Book Description
Winning by not competing: a fresh approach to strategy Since the dawn of the industrial age, companies have engaged in head-to-head competition in search of sustained, profitable growth. They have fought for competitive advantage, battled over market share, and struggled for differentiation. Yet these hallmarks of competitive strategy are not the way to create profitable growth in the future. In a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne argue that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves spanning more than a hundred years and thirty industries, the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors, but from creating “blue oceans”: untapped new market spaces ripe for growth. Such strategic moves—which the authors call “value innovation”—create powerful leaps in value that often render rivals obsolete for more than a decade. Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any company can use to create and capture blue oceans. A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this book charts a bold new path to winning the future.
Customer Reviews:
Question the status quo.......2007-09-25
The book forced me to rethink the way I normally would look at business developments for my companies: either value based or feature based. The idea of a creating new space in a crowded market and making a leap in growth through the blue ocean strategy stirred up my thinking juices. Personally, I don't like how to books with "three simple steps" This book was great; a must read.
Good Book.......2007-09-24
1. This is NOT a marketing book
2. There is no such thing as a fail safe strategy
3. This is a tool and is only as good as the user
4. Applicable in different situations
5. Good companion to Competitive Strategy written in the 80's by Mike Porter which is THE industry book
6. The book is NOT a pioneer and is NOT proported to be. It is a study in those companies who seemed to have created new markets such as Cirque De Soleil. The authors did NOT set out to create a new "theory" and then retroactively "fit" companies but rather study an emerging pheonom. and try to locate patterns.
I think that pretty much covers all the gripes of the previous entries. I first came across this book in a competitive strategy class in a business organizational change degree. It is an excellent text and gives another viewpoint to the old study of competitive strategy. I have used the strategy canvas tool located in chapter two AS A TOOL to assist me in both departmental and industry situations to locate existing patterns of competition.
Worth the money.
But then, I am just a "mere" academic (albeit with many years of industry experience) so if you truly do not like the book I suggest returning it. :)
What is your greatest challenge?.......2007-09-13
The greatest struggle for most business people is to come up with a truly original and valuable idea. Close behind that is how to get employees to work together. This book makes me want to cry, because it actually, simply, lays out how to do both. Beautiful.
Academics rarely demonstrate how to do it!.......2007-09-11
I bought this book. Their identifications are valid enough. Great companies have always created uncontested market space while making their competitors irrelevant. This is not in dispute. However...
The authors Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne are just mere academics. And what is annoying is that they haven't battle tested their Blue Ocean model from hard knocks in the trenches business wars to find out what works and what doesn't for themselves! Again, this is what I find annoying with academics. They say a lot but never prove it themselves! Remember Merton & Scholes and LTCM?
For an example...in the book, the authors have an interesting strategic canvass graph approach that supposes to prove how Blue Ocean events come about. That's fine, but how do you prove it? Moreover, the 'values' are different for each company, so there is nothing consistent to glean from this.
What I'd like to have seen is a Dash Board type matrix template that allows any company or budding entrepreneur to carry out Blue Ocean due diligence on any industry or market niches...proofing these Blue Ocean catchments from a zero learning curve application! The book does have important points but lacks the cutting edge tools to unify Blue Ocean diligence and proofs for any company!
Thus, what this book lacks is a more honed processing of enquiry from the authors. And I suspect this to be the case because like many academics they haven't proven the unifying dynamics that goes into capturing Blue Ocean strategies for themselves with businesses they have built through their own mindset!
Again, this book is a case of 'do what I say, because I don't have to prove what I say'.
There are great industry shapers out there who can shift and move whole industries and markets in their favour...but the authors of this book are not one of them.
However, there are great positives the authors have identified. The book contains a very interesting 'Strategic Grid' technique. From this simple grid technique any one can mentally survey how to change one's industry or market from a macro-vantage point. But shifting and moving your new found Blue Ocean grid at a tactical level to rule your competition making them irrelevant is another matter entirely. The chapters that explain this grid are worth the book, but don't expect any thing else.
What you really want is a knowledge base that allows you to dig out Blue Ocean criteria from a template of enquiring tools STACKED PROCESS BY PROCESS UNTIL YOU PROOF YOUR OWN BLUE OCEAN POWER. This book fails on this!
I would suggest that any one buying this book should read 'Blue Print to a Billion by David Thomson to understand how real Blue Ocean executions are carried out correctly. In addition, Chet Holmes' Ultimate Sales Machine' gets you to understand how to carry out big frame strategies at the tactical level.
Both these books will plug the holes lacking with Kim & Mauborgne's work.
Blue Ocean Strategy.......2007-09-10
I like the non text book clear presentation. You do not have to have an MBA to enjoy and learn from this book.
Book Description
"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve. . . . I used to not like God because God didn't resolve. But that was before any of this happened." In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.
Customer Reviews:
Offensive to jazz fans!.......2007-09-30
Donald Miller, I'd like you to take out the sheet music of Mood Indigo, which I'm sure you've studied extensively, and show me where it doesn't resolve--I think that harmonically it's one of the perfect all time pieces of music, and it resolves better than a lot.
Maybe he's talking about free jazz or bop or post bop or modal jazz or something, but I'm not sure he actually knows what those terms mean. It sounds to me like he's heard a couple of jazz songs at some point and decided that this makes him an expert. Yeah, man, he was turned on to this stuff by Tony, his beat poet buddy, man. Oh, that is so hip!
But even if you're saying on a technical level that jazz music, in some of its more far-flung explorations, abandons established notions of harmony, melody, rhythm and tonality, it can always be explained. You can always notate it, analyze it, study it, and explain it. You can break it down to vibrations traveling through the air and you can know exactly what those vibrations are doing.
You can't do that with Christian spiritual notions, because they're based on assertions of faith that require you to abandon the desire for statements of fact to be proved. It's cute, Donald Miller, for you to say that you're just not interested anymore in the intellectual/theological aspects of Christianity, but it's stupid and ignorant for you to use jazz as a point of comparison. Jazz musicians know exactly what they're doing and they can explain it to you in minute detail, and yes, they could write it down if they wanted to. It's not just getting up in front of people and blowing some BS through your instrument. That's what YOU are doing in your spirituality. Jazz music requires training, education, rigorous practice and relentless creativity. What you do requires a huge capacity for BS and evasive, circular arguments. Guess which one I respect more.
