bookpagedev

FictionWorld Fiction

Rushdie’s wildly inventive new novel

Review by bookpagedev

In his wildly inventive new novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie offers up a modern tale set in the international firmament of pop music. This is the writer who infuriated a sizable portion of the Muslim world with The Satanic Verses, so don’t expect a trite cautionary tale of decadent glamour and eventual comeuppance a la Jackie Collins. Rushdie has more than drugs, sex, and rock-and-roll on his mind. Much more. His lengthy, allusion-packed narrative is, in fact, a riff on the Orpheus myth, in which said hero must descend into the underworld to reclaim his love.

The novel begins at nearly the end of the story, as legendary singer Vina Apsara vanishes from the face of the earth during an earthquake. With Vina when she is presumably swallowed up is a photographer named Rai, who becomes the narrator of the book. Rai (whose real name, Umeed Merchant, can be translated as "seller of hope") has known Vina since they were both children in Bombay. As her constant friend and sometimes lover, he becomes the somewhat unwilling Boswell for her and for Ormus Cama, a giant of musical talent and the love of Vina’s life.

The story these three share begins in India, and ricochets around the globe — London, New York, Mexico, Southeast Asia. Rushdie cleverly constructs a parallel, though hardly less turbulent, history for the last 60 years, with the British in Vietnam along with the Americans, Kennedy narrowly escaping assassination, and Watergate just the fictional plot of a pulp thriller. Against this hyperbolic backdrop, Ormus and Vina are separated and reunited more than once, and both rise to the pinnacle of stardom. But their star-crossed love, mythic and transcendent, never seems to survive on solid ground. Rushdie’s breathless, often funny prose is laced with real and imagined song lyrics, and informed by countless references to Eastern and Western gods, both secular and divine. Indeed, throughout The Ground Beneath Her Feet, there is a startling juxtaposition of opposites: English v. Indian cultures, the terrestrial v. the unearthly, the often ridiculous world of celebrity v. the intrinsic human need for a spiritual grounding. It’s as if, for Rushdie, the earth can’t bear the weight of such contradiction and must, in the end, give way to the inevitable cataclysm, devouring the folly of our human endeavors.

In his wildly inventive new novel, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Salman Rushdie offers up a modern tale set in the international firmament of pop music. This is the writer who infuriated a sizable portion of the Muslim world with The Satanic Verses, so don't…

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Intimate and accurate detail . . . , Stephen Jay Gould writes in his new collection, serves as a source of delight in itself, and also as a springboard to discourse about generalities of broadest scope. The pleasure of detail is the lifeblood of all good science writing. The anecdotes and asides that construct a narrative simultaneously form the building blocks of theory. Three recent books demonstrate this superbly well.

Stephen Jay Gould needs no introduction, so he won’t get one. His latest collection of essays, Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, is the first of a final trio. He has often said that his long-running column in Natural History will end with the millennium. Over the years, as Gould has become evolution’s apostle to the masses, he has become ever more playful and eccentric. His essays are longer now than at first, looser, more wide-ranging. He roams happily across his limitless topic, examining the illustrations in old books, analyzing Leonardo’s notebooks, sketching early theories of the universe. He weaves together Columbus and fossil snail shells, explains why Pope Pius XII is not one of his favorite figures in history, and looks at Mars and the nature of nostalgia. The unrehearsed air of Gould’s writing seems to emerge from his way of showing not just his final conclusions but the thought process itself the happy leaps and shouts of a hunter hot on a trail. Ultimately, his quarry is no less than our place in nature. An English science and technology writer named Tom Standage has written a lively first book exploring the impact of the technological advance that launched the notion of a global village. No, it isn’t about the Internet, but the connection is so obvious it has even influenced the book’s title: The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s Online Pioneers (Walker, $22, 0802713424). Standage’s story is rich with anecdotes, bustling with a cast of idealists and eccentrics. He clears away the myths about the invention of telegraphy, follows the visionary battle for ocean-floor cables, and surrounds the whole story with the side effects it had on everyday life. Operating a telegraph was a profession harmless and sedentary enough to be deemed suitable for women and did its part to lure more and more young females into jobs. Along the way, Internet-style romances developed among men and women who had never met in the real world.

The rhetoric of the time rings familiar. All the inhabitants of the earth, a telegraph advocate declared in 1846, would be brought into one intellectual neighborhood. Standage writes with his eye on our own era: Better communication does not necessarily lead to a wider understanding of other points of view; the potential of new technologies to change things for the better is invariably overstated, while the ways in which they will make things worse are usually unforeseen. Throughout, Standage demonstrates a salutary skepticism. He warns against the dangers of chronocentricity the egotism that one’s own generation is poised on the very cusp of history. He points out that time-traveling Victorians who could witness our own era would be impressed with heavier-than-air flight, which they thought impossible. But as for the Internet well, they had one of their own. Another new book explores the impact of a technological advance that revolutionized scientific thinking and later trickled down to alter our everyday perspective on the universe Richard Panek’s Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens (Viking, $21.95, 0670876283).

The story begins astonishingly recently in the first decade of the 17th century, when a primitive spyglass fell into the hands of a Paduan professor of mathematics named Galileo Galilei. He didn’t invent the instrument, but he refined it and trained it on the heavens and changed everything we thought we knew about the cosmos. Because Panek never ignores the human side of his story, we also find ourselves in the midst of the Church’s tragic treatment of Galileo for his heresy. Other characters in this drama include England’s William Herschel and Germany’s Johannes Kepler. The latter declared, O telescope, instrument of much knowledge, more precious than any sceptre! As Panek follows the story of the telescope into our own era, we meet such important historical figures as Edwin Hubble and the telescope that bears his name, which is floating up there over our heads at this very moment, scanning the stars for more clues to our place in the universe.

Intimate and accurate detail . . . , Stephen Jay Gould writes in his new collection, serves as a source of delight in itself, and also as a springboard to discourse about generalities of broadest scope. The pleasure of detail is the lifeblood of all…

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it’s applied to the American economy. Now, it’s more appropriate to say: the more things change, the more they change.

You can blame technology, you can blame global trade, with its implications for worldwide competition on prices and wages. You can blame whomever you want. The fact is that change is the only constant left in business, and businesses small and large are left with the stark choices of adapting or ceasing to exist. There’s no more resting on your laurels. No more following the same manufacturing procedure year after year. No more downtime. It’s pretty exhausting just reading about all this change.

