Category: Reference

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Boot, A sorta novel of Vietnam

BOOT, A Sorta Novel of Vietnam published, copyright and written by Charles L. Templeton.

Now a Marine Sergeant assigned to the Presidential Helicopter Squadron after completing 150 missions in Vietnam, George Orwell (G. O.) Hill had just completed a flight mission for “one of the many alphabet organizations that crowded Washington, D.C.” He was sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and looking at the Reflective pool while trying to decide “Are you going to look at that damn Wall (Vietnam Memorial) or are you going to di-di (move rapidly) back to Georgetown?” “He squinted into the pool’s reflection. His face was a mask hiding his shadows…. His heart raced and his brain whirred, like a nickelodeon … replaying images from his tour in Vietnam forever camped in his memory. Why would he want to think about that crap anyway? That was then; this is now.” But thoughts came rambling through. His youth and desire to serve as had his father, uncles and grandfathers, his pride reflected in his grandfather’s eyes. But suddenly in the water of the Reflecting pool, he saw the image of a headless North Vietnamese regular. Some creative grunt had pinned a note on his blouse that read, “I just wanted to get ahead in life.” At the time he had lost his lunch. These days he chuckled about the grisly scene.” Such is the reader’s introduction to the ruminations of a man who has lived and experienced the repetitive re-interspersing periods of mind-numbing boredom with those of terror and horrifying activity experienced by any person who ever has participated in combat.

Discussion: Assuming the part of the protagonist, G.O. Hill, the author has examined the highly diversified cultural, religious and racial beliefs existing among the group of Marines involved along with those of the enemy. Additionally, he has injected a perhaps unexpected glimpse of a human tendency that exists even in enemies fighting for survival. His portrayal of characters is most realistically accomplished, the humor included, and the story provides, often unwanted memories for the initiated but is of tremendous educational value for the uninitiated,

5* Educational for the uninitiated; often unwanted recall for participants.

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A Laughing Place

A Laughing Place Berwick Publishing, copyright and written by Christian Hageseth, M.D.

This offering is a relatively short but quite thorough look at the position of humor in the content of an individual’s mindset and the extent of its importance in an individual’s well-being. It includes an introduction that once again reiterates the importance of Hippocrates’ statement “It is far more important to know what person has the disease, than what disease the person has. The difference between patients is the content of their minds.” Twelve chapters follow, opening with a humorous, tenuously embarrassing incident that occurred with the author’s first lecture with respect to the subject. An incident that gave rise to the quote “Life and adversity: You can’t have one without the other” and an opportunity to provide further discussion of the importance of how the individual deals with adversity when encountered. Years of treating patients who were almost impossible to help finally brought this psychiatrist to a realization of the vital importance of Positive Humor. Thus he decided that rather than treat the aftermath of adversity, he wanted to prevent some of the pain that poured out in his consulting room and instruct his patients to learn about humor – what it is, how it constantly is modified, what purpose it serves and when properly couched and utilized, what it can bring to alleviating some of the suffering individual’s most debilitating episodes of despair.

Well aware of present day demand for short, crisp, to-the-point- comments, in the book he first provides what he believes are the ten basic components of humor. And he does so simply, “without detail, without examples, without metaphor”. With these as a basis, he then expands to examine the subject from its very first appearance to its many levels beyond. Many psychologists believe that humor is a function of language and a process involving abstract thought. As such, its first appearance is around the child’s first grade. The author contends that the first humor experience emerges even before with the smiling response which occurs at about eight weeks of life. Regardless, from this initial emergence, he traces it through the stages of mental and physical growth accompanying childhood, adolescence and into the adult. He explains how humor is more than jokes and that three pathways exist to a humor experience; that one’s surroundings, culture and subculture dictate the acceptance or non-acceptance of a humorous statement, with occasional exceptions as noted. And he provides numerous true stories of the effectiveness of humor in certain disastrous situations. Further presented are “the four elements of successful humor” and how they are achieved as well as how it may be used to combat illness as well as depression. The book ends with again a succinctly presented list of twelve affirmations of positive humor.

