Product Description
“A profusely illustrated, bemusingly unorthodox introduction to math.”—BooklistA book for the eternally curious, Coincidencesfuses a professor’s understanding of the hiddenmathematical skeleton of the universe with thesensibility of a stand-up comedian, makinglife’s big questions accessible and compelling.Each chapter opens with a surprising insight—not a mathematic formula, but a common observation.From there, the authors leapfrog over math andanecdote toward profound ideas about nature,art, and music. Coincidences is a book forlovers of puzzles and posers of outlandishquestions, lapsed math aficionados and theformula-phobic alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (21)

Great for Math Junkies!
I bought this as a gift for my room-mate who is a math junkie....he enjoyed the read and thought others would too.

fun with math
Anyone who thinks that mathematics is dull or that mathematicians cannot write with eloquence, humor and wit should read this book. They will be suprised. Many parts would even suit some kids as young as ten or twelve years old. This book has kept me up late many nights.

Thought-provoking, fun, and funny!
This is a terrific book on a wide variety of math concepts, but you don't have to be a math expert to appreciate it!My favorite chapter was "A Twisted Turn in an Amorphous Universe."Sound confusing?Try fascinating!A great diversion into topology, or "rubber-sheet geometry," this is NOT your typical high school geometry stuff.What I appreciate about this book is it gets you to think "outside the box," but it also encourages you to reflect on our world and how mathematics plays a role in seemingly endless ways.Enjoyed the chapters on chaos, infinity, and the 4th dimension, too!

Truth in advertising...
As subtitled, CCaATMJ "mak[es] light of weighty ideas."That it also 'makes lite' of them makes CCaATMJ an entertaining but pretty insubstantial read.For readers who have never encountered the ideas EB and MS discuss -- topology, higher dimensions, and infinity among others -- and who are totally averse to mathematical formalism, CCaATMJ is a fine enough account (making heavy use of analogy/metaphor by way of illustration).CCaATMJ falls in the genre of '_____(write in Math/Science field here) for poets' kinds of books, which can be excellent for a certain type of target audience: _____-phobes.For those who like their math books a little more math-y, though, look elsewhere.(Apropos: under "Further Resources", EB and MS name only 2 -- one book and one video of their own.Nothing else came to mind?That's pretty lame.)

Coincidences,Chaos,and All That Math Jazz
Arrived on time and perfect condition.It uses easy language for serious subject, entertaining and teatching. ... Read more

Product Description
The Six Steps to Organizational Freedom

Do you:
*Miss important deadlines at work?
*Forget to return urgent phone calls?
*Lose papers that were “just here a minute ago”?
*Have multiple layers of sticky notes on your computer?
*Leave projects unfinished for days, weeks, or even months at a time?

If any of these sound familiar, then you are among the ranks of the disorganized—whether mildly or completely—and Liz Davenport has written this book just for you. Order from Chaos is the organizing book for disorganized people. In six easy steps she offers a system that will help you clean up your act. She demonstrates how to clear your desk by teaching you what's trash and why, reveals what a calendar is really meant to be, and provides a no-fail system for prioritization. At the end of the day, your desk will be clear and your mind will be free to relax.

Rather than offering overcomplicated instructions for filing systems and time management plans, Order from Chaos focuses on ease of use. There is not one person—from office assistant to CEO—who will not benefit from this straightforward, easy-to-maintain plan.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

Concrete steps to create order
I found nothing that I considered a remarkable breakthrough in this book. So why give it five stars? After all, there are lots of other similar titles out there.

Liz Davenport describes a system that should be required reading for any followers of the 'Four Hour work week' method. While Tim Ferris tells you that you need to reduce the time required to handle paperwork and other tasks that come up, Davenport tells you how. Ferris also recommends outsourcing as much as possible, but most people won't do that. They will, however, be able to reduce the time they spend on chaos and the stress that it causes by following these six steps.

Order From Chaos
Great book. Liz Davenport was a speaker at a recent women's conference in my industry.I used to be a devotee of an electronic planner system, but when I experienced issues with my device, I decided to back it up with a written planner.Liz's plan is great for getting one back on track with organizing their office in a manner that keeps everything important within reach and the less-than-important out of the way. Her session encouraged me to do the obvious: write it down in one place! Get rid of the little notes everywhere. Her system feels simpler than the FranklinCovey system. If you have an industry need for a good speaker, give her a shout.

Best organizing book I have read
I own and have read many organizing books.I'm actually fairly organized and am always looking for tips to be even more organized.This book had the most immediate and lasting impact of any organization book I have read.I read it all in one sitting the night I got it because I found it so helpful.Many items, I thought to myself "yes, I already do that and it works" and many other items, I thought, "wow, that would make a difference."I HIGHLY recommend this book.

Tackling The Chaos
This is Author Liz Davenport common-sense approach on organization by utilizing a 6 step method. It's an easy to read, easy to follow guide. I looked at several books on this subject in a bookstore before I chose this one for its straightforwardness and ease of reading.
The information is presented in an easy to comprehend way.
If you never have time to keep track of where things are in your house this book can help you to start tackling the chaos.

Good, but slightly silly
The book was very well organized and offered a great soulution. But more then anything else it made you realize just about how much "stuff" comes your way on a daily basis. To have a system that acknowleges such a large amount of "stuff" is important for your sanity. She also helps you realize that although we have a list of "to-do" items- they are usually things that must be done with no larger purpose. She suggests to incorporate in a heart-line or a single task a day that will help you move towards a much larger personal goal.
I would recommend it as a read- but take her advice with a grain of salt. As it can be very time consumming to stay "organized". And plus, there is all that surfacing information lately about how the chaos thoery ( or lack of any organization) is a more effective means at maintaining order. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (43)

Good reading!
I really enjoyed this first book in what is a series, and I can hardly wait to read the next one!It opens with an idea that is certainly not original (or doesn't seem so, at first):A British boarding school with a tough but fair headmaster, strict teachers, etc.But wait!There are only 5 children in the school.As the story unfolds, from the perspective of one of the students (Amelia), we learn about their history at the school, what the children know and don't know about themselves.

It turns out that things are not quite what they seem at first!Gosh, I don't want to give away too much, but I think I can say that the school only appears to be a school, and the young people only appear to be students.They are actually hostages in a great billions of years old war.Enough said about that.

As the young people get more of a sense of who they are, and what their individual powers are, they naturally try to escape.This first volume in basically a book of explication and background, preparing us, I hope, for greater adventure.

I recommend this book 100%.I think young people, say serious readers, from about 12 and up could enjoy it, although there are some PG13 parts.I actually liked this much more than the Harry Potter books, and that says a lot!

Intriguing fantasy with a strong voice
The immediate thing I noticed about this novel, was a distinct sense of style. That's not to say other books I've been reading lack style, they don't. I just think that much of what I have read recently has a sense of style that goes along with third person point of views, a kind of cinematic approach to the story telling. I'm not sure I can pin down what it is that makes the style of this novel for me, it is linked to the first person point of view, but it's not merely someone telling me what's going on all around them. Perhaps its a sensation of time simultaneously passing and standing still, which I think is rather appropriate to the novel considering the nature of the Orphans of the title. Time is something that was very hard to pin down in the novel. I would say that the events are somewhat contemporary, but I would find it impossible to pin down an exact date the book is meant to take place in. Yet it also feels, perhaps due to the nature of this little British boarding school, to also feel somewhat Edwardian. Of course, perception of time for the main characters is one of the plot points, so I don't think it surprising at all that time's passage is not easy to pin down. I'm amazed at the number of fantasy books these days that have real world mythological characters showing up in the modern era. I think I'm starting to get a touch tired of that, but that's probably luck of the draw, not anything I can lay at the feet of any particular author. At the least, the mythological figures used are handled with new twists, and many appear to be thankfully more obscure characters. Which I happened to enjoy. Not the same old figures from central casting.

I think what I liked best about this book, was how each of the five main characters had a different perception of reality. And as an example of what I meant by style, you really understand this within the first few pages as he introduces each of the orphans, and gives you a sense of who they are and how the world works for them, all the while still through the lens of the first person narrator, Amelia. Quite an interesting feat. If the book can be said to have a flaw, however, it is the fact that it is quite clearly the first of several books. The novel cannot be considered complete and stand alone by any measure, and for some people that can be quite the turn off. If you got drawn in as I did, you might think it a good thing that there are two more books to read.

Hip re-envisioning of classical mythology
Amelia (after Earhart), the self-named first-person narrator of the Children of Chaos trilogy, is a quirky, gutsy young woman who learns, early in ORPHANS OF CHAOS, that she can see into and move through dimensions beyond the three that normal folks perceive. It turns out that she and her companions are hostages against the good behavior of their parents, partisans of the Titans, the gods who in classical mythology overthrew the first generation of gods and were in turn overturned by the third generation. Virtually all of the characters can be found in references on classical mythology. For reasons not yet clear, the ages-old war between generations of gods is being fought out (at least in part) on present-day earth. The hostages yearn for freedom, and slowly recognize they can use their powers to escape their captors.

I was initially impressed with the way Wright handled speaking in the voice of a teenage girl. I was therefore deeply disappointed when, around p. 150, it turns out that spunky and self-possessed Amelia actually longs to be dominated by men, ordered around by men, and punished by men. Wright explains her appetite for domination as a result of supernatural attack, but the sexual politics of Amelia's desires (and Wright's fixations on bondage and spanking) taint the book. I also found the constant sexual banter uncharacteristic for a group of children who grew up together in such close quarters; I would expect more caution and respect among them. If I recall correctly, Wright's sexual politics were also pretty bad in his Golden Age series. This is particularly disappointing in a lauded young writer.

While ORPHANS OF CHAOS has many flaws, it is nevertheless enjoyable and provocative (when it's not outright offensive). I like it better so far than his Golden Age trilogy, which also drew quite a bit on classical mythology. I hesitate to recommend the book because of its backwards sexual politics and annoying sexual banter, but I can't entirely condemn it either. Caveat emptor.

An interesting first entry in a refreshing fantasy trilogy...
I recently finished John C. Wright's Orphans of Chaos over the weekend. It was a fairly good read. The premise was interesting enough - a group of five children of the mythological Titans are kept at a "school" which at times seems more like a jail than a place of learning. The children do not know their own names or their histories, having been at the school since before they can remember. Each has a power of sorts, which is kept hidden from them by the school administrators and medication. But the older and more rebellious the children get, the less effective the means of control over them become. As expected the children revolt.

The narrator is one of the children, who has picked the name Amelia for herself, after her hero Amelia Earhart. As it is, each of the children have three names - their actual birth names, their mythological names and those they've chosen for themselves. This makes for a sometimes confusing read, as five characters being referred to with an assortment of names at times seem like fifteen characters. The teachers and staff at the school have the same thing going for them. Each is a mythological character in disquise and each is referred to by more and more names as the story progresses and the reader finds out more about them and their motives. See, the children are being held to prevent a civil war that seems inevitable since the death of Zeus. Yes, that Zeus.

