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Business & Finance

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Staying ahead of the curve I love anything that makes my life easier, and Profit From the Evening News: Using Leading Economic Indicators to Make Smart Money Decisions by Marie Bussing-Burks does just that. Bussing-Burks promises that if you take a little time to learn about the leading economic indicators (which are read aloud almost every night on the national news) you can plan your money strategies months before the economy has actually entered bad times or good times. We all know about the importance of the Federal Funds Rate, but Bussing-Burks says you need to know more. By following the money supply, S&andP 500, durable goods orders and six other economic indicators, she says smart investors can see for themselves the coming changes in the stock market.

Bussing-Burks first explains the common and easy-to-find indicators, creates easy ways to track them (by creating your own spreadsheet) and explains how to predict where markets are going based on this data. I thought this would be tough, but it actually takes about three minutes a week to find these indicators on the TV or the Web. I may have missed the signs of the recent downturn, but with Bussing-Burks’ help, I’ll be way ahead on the predictors for the next upswing.

Staying ahead of the curve I love anything that makes my life easier, and Profit From the Evening News: Using Leading Economic Indicators to Make Smart Money Decisions by Marie Bussing-Burks does just that. Bussing-Burks promises that if you take a little time to learn about the leading economic indicators (which are read aloud almost […]
FictionHistorical Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

he World War II era was filled with turmoil and sorrow for everyone involved. In Ann Howard Creel’s debut novel, The Magic of Ordinary Days, she convincingly relates how life on the home front could be just as unsettling as the tumult on the battlefields. For Olivia Dunne, times were particularly trying as she worked through her own emotional upheaval, first dealing with the death of her beloved mother and her alienation from her minister father, then discovering that she is pregnant after a careless act of passion. To maintain her family’s respectable reputation, Olivia is forced to leave her home in Denver to enter into an arranged marriage with Ray Singleton, a farmer who lives on the prairies of southern Colorado. Her dreams of becoming an archaeologist are dashed as she sets her sights on a future of being a wife and mother.

The Singleton farm is remote, as is its owner. Ray, although a kind man, is used to living on his own and has difficulty dealing with another person in his home. It’s up to Olivia to establish her own routines, as Ray returns to the fields to work his crops of sugar beets, onions and beans. The ladies of the community church try to include Olivia in their activities. But they are reserved, and she knows they realize she is carrying another man’s child. It isn’t until the arrival of the Japanese farm workers from a nearby internment camp that Olivia finds friendship in the form of two teenaged sisters, Lorelei and Rose Umahara. Like Olivia, the sisters must learn to adapt to their confinement while their passion for living seeks other outlets.

In The Magic of Ordinary Days, Creel has captured a unique page in history as she weaves a tale inspired by actual events. She includes many little-known details of the Japanese-American internment camps and German POW camps that were scattered throughout the country. Her use of the desolate, dusty prairie setting of southern Colorado echoes the desperation felt by her character, Olivia. As a former resident of Colorado, I well recognized the small farm communities of La Junta, Rocky Ford and Trinidad.

This is a gentle but powerful novel, combining a story of bittersweet love with a poignant account of the journey toward self-realization and acceptance.

Sharon Galligar Chance is a book reviewer in Wichita Falls, Texas.

he World War II era was filled with turmoil and sorrow for everyone involved. In Ann Howard Creel’s debut novel, The Magic of Ordinary Days, she convincingly relates how life on the home front could be just as unsettling as the tumult on the battlefields. For Olivia Dunne, times were particularly trying as she worked […]
Memoir

Behind the Book: An unusual path to motherhood

Behind the Book by bookpagedev

Three Wishes is the story of three best friends who transformed their lives by taking motherhood into their own hands. Carey, Beth, and Pam had succeeded at work but failed at romance, and each resolved to have a baby before time ran out. Just one problem: no men.

Carey took the first bold step towards single motherhood, searching anonymous donor banks until she found the perfect match. What she found was not a father in a vial, but a sort of magic potion. She met a man, fell in love, and got pregnant the old-fashioned way. She passed the vials to Beth, and it happened again. Beth met man, Beth got pregnant. Beth passed the vials to Pam, and the magic struck again. They had setbacks and disappointments, but three women became three families, reveling in the shared joy of love, friendship and never losing hope.

Below, each of them shares their experience of deciding to write the book.
 
Carey
When I turned 39 and made the decision to become a single mother, I started keeping a "Baby Journal" to help me work through all the complex emotions the whole process evoked. In the back of my mind, I thought it might turn into a book one day, but really, I was thinking of it more as a legacy to the child I hoped to have. At one point I even wrote: "If you are a future child of mine reading this, I just want you to know that I really, really tried, in the months and years before making you fatherless, to find you a dad." Later, after Beth and Pam and I shared such amazing luck, I thought: "This is an incredible story. We have to tell it." They say you write the book you need to read; I was doing that, writing just what I would have liked to read as a single woman facing a harsh biological deadline, looking for role models and inspiration.     
 
