3 comments about Chicken Soup for the Soul: Divorce and Recovery: 101 Stories about Surviving and Thriving after Divorce (Chicken Soup for the Soul).

1. My friendship with my first husband lasted for over fifty years. I am so pleased to pay tribute to that long relationship in my story, When He Looked Like James Dean, in this new book. I urge those who divorce not to allow bitterness to get in the way of getting on with their lives, nor to let differences cloud the memory of the attraction that drew them together in the first place. The key word in this book's title is "recovery." It's not an easy task, but those who get past the first trying days of the divorce often find that they may face opportunity in a way they never had imagined.



2. I, too, have a story included in this wonderful book. But, the divorce I write about is my parents' divorce in the 1960's....the devastation and sadness I felt as a young girl and for many years after. Because of my dad's near abandonment, it took me over 30 years to truly forgive him. Forgiveness is an amazing gift to yourself, as well as to the person you forgive.



3. I have a story included in this collection called "The Gift," which deals with how I cope as a father of three young children, and the myths associated with divorced fatherhood. More that pitching just that, I think a lot of healing and understanding can come from others' true stories -- perhaps more so than can be gleaned from a gaggle of parenting "experts" on television or in magazines. So I recommend the book, if only to know that others are going through what you might be (especially if you're a dad without residential custody). If you like my piece, keep your eyes peeled for a collection of my essays coming out June 2009 called "The 40-Year-Old Version".
   
   Joel Schwartzberg

3 comments about Good Design Can Change Your Life: Beautiful Rooms, Inspiring Stories.

1. As a designer, I read all the new home decorating books, and I really enjoyed this.
   
   Ty Pennington, the host of Extreme Makeovers, shares his talent and enthusiasm for makeovers and design in Good Design Can Change Your Life: Beautiful Rooms, Inspiring Stories. This full color book is sure to inspire.
   
   In the introduction, Pennington writes of his heartwarming successes at making over homes on Extreme Makeovers for people in need: "The experience of creating warm, inviting sanctuaries for families who really need them has made me a true believer in the power of positive thinking."
   
   He believes that a makeover can transform your life. He is also adamant about decorating to suit your own sense of style.
   
   Good Design concentrates on the bedroom, living spaces and work spaces.
   
   Part I
   The 12 steps to take to prepare for a makeover include smart ideas like taking before photos of the space.
   
   In Prep Work, he has a quiz to take to discover your style. The styles include: minimalist, traditionalist, maximalist, ethnologist, naturalist, and "You're Me" (all of the above.)
   
   There is a very good section on color and how it affects mood.
   
   Part II Sleeping Spaces
   Includes a section on art as a focal point, rooms with high contrast, the importance of lighting, and natural features.
   
   About recycling, Pennington writes that he employs "Reincarnation," which is "giving something that you might otherwise throw out or give away a completely new life." One example he shows takes posts from a front porch and using them for the posts for twin beds. Brilliant!
   
   There is also a nice section on kid's rooms.
   
   Part III Living Spaces
   
   Pennington writes about the importance of the flow of traffic, especially for the entryway, which should always be inviting. He says in Feng Shui the flow of energy is importance, but his flow is that furniture should be positioned so that people have plenty of space to walk around. (Another terrific design book that also discusses the importance of energy flowing is the award winning book, HARMONIOUS ENVIRONMENT: BEAUTIFY, DETOXIFY & ENERGIZE YOUR LIFE, YOUR HOME & YOUR PLANET. Read these together and see some magic happen!)
   
   He also writes about accessorizing.
   
   Part IV Working Spaces
   
   He impresses the importance of having a clean and simple office.
   In the appendix, he includes projects for reader to make, including a stacked bench, shade lamp and a cool shelf.
   
   If you need to be inspired to makeover your home or part of it, this book will do it!



2. This is a nice book. The photos and the stories about Extreme Makeover Home Edition are really great, and the information Ty gives is fresh. Ty is right--sometimes all it takes is changing a room to give everything a fresh perspective. Some of the ideas in this book are really simple and easy. But the best thing by far is the hilarious quiz.



