change Books

So glad I read this book. Kingsbury is a very gifted writer and her message of patriotism, love and redemption is quite remarkable. Highly recommended!

This was my first ever Karen Kingsbury book.
I'm a Francine Rivers fan. And I hate cheesy Christian books, so i'm happy to say that Kingsbury is not cheesy or preachy. I would be happy to read her other books except this one has scarred me for life.

I have NEVER CRIED so much over a book. B/c I didn't know there was a book before this one, the love story between Shane and Lauren took a back seat for me. The love story between Emily and Justin took my breath away. I see what other reviewers are saying- that Justin is too perfect, but still i must be an idiot because i felt like he was real.

And when Justin had to leave for Iraq and say goodbye to Lauren I was crying a river. Kingbury was dropping hints that he wasn't going to make it while over there. That made me antsy... so I did what i never do and looked in the back of the book. I couldn't believe he died! That took my breath away. And I cried the entire 2nd half of that book. Seriously. Had to have my husband hold me, had to call a friend to recommended the book and tell her never to recommend another book.

The reason I only gave it 4 stars and not 5 is because of the ending. Kingsbury DRAGGED us through the stinkin mud with his death and funeral.... and then in a few pages I'm supposed to understand who Joe is, how Emily can love again, and feel for them? Nope- can't do it. I wish she would have spent more time on who Joe was so that we could get over Justin better.

I thought EVEN NOW was a great book, but WOW . . . EVER AFTER was incredible. I read the last hundred pages through blurry eyes and a wad of tissues. EVER AFTER takes up where EVEN NOW leaves off. Emily's parents, Lauren and Shane are finally reunited. But their opposite views on the war, continue to be an obstacle to their happily ever after. In the meantime, sharing the patriotic views of her father, Emily gets a job on an army base and soon falls in love with Justin Baker. When Justin is deployed for Iraq, and Lauren decides to leave Shane and go back to reporting the war abroad, Emily feels her world is turning upside down. Now, two of the people she loves the most are in the most volatile place in the world. Justin - fighting for what he believes in, and her mother - reporting what she sees as a waste of time and human life. When Emily receives devastating news, her faith is put to the test and her hopes for a happily ever after. This was a great book. It sums up what I assume are the feelings of many Americans. It gives perspective to the war we rage on foreign soil to preserve our freedoms and give freedoms to the people who have never experienced it. Great book, Karen! I can only hope that someday my writing might affect others the way yours has affected me.

Emily wasn't looking for love but it found her anyway. Justin was a young reservist, on his way back to Iraq for his second tour of duty; he wasn't interested in dating until he met Emily. Soon the two became inseparable and made plans to marry.

Then Justin came home from Iraq draped in a flag, everything changed.

When Shane and Lauren couldn't reach an agreement about the war, she went back to Iraq as a war correspondent. Justin showed her how much our troops were helping the Iranian people and her perspective began to change.

Justin's death throw her into confusion until she realizes, she can't walk away from love again because life offers no guarantees.

I loved everything about this book. While there are many tragic moments, true love wins and there is a happily Ever After.

Wow.

I totally wasted my money purchasing this book, but I read Even Now and I was curious. I've pretty much lost all interest in anything Kingsbury writes. It's the same book every time!! You can skip entire chapters in this book because they are so full of contrived drama - contrived because they cover and recover the same ground over and over. And the characters are really poorly developed and so unrealistic it's not even funny.

I can't comprehend completely why, but Kingsbury is an excessively popular writer - mostly due to her ability to pull readers in with their emotions, tugging at their heartstrings with dramatic and tragic stories. Unfortunately, she uses the same old lines in every book. This book really bothered me, though. The "patriotism" was so closely linked to being a Christian and supporting the war in Iraq/soldiers. (I couldn't figure out which was the point she was trying to get across; it seemed to change from page to page at times.) From this book you get the impression that all soldiers are Christians, they all care about helping the Iraqi people and that nothing but good happens over there. Kingsbury constantly berates the media for being one-sided, but this book is just as biased - in the opposite (and also unrealistic) direction.

