General Books - Page 4

Make Today Count: The Secret of Your Success Is Determined by Your Daily Agenda

John C. Maxwell

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Management
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Motivational

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A great guide for changing your life! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

You won't be disappointed by John C. Maxwell's helpful guide to time management. Maxwell's strategies will work for even the most time crunched people. Maxwell's program teaches people how to prioritize 12 things that truly matter and how to follow through daily in these areas. It is easy to feel as though you lack the free time to affect any change in your life, but Maxwell shows how devoting small amounts of time in the proper way can make all the difference. The audiobook version seems especially helpful for the book's audience - people with little free time. You can listen while stuck in traffic or cleaning the house, and figure out how to reorganize your life at the same time. Narrator Lew Grenville is an experienced performer and you might recognize his voice from National Geographic or the Discovery Channel. His voice is authoritative, clear, and pleasant to listen to, and meshes well with the subject matter. At a playing time of 3.5 hours, busy people should find this audiobook well worth their (multi-tasking) time.

Editorial Review:

Drawing from the text of the Business Week bestseller Today Matters, this condensed, revised edition boils down John C. Maxwell's 12 daily practices to their very essence, giving maximum impact in minimal time. Presented in a quick-read format, this version is designed to be read cover to cover in one sitting or taken in as brief lessons in a few spare minutes each day. It covers such topics as:
-- Priorities
-- Health
-- Family
-- Finances
-- Values
-- Growth
Readers will learn how to make decisions on important matters and apply those decisions daily to put them on a path to more successful, productive, and fulfilling lives.

All You Need to Be Impossibly French: A Witty Investigation into the Lives, Lusts, and Little Secrets of French Women

Helena Frith-Powell

Amazon Price: $10.01 List Price: $13.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Plume Amazon Marketplace: 60 new & used starting at $5.70

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

You passing by French 2 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I was astonished when I read the reviews. In most cases I got the same question, why Americans want to emulate French women, don't u are American? don't u want to be an American woman? are u ashamed of being it? (why is that for? ... mmm, let me think: Irak, obesity, McDo, Wal-Mart...) For what I see, yes, and you want to embody the image you have of French women! French women are like any other women in the world. The gym thing is, yes, American, but it exists because here nobody walks and depends on car and malls, eat hamburgers for lunch with coke, feels guilty and run for hours in the gym feeling yet half guilty-half relieved. All pleasure is guilt in US. I don't know if "French women" but French in general have a different scope on pleasure. Yes, one key word is pleasure and that is to smell good, to feel good, to sleep good, to eat good, to treat yourself with nice clothes, to treat yourself with a nice dinner, in sum, with a nice life (and that's not a LV, a Burberry coat, a Hummer, a shopping spree and a Chanel for the mall). It's the lace of your underwear, the silk on your top and the parfum on your wrists that makes you feel beautiful, it's the (guilty-free) sex, the basic yet classic/original style, the orange juice with toasted bread and butter (no guilt) in the morning, the salad and vegetables (no punishment) with duck, foie gras and wine, final cheese, choc and coffee (no guilt) for dinner. It's shopping what you like because it's original and not because everyone wear it. It's about being the best yourself and not about being French. And what about your concern on competition? American women are not ($$$, jewels, LV, moral, religious, social) competitive? Yes, but they hide with a big fake smile and fake blessings. Women are competitive just as men are, humans are competitive, men with chests, women with nails, both with loud voice, unnecessary bling bling, and bad sarcasm. French society is just like any other society: there's tragedy and comedy. But if something changes is that there are more parties and get-togethers, less hypocrisy, more talking, more drinking, less punishing and less "little dirty secrets" as in US. It's funny how the reviewers (and the authors) want to be someone they're not, and how they need a guide to do it.

Editorial Review:

The allure of the Frenchwoman—sexy, sophisticated, flirtatious, and glamorous—is legendary. More than an eye for fashion or a taste for elegance, the French je ne sais quoi embodies the essential ingredients for looking and feeling beautiful.

With wit, whimsy, and wonder, British expatriate Helena Frith Powell uncovers the secrets of chic living in All You Need to Be Impossibly French, a cheeky guide to releasing your inner Frenchwoman. Delving deep into a mysterious realm of face creams, silk lingerie, and shopping- as-exercise, Powell reveals how French women stay impossibly thin and irresistibly sexy by achieving the maximum effect from the minimum amount of effort. Forget diet and inspiration books and style guides—this is all you need to embrace the wisdom of French living, and learn how to turn every day into la petite aventure.

Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy and Awesome

Bobbi Brown, Annemarie Iverson

List Price: $18.95 By: Collins Living Amazon Marketplace: 90 new & used starting at $0.01

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Subjects -> Children's Books -> Science, Nature & How It Works -> Health -> Personal Hygiene

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 71 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Teenage girls often want sensitive answers to tricky questions about their skin, hair, makeup, and bodies. Well, Bobbi Brown's your woman! Beauty editor of the NBC Today show and coauthor with Annemarie Iverson of Bobbi Brown Beauty, Brown's hope is that teen girls will learn to recognize their own natural beauty and simply bring it out with makeup and healthy living. She specializes in the "makeunder," insisting that makeovers "tend to involve lots of makeup and a masking of who you really are." Teenage Beauty is "the ultimate beauty guide for young women. It takes the mystery out of all those confusing rituals so that you can figure out how to feel happier and more relaxed about your looks." Thirty chapters, packed with close-up photos of regular, everyday girls (as well as one or two celebrities!) include titles like "Zits!" "I Hate My ___," "The Perfect Makeup Kit," "Smelling Good/Smelling Bad," "Rock 'n' Roll Babes: Hip Beauty Style," and "Global Beauty." Brown devotes one chapter each to African American, Latin American, and Asian American teen beauty. A thoroughly positive, upbeat style aims to make every girl see and accentuate her own individual beauty. --Emilie Coulter

The Yoga Face: Eliminate Wrinkles with the Ultimate Natural Facelift

Annelise Hagen

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Exercise & Fitness -> Yoga

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

To keep their faces looking younger, women today try everything from invasive procedures such as plastic surgery and Botox to expensive cosmeceuticals. "Yotox" is a new and completely natural alternative anti-aging regimen that women can do anytime and anywhere-and in just minutes. The exercises, developed by yoga expert and instructor Annelise Hagen, are based on a simple principle: The muscles of the face are no different from the muscles of the rest of the body. If you don't exercise the muscles below the neck, they become weak and flabby, and the same thing will happen to your face with age. Just as yoga routines work the muscles in the body, the stretches and movements in Yotox tighten and tone the face muscles-and combat wrinkles. "Working out" with fun facial exercises such as the Louis Armstrong "Satchmo," the Marilyn Monroe "kiss," and the "Lion Face," readers will notice changes quickly; and over time, the results are dramatic. Illustrated with more than seventy-five instructive photos throughout, Yotox offers an easy, safe, and effective solution to help women turn back the clock and have beautiful, young-looking skin.

How One of You Can Bring the Two of You Together

Susan Page

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Don't get your hopes up 1 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The premise that one person in a two-person relationship can do all the work and save the relationship is a faulty one to begin with. I had purchased this book after reading reviews which hyped the book as something other than it really is. Simply put, it's yet another example of reinforcing the idea that women should be saddled with the entire responsibility of keeping a marriage together. The more progressive-minded couple will probably not be convinced by Page's arguments.

For example, early on Page answers questions she presumes naysayers will ask. One asks if it's fair to expect just one person in a relationship to do all the work. Her reply is "not much in life is fair." Honestly, we don't need a book to tell us this, and it doesn't answer the question. Another question brings up the problem of women being the ones expected to salvage a relationship. Page's reply is to claim that is a false generalization and that women call men "jerks" all the time, while men never do the same in return. Really? She's never watched a sitcom where all the men sit around playing poker and grousing about "the old ball and chain"? Either Page is woefully underinformed or deliberately misleading, and either one is unacceptable for someone who is promising to help you with something as important as your marriage.

Much of the advice in the book is passive-aggressive nonsense, such as refusing to do your own chores if your spouse doesn't do their share, leaving without your spouse if they're late getting ready, or pulling a prank on your spouse if they have a small quirk that irritates you.

Other advice is downright dangerous. One example is her contention that you should let go of being right in a situation and letting your spouse think they're right. This may be fine when it comes to something mundane like doing dishes, but not so good when dealing with a workaholic or overcontrolling personality.

Page is also sadly old-fashioned and out of touch. She recommends pretending that you want to have sex even if you don't ("lie back and think of England", basically) and says that if your husband doesn't compliment you on looking nice, don't worry because women only dress up for other women, never for men.