Discussion: The author has set forth a quite thorough overall discussion of humor. Further, he has provided the material in an easy to read form that the neophyte looking for help will discover to be simple to follow. Amusingly perhaps, is the fact that he most obviously is well aware of the extent of decrease in the general public’s attention span. Whether watching TV, reading or conversing, this activity measured 12 seconds in the year 2000; 8.25 seconds in 2015 and seemingly is dropping even lower in newly acquired data. (Comparatively, that of a goldfish is 9 seconds.). Resultantly, he has provided much material in quite simple to read lists and individual phrases. As an aside, his inclusion of certain humorous incidents/tales are quite hilarious for any reader with a degree of imagination. One word of caution seemingly would be helpful for the self-help reader – no matter how easily comprehensible one discovers the material to be in this book, it would seem wise to find a competent individual with whom to discuss this subject before embarking on any extensive personal change.

5* Thorough presentation of humor and its importance to human health.

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It’s Not the Score It’s the Trip

It’s Not the SCORE, it’s the TRIP ISBN: 978 1642251494  Advantage Media Group copyright and written by Brian O’Hara.

Sub- titled “One man’s journey to building a global franchise is a memoir by the founding president and COO (later CEO) of XL Insurance. A company described by importantly prominent members as “the Bermudian re-insurance market instrumental in raising the bar of economic landscape of the island to a now globally recognized as a prominent reinsurance domicile.”  “The publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered.” The book opens with the usual Forward, Preface, and Introduction followed by 9 chapters, an Epilogue, acknowledgements and About the Author, some photographs scattered throughout and a collection at the end. End Notes (18) and a closing note depicting a slightly less formal description of the author complete the volume. Each chapter describes advances and occurrences leading toward his goals as they occurred chronologically. The first accounting Family Luck 1948-1965; #2 Testing my luck 1966-1970; #3 Fun into prophet 1970-1979; #4 No simple highway, the road 1978-1989; #5 Buy or be bought 1990-1999; #6 Leading the industry 1999-2003; #7 Rough Waters 2003-2006; #8 Plan B 2007-2008; # 9 Now what? 2008-2011.

It is a quite personal story of how Brian worked his way through the business to become CEO of a global corporation largely bringing recognition to Bermuda as a prominent center for the insurance-reinsurance industry. His personally rigid belief and adherence to collegiality and integrity he believed were most important for survival and were the keynote to all operations as well as knowing the rules but being flexible in relationship to them. He further worked on the principle that you get better results if you ask people if they can do something, rather than tell them to do it. He was acutely aware of the magnitude of inherent risk in the industry’s cycles and the corresponding uncertainty, especially when it came to matters like budgeting for the premiums. (Especially with Fortune 500 Companies operations and products. “They appreciated their underwriting discipline that would create a stable long-term relationship despite the cyclicality of the insurance industry overall.”) He used his program in Barbados as well as Bermuda and the company went from $450 million in ’87 to $1 Billion by ’90 and ultimately an organization employing 2400 people in 20 countries. Eventually, the main operations moved to Bermuda from Barbados and also started a branch in Dublin, Ireland. Their entire mission was as insurers/reinsurers that dealt with providing coverage for large-risk properties. Finally they opened to become a public company and success continued but he found it to be personally unpleasant because he felt required now to satisfy so many strangers who had invested in the work. Interestingly, the day he was forced to step down as CEO was the year that catastrophe struck the company along with most others involved in this high risk business.

Discussion: The author has written a most interesting memoir from several perspectives. First, it presents an impressive insight to the drivers and inner workings of the property and casualty risk industry for interested parties. Second, the details about this phase of insurance underwriting offer fascinating ‘inside’ information for uninvolved individuals interested generally in how other businesses operate (such as this reader). Third, it is studded with interchanges with well-known athletes and coaches from football, basketball, tennis and golf as well as cinema celebrities, Heads of State and powerful individuals within the world of finance. Thus, the author has offered the entire package in a personally oriented manner that removes it from the more usual somewhat dry and subject oriented business reminiscences.