Kingsbury has gone too far in this book in my opinion. The implication to me is that Christianity equals patriotism equals support for the war in Iraq without any intelligent discussion of the very real concerns that people have. I think that, perhaps, Kingsbury should stay out of certain hot button issues unless she is fully prepared to offer a thoroughly informed picture, even if she takes a side. This just came across as blindly supportive of one side of an extremely complex and difficult situation with the attitude that there is only black or white and no gray involved ('either you're with us or against us" mentality).

In my opinion, if you want to read a book with real substance, Kingsbury isn't the right author for you.

This is a wonderful book. If you have a hard time coming up with your own prayers this book is perfect for you. Everything we could possibly be grateful for or need help with is covered in this book. Thanks again, Stormie

Having read The Power of a Praying Woman, I decided to give this book a try. It is seriously the best book I've ever read. It has helped God and the Bible and Praise and Worship changed my life like no other book (except the Bible) has ever. Omartian teaches very clear ways to Praise God no matter what, and I have already seen the ways it has worked in my life and the blessing of God that have resulted from it. (I just realized I sound like a bad informercial, so I will stop here). Anyway, I've been recommending this book to EVERYONE I know, so do yourself a favor and get this book!

This book is really life-changing, at least from my own experience. I bought copies for relatives, I was so excited about the power of praise and thanksgiving as shown in this book. Try it - I hope you like it.

I found Good To Great very helpful and since I work in a church setting this monograph filled in some of the gaps. I highly recommend this book.

This book (actually I listened to the CD version) would have been a useful chapter or two published as part of the original "Good To Great" book. Unfortunately, I didn't think that it stood up well on its own. I was hoping for some sort of "aha" moment, but this 'monograph' failed to deliver. Maybe Jim Collins and his team were not able to do the same in-depth research on non-profits as was done on the Corporations for "Good To Great".
Hmmm . . . I was disappointed and thought I overpaid for the relative value I got out of 'Social Sectors'.

The author is a colleague of my husband's. Frankly, I had a bit of an attitude about this book ten years ago after a day long seminar because I was ignorant and felt Russell might be overly confining God. Spring semester 2008 it was my text book for Biblical Interpretation and Spiritual Formation at Biola University. Midway through the book I found myself apologizing to Walt Russell for my previous attitude and utter ignorance and told him how much this book has helped me correctly read, understand and apply the Bible in my life. He received my confession with great amusement and humility. This book will help you understand how we all mis-read and mis-apply scripture in ingnorance. Russell is rock solid in his qualifications & knowledge as a scholar and this is a great book written for the common man. Easy read; IMPORTANT read.

After hearing some audio of Dr. Russell, I purchased his book and found it very relative to Bible endeavors. Without criticizing or comparing him to others, I found it very insightful. If you read this Mr. Russell, thanks-Mike

Dr. Russell has served as professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology since 1990. Among the courses taught by Dr. Russell is Hermeneutics (the art and science of biblical interpretation). Playing With Fire: How the Bible Ignites Change in Your Soul, exemplifies why Dr. Russell is such a respected professor by his students and fellow faculty members. In a succinct, engaging, and accurate format, he presents crucial methods needed in developing a balanced approach for proper understanding and application of the Bible. This book represents much of the content of his course on hermeneutics, a required course for all seminary students (for good reasons). Carefully interwoven into the fabric of methodology are the aspects of spiritual formation, often neglected in hermeneutics. One will especially profit from chapter 1 and Dr. Russell's explanation of how the western existential worldview "tints our perspective," and also from chapter 4 where he explains the use of Letio Divina (spiritual reading). I have taught both Bible survey and hermeneutics for several years, and it is without hesitation that I recommend Dr. Russell's book. One's Bible reading will be markedly enriched after reading and studying Playing With Fire.
M. Adler
Ph.D. Student, Talbot School of Theology

First, let me say that I read this book and Fee's and Stuart's book "How to Read the Bible for all its Worth" in the same month. My analysis: Although they were written in the same style and utilize similar material, I thought "Playing with Fire" was not quite as clear and not as thought-provoking as "Read the Bible." Truly Dr. Russell is a thinker--I am fully impressed with their Bible program at Biola--and if I had not read "Read the Bible" at the same time, perhaps I would have liked his book more than I did. Russell does utilize some beneficial charts and makes several good points throughout. However, while this book could be beneficial, I hestitate to recommend it when there is a better book on the same subject available to you.