I also found the examples from couples to be written very stiffly (a problem I admit I find in a lot of self-help books, this is not at all the only one) and too numerous. Page makes plenty of references to what seem on the surface to be scholarly articles, such as a reference to "that teacher who believed her above average students were below average, and caused the students to perform below average due to her expectations". However, nothing in the very short bibliography explains this allusion and there are no footnotes. For all we know this is just an anecdote that Page heard somewhere.

The good advice in this book can all be found elsewhere. The notion of understanding your anger is a good one, but you can get much better books such as Thich Nhat Hanh's Anger, or Full Catastrophe Living by John Kabat-Zinn. Self-affirmation is the subject of Chapter 7, but almost any book on self-affirmation will give you more of what you need. Page advises the reader to ask several questions of themselves, but there are a lot of books out there with the same questions presented in a much more readable manner. Too Good To Leave, Too Bad To Stay is one such book.

I urge people to look elsewhere for good advice. There's no shame in taking the lead in trying to rescue a relationship, but one should not expect to work entirely alone in the task. And if you have more than a few surface problems, this book will not help you.

Editorial Review:

Susan Page's groundbreaking approach to relationships gives readers the tools and encouragement they need to bring positive changes to their relationship, even when their partners are unwilling to do the work. Based on the premise that what you do in a relationship makes changes faster than anything you discuss, Page introduces the concept of "Loving Leadership" and offers fourteen empowering and doable strategies for recapturing the positive feelings, including how to:

• Overcome resentment and move beyond blame
• Solve major problems--one at a time
• Recapture lost intimacy

Step-by-step, Page demonstrates that with tangible goals, and new ways of thinking, one partner can bring new levels of harmony and love to a relationship.

The Japanese Tattoo

Amazon Price: $18.15 List Price: $27.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Abbeville Press Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $13.90

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Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Photography -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 21 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Terrible writing and poor picture quality 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

On the good side, Amazon service was just as great as ever in delivering this book.

On the bad side (and there are several) this book had a cheap feel about it just from opening the packaging. Reading the preface / introduction I was stunned by the insulting gibberish by D.M. Thomas as to the Japanese tattoo culture. Looking at the back cover of the book you also see the photographer holding the heads of her subjects which also feels demeaning to the Japanese men portrayed in the picture: Japanese are not very touchy and touching ones head is generally not a good thing in most Asian cultures: the impression is of a woman and her two dogs. Not nice.

Later in the book you find the photographs blurry and the picture text very poor: you could have filled these huge pages with a lot of informative and captivating text about Japanese tattoo and culture. Instead you get to read what is pretty much: "this man has a fish tattoo".

Great Art, but subpar writting 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is worth the price for the pictures alone. Which is good because the writing is extremely sub par, with misinformation and just wrong information. The art is wonderful but the writing is so bad that you are probably better of not even reading it.

A Consumer's Dictionary of Cosmetic Ingredients: Complete Information About the Harmful and Desirable Ingredients Found in Cosmetics and Cosmeceuticals

Ruth Winter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

You wouldn't eat something without knowing what it was--don't you want to take the same care with what you put on your face, hair, and body? Find out what's in that shampoo, makeup, toothpaste, lotion, or perfume here, with more than 6,000 entries, organized alphabetically. Cosmetics are barely regulated these days, leaving it up to you to learn what those strange-sounding names mean and how they might affect you. For example, did you know these intriguing tidbits?

• Abietic acid, a texturizer in soaps, is harmless when injected into mice but causes paralysis in frogs.
  
• The American Medical Association frowns on medicated makeup, because their potential to do harm often outweighs their benefit.
  
• Mayonnaise is as effective a dry-hair conditioner as the expensive preparations.
  
• Milk is a good face wash, but you'd better rinse it off well, or rancidity will give rise to bacteria that will cause pimples.
  

Don't skip the introduction, a provocative discussion of "cosmeceuticals," anti-aging products, what's really meant by the word "natural," "culture and cosmetics," and what to do if you have an adverse reaction. This is the fifth edition of this guide, which originally appeared in 1978. Even if you own the fourth edition, you'll want to update, because this edition includes 1,400 newly developed chemicals and hundreds of name changes. --Joan Price

The Essential Oils Book: Creating Personal Blends for Mind & Body

Colleen K. Dodt

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Storey Publishing, LLC Amazon Marketplace: 40 new & used starting at $6.50

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 22 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

The Essential Oils Book by Colleen Dodt 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a fun book packed with ideas for using essential oils! I read it when I first started using the oils and am still using it 10 years later!!

Disappointed great for beginner 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Creating Personal Blends for Mind & Body wasted to many pages basic introduction of essential oils.

