhere can you tell where you landed in the Bible. You would have to page forward or backward to find what book you are in, which, as Kindle users know, could take a long time. Needs a book reference somewhere, in the search results summary page or on the text page when you get there.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding an "alternative" perspective to non-profits. It is engaging and really makes you critically think about everything you have ever been "taught" about the "purpose" of non-profit organizations.

This book is a highly polemical look at the relation between nonprofits and revolutionary social change. I did not find most of the essays to be useful - too many were angry and their analysis shallow. It is true that large public foundations have short attention spans and are unlikely to fund truly revolutionary work - because they are embedded in and part of the social structure that benefits from the oppressions that revolutionary changes would seek to eliminate. I don't find this surprising or interesting - just obvious. However, all of essays in the book lump all foundations together - when in reality, private foundations are a different animal, and many small public foundations are helpful in supporting social change work.

If you are interested in understanding the ways large public foundations influence their grantees and the movements they are part of, I think American Foundations: An Investigative History by Mark Dowie is a much better book.

As an organizer working in and out of the confines of non-profit organizations, I give my highest recommendations for this extremely important collection of essays. I often wonder how I've gotten to a point where I spend less time in the community, and more time sitting in front of my computer writing grant proposals, calculating budgets and writing final reports for foundations and government agencies. As many of the authors in the book suggest, shouldn't we be accountable to our constituents rather than foundations, which serve as little more than tax shelters through which "white capital is circulated among white people and works to maintain systems of white supremacy"? Through the proliferation of non-profits and foundations, radical social movements in the US have been co-opted to a point where the movement eerily resembles the oppressive capitalist social order we claim to be challenging, giving rise to the Non-Profit Industrial Complex.

Collaboration is stifled when fierce competition for funding and stringent, narrow grant guidelines divide groups that are working towards the same goal. Perhaps most disheartening is the NPIC's power to shape our approaches and tactics for social change. As Dylan Rodriguez points out, "[m]ore insidious than the...constraints exerted by the foundation/state/non-profit nexus is the way in which [it]...grounds an epistemology--literally, a way of knowing social change and resistance praxis--that is difficult to escape or rupture." This epistemology is responsible for the belief that activists must conform to 501(c)(3) status for legitimacy and funding and that social services serve a greater need and purpose than the arduous task of social change.

Tiffany Lethabo King and Ewuare Osayande warn that "philanthropy never intends to fund revolutionary struggle that demands the just seizure of wealth, resources, and power that has been gained by exploiting the bodies, lives and land of people of color worldwide." The NPIC's tentacles reach far beyond the US. Movements in the Global South are already under the threat of becoming non-profitized and co-opted. As activists in the US, we have an obligation to continue this discourse, learn from one another's mistakes and organize beyond the NPIC.

The book is way to technical. I need to read it but it is boring as hell. Most of the text is spent on minutia about obscure details. Buy something else. This book bits

This book is a collection of essays by global warming skeptics. It's pretty much the same old rhetoric that the global warming deniers repeat as often as anyone will listen. As usual, they downplay the green house gas effect on climate change and suggest unproven alternative theories like solar variation. The introduction by Michaels goes over the supposed problems with the consensus. They claim there are misleading statements in the IPCC report. They also knock Mann's "Hockey Stick" graph as being misleading and incorrect but again they only offer their opinion. They dedicate a significant part of the book to undermining Mann's work and playing-up the Hockey Stick routine for full-effect. They also focus on the observational differentials in surface temperatures compared to atmospheric temperatures. There is also considerable time spent on the notion that increases in global temperature have an only a minor effect on weather (Tell that to the people of the gulf coast and south Asia.)

Most of these arguments have already been refuted by several prominent climate scientists. They might gain a following among those who already deny anthropogenic global warming. This book is sure to please them.

They reach the conclusion that there is still much work to be done to fully understand climate change and that policy makers should avoid making hasty decisions that could result in economic problems.

I agree there is still much work to be done to fully understand our changing climate. I strongly disagree with the idea that we shouldn't take preventive measures to reduce the impact of global warming. Not all actions to reduce CO2 emissions will necessarily have a negative impact on the economy. To the contrary, the renewable energy industry could see explosive growth. There is also something to be gained from reducing our dependence on fossil fuels for energy production.

For those of us who really care about the environment and the future of our civilization, this book will have little or no impact on our views of climate change. The only thing it might shatter is the record for the time a book goes to press to the time it goes into the recycling bin. It is a boorish read filled with flawed logic.