Dr. Walt Russell's book, Playing With Fire, seeks to counter-act the existential interpretive method of scripture (or any literature for that matter). He is also interested in dispelling of the postmodernist idea about intentionality and content with the text. In other words, he rejects Derrida's view that the "meaning is outside of the text" and the modern existentialist view that the meaning resides in the text itself and is open to just about any interrpetation (regardless of how crazy it may be). In contrast, Russell offers a helpful hermeneutic that seeks to understand Scripture in terms of the genre. For example, one would interpret the Epistles of Paul differently than a historical narrative such as Joshua. It is all about what the author has in mind that we need to be concerned about. If we read a section from Scripture and find that Jesus calms the storm out at sea, we are not to interpret that to mean Jesus "wants to calm the storms of my our lives." This is what Russell essentially is attempting to reject.

Russell also explains the different types of ways to study. For example, in devotional reading, not much background information is necessary as compared to in depth work. He brings this around with similarly with the genres. For example, not as much information is needed for the poetic peices, as is necessary for the the prophetic books. He does a lot of work on comparing context vs pretext, top-down method, what he thinks are bibilcal ways of going about studying the word (meditations), etc.

The second half of the book consists of the application of Russell's method to Scripture in the various genres, where he points out certain information that enables you to better follow how the text should be interpreted. Russell is going to be interpreting this in light of his overarching view that, God has a plan that He is working out in human history to establish His Kingdom on earth and to bless all peoples of the world through faith, thus ultimately glorifying Himself. It should be pointed out (and this is crucial) that Russell's hermeneutic (as he presents it) is the method of progressive dispensationalists. For example, questions like "were the promises made to the church in the mind of the OT authors? No, so the promises are to be given to Jewish ethnic Israel." This is ultimatley why I reject Russell's method, but I think he has the right intentions on refuting the modern existential world view.

Over all, I think Russell is a good scholar and a good thinker (despite my many disagreements with him). I would recommend him for pro-dispensationalists but also suggest reading people like Vern Poythress and Gorden Fee as well.

The author, a scientist, actually did of OK job of keeping me interested in the book. The thing is... the discussion wasn't technical enough to warrant considering on that level. And perhaps it's just me, but it the author didn't provide any strong opinions or speculation of what may have happened and what may happen... just "layman" (weak) facts about how the tests were performed and what it probably means.

I think it would have been much better if the author would have included an extra couple chapters in the end with just some interesting ideas in a story form of "what happened and what's going to happen."

As it is, if it wanted to be a technical book, it's not technical enough. For entertainment, it's not entertainment enough. In the middle without any strong points in either direction is a bad place to be.

I found this book unreadable.

I don't often say that about a book. I can slog through the Code of Federal Regulations with the best of them. I've edited fiction for publication, and scientific reports. Alley's prose is some of the worst I have ever read. After 41 pages, I gave up. I was nauseated.

Technically, Alley makes some good points. His knowlege is first hand and primary observations. However, his prose is stilted and right out of the 17th Century. I got the impression he tried to make a travel memoir out of his scientific investigations. If he really wanted to make a true memoir, he should have split the scientific from the experiential, either as discrete sections or entire books. The down side to that, he would have be more sophisticated with his writing methods, possibly including other people's observations and dialog in his memoirs and less preachy in his science. No such prose appears in this book. Barf!

This book is a waste of my time and good paper. Shame on Richard Alley, Princeton Press, and most of all his editors! Um, well if had any editors, that is . . .

The Two-Mile Time Machine is a fascinating look into one of the most important scientific endeavors in recent history, the extraction of a two-mile ice core in Greenland that gives us clues to the past earth climate, with some startling revelations on how climate has changed abruptly in the past, and could do so in the near future. Very well-written first-hand account that's easy to read, steering clear of dense technical jargon that has hampered similar books.

If you are interested in learning more about global warming and climate change, this book is valuable background information on some of the science behind why scientists have made the recent global warming predictions that give concern about abrupt climate change, tipping points, and positive feedback cycles. This book, however, steers clear of making any bold predictions. It's a very even, balanced look at the results of the Greenland ice core analysis.