5* Informative and unusually enjoyable business memoir.

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The Accelerated Saver-Investor Pathway to Wealth

The Accelerated Saver-Investor Pathway to Wealth assumed published copyright and written by Alexander Lawrence.

Sub-titled “A powerful New Rapid Wealth Building System for Average Income Earners the book presents: Legal Notices that include the copyright declaration and a disclaimer. Next are detailed Acknowledgements, an Introduction which proceeds to explain the Purpose of the Book as “eight life-changing goals we can adopt implement and achieve by development of a MASATERPLAN” with 4 Strategies to develop them. A Table of Contents that sets forth a List of (15) Chapter titles followed immediately by another List of Chapters providing contents, specifically: Chapter [1] Mindset: Strategy; [2]: Motivation Gurus: Strategy;; [3]: Money Technicians: Strategy; continuing through Chapter [14]: Fire: and final Chapter [15]; Summary which opens with an Index of the subjects to be included, expanded and/or further discussed.

Discussion: The author is fully aware of the “monumental mass of personal finance data and advice published in old media print books, magazines, journals and newspapers and projected in the new media digital technology channels…” as well as social media and other sources Thus. his attempt here is “to simplify this abundant, ‘managing your money’ and ‘wealth-building’ information – so that it’s easy to grasp” and to present “the best money management and wealth-building system possible – in terms of ease, efficiency and outcome.” He further explains why he references and includes the writings of eight individuals recognized by their peers as important authors whose works are collectively considered to be essential to understand in any serious money management and wealth building system.

This is a very long book that contains a mass of pertinent material that requires time to read. However, the author’s objective appears to have been accomplished. He has combined the material in a well set forth, somewhat lighter presentation than often encountered and has included abundant graphics and quotations.

5* Lengthy read but author’s ‘mission accomplished’. Recommended.

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You’re Retired now…Now What?

You’re Retired Now… Now What? ISBN: 9781946633637 FiorbesPress Copyright and written by Debra Brede.

 Sub-titled Discovering & Funding Your Purpose Driven Retirement, the reader first is presented with several notes of praise by highly positioned knowledgeable individuals, followed by a dedication that leads to the book itself. This opens with provision of the usual publication details, disclaimer and list of contents. After Acknowledgements and Foreword, the material is set forth in 4 parts, containing 9 chapters, a Conclusion, About the Author, Services (offered by her company) and End Notes. Part One: The Best Teacher, contains 4 Chapters, the first three provide autobiographical material with respect to details of her early background and development of the philosophy she follows in her clients’ plans. The 4th chapter explains a life-changing experience that has provided the basis for “helping clients plan for personally fulfilling, purpose-driven retirements”. Part Two: Peace of Mind, contains 2 Chapters discussing a question of definition of the phrase and the requirement of a need to be dispassionate in dealing with the vicissitudes of investing. Part Three: Strategic Wealth Management discusses at length the requirement to “Eliminate the negative” (7) and “Accentuate the Positive” (8). Part Four: Giving Back, has 2 chapters that describe and discuss the utter necessity for structuring a Purpose-Driven Retirement (9) and with the need for Paying it Forward (10) where she quotes Margaret Mead and refers to a pertinent personal story supplied earlier. A Conclusion: Live Your Dream, is followed by the features mentioned above to close the book.

Discussion: The author has presented quite clearly a knowledgeable discussion of a large amount of descriptive material of equities, bonds, annuities and the rest, much of which may be found in other of the books written by recognized individuals in the field. HOWEVER, she has been able to innumerate, explain and emphasize the importance of aspects of investing only lightly touched or missing in other texts.  An absolutely fascinating but pertinent aside to the book from the perspective of this reviewer, is the quite unobtrusive manner in which she has acknowledged the importance of a higher power functional in her life. Of further interest is the uniquely interesting additional information associated with King Solomon offered later.