3. Loved this book! Gave me a lot of great ideas and made me think there's hope for my house after all!

5 comments about Things I have learned in my life so far.

1. This isn't a book, but a series of mini books in a cool package.
   
   Design - dozen or so mini books, the outside is cut to show the textures on the cover of each through the holes. Each one of the covers are really cool an visually interesting.
   
   Books - The mini books each have a typographical experiment in them and usually a page or two, explaining the sentence his experiments make (sometimes more).
   
   This is not a how to, a our company had this project, or philosophy of book (books?). It is what he did while he took a year off, and did whatever he wanted basically.
   
   Cool for sure, I enjoyed it a lot.



2. Stefan Sagmeister is a legend of design and I actually have no regrets with the purchase, but I was disappointed when I received my pre-ordered copy. I opened the box with youthful enthusiasm, removed the outer cover and out spilled numerous booklets. It was not what I was expecting. It was immediately clear, however, that the booklets could be made to interact with the cover box and create a nice tabletop display. It is not a book in the traditional linear fashion, which should come as no surprise, however, it seems like it is trying to hard to be different. You can be the judge as to whether or not it succeeded. Designers will enjoy it and it is a pretty neat little book - it will look on your desk and cover swapping can give you something to do when you need a break.



3. After attending his lecture on the same topic, this book left me with a somewhat dissatisfied feeling. I am very excited that Sagmeister, my all-time favorite designer, has attempted to say something worthwhile with the tools of the trade, but it seemed like nothing much was said. The design of the book was flawless, but didn't have the power of his book lecture. He was not "selling out" with this book, he was really trying to say something and this seems to be a good first try at doing something other than selling out, which is what we designers are famous for. Overall, it was average. Not bad, but not great. It left me wanting a little more meat with the sayings.



4. I'm sorry I've bought it for myself and opened - it would have been a nice present. As much as I like this work, it's nothing more but a good stylish present, it's not enriching in any way.



5. Like his first book, this one is filled with clever design details and insights into his process. Unlike the typical designer, Sagmeister speaks of his process in terms that more are akin to self-improvement and self-analysis and than technique, giving us plebians insight into how the master works. A must for any design oficionado.

5 comments about The PTSD Workbook: Simple, Effective Techniques for Overcoming Traumatic Stress Symptoms.

1. This book is awesome. I am going through it with a counslor. I even enjoy doing the work. If you have been diagnosed with PTSD and you are having a hard time working through or need more help-I strongly recommend this book.



2. The book is really helping me get unstuck. PTSD has gotten in the way of work and some housekeeping, but now that I am doing the work I feel like I am getting unstuck. I really recommend this book and recommend having a therapist while you do the work. My traumatic incident happened 4 years ago and even though I have tried to help myself I didn't have the tools that this workbook has. Now I am taking steps to get more centered and less overwhelmed. I give the book credit for this new energy and focus and sense of security.



3. Both books were very helpful in understanding PTSD.I haven't had time to read the sourcebook and the workbook but what I have read has really opened my eyes.My eyes were open to the fact that I have to do something about Post Traumatic Stress or it will continue to consume my innermost being.I realized that I had work to do if I was going to feel any better.The work that I did in the workbook suggested that I continuously do some journaling.Journaling has helped me.I also like to read the sourcebook about recovery and healing.I think it is important to get all the important information read about PTSD that you possibly can, so you'll get a better understanding(like these books have given me.) Ash



4. If you have this, read this book, do the exercises and you will learn more about yourself, your reactions and your interaction with everyday life. I had an exceptional experience with this purchase. Thank you.



5. This workbook has good points and bad. There is helpful information here about trauma and its possible effects on body and mind, and there are SOME useful exercises and techniques herein.
   
   However, if you've looked around lately and found that half the world seems to have been contaminated by the veiled (or not) contempt for survivors of trauma found in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and its many knockoffs, I'm sorry to say you'll find that same attitude - inconsistently - in this workbook, as well. [It is not itself one of the aforementioned knockoffs, thankfully.] Too many of the exercises are about how the client/survivor is wrong, not about how to feel and be better.
   