Alley really knows how to write. This book is about the ice core record of past climate, the adventure of collecting the ice cores in Greenland, what drives climate change, and a bit about global warming. He makes analogies to everyday situations that humorously and clearly explain the science. A fun read.

An excellent book in many ways, I'll mark the author down because he didn't answer questions he raised in my mind. For example, on page four he says that the climate in Greenland became fifteen degrees warmer in one decade 11,500 years ago! But he doesn't develop the point. I want to know what happens when the climate suddenly becomes that much warmer. We're worried about the extinction of the polar bear because the climate has gotten 5 degrees warmer over the last century. How did the polar bear survive a 15 degree jump in temperature?

Secondly, the author makes the point that, for the last 10,000 years the world has been in a warm period of little climate change. His chart on page 9 shows that the average temperature on the Greenland icecap Geenland during this period has been about 25 F below zero, whereas the "normal" temperature during the last 100,000 years has been much more variable and usually between 35-75 F below zero (page 119). The fact that we are now -- and have been since before civilization began -- in an "abnormal" climatic period seems to me to call for more speculation as to why and as to what the world was like when Greenland was so cold.

Those criticisms aside, the book is excellent in describing the author's work coring ice in Greenland to discover climatic changes. In the last few chapters he broadens the subject to consider why those changes may have taken place, notably through a lucid examination of the "North Atlantic Conveyor Belt."

Smallchief

ACTION-INQUIRY is a great book with lots of useful concepts. The editorial and other reviews focus on the content and I won't repeat a lot of that. However, I have some other comments to make that may be useful and I can describe my experience applying the ideas in daily life.

The authors introduce the idea that every action is an inquiry and every inquiry is an action. The premise of the book is that you need to be in inquiry in every moment at different levels to make the best choices and approach decisions with full awareness. This is a useful concept and it is illustrated throughout the book with many real-life business examples.

As a former director in a large company, I can say that these are practical ideas that if applied could be very transformational to an organization. The challenge is to really impliment them and not just pay lip service to the concepts. This must begin with the leaders. If they don't buy into the model, it will be difficult to get other people onboard, but not impossible. The book is about each individual being a change agent through action-inquiry.

What I didn't like about the book is that I found there were too many examples to illustrate the same basic concepts, there was also quite a bit of repetition of concepts and an unnecessary use of jargon where plain everyday language would have done just fine.

I think this book could have been half the length and been just as effective. I also think the author could have presented his ideas more clearly and concisely. In places, he uses different language for the various levels of inquiry and this tends to make the flow more confusing than it has to be. In the next revision, it would be good to see some of these issues addressed.

However, I still recommend this book to business and other leaders. In fact, it is useful for anyone who wants to live with more awareness and choice through tuning into various levels of inquiry in the midst of action. Basically, we are talking about taking a systems approach to life where we have practices that give us access to better quality feedback. This is the essence of the book.

Does everyone in your organization do the best they can, as they see it, yet the organization still fails to achieve its desired results? Action Inquiry shows why this often happens and how to convert this seeming paradox into a transformational change, taking everyone and the organization to the next level of performance.

Whether we look at the level of the individual, project, organization, network, or society, we each follow a path of development over time. For example, I think about the world in a different way today than I did when I was 10, 20 or 30. Likewise, my organization sees the world different after 10 years of success than we did as a startup. Based on over forty years of observation in the field, Bill Torbert and his associates find that we often get stuck in early levels of understanding of the world, even as we grow older. While it's obvious that it is appropriate to act like a teenager when you are 16 and not when you are 30, when we apply this same developmental logic to organizational life, the authors find that most organizations get stuck in early levels of development (like the teenager) that were appropriate in the first years and not in later years.

To show us what can be done about this and its implications, the authors provide many examples of how the action inquiry approach helped these individuals and organizations grow to the next level, taking on a broader understanding of the reality that faced them, which led to greater value being created for all.

We can see that the evidence is mounting: those leaders who understand and work with an action inquiry approach to leadership and development create significantly more value for their organizations in the short term for the long term, sustainably. Based on rigorous theory and scientific evidence, this is the art and science of transformational leadership for leaders who can handle the truth.

