Saving the Sun: A Wall Street Gamble to Rescue Japan from Its Trillion-Dollar Meltdown
Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
  • Best book on Japanese business practices I've seen yet
  • One well chosen case to illustrate a systemic problem
  • Enjoyable worthwhile read in Japanese economics
  • Get an insight of Japanese Economy
  • Culture clashes and financial mismanagement on a large scale
Saving the Sun: A Wall Street Gamble to Rescue Japan from Its Trillion-Dollar Meltdown
Gillian Tett
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 006055424X
Release Date: 2003-09-02

Book Description

For more than a decade, Japan's dismal economy -- which has bounced from deflationary collapse to fitful recovery and back to collapse -- has been the biggest obstacle to economic growth. Why has the world's second largest economy been unable to save itself? Why has a country, whose financial might in the 1980s was the most feared force on the globe, become the sick man of the world economy? Why has the industrial transformation once called the Japanese Miracle frozen into the Japanese malaise?

Saving the Sun answers these questions by telling the story of Long Term Credit Bank, one of the nation's most respected financial institutions, and its attempts to transform itself into a Western-style bank. Through the stories of three extraordinary men, former Financial Times Tokyo bureau chief Gillian Tett brings to life the bank's long struggle to regain its financial health. In the process, she shines a light into the secretive world of Japanese banking where business is done in sex bars and gangsters lurk behind the scenes. And, in a fast-paced narrative, Tett chronicles the internal conflicts between reform-minded and tradition-bound factions within the bank, as well as the powerful and protective Japanese bureaucracy.

Filled with dramatic scenes involving some of the most important figures and institutions in international finance -- -Paul Volcker, Lawrence Summers, John Reed, Goldman Sachs, UBS, and CSFB -- Saving the Sun charts the growing confusion between a government eager to revive the economy but unwilling to accept the necessary compromises and the Western bankers (profiled here for the first time) who too openly scorned Japanese capitalism and its paramount interest in social harmony over pure profit.

What emerges is the first viable explanation of what caused Japan to stumble from such economic heights -- readers will finally understand what has hobbled that country. But what also emerges is the realization that a profound rift still exists between Japan and the rest of the world. Though Long Term Credit Bank's transformation into Shinsei bank has been a rousing success in financial terms, the Japanese press, government, and people have all but turned against the idea of American-style capitalism. Indeed, instead of reforming Japan, the banking crisis may have convinced ordinary Japanese, more than ever before, that they must go it alone.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Best book on Japanese business practices I've seen yet.......2007-01-20

In the 1980's, Japanese business could seem to do no wrong. From business publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, to the mainstream press (Newsweek, The New York Times and CNN), the press wrote glowingly about Japanese business. For over a decade we read that our western practices were too short sighted and antiquated- we clearly needed to take a more "Japanese approach" to doing business, and in so doing, could be successful as they have been.

But a short time later Japanese companies were in big trouble in the US and back in Japan. Their stock market crashed, the real estate boom crashed, and the entire Japanese economy seemed to be not just in serious trouble, but in a meltdown of catastrophic proportions. What went wrong?

This book does an extremely credible job of explaining both how and why, and in simple layman's terms that anyone can easily understand. Using many specific examples, Gillian Tett shows how American and Japanese thought and business practices are polar opposites. These differences are not just a matter of the differences in culture between east and west--they go considerably deeper. But by the end of the book, the results were able to speak for themselves. By bringing in a new international management team made up of Japanese, American, Indian and Australian management, an insolvent bank that had been bought out for the first time in history by a group of western investors (!!) became a success story.

I'm an investment banker myself that has (in previous lives) worked for two different Japanese multinationals over a 7-year period in the 80's and 90's. My own experiences with Japan are mixed. I made some great friends, and have developed a high level of respect for their work ethic and their dedication to their employers, and usually, to each other. But in my opinion, the extreme xenophobia that permeates Japanese culture will not be lessened anytime soon. The term "gaijin" when politely translated means "foreigner." But to many (but not all) Japanese the term is not polite at all.

Get this one. I don't give out many "five star" ratings, but I so for this book without quibbling. I look forward to future works from Ms. Tett.

