Born Evil ---Book Review

"Author of two books and many short stories, J.P. Ransom is busily writing a series of books called Colla’d Greens and two more upcoming books including a sequel to Born Evil. Born Evil is a compact, 150-page book that is printed on acid-free paper – which may be of interest to the environmentally conscious consumer. I would categorize this book as a chilling horror, which involves an infant that is born evil. Traumatized by early experiences, only compounds Jonathan’s natural inclination – a cruel desire to cause harm. Unprepared for a disturbed child, his adopted parents are continually wallowing in deep pits of overwhelming uncertainty. Rick suspects the truth, but Trish finds it very hard to imagine or even accept that little Jonathon is capable of such hateful acts. I think the book makes a good point that some people are simply born with a desire to do harm, with no abusive situation to attribute these urges to. Readers are also shown how these urges can easily be encouraged through socially acceptable entertainment and through being witness to violent acts. While reading Born Evil, I experienced a wide range of emotions from anger to sorrow and shock. The conclusion was exceptional and I look forward to J.P. Ransom’s sequel." ISBN#: 1410788520Author: J.P. Ransom Lillian Brummet - Book Reviewer - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment – Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry. (http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit) Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/ http://www.newbookreview.blogspot.com http://www.newbookrelease.blogspot.com http://www.lookingforbooks.blogspot.com

Amapola --- Book Review

Alan Heywood writes a stimulating, though sometimes improbable, adventure novel in Amapola. What I mean by this is that the characters are seemingly very lucky or were simply at the right place, at the right time. Yet, other scenes are somewhat reminiscent of a James Bond movie. I liked the humor Alan dabbled throughout the novel and admired the strong female characters. This book certainly has a heavy slant towards the importance of friendships and a pro-Canada theme – which I loved. George Magee, a retired Major, was never able to forget Sakai, a Costa-Rican woman, who despite the number of years that separated them easily stole his heart. He thought that he was doing the right thing by leaving the young beauty, but the torment in his heart was not eased by the passage of time. Now retired, he fills his days with an import-export business that requires him to return to Mexico periodically to deal with his customers. His emotional void is filled by his Sister’s family – since he does not have one of his own. Sadly, members of a drug cartel heartlessly murder his brother-in-law and young niece, and George is filled with seething anger. When the Canadian government requests George to assist their war on Mexican drugs by using his business as a cover, he jumps at the chance to strike out in revenge. Fueled by his anger and his hopes of reconciling with Sakai, George is taken on a thrilling adventure in and out of the drug trade. ISBN#: 1894942130Author: Alan HeywoodPublisher: Zumaya Publications Lillian Brummet - Book Reviewer - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment – Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry. (http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit) Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/ http://www.newbookreview.blogspot.com http://www.newbookrelease.blogspot.com http://www.lookingforbooks.blogspot.com

