Category: Reference

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ONWARD The Art of Leadership

ONWARD The Art of Leadership ISBN: 9781948046985 Telemachus Press copyright and written by Mark Joseph Huckabee.

The book opens with an introduction stating “The top trait of leaders: They never quit learning and growing. Leaders are perpetual students seeking mastery of their craft. Leadership is a life-long journey with no final destination. It is a way – the best way – to live life. You will see your hard work manifest into success not only for you, but for those around you.” Seven sections follow with descriptions of how to attain this eminence by following the examples set by known, as well as lesser stature, philosophers, warriors, writers, statesmen, politicians, explorers, entrepreneurs, scientists and others. All is provided with support from copious examples, quotes, and explanations provided by these people and especially from a most interesting and unusual array of cinematic productions. Section I begins with the ‘First Step’ and provision of examples of how everyone is a combination of boss, parent, leader, employer and coach. The examples range from presentation of the “Ice Bowl” football game and the initiation of “Molotov Cocktails” to movies such as Rocky, Jurassic Park, To Kill a Mocking Bird and more. Section II discusses the “How” of leadership with an actor’s example of the importance of “Preparation and the Will to Win”, a short story of Benjamin Franklin’s winning strategy, the “Art of Silence”, the movie “Star Wars” and numerous other pertinent factors. Section III presents a discussion of the importance of settling for nothing less than the “Extraordinary” detailing the difference between Dreamers and Doers with supportive material from the cinematic production of Field of Dreams, Ian Fleming’s James Bond and more. Section IV concentrates on “Building Great Teams. V the importance of having and living your principles. VI describes Managing an organization as well as managing your life and sets forth a sizable number of examples set by famous people and such pictures as Citizen Kane, and The Godfather. The last, Section VII: Change the Frame, opens with a vignette of Viktor E. Frankl, Holocaust survivor, renowned scientist and best-selling author and his human ability to survive not only unimaginable suffering of body, but his mind, soul and spirit that says “You shall overcome. And the reward for enduring your struggle is that you will change the world” and how his founding of ‘logotherapy’ was to teach that there was a basic importance to find a meaning in life that was the primary and most compelling motivational driving force in humans. The book ends with “A Personal Farewell: Turn the Page” where the author offers a few parting words “Any life worth living – at some point – will face seemingly unbearable circumstances. If you aren’t failing. You aren’t growing. You aren’t taking the chances true living requires. This too shall pass. Life will humble you. Let it. When it’s easy: Onward. When it’s hard: Onward. Locked onto your full potential, always facing True North. Live life this way, and I promise you will get there. A day is coming….Every moment the story of your life is being written. AND YOU HOLD THE PEN.”

Discussion: The author has taken discussion of moving one’s methods of living and working to successful levels to a most unusual and interesting manner of presentation level. Frankly, this reviewer approached this read/review with some restrictions of interest. Having read quite a number of these ‘self-help’ presentations, not much different was expected and momentarily was buttressed by observing the number of references to cinematic productions included. Once again my inclination to persevere through any book received ‘’till the bitter end’ proved to be the correct decision. This is a book that deserves to be read with an open mind by any book reviewer and is a truly helpful and easy-to-read volume for those looking for thoughtful suggestions.

5* Unusual, impressive offer of usual material in a different, enjoyable package.

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Figuring It Out

Figuring it Out ISBN: 9781642250435 Advantage Media, copyright and written by Libby Connolly Alexander.

