Sweet Mandarin or Hug Your People

Sweet Mandarin: The Courageous True Story of Three Generations of Chinese Women and Their Journey from East to West

Author: Helen Ts

Spanning almost a hundred years, this rich and evocative memoir recounts the lives of three generations of remarkable Chinese women.

Their extraordinary journey takes us from the brutal poverty of village life in mainland China, to newly prosperous 1930s Hong Kong and finally to the UK. Their lives were as dramatic as the times they lived through.

A love of food and a talent for cooking pulled each generation through the most devastating of upheavals. Helen Tse's grandmother, Lily Kwok, was forced to work as an amah after the violent murder of her father. Crossing the ocean from Hong Kong in the 1950s, Lily honed her famous chicken curry recipe. Eventually she opened one of Manchester's earliest Chinese restaurants where her daughter, Mabel, worked from the tender age of nine. But gambling and the Triads were pervasive in the Chinese immigrant community, and tragically they lost the restaurant. It was up to author Helen and her sisters, the third generation of these exceptional women, to re-establish their grandmother's dream. The legacy lived on when the sisters opened their award-winning restaurant Sweet Mandarin in 2004.

Sweet Mandarin shows how the most important inheritance is wisdom, and how recipes--passed down the female line--can be the most valuable heirloom.

Publishers Weekly

For Tse, looking ahead to her future meant taking a step back into family history. In 2004, Tse and her two sisters all abandoned promising professional careers to follow a family tradition and opened a family restaurant. "My sisters and I were immersed from birth in the Chinese catering business-the fourth generation of our family to make a living from food." Tse begins with her grandmother's birth in 1918 in a small farming village in southeastern China. Each successive chapter chronologically follows the family's struggles and triumphs from peasant life to prosperity and heartache in Hong Kong in the 1930s, the horrors of the Japanese occupation, life in England from the 1950s to today. Tse poses a question that serves as the core of this delightful, well-written and at times painful memoir: Why would three young, successful 21st-century women, Tse an attorney, one sister an engineer, the other a financier, return to a family business they struggled to escape? In answering this question, Tse engagingly tells the larger story not only of her grandmother's and mother's struggles but the shared story of the many Chinese immigrants who made the journey from mainland China to England and "who also carved out a place in their new homeland through the catering trade." (July)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Stacy Russo - Library Journal

This memoir by Tse, a finance attorney who studied law at Cambridge University, tells of three generations of Chinese women but focuses on the triumphs and hardships of Lily Kwok, Tse's grandmother. Lily's story is nothing short of remarkable. Tse recounts the early death of Lily's father, her work as a wet nurse and maid to wealthy British families in Hong Kong, and her disastrous marriage. The benevolence of Lily's British employers ultimately enabled her to open her own Chinese restaurant in England. Mabel, Tse's mother, followed tradition years later when she, too, opened a restaurant with her husband. Sweet Mandarin is the name of the restaurant Tse and her sisters opened in 2004, bringing the narrative full circle. Wrapped in the cultural and ancestral mystery of food, this memoir will be appreciated by general readers and students of Asian and women's studies. Recommended for public and academic libraries.

Kirkus Reviews

An intimate, unhistorical, uneven synthesis of the stories of three generations of Chinese wives, mothers and daughters. The author, a Chinese-British financial lawyer who now runs a restaurant called Sweet Mandarin with her two sisters in Manchester, England, begins her affectionate, family narrative with the hardscrabble story of her grandmother Lily, born to an entrepreneur and his wife in Guangzhou who only wanted sons but got six daughters instead. Despite a growing business making and selling soy sauce, which took them to Hong Kong in 1925, the family's fortunes turned sour when Lily's father was murdered in his Guangzhou factory by a jealous local gang. Due to the nation's patrilinear traditions, his widow and daughters were essentially turned out of their home. Lily's job as a maid/nanny to the wealthy British Woodmans in Hong Kong eventually brought her to England in the early 1950s. By then estranged from a philandering gambler of a husband, she saved up to bring her children to England and was able to start a Chinese takeout restaurant in Manchester with the money Mrs. Woodman left Lily in her will. Lily's daughter, Mabel, was brought up working in the business and in the late '70s started her own "corner chippy" in Middleton; the author and her siblings toiled there during their growing-up years. Although she belonged to one of the first Chinese families in Middleton, Tse did not feel herself a victim of racism and became thoroughly assimilated into British life. She offers interesting takes on her family's gambling, gang culture in Hong Kong and the stunning misogyny still rampant in Chinese society. An easy-flowing tale that subsumes historical changes in personal histories,especially the plight of the author's grandmother.

Table of Contents:

Preface     1
The Little Sack of Rice - Guangzhou, China 1918-1925     7
Soy Sauce Delight - Hong Kong 1925-1930     29
Bitter Melon - Guangzhou, China 1930     53
Jade and Ebony - Hong Kong 1930s-1950s     77
Firecracker Chan - Hong Kong 1930s-1950s     103
Lily Kwok's Chicken Curry - Somerset and Manchester, UK 1950s     147
Lung Fung - Manchester, UK 1959-early 1960s     179
Mabel's Claypot Chicken - Manchester 1959-1974     199
Chips, Chips, Chips - Manchester 1975-2003     217
Buddha's Golden Picnic Basket - Hong Kong 2002, Guangzhou 2003     243
Sweet Mandarin - Manchester 2003-     263
Afterword     273
Acknowledgements     279

Book review: Contemporary U S Tax Policy or True Stories

Hug Your People: Hire, Inspire and Recognize Your Employees to Achieve Remarkable Results

Author: Jack Mitchell

In Hug Your Customers, Jack Mitchell showed business readers how to keep their customers happy—and their profits booming. In Hug Your People, he elaborates on his big secret: hiring, motivating and keeping your biggest asset, great employees!