Amelia's powers are a bit confusing unless you are well versed in quantum physics. I'm not kidding. Her powers involve being able to see and manipulate up to at least four dimensions. It can be a little confusing at times, but other than that, the book is an enjoyable read. As I mentioned before, more and more is revealed about the teachers and staff so as to keep the reader guessing as to their real identities.

I tend to browse through reviews of books before I commit to reading them and this book does have some mixed reviews. The majority of the negative ones seem to indicate that the book lacks closure. While this is true, it's beneficial to keep in mind that this is the first part in a series. Questions will be eventually answered, it's just that the story doesn't fit in this one particular book. Hang in there. It's a neat concept and interesting enough for me to check out the next book in the series - Fugitives of Chaos.

Oh, and try to ignore all the spanking references.

Read The Golden Age, and skip this series
John C. Wright's Golden Age series was among the best science fiction I have ever read.The protagonist's struggle against the system was a plea against complacency and lazy thinking.And while the entire series was informed by the author's politics, the series never devolved into a harangue.This was not quite true of Wright's Everness series, where the politics got didactic and at times overwhelmed the story.The Everness series was published second, but was written first, so I forgave Wright: it was clear he grew as an author between the two series.

This book, however, tried my patience.Let's start with the good.The premise is interesting; five children are trapped in an English orphanage, and like their keepers are more than they seem.The backstory, which slowly emerges, is a fascinating civil war among the Greek gods.Wright's magic system ties into four dimensional physics, but you don't need a science degree to keep up.

That's about it though, because too much else is wanting.Characters: Unlike his magic system, Wright's characters are one-dimensional.Plot: not enough happens, and I suspect the author wishes he could have published the trilogy as one volume.Readability: You don't need a degree in physics, but you really do need a solid grasp of Greek mythology to understand some of the conflicts in the novel (not a problem for me, but likely to confound many readers... and the author too, who confuses Chiron with Charon late in the novel).Morality: the main character has an apparent age in her teens (yes, she is older, but she is written as a teenager), and the author delights in putting her in increasingly uncomfortable bondage situations which culminate in borderline child-porn scenes that Wright and his editor should have excised after the first draft.

Although I will usually endure a so-so series if the backstory is interesting enough, in this case I will skip the rest of the series, or perhaps get it later from the library.I don't think I'll be buying anything more from Wright. ... Read more

Product Description
"You believe in a God who plays dice, and I in complete law and order."Albert EinsteinThe science of chaos is forcing scientists to rethink Einstein's fundamental assumptions regarding the way the universe behaves. Chaos theory has already shown that simple systems, obeying precise laws, can nevertheless act in a random manner. Perhaps God plays dice within a cosmic game of complete law and order.Does God Play Dice? reveals a strange universe in which nothing may be as it seems. Familiar geometrical shapes such as circles and ellipses give way to infinitely complex structures known as fractals, the fluttering of a butterfly's wings can change the weather, and the gravitational attraction of a creature in a distant galaxy can change the fate of the solar system.

This revised and updated edition includes three chapters on the prediction and control of chaotic systems. New information regarding the solar system and an account of complexity theory is also incorporated. It is a lucid and witty book which makes the complex mathematics of chaos accessible and entertaining.Amazon.com Review
We'd better get used to chaos because it certainly isn't going anywhere. Mathematician Ian Stewart--who is also a very talented writer--shares his insights into the history and nature of the highly complex in Does God Play Dice: The New Mathematics of Chaos. While his delightful phrasings will draw in nearly every reader, those with a strong aversion to figures and formulae should understand that it will be slow going. Chaos math suffuses everything from dreaming to the motion of the planets, and Stewart's words can never match the precision of his numbers. Persistence pays off, though; there are so many "aha" moments of insight herein that it almost qualifies as a religious text. The second edition has been partially revised in the wake of 1990s research, and three exciting new chapters report on prediction and other applications of chaos mathematics. --Rob Lightner ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

Very good book with a few minor flaws
An interesting and fun introduction to chaos. Stewart writes very well and often makes keen and insightful observations. I learned a great deal and was inspired to read other books on this fascinating topic. There were a few things I didn't like, but to be honest they are not major: 1) The deliberate avoidance of mathematical detail in this book, which does indeed present some very deep mathematical concepts, is very odd and sometimes unhelpful. Odd, for example, as when in the midst of a chapter on quantum theory Stewart takes time to painstakingly tell the reader what an absolute value is. Or, when he's describing how to perform calculations to generate chaos he stops for a paragraph to explain what it means to square a variable. Is it really possible that readers who lack such rudimentary math skills would be reading this book?? 2) For my tastes, there's way too much God talk in this book. Stewart clearly is not doing this for any religious reason - but it's odd because I have no idea why he finds it necessary to so often toss in sentences about God doing this or God thinking that, or God blah blah blah. By the end - especially at the literal end and the stupid joke in the epilogue - it really gets tiresome.

Excellent book, VERY small print
I am a college-educated, non-math major, numbers-oriented senior citizen who wanted to find out what Chaos Theory is.I got this book out of my local library to see whether I should purchase it. It reads easily, even entertainingly, so I decided to order it.

However, the newest edition in paperback has very very fine print--even with reading glasses!I returned this edition, and am trying again with the older edition in hardback (same ISBN as the library book).

As others have noted, this book does not go into the "deep" mathematics of Chaos.However, the material IS challenging.

This is an excellent book.
Ian Stewart accomplishes the near impossible; he describes an extremely difficult area of math and science in an intelligible manner.He writes with humor and in a straightforward manner, devoid of the pedantic convolutions that often make many math and science books boring and incomprehensible.He writes as if he were sitting next to you, trying his best to get you to understand what he is presenting, rather than (as some authors often due) trying to show how smart he is and how awfully difficult the subject is. This book is aimed at the general reader, and while it is about a very advanced mathematical subject it contains very few equations or the abstract symbolism that make mathematics so intimidating to many people.This book is not a textbook on non-linear dynamics (the underlying cause of chaotic behavior), and it does not provide enough information to solve problems that go beyond the simple examples that are used to describe the basic concepts.However, I did get a very good feeling for how Chaos Theory evolved, what it explains and why it is so important to many problems.This book is a very good choice for someone studying Chaos Theory in a more formal manner as it does an excellent job of providing an overview of the subject.The book is also an excellent choice for someone, like myself, who wants to know what Chaos Theory is all about but is not ready (or able) to study the subject in detail.While no mathematics, beyond that discussed in high school, is required, the reader should have enough of a mathematics and physics background to know what a differential equation is and some elementary mechanics, such as that involved with a simple pendulum.

The first 20% of the book reviews the inherent problem of non-linear dynamics and why it was ignored for so long.Professor Stewart points out that an apparently simply problem, such as the dynamic behavior of three bodies, is only solvable in for a finite number (but very large) number of revolutions when assumptions are made that obscure the true non-linear nature of the problem.He focuses on Henri Poincare's attempt to answer what most people would not have even thought was question; is the solar system dynamically stable (i.e., will the planets someday cease to follow the path laid out by conventional Newtonian dynamics).Poincare's approach laid the foundation of a powerful approach to solving problems in non-linear dynamics.(By the end of the book there is a tentative answer to the question.)After providing this background, Professor Stewart lays out the basic ideas and approaches to solve the non-linear problems that can give rise to chaotic behavior, where the evolution of a dynamic system depends so critically on the initial conditions.This is best seen in the application of Chaos Theory to weather forecasting.In a completely deterministically determined system, the definition of the initial conditions leads to a completely predictable outcome.But when the system is governed by non-linear dynamics (as the weather is) accurate predictions cannot be made for more than a few days, perhaps ten days to two weeks with only limited accuracy.This is not a problem of computing power, but rests with the very nature of the system. Professor Stewart provides many applications for Chaos Theory and shows how powerful this approach can be in describing the nature of the dynamical system and providing bounds for the solutions, even if the nature of chaos prevents the exact evolution of the system from being determinable.I particularly liked the section on the applications to Quantum Mechanics. He proposes that Chaos Theory may be a way out of the conundrums currently posed by Quantum Mechanics.

Professor Stewart answered a question that I have always had regarding non-linear dynamics.I have always wondered if the problem was only that our mathematics have not been formulated in the correct manner and with mathematical approaches an exact, non-chaotic, solution could be found.In other words, is chaos a problem of math or nature?Professor Stewart provides many examples where nature exhibits chaos, so chaos is real, not a mathematical artifact.

A low level introduction
This book disappointed me - it is written at such a low technical level, with virtually no math.An opportunity squandered.

Great if you are new to the study of chaos
This is a good book for those who are either starting to learn about chaos and nonlinear dynamics or those who would just like an overall view of what the subject is about without getting bogged down into heavy-duty math. This book has two distinct themes. One is to explain the mathematical concept of chaos, and why it is both natural and inevitable. The other is to ask the rather long question "Does the mathematical model of chaos exist in the real world, and does it help us understand some of the things that we see?".

This book covers a variety of subjects that might at first seem unrelated - mathematical history, various chaotic models, weather patterns, applications - but by the end of the book everything comes together to give you a good overall view of the field. This second edition is mainly different from the first in the added three chapters on applications. These chapters cover prediction in chaotic systems, the control of chaotic systems, and then there is a speculative chapter that attempts to explain how the concept of chaos might lead to a new answer to Einstein's famous question which is also the title of this book.

This book requires more imagination and an ability to visualize than a talent for mathematics, and it makes a good introduction to more technical books on the subject such as "Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos" by Strogatz. Of course, that book requires much more in the way of mathematical maturity. This book looks more at the forest, the Strogatz book looks more at the trees. ... Read more

Product Description
You CAN Turn Around Failing Project!

Poor project results are all too common and result in dissatisfied customers, users, and project staff. With countless people, goals, objectives, expectations, budgets, schedules, deliverables, and deadlines to consider, it can be difficult to keep projects in focus and on track. How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control arms project managers with the tools and techniques needed to address these project challenges. The authors provide guidance to develop a project plan, establish a schedule for execution, identify project tracking mechanisms, and implement turnaround methods to avoid failure and regain control. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A powerful pick for any business library
Poor project results are common and result in unhappy customers and users alike: that's why How to Save a Failing Project: Chaos to Control, the collaborative effort of Ralph R. Young, Steven M. Brady, Dennis C. Nagle, Jr., is key for any project where project managers want to assure success. Ralph Young has led projects in local government and management information systems, and has written four books on requirements engineering: others have worked extensively on project teams. The basics of what differentiates success from failure and key tipping points along the way make this a powerful pick for any business library.

Great Tool
This is an excellent book written in very straightforward terms using pertinent examples that provide a solid foundational approach to PM. Important focus is directed at the fundamental and common sense aspects, whose oversight/devalued importance has commonly contributed to project failure.
Having worked with Mr. Brady and Mr. Nagel, (I represented the user community on a very large government project) I witnessed the application of the processes/techniques detailed in this book and can testify to their effectiveness.