Sub-titled, A Memoir of Connolly, Inc.’s Journey to the Top, the book is a memoir by a woman who, with her brother and tech-savvy husband had taken the company successfully established by her entrepreneurial father to the point of eventually going public at a high market evaluation before reselling at an even greater value. The story opens with “To the three legs of the stool and all that we accomplished together” referring to the extended activity and accomplishments of she and her brother under the tutelage of her father, along with her husband.  Then, following several letters of praise for the book, quite lengthy acknowledgements are listed, an Introduction, ten chapters and a conclusion. The Introduction is prefaced by “A Jim Connolly Mantra: If you’re going to do something, do it right or don’t do it at all”. This in turn is followed by his opening statement to the family at dinner in the late 1980’s that he was resigning the quite prestigious position of Chief Operating Officer at Gimbel’s NYC department store to initiate a new entrepreneurial project – a recovery auditing business. Ten chapters and a conclusion then explains that she has “mapped out in this book her father’s blueprint that masterfully explains the core values and principles that support any successful business.” She begins by describing the changes taking place during the period of his change in position – the conglomerates, junk bonds, management shake-ups and the rest – beginning with Chapter 1 where her “father’s footsteps” include many of his admonitions such as “Above all, learn and constantly practice the art of adjusting to change” as they provided the groundwork for successful establishment of Connolly, Inc. referred to as Cotiviti.  Much of her father’s biography, including a fascinating account of wartime experience, largely in the Pacific Theater, proceeds to describe the man’s fundamental beliefs. The ensuing chapters present a gradual unfolding of the ‘Blue Print’ she has set forth and a Conclusion mentioned where she describes stepping down but summarily reflects upon important attitudes she believes necessary to succeed.

Discussion: This is an interestingly ‘different’ approach to the establishment and maintenance at a high level of an entrepreneurial start-up from very limited beginnings. The constant reference to bio- and autobiographical material quite interestingly provide material to bolster the author’s intent rather than offer what might be considered material detrimental. It recalls a time slightly before the evolution of the ‘Me’ outlook. “A time when reciprocal respect existed among a group of honorable men who openly shared their thoughts and moves with integrity, intent and purpose.” It also was at a time when a businessman could consider “One client at a time. No outside investment. No acquisitions. Just hard work and a determination to be the best by delivering quality results with low noise.” Troublesome business situations such as junk bonds, conglomerates and management shake-ups were developing during Jim Connolly’s early years, but he still believed in the ‘old fashioned’ basics and was still able to demonstrate they functioned well even during the progression to the rash of mergers, acquisitions and consolidations, restructuring, bankruptcies, highly intensified competition and price cutting so prevalent today. His methods of hard work, ingenuity, integrity, persistence, ability to adapt quickly to the rapidly changing environment, courtesy, professionalism and tenacity of purpose combined with hiring and inspiring a talented team were the key ingredients to formulate the multi-billion dollar businesses his son and daughter, Larry and Libby, further developed and ultimately walked away from. He was a great coach and roll-model whose early Recovery Auditing Company discovered and promoted innovative ways to identify and recover lost revenue, pricing and promotional funds in the 1980 – 90’s when auditing was an entirely different form of business than exists today.

5* Excellent self-help business suggestions in unusual memoir format.

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BOOK the BUSINESS

BOOK the BUSINESS ISBN: 9781599324074 Advantage Media Group, copyright and written by Adam Witty and Dan Kennedy.

Sub-titled How to make BIG MONEY without Even Selling a Book, contains 13 chapters beginning with The Big Idea of making Money with your Book, No B.S. There follow chapters describing the Best Customers; why a book is a fine marketing tool; how to use it to build an authoritative position; as the Ultimate Lead Generation Tool; to gain Speaking Engagements; to obtain Free Publicity/media coverage; in Personal Selling; as the Ultimate Referral Marketing Tool; to boost your direct mail; for Fast Product Creation and Additional Income Streams; to Get others to pay for your Marketing; Fast Action Implementation Resources; and finally the One Secret Nobody Tells You and Putting Your Plan into Action specifically contributed by Adam Witty. An Afterword by Dan Kennedy follows and Resources, and About the Authors conclude the presentation.