It’s not Kansas anymore; it’s Oz. So writes Kevin Kelly in New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (Viking, $19.95, 0670881112). Author Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, delivers on the radical in the book’s subtitle. He provides an intriguing look at how seemingly eternal business verities are being turned on their heads by advances in computer technology.

One of Mr. Kelly’s new rules is to embrace the swarm. With computer networks and the Internet itself key symbols for the just-about-to-hit-us economy, the author makes a strong case that centralized and hierarchical decision-making isn’t going to cut it very well anymore. The swarm represents all those people, companies, potential customers at various points on interconnected networks. Straight lines are out, decentralization is in. Mr. Kelly writes: Numerous small things connected together into a network generate enormous power. Another radical aspect of the new economy is the downward path of prices, especially for technology and information and services available via the Internet. It’s a trend already in evidence that’s led to a fierce debate about the appropriate business model for successful commerce on the Internet. Mr. Kelly’s point of view is contained in a chapter titled Follow the Free. In it, he writes, Giving stuff away captures human attention, or mind share, which then leads to market share. At some point, you’ve got to charge for something to stay in business, but you have to be flexible and selective. More and more services will head toward commoditization and near-free pricing. The saving grace, as Mr. Kelly sees it, is demand for new ideas and services limited only by human imagination. It still seems like a tough way to make a living.

Richard W. Oliver is another gazer into the economic future, which is fun as well as important work. In The Shape of Things to Come: Seven Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business (McGraw-Hill, $24.95, 0070482632), the professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management presents a broad, bold, and generally optimistic view of a future just about on top of us.

I, for one, am just getting use to the Information Age, that post-industrial era that’s given us worldwide, real-time information flows, but Mr. Oliver maintains that it’s just about over (although key aspects of different eras, including the old Industrial Age, can continue even when a new phase takes over). He says we’re already moving into the Bio-Materials Age. We’ve seen evidence of it already in the engineering of crops and in other aspects of agriculture. Mr. Oliver predicts wider biological applications even for manufacturing and technology.

Mr. Oliver’s view of the future, while admittedly a busy place, is optimistic because, among other things, he sees a worldwide class of consumer emerging in the next century who demands high standards and good prices and gets them. He sees increased economic power for people of developing nations and for members of minority groups. And he says that no monopoly will be able to last very long. He writes: Information moves too quickly, technology changes too fast, and competitors are too aggressive to leave any idea, market, or profits to a single organization. Mr. Oliver’s broad menu for successful businesses in the new era is not for the faint of heart. He talks about daily reinvention and a close relationship with customers that includes direct communication and distribution, personalization, and putting customers in charge of marketing. One of Mr. Oliver’s most interesting concepts for the new era of business is electronic keiretsu. The keiretsu is a Japanese way of doing business in which companies linked by mutual interest, such as a manufacturer and its suppliers, act as a truly interdependent group, or a business family. The author’s idea here is that companies will have to form alliances, permanent or temporary, which meet mutual needs in a sharply competitive world.

Just as in Mr. Kelly’s New Rules for the New Economy, Mr. Oliver envisions the increased commoditization of many goods and services. In fact, Mr. Oliver says even high quality isn’t enough to differentiate one company’s products from another over the long run. So what’s a company to do to make itself heard above the din of competition? Mr. Oliver’s answer in a word: logistics. The ability to get exactly what a customer wants in front of him first (high quality is assumed) may be the key competitive advantage of the near future.

The concepts of electronic keiretsu of allied companies and logistics as a competitive edge bring us to the ideas of Charles H. Fine, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The subtitle of his new book indicates how competitive we’ve already become, that we’ve already reached a place where no advantage is permanent. The book is called Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage (Perseus Books, $25, 0738200018). To grossly oversimplify, Mr. Fine posits that as companies think about how to reshape themselves, the biggest advantage a company may have is the ability to determine which of its functions will continue to hold value. The author puts it this way: In this age of temporary advantage, the ultimate core competency is the ability to choose capabilities well. It’s more complicated than choosing which functions to continue in-house and which to outsource to others.

This is a complex book by a knowledgeable observer who uses specific, up-to-date corporate case histories to support his points. He focuses on the need for a company to properly design its supply chain in order to prosper. He writes: Properly viewed, the company and its supply chain are joined at the hip, a single organic unit engaged in a joint enterprise. The term clockspeed itself seems particularly apt for our constantly changing, technologically driven economy. To me, it creates the image of old-fashioned clock hands (pre-digital) spinning wildly out of control. It’s left to us mere mortals to find ways to keep up. Mr. Fine acknowledges the potential for disorientation from conducting business in a world of rapid technological change. He says slow-clockspeed social institutions may take on added importance as stability flees from our commercial lives.

No matter the pace at which the clock is turning in the industry in which you are employed, a manager’s life still involves dealing with people. That much, at least, hasn’t yet changed. So, for the real people who happen to be managers, international management consultant Lisa Davis has written Shortcuts for Smart Managers: Checklists, Worksheets and Action Plans for Managers with No Time to Waste.

The book consists of practical, here-and-now advice on the wide range of a manager’s duties, from budgets to business ethics, from delegating to project planning. In addition to common-sensical advice on each topic, Ms. Davis presents a plethora of checklists to use in the office.

Oh yes, Ms. Davis even has a chapter on change management. In a passage on change that can serve as a window on the entirety of this useful book, she writes: As a manager, you have to get used to the idea that it’s a lonely job and tough at the top. You may not, for whatever reason, be wholeheartedly committed to the upcoming change. Even so, you have to remain calm, steady, firm, and consistent. The team takes its lead from you. Neal Lipschutz is managing editor of Dow Jones News Service.

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it's applied to the American economy. Now, it's more appropriate to say: the more things…

Technology

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing

Review by bookpagedev

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it’s applied to the American economy. Now, it’s more appropriate to say: the more things change, the more they change.

You can blame technology, you can blame global trade, with its implications for worldwide competition on prices and wages. You can blame whomever you want. The fact is that change is the only constant left in business, and businesses small and large are left with the stark choices of adapting or ceasing to exist. There’s no more resting on your laurels. No more following the same manufacturing procedure year after year. No more downtime. It’s pretty exhausting just reading about all this change.

It’s not Kansas anymore; it’s Oz. So writes Kevin Kelly in New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (Viking, $19.95, 0670881112). Author Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, delivers on the radical in the book’s subtitle. He provides an intriguing look at how seemingly eternal business verities are being turned on their heads by advances in computer technology.