Good, Solid Advice
HOW TO SAVE A FAILING PROJECT: CHAOS TO CONTROL by Ralph R. Young et al is a competently written book with a misleading title.It should have been called HOW TO KEEP A PROJECT FROM FAILING, since it's a collection of good project management advice from a voice of experience, but it's not how to triage a project in trouble.Still, it's well-organized and well-presented and could probably replace dozens of its predecessors already lining the project management bookshelves, covering this territory before but not as well.If I were teaching basic project management, I'd certainly consider using this book in class.Planning, team-building, managing expectations, sharing a vision--it's all there, and the authors have obviously been there, done that.

I would, however, like to have found more insights, what to do when you apply this good advice and it doesn't work, when you don't "get stakeholder buy-in" or you can't get the team together for a weekly review of progress or when conflict erupts.I would like to have heard about assembling teams that aren't co-located, teams that span geography, cultures, and languages, which is now often the case.

I also wish the book included more stories.There are a few, but given that our authors seem to have considerable experience, it's too bad they didn't share more of their first-hand experience.Stories always make for better reading than one "now do this" section after another.

I was glad to see, at the end of each chapter, a list of recommended further reading on the topic, including summaries of each book or article so prospective readers will have some idea whether they wish to actually spend time on it.I was glad to see, too, a new (I think it's new) term in the Project Management lexicon:"inch stones."It's about time we stopped thinking everything must be measured in "milestones"!

If you buy only one project management book this year, you'll get your money's worth if you buy this one.It won't catapult your to new heights, but it won't disappoint you if you're looking for a comprehensive view of what it takes to manage projects well.

Learning from experience
There's nothing like learning from experience, especially when it is the experience of others you can learn from. This book is a stellar example of that. These three authors bring a ton of experience and insights that will improve the effectiveness of any IT project manager...not just ones that find themselves trying to recover a troubled project.

This is a book for every IT project manager's personal library.

NOTE - The book "reads" as if it was authored by a single person rather than three...very impressive example of collaboration.

Outstanding PM Resource!
This is, simply put, an outstanding resource for any project manager, whether your project is going well or failing.It's written in plain English, is a fast read, and is loaded with valuable information.I would recommend that this book be read before starting any project just to put in place the mechanisms and processes to prevent the chaos from developing.My favorite aspect of the book is the notes and references.Ralph, Steven and Dennis have loaded this book with numerous references - hard copy and on the web - and I can't wait to go back through the book a second time just to begin following up on those.I will be using this text with my project managers as well as my offshore team to reinvigorate the process-based approach and the fact-based management techniques.I strongly recommend this book to all project and program managers. ... Read more

Product Description
The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and Air

Theodor Schwenk

Translated by Olive Whicher & Johanna Weigley

More than ever before, today we need "water consciousness" and we can begin with this essential and classic book on water as the universal bearer of living, formative processes.

Beginning with simple flowing phenomena of water and air, Schwenk gradually builds up, with the help of marvelous photographs and drawings, the "letters" of an alphabet that will allow us to "read" the living meaning of water.

The spiritual, formative processes are gradually brought to light, and we come to recognize the Creative Word in the universe.

Fully illustrated. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

neither science nor art
I've got to say, I was pretty darn dissapointed with this book. I looked forward to seeing this book for a long time so it hurt especially bad when I saw that it was full of quasi-religious new-agey worthlessness and conpletely devoid of any interesting commentary of the intersections of artistic and scientific inquiry.

Water, Water, Everywhere
It's out-of-print. No one you know has ever heard of this book. No matter: the trouble you may have in finding a copy of Sensitive Chaos will be worth it. The images will remain with you. The text will teach the old dog (you)new tricks. And years and years from now you will still recognize thespiral of water in the things you see, and you'll even feel a little moreconnected to the world. Beautiful book.

A beautiful and poetic view of science
This beautiful book remains scientifically accurate while describing in poetic and spiritual style the flowing of fluids in nature. A beautiful collection of pictures illustrates how even living things follow the rulesof fluid flow as new cells flow forth in the growth process. ... Read more

Product Description
Written by a teenage dyspraxic, this inspiring book is a unique practical guide for dyspraxics and those around them struggling and determined to get to grips with the social, physical and psychological chaos caused by developmental co-ordination disorders (DCDs). In her own conversational style, Victoria Biggs discusses both the primary effects of her 'learning difference' - disorganization, clumsiness and poor short-term memory - and the secondary difficulties she and other dyspraxics encounter, including bullying, low self-esteem and loneliness. She offers down-to-earth advice on a wide range of issues, from body language, puberty, health and hygiene to family life and social skills. Personal stories and 'this-is-what-it's-like-for-me' accounts from other dyspraxic adolescents are also included. Her positive and practical approach and profound empathy with others in her situation make this book a must-read for dyspraxics, their parents and other family members, and for professionals working with them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Finally a real view of dyspraxia instead of clinical explanations
My 10 year old son was recently diagnosed with Dyspraxia and Dysgraphia and it has been a mystery to figure out all the ways they affect him.Reading this book helped me realize which challenges might actually be related to the Dyspraxia and the helpful hints about ways to help him in those areas have already made a huge difference in his confidence and outlook.

I bought 3 copies - one for myself, one for my parents and one for the school so that everyone who works with and interacts with my son on a frequent basis understands the reason he struggles with some things that seem simple to them.

Thank you for a wonderful book!

most helpful book I have read on dyspraxia
I found this book at the perfect time.My son has started middle school and the problems he had before are minor compared to this.The book really gave my husband and me insight into what our son goes through on a daily basis.We feel much more able to understand and help him through yet another difficult time in his life.The book has given us hope.

A great help for Parents and Families
Vickie is a godsend for those of us with Dyspraxic children.We've used this to introduce ideas and approaches with family and friends, as well as, gain a deeper understanding of this challange from the stance of the affected.Although the writting is sometimes a little quirky it's a funny and easy look into the life of the dyspraxic.

Highly recommend
This is a pivotal book for me.While not a clinical, academic description of apraxia/dyspraxia, it does provide a largely overlooked perspective:life from the eyes of someone living with the disorder.Biggs' coping strategies are useful, yet it is her palatable, positive outlook that is most rewarding.It is easy to read, filled with wry, poignant humor and useful suggestions, but not sugar-coating a frustrating existence.As a parent, it would be particularly useful to help understand some of the frustrations an apraxic child may face.As an educator, her suggestions would be useful to consider within the classroom.For an apraxic individual, this book shows you are not alone, that others feel similar differences and frustrations.
Again, this is not a technical, in-depth reference book, instead it aims to resonate and illustrate living with apraxia.If you are looking for a listing of symptoms, manifestation, clear definitions, and scholastic techniques for dealing with apraxia, then this is not the book for you.Whether it is for yourself or another person you care about with apraxia, if your goal is to better understand their perspective then this book is exceptional.

Caged in Chaos
I highly recommend Caged in Chaos because it is a book on Dyspraxia like no other.There are many academic "how to's" regarding this often mis-understood disability, but not one on what it actually is like to be dyspraxic.I really loved the fact that this book gives readers a snapshot into the dyspraxic child's (or teenager's) world.Caged in Chaos sets itself apart from all other books on the subject.How can we really help those with dyspraxia if we don't know what it feels like to walk in their shoes? Also, author Victoria Biggs' light sense of humor is very refreshing.She's an amazing person -- and terrific role model for my dyspraxic son. ... Read more

Product Description
Stranded on the space station when the worst plague the world has even known strikes, the crew of the Pegasus can only watch helplessly as their civilization crumbles. Have the visitors from the other side of the universe truly come to help? Or are they scavengers, come to feed upon the carcass of a once great civilization?Trust is a scarce commodity in the wake of the disaster. Yet, despite her reservations, Danielle finds herself drawn to the visitor, Sabin-perhaps because he is coolly, logically competent in a sea of madness?Rating: Carnal. Contains multiple partners, adult language and situations, graphic violence and sexual encounters.Genre: Futuristic Romance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Chaos Forged-A Joyfully Recommended Title!!
Danielle is part of the crew on the space station when a plague hits the Earth. She and the rest of the crew can only watch helplessly as their civilization appears to crumble and then communications are no longer received.

Just as the crew is debating what to do, do they go home?How long do they wait? Suddenly there is contact with visitors from another solar system.Some of them even look quite humanoid, and they are offering to help the humans with medicines etc.But, many of the space station crew are wondering just how convenient it is that these visitors show up when they do.They all set out to see what can be done on Earth and are in for a shock as to the devastation.

Despite all the reservations Danielle can't help but be drawn to Sabin and On, though she does have a past with fellow crew member Nick, who suddenly seems to want a present also.But are the visitors really there to help or for other nefarious reasons?

Ms. O'Connor is a master in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Erotic Romance genres and Chaos Forged is another example as to why I feel this way.Ms. O'Connor details out the different scenarios that might go through a person's mind if they are confronted with the destruction of most of the Earth's population.Things will not be instantly ok and there are different things that people will have to face as well a phases of acceptance (or not) and Ms. O'Connor does a fantastic job of weaving all of these into Chaos Forged.I Joyfully Recommend Chaos Forged and suggest that you pick it up as soon as you can.

Tanya
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed ... Read more

Product Description
Theologian, mother, and writer Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore gives us some answers to this question and shows us how to integrate and strengthen the practice of faith in the everyday (and often mundane) experience of raising children. In the Midst of Chaos reveals what it takes to find the spiritual wisdom in the messy, familial ways of living. By rethinking parenting as an invitation to discover God in the middle of our busy and overstuffed lives, it relieves parents of the burden of being the all-knowing authority figures who impart spiritual knowledge to children. Finding spirituality in family activities such as reading bedtime stories, dividing household chores, and playing games can empower parents to notice what they are already doing as potentially valuable and to practice it more consciously as part of their own faith journey. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Spirituality of Parenting
Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, In the Midst of Chaos: Caring for Children as Spiritual Practice (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007)

Who will think of parenting as a spiritual practice? Who will think of parenting as being spiritual? For most of us parents, parenting is just basic survival, living day to day. Bonnie Miller-McLemore's book catchy title, In the Midst of Chaos captures the messy aspect of parenting exactly. It also throws a new perspective on parenting.

Bonnie is no ordinary mum. She is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Pastoral Theology at Vanderblit University Divinity School. I wonder what it will be like to have a theologian as your mother. In this book, she invites us to "...(by) rethinking parenting as an invitation to discover God in the middle of our busy and overstuffed lives..." Taking the ordinary task and routine of parenting, Bonnie shows us how to be "contemplating in chaos." She invites us to take kids seriously, dealing justly with them, playing the field (x-box, soccer etc) with them, read from Seuss to Scripture and finally to blessing and letting go.