Discussion: This book is based upon the long accepted, and probably largely correct, assumption that writing a book elevates the author to a position of authority providing he/she has presented verifiable material. Its authors are eminently positioned to set forth suggestions that this premise positions a pertinent book’s author to employ it as a powerful marketing tool that will provide far more than any compensation he/she could gain by providing it simply as a book for sale. Adam Witty is the Founder and CEO of Advantage Media Group that publishes self-improvement and Professional Development books. Dan Kennedy is author and/or co-author of twenty books on the subject, a leader in marketing, copyrighting and business building who has established a worldwide organization to which individuals pay monthly for membership. Thus, when they explain how your authorship of a book on the subject about which you are most knowledgeable can produce what they refer to as “Invisible Income Streams”, their suggestions appear to stem from a superior understanding of the situation. Specifically, your book “provides name recognition in your chosen niche”. As presented in the pages of this book, their suggestions with respect to how your omnipresence offers ways of having others market for you, to promote you without ‘selling’, obtaining speaking engagements, media coverage and more. From this reviewer’s perspective the authors have quite thoroughly, and quite adroitly covered their subject. However, it would seem necessary to provide a small caveat so as to mitigate any confusion for a budding author with respect to writing fiction and non-fiction. Having written and successfully published (as well as taught a university level writing course) in both areas, I believe their expressed opinion that the simple difference between the two is that fiction requires talent and creativity and can be arduous whereas non-fiction is what you know and what you’re willing to research may require a few more words. Fiction does require talent and creativity and can be ’arduous’ in the amount of research required to provide credibility to your plot and the activities included (unless engaged in the fantasy genre). This is why fiction writers usually are told ‘to stick to what they know’. Non-fiction also is described correctly as a collection of what you know and what you are willing to research. However, the newbie by no means should overlook the importance of creativity and talent. They first must have the creative spark that allows them to ferret out the fact(s) that others miss AND the talent to weave them into a single unit that supplies a usable tool to supply answers to the discovered ‘niche’.

5* Highly recommended with small caveat suggested.

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Evolution Tested

Evolution Tested, Library of Congress #2019905164 Outskirts Press, copyright and written by CS Stephens,

(Reviewer’s apology for length of review seemingly required.)

Sub-titled “Evolution & Empiricism Viewed through Engineering Standards”, this book presents a treatise resulting from the observed fact that although skepticism of Darwinian claims continue and some highly placed scientists and even a legal judgement support the claims, religions provide mixed reviews and a large number of physicians, dentists, and engineers repute them. Here, after some opening discussion of various claims in the Preface, the author offers a theme adopted by engineers as the Salem Hypothesis, which briefly assumes the existence of more than one type of skepticism – the irrational Pyrrhonian or radical view that refuses to believe anything because even evidence of the highest quality cannot be believed, and two types of scientific skepticism; 1. No one knows anything about anything, and 2. We know only the contents of our own minds. And because both can exist in the same person, empiricism or evidence-based results, are required. He follows with what to expect in the ensuing ten part discussion. Each, subdivided to a varying degree, follows with his application of the Hypothesis to evolution; its claims; aspects of DNA/evolutionary hypotheses; complexity of ‘First Life’ formation; Problematica (little known outside the “evolutionary practitioners” who study creatures “which have nothing in common with either known modern or deep time phyla”); analysis of evolution theory as a unifying concept; specific claims for evolution and treatment of coherent dissent by the evolution community. A Final Analysis recalls: “Darwin presciently outlined the failure zones of his theory. His failure criteria have been met, yet evolutionary theorists press on, regardless”. Further, a Condensed Summary of 12 falsifiers for evolution and five appendices conclude the book; A. discussion of knowledge in general and the essential disciplines of rational thought; B. movement from Aristotelian destructive logic, to the steps required for, and application of, objective thinking; C. examines when probabilities actually are impossibilities; D. “Understanding Life”; E. Validating Aristotle’s First Principles of Thought mathematically.

Discussion: This is one of the more thorough evaluations of a subject I have read. It also is quite literalistic, precisionist and in large part scholastic. In many ways it is reminiscent of PhD theses I’ve read.  According to the author, “The first purpose of this investigation is to analyze the purported scientific practice of evolutionary professionals compared to both the Enlightenment definition of Empiricism and the actual practices required of engineering disciplines. The second purpose is to determine whether there is sufficient cause to designate evolution as a pristine, disciplined source of objective knowledge. There will be no references or inferences to design, because this work is solely focused on evolutionary theory and its relationship to objective knowledge and truth. (But design will (be) mentioned – as above – when quoting evolutionists who falsely attack it as a concealed aspirational cause when it is not, rather than proving their own assertions. That’s a Red Herring Fallacy.)” He also states that because “evolution is a milieu of hypotheses” both complementary and contradictory, even interim ones that have expired exist so “It is an interesting task to attempt to organize the personal “theories” of many evolutionary ‘experts’ into reasonable form in order to analyze their content for applicability to the general knowledge base as containing either objective knowledge, or subjective knowledge.” Objective knowledge being defined as “inductive-reductive-hypothetico-deductive-objective-demonstration-falsification. Subjective knowledge – “inductive-extrapolative-hypothetico.” His stated goal – “decision to decide and emphasize that evolutionary pursuit can be shown to be a generator of objective knowledge”. Discussions of varying length ensue apropos all of the above-listed subjects.