"Giving great personalized customer service has always been the foremost goal in my family, but one thing we never lose sight of is that you can't possibly deliver great service if you don't treat your own associates right." So says Jack Mitchell, CEO of his family's astoundingly successful chain of clothing stores. In Hug Your People, he shares his secrets for creating happy employees, secrets as simple as they are revolutionary:

• Be NICE to them (and hire nice people to begin with)
• TRUST them (they deserve it and will work even harder and smarter to continue to earn that trust)
• Instill PRIDE in them (they are more productive when they are proud of their work)
• INCLUDE them (since you can't do it alone)
• Generously RECOGNIZE them (and not only with money—but don't be chintzy, either)

Hug Your People is filled with real stories about real people. Jack offers his principles on "hugging" your associates—whether they are the sales team, the cleaning staff, the delivery people, the backroom financial wizards, the marketing and advertising departments, or outsourced staff. Hug Your People is just what today's employees and managers need.

"Positive people power is fundamental to the overall success of any business."
—Jack Mitchell

Publishers Weekly

Reading a book with the word "hug" in the title that basically advises on how to be nice to other people makes one realize that there ought to be more books like this on the shelves. Mitchell, CEO of the clothing stores Mitchells/Richards/Marshs has already outlined how to keep customers happy in Hug Your Customers. With his newest, Mitchell repeats this mandate, now turning inward to focus on how to hire and maintain a happy staff. Divided into five parts that outline how to treat people, build trust, develop pride in your organization and be inclusive and recognize people, the book looks at how creating a niceness culture can help to create employees that stick around the company and take a personal interest in the organization. Mitchell ends each chapter with a helpful checklist that repeats the important points. In one chapter, he advises redefining "rules and regulations" as "expectations and standards" (rules, for example, are "unbending... cold and impersonal"; expectations are "flexible and freeing when they need to be"). While such changes may seem subtle, the spirit behind them is surely a worthwhile reminder of how to make work more enjoyable for everyone. (Mar. 4)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

What People Are Saying

Paul Newman
If you want to run a business, but hate American corporate culture, this book is the one to read. Here's somebody whose advice you can use.

Harry Paul
The concepts and strategies in Hug Your People will set you apart from the competition. Your people will work harder, smarter, and with more energy and enthusiasm. And in a way that is unique to your organization. (Harry Paul, co-author of FISH! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results)

Howard Behar
Hug Your People is totally inspiring. Jack Mitchell takes you on a journey that is as much about life as it is about business. This book will not only help you become a better leader but also make you a better person. At Starbucks we experienced firsthand what the lessons that Jack imparts can do to help an organization. If you want a more rewarding relationship with another human being, read this book. (Howard Behar, Director, Starbucks Coffee)

Arthur Levitt Jr.
Hug Your People must be a 'must read' if Jack Mitchell authored it. He knows more about motivating people—customers, employees, and all with whom he comes in contact—than any other person I know. (Arthur Levitt, Jr., author of Take on the Street, former chairman, SEC, present friend and customer of Mitchells)

Richard J. Harrington
If you look behind the scenes at any business that succeeds over the long term, you will find motivated, committed, energized employees. Jack Mitchell is the grand master at motivating and inspiring employees to perform brilliantly—and exceed their customers' expectations every time. (Richard J. Harrington, President and CEO, The Thomson Corporation)

Sy Sternberg
Hug Your People is the perfect sequel to Hug Your Customers. Good customer service starts with happy employees, and Jack Mitchell knows it! (Sy Sternberg, Chairman and CEO, New York Life)

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living or Investing 101

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Author: Dale Carnegi

This book can change your life!

Through Dale Carnegie's six-million-copy bestseller recently revised, millions of people have been helped to overcome the worry hobbit. Dale Carnegie offers a set of practical formulas you can put to work today. In the fast-paced world of the 1990's — formulas that will last a lifetime!

Discover how to:

• Eliminate fifty percent of business worries immediately
• Reduce financial worries
• Avoid fatigue — and keep looking you
• Add one hour a day to your waking life

Find yourself and be yourself — remember there is no one else on earth like you!

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living deals with fundamental emotions and ideas. It is fascinating to read and easy to apply. Let it change and improve you. There's no need to live with worry and anxiety that keep you from enjoying a full, active and happy life!

Library Journal

Originally published in 1936, this is the archetype of the practical human relations handbook. Carnegie (How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, Audio Reviews, LJ 2/15/99) opens with fundamental techniques for dealing with people, such as refraining from criticism and expressing sincere appreciation. Making people like you by smiling, remembering names, and being a good listener are encouraged. Final sections describe approaches for persuading people to your way of thinking and how to change people without causing offense or resentment. These positive principles are stated succinctly and illustrated with pertinent, if occasionally outmoded, anecdotes. While critics have charged that Carnegie emphasized good manners and friendliness over proficiency, the author clearly states that his target audience is competent individuals who are less than successful because they lack people skills, a group that would be well served by his sensible guidance. Andrew MacMillan's confident, friendly narration is a worthy counterpart for Carnegie's advice, making this an appropriate selection for libraries that don't own the 1989 unabridged recording that includes the printed volume (LJ 4/1/89).--Linda Bredengerd, Hanley Lib., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Bradford, PA

Table of Contents:

	Preface
	How This Book Was Written--and Why	xiii
	Nine Suggestions on How to Get the Most Out of This Book	xviii
Part 1	Fundamental Facts You Should Know About Worry
1	Live in "Day-tight Compartments"	3
2	A Magic Formula for Solving Worry Situations	14
3	What Worry May Do to You	21
Part 2	Basic Techniques in Analyzing Worry
4	How to Analyze and Solve Worry Problems	35
5	How to Eliminate Fifty Per Cent of Your Business Worries	44
Part 3	How to Break the Worry Habit Before it Breaks You
6	How to Crowd Worry Out of Your Mind	51
7	Don't Let the Beetles Get You Down	60
8	A Law That Will Outlaw Many of Your Worries	67
9	Co-operate with the Inevitable	73
10	Put a "Stop-Loss" Order on Your Worries	82
11	Don't Try to Saw Sawdust	89
Part 4	Seven Ways to Cultivate A Mental Attitude That Will Bring You Peace and Happiness
12	Eight Words That Can Transform Your Life	99
13	The High Cost of Getting Even	111
14	If You Do This, You Will Never Worry About Ingratitude	119
15	Would You Take a Million Dollars for What You Have?	125
16	Find Yourself and Be Yourself: Remember There Is No One Else on Earth Like You	131
17	If You Have a Lemon, Make a Lemonade	138
18	How to Cure Depression in Fourteen Days	145
Part 5	The Perfect Way to Conquer Worry
19	How My Mother and Father Conquered Worry	161
Part 6	How to Keep From Worrying about Criticism
20	Remember That No One Ever Kicks a Dead Dog	181
21	Do This--and Criticism Can't Hurt You	185
22	Fool Things I Have Done	189
Part 7	Six Ways to Prevent Fatigue and Worry and Keep Your Energy and Spirits High
23	How to Add One Hour a Day to Your Waking Life	197
24	What Makes You Tired--and What You Can Do About It	202
25	How to Avoid Fatigue--and Keep Looking Young!	207
26	Four Good Working Habits That Will Help Prevent Fatigue and Worry	212
27	How to Banish the Boredom That Produces Fatigue, Worry, and Resentment	217
28	How to Keep from Worrying About Insomnia	225
Part 8	"How I Conquered Worry"
	Six Major Troubles Hit Me All at Once	235
	I Can Turn Myself into a Shouting Optimist Within an Hour	237
	How I Got Rid of an Inferiority Complex	238
	I Lived in the Garden of Allah	242
	Five Methods I Have Used to Banish Worry	245
	I Stood Yesterday. I Can Stand Today	247
	I Did Not Expect to Live to See the Dawn	248
	I Go to the Gym to Punch the Bag or Take a Hike Outdoors	250
	I Was "The Worrying Wreck from Virginia Tech"	251
	I Have Lived by This Sentence	252
	I Hit Bottom and Survived	253
	I Used to Be One of the World's Biggest Jackasses	254
	I Have Always Tried to Keep My Line of Supplies Open	255
	I Heard a Voice in India	258
	When the Sheriff Came in My Front Door	260
	The Toughest Opponent I Ever Fought Was Worry	262
	I Prayed to God to Keep Me Out of an Orphans' Home	263
	My Stomach Was Twisting Like a Kansas Whirlwind	265
	I Learned to Stop Worrying by Watching My Wife Wash Dishes	267
	I Found the Answer	269
	Time Solves a Lot of Things!	270
	I Was Warned Not to Try to Speak or to Move Even a Finger	272
	I Am a Great Dismisser	273
	If I Had Not Stopped Worrying, I Would Have Been in My Grave Long Ago	274
	I Got Rid of Stomach Ulcers and Worry by Changing My Job and My Mental Attitude	275
	I Now Look for the Green Light	276
	How John D. Rockefeller Lived on Borrowed Time for Forty-five Years	278
	I Was Committing Slow Suicide Because I Didn't Know How to Relax	284
	A Real Miracle Happened to Me	284
	How Benjamin Franklin Conquered Worry	286
	I Was So Worried I Didn't Eat a Bite of Solid Food for Eighteen Days	287
	Index	293

See also: Great Cruising Cookbook or Cocina Vegetariana Mediterranea

Investing 101

Author: Kathy Kristof

People wanting basic advise about stocks, bonds, mutual funds, retirement planning, and tax strategies are often frustrated by information overload. Picking the right book often seems as daunting as deciding what to do with their savings and investments. "Investing 101" removes both roadblocks, putting people on a path they can understand and stick with. Kristof is renowned for taking the mystery and anxiety out of investing by keeping choices manageable.

(September 2000) - BookPage

If I had to suggest a book on investing and personal finance to an absolute beginner, it would be this.

(September 2000) - Today's Librarian

More simple and straightforward than the typical book on investing... also more humorous and personal.

Publishers Weekly

The "Your Money" syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times, Kristof has written a primer for novice investors, but despite her accessible prose she misses the mark here. Her opening chapter, "Exorcising Your Demons," examines the various psychological reasons people make dumb investing decisions: for example, the "money-lover" agonizes over every penny spent and is always working for more, while the "ostrich" refuses to alter an investment strategy until it's too late. Other chapters--"Risk and Reward," "Investing in Bonds" and "Mutual Funds"--cull standard advice found in countless books, Web sites and magazines. Yet her presentation of the material is too abbreviated, which may mislead beginners. For example, Kristof describes mutual fund prospectuses as "long, boring legal documents that spell out all the details about investing in a particular fund. Like most long, boring documents, they contain a handful of fascinating tidbits of information that can tell you whether the investment you're looking at is likely to be a boon or bust before you put your money at risk." Then, albeit briefly, she discusses the significant data found in a prospectus. However, after reading about something that is "long and boring," readers may well skip the useful information that follows. There's a chapter on socially responsible investing--it's an important topic, but not for readers new to the game. Kristof's writing style is friendly, but readers may be shortchanged by her breezy approach. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Internet Book Watch

Personal finance columnist and expert Kathy Kristof's Investing 101 is a compendium of clear, concise, practical, effective advice on getting motivated for investing, assessing financial goals for investment purposes and strategies, choosing the right types of investments based on particular needs or aspirations, finding and understanding financial information, diversifying investments, and keeping good financial records. Investing 101 is especially designed for those new to investing and will save the novice investor a great deal of time, avoid needless aggravation, and prevent unsound financial investment decisions and unacceptable risks.

The Leadership Moment Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All or Administrative Assistants and Secretarys Handbook

The Leadership Moment: Nine True Stories of Triumph and Disaster and Their Lessons for Us All

Author: Michael Useem

Are you ready for the leadership moment?