Action Inquiry offers a fresh approach to helping individuals and organizations learn in the midst of the cut and thrust of daily action. Bill Torbert and Associates detail a highly accessible process for transforming power into action. Through real-life examples, they illustrate how action inquiry increases personal integrity, relational mutuality, company profitability, and long-term organizational and environmental sustainability.

I grew up in the desert around Yuma, Arizona, but, while still a great fan of deserts, I always wished for more contact with the sea. Unfortunately my ideal oceanic habitat is under major attack around the world. During my early youth I often read that the sea contained vast renewable resources which, unlike oil, gas, coal and metals, were inexhaustible. These books were wrong about this, as the collapse of the Atlantic fisheries over the last decade have shown, not to mention the ongoing collapse of the Pacific coast salmon fisheries, especially in California.

Sylvia Earle, who was appointed as Chief Scientist at NOAA by the George H. W. Bush administration in 1990 and was retained by the Clinton administration until 1992, is an expert on the sea and its biota. She also pioneered in some major advances of deep sea exploration, including actually living in an underwater laboratory and taking part in record- breaking untethered deep sea diving. In "Sea Change: A Message of the Oceans" she puts her finger exactly on the problems faced by oceanic life-a classic "tragedy of the commons".

Earle describes the exploration and exploitation of the oceans from a personal perspective, which I think is a plus. It makes the book more readable and interesting. I only wish that humans had followed her advice on saving the oceans, given in 1995, but not yet implemented, despite the growing understanding that time is running out.

I picked up Dr. Earle's book at the University of Washington book store while on vacation in Seattle and Vancouver. Her points were well illustrated by the problems surrounding the salmon fisheries in Washington and the possible fate of the local pods of orcas ("killer whales") off Vancouver that depend on them for food. I thought of these issues as I watched the orcas break the surface around me, occasionally also leaping or spy hopping. It will be a sad day if and when these magnificant beasts no longer prowl the San Juan Islands.

I hope many people read "Sea Change", for we, as a species, require a real change of heart if we are to survive the next centuary. So far I've not seen the general will to face the coming storm and try to make it less dustructive. Read this book! It may just make you understand the seriousness of the situation in which we now find ourselves.

This book was full of information and facts that I didnt know and found interesting as well as a list of Marine Sanctuaries etc. Sylvia Earle has paved the way for many I really found some of her passages to be inspiring. I will now think everytime I eat shrimp! I would suggest this book to anyone interested in Marine Biology or the Ocean and its conservation.

Much of this book is written in the first person, which in places makes it very appealing, but in other places is distracting. My other gripe is that she jumps around a bit in her life time - so one chapter she talks about being the only woman on an expedition, and then she is the 1990's leader of NOAA and then we are back to her childhood haunts and back again.

That being said, it is a good read, full of facts and history. She worked in the sciences back when women were uncommon in the field. Back when there was no scuba gear and Jacques Cousteau was in to spear fishing, not conservation. Interesting stories, indeed! So, if you want an account of oceanography, past and present, its extreme limits and cool equipment from a personal point of view, pick this one up.

Sylvia really opened my eyes to the fragile nature of our environment and to the beauty and vastness of the oceans. I highly recommend this book for anyone with the slightest interest in our environment and nature. This book will make you interested in learning and doing more for the environment.

Sea Change is a marine science book written by a master marine scientists. There are very few people around these days who seem to be in full command (or nearly so) of their subject. Sylvia Earle appears to be one of these rare specimens. I think that young scientists also can learn quite a bit through the experiences and personal insights of great scholars like Dr. Earle, insights that usually are not shared with all students, insights, that are normally learned by often painfull experience. Sea Change shows us the development of a science, of an important part of our world, our society and it shows us the personal development of a fascinating woman. If you want to know scientific details about marine science, go and buy a textbook. If you want to know how one of the greatest marine scientists thinks, buy Sea Change.

This is one in a series of several dozen volumes that comprise the "Harvard Business Review Paperback Series." Each offers direct, convenient, and inexpensive access to the best thinking on the given subject in articles originally published by the Harvard Business School Review. I strongly recommend all of the volumes in the series. The individual titles are listed at this Web site: www.hbsp.harvard.edu. The authors of various articles are among the world's most highly regarded experts on the given subject. Each volume has been carefully edited. Supplementary commentaries are also provided in most of the volumes, as is an "About the Contributors" section that usually includes suggestions of other sources that some readers may wish to explore.