Any jazz solo can be studied note for note, analyzed, and explained. And the person who performed that solo can you tell what choices they made at every point and why, and they can base that on established musical concepts. Once you get to that point, it isn't mysterious anymore, but it is beautiful and special in a way that your unfounded, frightened faith can never be.
Friendly conversation over coffee.......2007-09-25
I don't read a lot of "spirituality" themed books because after a few chapters I feel like the author is trying to convince the reader that his views are right and the reader's are all wrong. This was given to me as a gift and I really did enjoy it. The author didn't seem so much as if he was throwing up his thoughts on you as the reader, but more talking to you about them in a coffee shop conversation. I'm a decently fast reader, but I took some time with this one, reading and re-reading passages and often whole chapters so as to really chew on what the author had to say. The author has a lot to say but says it in a digestible form. Not once did I feel like he was talking over my head. I rarely purchase books for myself unless the book strikes a personal chord with me and I know I will want to read the book several times over; however, I'm glad to play hostess to this book on my shelf.
5th try........2007-09-13
I am on about my 5th try to finish this book. It is hard for me to make it past the first chapter.
I agree that in some ways his approach can be entertaining and "honest," but that does not make it edifying.
I think Miller is sadly confused with many of the vital doctrines of Christianity. Yes I know the word doctrine has come to have some rather poor connotations, yet there is truth Christianity is defined by. I'm not even talking doctrines that are usually debated.
Miller seems to make no importance of sin, and I am still hard pressed to know how serious he is when he says boys usually begin sinning when they are 10, and girls when they are 23. Has he ever even seen a child?
Miller tells of a time when he had a "slot machine god" where he would just screw up, pray, and hope for something good. Though he admits this was wrong, It seems like he is still playing the same slots. Now he is just taking his confusion and using culture he adapts it to the things that he says "make no sense."
Yes, Christians need to be relevant, but we are more importantly to live as new creations, people of a heavenly culture. We are not supposed to ascribe our culture to God, we are to ascribe ourselves to Him.
Anyone confused about this I recommend (lovingly) to read the book of Romans, and if you can't commit to the whole book chapters 6,7, and 8.
Very good, but not great.......2007-09-03
This book was highly recommended by several of my friends and I particularly liked the idea of reading up on "Christian Spirituality". This book had several funny stories in it, and also a few others that were really touching and made you think.
However, there were a few times where Miller decided to go on a tangent about Republicans and how heartless and selfish they were and how churches are puppets for the Republican party (i.e. Ch.12, titled "Churches"). It just really left a bad taste in my mouth which is why I didn't give this 5 stars. I wanted to read a book with anecdotes about Christian Spirituality and not get randomly bombarded by irrational and irrelevant political speech that was aimed at bashing Republicans.
I really hope this wasn't the main motivation for him becoming an advocate for Christian Spirituality or else this book will really lose a lot of credibility in my opinion. It's not because I am a Republican (because I'm actually a Libertarian), it's because political slamming is completely out of place in the book and is really in poor taste considering this meant to be about Christianity and not George W. Bush.
Blue Like Jazz.......2007-08-28
In the book, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller seeks to address Christian spirituality in a nonreligious manner. He relies on experience rather than obscure religious doctrine to convey spiritual truths relating to life, God, community, friendship, love, and the like. In the way Miller relates stories and anecdotes the book is reminiscent of a memoir, but unlike many memoirs Miller's stories have a point and teach a lesson. He does not write simply to entertain, but also to teach and inform.
Miller was born in Houston, Texas, and left at the age of twenty-one to travel around the country until he ran out of money in Portland, Oregon, where he now lives. He published his first book, Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance, in 2000. Two years later he published Blue Like Jazz. He continues to write books and also teaches a class at Summit College outside Toronto.
Miller's perspective is refreshing and convincing. Even when he writes about the importance of giving to charity or going to church he avoids coming across as preachy and condescending by backing up his beliefs with personal anecdotes and experience. Instead of relying on Bible verses or well-known evangelists and ministers, he quotes Christian friends and hometown ministers. He expresses the same truths Christianity and other religions present by drawing on rich personal experiences and memories to show the reader his views.
Miller opens the book by saying that in order to love and appreciate something you must sometimes first see someone else loving it. Miller attempts and succeeds at showing the reader how important the words he writes are to him. The philosophies he presents are ones that he has lived by. While Miller writes specifically to a Christian audience, this is a book that cuts across specific religions to appeal to anyone who believes in a higher power.
Book Description
Born on a Blue Day is a journey into one of the most fascinating minds alive today -- guided by its owner himself. Daniel Tammet sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and he can perform extraordinary calculations in his head. He can learn to speak new languages fluently, from scratch, in a week. In 2004, he memorized and recited more than 22,000 digits of pi, setting a record. He has savant syndrome, an extremely rare condition that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers, much like those portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man.
Daniel has a compulsive need for order and routine -- he eats the same precise amount of cereal for breakfast every morning and cannot leave the house without counting the number of items of clothing he's wearing. When he gets stressed or is unhappy, he closes his eyes and counts. But in one crucial way Daniel is not at all like the Rain Man: he is virtually unique among people who have sev- ere autistic disorders in that he is capable of living a fully independent life. He has emerged from the "other side" of autism with the ability to function successfully -- he is even able to explain what is happening inside his head.
Born on a Blue Day is a triumphant and uplifting story, starting from early childhood, when Daniel was incapable of making friends and prone to tantrums, to young adulthood, when he learned how to control himself and to live independently, fell in love, experienced a religious conversion to Christianity, and most recently, emerged as a celebrity. The world's leading neuroscientists have been studying Daniel's ability to solve complicated math problems in one fell swoop by seeing shapes rather than making step-by-step calculations. Here he explains how he does it, and how he is able to learn new languages so quickly, simply by absorbing their patterns. Fascinating and inspiring, Born on a Blue Day explores what it's like to be special and gives us an insight into what makes us all human -- our minds.