Merck's Roy Vagelos commits millions of dollars to develop a drug needed only by people who can't afford it · Eugene Kranz struggles to bring the Apollo 13 astronauts home after an explosion rips through their spacecraft · Arlene Blum organizes the first women's ascent of one of the world's most dangerous mountains · Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain leads his tattered troops into a pivotal Civil War battle at Little Round Top · John Gutfreund loses Salomon Brothers when his inattention to a trading scandal almost topples the Wall Street giant · Clifton Wharton restructures a $50 billion pension system direly out of touch with its customers · Alfredo Cristiani transforms El Salvador's decade-long civil war into a negotiated settlement · Nancy Barry leads Women's World Banking in the fight against Third World poverty · Wagner Dodge faces the decision of a lifetime as a fast-moving forest fire overtakes his firefighting crew

New interesting book: Microsoft Office 2003 Illustrated Brief Microsoft Windows XP Edition or MATLAB Programming for Engineers International Student Edition

Administrative Assistant's and Secretary's Handbook

Author: James Stroman

Being a professional administrative assistant requires an astonishing and varied range of skills involving interpersonal communication, written presentations, and organizational ability. Between coordinating meetings, making travel arrangements, and running the phone lines, administrative professionals are involved in nearly every aspect of the office.
Written in a down-to-earth style, Administrative Assistant's and Secretary's Handbook provides readers with information on subjects including record keeping, telephone usage, office machines, mail, business letters, and computer software skills. Now in its second edition, the book has been completely revised with over 10 new chapters covering topics such as Internet security, netiquette, office ergonomics, and mobile and wireless devices, as well as an enhanced grammar and language section.

Comprehensive and completely up-to-date, this is the book every administrative professional should own.

About the Author:
James Stroman (Dallas, TX) has worked as an executive assistant to an army general, a governor, and the owner of an NFL football team.
Kevin Wilson (Atlanta, GA) is vice president of Videologies, Inc., a company that specializes in training administrative professionals in Fortune 500 companies. Jennifer Wauson (Atlanta, GA) is president of Videologies, Inc.

Table of Contents:

Section One: General Procedures
1. Overview for the New Administrative Assistant
2. Daily Routine
3. Telephone Usage
4. Mail Services and Shipping
5. Travel Arrangement
6. Meetings
7. Keeping Accurate Records

Section Two: Office Equipment and Computers

8. Office Machines
9. Telecommunications Equipment
10. Computer Hardware
11. Computer Software
12. Database Management
13. Computer Networking
14. E-mail
15. Using the Internet
16. Spreadsheet Software
17. Data Security
18. Keyboarding Skills
19. Word Processing
20. Desktop Publishing
21. Multimedia and Presentation Software
22. Office Ergonomics
23. Glossary of Computer Terms

Section Three: Business Documents

24. The Business Letter
25. Other Written Communications
26. Forms of Address
27. Legal Documents and Terms

Section Four: Language Usage

28. Grammar
29. Language Usage and Style
30. Common English Usage Problems
31. Spelling
32. Pronunciation
33. Punctuation
34. Numerals
35. Bookeeping and Accounting
36. Business Taxes
37. Banking
38. Special Business and Financial Information for the Small Business Administrative Assistant
39. Weights and Measures
40. Your Future

Human Resource Management or Freakonomics

Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage

Author: Raymond A No

As competitors strive to win the war for talent, effective human resource management is necessary to gain true competitive advantage in the marketplace. Three challenges companies face are sustainability, technology, and globalization. Human Resource Management 6th Edition brings these challenges to life by highlighting real-world examples pertaining to these issues and relating it to the concepts within the chapter. This best-selling McGraw-Hill/Irwin Human Resource Management title provides students with the technical background needed to be a knowledgeable consumer of human resource (HR) products and services, to manage HR effectively, or to be a successful HR professional. While clearly strategic in nature, the text also emphasizes how managers can more effectively acquire, develop, compensate, and manage the internal and external environment that relates to the management of human resources.

Booknews

A textbook for business students, explaining how managers can be knowledgeable consumers of human-resource products. The overall themes are the human-resource environment, acquiring and preparing human resources, assessment and development, compensation, and special topics such as collective bargaining and labor relations and strategically managing the human-resource function. A glossary is included. No dates are noted for the earlier editions. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents:

Noe et al., Human Resource Management, 6/e

Brief Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage

PART 1
The Human Resource Environment

Chapter 2
Strategic Human Resource Management

Chapter 3
The Legal Environment: Equal Employment Opportunity and Safety

Chapter 4
The Analysis and Design of Work

PART
2
Acquisition and Preparation of Human Resources

Chapter 5
Human Resource Planning and Recruitment

Chapter 6
Selection and Placement

Chapter 7
Training

PART 3
Assessment and Development of HRM

Chapter 8
Performance Management

Chapter 9
Employee Development

Chapter 10
Employee Separation and Retention

PART 4
Compensation of Human Resources

Chapter 11
Pay Structure Decisions

Chapter 12
Recognizing Employee Contributions with Pay

Chapter 13
Employee Benefits

PART 5
Special Topics in Human Resource Management

Chapter 14
Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations

Chapter 15
Managing Human Resources Globally

Chapter 16
Strategically Managing the HRM Function

See also: Seven Pillars of Wisdom or Frommers Portable Savannah

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Author: Steven D Levitt

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime?

These may not sound like typical questions for an economist to ask. But Steven D. Levitt is not a typical economist. He is a much heralded scholar who studies the stuff and riddles of everyday life -- from cheating and crime to sports and child rearing -- and whose conclusions regularly turn the conventional wisdom on its head. He usually begins with a mountain of data and a simple, unasked question. Some of these questions concern life-and-death issues; others have an admittedly freakish quality. Thus the new field of study contained in this book: freakonomics.

Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives -- how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of ... well, everything. The inner workings of a crack gang. The truth about real-estate agents. The myths of campaign finance. The telltale marks of a cheating schoolteacher. The secrets of the Ku Klux Klan.

What unites all these stories is a belief that the modern world, despite a surfeit of obfuscation, complication, and downright deceit, is not impenetrable, is not unknowable, and -- if the right questions are asked -- is even more intriguing than we think. All it takes is a new way of looking. Steven Levitt, through devilishly clever and clear-eyed thinking, shows how to see through all the clutter.

Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.

The New York York Times - Jim Holt

Economists can seem a little arrogant at times. They have a set of techniques and habits of thought that they regard as more ''rigorous'' than those of other social scientists. When they are successful -- one thinks of Amartya Sen's important work on the causes of famines, or Gary Becker's theory of marriage and rational behavior -- the result gets called economics. It might appear presumptuous of Steven Levitt to see himself as an all-purpose intellectual detective, fit to take on whatever puzzle of human behavior grabs his fancy. But on the evidence of Freakonomics, the presumption is earned.

Publishers Weekly

Though the idea of listening to an economics text may bring to mind nightmarish visions of incomprehensible facts, figures and graphs, this audiobook is refreshingly accessible and engrossing. Journalist Dubner reads with just the right mix of enthusiasm and awe, revealing juicy morsels of wisdom on everything from what sumo wrestlers and teachers have in common (a propensity to cheat) to whether parents can really push their kids to greatness by buying them Baby Einstein toys and enlisting them in numerous before- and after-school activities (not really). The only section that doesn't translate well to the format is the final one on naming conventions. The lists of "White Girl Names" and "Black Girl Names," and "Low-End" names and "High-End" names can be mind-numbing, though the text that breaks up these lists will intrigue. Overall, however, these unusual investigations by Levitt, the "rogue" of the subtitle, make for meaty-and entertaining-listening. Simultaneous release with the Morrow hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 14). (May) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Economist Levitt and Dubner (Turbulent Souls) team up in this intriguing, quirky look at life and how to understand better the world in a new way. In 2003, the New York Times Magazine sent Dubner to do a profile of Levitt, and the idea for this book was born. Levitt looks at a variety of data, including KKK membership rolls, online dating services, and names for children, and finds in the math underlying answers to difficult questions that have a freakish quality. The quirky chapters include the commonality between schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, why drug dealers still live with their mothers, and what makes a perfect parent. The crisp, bright narration by Dubner enlivens this title, which will appeal to fans of Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point as well as to economists. Recommended for university libraries supporting a business and economics curriculum and larger public libraries.-Dale Farris, Groves, TX Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Why do drug dealers live at home? Levitt (Economics/Univ. of Chicago) and Dubner (Confessions of a Hero Worshiper, 2003, etc.), who profiled Levitt for the New York Times, team up to demolish conventional wisdom. To call Levitt a "rogue economist" may be a tad hyperbolic. Certainly this epitome of antistyle ("his appearance is High Nerd: a plaid button-down shirt, nondescript khakis and a braided belt, brown sensible shoes") views the workaday world with different eyes; the young economist teases out meaning from juxtapositions that simply would not occur to other researchers. Consider this, for instance: in the mid-1990s, just when the Clinton administration projected it was about to skyrocket, crime in the U.S. fell markedly. And why? Because, Levitt hazarded a few years ago, of the emergent effects of the Roe v. Wade decision: legalized abortion prevented the births of millions of poor people who, beset by social adversity, were "much more likely than average to become criminals." The suggestion, Dubner writes, "managed to offend just about everyone," conservative and liberal alike, but it had high explanatory value. Levitt hasn't shied away from controversy in other realms, either, preferring to let the numbers speak for themselves: a young man named Jake will earn more job interviews than one with the same credentials named DeShawn; the TV game show The Weakest Link, like society as a whole, discriminates against the elderly and Hispanics; it is human nature to cheat, and the higher up in the organization a person rises, the more likely it is that he or she will cheat. Oh, yes, and street-level drug dealers live at home with their moms because they have to; most earn well belowminimum wage but accept the bad pay and dangerous conditions to get a shot at the big time, playing in what in effect is a tournament. "A crack gang works pretty much like the standard capitalist enterprise," Levitt and Dubner write, "you have to be near the top of the pyramid to make a big wage." An eye-opening, and most interesting, approach to the world.

First Break All The Rules or The Tipping Point

First, Break All The Rules: What The World's Greatest Managers Do Differently

Author: Marcus Buckingham

In First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman of the Gallup Organization present the remarkable findings of their massive indepth study of great managers.

In today's tight labor markets, companies compete to find and keep the best employees, using pay, benefits, promotions, and training. But no matter how generous its pay, or how renowned its training, the company that lacks great front-line managers will suffer.

Buckingham and Coffman explain how the best managers select an employee for talent rather than for skills or experience; how they set expectations', how they motivate people by building on each person's unique strengths; and, finally, how great managers find the right fit for each person, not the next rung on the ladder.

First, Break All The Rules provides vital performance and career lessons for managers at every level. This audiobook shows you how to apply them to your own situation.

Newsday

If you're a manager wracking your brain for ways to find and retain good people...this book is worth paying attention to.

Miami Herald

Finally, something definitive about what makes a great workplace.

Detroit Free Press

At last, a management book with a huge amount of statistical evidence...the results are eye-popping...this is one of the best, most practical books I've seen on managing.

Interesting book: The Motley Fool Investment Guide for Teens or NASM Essentials of Personal Fitness Training

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Author: Malcolm Gladwell

"The Tipping Point contains all the sprightly prose and insight we have come to associate with Malcolm Gladwell's writing. But in addition, Gladwell manages to make sense of a tantalizing array of research findings. The welcome, if overdue, lesson is that, by acting intentionally and strategically, we can lower crime and disease rates, and otherwise bring about dramatic positive changes in our surroundings." (-Lisbeth Schorr, Harvard Project on Effective Interventions, and author of Common Purpose: Strengthening Families and Neighborhoods to Rebuild America

"The Tipping Point is one of those rare books that changes the way you think about, well, everything. A combination of lucid explanation with vivid (and often funny) real-world examples, the book sets out to explain nothing less than why human beings behave the way they do. And, astonishingly, Malcolm Gladwell had the smarts and panache to pull it off." (-Jeffrey Toobin, author of A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President