This is a good read for parents who are struggling with being parents in the midst of chaos. God, have mercy.
... Read more

Product Description
Explore the unexplored - enter The Wilds of the Forgotten Realms(R)!

On the borderof a dangerous, magically unstable area called the Plaguewrought Lands, the leaderof a cult seeking the spread of this wild magic and an alchemist who wants to controlit join forces and create an elixir that allows pilgrims to survive the PlaguewroughtLands. But only one can succeed. A young man with strange powers and a priestessof the god of death will help determine who. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The Edge of Chaos by Jak Koke
The Edge of Chaos by Jak Koke- This is the third book in The Wilds series ofstand-alone novels set in the Forgotten Realms universe. The first novel is The Fanged Crown by Jenna Helland, the second novel is The Restless Shore by James P. Davis, and Wrath of the Blue Lady by Mel Odom is the last. This is Jak Koke's first foray into the Forgotten Realms, he as written other novels in different settings.

The story is about an elixir that could help prevent death from exposure to the Spellplague, a storm that caused magic to go wild and either kills things it touches or scars them, giving the individual powers. We are introduced to a monk named Slanya and a rogue named Duvan, who embark to recover some plaguegrass for the elixir to work. In order to recover the plaguegrass, the duo must travel into the Plaguewrought Lands, a place were the Spellplague is contained. It's almost certain death. However, the elixir as drawn interest from parties that want it to be able to unleash the Spellplague again. Does the duo recover the plaguegrass, come out of the Plaguewrought Land whole, and uncover the plot to release the Spellplague and stops it?

Negatives:
1) Cliché Main Characters. Slanya and Duvan are extremely cliché and it can get bothersome. Duvan is like any other rogue, a mysterious person who is bitter and cynical of everything. He doesn't have many friends (actually he has none), likes to do things on his own, and can be a little headstrong and bitter. Slanya wants to change this mysterious person (am I starting to sound like every movie made about a love story yet?). Then you realize that the two become in "love" (love is used loosely). Seriously sounds like almost every love story doesn't it? While these characters themselves are interesting and engaging, the whole clichéd premise of it does become really distracting and annoying.
2) Errors. I usually won't put something like this in a negative spot, I'd just mention it. However, the whole book is plagued (get it?) with editing overlooks and grammatical errors. I know I may not be the best at grammar, but when a comma is in place of a period and the next word isn't capitalized, the whole sentence becomes drowned in confusion. But that's not the worst part. The editing mistakes are just horrible. There was a sentence in which it reads something like, "change and make and." Now at first glance, that may not be a problem. But then you realize that either "change" or "make" would work in the sentence. So then you come under the understanding that whomever added whichever word meant to take out the first word but forgot to take out the first word. Yes, my previous sentence may be hard to read, but that's what it felt like. It was confusing and just lazy. This has to be the first book that the errors really bothered me. You have an editor for a reason right?
3) Predictable Ending. While the story up until the ending is wonderful and not all that predictable, the ending just gets bogged down in knowing what is going to happen. At least you don't know what is going to happen until a certain person's spellscar is activated, then you pretty much know how it's going to end. Also, you can tell right away what someone is, if you pay attention. I'm not going to give who these people are away, but you can easily figure it out. Even though the ending is a tad bit predictable, the story nevertheless is still interesting.

Positives:
1) Main Characters. While I did say that they were really cliché, the really were still engaging. Duvan's past and what happen to him make him mysterious and interesting. His past is horrible and heartbreaking at the same time. You really do feel sorry for this character and what horrors he'd been through. Slanya's struggle with control and chaos is interesting and well written. You can feel her hatred of disorder and her attitude regarding town life compared to her monastery home. Then you have the way she tries to help Duvan, you begin to see that she does want to be his friend. This aspect of the duo really seems to work. You can believe that they are friends. The end, to see the emotion from the characters about what happened was just beautiful and powerful, sad and heartbreaking.
2) Plot. The plot is fairly interesting, yet basic. It's basic because someone wants to destroy the world (of course!). What makes it different is that it doesn't seem like it's that way. The plot, for me, revolves around the two main characters and how their friendship can change things. But even the basic, everyday plot is engaging. The main characters don't know that what they are doing is going to be for evil. They don't find that out until much later, instead you have pretty much the bulk of the story about these two people changing one another. It's interesting and engaging.
3) Description. Wow. That's all I can say. The way the Plaguewrought Land is described is just breath taking. Now I've read other story that involve plague changed land, but here it's just so chaotic and it's written in a way to make it feel and act chaotic. Honestly, at times you don't know what is even happening, but that's the point. When the duo enter the Plaguewrought Land everything changes so rapidly that it's hard to follow at that you really can't picture this amount of chaos. Now, I may not be sounding like this is a positive, but it is. I really felt so disoriented and confused that I, at times, felt what Slanya or Duvan must be feeling. It's chaos at it's best, and it's written so chaos reigns supremedoing these scenes.

Side Notes:
1) Spellscars. It's about time I find out what these this can do! I've read a few stories involving them, but nothing about them. But here I really understand what they are. And is it me or do they remind me a lot like superhero powers? Or an even better example, they remind me of the television show Heroes.
2) Tyrangal. Duvan's employer (so to speak). Is she really trying to fool anyone? Seriously, from the moment you meet her, it becomes obvious what she is. It was absolutely no shock when you find out.
3) Cover Art. I like it. The other books I didn't really care for (The Fanged Crown and The Restless Shore). Those didn't really seem to have anything to do with the story or were every interesting. Here, however, the vortex that your eye is drawn to appears in the story and the whole wilderness around it really is described like that within the story. Even the two people in the picture are Duvan and Slanya (except Duvan has black leather armor, not green). The only problem is that it's too dark, way too dark.

Overall: 4/5
Final Thoughts:
While I don't really have any major problems except that everything is so cliché, the characters are wonderful, the story is decent, and the descriptions are marvelously chaotic. While The Edge of Chaos isn't the best stand alone novel out there, it is the best one of the previous three (The Fanged Crown and The Restless Shore). I really liked the two main characters and were heart broken at what happens at the end.

Beware the Plaguewrought Lands
First off, I would like to welcome Mr. Koke to the Forgotten Realms. The Edge of Chaos is his first novel in the FR setting and the third in the stand alone series called The Wilds. The first was The Fanged Crown by Jenna Helland, the second, The Restless Shore by James P. Davis and the forth, Wrath of the Blue Lady by Mel Odom is due out in December.

The main plot of The Edge of Chaos revolves around the border of The Plaguewrought Land near Ormpetarr. People are talking a pilgrimage to the town in the hopes of becoming spellscarred and thus receiving magical abilities. The only problem is that the chaotic nature of the spell plague lands mostly results in death. There is a better chance of survival here though since an alchemist named Gregor has an elixir to make people immune to the fatal effects. Vraith, the leader of the Order of Blue Fire has plans for the elixir. Then there is the main protagonist, Duvan, who works freelance acquiring things. Mostly he works for Tyrangal who is head of the Copper guard. Duvan is joined by Slanya who journeys with him on a quest. There are subplots of a couple of the characters pasts, and evil ambition, and an eventual love interest.

Like all new FR novels, this one takes place 100 years after the spell plague events. The plot takes a different approach to the spellscarred people. Usually people who have become spellscarred are shunned or prejudiced against, however, in this one the people are looking to become spellscarred. The pacing was done very well. It never bogs down and moved nicely from one scene to the next and kept me interested. The book also flowed quite well even with a few hiccups here and there. I cam across 12 mistakes which could have been taken care of with some good editing. I won't claim to know the ins and outs of creating a book, but I have noticed lately that there are a lot of mistakes in the FR books. More so than before. I still enjoyed the book very much otherwise.Mr. Koke does a really good job of developing the characters. Each one had their own voice and they all had flaws adding to their realism. Vraith was about the only character that I really didn't care for. I just couldn't connect with her and as the main antagonist, she didn't feel that threatening. Aside from a couple, the secondary characters, I felt, could have added a bit more to the story, especially at the end. This story runs in at 278 pages. In order to get it to over the 300 page mark, WotC put in a long excerpt to a forthcoming novel. These pages could have been used to provide some more background of a couple characters or added more the ending battle. Those are just my thoughts.

Some Criticisms

1.I would have liked more about Vraith. I feel a little more depth to her character could have enhanced her and made it easier to connect with her.

2. ]The climax at the end could have had more to it. Also it was mostly predictable. Sometimes I like it when I can predict the outcome of certain events, however, for this one, even though I did not get everything predicted, a different approach to the ending or more expansion may have improved on it.

3.This is minor and most readers may miss them, but the differing mistakes throughout, became annoying, especially at the end. Like I said, I don't know all the processes that go into creating a book, but there have been more mistakes than usual with FR books.

4.To avoid spoilers, I will provide limited info here. There is a place that the characters travel to and I don't know if there could have been monsters there, but a battle or two would have been nice during this section.

Some Positives

1.The main characters had nice depth to them. Even the main protagonist had flaws and seemed more real. The character development was well done and the majority of the main characters were easy to connect with.

2.The pilgrimage plot line was nice and fresh. I really enjoyed the fact that people were going out and trying to receive spell scars. It was a different take on the subject and I liked that angle instead of everyone fearing those that are spellscarred.

3.The spellscars themselves. When a person becomes spellscarred, they can obtain abilities and just about anything can happen. The possibilities for the different abilities are endless. The ones that Mr. Koke uses for certain characters were awesome. They added to the enjoyment of the book very much. They were not over the top and were very believable.

Overall, I was entertained greatly.There were times that I just could not put the book down. If this is just an introduction of the things to be expected my Mr. Koke, then I believe he could have a long and successful career with WotC. I look forward to reading his future FR novels. I believe that veterans and new readers of the Realms will enjoy this book. It can be read, understood, and enjoyed without prior knowledge of the Forgotten Realms. I recommend this this one for all readers of fantasy.

-Dimndbangr

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Product Description
In the fiery aftermath of apocalypse, America, as we knew it, disappeared - and was reborn as the Tri-States. Under the Rebel law of Ben Raines, there are no slums, no gangs, and no crime. But a new breed of anarchists and malcontents have banded together to destroy everything Ben Raines and his army have risked their lives - and the future of America - to build. As devastating civil war turns race against race, brother against brother, and the nation's once-peaceful citizens into a modern-day barbarians, the Tri-States explode in a firestorm of violence and chaos. Now it's up to Ben Raines and the Rebel Army to put the Red, White and Blue democracy back into business ...before the red dawn of Armageddon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Fast Moving Action But Hardly Believable
In author William W.Johnstone 304-page continuation of the "Ashes" Series, Ben Raines, having taken some setbacks previously, now feels strong enough to not only regain the lost ground, but press on to other (former) states, setting up two of the regions that will eventually make up the Tri-state set up he envisions for the USA after it was destroyed in the Great War 10 years before.