Summary: This book is a most helpful presentation of investing for retirement by an individual eminently qualified. Unfortunately, the target audience is relatively limited. However, it contains many facts of interest for readers not in the category targeted and has the added feature of a most interesting approach.

5* An unusual ‘must read’ for target audience; much of interest to others.

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7 Days in Russia

 

7 Days in Russia ISBN: 9781456631796 Orca Publishing, copyright and written by M. G. Crisci.

The book opens with the usual credits, followed by a list of sponsors; acknowledgements; a preface presenting brief biographical data including the raison d’être for the presentation; maps of specific routes taken in the 7-day journey; an amusing (and most appropriate for the Russian language) “Idiot’s Guide to Verbal Survival”; Day 1: “What could go wrong, goes wrong” and each succeeding chapter setting forth descriptions of more enlightening, frequently amusing, activities from each succeeding day. Additionally a photographer of note, the author was able to provide photographs of many of the places and people visited. Thus, the book describes an interesting and eye-opening account of the country and its inhabitants that will surprise many, if not most of today’s Americans.

Discussion: The author has presented a most appealing picture to describe present-day Russia that have strengthened his beliefs that the alcoholism, surveillance, and otherwise general effects of apprehension among the residents now exist only within the beliefs of the average American. Regrettably and most apologetically, this reviewer still retains some measure of reservation in totally accepting the author’s conclusion. He makes mention of the fact that his trip was made during one of Putin’s inaugurations following a first that had preceded it by two years. And from the freedom he noticed, and to a large extent quite ably demonstrated, today’s Russia appears to be one that is far removed from that which long existed. This reader also has travelled to Russia and experienced some similarities to those set forth by the author, but under other circumstances; i.e. not visiting as a tourist, but as a scientist visiting other scientists. We encountered most comfortable accommodations, transportation, excellent food and entertainment and really had no sense of being under any manner of surveillance other than tight restriction with respect to picture taking. (Granted this first trip was made when Gorbachev was struggling to bring the country together following the Troika disasters.) A week later we visited St. Petersburg to see the magnificent Hermitage and had the fascinating added pleasure of attending a performance of Boris Godunov in the city’s gem-like Opera House. Upon boarding our plane to leave Russia, a seemingly inconsequential remark by an In-Tourist representative provided a definite impression that surveillance of our activities actually had been quite extensive. Activities encountered on a subsequent trip a few years later still did not offer any definitive answer causing two other thoughts linger. Within the last 2-3 years this reader has received translations of books by Russian authors to review. None of these offer any clarification of the situation for this reviewer, but in fact strengthen an originally observed observation of a seeming dichotomy in the manner in which different classes or grades of citizens are observed/treated according to their main source of employment and/or activities; the other, a tendency toward observation/treatment according to religion, especially the apparent persistence of a degree of anti-Semitism – a feature one author commented on as having been accurately mentioned in my review. Additionally as continually discussed ‘ad nauseum’ by the media, we still have the involved Russian-American political situation.

Still another possibly unrecognized component in this seemingly benign Russian citizens’ complete freedom – the unbidden thought that this author, as a well-known lecturer as well as friend of the Director of the Russian Cultural Center in Washington D.C., may have received some measure of un-requested and un-recognized aid in his reception and activities in Russia. But then again, and most apologetically, this reviewer is an American who had WW II acquaintances and memories, the Cold War, Cuban fiasco, of the recurring political charges and the rest, as well as a couple of personal visits to Russia as a scientist conferring with scientists. Albeit this individual’s trips were a few years previous to Mr. Cristi’s and the memories may well be influenced by the troubled times not experienced by the author of this book. Trump and Putin seem to understand each other and actually seem to ‘be on the same page’ whereas the old hardliners of the Russian Politburo and those in the U.S. Deep State appear to be unrelenting. Perhaps it would be better if both countries paid a little more attention to China?

