KAYE TROUT'S BOOK REVIEWS 1

I specialize in reviewing Print-On-Demand (POD) published books for my website and Midwest Book Review. Please query for a review by email to hgunther234@hotmail.com.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU BECOME THE BOSS by Bob Selden

How new managers become successful managers
Outskirts Press, Inc.
10940 S. Parker Rd, Parker CO
Genre: Management - General
Rating: Very Good
ISBN: 9781432714284, $24.95, 280 pp.


Quoting from the back cover:

"Do you know all the "ins" and "outs" of managing? Make a success of your career as a manager. This is your complete "How to" for managing your boss, your people, yourself. You will refer to this book again and again as you progress through your career.

"You will discover how to:
-Become an effective leader, recognised throughout the organisation
-Distribute your time appropriately between the three essential managerial role elements of leading, managing and operating
-Manage your boss–one of the most important of your work relationships
-Select your new boss–if you happen to be changing roles or organisations
-Manage the performance of your team including setting and maintaining standards, coaching, motivating and appraising performance
-Select the best person for the job with a process that is 4 times more effective than traditional selection processes
-Delegate, make more effective decisions, run motivating team meetings–there are even chapters on "How to manage your emails" and "How to build your image"

"The messages in this best selling book have shown thousands of managers, particularly new managers, a better way of managing. Find out for yourself."

What To Do When You Become the Boss is an excellent book for new managers with little or no managing experience. It is well organized, well edited and written in an entertaining manner.

Its strongest feature is that it has been written by a qualified man, Bob Selden, an international management consultant who currently coaches at the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland and the Australian Graduate School of Management, Sydney, Australia.

If you’re in management, this may be a helpful book for you.

Kaye Trout - March 13, 2008

WHACKERS by Matthew Benoit

Llumina Press
Coral Springs, FL
Genre: Fiction
Rating: Good
ISBN: 9781595269317, $10.95, 173 pp.


Quoting from the back cover:

"Don of Time is an introspective loner, desperately searching for Ms. Right in this the decade of abstinence. His inept quest for a relationship hurtles him face forward into the tumultuous world of Candy Stripper, a beautiful, vivacious, woman whose sole purpose in life is to be the center of attention.

"Their on-again, off-again relationship takes the reader on an emotional roller coaster ride full of highs, lows, twists, turns, but most of all, humor. Everything you could ever expect from a relationship and more..."

If you’re a Woody Allen fan (which I’m not), you might enjoy this novel. I personally did not care for the main characters–Don, the depressed masturbator, and Candy, the shallow slut. If you like hard sarcastic humor, domineering/outspoken women, and stories filled with sex, I’m sure you’ll enjoy Whackers. Considering Candy’s smart, foul mouth and love of sex, if she’d had any real sense, she would have gone pro or porn to fill her needs. On the positive side, the story flowed smoothly, is well written and well edited, and the price isn’t bad.

Kaye Trout - March 15, 2008

Thursday, March 13, 2008

HALFMOON CONFIDENTIAL by Edward Fotheringill

Booklocker.com, Inc.
Genre: Metaphysical Fiction
Rating: Very Good
ISBN: 9781601454300, $14.95, 244 pp.


Quoting from the back cover:

"Alexander Lessing, an aging, disgruntled philosophy professor in search of some sense of self, retreats to his idyllic farm in the mountain village of Halfmoon, Vermont. What he find there is not what he expected. Incongruous presences, harboring the forces of good and evil, haunt Halfmoon and its environs, imposing on the simple folk that live there psychological and ethical impasses that call out for nothing less than spiritual resolution."

I can’t really say that I understood this story but I did enjoy Ed’s writing style, his characters, the metaphysical aspects and his gift for description. Allow to share the first two paragraphs of Chapter 1 with you:

"High on a wooded hillside in Halfmoon, Vermont, in a dense grove of tall white poplars, a bald eagle majestically sits atop the highest of the poplar crowns. It slowly rotates its regal, white head, surveying the earthly realm with prescient circumspection. The large, predatory bird would be considered an incongruous presence, for it is calculated to be endangered in these parts. But incongruous presences haunt Halfmoon and its environs. Shortly, they will make themselves known. And it will seem as if the forces of nature had converged on the innocent like a macabre maelstrom of unwarranted strife.

"The bright yellow irises of the bald eagle’s eyes shine in recognition of a human form moving about in a clearing below. The weathered aviator cocks its head, its curved, yellow bill pointing toward the red western sky like a cipher of doom. In a moment’s flash, the bird opens its solid brown-feathered chest and spreads its mighty wings to a full span of seven feet. In this ominous posture, summoning ancient presences of prehistoric wanderings, it witnesses the human form with some distant and mysterious recollection of pity."

Halfmoon Confidential is the third and final novel in Edward Fotheringill’s Wisdom Trilogy–the other two being Lanterns in the Mist (my most favorite) and Darkness Withdrawn OR The Eclipse of Nietzsche’s Shadow. If you enjoy metaphysical fiction, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Kaye Trout - March 14, 2008

NEW PRESCRIPTION FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY by Billy C. Johnson, MD., Ph.D.

Fight Childhood Obesity with Antioxidants & Phytonutrients
iUniverse, 2021 Pine Lake Rd, Lincoln, NE
www.iuniverse.com
Genre: Juvenile/Health
Rating: Very Good
ISBN: 9780595453436, $17.95, 210 pp.


Quoting from the back cover:

"About one in three American children is eith overweight or obese. Childhood obesity is a crisis robbing youth of health and energy, and even causing children to die prematurely. Obesity among children, which is likely to carry over to adulthood, is also linked to a greater risk of high cholesterol, diabetes, early heart disease, and high blood pressure.

"New Prescription for Childhood Obesity provides an innovative approach to fighting childhood obesity. The traditional method for weight loss and fat reduction has been to eat less and exercise more, but this does not work over the long haul. To lose weight and keep it off requires addressing the root cause of the problem: insulin resistance and the low-grade silent inflammation that is triggered by many factors, including foods and environmental causes such as pesticides, industrial pollutants, and toxins.

"Now parents have an opportunity to change their child’s eating and physical activity habits even before a weight problem develops. Complete with recipes to get you on the right track, this essential guide provides specific and simple strategies, techniques, and skills that will enable children to eat the right amount of food appropriate for their level of physical activity without dieting."

This is an excellent book, and we could all benefit, not just our children, from Dr. Johnson’s theories, information and eating/exercise program. There certainly is a need in this country for information and guidance to help us fight our obesity issue. This is a well written, organized and edited book, and if your child has a weight problem, you might want to read and consider Dr. Johnson’s program.

Kaye Trout - March 13, 2008