Beth
When I was 35, my husband left me for a much younger woman, and we were divorced. Suddenly, I found myself losing the future I thought I’d have.  Then I rallied, and made my life better than it had been. But, like Carey, I saw myself turning 40 without a child, and I didn’t want that to happen. It didn’t, but my child didn’t arrived in the way I’d anticipated. My life has had some bumps, but I (generally) remained optimistic, believing that if I was true to myself, pursued my dreams, and had fun, that even the harsh stuff would have a way of tempering itself. Turned out I was right. I wanted to write this book not only because it’s a great story, but because it’s hopeful. I want our story to be read, and shared, and for people to pass it on, saying, "Read this, I found a part of myself in it, and it reminded me that while things aren’t always easy, the hard parts shouldn’t stop me from following my dreams."
 
Pam
Countless times, I told a woman our story and she opened up and shared hers, or said that a girlfriend was in the same situation as we had been: older, alone, desiring love and family. I wished I could talk to that friend, to encourage her to go after what she wanted, on her own, even if there were no guarantees. I personally believed that taking control of my life and preparing for single motherhood was not a zero-sum game where I was forever giving up my chance to fall in love and have a mate, even marry. I had heard all the gloom and doom news and the scary myth that my odds of getting hitched at 40 were slimmer than being in a terrorist attack. Not only was that false, but I had been in one in the Middle East and survived. That had to count for something. As more and more women rooted for us to write a book, I began to appreciate how telling our stories could shine a meaningful light on how friendship and being true to your desires in the face of convention can bring unexpected joy. 

 

Three Wishes is the story of three best friends who transformed their lives by taking motherhood into their own hands. Carey, Beth, and Pam had succeeded at work but failed at romance, and each resolved to have a baby before time ran out. Just one problem: no men. Carey took the first bold step towards […]
Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

very bachelor actor-bartender living in New York City needs a female friend to serve as a sounding-board, advisor and drill sergeant. Johnny Downs, the protagonist of James Wolcott’s The Catsitters, has a doozy in Darlene Rider. Though she lives in Georgia and dispenses counsel over the phone, Darlene’s presence in this novel reverberates loudly. She advises Johnny on dating, analyzes Polaroid photos he sends of his potential love interests and ships a pair of eccentric women to watch his cat while he’s out of town. Despite Darlene’s protestations to the contrary, Johnny seems to do OK for himself, as a succession of attractive women filter in and out of his life (though more often out than in). By observing Johnny’s daily habits, we become familiar with the routine of the ordinary actor tend bar at parties, audition, shoot corny commercials and repeat the cycle ad nauseum. The story itself seems simple enough, revolving around Johnny’s search for romance and all the usual complications accompanying such a quest. Yet in the hands of Wolcott, literary critic for Vanity Fair, a possibly mundane plot becomes incessantly interesting. This is a funny book, almost anthropological in its insights into contemporary mating rituals. Wolcott offers balanced perspectives from both genders, with extended sections of dialogue between Johnny and Darlene; the author refuses to choose sides, instead allowing us to witness a sardonic battle of the sexes. Readers who have participated in the dating game will chuckle knowingly with nearly every page. Not only does Johnny’s narrative voice sparkle with a dry, almost deadpan wit, but this intermittently employed actor proves a genuinely likable guy: funny, sincere, a cat lover someone we can root for.

A host of characters season the story: Gleason, Johnny’s best friend and fellow actor who drops sarcastic comments regarding romance and alcohol, and Claudia, the stunning, haughty actress who haunts Johnny with her frequent appearances and disappearances. All help push the narrative forward, adding generous dollops of quirkiness to the book. Wolcott doesn’t pretend to have any great answers to the question what is love? but he does offer us a few suggestions, neatly packaged as an entertaining comic novel.

Michael Paulson teaches English in Baltimore.

very bachelor actor-bartender living in New York City needs a female friend to serve as a sounding-board, advisor and drill sergeant. Johnny Downs, the protagonist of James Wolcott’s The Catsitters, has a doozy in Darlene Rider. Though she lives in Georgia and dispenses counsel over the phone, Darlene’s presence in this novel reverberates loudly. She […]
FictionWomen's Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

hose of you who read Pearl Cleage’s What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day (an Oprah book club selection) will remember the protagonist’s sister, Joyce Mitchell, who ran a social club of sorts for teenaged moms. Cleage’s new novel, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, continues the story of Joyce and her girls and the men who shake up their worlds for good and for ill.

A resident of a rural African-American town called Idlewild, Joyce has eaten much bitterness. She’s not only a widow, but her children have also died, and when the book opens she’s in the process of being humiliated by a legislative committee for daring to seek state money for her girls. She’s teaching them, with varying degrees of success, to be free and strong women, which largely means crawling out from under the thumbs of their abusive or irresponsible boyfriends. Since the boyfriends tend to ratchet up their abuse during the Superbowl, Joyce stages an anti-Superbowl party which evolves into the “The Sewing Circus Film Festival for Free Women,” featuring films by black directors with strong black women as lead characters. Of course the town’s young men resent the idea of their girlfriends focusing on something other than them, and an event occurs during the festival that underscores the book’s theme of men inevitably barging in to mess up women’s happiness.