5 out of 5 stars One well chosen case to illustrate a systemic problem.......2006-09-27

Saving the Sun is about the corporate culture of Japan's financial industry and how it is changing. Gillian Tett focuses on one institution, The Long Term Credit Bank, to illustrate what happened and how the financial environment in Japan is changing.

The LTCB was a key player in Japan's post war miracle. It lent money to fund business operations and new ventures, working in close cooperation with the elite bureaucrats of Japan's Ministry of Finance and Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Then in the 1980s, drunk on its spectacular success, Japan Inc. excessively invested in thoughtless projects, all funded by the LTCB and the rest of the financial industry, with no thought at all given to making money. Prestige was everything.

As a result, the Japanese financial system almost collapsed; what survived had to change. Banks began failing despite attempts by the Ministry of Finance to organize rescues. Some failed banks were nationalized, among them the LTCB; these institutions were then put up for sale but no one in Japan wanted them.

There were tragedies. Katsunobu Onogi, a fatherly and admirably responsible gentleman of the old school, was arrested and charged, spending a month in custody before being found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail, suspended. A colleague, Takashi Uehara, committed suicide, which in Japan is a gesture of atonement, not an escape. At another bank, the president parachuted in from the Bank of Japan, Tadayo Honma, also killed himself again to atone for the system's failure.

Then Tim Collins's Ripplewood, an American fund, arrived and offered to rescue the LTCB. This was politically difficult. The Japanese don't like foreign ways, and the thought of a pillar of Japanese finance being bought out by foreigners provoked public outrage. In the end MoF had no choice and the deal went through.

The bank was renamed Shinsei, meaning "Rebirth" in Japanese. A remarkable man, Masamoto Yashiro, was hauled out from a second retirement after a full career at Esso Sekiyu (Exxon's Japan operation) and the creation of Citibank's Japanese retail business, to oversee the reconstruction. Clash was inevitable. The conservative rank and file employees had no idea how to work with the hyperactive can-do go-go-go managers now running the show. A new Indian head of IT, Jay Dvivedi, junked the old mainframes and installed, in mere months, a new state-of-the-art system featuring PCs on every desk and instant access to whatever reports management wanted. The corporate planning department, which decided new products, disappeared: henceforth Shinsei would listen to its customers to determine their needs.

The financial revolution isn't over. Shinsei's success wasn't total. Major clients were allowed to fail, Sogo department store went bankrupt. Politicians blamed Shinsei for not being kinder to its debtors.

I've worked for the IT departments of foreign banks in Japan since 1995 so this book strikes particularly close to home for me. I can even see the Shinsei headquarters from my desk. Interesting and informative. Recommended.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

4 out of 5 stars Enjoyable worthwhile read in Japanese economics.......2005-06-14

I don't usually read books like these but I decided to purchase it anyway. How can something as dry as Japanese banking reform be interesting? Well Gillian Tett made it interesting enough. As with her style of writing, I note that the chapter headings fully telegraph what is about to take place in the narative, I thought, well whats the fun of reading on if you know what is going to happen? With that, Tett's narative is replete with all the drama one can ever read in a good novel. There are deaths, gangsters, flamboyant characters, politics, society, culture clashes, and mix in with all of this, economics.

The Japanese are suppose to be the smart ones. They excel in many areas requiring technical knowledge. The media never misses an opportunity to point out how inferior Americans are when it comes to math and such knowledge. I was therefore amazed when I have read that the Japanese don't have a grasp of the simple relationship between risk and return. I would have thought that they'd have overly complicated financial models using high level math. But it turns out that, from my perspective, the way the LTCB bankers did business was bizarre. Why would anybody be paternalistic when it comes to money?

I won't spoil the ending but it seems obvious from the title of the book what will unfold, in fact, it is the heading of the final chapter. I belive but am not sure that the paperback has an epilogue, revisiting the many chracters as further back as 2004. There are classes offered at university focusing in Asian economics and also Japanese economics as well. Gillian Tett's tract would be apposite as reading material if you are into that.