Customer Reviews:
Not Terribly Engrossing.......2007-08-07
The introduction for this book, in which Tammet describes his savant skills and his synesthesia, is really the most interesting part, and one wishes that the remainder of the book could have been so. As it is, it is a memoir about a life that, despite the curiosity of his Asperger's syndrome and his talents, is actually rather ordinary.
It is interesting to hear him describe the mental manifestations of his mild autism, but as the book moves on, it actually does not effect his life as much as you'd think. When you see him on television programs, in fact, you would hardly guess the mental stress he undergoes to interact with people.
Until late in the book, no one seems particularly interested in Tammet's outstanding language and math abilities, which seems a shame. The memoir has been produced precisely because he has been discovered, but I can't help but think that a different kind of book would have been a better, more interesting way to learn about Tammet. While his brain is fascinating, his life story isn't nearly so.
Nice book about synesthesia.......2007-08-03
This is a nice first person narrative about synesthesia. I enjoyed reading another person's perspective of synesthetic problem solving by means of spontaneous, intuitive pictures. I know of synesthetes that have had to go through extensive occupational therapy to heal hypersensitivities to light, sound, etc. I wonder how he just got over it at some point.
I rate this book a 5 star because it is rare to find a book about synesthesia written by the people who live it and know it best.
A beautiful book!.......2007-08-01
This is really a beautiful book. I really mean beautiful. Yes it is a great book and a great read, but the difference between this book and other great reads is that this is truly a beautiful book.
The author will take you right into his mind and will show you how he visualizes the world around him. You might think he is a genius, capable of feats we mere mortals are incapable of. For example, he can perform extraordinary math in his head. He can calculate the number Pie (22 divided by 7, or 3.14.....) to more than 22,000 digits in his head! In fact, he holds the world record! Give him any numbers, such as 34,768 multiplied by 67,879, and he'll spit out the answer in an instant, faster than it would take you to enter the digits in a calculator.
How can he calculate so fast? What is his secret? The author, Daniel Tammet, sees numbers as shapes, colors and textures. He also experiences emotions by visualizing numbers. He says, "If a friend says they feel sad or depressed, I picture myself sitting in the dark hollowness of number six to help me experience the same sort of feeling and understand it. If I read in an article that a person felt intimidated by something, I imagine myself standing next to the number nine...By doing this, numbers actually help me get closer to understanding other people (p. 8-9, Hodder 2006, paperback). On page 11, he says, "Some nights, when I'm having difficulty falling asleep, I imagine myself walking around my numerical landscapes. Then I feel safe and happy. I never feel lost, because the prime number shapes acts as signposts." He further adds, "Five is a clap of thunder or the sound of waves crashing against rocks. Thirty-seven is lumpy like porridge, while 89 reminds me of falling snow...The number four is shy and quiet...Prime numbers feel smooth, like pebbles."
The author also knows how to speak 11 languages (he even invented one of his own), and he can speak a language fluently from scratch in a week. He learnt Icelandic in one week during a TV interview in Iceland! He says, "Seeing words in different colors and textures aids my memory for facts and names."
In case you are wondering, Tammet sees days of the week as colors. Wednesday, the day he was born, is `blue'; thus the title of the book, `Born on a Blue Day'.
Is the author a genius?
Daniel Tammet has Savant Syndrome, an extremely rare form of Asperger's that gives him almost unimaginable mental powers, much like the Rain Man (Kim Peek) portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. But he is unique among people who have severe autistic disorders in being able to live a fully independent life. He travels by air alone and visits many countries for interviews, research, and to appear on TV. His first flight abroad was to Lithuania where he worked as a volunteer English teacher. It was there he realized that he could live an independent life. He also traveled to America on his own to film the documentary Brainman.
One reviewer said that statistics recently released placed one out of every 150 births as an autistic child. This is by no means a small number. But not all autistic children have the abilities of Tammet or Peek. It is believed that there might be fewer than 100 worldwide!
So what makes Tammet and Peek different from other autistic people, and particularly us?
Tammet's Savant talents likely resulted with a short bout with epilepsy at the age of 4. Scientists studying Tammet and other Savants believe that something in the brain triggers the Savant abilities. If scientists can pinpoint this trigger, can they make us all into supercomputers? The research into the brain is still ongoing, and I must say, is quite fascinating. A lot of it is explained in this book.
However one should not forget that we too have many abilities that we take for granted, such as our ability to communicate clearly (most autistics don't have this ability); understand each other; cope with our surroundings etc...
This book is an insight into what it is like to be a high-functioning autistic. The author explains his life from birth (as related by his parents) to the present time (2006). Some scenes are very touching, like the death of his cat, the illness of his father, and the loneliness he experienced. Other scenes are really funny, like how he didn't like shaving because he was very sensitive to the sound of the blade on his skin (his boyfriend Neil later shaved for him, and taught him to use an electric shaver which he liked using). In fact, sounds bother him, and he often plugs his ears with his fingers. He also says that he eats exactly 45 grams of porridge for breakfast each morning. How does he know this? Well, he actually measures his porridge!
He sometimes sleepwalks. As a child, his parents always made sure his room was tidy at night, for fear he would stumble on something while sleep walking.
He explains how since an early age he was attracted to males, and how he approached his first crush while in high school. He was politely rejected. He then met his true love through the internet years later. He didn't know how to tell his parents. When he finally mustered the courage and the words to face his parents, he was surprised that they immediately supported him. All they wished for was his happiness. He eventually moved in with his boyfriend Neil. They are still together today.
He explains how difficult it is to love as an autistic, and how autistics view love. There is also a chapter on his views on religion which I found inspiring. He says, "...my moral values are based more on ideas that are logical, make sense to me and that I have thought through carefully, than on the ability to `walk in another person's shoes'. I know to treat each person I meet with kindness and respect, because I believe that each person is unique and created in God's image." (p. 282).