Turbo Strategy --- A Book Summary

Businesses are run mostly on auto-pilot and any problem areas are only dealt with when they are already critical, but by then it may already be too late. Most business managers are too busy with the day-to-day work to sit back and look at the business critically in terms of its context and the direction it is going. Brian Tracey's Turbo Strategy provides a checklist of areas that should be regularly examined by all businesses to ensure that it remains on the right path towards success and profitability. In the book, the author introduces practical techniques that will help you come up with strategies and more importantly turn up profit quickly: 1. The answers have changed – most businesses operate the way they do because they are “tried” strategies, not because it is efficient and profitable. 2. Flexibility is essential – from time to time, it is important to take a step back and reevaluate the situation, then do something about it. 3. The one true measure – two basic questions you need to ask everyday “What is working?” and “What is not working?” Conduct a Basic Business Analysis Whenever you go in for a complete medical exam, the doctors and nurses follow a set procedure. In the same way, there are basic business examination questions that you need to ask and answer continuously to determine the overall health of your organization. Remember the following: a. The Customer as Centerpiece. b. Determine What You Sell. c. Define Your Competitor. d. Set Clear Goals. Design Your Ideal Future Practice Idealization. To do this you must think of what your company would look like five years from now if everything were perfect. Then think in terms of possibilities. Are the goals you set achievable in five years? Create a Mission Statement and Determine Your Values A mission statement is essential to an organization because it gives meaning and purpose to the people in their daily activities and work. It inspires loyalty, commitment and become a key factor when making business decisions and when you are clear then you can easily revisit your mission statement and follow its guidelines. Select the Right People The two key qualities in finding the best people are that they can be counted on to get the job done well and to get it done on time. Another quality is that they should be good team players. Market More Effectively The four essential elements of marketing are: specialization, differentiation, segmentation, and concentration. All marketing elements are important but you should constantly evaluate what you are doing. Remember that the market is changing and changing fast! You may have to change one of your strategies or more than one at the same time. Analyze Your Competition You have to know your competition. You have to find out why the customers buy from them, what values and benefits do they get from buying from them. The biggest mistake you can make is to belittle your customers. You have to study them and learn from them. Three Potential Areas of Superiority 1. Operational Excellence 2. Lead the Field 3. Be Close to the Customer Change your Marketing Mix 1. Product – define your product or service in terms of what it “does” for your customers. 2. Price – be open to the possibility that you may have priced your products or services wrong. 3. Promotion – this encompasses everything you do in the process of marketing, advertising and sales. 4. Place – this is the location where the sale of your product takes place. Position Your Company for Success Social proof is a major influencing factor to determine whether or not people buy your products or services. Your reputation is the value that people will pay for. Building a brand trust requires personal experiences by people with your products or services. It is very much like a personal reputation that takes a long time to build but can be damaged or destroyed overnight with bad decisions. Develop Strategic Business Units The strategic business unit concept revolutionized multi-product or multi-service businesses; each of the products is grouped with similar products or services in different ways. The starting point of implementation is to have someone specifically responsible for the operations and results of the unit. To make this work, you begin by drawing up a complete business plan that would include sales revenue, costs and profitability. Sell More Effectively The fact is that 80 percent of your markets have not yet been approached by your salespeople. No one has told them about you. Your business could be probably being selling twice as much if you could just find out how to sell it to them. Eliminate the Bottlenecks There are two important steps that you need to take. First, decide on your specific business goals; make them clear, measurable and time-bounded. The next step is asking the question: “why am not in that goal already?” Reengineer Your Company To simplify and streamline your operations so that it is more efficient, faster and more effective and therefore more profitable, you have to reduce the number of steps in each process. You have to simplify the processes and make faster and better decision. Pump Up Your Profits Conduct a complete profit analysis on every product. You must also remember that labor has a real “opportunity” cost along with other use of other resources especially in a multi-product or multi-services business. Focus on Results All your customers care about is results. They do not care much about your problems with your people, products, processes or any other aspects of your business. There are four questions that customers answer before buying the product or service. These are: What does it cost? What do I get for the money? How fast do I get the benefits you promise? How sure can I be that I will get those benefits? Seven Steps to Personal Performance Step 1: Set clear, specific, written goals for each important area of your business. Make them measurable and time-bound. Step 2: Make a list of activities before you begin a day, put it on paper. The best time to do this is before you go to bed so the subconscious mind can work on your list as you sleep. Step 3: Set priorities on the list you made. Apply the 80/20 rule and select the top 20 percent of your tasks to work on. Step 4: Practice creative procrastination. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, decide in advance which of those tasks have little value or importance can you do away with. Step 5: Select the one most important job and have the discipline to accomplish that first thing. Step 6: Practice single-handling with the most important task you have identified. Resolve to work on it until it is resolved. Step 7: Develop a sense of urgency. The faster you move, the more work you get done and the better you feel. This will create momentum. By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette PantillaRegine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs. http://www.bizsum.com"A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read" Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers for Busy Executives and Entrepreneurs Mailto: mailto:freearticle@bizsum.com BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service. (c) Copyright 2001- 2005, BusinessSummaries.com - Wisdom In A Nutshell Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Going Deeper ----- Book Review

Going Deeper by Jean-Claude Koven is certainly a nicely presented, hard-cover book. This fiction fantasy has an obvious inclination to aid readers who are embarking on their personal spiritual quest. The main character, Larry, is going through a break down, of sorts. He decides the best cure is to retreat into nature. The problem is that along the way, Larry begins to hear the voice of his dog speaking like a guru. Unsure if he is going completely mad, he continues in shock until he is able to absorb the shift in reality. Between Zeus, the talking dog, and being visited by a variety of spiritual guides, Larry learns the answers to his many questions about life, meaning, destiny and more. One could say this is definitely a unique story line! Personally, I found the book difficult to read, as it was a little too deep, sometimes tedious and occasionally the story line seemed a little ridiculous. I truly believe it was the authors intent to include a vast amount of information that may guide spiritual seekers, but it is written with some elements of humor and zest. Jean-Claude has been on an extensive journey of his own and elements of many belief systems can be seen throughout the book. ISBN#: 0972395458Author: Jean-Claude KovenPublisher: Prism House Press Lillian Brummet - Book Reviewer - Co-author of the book Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment – Author of Towards Understanding, a collection of poetry. (http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit) Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Getting Hip