Cleage writes in a brisk and credible style, creating instantly recognizable characters. Some of the chapters are no more than a page long, and all of them have titles, some delicious, like “This Denzel Thing,” “When Junior Started Trippin’.” and “The Specificity of Snowflakes.” The girls, especially the bright and responsible Tomika, are valiant, and the boys, especially the brutish Lattimore brothers, are wonderfully hateful. Joyce, though warm-hearted and giving, still has a core of resentment against the perfidy of men, though she was married to a loving and responsible one for many years. Yet Cleage herself is unflagging in her belief in the inherent strength of women. I Wish I Had a Red Dress is a sensitive story of sisterhood, courage and self-determination, always leavened with touches of humor and compassion.

Arlene McKanic writes from Jamaica, New York.

hose of you who read Pearl Cleage’s What Looks Like Crazy On An Ordinary Day (an Oprah book club selection) will remember the protagonist’s sister, Joyce Mitchell, who ran a social club of sorts for teenaged moms. Cleage’s new novel, I Wish I Had a Red Dress, continues the story of Joyce and her girls […]
Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

ike most of America, Cape Cod has seen the consumer spectacle wash up on its shores. Determined to help nature reclaim her course, one Cape resident decides to blow up some of the area’s most expensive beachfront homes.

Spectacular Happiness, a provocative new novel by Peter Kramer, tells the story of a middle-aged junior college English instructor struggling to reclaim the ideals of his youth. Once again Kramer, a psychiatrist who wrote the nonfiction bestsellers Listening to Prozac and Should You Leave?, digs into the human psyche, this time in a work of fiction.

Chip Samuels, a handyman and teacher with radical notions, lives in the small home his immigrant father built alongside the enormous estates on the Cape. Also living nearby is Sukey Kuykendahl, Samuels’ former flame and current partner in crime. The two were linked by a love affair between their parents, and their devotion has endured into adulthood.

More important is Samuels’ devotion to his wife Anais and the idealistic life they once shared. In a home full of free love and free spirits, Anais developed her pottery while striking out for months at a time to discover her soul. But as Anais’ line of pottery grows in popularity, the link between the couple blurs.

Written as a journal for Samuels’ teenage son, the novel intentionally glosses over the most private details of his life as a terrorist bomber. Unlike a typical beach read packed with riveting action scenes, Kramer’s novel delivers with psychological insights. Motivated by ideals, Sukey and Samuels set out to change the minds of rich vacationers and national consumers. Hunted by the FBI and the scandal-driven media, Samuels turns to his journal to explain his actions to his son and the wife he once cherished. The result is a revealing look into the criminal mind and the genius required to out-maneuver pursuing law enforcement officers.

Kramer builds his work on the mind’s desire. It is this desire that leads Samuels to risk all for the sake of gaining back everything, particularly his son. In the end, Spectacular Happiness is an explosion of ideals and a blasting comment on our era of conspicuous consumption.

Amber Stephens is a freelance writer in Columbus, Ohio.

ike most of America, Cape Cod has seen the consumer spectacle wash up on its shores. Determined to help nature reclaim her course, one Cape resident decides to blow up some of the area’s most expensive beachfront homes. Spectacular Happiness, a provocative new novel by Peter Kramer, tells the story of a middle-aged junior college […]
Business & Finance

On the road again

Review by bookpagedev

Travel just isn’t what it used to be. Between airport delays, traffic snarls and the hotel that forgot your wake-up call, the Road Warrior’s life is one hassle after another. It doesn’t have to be that way. This month, some on-the-road advice for business travelers. At last, someone has written a quick, sensible book of lists, reminders and advice for the occasional traveler, seasoned pro or neophyte. Organize Your Business Travel: Simple Routines for Managing Your Work When You’re Out of the Office by Ronni Eisenberg with Kate Kelly is a compact solution to many of the dilemmas, questions and organizational conundrums the confused business traveler encounters every time he steps out of the office.

Travel is a major headache for many professionals these days, but in the global corporate environment, it’s a necessary part of doing business. And for a successful trip, being organized is the best preparation. From who’s watching the kids to what kind of luggage works best for toting that new business casual wardrobe, organizing travel takes mental preparation. Organize Your Business Travel addresses an amazing number of these issues with rapid ease. It even covers car travel and how to organize your business life in an automobile.

Eisenberg has thought of everything. I tucked this book under my arm on a recent trip, and from mail management to childcare, I conquered the major obstacles keeping me from getting to my plane on time. With her encouragement I took a long, hard look at my travel gear and bought a new briefcase. Even my luggage was repacked with some practical advice from Eisenberg. I reassessed my need and understanding of the Palm Pilot and learned how to use one. If I can change my ways, anyone can. Organize Your Business Travel makes a great travel companion for consultants, or anyone else who travels frequently, for business or pleasure.