He now joins scientists in exploring his mind. He does not mind being a guinea pig as long as there is a benefit to mankind. Imagine one day we can think like him. Imagine being able to solve any mathematical problem! I think it was Einstein who once said that we only use 5% of our brain. What if we can unlock the other 95% of our brain? Imagine being more powerful in processing information than the fastest computer! This is not a dream. People with Savant Syndrome can do just that. The Rain Man (Peek), for example, memorized over 7,000 books, and is able to retrieve any information with page numbers from any of these books!
I love reading books, and I am proud of my thousand plus book library. Imagine having the power to actually put this library in my mind! It would be like all the books in my library are scanned into my brain, giving me a Google like search within my own brain! Will scientists, with the help of Savants, help unlock the full potential of our brain?
Tammet is now a famous man. He has appeared on several Television shows such as with David Letterman and 60 minutes. Together with his boyfriend Neil they began an internet-based company specializing in teaching languages, which has become extremely successful and popular with millions of hits a month.
This is a beautiful book. You will live through the author his life story from his birth to the present time, and unlike other memoirs and biographies, you will find yourself living inside his mind.
One reviewer put it this way, "Being `normal' is nothing extraordinary. Being born Daniel Tammet was truly extraordinary!"
We are all different, and must all respect and love each other. This was my last thought as I read the last sentences of this book. He says, "Everyone is said to have a perfect moment once in a while, an experience of complete peace and connection, like looking out from the top of the Eiffel Tower or watching a falling star high in the night sky...I imagine these moments as fragments or splinters scattered across a lifetime. If a person could somehow collect them all up and stick them together he would have a perfect hour or even a perfect day. And I think in that hour or day he would be closer to the mystery of what it is to be human. It would be like having a glimpse of heaven." (p. 283-284).
This book will change your outlook on life. Do yourself a favor and read this book, and you'll know the meaning of beautiful!
Amazing.......2007-06-27
Daniel Tammet gives an amazing insight into the way he experiences the world. A great book for everybody who enjoys diversity and wants to extend his or her horizon.
Other than that: a book hard to summarize because it first seems so different but when you think about it it just describes a person's life - with problems specific to someone on the autistic spectrum, but also with a lot of everyday challenges of a boy growing up. The way he looks at and analyzes the first 20 years is very special though.
Unique trip into a unique mind.......2007-06-23
A friend recommended this book, so I picked it up having no prior knowledge about its contents or the author. I found it to be a highly readable account of the life and thoughts of a savant, synesthetic, gay young man with Asperger's Syndrome.
His recounting of his youth and his family life is very touching--all the more so when it just seems like things a "normal" kid would experience: the difficulties at school, the struggles at self-definition, the anxieties that accompany leaving home for the first extended period of time, the joys of exploring the wider world, first love, etc.
Of course, we are frequently remeinded that his mind is indeed different than most we'll encounter (how many people do you know who've memorized 22,000+ digits of pi? or been on the David Letterman show? Or learned a complex new langauge in four days on national television?) and how difficult it is for him to interact with other people and in new situations, but mostly he seems remarkable in his ordinariness, in his struggles to build for himself a successful and fulfilling life, something many with less obstacles to overcome fail to do as well, and as worthily, as he seems to have done.
Any who enjoyed this might also like a couple of fiction works I've read involving Asperger's/autistic main characters: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" (5 stars out of 5) and "The Speed of Dark" (a sci-fi novel about an autistic man given the chance to have his condition "corrected" --4 stars out of 5).
Amazon.com
Ann Brashares has created a wonderful, heartfelt series for teens (and adults) around a pair of pants. In her breakout bestseller, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Brashares introduced readers to four girls, Lena, Bridget, Carmen, and Tibby, and to the magical pair of jeans that fit them all perfectly, and inspired them to live their young lives to the fullest. Forever in Blue, the fourth and final novel in the series, promises a dazzling finale--one "last glorious summer" for the four girls, and their fans. See a note from author Ann Brashares, below.--Daphne Durham
A Note from Ann Brashares
December 1, 2006
Dear Amazon Reader,
Well, here we are together again. If you are getting ready to read the fourth book, Forever in Blue, that means we've probably spent some time together. I hope you've enjoyed it. I know I have.
We don't know each other and we may never get to meet, but I feel like we are connected nonetheless. We've spent time with four fictional girls together. We've puzzled over their lives and their choices. We've rooted for them and sometimes felt annoyed by them. We've shared some hopes for them, I think, and in the process for ourselves.
So thank you for being part of the sisterhood with me. I have really appreciated your company along the way.
Happy reading,
Ann
Spend Time with the Sisterhood
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Boxed Set |
Girls in Pants |
The Second Summer of the Sisterhood |
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants |
Book Description
With unraveled embroidery and fraying hems, the Traveling Pants are back for one last, glorious summer.
Lena: Immerses herself in her painting and an intoxicating summer fling, fearing that the moment she forgets about Kostos will be the moment she sees him again.
Carmen: Falls under the spell of a sophisticated college friend for whom a theatrical role means everything and the heritage of the Pants means nothing.
Bridget: Joins a dig for an ancient city on the coast of Turkey and discovers that her archaeology professor is available in every way except one.
Tibby: Leaves behind someone she loves, wrongly believing he will stay where she has left him.
Join Ann Brashares's beloved sisterhood once again in a dazzling, fearless novel. It's a summer that will forever change the lives of Lena, Carmen, Bee, and Tibby, here and now, past and future, together and apart.
Book Description
As their lives take them in different directions, Lena, Tibby, Carmen, and Bridget discover many more things about themselves and the importance of their relationship with each other.
Customer Reviews:
I liked the others better.......2007-08-10
This was the book made to tie up loose ends. Everyone came to a conclusion about their life and the pants. The whole thing was sort of boring. Yes I liked the book, but in a way everyone was the same as they started. I suppose the point of it was to show how they had grown up and still stayed the same. Maybe it was that there wasn't enough excitement or maybe it's that I'm tired now but i thought it wasn't as good as the other books.