"The Primary reason for the historic and rapid declines in crime and disorder in the subways and on the streets of New York City in the early 1990s was police activity. Police focused their activities on controlling illegal behavior to such an extent that they changed that behavior. Malcolm Gladwell's book and its theories, particularly the 'Power of Context,' clearly describes how crime and disorder were rapidly 'tipped.' It is a vital and 'must read' addition to the on-going debate about what really causes crime and disorder and how best to deal with it." —Commissioner William J. Bratton

"Hip and hopeful, The Tipping Point, is like the idea it describes: concise, elegant but packed with social power. A book for anyone who cares about how society works and how we can make it better." —George Stephanopoulos

"What someone once said about the great Edmund Wilson is as true of Malcolm Gladwell: he gives ideas the quality of action. Here he's written a wonderful page turner about a fascinating idea that should effect the way every thinking person thinks about the world around him." —Michael Lewis Author of Liar's Poker and The New New Thing

Chicago Tribune

...a fascinating account...valuable...

US Magazine

Anyone interested in fads should read The Tipping Point..."

Time Out New York

...brimming with new theories on the science of manipulation...

Seattle Times

...a terrifically rewarding read...

Business Week

...an imaginative...treatise that's likely...to generate some buzz...it's hard not to be persuaded by Gladwell's thesis. Not only does he assemble a fascinating mix of facts in support of his theory...but he also manages to weave everything into a cohesive explanation of human behavior. What's more, we appreciate the optimism of a theory that supports, as another pundit once called it, the power of one...there's little doubt that the material will keep you awake...

San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

The Tipping Point is propelled by its author's voracious but always amiable curiosity...Gladwell has a knack for rendering complex theories in clear, elegant prose, and he makes a charismatic tour guide. As a result, the book's constant movement from one cultural realm to the next...never produces any literary motion sickness.

Janet Julian - KLIATT

When it was first published in 2000, Malcolm Gladwell's book about social epidemics "tipped." It made the bestseller lists both here and abroad. It became a popular phenomenon. This is what The Tipping Point is all about. Gladwell's concept, the topic of sociologists since the 1970s, is that trends and ideas take off—reach the tipping point—for some reason, usually because of the influence of a small group or even one individual. He offers as his first example the resurgence in popularity among the cool people of Hush Puppies, the brushed-suede shoes that were down to sales of a mere 30,000 pairs a year. Suddenly in 1995 they became a hot property and they sold 430,000 pairs a year. The same phenomenon occurs with crimes, children's television (Sesame Street and Blue's Clues), smoking among the young, direct mail, and Paul Revere's famous ride. Gladwell says that the best way to think of these trends is to see them as epidemics; they spread like viruses do. And in that spread some people are more influential than others. He posits three rules: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. His explanations are persuasive. His ideas on smoking among youngsters and how to slow it should be required reading by government officials at all levels. In his new afterword, Gladwell touches on the AIDS epidemic, improving public schools in tough neighborhoods, the massacre at Columbine High School, and finding Mavens, those influential people who make things happen. Highly recommended for its clear exposition of important issues. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. ,

Hawthorne

Gladwell has a knack for rendering complex theories in clear, elegant prose, and he makes a charismatic tour guide.
The San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

The New York Times Book Review - Alan Wolfe

The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell, is a lively, timely and engaging study of fads... Gladwell, who made his career in journalism as a science writer, has a knack for explaining psychological experiments clearly; The Tipping Point is worth reading just for what it tells us about how we try to make sense out of the world.

What People Are Saying

Jeffrey Toobin
The Tipping Point is one of those rare books that change the way you think about, well, everything. The book sets out to explain nothing less than why human beings behave the way they do and astonishingly, Malcolm Gladwell has the smarts and panache to pull it off.
— (Jeffrey Toobin, author of A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President )

Table of Contents:

Introduction

3

Vital Friends or Planet Google

Vital Friends: The People You Can't Afford to Live Without

Author: Tom Rath

and/or stickers showing their discounted price. More about bargain books

Table of Contents:

	Something's missing	1
Ch. 1	Who expects you to be somebody?	5
Ch. 2	The energy between	15
Ch. 3	Better than Prozac?	21
Ch. 4	The silver lining in a marriage	27
Ch. 5	The rounding error	33
Ch. 6	Does work balance life?	39
Ch. 7	The three-friend threshold	47
Ch. 8	Can you be friends with your boss?	59
Ch. 9	Getting engaged at work	65
Ch. 10	Sharpening each relationship	75
Ch. 11	The eight vital roles	85
Ch. 12	Family ties	137
Ch. 13	The water cooler effect	141
Ch. 14	Plugging in	147
	Parting thoughts	153
App	A case study : can leaders set the tone?
App	Development of the vital friends assessment : a technical report
App	Gallup research on friendships

Read also Deep Economy or Start Late Finish Rich

Planet Google: One Company's Audacious Plan to Organize Everything We Know

Author: Randall Stross

Based on unprecedented access he received to the highly secretive "Googleplex," acclaimed New York Times columnist Randall Stross takes readers deep inside Google, the most important, most innovative, and most ambitious company of the Internet Age. His revelations demystify the strategy behind the company's recent flurry of bold moves, all driven by the pursuit of a business plan unlike any other: to become the indispensable gatekeeper of all the world's information, the one-stop destination for all our information needs. Will Google succeed? And what are the implications of a single company commanding so much information and knowing so much about us?

As ambitious as Google's goal is, with 68 percent of all Web searches (and growing), profits that are the envy of the business world, and a surplus of talent, the company is, Stross shows, well along the way to fulfilling its ambition, becoming as dominant a force on the Web as Microsoft became on the PC. Google isn't just a superior search service anymore. In recent years it has launched a dizzying array of new services and advanced into whole new businesses, from the introductions of its controversial Book Search and the irresistible Google Earth, to bidding for a slice of the wireless-phone spectrum and nonchalantly purchasing YouTube for $1.65 billion.