A well written book that clearly illustrates to even the non-scientist the true science behind global climate change issues. The book challenges with proper scientific methods and insightful questions the messages about global warming (or the lack thereof) put forth by the media and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC.) It exposes not only the truths, but also the contradictions, misconceptions, and even complete fallacies in the information that has made it (through the media) to the general public. A must read for anyone who believes that we are in "a time of scientific assessment, not a time of impulsive policy actions targeted at a problem that may not even be a problem..."

Further proof that the circumstances of the earth's temperature aren't as simple as Al Gore et al would have you believe. Remember that the global warming alarmists including NOAA, IPCC and the rest have predicted that devastating hurricanes would impact the US over the past two years due to global warming. There has been almost no hurricane activity much less even one major storm strike the US during that time. If they are wrong about even one thing such as hurricanes that they were so certian about how can their opinion be trusted on such major issues as overall global temperature.

Starts with an excellent summary and scientific expose of the myths and hype driving media and political campaigns that pedal the nonsensical myth of human-induced warming. Rigorous analysis and summary of IPCC's false and/or misleading statements that distort and even contradict the recommendations of its own scientists. Each author in this book is backed by numerous, detailed references to scientific papers.
Intriguing and interesting analysis of the nonsensical hockey stick graph that is driving the IPCC, climate policy and Al Gore's movie. Exposes the lack of science and lack of credibility in the manufacturing of what I can now see is a baseless, spurious graph that deserves our condemnation.
Individual chapters written by experts in their field of climatology and science. Direct, balanced, detailed and comprehensive. Most chapters relate their data to the real world to demonstrate the data's significance. Graphs aid in interpreting and understanding data.
This book is a testament to the beauty, intricacy, complexity, simplicity, power and grandeur of nature.

Mary Pipher brings her strong sense of self-awareness and social activism to the world of writing. Her words and insights here are clear, and seem designed to motivate the aspiring writing to go for it. I appreciate Ms. Pipher's exhortations to make a difference by writing as authentically as i can. She also has a great list of resoures (books and websites) which are listed at the end of the book. I would recommend this volume to anyone who desires to write or speak in a powerful way that can effect change in the society around them.

Writers want to impact readers. We want to change minds, change behavior, change the way people see the world. Mary Pipher assures us that we can make a difference. But it doesn't automatically happen.

She challenges us first of all to know ourselves. Where did we come from? Why should people listen to us? What unique perspective do we bring to the literature table? Identify our passions, and we may be on the way to finding our voice. But Pipher does far more than challenge us. She offers an approach. She warns against spouting off without proper thought to the preparation of our argument.

Pipher helps us to write in a calm and gentle manner that will be palatable to readers and offers phrases to soften our approach. If we respect readers' viewpoints, they may come to respect us as writers--even if they disagree with what we say. Pipher points out tools, such as literary references, quotes and homey stories, which help to build a winning argument. Writing to Change the World is a must read for any writer who hopes to connect with readers in a way that makes a difference in our human experience. Sisterhood of Faith: 365 Life-Changing Stories about Women Who Made a Difference

Words are powerful tools many a writer has used to spark revolutions, but not every would-be writer has the fire built in for such an endeavor. Plenty of how-to titles discuss how to write an essay; but very few discuss how to incorporate world-changing language and ideas into a smooth text that inspires. That's where Writing to Change the World comes in, offering a manual for those who want to inspire social change and blending personal anecdotes and quotes form other writers who have successfully achieved such transformation with success. A 'must' for any public or school library strong in writer's guides.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A woman in my writing group said she wanted her writing to change the world. Right away, I knew that was possible. I remembered Nelson Mandela's speech for instance, written by Marianne Willliamson; the words of Martin Luther King; and the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. I thought of poetry like Mary Oliver's Wild Geese: "Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination..."

I also thought of "writing to change the world" in another way. As we observe the world inside us and around us, we are also changing the world. In becoming aware of who we are and how we affect and are affected by people and events around us, we are conscious and in tune. With all these mind deliberations and imaginings on the subject of saving the world through words, I was pleased to hear Mary Pipher had written a book on the subject. Reading Writing to Change the World affirmed my belief that stories and the written word are healing and necessary.