-cdm
Sisterhood.......2007-08-04
I have enjoyed this entire series...takes me back to my Judy Blume days. The girl in all of us can identify with these characters as they grow, change, and try to not lose themselves or each other in the process. The earlier on you learn that nothing means more than your girl friends...the better off you are! I think the quotes between the chapters are insightful, and I enjoy finding their relation to the story as I read on. That brings a literary aspect not often found in young adult novels. I appreciate that this book and its prequels can be light and real at the same time. A book about pants sounds like fluff, but you feel with these girls as they deal with real issues both internal and external. Real doesn't have to be dark...bittersweet seems more fitting. These books capture the laughter through tears that is what sisterhood is about. I highly recommend reading them all.
So Long Sisterhood.......2007-07-26
Although this wasn't my fave Sisterhood book, it deserves kudos for not only reflecting the maturity of the characters at this point in their lives, but also the realities of growing up and growing apart. This is the fourth and supposedly final chapter of the Sisterhood tomes, and is likely to provide a conclusive feeling for the readers of the series.
To recap, the Travelling Pants series details the summers four best friends spend, sometimes apart, sometimes together. They are of course, as per the legend, bonded together by a pair of 'magical' pants that give them the strength of the love they feel as friends even when they aren't together.
In all fairness I read the third book quite some time ago so reading the new fourth one was a bit of a cognitive leap - I could barely remember a lot of what happened in the past! Anyway in this one the girls are bridging the gap between their first and second year of university. They've actually shared the pants year-round this time because they have spent the year at different colleges etc. That should be your first clue something is up - the girls are very very much so a lot more individual characters this time around, which was both refreshing and problematic. Of the latter, it was good because I was sick and tired of how cheesy and overemphasized their relationship was - although some sappy moments still exist towards the end, they are certainly toned down. But in the absence of their friendship it almost defeated the purpose of the book, and the pants of course.
This time around the girls spend most of their summer apart. Tibby is still in New York working and taking a summer class and wondering whether she has made the right choices when it comes to her relationship with Brian. Bee (my fave as always) is in Turkey getting back to basics on an archeological dig site and wondering whether the best alternative to missing her boyfriend is not missing a single thing her hot professor does. Flamboyent Carmen has surprisingly shrunk into her shell over the last year, and fallen under the wing of a supposedly protective, glorious friend, who turns out to be anything but as their summer continues. Lena is at art school and enraptured with a guy, shockingly this time, not the love of her life, Kostos.
As I mentioned earlier, the book definitely took on a more mature tone than the others - most of it dealt with sex and relationships and very little of it focused on friendship and personal self-growth - although most of the storylines evolve to give the girls those girl power moments of epiphany. Although I enjoyed the storylines a lot more this time it almost felt like the characters were under-used and less developed because there was far less crossover opportunities given their summer was spent so far apart emotionally and physically.
Brashares does a good job wrapping up the series in a realistic way though - Upon finishing it, I realized why she decided to do a fourth (I completely assumed the third would be the last) as each book is kind of meant to represent each of the four girls.
All in all a fitting conclusion to the series that represented, quite honestly, the realities of growing up and moving away when it comes to those true blue friends you thought you'd never forget, and those true blue jeans you thought you'd never lose.
Forever in Blue: The Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants).......2007-07-19
OMG!!! I loved every single one of the books preceding this book and this one hit the mark! It is so wonderful, and though it is so sad that it ends the series the finish is remarkable. Brashare's masterpiece is complete!!!
One too many.......2007-07-15
I thought the prime qualities of the first three books of this series were charm and innocence. For the fourth installment, one of our heroines poses nude for a male art student and another falls for a married man with children. Whatever other qualities the book may have, charming and innocent it is not.
Book Description
From universally beloved author Alexander McCall Smith, comes this seventh installment in the bestselling No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series featuring Botswana’s best-loved detective.
Life is good for Mma Ramotswe as she sets out with her usual resolve to solve people’s problems, heal their misfortunes, and untangle the mysteries that make life interesting. And life is never dull on Tlokweng Road. A new and rather too brusque advice columnist is appearing in the local paper. Then, a cobra is found in the offices of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. Recently, the Mokolodi Game Preserve manager feels an infectious fear spreading among his workers, and a local doctor may be falsifying blood pressure readings. To further complicate matters, Grace Makutsi may have scared off her own fiancé. Mma Ramotswe, however, is always up to the challenge. And Blue Shoes and Happiness will not fail to entertain Alexander McCall Smith’s oldest fans and newest converts with its great wit, charm, and great good will.
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Praise for In the Company of Cheerful Ladies:
• National Bestseller
“Beloved Botswana sleuth Precious Ramotswe is back – and better than ever – in this sixth entry in McCall Smith’s bestselling series. . . . By turns laugh-out-loud funny and quietly profound, these life-affirming mysteries are fine company, indeed.”
–Booklist, starred review
“Like clove oil on a bad tooth, McCall Smith’s fiction acts on cynicism as an effective, old-fashioned balm.”
–The Globe and Mail
“May be the most compelling of the lot. . . . It begins with an incident that crystallizes McCall Smith’s skill. Ultimately it is a matter of petty thievery, but his handling of it dramatizes the moral underpinnings of these books. . . . [Mma Ramotswe’s] strength – and the source of her enormous appeal – is her understanding of the human heart, and her willingness to confront its perfidies.”
–New York Daily News
“These books offer a sunnily lit window into another world, along with a modicum of relief from certain aspects of modern Western culture. They never descend into mere escapism, though. A few hours spent with Precious Ramotswe and her friends is always time well spent.”
–St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“[The] sixth entry in McCall Smith’s consistently delightful series. . . Amid the hilarious scenarios and quiet revelations are luminous descriptions of Botswana, land of wide-open spaces and endless blue skies.”
–Publishers Weekly, starred review
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
Continuing a tradition of great books..........2007-09-20
After a long string of mediocre or uninspiring books, it was such a joy to read Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith. I save these books for when I'm in such a rut because I know that they will be wonderful and I'll be able to linger and enjoy them and feel good about reading again. I'll be motivated and excited about reading again. I knew I'd want to pick up my next book right away. Somehow these books reenergize me.