One of Mr. Kelly’s new rules is to embrace the swarm. With computer networks and the Internet itself key symbols for the just-about-to-hit-us economy, the author makes a strong case that centralized and hierarchical decision-making isn’t going to cut it very well anymore. The swarm represents all those people, companies, potential customers at various points on interconnected networks. Straight lines are out, decentralization is in. Mr. Kelly writes: Numerous small things connected together into a network generate enormous power. Another radical aspect of the new economy is the downward path of prices, especially for technology and information and services available via the Internet. It’s a trend already in evidence that’s led to a fierce debate about the appropriate business model for successful commerce on the Internet. Mr. Kelly’s point of view is contained in a chapter titled Follow the Free. In it, he writes, Giving stuff away captures human attention, or mind share, which then leads to market share. At some point, you’ve got to charge for something to stay in business, but you have to be flexible and selective. More and more services will head toward commoditization and near-free pricing. The saving grace, as Mr. Kelly sees it, is demand for new ideas and services limited only by human imagination. It still seems like a tough way to make a living.

Richard W. Oliver is another gazer into the economic future, which is fun as well as important work. In The Shape of Things to Come: Seven Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business (McGraw-Hill, $24.95, 0070482632), the professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management presents a broad, bold, and generally optimistic view of a future just about on top of us.

I, for one, am just getting use to the Information Age, that post-industrial era that’s given us worldwide, real-time information flows, but Mr. Oliver maintains that it’s just about over (although key aspects of different eras, including the old Industrial Age, can continue even when a new phase takes over). He says we’re already moving into the Bio-Materials Age. We’ve seen evidence of it already in the engineering of crops and in other aspects of agriculture. Mr. Oliver predicts wider biological applications even for manufacturing and technology.

Mr. Oliver’s view of the future, while admittedly a busy place, is optimistic because, among other things, he sees a worldwide class of consumer emerging in the next century who demands high standards and good prices and gets them. He sees increased economic power for people of developing nations and for members of minority groups. And he says that no monopoly will be able to last very long. He writes: Information moves too quickly, technology changes too fast, and competitors are too aggressive to leave any idea, market, or profits to a single organization. Mr. Oliver’s broad menu for successful businesses in the new era is not for the faint of heart. He talks about daily reinvention and a close relationship with customers that includes direct communication and distribution, personalization, and putting customers in charge of marketing. One of Mr. Oliver’s most interesting concepts for the new era of business is electronic keiretsu. The keiretsu is a Japanese way of doing business in which companies linked by mutual interest, such as a manufacturer and its suppliers, act as a truly interdependent group, or a business family. The author’s idea here is that companies will have to form alliances, permanent or temporary, which meet mutual needs in a sharply competitive world.

Just as in Mr. Kelly’s New Rules for the New Economy, Mr. Oliver envisions the increased commoditization of many goods and services. In fact, Mr. Oliver says even high quality isn’t enough to differentiate one company’s products from another over the long run. So what’s a company to do to make itself heard above the din of competition? Mr. Oliver’s answer in a word: logistics. The ability to get exactly what a customer wants in front of him first (high quality is assumed) may be the key competitive advantage of the near future.

The concepts of electronic keiretsu of allied companies and logistics as a competitive edge bring us to the ideas of Charles H. Fine, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The subtitle of his new book indicates how competitive we’ve already become, that we’ve already reached a place where no advantage is permanent. The book is called Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. To grossly oversimplify, Mr. Fine posits that as companies think about how to reshape themselves, the biggest advantage a company may have is the ability to determine which of its functions will continue to hold value. The author puts it this way: In this age of temporary advantage, the ultimate core competency is the ability to choose capabilities well. It’s more complicated than choosing which functions to continue in-house and which to outsource to others.

This is a complex book by a knowledgeable observer who uses specific, up-to-date corporate case histories to support his points. He focuses on the need for a company to properly design its supply chain in order to prosper. He writes: Properly viewed, the company and its supply chain are joined at the hip, a single organic unit engaged in a joint enterprise. The term clockspeed itself seems particularly apt for our constantly changing, technologically driven economy. To me, it creates the image of old-fashioned clock hands (pre-digital) spinning wildly out of control. It’s left to us mere mortals to find ways to keep up. Mr. Fine acknowledges the potential for disorientation from conducting business in a world of rapid technological change. He says slow-clockspeed social institutions may take on added importance as stability flees from our commercial lives.

No matter the pace at which the clock is turning in the industry in which you are employed, a manager’s life still involves dealing with people. That much, at least, hasn’t yet changed. So, for the real people who happen to be managers, international management consultant Lisa Davis has written Shortcuts for Smart Managers: Checklists, Worksheets and Action Plans for Managers with No Time to Waste (Amacom, $24.95, 08114404324).

The book consists of practical, here-and-now advice on the wide range of a manager’s duties, from budgets to business ethics, from delegating to project planning. In addition to common-sensical advice on each topic, Ms. Davis presents a plethora of checklists to use in the office.

Oh yes, Ms. Davis even has a chapter on change management. In a passage on change that can serve as a window on the entirety of this useful book, she writes: As a manager, you have to get used to the idea that it’s a lonely job and tough at the top. You may not, for whatever reason, be wholeheartedly committed to the upcoming change. Even so, you have to remain calm, steady, firm, and consistent. The team takes its lead from you. Neal Lipschutz is managing editor of Dow Jones News Service.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it's applied to the American economy. Now, it's more appropriate to say: the more things change, the more they change.

Business & Finance

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it’s applied to the American economy. Now, it’s more appropriate to say: the more things change, the more they change.

You can blame technology, you can blame global trade, with its implications for worldwide competition on prices and wages. You can blame whomever you want. The fact is that change is the only constant left in business, and businesses small and large are left with the stark choices of adapting or ceasing to exist. There’s no more resting on your laurels. No more following the same manufacturing procedure year after year. No more downtime. It’s pretty exhausting just reading about all this change.

It’s not Kansas anymore; it’s Oz. So writes Kevin Kelly in New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World (Viking, $19.95, 0670881112). Author Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, delivers on the radical in the book’s subtitle. He provides an intriguing look at how seemingly eternal business verities are being turned on their heads by advances in computer technology.