In this volume, the reader is provided with eight articles whose authors provide a variety of perspectives on how to lead an organization through a process of significant change while minimizing fear, frustration, and resistance. All of the articles first appeared in the HBR over an extended period of time, from March-April, 1992, to October, 2005; some but remarkably little of the material is dated. Here are some of the important business issues to which four contributors direct their (and our) attention:


Which seem to be the most common mistakes made by executives? ("Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," John P. Kotter)
Comment: Kotter identifies eight and suggests how to avoid or repair them.

How to focus only on what is most important? ("Tipping Point Leadership," W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne)
Comment: The co-authors of Blue Ocean Strategy explain how "tipping points" can result in fundamental changes when a sufficient number of people embrace and support a powerful idea. They examine how a newly appointed police commissioner, in less than two years, turned New York into the safest large city in the nation by following a four-step process to bring about rapid, dramatic, and lasting change with limited resources.

Why is follow-through "the DNA of decisive cultures"? ("Conquering a Culture of Indecision," Ram Charan)
Comment: In all of his various books and articles, Charan stresses the importance of making correct decision and then taking effective action to achieve desired results, whatever they may be. To change a culture of decision, he insists, leaders must ask hard questions such as "How robust and effective are our social operating mechanisms?" GE has forged a system of ten tightly linked operating mechanisms that, Charan suggests, comprise its "secret weapon."

Why are leaders sometimes "on" and other times Not? (""Moments of Greatness: Entering the Fundamental State of Leadership," Robert E. Quinn)
Comment: Quinn identifies four "awareness-raising questions" which leaders must ask and then answer honestly so that they can challenge themselves to have a positive impact on their own lives and on those around them. These questions "often lead to high-performance outcomes, and repetition of high-performance outcomes can eventually create a high-performance culture."

Which factors correlate with the success or failure of change initiatives? ("The Hard Side of Change Management," Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, and Alan Jackson)
Comment: Based on their research on change initiatives at 225 companies, the co-authors of this article concluded that it is possible to predict the probable results of such initiatives by considering what they characterize as four "DICE factors" within a diagnostic framework. Once the evaluation has been completed, the executives involved can then "shine a spotlight on the interventions that would improve their chances of success."

As I indicated earlier, at least some of the material in this volume is dated. However, the insights shared in these articles as well as in the other remain relevant. Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out the recently published Harvard Business Review on Making Smarter Decisions as well as other series titles in the Harvard Business Review Paperback Series such as those Effective Communication, the Innovative Enterprise, Leadership at the Top, and Measuring Corporate Performance.

Also Michael George's Authentic Leadership and True North, Jack Welch and Suzy Welch's Winning, Michael Ray's The Highest Goal, Ram Charan's Know-How, and Deborah Ancona and Henrik Bresman's X-Teams, Richard Ogle's Smart World, and James O'Toole's The Executive's Compass.

I picked this book up at an airport to have something to read on my flight, and I was not disappointed in the least. It provides excellent information and insight on leading organizations during times of change.

In Kotter's essay, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail", he analyzes common errors of leading through change, and converts them into 8 steps for transforming an organization: (1) establishing a sense of urgency, (2) forming a powerful guiding coalition, (3) creating a vision, (4) communicating the vision, (5) empowering others to act on the vision, (6) planning for and creating short-term wins, (7) consolidating improvements and creating still more changes, and (8) institutionalizing new approaches. Kotter shows how these 8 principles can lead to either the downfall or the success of an organization.

I also found Ram Charan's essay, "Conquering a Culture of Indecision", to be extremely helpful. He outlines the steps for creating greater communication, turning that into action, and providing follow-through and feedback.

Also of great interest to me was Eric Abrahamson's "Change Without Pain". He defines the difference between "tinkering" and "kludging" (tinkering with a college education). He also offers helpful operating guidelines that make quite a bit of sense.

Different essays will be more relevant for different individuals, but all in all, this compilation of essays provides excellent insight, and should be required reading for executive teams in the midst of major periods of change.