From this reviewer’s perspective, two of the more interesting inclusions are the dating of fossils where he quotes Willian Durant, author (with his wife) of the eleven volume The Story of Civilization: “Most history is guessing – the rest is prejudice.” Because it is impossible to link chains of cause and effect in any valid way, his deductions “are sustained more in our minds than in reality and are informed and conditioned by our prejudices, which will tell us NOT what happened, but what we think OUGHT to have happened” and explores the numerous ways of dating fossils and what successively has been learned and concludes. Thus: “There is no hard, material, empirical, contingent fact which grounds any of the many molecular clock hypotheses.” The second subject should be of interest to religious leaders involved in the discussions – Molecular Biology, the composition of DNA, the importance of the function of mRNA as messenger thereby securing the fact that random proteins can NOT be the origins of life. Also, the more recent information that human genome’s nucleotides may play more than a single role.

Summary: The author has provided a thorough, scholarly treatise of a rather esoteric subject that elicits thoughts of PhD theses. Fundamentally it is well done, beautifully referenced and substantiates his conclusions. Most regrettably, however, the author projects a third, unlisted agenda – proposal of a belief that engineering provides a superior quality of investigation to that of other ‘scientists’: “Engineering is completely secular and materialistic; no deities are summoned and no chickens are sacrificed in the process of engineering. Engineering requires disciplined adherence to Enlightenment values: objective knowledge through thorough testing is both required and valued by engineers…” These and other quotations denigrating members of other scientific disciplines and reporting of their activities follow. Granted engineering deals with hard structures; e.g. wood, concrete, steel, while other ‘science’ more usually focus on less ‘concrete biological entities’ Also granted is the existence of rivalry between scientists in other disciplines that occasionally and sadly may degenerate into ugly situations. Injection of such puerile thought/activity does NOT belong it science.

Conclusion: This reviewer believes this book deserves: 5* as an Erudite examination of Empirical data on an esoteric matter for the semantics aficionado; 4* for the religious devotee because once again the ‘spark of life’ has NOT been proven to ignite without a ‘higher power’; 0 – 1* for distasteful material included.

3* 5*Erudite, esoteric treatise descending to 1* for distasteful material included.

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Let’s Pretend

Let’s Pretend a book published by Amazon, copyright and written by Christian Hagesth III.

The opening passages of this book induce a reader to believe the author has set forth a fantasy novel loosely based on the ‘genie in the bottle’ theme. The protagonist, Peter Andresen  is a retired psychiatrist whose wife died several years ago in an accident and he has two grown sons who are ‘too busy’ to bother seeing him. He believes he is in his sixties, suffers from Parkinson’s disease, has been bankrupt and now “scrapes by on Social Security and V.A. Benefits.” He is alone and lonely and walking aimlessly on a beach with no person or even buildings in sight. He spots a corked empty bottle that has drifted ashore, picks it up and sees a note inside. Amused by remembrance of the old tales, he attempts to remove it. The task is difficult so bringing it closer a faint voice seems to emanate from its depths requesting release. Shocked, he rapidly reverts to remembered Marine Drill Sargent’s marching orders continuing until encountering a lovely young woman. She greets him with no hint of a sexual come-on, which would be useless anyway because his Parkinson’s long ago had removed the possibility of any such activity. They do however, acquire what seems to be a deep mutual understanding and attachment, so continue walking together and the young woman appears to be able to provide all manner of ‘good things’ out of nowhere. Thus, the tale’s subtitle “A tale of Mind, Imagination, and Healing” quickly is recalled. Holly is able to cause welcome sleep, wonderful breakfasts, fine dining with all of the amenities, sessions of swimming with whales, functioning as partner of a raptor and of an entire flock of birds and more. She also facilitates visits with his Aunt Nora, participation in conversational gatherings with historical medical figures such as Hippocrates and Galen, another non-religious individual from whom he learns that “God needs to be experienced, not dissected”, and other pertinent individuals.  But eventually from this non-physical reality where everything he needs is provided by his mind because it is not limited in the more usual manner by attention to material reality, the reader witnesses the evolution of a physically ill individual, additionally suffering from a degree of PTSD, who ultimately re-emerges in the ‘real world’ as a truly empathetic individual who is a true ‘healer’.