Google has also taken direct aim at Microsoft's core business, offering free e-mail and software from word processing to spreadsheets and calendars, pushing a transformative -- and highly disruptive -- concept known as "cloud computing." According to this plan, users will increasingly store all of their data on Google's massive servers -- a network of a million computers that amounts to the world's largest supercomputer, with unlimited capacity to house all the information Google seeks.

The more offerings Google adds, and the more ubiquitous a presence it becomes, the more dependent its users become on its services and the more information they contribute to its uniquely comprehensive collection of data. Will Google stay true to its famous "Don't Be Evil" mantra, using its power in its customers' best interests?

Stross's access to those who have spearheaded so many of Google's new initiatives, his penetrating research into the company's strategy, and his gift for lively storytelling produce an entertaining, deeply informed, and provocative examination of the company's audacious vision for the future and the consequences not only for the business world, but for our culture at large.

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

In this spellbinding behind-the-scenes look at Google, New York Times columnist Stross (The Microsoft Way) provides an intimate portrait of the company's massively ambitious aim to "organize the world's information." Drawing on extensive interviews with top management and the author's astonishingly open access to the famed Googleplex, Stross leads readers through Google's evolution from its humble beginnings as the decidedly nonbusiness-oriented brainchild of Stanford Ph.D. students Sergey Brin and Larry Page, through the company's early growing pains and multiple acquisitions, on to its current position as global digital behemoth. Tech lovers will devour the pages of discussion about the Algorithm; business folk will enjoy the accounts of how company after company, including Microsoft and Yahoo, underestimated Google's technology, advertising model and ability to solve problems like scanning library collections; and general readers will find the sheer scale and scope of Google's progress in just a decade astounding. The unfolding narrative of Google's journey reads like a suspense novel. Brin, Page and CEO Eric Schmidt battle competitors and struggle to emerge victorious in their quest to index all the information in the world.

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Caroline Geck - Library Journal

Stross ("Digital Domain" columnist, New York Times; The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World) here gives us an outstanding business history of Google from its humble beginnings through the dot-com era to current times. Although the term Google often elicits good vibes from individuals of all ages, genders, and lifestyles worldwide, Stross shows how Google's current goals are not entirely altruistic. In fact, Google is a formidable business enterprise that uses its vast advertising revenues to achieve market share and to attain advantage over competitors, such as Facebook, Yahoo!, and Microsoft. Google's underlying strength lies in the proprietary software algorithm behind its search engine that becomes smarter when users click to web page results. Google is venturing in many new directions to accomplish the founders' goal of organizing the planet's information, but its initiatives are usually hit or miss, and its current emphasis is on automated processes that are easily "scalable" rather than investments that rely on human capital. Stross explains all of this in a balanced portrait, including criticisms concerning copyright, privacy, and other ethical issues. Therefore, his book is recommended for all business collections, both public and academic.

Kirkus Reviews

Yes, the Googleplex is trying to take over the world, but in the end this vaunted company is just as fallible as the others. In his just-the-facts account, New York Times columnist Stross (Business/San Jose State Univ.; The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World, 2007, etc.) assumes a judicious tone, avoiding the common extremes of either enthusing with childlike mania about the wonders of Google and its products, or expressing wild-eyed fear of its octopus-like reach in information gathering. This considered approach, combined with the author's relatively dry writing style, doesn't make for thrilling reading. The lack of any evident overarching thesis may also bother some readers, though perhaps not those whose knowledge of the organization doesn't extend much beyond the Web page they access daily. Stross paints a credible portrait of a company that, at least for a time, seemed poised to be the left-field candidate to supplant Microsoft as the most important technology purveyor in the world. The author comes at his subject elliptically, in chapters gathered thematically instead of chronologically, to discuss Google's brilliantly simple approach to its mammoth needs for storage capacity (lots of cheap servers networked together by themselves instead of the more expensive industry standard servers) or the paradigm-changing nature of its search software (known within the company simply as "The Algorithm"). Stross earns points by not fawning over the cuter aspects of Google culture that usually entrance journalists. Also, instead of attacking it for attempting world domination, he picks apart such missteps as the problem-plagued book-scanning program and earlymistakes with Gmail. In the end, the author suggests, the vaunted wizards of information could turn out to just be the next Microsoft. Occasionally pedestrian but always interesting take on the organization that simply wants to organize the world's information . . . all of it.

Communist Manifesto and Other Writings or The Power of Full Engagement

Communist Manifesto and Other Writings (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

Author: Karl Marx

The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings, by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.

Largely ignored when it was first published in 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s The Communist Manifesto has become one of the most widely read and discussed social and political testaments ever written. Its ideas and concepts have not only become part of theintellectual landscape of Western civilization: They form the basis for a movement that has, for better or worse, radically changed the world.

Addressed to the common worker, the Manifesto argues that history is a record of class struggle between the bourgeoisie, or owners, and the proletariat, or workers. In order to succeed, the bourgeoisie must constantly build larger cities, promote new products, and secure cheaper commodities, while eliminating large numbers of workers in order to increase profits without increasing production—a scenario that is perhaps even more prevalent today than in 1848. Calling upon the workers of the world to unite, the Manifesto announces a plan for overthrowing the bourgeoisie and empowering the proletariat.

This volume also includes Marx’s The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852), one of the most brilliant works ever written on the philosophy of history, and Theses on Feuerbach (1845), Marx’s personal notes about new forms of social relations and education.

Communist Manifesto translated by Samuel Moore, revised and edited by Friedrich Engels.

Martin Puchner is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, as well as the author of Stage Fright: Modernism, Anti-Theatricality, and Drama and Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes (forthcoming).

Book review: Indian Orphanages or The Dark Side of Democracy

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

Author: Jim Loehr

We live in digital time. Our pace is rushed, rapid-fire, and relentless. Facing crushing workloads, we try to cram as much as possible into every day. We're wired up, but we're melting down. Time management is no longer a viable solution. As bestselling authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz demonstrate in this groundbreaking book, managing energy, not time, is the key to enduring high performance as well as to health, happiness, and life balance.