As a former infantry combat Marine operator, I tried not to be too harsh, but some of the military descriptions reached pretty far out there. As an example, on page 49, the author advises us the MBT's had been reworked to allow them to run on diesel, gasoline or aviation fuel. Hmm, not real sure I would want to be in the vehicle with 22-1 compression ratio needed to run diesel fuel, when avgas was dumped in. Pieces of your vehicle the size of your fist would be found in the next county. You....would be vaporized.

He also discusses his Air Force which is made up of P-51 Mustangs. Let's get real here, North American Aviation's Mustangs were the finest of the last prop-driven fighters, but that would have been 7 decades before Raines' time.

Movements of large armored formation just doesn't seem real in a world of very limited manufacturing of fuel and material'.

But in his defense, Johnstone keeps the action going for a fast-paced survivalist novel. But I felt it could easily have been made more believable*.

* See review of James Wesley Rawles survival novel "Patriot".

chaos review
I received the book in a decent amount of time and it was in the condition advertised.What more can I ask for?Thank you.

The Whole Ashes Series
I have read every book of the series at least twice. I think the
series is one of the best. I have also read some of his other books.
I would like to know if the author ever comes to Portland,OR.

Another Great Novel in the Ashes series!!
"Chaos in the Ashes" is an action-filled novel in the continuing saga of thedynamic"Ashes" series and Ben Raines is the quintessential hero representative of the kind of leader we would all hope to have in the event of government breakdown ... Read more

Product Description
Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony. But, the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes he can see in Earth's heavens - particularly that bright star, right...there. No not that one, that one, there, on the left... The world's population is slowly being converted to a new path, a new way of thinking. Something is coming to Earth, an ancient force from the Dark Times.Something powerful, angry, and all-consuming! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

One of the best Doctor Who novels I've ever read
Really can't recommend this one highly enough.Well-written, with thoughtful attention to the characters and respectful of canon.This could easily have been an episode of the series.I hope Mr. Russell has written more!

Chaotic trip home
What such a thing to have happen when you go home for family time.Bernanrd Cribbins does such an excellent job in reading this story.Shivers ran down my spine when I considered an alien intellegence taking over a specific genetic ethnic group (ie. the Italians). It's a mad cap adventure involving the Doctor, Donna, Wilf, a sweet lady w/Alzheimers and two boys when they team up to go after the Mandragora. Who knew that horoscopes could be so exciting?

Meet the Noble family
The Doctor and Donna in action again!Well, not really, more of a flash back, but that still counts.Chaos is coming and it has been here before.In fact, I've met it before too.The evil we are about to face was in Doctor Who, during the Fourth Doctor's adventures.That's right, Tom Baker fans, a certain evil from Italy is back.If you have no idea what I am talking about, I would suggest you get Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora (Story 86).
Outside of the threat to Earth, Mankind, the Universe and so on, the focus seems to be on the Noble Family and, mostly, on Wilf, who is a great character and I hope they have more books with him.Or maybe his own spin off series!
Well, maybe not, but still it is a good book to sit down with, have some tea and cookies, and just enjoy it on a rainy day.

More Donna Novels, please!
I waited anxiously for the Donna/Doctor Ten novels to come out, and on the whole, I was not disappointed; and "Beautiful Chaos" is the best.Unfortunately, they appear to have saved the best for last, because it doesn't look like there will be any more Donna books (Martha got twelve!).This is sad, because of all the Doctor Ten books, the ones with Donna are pretty much just as good as most of Season Four was -- sharp, funny, and touching, often all at once.

The characterization of Donna, Wilf, and most importantly, the Doctor, are excellent here; Gary Russell does a fine job of capturing the voices, to the point where you can almost see it as filmed episode rather than novel.His twists and turns are excellent, and despite the sadness of the ending (no spoilers)--or perhaps because of it--this does stand as one of the finest of the Young Adult Doctor Ten novels.

I just wish they had opted for more Doctor Ten/Donna novels.It's a shame her time with the Doctor was cut so short when she was such a very good companion!

Great Dr. Who book
Normally these pulp books based on a TV series are disappointing, but like another commenter pointed out it did feel like a Doctor Who episode. Great fun read overall. ... Read more

Product Description
Han Ong has written a brilliant exploration of race and class, of character and identity, and of the slippery natures of privilege and expertise. William Paulinha, a Filipino street hustler, is in the early days of self-imposed reform when he meets Shem C. A failed writer now ostracized by his wife and New York City's literati, Shem recruits Paulinha to retaliate against the community that has spurned him. Under Shem's guidance, Paulinha becomes Master Chao, a revered practitioner of Feng Shui—the Chinese art of creating a harmonious environment. As this latter-day confidence man cuts a swath through upper-crust society, his biting observations form a comic picaresque of class resentment and revenge.
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Customer Reviews (16)

Underneath it All, We're All Pretty Much the Same
William Paulinha is an aimless, Filipino street hustler in New York who's done plenty of menial jobs, including turning tricks in the Port Authority men's room. Then one day he's given a chance to improve his lot by Shem C, an embittered social-climbing writer, who wants revenge on the upper crust of Manhattan's elite who have rejected him. Under Shem C's guidance and armed with the knowledge from a few library books, William is transformed into Master Chao, a revered Feng Shui practitioner from Hong Kong. William, as Master Chao, performs Feng Shui ceremonies to harmonize the homes and the lives of his clients and before long Manhattan's loftiest poets, writers, editors and bankers are all clamoring for his advice.

As the scam escalates, the line between truth and untruth starts to blur. William becomes Master Chao in his mind. His original class envy and disdain is replaced by his desire to belong. Is it really a scam if he believes in it himself? Has the Feng Shui con of the century turned on him?

With caustic wit, Mr. Ong paints a picture of the foolishness of keeping up with the Jones's, but he also shows his readers that underneath even a pile of wealth, people are pretty much the same in this novel that I couldn't put down.

Outstanding Satire
An outstanding literary debut by playwright Han Ong, Fixer Chao manages to be a brilliant satire of the excesses of elitist Manhattanites in the late 90s, while at the same time managing to be a riveting portrait of a failed American dream.Darkly funny and at times very touching, this novel delves into many themes and is a roller coaster of a ride for both us and our protagonist

William Narcisco Paulinha is a simple, humble man, an immigrant for whom the American Dream has fallen terribly short.Smarter than his circumstances would indicate, William is a thoughtful man, one who would rather devalue himself than others, a mind-set completely opposite of the cut-throat world of Manhattan in which he lives.These days, he types manuscripts for aspiring writers, a much better job than his previous outing as a hustler turning tricks in the Port Authority bus terminal. Lonely and frustrated, William is above all a man who wants to do good, and he is on the verge of turning his life around when a fateful meeting takes place.

One night, at a seedy bar William frequents, he meets Shem, an abrasive, bitter man recently thrown out of his home by his wife, the daughter of a famous novelist. Shem is a social climber (though not terribly good at it), a struggling novelist and a relatively unsuccessful author of celebrity profiles.Having never quite fit into Manhattan's elite, Shem has a plan, a way to exact revenge upon those who see themselves better, smarter and more talented than poor old Shem.Knowing the lemming like quality of the city's upper crust, Shem knows exactly where to hit them, right in their own naiveté. His targets have all the right clothing, the perfect cars, the buzz-inducing interior designers, but most of all they have the desire--no, the absolute need--to be at the forefront of the latest trends, every hot "new thing."Shem has everything he needs to succeed, everything except the Chinese man who can pull it all off.

Shem propositions William to take part and become William Chao, a Feng Shui expert from the mysterious East.Shem explains that all William need do is learn a little about the ancient art and ingratiate himself to the elitists to whom Shem will introduce him.From there, it is simple...enter into their lives and do exactly what they want. Arrange their homes to capture the chi, make their living spaces a conduit for successes even beyond their own imaginations.And when he has won their trust, when their lives are on the upswing because of Master Chao's remarkable gift, pull the rug out from under them by doing one thing wrong.Leave out one simple aspect--a mirror is the wrong place, a bed facing an open doorway--something small that will cause their lives to unravel.

William agrees and embarks upon an adventure that works perfectly as he--no, his alter ego, the Fixer Chao--is lauded and rises to the level of celebrity, the man who can make everything right, the Master whose ancient art can only improve one's life.But just as William becomes enamored with his new persona, with his life amongst the well-to-dos, and starts believing that he does have the "gift," Shem reminds him that it is time to turn the tables.A deal is a deal after all.

Slowly, Fixer Chao weaves subtle mistakes into his work, things no one--especially those who truly know nothing about so mysterious and alluring an art--will notice.And lives begin to unravel.Is it because Master Chao has the power, or is it simply the upper crust's own foibles leading to their downfall? Even William is not quite sure.But just when everything is working perfectly, William meets Kendo, the moody, sexy, appealing son of one of Fixer Chao's most famous clients.And when Kendo catches on to William's real identity and the game he is playing, more than just Kendo's mother's life begins to fall apart.

For me, Fixer Chao was a book I just didn't want to see end.Ong's style is seamless, his words deftly drawing not only a caricature of the time, but a rich life into which one is absorbed.He balances the opulence and excesses of the high-life in Manhattan with the dreary reality of William's real life, and in the process creates two completely opposite worlds co-existing in the same space.The character of William is almost an anti-hero, someone who is terribly flawed, but someone for whom you just want everything to turn out right.And when William meets Kendo, the spark, the attraction is palpable.You just want them both to get together, get away from the shackles of their respective lives.But this isn't a fairy-tale.There isn't a happily ever after here.

Ong is masterful with the prose, rich without ever falling into excesses.He draws his characters fully, with a deft hand, and makes us care about them despite ourselves.The result is a truly satisfying story with wonderful social commentary.It is a story about a twisted sort of love...the love of self, the love of the spotlight, the love of success, but over all, this is a biting satire about the lengths anyone can go to when they are tempted...or naive enough to believe.Highly, highly recommended and one of my essential gay-themed books.

Dark, Funny, Touching
The Fixer Chao is one of those books that you never want to put down, but force yourself to, lest it be over too quickly.Funny, dark and touching with out being trite or manipulative, the story is an entertaining ride with a lead character who, despite his faults, is completely engaging. Ong manages a vivid, descriptive style without the reader ever feeling like he or she is being bombarded with superfluous, flowery language. The result is that the atmosphere, setting, and personal quirks of each character wash over you with ease.As to the ending, despite what others have said, I found it completely satisfying.Was it the ending I expected? No. Was it the ending I wanted? No. It was, however, true to the story and the characters and any other "happier" ending would have seemed out of place and forced. A stand-out book.

Strangely appealing
This book has ebbs and flows. In the beginning, I really liked the portrait of seedy New York, then it dragged for a while, then I liked it, and finally I was lukewarm about the resolution. Overall, though, it was enjoyable, funny, and thoroughly without redeeming characters.

