by Rupe | Oct 23, 2003 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Lilyan Wilder
Date: 23-Oct-03
Lilyan Wilder is a communications expert who has worked with the world’s most notable public figures, broadcast correspondents at ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN, and many Fortune 500 companies. Her clients have included media icons Oprah Winfrey and Charlie Rose, former President George Bush, John Scully, and Katherine Graham. 7 Steps to Fearless Speaking will teach you how to cope with panic, avoidance, and the trauma of speaking as you give the gift of your convictions and experience your voice for the first time.
My Thoughts:
by Rupe | Oct 23, 2003 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: David Allen
Date: 23-Oct-03
In today’s world of exponentially increased communication and responsibility, yesterday’s methods for staying on top just don’t work. Veteran management consultant and trainer David Allen recognizes that “time management” is useless the minute your schedule is interrupted; “setting priorities” isn’t relevant when your email is down; “procrastination solutions” won’t help if your goals aren’t clear.
Allen’s premise is simple: our ability to be productive is directly proportional to our ability to relax. Only when our minds are clear and our thoughts are organized can we achieve stress-free productivity and unleash our creative potential. He teaches us how to:
– Apply the “do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it” rule to get your in-box empty.
– Reassess goals and stay focused in changing situations.
– Overcome feelings of confusion, anxiety, and being overwhelmed.
– Feel fine about what you’re not doing.
From core principles to proven tricks, Getting Things Done has the potential to transform the way you work – and the way you experience work. At any level of implementation, David Allen’s entertaining and thought-provoking advice shows you how to pick up the pace without wearing yourself down.
My Thoughts: Not a bad read, but found to be in the same vein as 17 Lies…. Will have to revist at some point and re-evaluate.
by Rupe | Sep 21, 2003 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Dore Gold
Date: 21-Sep-03
From New York City to Bali, Indonesia, ideologically motivated terrorist groups have chillingly demonstrated their global reach. And terrorism is now far more lethal than before.
But what is causing it? Only as new reports have emerged about Saudi Arabia’s links to terror has the United States begun to look closely at the Saudi kingdom, America’s purported ally. Now, in Hatred’s Kingdom, Middle East expert Dore Gold provides the startling evidence of how Saudi Arabia not only is linked to terror, but in fact has spawned the current wave of global terrorism.
Using previously unpublished documents, Gold, the former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, exposes how the deeply ingrained hatred that has provoked the new terrorism has its roots in Saudi Arabia’s dominant religious creed, a radical Islamic offshoot known as Wahhabism.
My Thoughts: Really good read. Pretty similar to sleeping with the devil and Crisis in Islam. This focus on the House of Saud is pretty illuminating to say the least.
by Rupe | Sep 13, 2003 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Steve Chandler
Date: 13-Sep-03
“It’s who you know.” “I don’t have time.” “I’m too old.” “That’s just the way I am.” These crippling statements deny our power to change our lives. In this program, the celebrated author of 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself teaches you how to stop telling yourself these lies that prevent you from being your best. When you free yourself from these lies, you will break your pattern of self-deception, and begin on the road to a new, more profitable, more fulfilling life.
My Thoughts: Jury is still out on this. Will probably have to read it a couple more times to really get it. Will resubmit thoughts then.
by Rupe | Aug 17, 2003 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Anthony Gottlieb
Date: 17-Aug-2003
In this landmark new study of Western thought, Anthony Gottlieb looks afresh at the writings of the great thinkers, questions much of conventional wisdom, and explains his findings with unbridled brilliance and clarity. From the pre-Socratic philosophers through the celebrated days of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, up to Renaissance visionaries like Erasmus and Bacon, philosophy emerges here as a phenomenon unconfined by any one discipline. Indeed, as Gottlieb explains, its most revolutionary breakthroughs in the natural and social sciences have repeatedly been co-opted by other branches of knowledge, leading to the illusion that philosophers never make any progress.
From the physics of angels to Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose, Gottlieb builds through example and anecdote a vivid portrait of the human drive for understanding. After finishing The Dream of Reason, listeners will be graced with a fresh appreciation of the philosophical quest, its entertaining and bizarre byways, and its influence on every aspect of life.
by Rupe | Aug 17, 2003 | Not So Recent Reads
Author: Peter Mansfield
Date: 17-Aug-2003
In this masterly work of synthesis, Peter Mansfield, drawing on his experience as a journalist and a historian, explores two centuries of history in the Middle East. He forms a picture of the historical, political, and social history of the meeting point of Occident and Orient, from Bonaparte’s marauding invasion of Egypt to the start of the Gulf War. For more than four thousand years, the Middle East has provided a setting for titanic struggles between great civilizations and religions. In this century it became the focus of rivalry between the European powers as the last major Islamic empire of the Ottoman Turks crumbled and collapsed. The discovery of the world’s greatest oil reserves gave the region global economic importance as well as a unique strategic value. The foundation of a national state by immigrant Zionist Jews created one of the most insoluble political problems of our era, which is compounded by the reassertion of Islamic consciousness among the great majority of the region’s inhabitants. In two penetrating final chapters, Peter Mansfield discusses Saddam Hussein and the prospects for the future.
My Thoughts: A little dated, but pretty good read. Very interesting and definitely a book that must be read by any one who wants to understand the forces that have shaped the current Middle East and still are.