One of Mr. Kelly’s new rules is to embrace the swarm. With computer networks and the Internet itself key symbols for the just-about-to-hit-us economy, the author makes a strong case that centralized and hierarchical decision-making isn’t going to cut it very well anymore. The swarm represents all those people, companies, potential customers at various points on interconnected networks. Straight lines are out, decentralization is in. Mr. Kelly writes: Numerous small things connected together into a network generate enormous power. Another radical aspect of the new economy is the downward path of prices, especially for technology and information and services available via the Internet. It’s a trend already in evidence that’s led to a fierce debate about the appropriate business model for successful commerce on the Internet. Mr. Kelly’s point of view is contained in a chapter titled Follow the Free. In it, he writes, Giving stuff away captures human attention, or mind share, which then leads to market share. At some point, you’ve got to charge for something to stay in business, but you have to be flexible and selective. More and more services will head toward commoditization and near-free pricing. The saving grace, as Mr. Kelly sees it, is demand for new ideas and services limited only by human imagination. It still seems like a tough way to make a living.

Richard W. Oliver is another gazer into the economic future, which is fun as well as important work. In The Shape of Things to Come: Seven Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business (McGraw-Hill, $24.95, 0070482632), the professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management presents a broad, bold, and generally optimistic view of a future just about on top of us.

I, for one, am just getting use to the Information Age, that post-industrial era that’s given us worldwide, real-time information flows, but Mr. Oliver maintains that it’s just about over (although key aspects of different eras, including the old Industrial Age, can continue even when a new phase takes over). He says we’re already moving into the Bio-Materials Age. We’ve seen evidence of it already in the engineering of crops and in other aspects of agriculture. Mr. Oliver predicts wider biological applications even for manufacturing and technology.

Mr. Oliver’s view of the future, while admittedly a busy place, is optimistic because, among other things, he sees a worldwide class of consumer emerging in the next century who demands high standards and good prices and gets them. He sees increased economic power for people of developing nations and for members of minority groups. And he says that no monopoly will be able to last very long. He writes: Information moves too quickly, technology changes too fast, and competitors are too aggressive to leave any idea, market, or profits to a single organization. Mr. Oliver’s broad menu for successful businesses in the new era is not for the faint of heart. He talks about daily reinvention and a close relationship with customers that includes direct communication and distribution, personalization, and putting customers in charge of marketing. One of Mr. Oliver’s most interesting concepts for the new era of business is electronic keiretsu. The keiretsu is a Japanese way of doing business in which companies linked by mutual interest, such as a manufacturer and its suppliers, act as a truly interdependent group, or a business family. The author’s idea here is that companies will have to form alliances, permanent or temporary, which meet mutual needs in a sharply competitive world.

Just as in Mr. Kelly’s New Rules for the New Economy, Mr. Oliver envisions the increased commoditization of many goods and services. In fact, Mr. Oliver says even high quality isn’t enough to differentiate one company’s products from another over the long run. So what’s a company to do to make itself heard above the din of competition? Mr. Oliver’s answer in a word: logistics. The ability to get exactly what a customer wants in front of him first (high quality is assumed) may be the key competitive advantage of the near future.

The concepts of electronic keiretsu of allied companies and logistics as a competitive edge bring us to the ideas of Charles H. Fine, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The subtitle of his new book indicates how competitive we’ve already become, that we’ve already reached a place where no advantage is permanent. The book is called Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage (Perseus Books, $25, 0738200018). To grossly oversimplify, Mr. Fine posits that as companies think about how to reshape themselves, the biggest advantage a company may have is the ability to determine which of its functions will continue to hold value. The author puts it this way: In this age of temporary advantage, the ultimate core competency is the ability to choose capabilities well. It’s more complicated than choosing which functions to continue in-house and which to outsource to others.

This is a complex book by a knowledgeable observer who uses specific, up-to-date corporate case histories to support his points. He focuses on the need for a company to properly design its supply chain in order to prosper. He writes: Properly viewed, the company and its supply chain are joined at the hip, a single organic unit engaged in a joint enterprise. The term clockspeed itself seems particularly apt for our constantly changing, technologically driven economy. To me, it creates the image of old-fashioned clock hands (pre-digital) spinning wildly out of control. It’s left to us mere mortals to find ways to keep up. Mr. Fine acknowledges the potential for disorientation from conducting business in a world of rapid technological change. He says slow-clockspeed social institutions may take on added importance as stability flees from our commercial lives.

No matter the pace at which the clock is turning in the industry in which you are employed, a manager’s life still involves dealing with people. That much, at least, hasn’t yet changed. So, for the real people who happen to be managers, international management consultant Lisa Davis has written Shortcuts for Smart Managers: Checklists, Worksheets and Action Plans for Managers with No Time to Waste (Amacom, $24.95, 08114404324).

The book consists of practical, here-and-now advice on the wide range of a manager’s duties, from budgets to business ethics, from delegating to project planning. In addition to common-sensical advice on each topic, Ms. Davis presents a plethora of checklists to use in the office.

Oh yes, Ms. Davis even has a chapter on change management. In a passage on change that can serve as a window on the entirety of this useful book, she writes: As a manager, you have to get used to the idea that it’s a lonely job and tough at the top. You may not, for whatever reason, be wholeheartedly committed to the upcoming change. Even so, you have to remain calm, steady, firm, and consistent. The team takes its lead from you. Neal Lipschutz is managing editor of Dow Jones News Service.

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it's applied to the American economy. Now, it's more appropriate to say: the more things…

Self-HelpFamily & Relationships

Review

Review by bookpagedev

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When Cousin Curtis called last month to thank you for the lovely book you sent him, he mentioned that he was throwing a surprise party this month for his wife Wanda. Ah, yes, Wanda the Wife if Curtis is the guy who has it all, it’s probably because Wanda has been the one juggling it. Wanda’s birthday gift needs to remind her that she’s special and appreciated. What birthday gift is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and doesn’t require a sitter when left at home? Why, books, of course! A good story about friendship is always appreciated. Richard Ezra Probert, music teacher and wood/metal craftsman, has chronicled his friendship with Archie Raasch in Archie’s Way (The Lyons Press, $19.95, 1558217045). Amid the tools and planks, Archie and Richard forged a friendship that spanned 15 years. The lessons Richard learned (and subsequently shares with readers), however, will last a lifetime. Makes a wonderful gift for someone who has had or has been a mentor. Wanda remembers the mid-1950s (though she’s reluctant to admit it); every child was taught to fear polio, and the summers just seemed hotter back then. She would love Pat Cunningham Devoto’s first novel, My Last Days as Roy Rogers (Warner, $20, 0446523887). Heroine Tab Rutland’s prologue foreshadows that the summer of 1954 was a messenger of great changes to come. Readers, prepare to discover a world where it does, in fact, matter from which side of the Mason-Dixon you come; proprietors are assisted by double-barrel shotguns, and creative accounting wasn’t created during the 1980s. A great novel for those who like to remember, or for those who are visiting post-World War II America for the first time.