Discussion: This is an engaging book. It literally forces a reader to return to the too-often forgotten thoughts first provided on the importance of the mind on bodily action centuries before Sigmund Freud. As quoted by the author, Hippocrates stated “It is more important to know what patient has the disease than what disease the patient has” i.e. the mind’s content fundamentally is the important factor in treatment. As an extension on his theme, the author provides examples of the many psychological burdens carried by the protagonist. Included are early strange thoughts arising from the child’s bedtime prayer “Now I lay me down to sleep…”, being recognized as a hated other young boy instead of as her son by his mother just being returned from a psychiatric facility, thoughts about shooting himself in college and a horrifying experience after being shot down on a mission over enemy territory. Many more compelling features of mind-body interrelationship along with additional pertinent details and thought compelling reaction are included. A reminder of medicine’s mortal conflict with ignorance not only is legendary but particularly relevant again today by the recent resistance to immunization and the cautionary admonition “The greater the ignorance, the greater the dogmatism” necessitating the cautionary remark “Be careful talking to people about your understanding of the infinite mind…you know it will be distorted. It will be seen as both heresy and gospel.” But enough! This is merely a review by a relatively knowledgeable reader who has been impressed by the author’s ability to bring forth, in a rather succinct manner, a basic tenet of the mind-body-disease relationship that, as stated, has appeared to have been lost for centuries. Granted, Freud, Jung and others resurrected a piece of it which H. Flanders Dunbar and others expanded to a degree. However, this particular treatise reestablishes the basic tenets and does so in a quite charming fictional tale that is highly recommended both as a simple fantasy, but even more importantly as a book to enjoy analyzing and absorbing its message.

5* Riveting dual level tale; enjoyable fantasy; crying for deeper analysis.

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The Daily Better

The Daily Better ISBN: 9781628656992 Authors place Press, copyright and written by Henry Edwards.

In the Preface, the author explains that, although having been raised with all of the amenities available to a child born in this period in the United States, he acquired an obsession “with America’s hypocrisy and the “evils” of capitalism” with a “rotten Core of America – materialistic, militaristic, superficial, overweight…bloated both physically and metaphorically. I also started believing that all of humanity was doomed for decline and fall.” He moved into alcohol and drug abuse and “high school partying moved into an addiction.” Therapy turned things around and he began looking not only at America but also the rest of the world. With voracious reading he began to learn that humanity actually had progressed in fantastic proportions with the passage of time. “Pestilence, War, Famine and Death – the Four Horsemen of the Biblical Apocalypse – are all in retreat. I end up noting that there is a world-wide epidemic of anxiety, depression and suicide. The causes are many and complex, but I propose an additional cause: pessimism.” He expresses hope that by presenting here a full year’s 365 days of Reasons for Optimism others may gain a similar degree of overall optimism. An introduction provides a discussion of how a meeting with one of today’s more pessimistically inclined individuals might proceed and then the substance of the book begins with the list by date of occurrence and/or date of birth of the person responsible for the activity discussed. The first is a brief description of The Montreal Protocol of 1989 that set forth global agreement that stopped the use of chemicals contributing to ozone depletion. Another local/international/global beneficial action that benefits a particular part, or all, of mankind then is set forth in similar manner and the list continues for a complete 365 days. After each individual presentation, there is an accompanying “Thought for Today”.