But to conclude, the picture the author has provided hopefully is the correct one as he has described it and this book is highly recommended as a most enlightening and interesting read for ALL Americans to further assess and better interpret the barrage of news to which they constantly are subjected.

5* Highly recommended as described.

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OM: Life’s Gentle Reminders

OM: Life’s Gentle Reminders ISBN: 9781951943028 WSA Publishing copyright and written by Kamini Wood,

This interesting little book’s title is a simple reminder for persons to look at the simplest and most mundane things and ‘happenings’ of life and recognize what lessons they might provide. Each short discussion is titled simply as ‘what it is’ and opens with a pertinent quote followed in turn by a short discussion of what thoughts it may bring to mind. For example, “What my Morning Traffic Jam Taught Me” discusses passing a scene of cars piling up in the opposite lane as the result of two stopped blocking any forward movement. The thought came to mind of how similar this was to “what happens when I get down on myself about something”. At such times when something does not go as planned, it is the only thing on which she can focus. So many others are similar. “Such negative thoughts can paralyze us, much like those cars being stopped in the travel lane paralyzed any other vehicles from moving forward.” The obvious answer simply is to acknowledge the negative thought, and like the offending cars, move them to the side of the road. Another is “Toy Story 4” which opens with a quote from Herbert Bayard Swope; “I cannot give you the formula for success, but I can give you the formula for failure – which: Try to please everybody.” The pertinent discussion follows. Another, “To Each Shell Her Own” that admonishes not to be concentrated upon personal perfection, but to take time to look at what is available and possible with a little more self-compassion, who you are and where you are in life and what possibilities exist from this perspective. Another, “Over the Rainbow” with a quote from Dolly Parton: “The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.” The author follows with the astute observation that a rainbow consists of a mixture of the darkness of the departing clouds and the advancing sun’s rays, an admixture of light and dark bouncing off the raindrops to produce the beautiful structure. So “what if just for now, we started recognizing that our darker moments mixed with our lighter ones makes us us? And what if we start seeing ourselves as the amazing, smile inducing humans we are?” The book continues providing numerous simple little “gentle reminders” of the constantly encountered situations in daily life from which only the slightest deviation in thought direction can produce a worthwhile lesson to be learned. Thus, as a professional coach in personal aspects of living, the author states “based on the concept of realigning with and rediscovering your authentic self…hence the term I created: AuthenticMe.” And “Because of the prevalence of buzzwords today, the words themselves get tired and overused – in essence they lose some of their impact and meaning.” Here, she proceeds to quote Brené Brown with ““Letting go of who we think we are supposed to be” hits it on the head for me.”” She includes a discussion of this feature among her other offerings at a point approximately sixty per cent of the way through her little book. Directly thereafter in the section entitled PIV…OOOT she quotes Winston Churchill’s statement “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often” and poses a tantalizing question. Another providing a simple, but really necessary subject for thought is “What Does the End Say” that opens with a quote from Aristotle; “Happiness depends upon ourselves”. Still others follow that allow the mind to reach an entirely new plateau of understanding some other facet of living.

Conclusion: An interesting and simply provided collection of discussions of thoughts generated from and/or provided by, daily mundane ‘happenings’ for the reader to review, consider and adopt.

5* “Gentle Reminders” for easy, amusingly worthwhile contemplation.

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Stars on the Oriental Corridor

STARS on the Oriental Corridor ISBN: 9781733957144 Seacoast Press copyright and written by Young-Tae Kim.

According to the author’s preface, this Book 1: Heaven, has resulted from a series of short stories written/published in Korean, rewritten and published in 2010 in six volumes, revised into two books in 2016 before rewriting and publishing in this English version in 2019. The stories detail the activities of heroes and heroines who led their countries in politics, war, fertile fields, religions, sciences, industries and arts. Certain of the tales also concentrate on the deities various tribes/small countries worshiped and the interrelationships among the various units as they continued to grow, inhabit and unify the Korean peninsula.