You still laugh when Curtis recounts Wanda’s attempts to train that mutt she adopted; housebreaking remains a sore subject for poor Wanda, and a mystery to her canine. To show your support for her efforts, Why We Love Dogs: A Bark and Smile Book (Andrews McMeel, $12.95, 0836269713) makes a wonderful gift. Black-and-white photographs capture the essence of dogs; brief, large text descriptions remind humans of the joys of dog ownership (lest they forget the next time they discover that their potted plants have been mutilated!).

On the brink of a new millennium, teenagers everywhere have opinions about the world that they are inheriting. From Johannesburg to Kiev, Belfast to San Francisco, teens worldwide offer an honest portrayal of the state of things in Hear These Voices: Youth at the Edge of the Millennium (Dutton’s Children’s Books, $22.99, 0525453539). Author Anthony Allison is a photographer and youth counselor who has traveled to various points on the map, talking to at risk children about their experiences and their hopes for the future. Complete with striking black-and-white photographs, Hear These Voices presents gripping stories in a forthright and respectable manner. Perfect for educators, counselors, or anyone else who is concerned about today’s youth. A time management queen like Wanda probably feels like her reign is always in jeopardy. Life Balance, Inc. president Mary LoVerde has written Stop Screaming at the Microwave: How to Connect Your Disconnected Life for seasoned veterans or novices at the keeping up with life game. LoVerde presents a step-by-step approach, taking small steps to the big finish. She identifies plans of action with regard to family, career, social life, and beyond. Readers, beware: after reading about how to keep up, you might find yourselves actually (gasp!) getting ahead!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When Cousin Curtis called last month to thank you for the lovely book you sent him, he mentioned that he was throwing a surprise party this month for his wife Wanda. Ah, yes, Wanda the Wife if Curtis is the guy who has…

Business & Finance

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it’s applied to the American economy. Now, it’s more appropriate to say: the more things change, the more they change.

You can blame technology, you can blame global trade, with its implications for worldwide competition on prices and wages. You can blame whomever you want. The fact is that change is the only constant left in business, and businesses small and large are left with the stark choices of adapting or ceasing to exist. There’s no more resting on your laurels. No more following the same manufacturing procedure year after year. No more downtime. It’s pretty exhausting just reading about all this change.

It’s not Kansas anymore; it’s Oz. So writes Kevin Kelly in New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World. Author Kelly, executive editor of Wired magazine, delivers on the radical in the book’s subtitle. He provides an intriguing look at how seemingly eternal business verities are being turned on their heads by advances in computer technology.

One of Mr. Kelly’s new rules is to embrace the swarm. With computer networks and the Internet itself key symbols for the just-about-to-hit-us economy, the author makes a strong case that centralized and hierarchical decision-making isn’t going to cut it very well anymore. The swarm represents all those people, companies, potential customers at various points on interconnected networks. Straight lines are out, decentralization is in. Mr. Kelly writes: Numerous small things connected together into a network generate enormous power. Another radical aspect of the new economy is the downward path of prices, especially for technology and information and services available via the Internet. It’s a trend already in evidence that’s led to a fierce debate about the appropriate business model for successful commerce on the Internet. Mr. Kelly’s point of view is contained in a chapter titled Follow the Free. In it, he writes, Giving stuff away captures human attention, or mind share, which then leads to market share. At some point, you’ve got to charge for something to stay in business, but you have to be flexible and selective. More and more services will head toward commoditization and near-free pricing. The saving grace, as Mr. Kelly sees it, is demand for new ideas and services limited only by human imagination. It still seems like a tough way to make a living.

Richard W. Oliver is another gazer into the economic future, which is fun as well as important work. In The Shape of Things to Come: Seven Imperatives for Winning in the New World of Business (McGraw-Hill, $24.95, 0070482632), the professor at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management presents a broad, bold, and generally optimistic view of a future just about on top of us.

I, for one, am just getting use to the Information Age, that post-industrial era that’s given us worldwide, real-time information flows, but Mr. Oliver maintains that it’s just about over (although key aspects of different eras, including the old Industrial Age, can continue even when a new phase takes over). He says we’re already moving into the Bio-Materials Age. We’ve seen evidence of it already in the engineering of crops and in other aspects of agriculture. Mr. Oliver predicts wider biological applications even for manufacturing and technology.

Mr. Oliver’s view of the future, while admittedly a busy place, is optimistic because, among other things, he sees a worldwide class of consumer emerging in the next century who demands high standards and good prices and gets them. He sees increased economic power for people of developing nations and for members of minority groups. And he says that no monopoly will be able to last very long. He writes: Information moves too quickly, technology changes too fast, and competitors are too aggressive to leave any idea, market, or profits to a single organization. Mr. Oliver’s broad menu for successful businesses in the new era is not for the faint of heart. He talks about daily reinvention and a close relationship with customers that includes direct communication and distribution, personalization, and putting customers in charge of marketing. One of Mr. Oliver’s most interesting concepts for the new era of business is electronic keiretsu. The keiretsu is a Japanese way of doing business in which companies linked by mutual interest, such as a manufacturer and its suppliers, act as a truly interdependent group, or a business family. The author’s idea here is that companies will have to form alliances, permanent or temporary, which meet mutual needs in a sharply competitive world.

Just as in Mr. Kelly’s New Rules for the New Economy, Mr. Oliver envisions the increased commoditization of many goods and services. In fact, Mr. Oliver says even high quality isn’t enough to differentiate one company’s products from another over the long run. So what’s a company to do to make itself heard above the din of competition? Mr. Oliver’s answer in a word: logistics. The ability to get exactly what a customer wants in front of him first (high quality is assumed) may be the key competitive advantage of the near future.

The concepts of electronic keiretsu of allied companies and logistics as a competitive edge bring us to the ideas of Charles H. Fine, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The subtitle of his new book indicates how competitive we’ve already become, that we’ve already reached a place where no advantage is permanent. The book is called Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage (Perseus Books, $25, 0738200018). To grossly oversimplify, Mr. Fine posits that as companies think about how to reshape themselves, the biggest advantage a company may have is the ability to determine which of its functions will continue to hold value. The author puts it this way: In this age of temporary advantage, the ultimate core competency is the ability to choose capabilities well. It’s more complicated than choosing which functions to continue in-house and which to outsource to others.