An enormous number of highly varied actions, people, dates and global areas are presented to offer reasons for optimism. The dates range from antiquity and even before, to present day. The objects – TV, Web, Telephone, sonar, space, quantum theory and more. Coverage ranges through women’s rights, sexual freedom, racial relations, medical advances, and various aspects of children’s well-being, the poor, disabled, health issues and more. Individuals of note include Albert Schweitzer, Ford, Benz (Mercedes Benz), Andrew Carnegie, Jesse Owens, Walter Reed, Washington Roebling (Brooklyn Bridge), Jane Austin, Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King, Jr. and others. Places – Antarctica, various places in England, Africa, America, Apollo Theater in Harlem, Canary Islands, others.

Discussion: Turned off by the pessimism constantly encountered, the author has provided a monumental amount of ‘evidence’ to offer corroboration for his desire to create a basis for world-wide optimism. From this reviewer’s perspective, he has offered excellent material. Regrettably also from this reader’s perspective, the format; i.e. fitting occurrences into a 365 day pattern, although quite unique, results in inclusion of numerous repetitious episodes of the same basic material. The effect is a little ponderous that, at least for this reader, seems to result in an undesirable detraction from the main theme. Additionally, inclusion of his statement with respect to wars being less frequent and less costly in lives will be open to lengthy contemplation as will his comment with respect to Dr. Benjamin Spock’s teachings – a legacy the basic psychology of which along with its manner of application are particularly controversial in the minds of many today.

Conclusion: A bright light offered especially to Americans in this chaotic period of political struggle and questionable Department of Justice activity.

4* 5* Much needed optimism offered; -1 presentation as described.

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The World According to Jennie Morris

The World According to Jennie Morris, published, copyright and written by Jennie Morris.

Sub-titled “Adventures and mis-adventures of a single female traveler”, the author provides an astonishingly extensive list of places visited in the world, portions of which had been visited before many of today’s amenities were available, and were revisited more recently. Included are large portions of Africa, Near and Far East and South-east Asia including Cambodia, the Killing fields and the total area dominated by the Khimar Rouge, Borneo, Australia, New Zealand, Russia including the Trans-Siberian Express, Central and South America and more. Her experiences have included diving Australia’s Great Barrier Reef as well as other notable as well as lesser known areas, swimming with Shark and Semiaquatic reptiles, chasing Komodo Dragons and more. This fascinating book can provide an interesting escape for anyone needing one and for the travel junkie it presents a remarkably extensive list of areas to peruse in attempting to choose their next itinerary.

Discussion: The recounting of this woman’s truly remarkable travels is even more fascinating when considering all have been made largely on a somewhat restricted budget. They, along with snippets of the authors thoughts provided here also provide some insight to the actual answers to the constantly recurring questions she receives as to why she would travel to places that so often called for dangerous activity in miserable circumstances. Her answer always explains that it no doubt may be difficult to understand and is to a certain extent even for her. Regardless, she, has found each journey to be a compellingly enjoyable experience.

As just stated above, a most pausible answer to these questions may be found in the book’s prologue. When one considers the restriction on travel funds, one is aware that this fact advantageously functioned to bring her intimately into contact with the working and/or poorer classes of residents in all of these countries, thus providing a greater understanding of the true nature of each country, its people and its basic culture. The author states: “You learn a great deal about humanity by frequenting waiting places” – airports, train stations, boat docks, doctor’s offices and such, and even more especially when attempting to cross borders of countries less frequently traveled. “Cultures lay themselves bare in these times of watching.” More importantly perhaps, “You also cannot escape yourself, and so much downtime comes from excruciating amounts of reflection and overthinking.” And here perhaps, the real underlying reason appears. She states “I grew up in a family of alphas, a family of chaos, anger, jealousy, put-downs and violence. I was never thought much of by my siblings, and all of my attempts at being loved and accepted were met with derision and insults.” It is a well-known fact that thwarting of a young child’s attempts to earn familial love not infrequently leads to the world of books. This activity allows escape for the individual whenever desired, and into a totally different and magical world where dreams can be realized and unwanted thoughts ignored for a time. The author discovered the same escape at an early age and with growth and maturity was able to obtain the means to actually realize many of those dreams. Her prologue ends with the somewhat poignant “Though I have forgotten more than I remember regarding my travel adventures of the past 20 plus years, I wanted to put a few on paper to those who may enjoy a break from life for a little while.”