   This workbook is not a complete waste of time, but there are better workbooks and approaches out there. "Growing Beyond Survival" by Elizabeth G. Vermilyea is both helpful in developing skills to deal with PTSD symptoms, and respectful of the person who desires better mental health.

No comments about The Black Male Handbook: A Blueprint for Life.

No comments about Who Would You Be Without Your Story?: Dialogues with Byron Katie.

5 comments about Life Is a Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful, and Live Intentionally.

1. What a gem!!!!! Have found lots of red convertables and pink glasses to bring joy to my life......and I have only read a few chapters.



2. Once a decade a book is published that delivers more than it promises. Patti Digh's voice is an Everywomen for our time. Her stories are about real people (what other kind are there? she might say). She reminds us to look beyond our myopic self interest to engage the world, to see the homeless as human first and then as people without homes. She is the high priestess of reverence for ordinary life. Kind and self effacing, her writing is wry and deep and wide. Do yourself a favor and order a case of these books. These will be gifts that keep on giving. And, be sure that your local library has a copy or three.



3. The book is wonderful!! I have been reading Patti Digh's blog for several months and preordered the book back in April. After having the book for only a few minutes, I knew I must order one for my daughter and my mother. They are both in love with the book!!



4. In the beginning, this book really annoyed me.
   
   Here's the set-up: "In October of 2003, my stepfather was diagnosed with lung cancer. He died 37 days later."
   
   Tragic. Though I can't imagine, I can empathize. But then comes the goopy stuff:
   
   "The time frame of 37 days made an impression on me. We often live as if we have all the time in the world, but the definite-ness of 37 days was striking. So short a time, as if all the regrets and joys of a life would barely have time to register before time was up...."
   
   "I tried to reconcile the fact that this fearful death was happening with the understanding that I needed to make something good out of it. What emerged was a commitment to ask myself this question every morning: What would I be doing today if I only had 37 days to live?"
   
   Well, you know the answer. Savor every second. "Enjoy every sandwich," as the dying Warren Zevon put it. Buddhism 101. The punch line of a million self-help books.
   
   So was I moved by Ms. Digh's approach to her theoretical last 37 days --- pumping out reams of writing so her young daughters would have some idea who Mom was? No. And not because I'm hard-hearted. It's just that I've heard all this. Many times, most recently in "Improv Wisdom", which I consider the last word on Showing Up and Being Here.
   
   But I stumbled on, past the beautifully designed pages with the lovely art and the super-sincere poems by poets I'd never heard of, until I achieved the entrance to Part One. "Inhabit Your Story." The predictable moral arrived on schedule: "Find the change you can make and make it."
   
   On to Part Two: "The Six Practices for Intentional Living." Which includes: "Dance in your car", followed by "carry a small grape" and "always rent the red convertible" and "say wow when you see as bus".
   
   What was I doing in this Birkenstock gulag, surrounded by Good Thoughts?
   
   But then I hit the story of Ms. Digh sitting on a plane next to a boor, and how they became close friends. The next page brought another compelling story. The Jungian analyst Marion Woodman, sick in India, is bothered by a large brown woman who crowds her on the couch of the hotel lobby. For days. On the fourth day, the woman's husband shows up to say he had been sending his wife there to pour her warmth and life energy into the body of the dying Woodman. The woman had, Woodman decided, saved her life. And then came the story of Digh's college lover, back in 1978. Richard was African-American. Her parents were less than thrilled. The relationship withered. Flash-cut to now. Richard is now Amanda. He wears his old girlfriend's earrings.
   
   Tell me enough stories, and one will be an arrow to the heart. Richard-and-Patti was, and then, suddenly, they all were --- and advice like "Go to a black barbershop to get your hair cut if you're a Caucasian" no longer seemed monumentally trite. Reading on, I learned about hikaru dorodango --- shiny Japanese mud balls --- and how to make better ones simply by making more. I learned how to disagree by saying, elegantly, "I don't see the truth in that." I was reminded what a dollar can mean to the person ahead of you in the supermarket line. I encountered some very wise quotations, like this, from Eric Hoffer: "You can discover what your enemy fears by observing the means he uses to frighten you."
   