This is a complex book by a knowledgeable observer who uses specific, up-to-date corporate case histories to support his points. He focuses on the need for a company to properly design its supply chain in order to prosper. He writes: Properly viewed, the company and its supply chain are joined at the hip, a single organic unit engaged in a joint enterprise. The term clockspeed itself seems particularly apt for our constantly changing, technologically driven economy. To me, it creates the image of old-fashioned clock hands (pre-digital) spinning wildly out of control. It’s left to us mere mortals to find ways to keep up. Mr. Fine acknowledges the potential for disorientation from conducting business in a world of rapid technological change. He says slow-clockspeed social institutions may take on added importance as stability flees from our commercial lives.

No matter the pace at which the clock is turning in the industry in which you are employed, a manager’s life still involves dealing with people. That much, at least, hasn’t yet changed. So, for the real people who happen to be managers, international management consultant Lisa Davis has written Shortcuts for Smart Managers: Checklists, Worksheets and Action Plans for Managers with No Time to Waste (Amacom, $24.95, 08114404324).

The book consists of practical, here-and-now advice on the wide range of a manager’s duties, from budgets to business ethics, from delegating to project planning. In addition to common-sensical advice on each topic, Ms. Davis presents a plethora of checklists to use in the office.

Oh yes, Ms. Davis even has a chapter on change management. In a passage on change that can serve as a window on the entirety of this useful book, she writes: As a manager, you have to get used to the idea that it’s a lonely job and tough at the top. You may not, for whatever reason, be wholeheartedly committed to the upcoming change. Even so, you have to remain calm, steady, firm, and consistent. The team takes its lead from you. Neal Lipschutz is managing editor of Dow Jones News Service.

Yes, the times, they are sill a changing The more things change, the more they stay the same. That old cliche is of remarkably little use today, at least when it's applied to the American economy. Now, it's more appropriate to say: the more…

Fiction

Review

Review by bookpagedev

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When Cousin Curtis called last month to thank you for the lovely book you sent him, he mentioned that he was throwing a surprise party this month for his wife Wanda. Ah, yes, Wanda the Wife if Curtis is the guy who has it all, it’s probably because Wanda has been the one juggling it. Wanda’s birthday gift needs to remind her that she’s special and appreciated. What birthday gift is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and doesn’t require a sitter when left at home? Why, books, of course! A good story about friendship is always appreciated. Richard Ezra Probert, music teacher and wood/metal craftsman, has chronicled his friendship with Archie Raasch in Archie’s Way (The Lyons Press, $19.95, 1558217045). Amid the tools and planks, Archie and Richard forged a friendship that spanned 15 years. The lessons Richard learned (and subsequently shares with readers), however, will last a lifetime. Makes a wonderful gift for someone who has had or has been a mentor. Wanda remembers the mid-1950s (though she’s reluctant to admit it); every child was taught to fear polio, and the summers just seemed hotter back then. She would love Pat Cunningham Devoto’s first novel, My Last Days as Roy Rogers. Heroine Tab Rutland’s prologue foreshadows that the summer of 1954 was a messenger of great changes to come. Readers, prepare to discover a world where it does, in fact, matter from which side of the Mason-Dixon you come; proprietors are assisted by double-barrel shotguns, and creative accounting wasn’t created during the 1980s. A great novel for those who like to remember, or for those who are visiting post-World War II America for the first time.

You still laugh when Curtis recounts Wanda’s attempts to train that mutt she adopted; housebreaking remains a sore subject for poor Wanda, and a mystery to her canine. To show your support for her efforts, Why We Love Dogs: A Bark and Smile Book (Andrews McMeel, $12.95, 0836269713) makes a wonderful gift. Black-and-white photographs capture the essence of dogs; brief, large text descriptions remind humans of the joys of dog ownership (lest they forget the next time they discover that their potted plants have been mutilated!).

On the brink of a new millennium, teenagers everywhere have opinions about the world that they are inheriting. From Johannesburg to Kiev, Belfast to San Francisco, teens worldwide offer an honest portrayal of the state of things in Hear These Voices: Youth at the Edge of the Millennium (Dutton’s Children’s Books, $22.99, 0525453539). Author Anthony Allison is a photographer and youth counselor who has traveled to various points on the map, talking to at risk children about their experiences and their hopes for the future. Complete with striking black-and-white photographs, Hear These Voices presents gripping stories in a forthright and respectable manner. Perfect for educators, counselors, or anyone else who is concerned about today’s youth. A time management queen like Wanda probably feels like her reign is always in jeopardy. Life Balance, Inc. president Mary LoVerde has written Stop Screaming at the Microwave: How to Connect Your Disconnected Life (Fireside, $12, 0684853973) for seasoned veterans or novices at the keeping up with life game. LoVerde presents a step-by-step approach, taking small steps to the big finish. She identifies plans of action with regard to family, career, social life, and beyond. Readers, beware: after reading about how to keep up, you might find yourselves actually (gasp!) getting ahead!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When Cousin Curtis called last month to thank you for the lovely book you sent him, he mentioned that he was throwing a surprise party this month for his wife Wanda. Ah, yes, Wanda the Wife if Curtis is the guy who has…

Memoir

Review

Review by bookpagedev

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When Cousin Curtis called last month to thank you for the lovely book you sent him, he mentioned that he was throwing a surprise party this month for his wife Wanda. Ah, yes, Wanda the Wife if Curtis is the guy who has it all, it’s probably because Wanda has been the one juggling it. Wanda’s birthday gift needs to remind her that she’s special and appreciated. What birthday gift is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and doesn’t require a sitter when left at home? Why, books, of course! A good story about friendship is always appreciated. Richard Ezra Probert, music teacher and wood/metal craftsman, has chronicled his friendship with Archie Raasch in Archie’s Way. Amid the tools and planks, Archie and Richard forged a friendship that spanned 15 years. The lessons Richard learned (and subsequently shares with readers), however, will last a lifetime. Makes a wonderful gift for someone who has had or has been a mentor. Wanda remembers the mid-1950s (though she’s reluctant to admit it); every child was taught to fear polio, and the summers just seemed hotter back then. She would love Pat Cunningham Devoto’s first novel, My Last Days as Roy Rogers (Warner, $20, 0446523887). Heroine Tab Rutland’s prologue foreshadows that the summer of 1954 was a messenger of great changes to come. Readers, prepare to discover a world where it does, in fact, matter from which side of the Mason-Dixon you come; proprietors are assisted by double-barrel shotguns, and creative accounting wasn’t created during the 1980s. A great novel for those who like to remember, or for those who are visiting post-World War II America for the first time.