Conclusion: Thus, this once poorly understood child has produced a book that actually serves two purposes. The first she has verbalized. The second is that it provides the travel aficionado the basics for a wide range of excellent travel itineraries from which he/she can select their next series of adventures. A third, possibly only vaguely considered, is to follow either of two routes to give even more help to those who best can benefit. First, each of the areas discussed could be expanded by setting forth more details about the places, fellow travelers, and adaptations made by particular residents of these countries to their dreams within the mores of their society. (A plethora of stories lie within the brief synopses that have offered only a tantalizing hint of the many tales waiting to be set forth) Second, the huge number of opportunities for fictional treatment of the material presented certainly deserves consideration.

Summary: This book, although it is granted to suffer from numerous faults set forth by most writers in their first attempts, provides synopses of material that fulfill the author’s stated purpose “to put a few (journeys) on paper to those who may enjoy a break from life for a little while”. But most importantly from this reader’s perspective, it presents synopses of tales a reader hopes she will expand upon in her non-fictional prose to provide further substance for those ‘needing a break’. But also, consideration of a fictional line of endeavor could be considered for the huge number of individuals who look forward to stories that satisfy their needs in the many genres nuanced by the brief descriptions provided.

5* Recommended for targeted audience; others as well for reasons explained.

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Future Women

Future Women ISBN: 9781950336104 The Books Factory copyright and written by Chrissa McFarlane.

Sub-titled “Minority entrepreneurship and the fourth industrial revolution in the Era of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency”, the author is the Founder and CEO of Patientory, a company whose purpose is to  “Create a health industry servicing patients in ways that would make every medical record easily assessable by healthcare providers by using Blockchain and cryptocurrency.” She explains that the use of these technologies can eliminate one specific problem of enormous size. She recalls that in 2017 “Wannacry” ransomware crippled UK’s National Health Service & affected over 150 countries and in 2018-19 hackers broke into Singapore’s gov’t health data again causing wide-spread damage. She says “Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology and doesn’t require third-party interventions.” Thus it can help healthcare systems reduce the risk of hacking because it would take too much time/energy to hack all of the nodes within a network to infect the system. Users either can own their own information by joining the chain or by helping to secure the servers and distribute the data on a network and that variations of the system are being used in numerous countries already. Her establishment of a company that can aid in dissemination of personal medical records properly by the owner to the proper agency more expeditiously, with lower cost and far greater security is a tremendous advancement for an industry that is struggling with massive problems and huge, often totally unnecessary, expenses as well as the absolute essential requirement of keeping safe intimate personal facts. As one of the very few women of color in such an elevated position, she seeks to provide a framework for, and instruct others how to proceed to enter the ranks of successful entrepreneurs. After the usual disclaimer, dedication and introduction, the Table of Contents lists numerous chapter headings with explanatory sub-headings widely ranging from a most helpful explanation of blockchain and its many advantages as well as of Cryptocurrency and how they function; through Minority and Mindset; need for flexibility in all thinking and activity especially when seeking financial empowerment; and a host of other pertinent subjects with much biographical and autobiographical material that should serve well as instructive to the individuals she is urging to attempt to pursue an entrepreneurial path.

Discussion: There is a considerable amount of repetition in this book. However, because presentation of this and similar material no doubt serves as basic for lectures, it is not unusual. Thus, this presentation is highly recommended for the author’s target audience and parenthetically the quite clearly set forth explanations of blockchain and cryptocurrency can be most enlightening for all individuals so frequently being introduced today to these and other technological terms.

5* Excellent for target audience; highly informative for all readers.

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LEAN ON

LEAN ON the Five Pillars of Support for Women in Leadership ISBN: 9781642250824 Advantage Media Press copyright and written by Andreas Wilderer.