   In short, as I read on, I found myself getting sharper and smarter. I considered why it might be better to make a mistake --- and learn from it --- than strain to get everything right. And I read the obituary Patti Digh wrote recently for her father --- who died in 1980, when she was in her teens --- and misted over.
   
   The stories in the news these days are so big. Tectonic plates are moving. History is being made. But then, it always is. "Life is a Verb" is a reminder that our lives are bigger than the stories in the headlines. A small thought? Not to me. Now I have to go back to the beginning and start again....



5. This book is so beautifully written and life changing. From the very first page you are captured with life altering thinking. It is the best money I spent in months and intend to give several for gifts this year. Bravo, Patti!!!!

5 comments about Steering by Starlight: Find Your Right Life, No Matter What!.

1. Excellent book with real life examples. I can relate to this book like few others. Martha Beck is fantastic at presenting what she knows, experiences and understands. This is beyond anything "The Secret" gives us.



2. I read it and did the exercises. It's one of those self help books where the author says one thing in one chapter and then unsays it later in another. If her advice doesn't work it's not her fault, it's yours. She doesn't agree with the "Secret's" premise that our thoughts become our reality which I give her credit for. But while all of this has made a nice career experience for her, it doesn't really help. We already know to think positive and keep going. It's murky enough so that you don't know for sure it's psychobabble until the end.



3. I am in the midst of the most turbulent changes of my life. As I had been nearing some options for decisions, my body would become tight, pained, or just plain anxious. My mind wanted to go one way, and my spirit another. It just left me plain confused about what the heck was going on. I never watch Oprah anymore, but in looking at the schedule I decided to record one on the laws of attraction. This positive thinking has always bugged me because it seemed to cast blame if challenge happened in life like if a person got cancer, it must be something they thought of or did to create it. Martha Beck was on that show talking about Steering by Starlight. She is the first person who I have found who basically has had challenge in life and then reflected on ways to think to go through the process so that a person can see the value in the challenge. She embraces emotion and shows how to work with it. Steering by Starlight is amazing and has been heaven sent to me. It has been my user's manual for life challenge. She explains the dreams, coincidences, feelings, and conflicts that happen when a person is in the midst of their life falling apart. It is like advice from the really wise friend you have always wanted. I bought the CD and listen to it all the time as I drive. I have bought the book for four different friends. I cannot recommend this book enough.



4. i notice many didn't care for this. it sounds like a follow up to North Star so if they haven't read that 1st....
   
   I haven't read this - but North star SAVED MY LIFE. Also - i was in the place to change - i had hit rock bottom, THEN picked up the book. If you are already on your true path, you probably don't need Martha's kind of help. Lucky you!
   
   In my review of North * i note the best part was the map of change and the "yes, changing will SUCK - but it can be ok!" - nice change from all the other help books that just tell you to manage better.
   
   In saving my life, I have lost much. A marriage, a custom home, a cross country move, friends, health care providers, church, book club. But now, after 2 years - I think it will be worth it - i am much happier and getting healthier. But i am sooooo glad Martha warned me and helped me think it through properly - BEFORE I made risky choices!



5. For those who are a fan of Beck's North Star book this is a continuation of her method. Contains excercises, case studies, commentary, and other tools from her Polaris Training. A serious read and good reference material for those seeking their sense of direction.

5 comments about The Greatest Salesman in the World.

1. This is a Awesome Book and I was looking for something exactly like it to read. The book is in excellent condition, and it gave me many of the answers that I was looking for in personal development.



2. the book was received as promised and in the condition it was stated to be in.



3. If you read through the book and follow the path of the ten scrolls your life will become so much better. While the scrolls outline a very basic foundation from which to build success, it is the basics that so many of us seem to neglect. I know, I've been neglecting them a long time.
   