You still laugh when Curtis recounts Wanda’s attempts to train that mutt she adopted; housebreaking remains a sore subject for poor Wanda, and a mystery to her canine. To show your support for her efforts, Why We Love Dogs: A Bark and Smile Book (Andrews McMeel, $12.95, 0836269713) makes a wonderful gift. Black-and-white photographs capture the essence of dogs; brief, large text descriptions remind humans of the joys of dog ownership (lest they forget the next time they discover that their potted plants have been mutilated!).

On the brink of a new millennium, teenagers everywhere have opinions about the world that they are inheriting. From Johannesburg to Kiev, Belfast to San Francisco, teens worldwide offer an honest portrayal of the state of things in Hear These Voices: Youth at the Edge of the Millennium (Dutton’s Children’s Books, $22.99, 0525453539). Author Anthony Allison is a photographer and youth counselor who has traveled to various points on the map, talking to at risk children about their experiences and their hopes for the future. Complete with striking black-and-white photographs, Hear These Voices presents gripping stories in a forthright and respectable manner. Perfect for educators, counselors, or anyone else who is concerned about today’s youth. A time management queen like Wanda probably feels like her reign is always in jeopardy. Life Balance, Inc. president Mary LoVerde has written Stop Screaming at the Microwave: How to Connect Your Disconnected Life (Fireside, $12, 0684853973) for seasoned veterans or novices at the keeping up with life game. LoVerde presents a step-by-step approach, taking small steps to the big finish. She identifies plans of action with regard to family, career, social life, and beyond. Readers, beware: after reading about how to keep up, you might find yourselves actually (gasp!) getting ahead!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! When Cousin Curtis called last month to thank you for the lovely book you sent him, he mentioned that he was throwing a surprise party this month for his wife Wanda. Ah, yes, Wanda the Wife if Curtis is the guy who has…
LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Working out on the road By Pat Regel After the holidays, you had a serious talk with yourself and decided to take action. So far, you’ve dropped ten pounds, and your personal commitment to getting back in shape is starting to pay off. But, now you have a problem. How can you exercise while you’re traveling? You don’t have to check into a hotel that offers gym facilities just tuck one of these books into your luggage. Each is relatively small and describes in words and pictures exercises that you can do in your hotel room without any special equipment.

Karen Bressler’s compact Workout on the Go (Andrews McMeel, $10.95, 0836265319) is the smallest of the three books and even comes with a fitness band that you can use while doing the exercises. Anyone who has used a fitness band can attest to its effectiveness in toning and firming muscles. A band increases the intensity of your workout, and intensity makes the difference between a workout that yields results and one that doesn’t. Not wild about exercising with elastic? Bressler also includes upper and lower body exercises that use only the furniture in your hotel room. Fitness bands have been around for some 30 years and haven’t changed much. They’re still perfect for travelers because they weigh practically nothing, are easy to pack, and simple to use.

A Flat Stomach ASAP (Pocket Books, $16, 0671014080) by Ellington Darden explains not only how to tighten and shrink your stomach but also guarantees inch loss all over your body. Dr. Darden is a nationally renowned fitness expert with some 40 health and fitness books to his credit. His new step-by-step program details a method that helps you lose from 7 to 11 pounds of fat and 2 1/2 inches from your midsection in two weeks. His no-fad strategy is based on eating five mini-meals a day, superhydrating, and performing super-slow strength training exercises for 30 minutes a few days a week. His program is designed especially for busy people on the go who don’t have access to gym equipment. The book’s remarkable before-and-after pictures provide enough encouragement to keep you dedicated and pointed in the direction of your goal. If you need extra motivation to stick to an exercise/diet program, Patrick The Sarge Avon provides it. His book, Boot Camp: The Sergeant’s Fitness and Nutrition Program gives you more than just pep talks: . . . spare me your whining and hit the deck, soldier. Get the idea? The Sarge combines military-style humor with sound instruction in his three-week fitness and nutrition program that has worked for thousands of real-life civilians. This program consists of 15 workout sessions that take 45 minutes each. As Avon states, . . . health and fitness are about progression, not maintenance. If you only do as many repetitions as you can until you start to feel the exercise, you will not progress. You must push beyond that point. Get used to it now! Good advice. The idea that fitness is a journey, not a destination, becomes crystal clear. Take a lesson: If your only goal is to fit into a smaller dress or jeans, it’s a shortsighted goal that will not help you get fit. Sooner or later, anyone who stays in shape is struck by a simple truth: There will never be a time when you can stop exercising or monitoring calorie intake. These three books keep you on the road to good health that must be traveled daily no matter where you happen to be.

Pat Regel writes, gardens, and weightlifts in Nashville.

Working out on the road By Pat Regel After the holidays, you had a serious talk with yourself and decided to take action. So far, you've dropped ten pounds, and your personal commitment to getting back in shape is starting to pay off. But, now…
LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Working out on the road By Pat Regel After the holidays, you had a serious talk with yourself and decided to take action. So far, you’ve dropped ten pounds, and your personal commitment to getting back in shape is starting to pay off. But, now you have a problem. How can you exercise while you’re traveling? You don’t have to check into a hotel that offers gym facilities just tuck one of these books into your luggage. Each is relatively small and describes in words and pictures exercises that you can do in your hotel room without any special equipment.

Karen Bressler’s compact Workout on the Go (Andrews McMeel, $10.95, 0836265319) is the smallest of the three books and even comes with a fitness band that you can use while doing the exercises. Anyone who has used a fitness band can attest to its effectiveness in toning and firming muscles. A band increases the intensity of your workout, and intensity makes the difference between a workout that yields results and one that doesn’t. Not wild about exercising with elastic? Bressler also includes upper and lower body exercises that use only the furniture in your hotel room. Fitness bands have been around for some 30 years and haven’t changed much. They’re still perfect for travelers because they weigh practically nothing, are easy to pack, and simple to use.