As a therapist and a writer, Pipher's listening and observational skills are especially acute. As she points out, "Psychotherapy has a great deal to teach us about making connections and fostering change." Very often, we can label people different from ourselves as "other" and set out to proclaim our way as the only way. "A writer's job," Pipher says, "is to tell stories that connect readers to all the people on earth, to show these people as the complicated human beings they really are, with histories, families, emotions, and legitimate needs. We can replace one-dimensional stereotypes with multidimensional individuals with whom our readers can identify."

Pipher's advice is gentle and understanding, yet firm. If we are to proclaim our stance on something, there probably will be people opposed. To approach the subject, we need to relate to the people opposed so as to find some common ground. I kept thinking of Pipher's words in relation to my own city, where downtown residents were opposed to a breakfast program in their neighbourhood. As I composed a letter to the editor of our daily newspaper, I wanted to put a human face on the individuals who could use a free meal and some companionship to begin their day. That heart opening was natural to me. It was the opposing neighbours I needed to find the common ground with, and that common ground, I realized, was fear.

"Writing to connect is 'change writing,' which, like good therapy, creates the conditions that allow people to be transformed. Its goal is not to evoke one particular set of ideas, feelings, and actions, but rather to foster awareness and growth."

Therapists have been described as purveyors of hope. Pipher sees change writers as purveyors of hope as well. Fostering awareness and growth is really key to this book, and when you think of it, key to our own writing life--for ourselves and for the people who read us. One of Pipher's suggestions in her chapter, "Know Thyself," is to take inventory of "your own early lessons about the world, your hopes and fears, your life themes, even your sense of calling" so as to think about how you came to be who you are today. She shares her story of being the oldest child "in a big, complicated family." Pipher is like the mentor you may not have had, encouraging you and reminding you that your particular life experiences mean you have something to say that no one else can. She offers assignments to help you find your voice. And she poses the question... What needs doing that only you can do?

"The Writing Process" is described in Part 2 of the book, wherein Pipher shares tips for getting started. It's all very helpful advice and reassuring to writers. You're not alone in having to face your internal critic for instance. She also discusses getting organized, doing research, and conducting interviews.

Part 3 is all about calls to action. It describes the approaches you can take to get your particular message across most effectively, whether it's in the form of letters, speeches, personal essays, blogs, music, or poetry. I was reassured and inspired by this book, even more so as I made my way through it again to write this review. "The finest thing we can do in life," Pipher says, "is to grow a soul and then use it in the service of humankind." What a beautiful call to action.

__________________________

Mary Pipher, Ph.D., lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, with her husband, Jim, near their children and grandchildren. She is the author of seven books, including the New York Times bestsellers Reviving Ophelia, The Shelter of Each Other, and Another Country. Her work has been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and she has lectured to groups and conferences around the world. Dr. Pipher is interested in how American culture affects the mental health of its people; her writing has been influenced by her rural background, her training in psychology and anthropology, and her years as a therapist.

by Mary Ann Moore
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviewsorg
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I've read a lot of books on writing, but never have I read one that inspired me as much as this one. Writing to Change the World has a bold title, but one that Mary Pipher, of Reviving Ophelia fame, more than lives up to. For anyone who gravitates toward writing but is looking for a bit of direction and inspiration, I urge you to check this out. Pipher reveals her own path toward writing later in life, and gives numerous examples of authors, poets, playwrights, and others who, in various forms, used words to inspire others. She means this both in the political sense of campaigning for a cause, but also in a wider way, giving us a way to look at the world around us and see the potential for change and connection. I especially liked that, while her own liberal politics are in full effect, this is not a manifesto or a guide to writing propaganda. In fact, it's the very opposite. "Writing to connect is `change writing,' which, like good therapy, creates the conditions that allow people to be transformed. Its goal is not to evoke one particular set of ideas, feelings, and actions, but rather to foster awareness and growth," Pipher writes. Through this lens, I was able to see the power of nuance, of not necessarily trying to know or say everything in any given piece of writing, but simply to reach readers, whether they're on "your side" or not.

Pipher makes this kind of writing accessible; she's not urging you to write the next Gettysburg Address (though that gets mentioned) or landmark social history, but to write something that feeds the world, and your soul. She also gives concrete advice about how to choose details to illustrate your points, how to be concise, and when/where you'll have the most impact (such as contrasting her letter with a friend's letter written to a board to save a local prairie from being turned into a motocross track).