Great read 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a great read. It gives alot of useful information in a smaller book. A lot of fundamental essential oil information. Great for someone just starting to explore and a must have to keep around for the experienced with all her great blend recipies.

A good short version 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a good quick review short version to get started but I personally perfered a more in depth book.

Essential oils , never too old to learn!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have been using essential oils for several years, making my own skin care products, and sharing products with friends. I live in a small town and we all shop from the internet or drive 3 hours to Vegas to get what we need in the home. We were spending a lot of money on personal care items so I decided to get more informed on making my own lotions and fragrances. Colleen Dodt's book is a must have in my library! I would love to meet her as her personality jumps right out of this book. There are so many things to learn from this book. For those novice and experienced users of essential oils, this book is a wealth of information. It is fun to read and has not made it to the bookshelf yet!! Thank you,Colleen, you did a great job!!! JLO

Editorial Review:

A rich resource on the applications of aromatherapy and its uses in everyday life, including aromas for the home, business environments, and essences for the elderly.

Amazing Grace: The Nine Principles of Living in Natural Magic

David Wolfe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It’s official; embraced by everyone from stars like Uma Thurman and Woody Harrelson to average people who are seeking the best health possible, raw food and the live food lifestyle is “in.” But making that transition can be a challenge. That’s where Amazing Grace comes in. Written by raw-foods authority David Wolfe with life coach Nick Good, this combination of personal story and motivational guide offers a wealth of ways to improve life, health, and spirit by adopting this nurturing, intuitive lifestyle. Amazing Grace shares Wolfe’s secrets on how to become a superhero and lead a life full of fun, synchronicity, and magic. These secrets are based both on the personal experiences of the authors and the seven principles of Huna, the ancient Hawaiian shamanic tradition. With the addition of Grace and Forgiveness, they comprise nine powerful principles for success.
Equally useful whether reading cover to cover, sampling for nuggets of wisdom and inspiration, or retaining as a reference for support and guidance, Amazing Grace shows readers how to experience a new yet basic paradigm of possibility in an increasingly complex and confusing world.

The Beauty Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Smart Beauty

Paula Begoun

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 9 to 14 days By: Beginning Press Amazon Marketplace: 47 new & used starting at $2.96

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Fumigated 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I find it interesting that there are many women (possibly some men) that consider Paula's work to be bogus, harmful, and riddled with lies. Here's one quote from a reviewer "Her products REAK of chemicals" First, Cosmetics *are* chemicals. Secondly, her products are free of any fragrance (masking or otherwise). Without fragrance, the scent of the chemical compounds in the products come through. I've had whiffs of her products, and (personally) they don't bother me, I'm not always expecting my products to smell amazing. But her products don't smell any worse than some of the products that are pushed by drug store brands (SpectroJel and certain Marcelle toners come to mind).
Gentle cleanser? It's going to smell a bit like alcohol (Not grain (rubbing) alcohol, but Cetyl or Stearyl alcohol -aka fatty alcohol, emollients that soften the skin). A toner? It's got a distinct flat smell (Water-binding agents, emulsifiers and light oils produce it). I can assure you that if Chanel, Lancome, or La Prarie put a moisturizer or cleanser out on the market sans fragrance, you'd be smelling something a lot more repulsive. I don't use Paula's products religiously (I have no brand loyalty whatsoever), but I can tell you her products are quite decent. However, I will still say that her website is a bit of a letdown. While it provides information, you have to know where to look for it, and it's mainly laid out as a sales site than a consumer advocate site.
A few other reviewers have commented on her credentials. And, while she doesn't have official credentials, she certainly knows far more than any of the reviewers do (myself included).
In the end, it's up to you when it comes to what goes on your face. This is not some evangelical movement, nothing is being pushed on anyone (on the flip side, I have to say that I've received more pressure to succumb to someone else's idea of proper skin-care at the department store). She's merely giving us tools to better our knowledge

Editorial Review:

Myriad new formulas, outrageous claims, and hot controversies run rampant in the cosmetics industry. This second edition of The Beauty Bible will help clear up the confusion. From tanning pills to oxygen in products, from facial exercises to behind-the-scenes industry information, this book covers it all. Containing 50 percent new material, this edition includes advice on the latest cosmetic surgery procedures, online beauty shopping, and permanent makeup. Drawing on her background as a makeup artist, her 20-plus years as a consumer reporter, and the latest dermatological studies, Paula Begoun (a.k.a. the “Cosmetics Cop”) gives readers the tools and information they need to make smart skincare decisions.