In this installment we have Mma Romatswe solving a blackmailing mystery, she tackles a physician who is committing fraud against his patients, she confronts voodoo, deals with the fact that her traditionally built figure is causing problems. All they while there is an underlying tension between her and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. Mma Makutsi deals with feminism and her new fiance and Mr. Polopetsi practices being an assistant to the assistant detective Makutsi...and somehow those apprentices seem to be growing up.
As in his other books, Smith addresses the issues of the traditional Botswana ways and how they are being taken over by newer more modern ways that are eating away at a civilized and logical way of addressing the world. Mma Romatswe as the central figure, always helps everyone see how they have been attracted to shiny inconsequential things and need to be more focused on what is important. I love the way she is able to feel anger or frustration and then think through whether it is worth the energy--and usually it isn't. However, when necessary she confronts people gone bad and manages to help them come around--sometimes. There are those that are "uncurable"--People who are evil--and those she realizes she has to stop.
Smith did a good job of setting up the next book. I'm looking forward to finding out what this tension is between Mma Romatswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni. I can't wait to see how Mma Makutsi's love of pretty shoes develops and how her relationship with Mr. Phuti goes. I'm also looking forward to seeing more of the children as well as the apprenticeships. Was the outburst from Charlie really an expression of his burgeoning maturity. I'm so glad that book #8 is published and on my shelf so I can read it immediately when I'm next in a slump.
Another good book in the series..........2007-08-13
Although these books will never end up on a list of significant fiction, as always they are a quick and enjoyable read. This book continues the delightful story of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency.
Blue Shoes and Happiness.......2007-08-13
Not a very exciting story. Not fast moving. Cute, very simplistic story.
The principle of "Less is More".......2007-07-10
One of the oft-heard criticisms of cozy mysteries is that "nothing much happens." If one thinks in terms of high-speed chases and blood-spattered corpses, I can see the point.
The only corpse in this book is a much-maligned bird, but its death brought tears to my eyes.
Alexander McCall Smith has mastered the subtle undertones of gentle conversation, of deftly defined characters, of landscape portraiture. Saying that nothing much happens in his books is like saying that a panther is nothing but a big housecat.
The principle of "less is more" applies here. BLUE SHOES AND HAPPINESS is a perfect title for a very nearly perfect book. I say very nearly perfect because that's how one rates a magnificent diamond.
Excellent Author.......2007-07-05
Keeps your interest all the way through the book, in fact, throughout the whole series.
Product Description
The newest 28th edition Blue Book of Gun Values has been extensively revised to include all the new 2007 makes/models, in addition to updating the rising values on both modern guns and antiques. Expanded to 2080 pages, this newest edition also has an enlarged color Photo Percentage Grading System featuring 80 pages of all firearms condition factors commonly encountered. The 28th edition contains over 325,000 firearms prices and one million words of text no other book even comes close! With over one million copies in print, the Blue Book of Gun Values has earned its reputation as the most complete and up-to-date reference work on both modern and antique firearms. Why guess when you can be sure?
Customer Reviews:
Great book.......2007-09-29
Purchased this book for a friend who collects and restores hand guns. He was very impressed with the lay out and detailing of the prices. he recommends this book highly.
excellent.......2007-09-11
Better quantity and quality than I expected and should be very helpful in quantifying the value of my guns...
reference at its best.......2007-09-07
everything that one could ask for. grading scales, values of guns and all the manufacturers and cross-references in one book. what more could you ask for. order was placed and was received before date of expected delivery, great service. thanks
Guns.......2007-08-15
With the ad of the Blue Book of Gun Values I was able to sell off my gun collection at proper prices. I had no idea what any of my guns were worth. I was able to sell them all for a good price
Very helpful.......2007-08-04
This book has eveything you need to get started collecting or even buying and selling guns. It is helpful in learning a grading system and putting a value with it also.
Average customer rating:
- Another classic Dr Seuss book
- These fish become swans
- Of course it's great!
- Five stars for One Fish
- Fish and Things
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One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books)
Dr. Seuss , and
Theodor Seuss Geisel
Manufacturer: Random House Books for Young Readers
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Green Eggs and Ham (I Can Read It All by Myself Beginner Books)
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Hop on Pop (Beginner Books(R))
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Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book!
ASIN: 0394800133
Release Date: 1960-03-12 |
Product Description
Description coming soon...
Amazon.com
"Did you ever fly a kite in bed? Did you ever walk with ten cats on your head?" Such are the profound, philosophical queries posed in this well-loved classic by Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel. While many rhymes in this couplet collection resemble sphinx-worthy riddles, Seuss's intention is clear: teach children to read in a way that is both entertaining and educational. It matters little that each wonderful vignette has nothing to do with the one that follows. (We move seamlessly from a one-humped Wump and Mister Gump to yellow pets called the Zeds with one hair upon their heads.) Children today will be as entranced by these ridiculous rhymes as they have been since the book's original publication in 1960--so amused and enchanted, in fact, they may not even notice they are learning to read! (Ages 4 to 8)
Customer Reviews:
Another classic Dr Seuss book.......2007-07-20
Although its not as great as The Cat in the Hat, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish is certainly one of my children's favorites, and they especially love trying to read some of the rhymes outloud. Certainly a great choice for a book for your young ones.
These fish become swans.......2007-07-12
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss gives young children an excellent way to start reading independently. The book helps children learn to count to eleven and it increases their vocabulary as you read it along with them the first few times. Young children just learning to read will be able to read this book as one of their first books that they can read by themselves; and the cute illustrations will delight children and even adults everywhere.
The book's plot is not entirely deep--nor should it be for this exceptionally young, tender age group. The book helps kids to learn how to count to eleven and recognize the words for those numbers; it also uses pictures to introduce words for basic colors including red, blue, black, yellow and pink. Children also explore the concepts of old and new; fast and slow; high and low; thin and fat as well as here and there. Excellent! The book also introduces the telephone and how two people can communicate by phone. Your child will love that--they'll think that the phone is a toy!