5 out of 5 stars Get an insight of Japanese Economy.......2005-03-25

This is the first book I read about Japanese banks and this has not only given me an insight about their banking system but about how the Japan's Economic Policy is the face of Japan's Banks. It is about the clash between Japanese Traditional way of life against the changing face of the world. This book is about Globalization, this book is about dreams, this book is about Japanese pride. Go read this book.

4 out of 5 stars Culture clashes and financial mismanagement on a large scale.......2004-10-01

In the 1980's, Japan was considered an economic powerhouse and their sun was still rising. There was genuine fear in the United States of that power; the news broadcasts of the time were full of new Japanese purchases of properties in the U. S. and there was talk of restricting how much could be purchased. Much of this was based on real estate prices in Japan and some of the figures are incredible. At one time, the land area of the imperial palace, approximately 1.15 square kilometers, was estimated to be equal in value to the entire state of California or the entire country of Canada.
However, most of this value was nothing more than a speculative bubble, and very early into the nineties, it crashed. This left the Japanese banks with billions of dollars of uncollectible loans and looking for a way to survive. With deepest reluctance, some original thinkers in the Japanese banking community looked to American capital vendors to assist in their recovery. This is the story of those events, but it is just as much a story of the contrast and clash of two cultures.
In America, the flow of capital is largely freewheeling, the ideal is that it will always move to where it can most quickly be reproduced. However, in Japan, that is not the case. Lending is done based largely on personal and institutional relationships. Cooperation, even to the point of losing money, is the cultural imperative, reinforced by tradition and social pressures. It was considered very unacceptable for banks to call in unserviceable debt, with some banks referring to insolvent companies as "their children." Therefore, when the bubble burst, most banks themselves were insolvent.
However, the leaders of the banks did not come clean, preferring to hide their problems with accounting tricks. One humorous incident is related where the true records were hidden in a closet when Japanese government inspectors were conducting an on-site audit. This behavior, considered criminal in the United States, was much more acceptable in Japan, which points out what are the real lessons to be learned from this book.
Although the economic might of Japan leads those in the western nations to believe that it is economically similar, in fact it is not. The differences are dramatic and the explanations of how those cultural differences make economic differences make this book very interesting. Without the cultural contrasts, this is just another story about a weak, bankrupt company being taken over by another. While interesting, there is no real intensity to the story.
I was amazed at reading how an American company that specializes in takeovers managed to purchase an interest in an insolvent Japanese bank and how all parties handled the event. There were political repercussions on both sides of the Pacific and it was necessary for some fundamental changes to be made in the Japanese financial systems. The events took place in the early 1990's, well after the economies of Japan and the United States had two decades to get to know each other. And yet, there was still a lot of misunderstanding and some naiveté on both sides.
The Americans made the typical mistakes of thinking that the circumstances were no different than when they were on Wall Street. As soon as the company was saved and the price had gone up, they wanted to take their profits and run. This is anathema to the Japanese, and they should have known that. Their attempt to do so created a lot of unnecessary ill will that needed to be smoothed over. The Japanese also made the typical mistake of thinking that the Americans would act like Japanese after they purchased a Japanese company.
This is an excellent book on international finance and the recurring problems of the Japanese economy. For years, the Asian form of crony capitalism was considered the model for economic growth, and a force that could not be stopped. In this book, you learn the fundamental flaws of such a system and how difficult it is for two cultures to engage in an economic marriage of convenience, even when there is no choice in the matter.

Clearview: America's Course, the Autobiography of William J. Powell
Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
  • Excellent for use in classroom.
  • A MAN'S DREAM, A FAMILY'S PASSION, AN AMERICAN LEGACY
  • Inspirational history
  • inspired
Clearview: America's Course, the Autobiography of William J. Powell
Ellen Susanna Nosner
Manufacturer: Foxsong Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0967700019

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars Excellent for use in classroom........2003-09-20

An excellent work to understand the cultural and historical issues facing blacks in pre civil rights history and beyond. It is a penetrating and inspirational look at overcoming obstacles in pursuit of a dream. It is not contexted solely in racial struggles of minorites but goes beyond this to the courage and deliberation required for any of us that have dreams and aspirations to accomplish something to make this a better world.

5 out of 5 stars A MAN'S DREAM, A FAMILY'S PASSION, AN AMERICAN LEGACY.......2001-02-16

This is a story of triumph over discrimination based upon the color of one's skin.