The number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not. This fundamental insight has the power to revolutionize the way you live your life. The Power of Full Engagement is a highly practical, scientifically based approach to managing your energy more skillfully both on and off the job.

At the heart of the program is the Corporate Athlete® Training System. It is grounded in twenty-five years of work with some of the world's greatest athletes to help them perform more effectively under brutal competitive pressures. Clients have included Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in tennis; Mark O'Meara and Ernie Els in golf; Eric Lindros and Mike Richter in hockey; Nick Anderson and Grant Hill in basketball; and gold medalist Dan Jansen in speed skating.

During the past decade, dozens of Fortune 500 companies have paid thousands of dollars to learn the Corporate Athlete training system. So have FBI swat teams, critical care physicians and nurses, salesmen, and stay-at-home moms. The Power of Full Engagement lays out the key training principles and provides a powerful, step-by-step program that will help you to:

• Mobilize four key sources ofenergy

• Balance energy expenditure with intermittent energy renewal

• Expand capacity in the same systematic way that elite athletes do

• Create highly specific, positive energy management rituals Above all, this book provides a life-changing road map to becoming more fully engaged on and off the job, meaning physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused, and spiritually aligned.

Publishers Weekly

The authors, founders of and executives at LGE Performance Systems, an executive training program based on athletic coaching programs, offer a program aimed at stressed individuals who want to find more purpose in their work and ways to better handle their overburdened relationships. Just as athletes train, play and then recover, people need to recognize their own energy levels. "Balancing stress and recovery is critical not just in competitive sports, but also in managing energy in all facets of our lives. Emotional depth and resilience depend on active engagement with others and with our own feelings." Case studies demonstrate how some modest changes can have an immediate impact. Loehr (Mental Toughness Training for Sports) and Schwartz (Art of the Deal, writing with Donald Trump) also include a chart highlighting Action Steps, Targeted Muscle, Desired Outcome and Performance Barrier and apply these tenets to individual cases. A chart analyzing the benefits and costs to taking certain action shows the impact negative behavior can have on both physical and mental well-being. However, the actual "training program" whereby readers can learn how to institute certain rituals to change their behavior is less well-defined. Managers and other employees who have attended HR seminars may find this plan easy to use, but self-employed people and others less familiar with "training" may be unable to recognize their behavior patterns and change them. (Feb.) Forecasts: With dozens of endorsements from Dean Ornish, Barry Diller, athletes and CEOs, the buzz on this title is likely to be loud. Ongoing publicity should lead to strong initial sales but whether this book will replace Covey's The 7 Habits is debatable. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

Personal Renewal And High Performance
Loehr and Schwartz, two senior partners at LGE Performance Systems, have developed a program that aims to help readers revolutionize the way they live their lives. By helping them focus on managing their energy, rather than their time, the authors offer strategies that can improve performance, health, happiness and life balance.

They start their book with the idea that the "number of hours in a day is fixed, but the quantity and quality of energy available to us is not." Using this as their ideological base, the authors present a practical, scientific approach to managing energy more skillfully both on and off the job. This approach culminates in the Corporate Athlete(r) training system that has helped some of the world's greatest athletes perform more effectively under stiff competition, including Monica Seles, Eric Lindros and Grant Hill.

The Corporate Athlete training system aims to help those involved "perform in the storm" by building the capacity that is necessary to sustain high performance in the face of increasing demand. To provide readers with the key training principles of this system, the authors present a road map that can help them become more fully engaged, physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned.

Fundamentals of Full Engagement
Fundamentals contained in The Power of Full Engagement include:

• Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance. Without the right quantity, quality, focus and force of energy, we are compromised in any activity we undertake.
• Performance, health and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy. The more we take responsibility for the energy we bring to the world, the more empowered and productive we become.
• We build emotional, mental and spiritual capacity in precisely the same way that we build physical capacity. We grow at all levels by expending energy beyond our ordinary limits and then recovering.
• A positive ritual is a behavior that becomes automatic over time - fueled by some deeply held value.

The authors present numerous examples of engaged and unengaged individuals who reveal crucial aspects of their improvement system. By discussing the balance of stress and recovery, the body's need for oscillation, eating better, getting sufficient sleep, exercising properly, and maintaining physical energy, the authors present a game plan that reveals the optimum level of each while providing strategies for getting there. The authors also explain the importance of recovery breaks, interval training, and eating, breathing and drinking right.

The authors also show readers how they can attain better emotional balance. Their tips include ways to access positive emotions; build self-control, self-confidence, interpersonal effectiveness and empathy; minimize negative emotions; and find emotional renewal and recovery.

Realistic Optimism
The Power of Full Engagement also helps readers develop the mental capacity to organize their lives and focus their attention. The authors write that the "mental energy that best serves full engagement is realistic optimism - seeing the world as it is, but always working positively toward a desired outcome or solution." Their tips for exercising mental muscles include mental preparation, visualization, positive self-talk, effective time management and creativity.

The last element in the author's system of becoming fully engaged is spiritual energy. They write that spiritual energy provides the force for action in all dimensions of our lives, and fuels passion, perseverance and commitment. Spiritual energy, they point out, is derived from a connection to deeply held values and a purpose beyond our self-interest, and is served by character - the courage and conviction to live by our deepest values.

The Power of Full Engagement also discusses the search for meaning and purpose in one's life, and provides many examples of ways people can measure the power of purpose and find purpose through values, virtues and creating a vision statement that creates a blueprint for investing energy. From this foundation, the authors show readers how they can use rituals to effectively manage their energy and regulate their behavior.

Why Soundview Likes This Book
Loehr and Schwartz have created an inspirational guidebook that can help anyone get more from his or her life. The Power of Full Engagement shows readers how they can take a positive approach to growth and improvement by presenting dozens of solid examples of people who have benefitted from change, and provides numerous ways readers can focus and align their lives mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually. By presenting performance psychology in basic terms, the authors offer accessible ways people can improve their performance at all levels of life. Copyright © 2003 Soundview Executive Book Summaries