Getting Hip by Sigrid Macdonald is a delicate story of one woman; Sigrid Macdonald and her beginning to end on a road to preparations and recovery from a total hip replacement. This book is a source of beneficial information for anyone who is searching for the facts about hip surgery. The information in this book can help to answer questions about total hip replacement, revisions, hip resurfacing, and preparations. It is an astounding book on hip replacements and how it transformed one women’s life. If you need to have hip surgery you can view this book and see how the author's life was transformed by a Hip replacement, you will read a disconcerting biographical story with hints of uncompromised choices, empathy, and compassions with an underlying candor to dowse the phobia. Unbelievably there is a diversity of women out there suffering from arthritic deterioration that are in need of a total hip replacement before the age of 50, not something most of us as women expect. With a user, reader friendly book and a full detailed outline and journey to recovery her story proffers comic like candor and understanding for those facing a possible hip replacement. It offers such useful tips that deal with more than the physical aspects but also psychologically tips for coping through hip surgery. The book is so detailed from consulting with the first surgeon to waiting for surgery. The books touches on such diversity with each interview that Ms. MacDonald conducted and each individual has a unique situation that brought them to the final decisions of having to have a hip replacement. The book is written so well that it leaves you with a sense of relief and somehow the phobia subsides. Ms. Macdonald gives it that personal touch that many need when awaiting such decision making when we are dealing with our own bodies. The book is a must read for those in similar situations, the writing is done with compassion, significance, and humor. The Review DiariesGetting Hip: Recovery from a Total Hip Replacementby Sigrid MacdonaldShe Unlimited Magazine Review byVeronica Marie Kettler Veronica Marie Kettler is Editor-in-Chief for She Unlimited Magazine. http://www.sheunlimited.com and heads up the community at http://www.sheunlimited.com/forums. Marie is committed to making a difference. Making a difference in the Women sectors online, media and print. Marie believes that individual style is a form of self-expression. Marie knows the trends and where to find them. Her expertise and knowledge give consumers everywhere the insight they need to get the latest styles and products that fit everyone and every budget, both online and off. For More information or how to become and editor for She Unlimited Magazine please e-mail: admin@sheunlimited.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

E-books in Your Life

E-Books are making a big impact in the way we read, write and use books. There is nothing holding back an expert with years of experience on a particular field to write about all the ins and outs, trade secrets, strengths and weaknesses of the industry. Consider Colm Dillon, the author of "Unique Real Estate Development Method!" (http://business.marc8.com/ebook-info.php/name/unique_real_estate_development_method/toc_id/6-0-2-8/). He has 30 years and $1.2 Billion worth of professional real estate development experience. Dillon wrote his book purely from experience and practical usage. His eBook is now selling in 63 countries and directly available on the Internet. More and more shoppers are now buying books online. If you purchase a physical book that you have been dying to get your hands on you still have to wait for shipping and delivery before you can start reading. With E-Books you get instant delivery 24x7. No more waiting and watching the clock. While the inspiration and interest is hot, you get to download your favorite business book and start reading away. Imagine, discovering an E-Book called “Business Plans” (http://business.marc8.com/ebook-info.php/name/business_plans/toc_id/1-0-1-6/) at 11.30 pm, decided to buy and download the book at 12.05 am, finished reading it by 2.00 am. The 10 o’clock meeting next morning, and you are already a guru on Business Plans and opportunities to lead your company to new frontiers. And that E-Book is very easy to share with your spouse or friend, just email it. The E-book will never wear out for millions of years to come. Hundreds of thousands of E-Books can be carried in the palm of your hand no matter where you go in a flash-drive or portable disk. E-Books are the new media for traditional physical books, but are E-Books here to stay? Consider Joe Vitale, author of numerous successful E-Books and more recently famous for "Attractor Factor" (http://business.marc8.com/book-info.php/name/the_attractor_factor_5_easy_steps_for_creating_wealth_or/toc_id/1-0-2-1/) which has already outsold Harry Potter as #1 bestseller twice in two weeks. E-books are carving the path for many talented authors around the world. E-books are not only here to stay but also becoming very popular. Sanjib Ahmad is a Product Consultant for Business.Marc8.com - Business Best Sellers. You are free to use this article in its entirety as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content, and include the resource box listed above. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Reading

The reading of Faulkner, by Oprah's Book Club, has begun. Our readers have finished reading 1/3 of As I Lay Dying. We will have completed two thirds of the book by June 19th. The discussion of the book will end on June 26. After this date, we will be reading and discussing, The Sound and the Fury. It is not to late to join this reading extravaganza.

A Summer of Faulkner

This summer, we will be experiencing a summer of Faulkner. As a result, I will only be posting on Mondays. After all, when you are reading William Faulkner, you have no time to post. We will be spending, a summer of Faulkner, reading William Faulkner's three-book collection of classics that include As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, and Light in August. Please purchase a summer of Faulkner's three book collection from Amazon.com as soon as possible. What a great summer this will be.

Book Blitz

There will be a book blitz this year. So many books and so many book reviewers are searching for new books to read. They do not have to search hard and long in order to find a long lineup of new reading material. If you want to find new books to read, you do not have to just search the online and offline bookstores to find them. You can find new books at the major and minor publishing houses. The publishing houses have an extensive list of new books that will be released this summer. Go visit some of these publishers' website in order to get a head start on the book blitz.

Hurricane Season

Today is the first day of the hurricane season. Last year, the state of Florida suffered the most during the hurricane season. Many people were left without the bare necessities. Perhaps some of you are gearing up for the hurricane season. It would not be a bad idea to go out and purchase some new books and novels. Reading is fun even when a hurricane is approaching. Even if your lights go out, you can still read with a flashlight. What a great way to past the time away. Go out and buy those books and novels before you are hit by a hurricane.