Discussion: Many of the stories have charming elements and are set forth in a rather quaint fashion especially when employing modern verbalization to describe activity. In Chapter 1, description is provided of two tribe/small country leaders engaging in individual combat as the designated leader of the people of their country, a sensible form of warfare often employed in earlier times that saved many lives. Chapter 2 follows these inhabitants after a successful period has followed the union and they became interested in perpetuating the dynasty. Thus the King’s advisor addresses him: “Your Majesty, now that our country has become stable all in out, people are each doing his or her role very well. We have no problem in our country except for one thing. As we do not have our queen to become mother of the country. It is imminent for Your Majesty to get married.” Other similarly quaint verbalization occurs throughout; e.g. “Give your order to me. I will accomplish your order doing my best.”

Other than these interesting and often amusing features, however, it is this reviewer’s thought that much of this book is directed toward, and will be enjoyed most, by Koreans and other Asian peoples as well as other historians who are interested in the years preceding the AD 7th century. It contains a plethora of material pertinent to through and down the Korean Peninsula. The manner of presentation, especially after that set forth in the introductory material described, makes the overall presentation seemingly somewhat complexly arranged. After the primary material follows an anticipated pattern. Directly thereafter, the reader is presented with “NINIGI-NO-MIKOTO AND PRINCESS OF GAYA (2nd volume of “Stars on the Oriental Corridor”)” divided into several chapters; These, in turn followed by “Gods of WA (Ancient Japan) (The 3rd volume of “Stars on the Oriental Corridor”)”; the 4th; 5th; 6th through 9th  – each similarly divided into several chapters and following the progress of other groups of Orientals. The book terminates with a relisting of the volume’s contents.

Summary: An interesting presentation of assumedly well assembled for those interested in early history of Asian people. Regrettably the seemingly dual explanations of its assembly was not particularly well-received by this reader. However the entire manuscript can be most enlightening for any reader with an interest in the subject matter.

3* 4* pre- 7th Century AD Asian History with quaint/charming areas; 3*- probably for most Americans.

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Plant Food Cookbook for Beginners

PLANT-BASED COOKBOOK FOR BEGINNERS assumed published, copyright and written by Jackie Collins.

Sub-titled 600 Quick & Delicious Vegan Recipes for Busy People on the Plant Based Diet, the book opens with an Introduction that explains the health aiding ability of this plant-based lifestyle in today’s era of busy schedules with concurrent occasionally frenetic periods and follows in a most simply, but amazingly direct and complete manner, to provide the Basic Ingredients required for each recipe, how to blend the ingredients, the time required to complete the item and how to serve and/or store the completed item(s). She supplies these details for Broths; Plant-based Cheese dishes; Breakfasts, including various toasts, twists, muffins, unusual breads; Omelets, e.g. Mushroom & Spinach Chickpea; Waffles, e.g. Lemon-Almond; Pancakes; Puddings and more; Numerous fabulous sounding Smoothies are added; additionally there is an interesting No-Bread Avocado Sandwich that can be very quickly prepared. Next is the section of recipes for Soups and Stews with another large number of individual recipes. Salads and Entrees follow, beginning with a quickly prepared and taste-appealing Greek salad, as well as providing another sixty plus recipes with some thought-producing ideas for seldom thought-of combination of ingredients such as oranges and kale, olives with cherries, millet with olives and cherries, carrots, cherries and pecans. Lunch Recipes consist of the same carefully maintained format of including ingredients, directions for preparation and time required with serving instructions. The section offers close to one hundred recipes that should present any number of tasty offerings for anyone looking for a ‘different’ lunch time repast. As an aside, this reader rarely indulges in midday food, but admittedly, a couple of the chili recipes, hot coconut beans and vegetables and the hot lentil and guacamole recipes appear quite tempting. Dinner Menus are the next and still once more offer another large selection of appetizing recipes. A delicious assortment of Snaks and Sides follow (with a most delicious recipe for Parmesan Broccoli Tots, Maple-Glazed Butternut Squash and one for Dijon Roasted Asparagus this reader tried the last three nights). Desserts & Sweet treats wrap up this incredibly complete collection of some relatively well known recipes, some that are better known but still offered with an unusual twist and/or use of ingredients that presents something ‘different’. AND even more new offerings are added to these selections.