Down time is a major impediment to business travel. Airport delays, layovers and unscheduled time between appointments eat up productive work time. A new audiobook, Extreme Management: What They Teach at Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program by Mark Stevens provides an excellent alternative to wasted minutes. The audio outlines the key components of Harvard Business School’s elite Advanced Management Program (AMP), a nine-week course whose alums include CEOs and CFOs of many Fortune 500 companies. At its heart, Extreme Management is about excellence in leadership, uncovering financial and strategic tactics of the world’s best companies in amusing and informative anecdotal stories and interviews with AMP alums.

Stevens, president of a global marketing firm and author of several books on financial figures of the ’80s and ’90s, identifies the lessons and insights that faculty and students of the AMP found most compelling and sets out to condense what is ordinarily a nine-week, $44,000 regimen into a crash course that can be absorbed in the space of an airplane flight. The two-tape audio provides a simplified but not bare bones outline of the book and an easy way to pass travel time. While AMP raises mid-level managers to elite status, Extreme Management prompts the average business traveler to re-evaluate the office status quo. That’s hitting two birds downtime and leadership with one stone.

Speaking of travel-friendly business reading, The Power of Six Sigma: An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma Is Transforming the Way We Work by Subir Chowdhury is a quick book, easily finished on one airplane flight, that explains in a fictional format the principles behind the business initiative, Six Sigma.

For the uninitiated, Six Sigma is the latest fad in management strategy. Embraced by Allied Signal, GE and other major corporations, Six Sigma is a top-down approach used to develop quality in products, empower employees and fatten the corporate bottom line. The focus, experts say, is to eliminate waste, mistakes and inevitable rework by following a scientific structure to achieve results. Following on the heels of ISO 9000 initiatives and Total Quality Management, many are skeptical of Six Sigma’s charms.

The Power of Six Sigma is an antidote to the skepticism. Chowdhury explains in simple, interesting fashion the basic principles behind the initiative. Anyone who wonders why businesses don’t seem to respond to what customers want should read this intriguing little book, and as always, anyone in business should understand the latest management initiatives. Improvement is the name of the game in any business, and Six Sigma is another way to approach the game of business and win at it.

Have time in the airport to sink your teeth into something a little meatier? e-Volve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow by Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, is a witty, intelligent look at the business culture created by emerging Internet companies and the resulting changes in the playing field for traditional businesses and other digital wannabes. Smart, clever and right on target, e-Volve is a valuable look at the coming age in the workplace.

When you open this book and see the song Kanter wrote to celebrate the e-volution, you may check the book jacket (as I did) to make sure this is a Harvard Business School title. But Evolve! The Song illustrates one main corollary of this tale.

Why are you so silent, has the cat got your tongue? Tech talk is what the older folks can learn from the young.

But the Net generation must absorb from the past, enduring values of service, how to build things that last. Yes, this is a big book to carry in your briefcase, but an excellent place to visit and revisit the trends of the New Economy and the cultural changes that economy has wrought. Often a flight is the only chance to catch up on reading and thinking about new ideas and business trends. The next time your airline announces Flight 207 has been delayed for an hour while we track down our flight crew, don’t get angry . . . look at it as an opportunity to expand your horizons.

Briefly noted The Thing in the Bushes: Turning Organizational Blind Spots into Competitive Advantage by Kevin Graham Ford and James P. Osterhaus. The thing in the bushes is a metaphor for core personnel problems that undermine the strategic advantage of great companies. Ford and Osterhaus, a consultant and a psychologist respectively, develop relational principles that help firms hunt down and destroy the thing. Even if your business doesn’t have a lurking bogeyman, The Thing is an interesting study in organizational behavior and its consequences for developing strategic plans.

Seven Power Strategies for Building Customer Loyalty by Paul R. Timm, Ph.D. A lot of companies flirt but never get married to customer service, says Timm. These days one of the main thrusts of Six Sigma initiatives is to provide customer-focused improvements in quality and service. Seven Power Strategies fills in the missing blanks with a seven-step employee empowerment process that helps build customer retention. Timm provides evaluation exercises and short, pointed stories to teach customer strategy step-by-step and gives the impetus for companies to walk down that wedding aisle.

Sharon Secor is a Nashville-based business writer.

 

Travel just isn’t what it used to be. Between airport delays, traffic snarls and the hotel that forgot your wake-up call, the Road Warrior’s life is one hassle after another. It doesn’t have to be that way. This month, some on-the-road advice for business travelers. At last, someone has written a quick, sensible book of […]
Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Review

Review by bookpagedev

ome books scream blockbuster movie, and Ridley Pearson’s latest is just such a screamer. The author of 17 novels may not be as the jacket copy claims “the best thriller writer on the planet,” but if he isn’t, he’s got whoever is in first place looking over his shoulder.

In Parallel Lies, Pearson uses a classic hunter/hunted plot. The hunter is Peter Tyler, a disgraced former homicide cop trying to make a new life for himself by tracking down a railroad hobo who may be a serial killer. The hunted is former high school teacher Umberto Alvarez, who at first appears to be only a crazed railroad saboteur.

As the paths of the hunter and the hunted begin to cross, it becomes clear that Alvarez is more than just a revenge-obsessed lunatic out to destroy the railroad company he blames for the death of his wife and two children. Tyler comes oh-so-close to catching Alvarez early in the action, only to lose him. But Tyler stays close as the two play a cat and mouse game in which the object for both men is to find and expose the truth.