Without overdoing it, Pipher brings her therapist training to work here. The very concept of "change writing," is, as she points out, daunting and difficult, but as she also points out, very worthwhile. When she write at the end, "The finest thing we can do in life is to grow a soul and then use it in the service of humankind," I was completely won over. These more philosophical parts of the book aren't only about writing, but when applied to the task, make perfect sense, because in order to want to change the world, you must first be aware of what is around you. Especially for those of us who often write out of duty or routine, or perhaps for whom writing has lost some of its initial magic, this book, with its many ways into the task, will get you back on track and believing in the potential for writing to, indeed, change at least a world, if not "the" world.

After reviewing several books on Strategic Execution, I was continuously left with the feeling that the authors had ommitted a key ingredient. This book has convinced me that that key ingredient was "Alignment".
This book was published 10 years ago (OK, I am embarrassed that I have only just got around to reading it) but it is as significant today as it was when it was first published. Probably more so considering the rapid state of change that most companies are faced with today.
It is a simple read, and the concepts are easy to follow. What I enjoyed most about the book is that the suggestions are practical and you can take them and implement them immediately within an organization.
I noticed that one of the readers who has reviewed the book said that the book was required reading for his MBA course. 10 years on, I still think it should be required reading for any business executive.

I'm always looking for visual ways of understanding critical elements of strategy. The Power of Alignment offers a very helpful way of thinking about four important ingredients in keeping the main thing, the main thing. Vertical alignment, the relationship between your strategy and the people on your team, "energizes...provides direction, and offers opportunity for involvement." Horizontal alignment refers to the connection between your processes and customers. Taken together the two measures provide some great insight into the development of genuine alignment.

One of the most interesting elements of the book is a 16 question diagnostic tool that is designed to provide a graphic view of your organization's alignment. Very helpful!

Great book! The basic premise is that once a business has a raison d'etre, or a 'main thing', that profits are maximized by the alignment of four key business areas: Strategy, Processes, People, and Customers. Built on this premise are actionalbe ways to build a self-aligning organization. I got the sense of discovering truth while I read this book. Leadership isn't really about power, it is about responsibility. This book shows a manager at any level how to align his area to the overall strategy of the company and to the end products of the company. It shows how processes should be designed and what factors should be used to reward, recognize and evaluate employees. Great food for thought and realistic to implement.

Five Stars

Quite simply, this book was one of the best business management and leadership books I have ever read. It was well-written and expertly balanced management and leadership concepts with real-world examples of effectively aligned organizations, such as Federal Express and Southwest Airlines. This book should be read and discussed by leaders and managers at all levels, especially by mid- to senior-level executives.

In brief, alignment deals with the relationships among the people, processes, strategy, and customers of an organization relative to that organization's purpose, or what the authors called "the main thing." Alignment is both a noun, a state of being, and a verb, a set of actions. Vertical alignment connects organizational strategy with the people responsible for transforming that strategy into meaningful work. Horizontal alignment deals with understanding your customers' wants and then creating processes to deliver what your customers want, when and how they want it. Effective leadership nurtures the organizational culture that is built around and upon "the main thing," and it is this culture and leadership combination that drives and sustains self-aligning organizations in turbulent times.

The authors' analogy of landing a plane helped me to visualize the dynamics involved with organizational alignment. To land a plane, a pilot must adjust and react to multiple simultaneous factors and conditions (i.e. air speed, altitude, angle of approach, wind speed and direction, etc.) and then understand how a change in one will affect the others. Likewise, to align an organization, a leader must adjust and react to feedback about his people, processes, strategy, and customers, and then understand how a change in one will affect the others.

The authors clearly and thoroughly explained the alignment factors and conditions throughout the book. They followed their explanations with incisive questions for readers to ask about themselves and their organizations to assess their degree of alignment. Those questions were definitely a highlight of the book for they really helped to stimulate my thinking and should help inspire organizational progress to alignment. Another highlight was the appendices that contained examples of actual tools and products used and created by some of the aligned organizations studied by the authors.

The inside back cover jacket sums up why I give the book my highest recommendation: "Essential reading for all managers and executives, "The Power of Alignment" offers a new way to reestablish focus and sustained energy, and is a dynamic approach for staying balanced and achieving extraordinary levels of performance."

I found this book easy reading, concise, and presented it's basic premise well with specific examples and good suggestions for creation and implementation.