The book is nicely bound and the strength of the hardcover binding makes the book tolerate the bending and occasional carelessness of a young child who is learning to read partly by using this book. Great!
I highly recommend One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish for younger kids who are just learning to read. This book will increase their vocabulary by introducing words, comparisons and pictures. The child also gets a heightened awareness of the world around them; and the adorable illustrations will delight children everywhere.
Great job, Dr. Seuss!
Of course it's great!.......2007-06-08
Who can say anything bad about One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish!?!?!!
Five stars for One Fish.......2007-06-02
This is one of our favorite Seuss creations, along with Fox In Socks. My son lvoes to finish every sentence for us. We love this book and the funny creatures in it! ("From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere!"
Fish and Things.......2007-04-10
You will have fun reading this tongue twister with your child. With funny made up animals (things) and verse that can twist the tongue of the most experienced reader.
What is the story about? Nothing really, just a bunch of nonsense that makes Dr. Seuss as fun as ever
Average customer rating:
- Vampires? Oh, no....
- A real page turner
- Wonderful mystery
- Do NOT read this book, out of order
- Average Book -- If You're a Patterson Fan, Read It, If Not Don't Start Here
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Violets Are Blue
James Patterson
Manufacturer: Vision
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Roses Are Red (Alex Cross Novels)
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ASIN: 0446611212
Release Date: 2002-09-30 |
Amazon.com
Fans of James Patterson's resourceful cop Alex Cross will be relieved to find that he's back on familiar territory with Violets Are Blue--and, more importantly, that this is one of the best Alex Cross thrillers yet.
The malign criminal genius of Roses Are Red is fixing to give Alex a hard time once again. The FBI joins Patterson's dogged cop in a particularly unsettling investigation: two San Francisco joggers have been viciously murdered and are found suspended by their feet, with all the blood drained from their corpses. And when further brutal deaths follow in California and on the East Coast, Alex is forced to contemplate the bizarre possibility of modern-day vampires, although his instincts point him to one of the many sinister religious cults that flourish on the West Coast. Aided by Jamilla Hughes, a streetwise young woman detective from San Francisco, Alex finds that he has to crack not one but two impenetrable mysteries to stop further bloodletting.
Patterson fans expect the extremely concise, page-turning chapters (116 of them here!), along with a reluctance to dawdle over details of his hero's personal life, and both characteristics are firmly back in place. If you can resist reading this one in just a few sittings, you deserve some kind of a thriller reader's medal. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk
Book Description
Fans of James Patterson's resourceful cop Alex Cross will be relievedto find that he's back on familiar territory with Violets Are Blue--and,more importantly, that this is one of the best Alex Cross thrillers yet.The malign criminal genius of Roses Are Red is fixing to giveAlex a hard time once again. The FBI joins Patterson's dogged cop in aparticularly unsettling investigation: two San Francisco joggers have beenviciously murdered and are found suspended by their feet, with all the blooddrained from their corpses. And when further brutal deaths follow in Californiaand on the East Coast, Alex is forced to contemplate the bizarre possibility ofmodern-day vampires, although his instincts point him to one of the manysinister religious cults that flourish on the West Coast. Aided by JamillaHughes, a streetwise young woman detective from San Francisco, Alex finds thathe has to crack not one but two impenetrable mysteries to stop furtherbloodletting.Patterson fans expect the extremely concise, page-turning chapters (116 of themhere!), along with a reluctance to dawdle over details of his hero's personallife, and both characteristics are firmly back in place. If you can resistreading this one in just a few sittings, you deserve some kind of a thrillerreader's medal. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk
Download Description
Alex Cross has never believed in vampires. But when two joggers are found slain in a manner that suggests a macabre ritual, he has to reconsider. Someone believes in vampires enough to have committed a series of bizarre murders that appear to be the work of one. Local police are horrified, and even the FBI is baffled.
Cross takes on the case and plunges into a netherworld of secret clubs and role-players, a world full of poseurs and playactors--and someone demented enough to have crossed the line from dark ritual to real blood. At the same time, a lethal supercriminal from Cross's past known as the Mastermind is stalking him, taunting him, and threatening everything he holds dear. Cross has never been closer to defeat, or in greater danger. In a shocking conclusion, Alex Cross must survive a deadly confrontation--only to discover at last the awful secret of the Mastermind.
Customer Reviews:
Vampires? Oh, no...........2007-07-27
While this may not be James Patterson's worst novel, it is not his best either. I just can't accept the premise that there are vampire cults or cells across the country and that these weirdos actually kill people to drink their blood. I could accept it in Bram Stoker and Anne Rice, who wrote romances, what ifs, in artistic fashion. I was able to suspend my disbelief mechanism for them, but not for this book.
Another serious problem is the re-introduction of the downright silly villain, "The Mastermind" from "Roses Are Red." It felt as if Patterson couldn't deal with the blood suckers any longer and still had pages to fill, so he tossed in a second plot that wasn't really connected.
In the rush to get books out, perhaps the writer is not thinking these plots through. Or maybe the editors just aren't paying much attention in their drive to get another best seller.
A real page turner.......2007-07-21
Alex is at his best and worse in this fast moving tale of modern vampires who are making their way across country virtually slaughtering their "prey" and hanging them by their feet, then draining and drinking their blood. Alex finally uncovers the mystery of the Mastermind and is against all odds, falling in love again. Pick this book up to read and you won't put it down until the very last page.
Wonderful mystery.......2007-07-03
Great read. You should read the books in order of when they were written. They are always fun and fast moving reads with Alex Cross the supper cop or what ever he is or detective psychoanalyst. If you like a good mystery don't miss the Alex Cross books
Do NOT read this book, out of order.......2007-06-04
Do NOT read this book if you haven't read his earlier books. Not only are there lots of confusing references to his earlier books, but also lots of spoilers. Much of this book did not make sense. Also the 'sidekick' Sampson is always wasted in these books. It's like he's just waiting around to help Cross or console him and doesn't have much to do. Big disappointment compared to Spenser and Hawk (I recommend Robert Parker novels BY FAR over these.)