A Flat Stomach ASAP by Ellington Darden explains not only how to tighten and shrink your stomach but also guarantees inch loss all over your body. Dr. Darden is a nationally renowned fitness expert with some 40 health and fitness books to his credit. His new step-by-step program details a method that helps you lose from 7 to 11 pounds of fat and 2 1/2 inches from your midsection in two weeks. His no-fad strategy is based on eating five mini-meals a day, superhydrating, and performing super-slow strength training exercises for 30 minutes a few days a week. His program is designed especially for busy people on the go who don’t have access to gym equipment. The book’s remarkable before-and-after pictures provide enough encouragement to keep you dedicated and pointed in the direction of your goal. If you need extra motivation to stick to an exercise/diet program, Patrick The Sarge Avon provides it. His book, Boot Camp: The Sergeant’s Fitness and Nutrition Program (Simon ∧ Schuster, $12, 0684848996) gives you more than just pep talks: . . . spare me your whining and hit the deck, soldier. Get the idea? The Sarge combines military-style humor with sound instruction in his three-week fitness and nutrition program that has worked for thousands of real-life civilians. This program consists of 15 workout sessions that take 45 minutes each. As Avon states, . . . health and fitness are about progression, not maintenance. If you only do as many repetitions as you can until you start to feel the exercise, you will not progress. You must push beyond that point. Get used to it now! Good advice. The idea that fitness is a journey, not a destination, becomes crystal clear. Take a lesson: If your only goal is to fit into a smaller dress or jeans, it’s a shortsighted goal that will not help you get fit. Sooner or later, anyone who stays in shape is struck by a simple truth: There will never be a time when you can stop exercising or monitoring calorie intake. These three books keep you on the road to good health that must be traveled daily no matter where you happen to be.

Pat Regel writes, gardens, and weightlifts in Nashville.

Working out on the road By Pat Regel After the holidays, you had a serious talk with yourself and decided to take action. So far, you've dropped ten pounds, and your personal commitment to getting back in shape is starting to pay off. But, now…

LifestylesHealth & Fitness

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Working out on the road By Pat Regel After the holidays, you had a serious talk with yourself and decided to take action. So far, you’ve dropped ten pounds, and your personal commitment to getting back in shape is starting to pay off. But, now you have a problem. How can you exercise while you’re traveling? You don’t have to check into a hotel that offers gym facilities just tuck one of these books into your luggage. Each is relatively small and describes in words and pictures exercises that you can do in your hotel room without any special equipment.

Karen Bressler’s compact Workout on the Go is the smallest of the three books and even comes with a fitness band that you can use while doing the exercises. Anyone who has used a fitness band can attest to its effectiveness in toning and firming muscles. A band increases the intensity of your workout, and intensity makes the difference between a workout that yields results and one that doesn’t. Not wild about exercising with elastic? Bressler also includes upper and lower body exercises that use only the furniture in your hotel room. Fitness bands have been around for some 30 years and haven’t changed much. They’re still perfect for travelers because they weigh practically nothing, are easy to pack, and simple to use.

A Flat Stomach ASAP (Pocket Books, $16, 0671014080) by Ellington Darden explains not only how to tighten and shrink your stomach but also guarantees inch loss all over your body. Dr. Darden is a nationally renowned fitness expert with some 40 health and fitness books to his credit. His new step-by-step program details a method that helps you lose from 7 to 11 pounds of fat and 2 1/2 inches from your midsection in two weeks. His no-fad strategy is based on eating five mini-meals a day, superhydrating, and performing super-slow strength training exercises for 30 minutes a few days a week. His program is designed especially for busy people on the go who don’t have access to gym equipment. The book’s remarkable before-and-after pictures provide enough encouragement to keep you dedicated and pointed in the direction of your goal. If you need extra motivation to stick to an exercise/diet program, Patrick The Sarge Avon provides it. His book, Boot Camp: The Sergeant’s Fitness and Nutrition Program (Simon ∧ Schuster, $12, 0684848996) gives you more than just pep talks: . . . spare me your whining and hit the deck, soldier. Get the idea? The Sarge combines military-style humor with sound instruction in his three-week fitness and nutrition program that has worked for thousands of real-life civilians. This program consists of 15 workout sessions that take 45 minutes each. As Avon states, . . . health and fitness are about progression, not maintenance. If you only do as many repetitions as you can until you start to feel the exercise, you will not progress. You must push beyond that point. Get used to it now! Good advice. The idea that fitness is a journey, not a destination, becomes crystal clear. Take a lesson: If your only goal is to fit into a smaller dress or jeans, it’s a shortsighted goal that will not help you get fit. Sooner or later, anyone who stays in shape is struck by a simple truth: There will never be a time when you can stop exercising or monitoring calorie intake. These three books keep you on the road to good health that must be traveled daily no matter where you happen to be.

Pat Regel writes, gardens, and weightlifts in Nashville.

Working out on the road By Pat Regel After the holidays, you had a serious talk with yourself and decided to take action. So far, you've dropped ten pounds, and your personal commitment to getting back in shape is starting to pay off. But, now…

Children's & YA

Review

Review by bookpagedev

Since 1941, children have known and loved the mischievous little monkey in Curious George. When a book has been popular that long, it deserves special treatment, and that is just what this children’s favorite receives in The Original Curious George. This Collector’s Edition includes the story of Margret and H.A. (Hans Augusto) Rey’s creation of the book in a splendid introduction by Leonard S. Marcus and what a story it is. The Reys, German Jews who had met and married in Brazil, were living in Paris in June 1940. They managed to flee the city on bicycles with four picture books and little else just prior to the German occupation. They crossed the French border into Spain, took a train to Lisbon, sailed to Brazil, and made their way to the U.S. by October. Soon they had negotiated a contract for not just one book, but four, with the children’s editor at Houghton Mifflin, and Curious George was given birth the following year.

All but one of H.A. Rey’s original watercolors are reproduced in this new edition. They have been re-assembled so readers can see George in his first incarnation. Of interest to those who know children’s art and book production, the book portrays exactly the same slapstick adventures of a naughty little monkey which have delighted children for 57 years. This 64-page edition also includes an interesting biographical note on the Reys drawn from an essay Margret wrote in August 1994, before her death in 1996. As a child, H.A. Rey lived close to the famous Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg, Germany, and spent much of his time there. From the time he was two years old, he drew animals. He also learned to imitate animal sounds, a talent he used in the U.S. promoting his children’s books. Both the Reys loved animals and owned everything from alligators to newts. Readers may spot their favorite cocker spaniel in many of their books.

Houghton Mifflin is giving Curious George new life in a variety of other books and cassettes. He will delight young children for years to come. He’s a curious animal and there’s lots to explore.

Since 1941, children have known and loved the mischievous little monkey in Curious George. When a book has been popular that long, it deserves special treatment, and that is just what this children's favorite receives in The Original Curious George. This Collector's Edition includes the…

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