Another patterns book -- it certainly is a popular type of book these days. I got about half-way through this one before someone else wanted to read it. What can I say? Not bad. Recommended reading if you're trying to introduce a change in the way people work. The stories or case studies are pretty readable. But I'm not sure how much it helps to give little (pattern) names in brackets inside every other sentence. Pick up any book about industrial success like Marriot or The HP Way and you'd probably do just as well. The important thing is to read about others' similar successes and how they did it, and always to get help from lots of other people.

Fearless Change is a catalogue of patterns for introducing change in a company. Personally I've been in the role of change agent for years and this book provided me many "ah-hah"s which you get from reading good patterns. Most of the patterns I've applied in the past. Now I realized it and I got a name for them, which makes me more able to reuse the patterns. Some of the patterns were new to me and I've applied them immediately in my work.

The book is organized in three parts. The first part tells short stories on the different phases of change. These stories already made me understand the basics of the patterns and how they were related. The second part has a couple of case studies. Personally I found this part rather boring, but it was very short. The third part of the book is the actual pattern catalogue which provided the needed details.

The book was easy to read and, except for the case studies, didn't make me feel bored at any time. I've learned an awful lot from the book and it gave me some new tools in my toolbox when trying to introduce change.

I've rated this book 4 stars, which should have been 4.5 starts, but I don't have that option. I wouldn't want to give it 5 stars for the small boring parts and since I wouldn't call it perfect yet, but close! The books is an absolute must for anyone introducing change in an organization though!

Just like all books on patterns, this gives you the feeling of 'oh, this is soooo obvious' the first reading it. The fact is that a second after reading it you start thinking and talking about brown bags, angles and evangelists and refer to the book all the time. Linda and Mary Lynn give us an idiom, a very very useful idiom.

Also, the book is funny. Must read.

Change is hard. I've been part of companies that merged, were acquired, acquired others, downsized drastically, changed the CEO, moved corporate headquarters to another state and completely changed their target market. The change was difficult in each of these circumstances. That's not particularly surprising. What is surprising is that change is also difficult when doing something as seemingly simple as changing the company health plan. I wish I'd read this book before going through those changes.

A large part of my current work is in helping companies manage the transition from how they currently develop software to developing software with an "agile process." The book codified some of the things I've done for years without thinking about why but more importantly it also presented ideas I hadn't thought of. For example, the "Champion Skeptic" pattern says to designate a skeptical, strong opinion leader to be the "official skeptic." I've always made a point of involving these skeptics because they can become your best advocates if you convert them. However, I've experimented with the idea as presented here and it works well.

Change will remain hard, even after reading this book. But, you'll be much better prepared and you should find many of the patterns here very helpful.

I had found myself moderately successful at introducing new ideas and influencing change in my organizations, but never knew why, or how to improve my ability to influence and sustain the change effort. The lightbulb was illuminated immediately upon getting a few patterns into this book- I had been, in one way or another, using some of these patterns without realizing it. Opportunities I had failed to take advantage of in the past became obvious as well in many patterns that were new to me, and in the past went unrecognized (next time, they will either be easy to spot or part of the plan in the first place!)

Once you are able to recognize techniques as patterns, influence becomes something much more controllable. This is a powerful, easy-to-use (and reuse) toolkit for introducing ideas and influencing change. I believe that those experienced in influencing change will find a well thought out set of techniques and those unsure of even how to start will have a great roadmap and set of practices to start with and to invoke as-needed as their change efforts evolve.

Simply put, this is a beautiful book. Full of inspiring information interspersed with beautiful photographs. It is at once a self-help manual and a coffee table delight. Makes a memorable gift.

I loved this book so much that I bought copies for my three daughters. I don't know how to endorse it any better than that. I am ready to read it again myself to renew the faith.

I have given this book as a gift to many of my coaching clients. I have also embraced the book's mantra, "Magnify the Best, Focus on the Next."

This book will literally change the way you see everything. Based on the concept of asset-based vs. deficit-based thinking, the authors look at the way we see ourselves, the way we see others, and the way we see our world. They turn everything upside down. For people who want to stretch, grow and move out of the proverbial box, this book is a must read.

They said brand new and I got brand new! they said fast shipping.... I got FAST shipping! I will order from them again and again!

This book is a quick and fun read. I made it a point to read one title a day, which turns out to be a two page spread. The concepts are driven home with incredible supporting photos and powerful text treatments.