   Reading this book gives me a reassurance in my own personal beliefs on how one should be and act in this world. They may be the 10 scrolls to help you become the greatest salesman in the world but if you take them to heart and make them a part of you no matter what you do...you may become the greatest person in the world.
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who is feeling a little confused about how their life is going and wondering if what they are doing is right or not. If you are finding you are getting angry too fast or frustrated too easily and basically just lashing out for no reason, read just the ten scrolls and take them to heart. Reflect on how if you followed what they are saying would this make your life that much better. I know it is working for me, perhaps it can for you too. FIVE STAR READ!



4. Time tested truths we all need written in very readable/enjoyable form. Anyone needing help in self discovery will benefit extrordinarily from Og Mandinos offering.



5. This is an incredible little book. The only criticism is that it is written in masculine terms and I didn't want to be repeating three times
   a day that I am a wonderful salesman! So I typed it up myself with
   language appropriate to my gender. In so saying, I believe that exercise
   gels the scrolls in my consciousness even more so I have given it 5 stars
   anyway. Make sure you do the repetitions for the full 30 days as repetition IS the first law of learning. If you don't repeat it, it
   doesn't stay.

2 comments about Richard Bandler's Guide to Trance-formation: How to Harness the Power of Hypnosis to Ignite Effortless and Lasting Change.

1. friends, Romans, countrymen, Americans, fellow conscious people lend me your minds... If you want to know about the bare-bones power of an effectively working trance to change your life, come here to this man's version of "Trance-Formations". It lays it all down, the hows', whys' and all of that of hypnosis, self-change and all of the above IN hypnosis and self-hypnosis and suggestion and autosuggestion. And it is much clearer than his earlier work "Persuasion Engineering", I do not own it, but I have read it and decided not to buy it, becuase I knew something like this and his other book, the 'toolbox' "Create The Life You Want" would come out and clarify it ALL in NLP and other related matters of trance, hypnosis and all of that. So, take a mind spin and read on brothers and sisters. For as the old 1980s ABC song goes, "Sisters and Brothers should help each other." And this book is a help when explaining simply some complicated stuff. I thank you for reading my review. And enjoy life.
   
   Josh Clayton.



2. This review is based on the book, and I believe you will find it quite helpful. I ordered it the day it came out, using my Amazon prime membership and had it overnighted. It kept me up all night. First I will cover the positive elements of this book: For those who are experienced at NLP or hypnosis, you will find it a refreshing and comprehensive review, with a few updates on processes and approaches from Bandler. For example he describes how he uses the meta-model now in an opposite manor to what he wrote in "The Structure of Magic I". For those who are teachers you will find the self-help exercises given at the end of each chapter familiar from your own NLP training, and useful new light is shed on them, with a few new ideas. The scripts, back matter, glossary and other resource files in the back make this an essential book for quick reference and study.
   For those who are new to hypnosis or NLP, you will find the examples concrete, clear and well written. This is a comprehensive book covering many complex ideas, but with a highlighter and a pen you will be able to learn skills and begin applying them immediately. The lessons are categorized well, and to me it seems like an excellent introductory text, and I will begin recommending it to all my students at an introductory or intermediate level. You will understand hypnosis and NLP if you really take the time to study this book.
   I also think that for those considering this book as a "self-help" book, you will find it helpful. All of the material can easily be internalized and practiced as self-transformation and help you to do what the subtitle actually promises.
   Now the downside (although there really aren't too many). First, the book is a basic NLP book and those who have a lot of experience and don't enjoy the review and reframes of prior knowledge may find it less than challenging, or covers a lot of material that has already been covered. For me though, I enjoyed the review, update and exercises as suggested after 35 years of Bandlers teaching experience has helped these to evolve. Second, Bandler makes more than a few statements that cause me to ask, "Where is the footnote?" And third, the irreverent style of Bandler can be a distraction at times, with a lot of hyperbole and opinion. However, I actually enjoyed this, even when I disagreed. An example of this was his attempt to reframe NLP by stating the following: "NLP may be thought of as the underlying structure of hypnosis".
   I wish I could give it four and a half stars, but I can't so I will go ahead and give it five stars, and am glad I bought the book.