Discussion: Briefly stated, this book is a fantastic presentation of recipes in a complete format not encountered in many years. A suggestion for the prospective book owner: be aware of the need to invest in a larger than normal selection of ingredients and because of the need to refer to the recipe while cooking, purchasing a hard copy as well as digital might be helpful, depending upon one’s construction of cooking facilities..

5* Highly recommended book for non-diet as well as dieters, as discussed.

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Future Proofing Cubed

FUTURE PROOFING CUBED ISBN: 9798638377168 Bookmark Publishing, Copyright Lcubed Consulting, Inc. written by Iisa L. Levy.

Subtitled Future Proofing Cubed the Definitive Guide to Increasing Productivity, Refining Processes and Bolstering Profitability, the book opens with a dedication; the usual disclaimer; a complementary forward; Introduction; Three sections: 1. Hybrid Consulting that contains two chapters -My Why: Enabling Corporate Success and Lcubed; 2. Future Proofing with five that define traditional consulting, initially describe Lcubed’s Adaptive Transformation, Solving recurrent problems, Desired results and Future Proofing; 3. Enabling Frameworks offers the last five, in turn discussing project management, process and performance management, internal controls, organizational change management, and chapter takeaways; Case Studies; References (16); Resources (4); and About the Author.

Discussion: Although the copyright is more stringent with respect to not allowing “any part of this book to be reproduced or transmitted in any form….”, this reader hopes that reprinting of the author’s ‘different’ and amusing Dedication will be overlooked. It reads “I’d like to dedicate this book to my friends and family who are always supportive of my choices even the ones they don’t understand. My hope is that this book will finally help explain to my parents what I do for a living.” Following this charming note of levity, the content of the volume explains her approach to teaching a business how to Future Proof itself against the ever-increasing number of changes they face as time evolves. The overall concept is to look at your business as a Rubik’s cube. You have all of the pieces and need only to position them to interface correctly. Use of the plan allows you to build a culture that embraces the enormous number of existing recent changes and will increase greatly in the business world as time advances. Granted, use of the Rubik’s cube analogy applies to medium sized businesses that have all of the pieces in place and functioning with a management team, money coming in, etc. With this understanding, she continues to explain that she had ‘spent her time in the trenches’ and gradually evolved her projected program after observing  the numerous types of quite disparate software with which companies were faced when attempting to accomplish the various tasks required simply to keep abreast of the changes in the business world as they developed. In fact, most of the time they had been able to assemble the required results only after the data collected were outdated. Thus from her repeated observation, the concept of “Adaptive Transformation” came to mind. The concept, although suddenly appearing to her, perhaps had been un-consciously stored in her mind in that she found a paper on the subject had been published by Stanford Professor Dr. Harold Leavitt in 1964. Regardless, the basis of the concept was to focus energy on building a new project rather than fighting the old, and it fitted well into her line of thinking wherein a series of activities could provide a means for an organization’s structure and culture to survive and advance even when facing tremendous elements of change. Eventually, the whole evolved into her epiphany moment and she decided to construct a software program that would encompass all of the disparate parts and meld them into one bundle.

Summary: The author, has presented details of the birth and evolution of her somewhat unique contribution – the structure, function and successes of a software program that combines and includes all of the usual features considered to be important components of building and maintaining a steady healthy business growth in times of change. There is much redundancy and substantial inclusion of material offered by others in the large number of books covering business maintenance and growth in the seemingly increasingly chaotic business world. However, Lcubed appears to be a knowledgeable organization, founded by a nationally recognized organizational change management authority, with a unique program that offers several advantages not previously made available.

5* Unique offering; -1 for redundancy,  not unusual for lecturers.