Imagine serving your country to win a war, and then returning to your homeland, and not having available to you the resources available to others who worked by your side.

Be amazed that there is only one golf coure in the United States in the year 2001 that is designed, built, and maintained by an African-American family.

Consider that the Professional Golf Association of America eliminated its white-only policy in the early 1960s.

Become inspired by imagining or playing this golf course that is available to any person, regardless of level of skill; for the love of the game.

Ellen Nossner's writing of this man's story is focused, fluid, and revealing.

America has come a long way, in part, due to triumphs of spirit like that of Mr. Powell. We must not lose sight that we still have a ways to go.

5 out of 5 stars Inspirational history.......2000-11-23

Once I began reading "Clearview:America's Course" I simply could not put it down. It is a personal historical account of the transition of our country from a place where only some enjoy freedom to a country where finally we can boast that all people are free. We see the past 7 decades through one man's vision, uncluttered by resentment and bitterness at the unjust treatment he endured simply because he was black. Dr. Powell is an inspiration to all. Ms. Nosner writes in a manner that is easy and enjoyable to read.

5 out of 5 stars inspired.......2000-09-30

this book is one of the most inspirational and motivational books I have read in a long time. It teaches many lessons for people of all ages, especially to never give up.
Clearview : America's Course, The Autobiography of William J. Powell
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Clearview : America's Course, The Autobiography of William J. Powell
    Ellen Susanna; William J. Powell Nösner
    Manufacturer: Foxsong Enterprises, LLC
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover
    ASIN: B000V2KP5M

    Buffy Chronicles : The Unofficial  Companion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • Explores the historical background behind BtVS episodes
    • Not as good as the Watcher's Guides
    • Little to get excited over
    • Buffy Chronicles: the Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire
    • Not the best
    Buffy Chronicles : The Unofficial Companion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    Ngaire E. Genge
    Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback
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    3. The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) The Watcher's Guide, Volume 2 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
    4. The Sunnydale High Yearbook Buffy The Vampire Slayer The Sunnydale High Yearbook Buffy The Vampire Slayer
    5. Slayer: An Expanded and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer Slayer: An Expanded and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    ASIN: 0609803425
    Release Date: 1998-12-07

    Book Description

    The Buffy Chronicles: The Unofficial Companion to Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a fun and informative look at the first season and a half of the series. From body snatchers and poltergeists to werewolves and mummies, it provides the inside track on the show's strange yet seductive characters and topics. The Buffy Chronicles includes a retrospective of the film that started it all, a history of vampire legends, cast information, plot synopses, and behind-the-scenes trivia. From "The Death Toll," a roster of who's been killed by whom in each episode, to "I Fall to Pieces," a guide to the alternative music and bands that add so much atmosphere, this book has everything Buffy's fans could want.

    This book has not been prepared, approved, licensed, endorsed or in any way authorized by any entity that created or produced Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars Explores the historical background behind BtVS episodes.......2003-05-19

    Genge's book covers the first two seasons of BtVS. For each episode, there is a short description consisting of a few sentences, followed by an essay related (often tangentially) to the episode topic. A few examples:

    'The Pack' - The author argues that historically, witches were considered to be satanists, however unfashionable that argument might be today.
    'I Robot' - an essay about real-life techopagans and the internet.
    'Nightmares' - an essay about out-of-body experiences from the perspective of medical science.
    'Some Assembly Required' - about 19th century grave-robbers in Britain.
    'Halloween' - The author explains how Halloween, as we know it, actually began in the 1930s in the US!

    These essays are often interesting background material. However, readers will be severely disappointed if they're looking for a description of plots, character development, or the symbolism underlying the episodes. An additional difficulty is that the BtVS writers have played fast and loose with historical authenticity (to the extent that monsters have any historical roots at all). Just as Star Trek is a poor vehicle for learning about physics, BtVS does not hold up very well when treated as a documentary about medieval folklore and mythology.