As in the best of such stories think of the movie version of The Fugitive the hunter begins to empathize with the hunted. Readers, too, will be torn by conflicting loyalties as they watch two likeable and honorable men approaching what seems to be a deadly confrontation.

The culmination of the plot brings the two men together on what may be a doomed supertrain. Will either of the two men survive? What is the secret that may have led to the death of Alvarez’s wife and children? What truly rivets the reader is that there is no way to accurately predict which twists and turns Pearson’s plot may take, or even who will survive the climax.

This is a “big bucket of popcorn” novel. It has building tension, likeable characters, a believable love story between Tyler and a female railroad security officer, resourceful bad guys, an absorbing behind-the-scenes exploration of the modern railroad industry and a truly explosive climax. Get a jump on your fellow moviegoers and read this thriller before it hits the big screen.

William Marden is a freelance writer who lives and works in Orange Park, Florida.

ome books scream blockbuster movie, and Ridley Pearson’s latest is just such a screamer. The author of 17 novels may not be as the jacket copy claims “the best thriller writer on the planet,” but if he isn’t, he’s got whoever is in first place looking over his shoulder. In Parallel Lies, Pearson uses a […]
Business & Finance

Review

Review by bookpagedev

n the road again Travel just isn’t what it used to be. Between airport delays, traffic snarls and the hotel that forgot your wake-up call, the Road Warrior’s life is one hassle after another. It doesn’t have to be that way. This month, some on-the-road advice for business travelers. At last, someone has written a quick, sensible book of lists, reminders and advice for the occasional traveler, seasoned pro or neophyte. Organize Your Business Travel: Simple Routines for Managing Your Work When You’re Out of the Office by Ronni Eisenberg with Kate Kelly is a compact solution to many of the dilemmas, questions and organizational conundrums the confused business traveler encounters every time he steps out of the office.

Travel is a major headache for many professionals these days, but in the global corporate environment, it’s a necessary part of doing business. And for a successful trip, being organized is the best preparation. From who’s watching the kids to what kind of luggage works best for toting that new business casual wardrobe, organizing travel takes mental preparation. Organize Your Business Travel addresses an amazing number of these issues with rapid ease. It even covers car travel and how to organize your business life in an automobile.

Eisenberg has thought of everything. I tucked this book under my arm on a recent trip, and from mail management to childcare, I conquered the major obstacles keeping me from getting to my plane on time. With her encouragement I took a long, hard look at my travel gear and bought a new briefcase. Even my luggage was repacked with some practical advice from Eisenberg. I reassessed my need and understanding of the Palm Pilot and learned how to use one. If I can change my ways, anyone can. Organize Your Business Travel makes a great travel companion for consultants, or anyone else who travels frequently, for business or pleasure.

Down time is a major impediment to business travel. Airport delays, layovers and unscheduled time between appointments eat up productive work time. A new audiobook, Extreme Management: What They Teach at Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program by Mark Stevens provides an excellent alternative to wasted minutes. The audio outlines the key components of Harvard Business School’s elite Advanced Management Program (AMP), a nine-week course whose alums include CEOs and CFOs of many Fortune 500 companies. At its heart, Extreme Management is about excellence in leadership, uncovering financial and strategic tactics of the world’s best companies in amusing and informative anecdotal stories and interviews with AMP alums.

Stevens, president of a global marketing firm and author of several books on financial figures of the ’80s and ’90s, identifies the lessons and insights that faculty and students of the AMP found most compelling and sets out to condense what is ordinarily a nine-week, $44,000 regimen into a crash course that can be absorbed in the space of an airplane flight. The two-tape audio provides a simplified but not bare bones outline of the book and an easy way to pass travel time. While AMP raises mid-level managers to elite status, Extreme Management prompts the average business traveler to re-evaluate the office status quo. That’s hitting two birds downtime and leadership with one stone.

Speaking of travel-friendly business reading, The Power of Six Sigma: An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma Is Transforming the Way We Work by Subir Chowdhury is a quick book, easily finished on one airplane flight, that explains in a fictional format the principles behind the business initiative, Six Sigma.

For the uninitiated, Six Sigma is the latest fad in management strategy. Embraced by Allied Signal, GE and other major corporations, Six Sigma is a top-down approach used to develop quality in products, empower employees and fatten the corporate bottom line. The focus, experts say, is to eliminate waste, mistakes and inevitable rework by following a scientific structure to achieve results. Following on the heels of ISO 9000 initiatives and Total Quality Management, many are skeptical of Six Sigma’s charms.

The Power of Six Sigma is an antidote to the skepticism. Chowdhury explains in simple, interesting fashion the basic principles behind the initiative. Anyone who wonders why businesses don’t seem to respond to what customers want should read this intriguing little book, and as always, anyone in business should understand the latest management initiatives. Improvement is the name of the game in any business, and Six Sigma is another way to approach the game of business and win at it.