William Paulinha (aka Master Chao) reads a few books on feng shui so that he can con the rich effetes out of their money. Interestingly, he really believes that feng shui works, so sometimes he uses this power for evil when arranging people's houses. There are several very funny scenes about interior decorating, snobby parties, and Chao's observations about human nature.

The problem with the book, which I ultimately enjoyed, is that there are no characters to like much at all ... if that's a problem for you. If you want a funny, cutting, not nice view of the world, then step right up to Fixer Chao.

Clever, funny and believable.
Takes a thoroughly accurate stab at Manhattan snobbery and what it means to be 'in'. The story is unpredictable, the characters captivating, the finale satisfying and strangely hopeful. ... Read more

Product Description
Over the past two decades, no field of scientific inquiry has had a more striking impact across a wide array of disciplines–from biology to physics, computing to meteorology–than that known as chaos and complexity, the study of complex systems. Now astrophysicist John Gribbin draws on his expertise to explore, in prose that communicates not only the wonder but the substance of cutting-edge science, the principles behind chaos and complexity. He reveals the remarkable ways these two revolutionary theories have been applied over the last twenty years to explain all sorts of phenomena–from weather patterns to mass extinctions.

Grounding these paradigm-shifting ideas in their historical context, Gribbin also traces their development from Newton to Darwin to Lorenz, Prigogine, and Lovelock, demonstrating how–far from overturning all that has gone before–chaos and complexity are the triumphant extensions of simple scientific laws. Ultimately, Gribbin illustrates how chaos and complexity permeate the universe on every scale, governing the evolution of life and galaxies alike. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Unengaging Thesis
I came to this book via a recommendation by Charlie Munger, and while I can appreciate why he would like it (as the book is very multi-discipline), I found the central thesis to be a little weakly supported by the material.It's a book on chaos theory, yes, but it sometimes feels simply like a summary of some disparate areas of study (astronomy, evolution, etc).

A Fantastic Read
The book was a fascinating (and deep) introduction into Chaos Theory's history, science, and flowering applications. If you have any interest in the emergence, development or complexity of systems, this would be a great first book. Gribbin's writing is engaging as usual; while the first 70-80 pages may be a bit slow-going, the book is more than worth it by the end.
For a better appreciation of the world around you, make this book your next purchase.

Life defies the heat death theory of the Universe
1. Murray Gell-Mann stats that is simplicity that underpins complexity and makes life possible.
2. The number of molecules in a box the size of a matchbox is 10 power 23. A type mole at a temperature of 0 Celsius was four million collisions a second.Air is continuous medium.Joseph Loschmidt calculated the number of molecules in one cubic centimeter of gas at temperature 0 Celsius 2.687 X 10 power 19 molecules.The pressure could be calculated from kinetic theory, in terms of free path, the average speed of the molecules, and so on.Fewer large molecules would have a long free path and if there were many small molecules there would be a shorter mean free path.Statistical mechanics is the application of the law of mechanics in a statistical way to describe the behavior of large numbers of atoms and molecules in gases.If every collision of an atom could be predicted and controlled entropy would be in equilibrium.Collision with uncorrelated atoms increases the amount of entropy.
3. Thermodynamics explain why heat flow from a hotter object to a cooler object. Entropy is heat that cannot be turned into mechanical energy.As entropy increases then information describing the entropy increases.Information can be created and not destroyed. Think of entropy as the amount of order in a system.The more disorder in the system the more entropy in the system.Disorder increases in any closed system.Things wear out as time passes.The time arrow is moving from an ordered past to a disordered present.
4. Image a box divided in two halves divided by a partition.Fill one half with gas and the second half is in a vacuum state. Slide the partition up and the gas will spread uniformly and temperature drops because there is less collision between the atoms. You can restore the original state by pushing the gas back into chamber one using a piston then sliding the partition closed.Heat will increase as the atoms are being compressed closer to each other.The Work of the Piston creates heat in the chamber and heat is dissipated as friction.The system is restored but more heat is dissipated, as a result. The machine cannot be 100% efficient and must dissipate heat into the Universe at large.
5. The arrow of time is built into the laws of thermodynamics and statistical mechanics.The Universe is operating in an irreversible way.The universe's program does not reverse back to its initial state.Atoms don't retract their path backwards through each Newtonian collision.The gases in the box spread uniformly and settle into equilibrium and maximum entropy is achieved in the system.The final state is said to be an attractor because the system seems to be attracted towards that state. By the time the system reaches equilibrium it has forgotten its initial conditions.
6. Life defies the heat death theory of the Universe where useful energy has been converted into heat.Life creates order and structure out of disorder. Thomson Clausius's equation show that anywhere there is increased order, it does so at the cost of more disorder somewhere else.A refrigerator exchange heat from fluids being pumped around, the compression is cooling down water into ice and reversing entropy while the heat is dissipating into the environment increasing more entropy.
7. When does a system reach equilibrium?There is no isolate system.The system gets close to equilibrium but never settles perfectly.If hydrogen and hydrogen sulfide are at equilibrium in the boxes and one box is made slightly warmer than the other then the light hydrogen will group near the warmer region.A very small deviation from equilibrium has produced order from chaos.A system that is close to equilibrium will be attracted to a state where the rate at which the entropy is being produced is a minimum. Life would be attracted to intelligence demonstrably because of low entropy.
8. Assume 300 billion bright stars and 300 bright galaxies in the Universe would yield 9,000 X 10 power 19 bright stars in the visible Universe.When divided by Loschmidt number in 450 cubic centimeters of cold air there would be more molecules than stars.The molecules free path mean is 13th millionths of a meter traveling at 460 meters a second.The time for all the molecules to congregate on one side of the matchbox is longer than the existence of the Universe.
9. Boltzmann said, the Milkyway must represent a small local fluctuation away from the equilibrium of the bigger cosmos.Is the cosmos an infinite uniformly expanding bubble?
10. Poincare reccurrence time states that every state of gases will be passed through.If entropy goes up for a while, it must come down, later on, and bring the gas back to its original state. N is the number of molecules.The time to wait to run through the states is 10 power N seconds.The time to run through the states of one cubic centimeter of air is 10 power 19 seconds.The age of the known Universe is 10 power 17 seconds.It is probably for entropy to fall.

Complexity from Chaos

1. Nonequilibrium thermodynamics refers to the flow of energy through a system and the dissipation of heat.Dissipative systems are thought to be irreversible when they follow linear rules.The Universe first started with a smooth and uniform distribution of energy and gases.How did the uniiform state characterized by high disorder move towards the formation of ordered galaxies?
2. What happens just before the onset of Chaos?A system can only be held in an interesting state away from equilibrium if it is dissipative and open to its environment.The early Universe was open to its environment and dissipative with energy convection and broken symmetry.Convection caused short-lived patterns to emerge, breakup, and reform.Stable patterns appeared at the edge of chaos.Energy was flowing through the system and the flow of energy must have been external.The flow of energy is the secret of the existence of the Universe.
3. Equilibrium means death and no energy flow.
4. Dynamics is the study of how things change.
5. The Universe could have started as a singularity where the gravitational field was carrying on an equal and opposite amount of energy.Gravity attracts bodies of mass.The Kinetic energy of particles falling together has a gravitational field.Gravity has a negative energy.The negativity of gravity exactly cancels out the mass-energy of matter.
6. Space is stretching between clusters of galaxies.Space is expanding with time.Space and time relate as describe by Einstein's General Theory of relativity.
7. The time arrow starts as energy flows out of the sun, at this point thermodynamic activity occurs on the earth.Gravity tells the time arrow the direction it should point.Earth is bathed in energy from the Sun, a dissipative system.Life makes use of the energy maintaining itself far from equilibrium.Systems organize and use the flow of energy.Complex forms are really quite simple.

A Top 5 Book of the Decade - Non-Fiction
Upon my second reading of Deep Simplicity, I am of the belief that it is one of the Top 5 non-fiction books of the decade that just closed. This is because the author John Gribbin takes us on a wonderful step-by-step education of the sciences of Chaos, Complexity, Biology, Evolution, Power Laws, and Entropy, to build story on how closed systems can maintain life at the edge of complexity as we know it.

In addition, the UK hardcopy has a wonderful front cover of Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave of Kanagawa" which displays the chaos of the ocean and in the background is the view of the tranquil Mount Fuji. Deep Simplicity: Chaos Complexity and the Emergence of Life (Penguin Press Science) Also, this first hardcopy publication in England has a more accurate sub-title about the story of the book "Chaos, Complexity, and the Emergence of Life" than its sister US publication (see link above).

I decided to reread Deep Simplicity after enjoying reading Complexity - A Guided Tour which is a good introductory start on the subject matter of self-organizing systems, power laws, and stuff of complexity. I would also recommend the following which you may also like: Ubiquity (Very Good), Black Swan (Economic Game Changer), Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics (Introduction to Fractals, Power Laws), and A Matter of Degrees (New Insights).

The physical foundations for chaos, complex systems, order and life / Mr. Gribbins did me a favor
This book presents chaos and complexity theory deeply rooted in their mathematical/physical foundations, starting with Newton's laws. Although Mr. Gribbin presents some difficult concepts and formulas in the first part of the book, I would say that with a truly concentrated reading a layperson - like myself - can understand it; the rest of the book reads more smoothly. In this difficult part of the book, the author explains statistical physics and thermodynamics, including entropy and "the arrow of time" (very well explained) as well as fractals and the related maths. He explains that gravity is the essential prerequisite of life, without which there would be no way of temporarily breaking the second law of thermodynamics to reduce entropy. For the brief period of time that comprises the life of an organism, this law is broken; when the organism dies, its energy is released and an equilibrium state takes over. Without gravity, all energy would be dissipated and no life would be possible. In these chapters you can admire Mr. Gribbin's mastery of these concepts as well as his passion for the subject, since astrophysics is his true area of expertise. You can probably find the explanations of the rest of the book in other sources, but Mr. Gribbin's astrophysical background puts them in a different perspective.

Mr. Gribbins did me a great favor by explaining the true "Gaia" concept as well as the scientific work of Mr. Lovelock and his background both in chemistry and in the building of sensitive measuring equipments. I held the wrong and widespread idea that "Gaia" was a term used to define our planet as a truly living organism linked to some New Age philosophical ideas. Reading that it is a term to define a complex system in the thermodynamical sense and which comprises several smaller systems (ecosystems) that interact with Gaia and between themselves, is quite another story. The anecdote of Mr. Lovelock's proposed experiment to find life on Mars by analyzing the chemical composition of its atmosphere (whether its atmosphere is in equilibrium or not, whether the oxygen is bound to other elements, not allowing for chemical reactions and whether you can find compounds that are chemical signs of life - like CO2) was excellent. The NASA team did not follow Mr. Lovelock's recommendation to take samples of Mars' atmosphere, but used several equipments designed by him in the Mars Mission to look for life on the planet's surface. Today, scientists are using an adapted version of his proposal to look for life in distant planets without leaving the earth, using spectrography to obtain the chemical composition of their atmospheres. Inspired by what I read in this book about Gaia, I have now read Microcosmos: Four Billion Years of Microbial Evolution, whose authors are strong supporters of this theory. Excellent book on how microorganisms re-shaped our planet's chemical composition.