Average Book -- If You're a Patterson Fan, Read It, If Not Don't Start Here.......2007-04-16
I think there are two themes in the reviews to this book.
1. The book doesn't come up to those in the rest of the Alex Cross series. Its not a *bad* book, but its just a weak effort in the series.
2. The two stories in the book -- the vampires plus the mastermind, just really don't mesh. I understand what Patterson is trying to do here, in a theme within a theme, but even given that the connection between the two should be a little more evident.
I would add another piece that I thought the vampires piece wasn't a strong story in and of itself. It had the set-up to be a good story, but ultimately in my mind it just didn't all fully hang together for me logically. Without going too deeply into spoilers, I was left asking is it supernatural, or is it not?
Finally while I bashed this a little in this review, its not a bad book. Its a decent page turning thriller and if you grab the book in a used book store or otherwise need something to occupy your time on a long flight, you won't be disappointed.
Customer Reviews:
Great Gift for Poker Lover.......2007-09-20
I got this for my husband and he hasn't stopped reading it. He will only pause to tell me something he thinks I might want to hear. 8-) I'm not a poker person, but with all the Poker on TV that I've seen (because of my husband) and listening to him endlessly talk about it, I think if these books have kept his attention the way they have, they must be good.
I don't know if that helps you but knowing my hubby, anything that pulls him away from playing poker must be good.
they look great, fun and easy to read.......2007-09-18
As I said, this set looks great on my "poker books shelf" :) But aside that, it's a great read. Even the black book with many interesting details about poker. Green book is well written but my favorite is the blue book. It was so valuable to me to have a free ride threw profesional's poker mind. Highly recommend it.
Good Easy Reading.......2007-09-06
Have read 1st two books, and took a 3rd & 5th in tournments, can't wait to finish last book!!
Great poker books!.......2007-07-24
I have read 15-20 poker booksa and these are among the best I have read in a long time. Phil's dedication to the game and his committment to keep learning is well communicated in an easy to read style. It keeps you entertained and makes you feel ready to be more aggressive with a better understanding of what winning poker is about.
EXCELLENT.......2007-05-07
EXCELLENT trio of books for novice to expert. Phil does a great job of explaining as well as challanging you to think. your game will definately improve after this book. Put it together with Dan Harringtons 3 books and you can't find a better poker combo period. 2 contrasting style of players but overall the same message. Just a great trio of books.
Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin comes a novel that shows how someone with a 'perfect life' can lose it all-and then find everything. Darcy Rhone thought she had it all figured out: the more beautiful the girl, the more charmed her life. Never mind substance. Never mind playing by the rules.Never mind karma. But Darcy's neat, perfect world turns upside down when her best friend, Rachel White, the plain-Jane 'good girl,' steals her fianc, while Darcy finds herself completely alone for the first time in her life...with a baby on the way. Darcy tries to recover, fleeing to her childhood friend living in London and resorting to her tried-and-true methods for getting what she wants. But as she attempts to recreate her glamorous life on a new continent, Darcy finds that her rules no longer apply. It is only then that Darcy can begin her journey toward self-awareness, forgiveness, and motherhood. Something Blue is a novel about one woman's surprising discoveries about the true meaning of friendship, love, and happily-ever-after. It's a novel for anyone who has ever, even secretly, wondered if the last thing you want is really the one thing you need.
Customer Reviews:
Ok, so I liked it........2007-10-04
I enjoyed this story as much as 'Borrowed', as both books are page-turners; however, they are page-turners in different ways. During 'Borrowed', your mouth is usually agape due to the shock of what's unfolding...during `Blue', you get to watch Darcy Rhone's transformation. Some reviewers' say it's not believable for Darcy to change `just like that', but what I got was that this person she became is really who she was all along, it just took her some time to become okay with knowing and understanding who she really was. At any rate, I do highly recommend both books. You should definitely read `Borrowed' first, as you really won't fully appreciate `Blue' not having done so.
Absolutely WoNdErFuL!!!.......2007-10-01
I've decided that this is my favorite book of all time....okay, that is after I read it's prequel, "Something Borrowed"....
Both books are fantastic. Easy to read, easy to relate to. Not too descriptive, where some books outshine the characters and go on and on about the colors and smells... it's hilarious, but you could totally see yourself being one of the characters, if not a few of them. Personally, I related well with Rachel and had total disdain for Darcy. After I got to chapter 21 in "Something Blue", I knew I found my new best friend, Darcy to be very uplifting and real.
Giffin's natural writing style made it so easy to flip page after page and I found myself calling my girlfriends begging them to buy all 3 books so they could relate as well. I am very impressed, and now find myself impatiently awaiting the arrival of her fourth book this coming year.
Very Good Follow- Up.......2007-10-01
I really enjoyed this book alot more than I thought I would. I picked up the first installation "Something Borrowed" while being delayed at the airport. I enjoyed that book so much that I thought I might like this one. Which I have to say is pretty good. It basically is a continuation of the first one and a different viewpoint on what occured in the first book. The story of 2 friends who are as different as 1 can imagine but find themselves in a love triangle with the same man. "Something Blue" is the story of what follows. I would recommend both books to anyone who likes books about friendship and love.
read after you read Something Borrowed.......2007-09-23
These books are a great combo. You learn to hate Darcy in Borrowed and it takes a while to like her in Blue. But you do start to like her. I couldn't put it down. It was great to get to read the 2 different viewpoints. Emily Giffin is a terrific novelist.
I don't know how Griffin does it!.......2007-09-17
The narrator/protagonist of this story, Darcy Rhone, is almost completely unlikeabe. Darcy is selfish, self-absorbed to the point of being clueless about everyone but herself, and spoiled. Yet, for some reason I liked her just a little bit although I couldn't empathize with her. Not sure how Griffin does this -- is it just a natural instinct for the reader to be pulling for the protagonist? I found the writing OK, not great, but this was a pretty neat trick. Obviously, Darcy changes and grows and we are happy for her and the outcome. I should have found the first two-thirds of this book agonizing, but I didn't. It's worth a read.
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