Have time in the airport to sink your teeth into something a little meatier? e-Volve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow by Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, is a witty, intelligent look at the business culture created by emerging Internet companies and the resulting changes in the playing field for traditional businesses and other digital wannabes. Smart, clever and right on target, e-Volve is a valuable look at the coming age in the workplace.

When you open this book and see the song Kanter wrote to celebrate the e-volution, you may check the book jacket (as I did) to make sure this is a Harvard Business School title. But Evolve! The Song illustrates one main corollary of this tale.

Why are you so silent, has the cat got your tongue? Tech talk is what the older folks can learn from the young.

But the Net generation must absorb from the past, enduring values of service, how to build things that last. Yes, this is a big book to carry in your briefcase, but an excellent place to visit and revisit the trends of the New Economy and the cultural changes that economy has wrought. Often a flight is the only chance to catch up on reading and thinking about new ideas and business trends. The next time your airline announces Flight 207 has been delayed for an hour while we track down our flight crew, don’t get angry . . . look at it as an opportunity to expand your horizons.

Briefly noted The Thing in the Bushes: Turning Organizational Blind Spots into Competitive Advantage by Kevin Graham Ford and James P. Osterhaus. The thing in the bushes is a metaphor for core personnel problems that undermine the strategic advantage of great companies. Ford and Osterhaus, a consultant and a psychologist respectively, develop relational principles that help firms hunt down and destroy the thing. Even if your business doesn’t have a lurking bogeyman, The Thing is an interesting study in organizational behavior and its consequences for developing strategic plans.

Seven Power Strategies for Building Customer Loyalty by Paul R. Timm, Ph.

D. A lot of companies flirt but never get married to customer service, says Timm. These days one of the main thrusts of Six Sigma initiatives is to provide customer-focused improvements in quality and service. Seven Power Strategies fills in the missing blanks with a seven-step employee empowerment process that helps build customer retention. Timm provides evaluation exercises and short, pointed stories to teach customer strategy step-by-step and gives the impetus for companies to walk down that wedding aisle.

Sharon Secor is a Nashville-based business writer.

n the road again Travel just isn’t what it used to be. Between airport delays, traffic snarls and the hotel that forgot your wake-up call, the Road Warrior’s life is one hassle after another. It doesn’t have to be that way. This month, some on-the-road advice for business travelers. At last, someone has written a […]
Mystery & SuspenseSuspense

Review

Review by bookpagedev

tructured around four fatal falls, Icarus is a gripping new thriller from the writing team that turned out the 1999 hit, Gideon. With the flair of a Hitchcock tribute, its suspense grabs from the start, cranking up the tension as the action moves relentlessly forward.

Russell Andrews is actually a pen name for the duo of writer/editor Peter Andrew Gethers (author of The Cat Who Went to Paris and several other books) and mystery novelist David Russell Handler (who wrote the Stewart Hoag mysteries). Their styles blend to create an entertaining novel in which not everything is as it seems.

When a madman flings young Jack Keller’s mother to her death from a high-rise window, the event triggers Jack’s lifelong acrophobia. He works his way through college and meets Caroline, a young woman from a wealthy Southern family. They combine their skills to open Jack’s, a restaurant that launches an international chain of upscale steak joints.

Meanwhile, unable to have children of their own, Jack and Caroline take in Kid, a friend’s orphaned teenage son.

When Kid disappears near the end of his successful college football career, Jack and Caroline are heartbroken and retreat into their lucrative business.

Then, during the opening of a Charlottesville Jack’s, tragedy strikes in the form of a botched robbery attempt. Jack is nearly paralyzed in a fall, needing more than a year to recover from his injuries. Kid reappears just as mysteriously as he left, returning as a physical therapist with a Midas touch. During his workouts with Jack, Kid reveals coded details of the Team, the dozen or so sexy women he’s dating simultaneously, each referred to by a telling nickname: the Rookie, the Entertainer, the Destination, the Mortician and the Mistake. When a third fatal fall occurs, Jack is plunged knee-deep into trouble, convinced that one of Kid’s women is a murderer.

The plot careens in directions unexpected enough to throw off most readers (and we’ve intentionally concealed some of the more bizarre plot twists to save the surprise). If you like your vacation reading fast-paced and harrowing, Icarus will take you to new heights.

Bill Gagliani is the author of Shadowplays, an e-book collection of dark fiction.

tructured around four fatal falls, Icarus is a gripping new thriller from the writing team that turned out the 1999 hit, Gideon. With the flair of a Hitchcock tribute, its suspense grabs from the start, cranking up the tension as the action moves relentlessly forward. Russell Andrews is actually a pen name for the duo […]
Business & Finance

On the road again

Review by bookpagedev

Travel just isn’t what it used to be. Between airport delays, traffic snarls and the hotel that forgot your wake-up call, the Road Warrior’s life is one hassle after another. It doesn’t have to be that way. This month, some on-the-road advice for business travelers. At last, someone has written a quick, sensible book of lists, reminders and advice for the occasional traveler, seasoned pro or neophyte. Organize Your Business Travel: Simple Routines for Managing Your Work When You’re Out of the Office by Ronni Eisenberg with Kate Kelly is a compact solution to many of the dilemmas, questions and organizational conundrums the confused business traveler encounters every time he steps out of the office.

