Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Title: The End of Time
Author: Randall Towe
Publisher: www.lulu.com
ISBN: 978-1-4116-3846-4
Genre: Science Fiction / Christianity
Presentation: Paperback

"The End of Time" is a Science Fiction novel by Randall Towe. It is a good mixture of science, philosophy, religion etc. , and is a good story of the classic struggle between good and evil.

The book is based on the current world situation and at places reads like a commentator's narrative. But, overall, it is a good read and will appeal to Christians especially.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Title: Building Personal Leadership – Inspirational Tools for Work & Life
Author: Joe Farcht
Publisher: Genesis Publishing, an Imprint of Morgan James Publsihing
ISBN: 9781600371653
Genre: Business / Leadership / Self-Development
Presentation: Soft Cover
No. of Pages: 356

About the Book (From the Back Cover) – “Building Personal Leadership is a book containing a treasury of tools and techniques to help the individual seeking greater success in their work and lives to realize their wants and dreams. The wisdom contained in this book will revolutionize your life if you are willing to absorb and apply its lessons. The best way to predict your future is to create it. You must take this book along on your life journey.”

If you always wanted to attend a seminar on Personality Development and Leadership etc., and could not attend the same because 1) It is too expensive and as an entrepreneur you could not afford the expense or 2) your boss did not think it worthwhile to sponsor your candidature, you can consider buying this book and spend a good weekend usefully. You will of course miss many of the other inputs of attending a live seminar (the free goodies, the food, the camaraderie, the networking etc.) but you will also spare yourself the expense, the troubles with the travel and a food which doesn’t suit you. If you buy the book at a fraction of the cost of such a seminar, you will also get many useful online bonuses, which as a reviewer, I am not going to get!

I first sampled the book at random at several places and after being satisfied with the contents and the presentation, read through the book in a linear sequence. I was of course exposed to several of the ideas and concepts presented by Joe in his book in the course of my long career (spanning over 4 decades) and my exposure to several speakers, books, Multi-media presentations etc. Thus to me, it was a good refresher course.

If you are a middle or senior level employee of medium and large organizations, you may find that you have already been exposed to several of the ideas presented in this book and thus you too may find that this book is a refresher course. It does its job refreshingly well.

If you are relatively new to life and business, you will find here at one place, almost all the information that you will need. Use the book and the online bonuses and I am sure you will be benefited.

I found the printing and editing to be of high quality. I have no hesitation in strongly recommending the book.
Title: Hermanisms – Axioms for Business & Life
Author: John L. Herman Jr.
Publisher: HSB Press
ISBN: 978-097902041-4
Genre: Business / Memoir
Presentation: Soft Cover
No. of Pages: 288

Hermanisms is the result of a number of years of experience of the author John L. Herman, who considers himself a failure expert – that is, not some one who fails at business (though he did fail at quite a few businesses and learnt his share of lessons), but someone who understands why a business fails. Having learnt the lessons from his own failures and successes as well as the many clients whose businesses he helped sell and thus salvage some thing out of a sinking proposition, the author decided to share his ideas through this book with those interested and willing to learn. He has already written another book “The Innkeeper’s Tales” again business wisdom through the story format.

The front cover of the book greets you with Hermanism # 55 - Are you Making Money… or Wasting Time? Which is explained in detail from P.203 to 206. Turn the book over and on the back cover, you will see a few more Hermanisms:

- Know math or no money (21)
- Failure isn’t fatal (33)
- Facing reality is sobering. Ignoring reality is like being drunk. (38)
- Make the right business regardless of money. (77)

And if you are holding the physical copy of book in your hand, you will like its get up, the fine print quality and the very high level of editing. You can also quickly browse through some more Hermanisms and I am confident that you too will find the book attractive and useful, as I did. Even if you are seeing the book online after reading this fine review, I am sure you can read excerpts, see the images of the front and back covers etc.

Though it will be good to read the book from cover to cover, it is by no means necessary. Open the book at random and enjoy the witty and eloquent wisdom of Herman. In fact, I read several such samples at random before deciding that it is worth investing in my time as a busy reviewer and read it in full. As the father of an entrepreneur (my second son is a successful businessman after a few initial failures and could succeed mainly because of the financial support extended by me and my wife), I found his ideas matching with my own at several places.

I strongly recommend the book to you if you have any interest in business or even if you want to apply the lessons to life.