In this book you can read about chaotic systems like the weather in which a tiny variation in the initial conditions leads to a radically different outcome (butterfly effect), about systems in perfect equilibrium, as well as about self-sustained criticalities, which are systems at the edge of chaos, where life emerges. I would like to share the best and most simple explanation of entropy and thermodynamics, as well as of complex adaptive systems and self-sustained criticalities that I have read - intended for truly lay audiences, (read cero math or physics, but not lacking depth) Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity, and the Radical Remaking of Economics. For an excellent explanation of statistical physics and power laws read Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another. In my opinion Chaos: Making a New Science is still the broadest and best explained book on the topic. Another fascinating take at it is Sync: How Order Emerges From Chaos In the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life, written by a mathematician who somehow managed to write an easy and accessible book without any maths (this book contains the best explanation of strange attractors that I have read). ... Read more

Product Description
Want to learn how to get organized but don't want to slog through a 300 page narrative? Then this book is for you! So many organizing books can be intimidating, but this book is a short, upbeat and cleverly illustrated guide that weaves humorous, true stories in with loads of organizing tips. The concise chapters will help you organize every room in your house, including the basement and garage. Also included are chapters on time management, moving, tag sales, disaster preparedness, and how to prevent a clutter relapse. Perhaps most valuable is guidance on how to get off junk mail and telemarketing lists, and where to dispose of everything from batteries to sport equipment. Reading this book is like getting advice from a trusted friend. Using stories that will make you laugh at yourself, Rosemary will help you: find what you need when you need it; eliminate time wasters and control interruptions; simplify and streamline your life; decide what to keep and what to throw away; break the habits that prevent you from being organized; and identify organizing products that really work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (18)

No chaos here
This was notquiteas good as the book by Gail Blanke. They were givento my pack rat son. Now we'll see if he does anything about it.

Understanding Clutter at Last
Brilliant little book that doesn't bog you down in why you do what you do.It simply makes it clear that you can change what you've been doing and put more efficient systems in place.She's clear in her suggestions and practical advice and never pontificates.I thoroughly endorse this book for anyone with a clutter issue.(And the book is small enough that it doesn't add to the clutter in your home!)

good insight and practicality to a frustrating situation
easy reading, specific identification of 'stumbling/distractions' and practical options. The book is useful, practical and worth keeping.

A Find!
A great book!Even if you think you're an organized person - or if you know you're not - this book
will please.Filled with many helpful web sites and tips on how to make your life easier!Amusing
and motivating.

Buy This Book First!
There are many organizing books available out there to help us get organized but if you have yet to purchase one that you hope may answer many of the questions you have about reducing clutter in your life you've come to the right book. Buy this book first because it outlines all the basics one would need to meet the challenge of disorganization, frustration and clutter. The author does a great job of hitting on areas that most of us can relate to. She makes you feel that she is right there speaking to you. ... Read more

Product Description
A gutsy, sincere, scientifically-based business case for bringing more heart into organizations. Presents HeartMath's impeccable biomedical research and highly practical tools for humanizing business, building people and organizations that respond gracefully to change, crisis and challenge. Clients such as Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada, Nortel, Cisco Systems, Lucent, BP and Royal Dutch Shell are empowering their talented workforce with these tools. Well-documented examples and organizational case studies illustrate impressive changes.

The book introduces Inner Quality Management(r) (IQM), which has four dynamics: Internal Self-Management, Coherent Communication, Boosting Organizational Climate and Strategic Processes of Renewal. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A great presentation to understand Heartmath background and application
This CD ROM based course is an excellent review of application of The HeartMath Solution: The Institute of HeartMath's Revolutionary Program for Engaging the Power of the Heart's Intelligence in improving business effectiveness. This course provides the scientific research and concepts on how Heartmath works and provides detailed instruction on Heartmath techniques: Freeze frame and Heart Lock-In. It also provides several forms that one can use to apply Heartmath in business (and personal life). It also comes with suggested use of these forms in common business situations.

Definitely a great course to have for someone who is looking at reducing stress and improving their emotional capacity to handle situations that came up in today's fast pace of business.

From Chaos to Coherence
I purchased this along with the emwave stress reliever for my boyfriend that has a high stress job.The two together seem to help him stay more focused on dealing with issues at work.They were a good investment.

Much more than a book
This CD gives almost two hours of video clips, mostly by Bruce Cryer with Rollin McCraty, who has done much of the research behind HeartMath and Alan Watkins and many others. Though the image is small and resolution poor, it is a great help to attend lectures by these outstanding personalities through this CD.[Bruce seems to use a predominantly left hand gesture in talking. I wonder if that would indicate more right-brain dominance. When he speaks about coherence, he tends to use both hands more often.]Key points are summarised in bigger power-point slides that help you to grasp what is being said.6 relevant questions on the use of HeartMath and IQM (Inner Quality Management)are answered in video clips by many experts.In the "Tools" section, you get guided audio exercises on Freeze-Frame and Heart Lock-in, various forms for practising HeartMath skills and "Needs Assessment" on when to do what.Internet links are given to the HeartMath websites and for more case studies and a bibliography of 48 books.The section "Getting Coherent" gives you various textual tips on being a coherent: "you", "you as manager" and "your organization"."Deep Content" gives most of the book (first edition) in text.There is a search function for these two sections.In a revised edition, I hope the texts will be based on the new edition.If Doc Childre could also appear in the video clips, maybe playing some pieces of HeartMath music, together with all the other key HeartMath personnel, that would really enhance the heart feeling of appreciation.

Microsoft of Emotional Coherence
I have been recommending the first edition to friends in the field of management.The authors are admirable in their willingness to make a fair amount of revisions and expand on their book in less than than 2 years.Such is the speed of change!This is a very satisfying and useful book.It is interesting and easy to follow.Given many good reviews, including those for the first edition, I'll refrain from adding more praise or give any summary ideas.As Scott Shuster, the Founding Director of Business Week, has said well in the Foreword: "There is no limit to the potential of HeartMath because at root it is a simple, physical act: a mental formation, a thought with physical effects.It is neither philosophy, faith, nor belief.The essentially physical character of the practice enables its easy application across all the barriers that customarily divide humanity.... Within this potential universality lies HeartMath's immense promise: If everybody did this, what a wonderful world."It won't be surprising if HeartMath becomes as widely known and used as the Microsoft of the world of emotional coherence.

An important book
This is an important book.At some level we all know there must be a better way to be in the world.Quite simply this book, and the simple but powerful tools it provides, can help you to transform the quality of your life.It has for me.

The Freeze Frame tool, and its associated variants, can be applied quickly and easily in a wide variety of situations to improve one's performance, productivity and personal satisfaction. These tools are based on the simple fact that it takes only a minute to shift your focus and change your perceptions.From Chaos to Coherence invites you to see for yourself what such a shift in focus and perception can mean in terms of your ability to deal with stress effectively, enhance your creativity or improve your leadership abilities.

Whether you are an employee trying to cope with change and an increasingly demanding work environment, a middle manager who is trying to balance many conflicting forces, or an executive who is seeking to inspire excellent performance this book provides many valuable insights and practical, powerful tools.What's more these approaches have been tested and proven to be effective through careful research in many Fortune 500 companies, government agencies as well as many private businesses.

This is an important book because it presents a simple technique that is so fundamental and sound that I have trouble understanding why everyone isn't already using this approach.

The Freeze-Frame methodology is sure to provide a significant competitive advantage for those corporate leaders and managers who are interested in creating healthier and more productive environments in the information/internet age.God knows we need such approaches to help us keep pace with the demands and changes of our times.

I highly recommend this book, and the HeartMath tools and approach.Bruce, Doc and the staff at the Institute of HeartMath have done a great job in developing and bringing these approaches into the corporate arena.It is now up to us to use them to determine the fruits they can bear in our own lives.I encourage you to buy this book and try these tools and see for yourself what they can do to increase the quality of your life and the performance of you, your team, and your organization. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

MLK had three dreams
We all know about Dr Kings civil rights work, and his I HAVE A DREAM speach.Did you know that he had two other dreams? This book that explains Dr Kings vision for the end of poverty has been out of print 40 years. We could have ended povery a decade ago, except we choose to attach Iraq and blow up a trillion dollars doing it instead of ending poverty.Get the book, read Dr Kings formula for ending poverty, and try to help his dream come true.

amazing book
Very inspiring book and written in such a way that it drags you in and you want to go on and on reading. Very good example of nonviolent resistance movement.

A Wake-Up Call to Heal
This is an amazing and important book, out of print for much too long.It is an impassioned and urgent call to heal.Because it was written in the 1960's it is really two books.Part of the book is of important and historical interest.This involves Dr. King's take on what was going on in the country.

But the other part of the book is Dr. King's rallying cry of "Where do we go from here?"There are so many thoughts I could lift from the book to share.But given the space, here are just a few:

"Together we must learn to live as brothers or together we will be forced to perish as fools."Dr. King goes on to add, "The question now is, do we have the morality and courage required to live together as brothers and not be afraid?"

Dr. King was clearly seeing our drift towards chaos, and just as clearly was warning us that we must move towards community or perish.This is an even more urgent book today as it was in the 1960's.It is a book not only to read but refer back to, over an over.My sermon yesterday was on our propensity to divide ourselves into "us" and "them."Dr. King was a great believer in "us" - and far more eloquent than I can ever hope to be on the subject.Dr. King's point was that if we cannot find our common humanity, we must and will perish.In the end, there is no "them."There is only "us."

Civil Rights 1967
Dr. King's penultimate book provides a snapshot of where we were in 1967.Two turning points had been reached.

First, his program of nonviolent direct action was clearly winning the struggle against old fashioned southern segregation, and Dr. King was looking toward the next step.He believed that the next logical step toward setting people free was a massive government program addressing the problem of poverty.

Second, within the civil rights movement, a "black power" mentality was gaining prominence.Some argued that whites should be excluded from the civil rights movement, and that nonviolence should be abandoned.Dr. King insisted that this approach would only balkanize our country, having disastrous effect, especially on blacks.

As with his other books, the author's brilliance, his scholarship, and his Christian love all come through.

It would be best to read "Stride Toward Freedom" and "Why We Can't Wait" before reading this one.

The Truth Straight From The Source
The beauty and depth of this book is that it tells us about human political relations today even though it was written over 30 years ago!