Travel is a major headache for many professionals these days, but in the global corporate environment, it’s a necessary part of doing business. And for a successful trip, being organized is the best preparation. From who’s watching the kids to what kind of luggage works best for toting that new business casual wardrobe, organizing travel takes mental preparation. Organize Your Business Travel addresses an amazing number of these issues with rapid ease. It even covers car travel and how to organize your business life in an automobile.

Eisenberg has thought of everything. I tucked this book under my arm on a recent trip, and from mail management to childcare, I conquered the major obstacles keeping me from getting to my plane on time. With her encouragement I took a long, hard look at my travel gear and bought a new briefcase. Even my luggage was repacked with some practical advice from Eisenberg. I reassessed my need and understanding of the Palm Pilot and learned how to use one. If I can change my ways, anyone can. Organize Your Business Travel makes a great travel companion for consultants, or anyone else who travels frequently, for business or pleasure.

Down time is a major impediment to business travel. Airport delays, layovers and unscheduled time between appointments eat up productive work time. A new audiobook, Extreme Management: What They Teach at Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program by Mark Stevens provides an excellent alternative to wasted minutes. The audio outlines the key components of Harvard Business School’s elite Advanced Management Program (AMP), a nine-week course whose alums include CEOs and CFOs of many Fortune 500 companies. At its heart, Extreme Management is about excellence in leadership, uncovering financial and strategic tactics of the world’s best companies in amusing and informative anecdotal stories and interviews with AMP alums.

Stevens, president of a global marketing firm and author of several books on financial figures of the ’80s and ’90s, identifies the lessons and insights that faculty and students of the AMP found most compelling and sets out to condense what is ordinarily a nine-week, $44,000 regimen into a crash course that can be absorbed in the space of an airplane flight. The two-tape audio provides a simplified but not bare bones outline of the book and an easy way to pass travel time. While AMP raises mid-level managers to elite status, Extreme Management prompts the average business traveler to re-evaluate the office status quo. That’s hitting two birds downtime and leadership with one stone.

Speaking of travel-friendly business reading, The Power of Six Sigma: An Inspiring Tale of How Six Sigma Is Transforming the Way We Work by Subir Chowdhury is a quick book, easily finished on one airplane flight, that explains in a fictional format the principles behind the business initiative, Six Sigma.

For the uninitiated, Six Sigma is the latest fad in management strategy. Embraced by Allied Signal, GE and other major corporations, Six Sigma is a top-down approach used to develop quality in products, empower employees and fatten the corporate bottom line. The focus, experts say, is to eliminate waste, mistakes and inevitable rework by following a scientific structure to achieve results. Following on the heels of ISO 9000 initiatives and Total Quality Management, many are skeptical of Six Sigma’s charms.

The Power of Six Sigma is an antidote to the skepticism. Chowdhury explains in simple, interesting fashion the basic principles behind the initiative. Anyone who wonders why businesses don’t seem to respond to what customers want should read this intriguing little book, and as always, anyone in business should understand the latest management initiatives. Improvement is the name of the game in any business, and Six Sigma is another way to approach the game of business and win at it.

Have time in the airport to sink your teeth into something a little meatier? e-Volve!: Succeeding in the Digital Culture of Tomorrow by Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, is a witty, intelligent look at the business culture created by emerging Internet companies and the resulting changes in the playing field for traditional businesses and other digital wannabes. Smart, clever and right on target, e-Volve is a valuable look at the coming age in the workplace.

When you open this book and see the song Kanter wrote to celebrate the e-volution, you may check the book jacket (as I did) to make sure this is a Harvard Business School title. But Evolve! The Song illustrates one main corollary of this tale.

Why are you so silent, has the cat got your tongue? Tech talk is what the older folks can learn from the young.

But the Net generation must absorb from the past, enduring values of service, how to build things that last. Yes, this is a big book to carry in your briefcase, but an excellent place to visit and revisit the trends of the New Economy and the cultural changes that economy has wrought. Often a flight is the only chance to catch up on reading and thinking about new ideas and business trends. The next time your airline announces Flight 207 has been delayed for an hour while we track down our flight crew, don’t get angry . . . look at it as an opportunity to expand your horizons.

Briefly noted The Thing in the Bushes: Turning Organizational Blind Spots into Competitive Advantage by Kevin Graham Ford and James P. Osterhaus. The thing in the bushes is a metaphor for core personnel problems that undermine the strategic advantage of great companies. Ford and Osterhaus, a consultant and a psychologist respectively, develop relational principles that help firms hunt down and destroy the thing. Even if your business doesn’t have a lurking bogeyman, The Thing is an interesting study in organizational behavior and its consequences for developing strategic plans.

Seven Power Strategies for Building Customer Loyalty by Paul R. Timm, Ph.D. A lot of companies flirt but never get married to customer service, says Timm. These days one of the main thrusts of Six Sigma initiatives is to provide customer-focused improvements in quality and service. Seven Power Strategies fills in the missing blanks with a seven-step employee empowerment process that helps build customer retention. Timm provides evaluation exercises and short, pointed stories to teach customer strategy step-by-step and gives the impetus for companies to walk down that wedding aisle.