    4 out of 5 stars Not as good as the Watcher's Guides.......2000-11-03

    On the one hand, this really isn't that bad of a companion volume to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series. By the standard of such things "The Buffy Chronicles" is clearly above average. The problem is that "The Watcher's Guide" is THE standard by which all such works should be judged. There are a few things you get from this one that aren't in the "official companion," and a true fan will not mind having both on their shelf. But if you only get one, this ain't it boys and girls.

    3 out of 5 stars Little to get excited over.......2000-08-09

    Although this book does feature nifty multiple-choice questionnaires and some in-depth studies on various folklore and monsters featured in the Buffy episodes, the all gray, all black, all white pages are a bore to look at. I don't doubt that it was well-researched, but it's not quite extensive enough (unlike The Monster Book, which all Buffy fans should go get) to refer to nor interesting enough to give a second reading. It does well enough for an "unofficial" guide, but the lack of cast pictures or anything COLOR in general will lose fans used to the great pictures in official Buffy books like The Watcher's Guide. One thing I did find cool about this book was that it listed the rules of The Buffy Drinking Game, which should be fun to play if you are watching Seasons 1-3, because it still talks about Willow and Oz, Xander and Cordelia, etc. Overall, worth scanning through but not worth buying.

    1 out of 5 stars Buffy Chronicles: the Unofficial Guide to Buffy the Vampire.......2000-06-25

    UNOFFICIAL is right! Please don't even bother. This book contains nothing that a true Buffy fan doesn't already know. It has no real info on the show and some of the mythology and legends it talks about are in direct contradiction with the show's mythology. If you want an episode guide with lots of extras get the Watcher's Guide.

    3 out of 5 stars Not the best.......2000-03-27

    I have recently purchased this book, aswell as others. I have found that because it is unofficial it lacks in information and colour photo's. It does have questions - multiple choice - which can be fun. The Watcher's Guide - official is much better with cool info.

    The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division of Knowledge (Director's Circle Book)
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      The Secret History of Domesticity: Public, Private, and the Division of Knowledge (Director's Circle Book)
      Michael McKeon
      Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Paperback

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      ASIN: 080188540X

      Book Description

      Taking English culture as its representative sample, The Secret History of Domesticity asks how the modern notion of the public-private relation emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Treating that relation as a crucial instance of the modern division of knowledge, Michael McKeon narrates its pre-history along with that of its essential component, domesticity.

      This narrative draws upon the entire spectrum of English people's experience. At the most "public" extreme are political developments like the formation of civil society over against the state, the rise of contractual thinking, and the devolution of absolutism from monarch to individual subject. The middle range of experience takes in the influence of Protestant and scientific thought, the printed publication of the private, the conceptualization of virtual publics -- society, public opinion, the market -- and the capitalization of production, the decline of the domestic economy, and the increase in the sexual division of labor. The most "private" pole of experience involves the privatization of marriage, the family, and the household, and the complex entanglement of femininity, interiority, subjectivity, and sexuality.

      McKeon accounts for how the relationship between public and private experience first became intelligible as a variable interaction of distinct modes of being -- not a static dichotomy, but a tool to think with. Richly illustrated with nearly 100 images, including paintings, engravings, woodcuts, and a representative selection of architectural floor plans for domestic interiors, this volume reads graphic forms to emphasize how susceptible the public-private relation was to concrete and spatial representation. McKeon is similarly attentive to how literary forms evoked a tangible sense of public-private relations -- among them figurative imagery, allegorical narration, parody, the author-character-reader dialectic, aesthetic distance, and free indirect discourse. He also finds a structural analogue for the emergence of the modern public-private relation in the conjunction of what contemporaries called the "secret history" and the domestic novel.

      A capacious and synthetic historical investigation, The Secret History of Domesticity exemplifies how the methods of literary interpretation and historical analysis can inform and enrich one another.

      Tales of the Spectre Kings: Six Otherworldly Adventures in Legendary Britain
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Tales of the Spectre Kings: Six Otherworldly Adventures in Legendary Britain
        Corless Bourne , Fay Dawson , Robertson Manolakes , and Shirley
        Manufacturer: Green Knight Publishing
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

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        ASIN: 1928999018

        Book Description

        "Tales of the Spectre Kings" is a compilation of supernatural and horror-based adventures set in the world of King Arthur's Britain. Ghosts and monsters haunt the land. Can you solve these wierd and terrifying mysteries?