Working as a Director in Managed Care for several pharmaceutical companies, it creates a focus for any organization and a roadmap for the future(physician, health plan, pharmaceutical company) to avoid many of the mistakes and pitfalls that have already been experienced in an attempt to align with the ever changing healthcare landscape.

For those who do account management, it provides a construct and roadmap to use to optimize alignment with internal customers and maximize resources to create value and return with the external customers (....and their customers.) As the authors point, alignment is a continuing process, not a single event in time. Many companies become quickly aligned with the past, and misaligned with the present & future, and can not sustain the competitive edge because they forget this basic premise that the authors reinforce.

The concepts are basic and fundamental, but usually overlooked and forgotten in the day to day business of rapidly growing companies and changing environments.

This is not your grandmother's grammar book. Grammar for the Soul captures the love of language and the desire to make writing more effective, but it's also fun and delicious. This book will not only be on my college class reading list, but also will be the gift of choice for my friends and family. Move over, Strunk & White, make room for Grammar for the Soul.

A wealth of info for aging boomers. I enjoyed the book. It's a good read.

I feel the book could have been better if presented in a slightly less bland style. But I think the subject matter and the advice dished out compensated for the droll writing style.

Corbett has helped many and now with Portfolio Life, many have hope. When you finish reading this book have a glass of milk, sleep well, and start rereading it the next day with your pen and pencil...and don't forget the coffee can!

Conventional retirement books tend to focus on the event of the end of normal full-time employment, followed by some sort of activity-oriented shift into hobbies and possibly consulting and/or Board Membership. On the other hand, Portfolio Life makes the reader focus on thinking about how we want to spend our time, what balance of activities would be fulfilling, and what rewards (psychic and material) we expect. It suggests not an activity-oriented process, but rather what might be called a liberal enlightenment process. If done successfully, it provides a road map (admittedly and rightfully being updated from time to time) for the rest of our lives. And in Portfolio Life, Corbett provides the reader with useful and practical advice to manage the process and come up with a strategy that can be implemented.

Don't do it! A book professing to show a new way of life - to lead you to your new (older) destiny? No - just full of platitudes and bland auto-biography - don't waste you money; use it to get a personal coach instead

David Corbett's Portfolio Life was a breath of real fresh air to me. My own retirement had been a muddled mess for a year or more when this book was suggested to me. Read in consort with Marc Freeman's Encore, it will stir your imagination to a better understanding of the creative possibilities of this next stage of life. I cannot recommend it enough and do, in fact, recommend it to people on almost a daily basis.

I saw myself, and so many others I know, in the pages of this book, and found myself coming to a deeper level of understanding and compassion for everyone.

Learning about what drives patterns and behaviors in life, has brought profound meaning, resolution and revelation to key relationships in my life - both past and present - as well as given me tools to better relate and respond to others to manifest more harmony in my life.

I have more understanding about why both my marriages failed and I've also come to understand what I will need in a partner to sustain a lasting marriage and how to see signs of it in his face. My relationship with my school-age daughter has improved drastically because I now understand what makes her tick and I know how to better anticipate and respond to her in ways that nurture her based on her special, elemental nature - because it's written all over her face!

This excellent book is based on ancient Chinese wisdom tweaked to accommodate the needs of modern psyches. Well written, organized, and photographed, it describes techniques that have nothing to do with "reading the future" or performing amusing parlor tricks. Instead, they may give you a new ability to understand and accept yourself and every other being on the planet. While this introduction cannot go as deep as Jean's workshops (see http://wisdomofyourface.com/), it provides a fine basic text from which to begin your exploration of a fascinating premise.

If everyone had an idea of what to "read" in a face, people would have the insight to be kinder to one other because they would inherently understand the dynamics in each other. We all "read" people all the time - it's part of our human genetic survival coding! - but if we applied even the basic techniques of face reading in our relationships, it's likely that we could increase the quality of our current (and future) relationships. Not to mention be a little nicer to ourselves in the morning mirror! :)

Having been privileged to study with Jean personally over the last few years, as a result of both her mastery and generous teaching style, I've found that reading a face tells me more than listening to the words coming from it. Be more connected to your world by reading the faces within - this is the best book available to help you do just that!

~ Lynn Scheurell, Creative Catalyst, [...]

The Wisdom of Your Face is a major contribution to the art of Chinese Face Reading. The clarity of its approach, with pictures to exemplify each characteristic, makes it iviting for all. If you have any interest in Chinese Face Reading, this book is a "must" for your library!