Sharon Secor is a Nashville-based business writer.

Travel just isn’t what it used to be. Between airport delays, traffic snarls and the hotel that forgot your wake-up call, the Road Warrior’s life is one hassle after another. It doesn’t have to be that way. This month, some on-the-road advice for business travelers. At last, someone has written a quick, sensible book of […]
FictionWomen's Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

ith a bolt-from-the-blue opening sentence, “They died instantly,” Jacquelyn Mitchard grabs hold of her readers and pulls them into a story of love, heartache, tragedy and triumph in her latest novel, A Theory of Relativity. As evidenced in her previous bestsellers, The Deep End of the Ocean and The Most Wanted, Mitchard proves beyond a doubt that she ranks as a premier storyteller.

Keefer Kathyrn Nye, only a year old when her parents die in a car crash near Madison, Wisconsin, is the focal point of a bitter, prolonged custody battle. Keefer’s bachelor uncle, 24-year-old science teacher Gordon McKenna, seems the most appropriate custodian for his niece, since he helped his parents care for the little girl while his sister battled cancer. However, Keefer’s paternal grandparents, the affluent and aggressive Ray and Diane Nye, challenge his claim, asserting that their deceased son would want his child’s godparents (the Nye’s niece and her husband) to have custody.

The fact that Georgia and Gordon were adopted from different birth parents plays a prominent role in the proceedings, forcing the McKennas to challenge a grievously unfair law that distinguishes between “blood” and adopted relatives. After exhaustive social studies and hearings in which Gordon has to prove that a single man can make a good father, a judge rules that in the best interest of Keefer, she should live with her godparents. As Gordon and his mother Lorraine draw up plans to challenge the adoption, they find that even with an expeditious legislative victory to close the loophole, their hard work fails to bring a satisfying closure to the lawsuit. The decision stands, and the parties must come to a mutual agreement on what’s best for Keefer.

Inspired by a real-life case, Mitchard’s novel draws on her own experience as an adoptive parent to lend realism and emotion to the story. Once again, she captures her reader’s hearts, drains them emotionally and then rewards them with a surprising twist.

Sharon Galligar Chance writes from Wichita Falls, Texas.

ith a bolt-from-the-blue opening sentence, “They died instantly,” Jacquelyn Mitchard grabs hold of her readers and pulls them into a story of love, heartache, tragedy and triumph in her latest novel, A Theory of Relativity. As evidenced in her previous bestsellers, The Deep End of the Ocean and The Most Wanted, Mitchard proves beyond a […]
Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Viennese beauty Alma Schindler was loved to distraction by all of the following men and bedded by all but one: ¥ Gustav Klimt, the most important painter of fin-de-siecle Europe ¥ Gustav Mahler, the greatest composer of his time ¥ Walter Gropius, the most significant modern architect in the world in the years following World War I ¥ Franz Werfel, the best-selling European novelist of the first half of the 20th century Each man provided testimony of one sort or another that a considerable segment of his profoundest art was inspired by his passion for her.

Meanwhile, Alma turned her back on her own promising gifts as a composer to become muse, goddess, mistress and wife to each of them in turn sometimes, scandalously, two at a time. As she said herself, she was a collector of geniuses.

Max Phillips’ new fictionalized portrait of Alma’s life, The Artist’s Wife, is gossip of the highest order, outweighing anything in People or The National Enquirer by a vast margin. It’s all a matter of factual record, confirmed by Alma’s own substantial memoirs, and the only reason Phillips is obliged to describe his book as fiction is because he imagines a few bits of private conversation and relates the whole history to us in first person, through the ghostly voice of the principal figure.

And what a voice! A siren’s voice (“I seemed to have wrecked him with pleasure.”), at once sensuous and world-weary, most delightful in flirtation with her famous lovers, but irresistible in solitude as well. “Death, also, I find to be a disappointment,” Alma tells us, and this expression from beyond the grave retains more of the scent of a Viennese coffee shop than of heaven or hell.

Phillips’ Alma possesses an almost frightful actuality, down to her notorious anti-Semitism, which in real life exhibited itself most strikingly in the perverse contempt with which she mingled her love for her two Jewish husbands, Mahler and Werfel. We see and hear the drama of everyday life as it unfolds for some of the signal heroes of modern art, who had in common not only Alma, but also the rare ability to transcend in their work the kind of sordid history she records in these pages. With searing irony, Max Phillips has turned the forgettable chaff of their lives into spun gold, the very hue of Alma Schindler’s glorious hair.

Michael Alec Rose is an associate professor at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.

Viennese beauty Alma Schindler was loved to distraction by all of the following men and bedded by all but one: Â¥ Gustav Klimt, the most important painter of fin-de-siecle Europe Â¥ Gustav Mahler, the greatest composer of his time Â¥ Walter Gropius, the most significant modern architect in the world in the years following World […]

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