        Also includes a section on the college town of Cambridge, where ancient lore, advanced sciences and arts are studied, especially by those who might need schooling to tackle these mysteries which might not yield readily to swordplay.

        This adventure supplement is for use with the King Arthur Pendragon roleplaying game. It requires a copy of the King Arthur Pendragon 4th Edition or Book of Knights to play.

        Cutting Edge Advertising II
        Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
        • Pathfinder
        • An Excellent Book
        • Slow
        Cutting Edge Advertising II
        Jim Aitchison
        Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

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        ASIN: 9812445579

        Book Description

        A new full-colour edition of the world¡¯s most highly regarded book on print advertising. Following the success of the first edition, Cutting Edge Advertising II has become the standard global text on print creativity for professionals, marketers and students.

        Dozens of new cutting edge print advertisements have been included from the US, UK, Australia and Asia. But that¡¯s not all. For the first time, readers will get to see the latest work from the Philippines, South Africa, China and Eastern Europe. The ads are bigger, clearer and bolder. Virtually every ad is shown on a page of its own, making the text easier to read. In addition, new creative voices have been added to the main text.

        No other advertising reference book offers so much colour, new classic ads, coupled with a stellar cast of creative giants, giving page-by-page advice. A thicker, more colourful value-packed book ¨C now in hardcover and paperback.

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Pathfinder .......2007-05-14

        I'm afraid that this book might empower other readers as much as it has empowered me - thus making the industry all the more competitive. CEA II opened creative channels in brain which I did not know existed. At the risk of being dramatic, this masterpiece made me realize my true path in the world of advertising. I only hope my chances are better than the next reader of this wonderful book.

        5 out of 5 stars An Excellent Book.......2007-02-11

        I own an advertising agency and have dozens and dozens of books on copy writing and ad writing -- this is by far one of my favorites. If you are interested in building your skills in advertising this is a really good read -- lots of examples, lots of great ideas - I gave a copy to everyone at my firm.

        3 out of 5 stars Slow.......2007-01-13

        Not what I was looking for. Slow reading. Probably for the intensely serious print ad people only.

        Getting Over Getting Older An Intimate Journey
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Getting Over Getting Older An Intimate Journey

          Manufacturer: Litt Brown
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover
          ASIN: B000HZ885W
          Getting Over Getting Older: An Intimate Journey
          Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
          • I laughed till I cried
          • Superficial
          • Funny, poignant, reassuring--all at the same time!
          Getting Over Getting Older: An Intimate Journey
          Letty Cottin Pogrebin
          Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Hardcover

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          ASIN: 0316712639

          Amazon.com

          Not everyone--not even every feminist--holds to the belief that age brings wisdom, power, and its own beauty. Faced with turning 50, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, founder of Ms. and author of several books including Growing Up Free, says her reactions ranged "from astonishment to anger, from confusion to curiosity, from denial to disgust." Using herself as a compass and adding many other well- known voices, Pogrebin's irreverent book takes on friendship, sex, love, dieting, mothering adults, the physical and emotional depredations of aging, and mortality. Rather than stubbornly toeing the line on spurning plastic surgery, for example, she thoughtfully explores "the tension between artificiality and authenticity." In the end, she concludes, one can devote one's remaining years to lamenting and running after lost youth or put that time to far better uses. Despite a glib, overly playful tone that trivializes certain issues, Pogrebin's desire to share downplayed truths is a boon.

          Book Description

          Not everyone--not even every feminist--holds to the belief that age bringswisdom, power, and its own beauty. Faced with turning 50, Letty Cottin Pogrebin,founder of Ms. and author of several books including Growing Up Free,says her reactions ranged "from astonishment to anger, from confusion to curiosity,from denial to disgust." Using herself as a compass and adding many other well- known voices, Pogrebin's irreverent book takes on friendship, sex, love, dieting,mothering adults, the physical and emotional depredations of aging, and mortality. Ratherthan stubbornly toeing the line on spurning plastic surgery, for example, she thoughtfullyexplores "the tension between artificiality and authenticity." In the end, sheconcludes, one can devote one's remaining years to lamenting and running after lostyouth or put that time to far better uses. Despite a glib, overly playful tone that trivializescertain issues, Pogrebin's desire to share downplayed truths is a boon.