I also like that it is Martin Luther King in his own words (not some opportunistic interpretation of his ideas) on subjects like:
Black Power
Affirmative Action
Poverty
Love

It also makes it painfully clear the Martin Luther King Jr. was far more extraordinary in his leadership than we give him credit for being today.He thought deeply, connected the dots, and put his life behind his ideals.This is a must read for anyone who hasn't already connected the dots between justice, religion and love. ... Read more

Product Description
"Introducing Chaos" explains how chaos makes its presence felt in many varieties of event, from the fluctuation of animal populations to the ups and downs of the stock market. It also examines the roots of chaos in modern mathematics and physics, and explores the relationship between chaos and complexity, the new unifying theory which suggests that all complex systems evolve from a few simple rules.This is an accessible introduction to an astonishing and controversial theory that could dramatically change our view of the natural world and our place in a turbulent universe. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Solid background
This is a well-reasoned, carefully thought out book that allows for a good introduction of the subject of Chaos. I wish that the volume was a bit more of a "populist" volume (like Larry Gonick used to write and draw), but that might be a bit too much to ask these days.

OK, but something missing...
I'm a fan of the Introducing series.I don't want to be too critical of this book, but I was a bit disappointed.I did learn a little more than I knew before I read it, but as many of the reviews say, the organization is a bit "chaotic" to the point where you feel you're never given a true overview of the subject.An introduction to any topic should at least try to leave you with some framework of organization for the topic as a whole.

You can probably learn as much about Chaos theory by reading the Wikipedia article.If I'm going to buy a book, I want something more.Perhaps a deeper exploration into one practical application of Chaos theory that shows it as a real science with a purpose.One is almost left with the impression that Chaos theory is more a post-modern criticism of western science rather than a true alternative explanation of phenomenon.

Great book
This was the book that got me hooked on the Introducing... series.I wanted to get a nice overview of Chaos Theory, and this book provided it.

Introducing Chaos Adequate
I've read a number of books on Chaos/Complexity, and found this one to be fine.I think my favorite was the one by Mitchell M. Waldrop "Complexity: the Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos."

At any rate, for the audience for which the book is intended, which is someone who wants an easy-to-read introduction on chaos, I think the book is perfectly adequate.

"Chaos" (not Chaos theory) is all this book introduces you.
I was looking for an easy-to-understand book on Chaos Theory for some non-English speakers (say, some Japanese students) to read, and I personally like "Introducing Fractal Geometry", so I got my hand on this book...

It was a mistake.

I would not say much about this. The author did introduce Chaos, not really Chaos theory, to the readers. He tried his best, I believe, to make things easy to understand by simplifying things... However, in doing so, he had just created Chaos.

Hence, this book is probably one of the best examples of "How Simplicity creates Complexity and Chaos"... a simple scheme found in Complex systems (like complex Cellular Automata which emerged from a simple set of rules).

One thing, while a lot of names (technical terms) were introduced, almost all of them are left unexplained. And I think only "introducing" is never enough. (Well, it was the name of the book afterall... this book wasn't named "Explaing Chaos" :)

There are other good books on Chaos for layperson. And, in fact, "Introducing Fractal Geometry" did a far better job than this one. ... Read more

Product Description

Fractals are unique patterns left behind by the unpredictable movements -- the chaos -- of the world at work. The branching patterns of trees, the veins in a hand, water twisting out of a running tap -- all of these are fractals. Learn to recognize them and you will never again see things in quite the same way.

Fractals permeate our lives, appearing in places as tiny as the surface of a virus and as majestic as the Grand Canyon. From ancient tribal peoples to modern painters to the animators of Star Wars, artists have been captivated by fractals and have utilized them in their work. Computer buffs are wild about fractals as well, for they can be generated on ordinary home computers.

In Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos, science writer John Briggs uses over 170 illustrations to clearly explain the significance -- and more importantly, the beauty -- of fractals. He describes how fractals were discovered, how they are formed, and the unique properties different fractals share. Fractals is a breathtaking guided tour of a brand new aesthetic of art, science, and nature. It will revolutionize the way you see the world and your place within it.

* Contains a special bibliography listing fractal generating software for desktop computers ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

The best introductory guide to fractals and chaos
Though this book is now out of print it has not yet been surpassed (or even replaced) as an inhtroduction to the worelds of fractal illustarations. The photographs are astouding - and this leads the reader to read the print to find out more about the patterns that this book describes. Though the book is about mathematical ideas there is adearth of complicated mathematical formulae. It is easy reading for anyone who can add, subtract and multiply (no division!) andwho understand the very simplest algebra. I have used this book in a course I teach at our local Senior College and all the students love it.I am anxiously awaiting a second updated edition.

staggeringly beautiful
Technically this book is good.The images, however, are staggeringly beautiful.I think Dr. Briggs teaches esthetics, which is the study of beauty.Of any book on fractals I have read, this is by far the most beautiful.I really liked this book, so much I donated it to the library of my alma mater.

Patterns to Inspire - A Captivating Look into Fractals
This book brings a comprehensive and visually intriguing approach to the study of fractal geometry and the chaos theory. Through thought provoking imagery and discernible explanations & comparisons, John Briggs has sparked my curiosity where I now look more closely at the world around me. I believe this book is intended to captivate those with the ability to visualize and appreciate the aesthetics and interconnectedness of the arts, sciences and the natural phenomena that surrounds us. An insightful & visually stimulating read!

Don't buy this book
This book says absolutely nothing.It has a few good pictures (the best one is one the cover by the way), but the text is utterly worthless and uninformative.My favorite quote from the book is "Nonlinear means not linear."Really?Don't waste your money.Now I understand why I found it at the used bookstore.

Great Photos, Poor Content
This is a fantastic source of images on the subject of fractals, but not a great source of learning. Most books on math and science are difficult for the general reader; few authors (like Isaac Asimov) can make complex things easily understood. But the author of this book is, in my opinion, doing the public a disservice by oversimplifying the subject. The explanations underestimate the public's ability to think, and even include a number of things which are either dead wrong or made-up! The subject of fractals is still new, and there are recently more books available to explain fractals to the general public. Again, this is a great source of images, if that's what you're looking for, but look for another source if you want to undersatnd and appreciate this incredible and important topic. ... Read more

Product Description
Unstable markets, fierce competition, and relentless change are the only certainties in today's chaotic business world.In their startling new book, authors Brown and Eisenhardt contend that to prosper in such volatile conditions, standard survival strategies must be tossed aside in favor of a revolutionary new paradigm--competing on the edge.To compete on the edge is to relentlessly reinvent, and it's the only way to navigate the treacherous waters of tumultuous markets.Competing on the edge is an unpredictable, sometimes even inefficient strategy, yet a singularly effective one in an era driven by change.It requires charting a course along the edge of chaos, where a delicate compromise is struck between anarchy and order, to the edge of time, where current business is the primary focus, but actions are shaped by past legacies and future opportunities.By adroitly maneuvering through chaos and time, managers can avoid constantly reacting to nonstop change and instead set a rhythmic pace that others must follow, thereby shaping the competitive landscape--and their own destiny.

In the first book to translate leading edge concepts from complexity theory into management practice, each chapter focuses on a specific management dilemma and illustrates a solution.Linking "where do you want to go?" with "how will you get there?" here's a bold and surprising strategy that works--when the name of the game is change.Amazon.com Review
What do the Atlanta Braves, Microsoft, 3M, Nike, and Intel allhave in common? According to Shona Brown and Kathleen Eisenhardt,authors of Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos,each of these organizations are predictably unpredictable. They'releaders not because of their ability to predict the course of theirmarkets; rather, these companies have learned to embrace the notion ofchange. They're successful because they've learned to find that edgebetween structure and chaos that allows them to be innovative andcreative, while maintaining just enough discipline to focus onexecuting a plan.

The authors contend that competing on the edgeis not an efficient or predictable way to do business. Instead, it'slearning how to adapt and lead in a business environment that's in aconstant state of flux. "The underlying insight behind competingon the edge is that strategy is the result of a firm's organizing tochange constantly and letting a semicoherent strategic directionemerge from that organization. In other words, it is about combiningthe two parts of strategy by simultaneously addressing where you wantto go and how you are going to get there."

Brown andEisenhardt offer dozens of examples of companies that are successfullyand not so successfully finding that balance between anarchy andorder. If, on the one hand, you feel like your company is bogged downby rules and bureaucracy or if,on the other, it seems like no one inyour company knows exactly what they're doing, you'll find thatCompeting on the Edge is a valuable handbook for change. Thebook is clearly written, full of insight, and belongs on everymanager's bookshelf. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

A must read for strategy consultants
Outstanding work - each one of the cases is well documented and based on real experiences.Subsequent managerial research has confirmed many of the hypothesis, which are particularly relevant for industries subject to dramatic changes in the value chain on an ongoing basis.

Also, companies committed to the proposed framework have been able to thrive in uncertainty and profit from disruptive innovation.

Roughly 10 years after its publication, the recommendations and case studies of this book have performed significantly better than any of the players in blockbusters such as "good to great"

MBA speak
If you want to learn how to speak like a typical MBA (full of buzzwords but low on substance), this book should be very helpful.Otherwise, it is a waste of time.One of the authors teaches at Stanford business school -- don't they have higher standards there?

Predicting the Future is Easy, Being Right is Hard
One of the things I found most objectionable back in MBA school or today in reading/writing business plans is the orientation towards thinking that all those beautiful numbers predicting the future had any meaning whatsoever.

If you think fancy long range planning makes sense, just go ask the American auto manufacturers what went wrong. We've known that oil is getting in short supply, that its source of supply is in an unstable part of the world and that something drastic will have to be done. So what do they do - build more factories to build pickups and SUV's.

Where are the fuel efficient diesel engines? (My daughters Volkswagon diesel from 20 years ago got 42 miles per gallon.) Where are the hybrids? (Oh, they are manufactured in Japan.)

The computer industry learned to think in terms of rapid change a long time ago. (Those companies like DEC. Honeywell, RCA, GE and many, many more are defunct or out of business.) You would think that a book like this one would concentrate on the computer business. To some extent it does, but it also talks about companies like 3M, Nike, the San Francisco Symphony, the airline industry. It also talks about companies like Sears.

This book cannot give you specific advice about what the future holds, but you can make some guesses - energy costs are going to go up, global warming is going to cause water levels to rise (a bunch), overseas competition is going to go up, we may see a major religious war. How will your company react?

A must read
If you are managing a business today, I suggest you read this.Learn the lessons from this Google Manager.It stresses speed, quality to the customer, innovation, leading and staying ahead of the competition.

Fresh View of Strategy
As a business school student I have covered a plethora of theories and frameworks regarding strategic analysis, planning, and development. Brown & Eisenhardt provide a fresh look at strategy. Competing on the Edge provides the latest thinking on emergent strategy and succeeding within high-velocity industries. Regardless if you are in industry or the classroom, this book is a must if you ever plan to drive strategy at the business level-no matter what the pace of change is in your industry. This book will teach you to think in new ways about how you create, manage and defend competitive advantage. This read will take you far beyond Porter, Mintzberg, and Barney. ... Read more