The book opens with a sizable number of comments by CEO’s and other highly placed individuals praising the author’s presentation. This is followed by the usual copyright and publication material and then an interesting dedication: “This book is dedicated to all the amazing women who follow their dreams and reach for the stars and to everyone who supports them on their journey. And to my wonderful wife, Mirka and our children Dominik and Viktoria, who supported me in writing this book.” There follows an introduction admonishing the necessity to design the ‘pillars of support’ strongly, but then to be sure that the structure is constantly re-examined to access its  condition so that no deterioration that could lead to eventual collapse can occur. It further explains that in order to properly describe this sound foundation of the Five Pillars – Partnership, Family, Workplace, Society and Self – the manner in which they must function together as one unit requires the ensuing chapters (although having some individual attributes) largely to be focused on selective combinations; e.g. workplace and society. The ensuing 9 chapters along with a Conclusion provide the material in exactly this manner. A few of the many fine bits of important information offered are: the overall necessity for each individual contemplating entering this alternative life-style to thoroughly analyze and truthfully examine his/her ability to function comfortably in a society where a long accepted manner of man/woman/work/home/children functions have been ingrained as ‘the norm’ for generations; the necessity of being able to make their children understand why dad is Mr. MOM so they can face children from traditional households, i.e., They must be taught and be able to understand the importance of gaining sensitivity and compassion so as to break free of gender stereotypes and learn they don’t need to fit into anyone else’s mold; the worker must learn not to micromanage a home situation or the reverse; the absolute need to be open-minded and fair in all situations; apply many if not all of the features of running a business to managing a successful home relationship; and many more.

Discussion: The author has provided a fascinating and most important discussion of a subject that appears to be most appropriate and greatly needed because of the thrust of many new directions that have arisen in today’s society. The reversal of mother/father relationships is only one of the new directions. Modern society and more importantly its children, also are facing and attempting to cope with the growth of single parentage, same sex parents, divorced parents, dual sets of parents and more. Millennials have made initial efforts to change the structure of society and we only can stand by to see if these frequently brilliant entrepreneurial minds can, and are willing to, think beyond their seemingly self-centered interests to solve the problems arising from the conflicts facing children when faced with unfortunately often cruel words and actions of the still existent majority of children from traditional families.

5* Much needed initial discussion. Highly recommended.

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Keeping Score with GRIT

Keeping Score with Grit ISBN: 9781946633538 ForbesBooks copyright and written by Shawn Burcham.

     This book contains a Forward, Introduction, eleven chapters, a Conclusion, a Bonus Chapter – GRIT  Business Coaching – Acknowledgements, About the Author, and Our Services. In the Introduction, the author provides a statement attributed to Stephen Wright of an answer to the time-worn question “If you were shipwrecked and could have one book, what would it be?” The answer: “I always say, How to Build a Boat.” The quote alerts the reader to expect the following material to reflect thoughts from a mind seriously and rather uniquely directed toward forward thinking and solving problems. There follows an explanation of how the material to follow arose from his late introduction to one book that changed his entire attitude. It discussed all of the challenges he faced in his entrepreneurial endeavors. From this point forward he read extensively, went to work solving his problems and decided ultimately to share what he had discovered “to help ANYONE become more successful in business and financial literacy, and to teach people how to mentally change in order to consistently improve as a person.”

     Discussion: The author opens in a most interestingly conversational manner explaining his experience as a newly rated pilot flying home when a door blows open forcing him to land the crippled aircraft by making the right decisions at the proper times. NTSB, the governing body investigating all plane crashes, report the majority of plane crashes result from pilot error. Instinctively he suddenly realized that business failures also invariably resulted from CEO/Management (Pilot) error. As founder/CEO of the highly successful PTSbrands he must make decisions that affect “more than 130 different families and the loved ones of the employee-owners who work alongside of me,” the decisions affect 1500+ locations promoting their brands from Washington to Florida with a $60 million plus revenue and with a current trajectory toward 5,000 nationwide locations. His narrative continues in an easy-to-read, plain-spoken manner to provide a blue print written “to inspire other entrepreneurs”, “encourage other business owners and leaders to communicate more openly with their employees so that they can be more engaged at work”, “help people to better themselves”, “help leaders to become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses to enable them to become better leaders”.

     Conclusion: One of the easiest to read books for entrepreneurs this reviewer has read. Highly recommended,

5* Easy to read. Highly recommended.