          Customer Reviews:

          5 out of 5 stars I laughed till I cried.......2000-05-19

          This book was like talking with a close friend. I thank Letty for being honest, sensitive and very funny. If you are 50 it's a must read...I bought 6 copies to give to friends!

          2 out of 5 stars Superficial.......2000-01-26

          Maybe I didn't enjoy this so much because I am only 45 and, therefore, a good 15 years younger than the author. That makes us of different generations making her personal anecdotes difficult to relate to. In addition, I don't have a great career, I'm not married, I don't live in a large metropolitan & cosmopolitan area, I don't have a group of fabulous girlfriends to drink wine and compare stories with, and I don't have kids (and likely never will) so again, I found a lot to not bond about with the author.

          The opening chapter, however, was wonderful and had me howling in my chair. I hoped that fun would be maintained throughout the book. Instead, I felt the book spent too much time talking about superficial aspects of aging like eating right, exercising, and keeping your mind alert by trying new things (well, duh!). She also completely overlooks the more spiritual aspects of mortality in favor of political discussions about women in society (important but not what I'm needing right now). There was a rather graphic description of a breast bioposy which was riveting (the author holds nothing back there and thank you for that) Maybe in another five years I'll connect better instead of finding this to read very much like an irritating upbeat "how-to-be a glowing senior citizen article" out of Good Housekeeping Magazine. For now, I'd recommend Awakening at Midlife by Kathleen Brehony.

          5 out of 5 stars Funny, poignant, reassuring--all at the same time!.......1997-08-05

          A must-read for those 49 1/2 and--sorry--older. My sister (55) recommended it to me (52) after I noticed that some men I had dated were starting to die in their 50's. I landed on Pogrebin's
          reassuring comment that death isn't a factor of aging but a factor of life with relief and recognition. She approaches the good, the bad, and the ugly (and what her grownup daughters label even as disgusting) with humor and the sense of sisterhood and community that are her hallmark.
          Getting Over Getting Older, An Intimate Journey
          Average customer rating: Not rated
            Getting Over Getting Older, An Intimate Journey
            Letty Cottin Pogrebin
            Manufacturer: Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1996
            ProductGroup: Book
            Binding: Hardcover
            ASIN: B000NXEDFC

            The Black Prince's Expedition of 1355-1357
            Average customer rating: Not rated
              The Black Prince's Expedition of 1355-1357
              H.J. Hewitt
              Manufacturer: Manchester Univ. Press
              ProductGroup: Book
              Binding: Unknown Binding
              ASIN: B0000CJX1M
              Black Prince's Expedition
              Average customer rating: Not rated
                Black Prince's Expedition
                H Hewitt
                Manufacturer: Pen and Sword
                ProductGroup: Book
                Binding: Paperback

                GeneralGeneral | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
                GeneralGeneral | Military | History | Subjects | Books
                GeneralGeneral | World | History | Subjects | Books
                MedievalMedieval | World | History | Subjects | Books
                ASIN: 1844152170

                Book Description

                Edward, the Black Prince, is one of the legendary figures of English history. The first son of Edward III and an outstanding military leader, he is famous for his decisive victory at the Battle of Poitiers, and he is one of the most charismatic characters of the Hundred Years' War. This classic study focuses on the crucial phase of his extraordinary career - his daring campaign against the French in central and southwestern France in 1355-7.H.J. Hewitt's work is one of the key texts on the Prince, and it will be fascinating reading for anyone who is interested in medieval warfare.

                Black Prince's Expedition
                Average customer rating: Not rated
                  Black Prince's Expedition
                  H J Hewitt
                  Manufacturer: Leo Cooper
                  ProductGroup: Book
                  Binding: Paperback
                  ASIN: B000K7NJ7E

                  Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics)
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                    Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power (Princeton Studies in International History and Politics)
                    Randall L. Schweller
                    Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
                    ProductGroup: Book
                    Binding: Hardcover

                    GeneralGeneral | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
                    History & TheoryHistory & Theory | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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                    5. Realism and the Balancing of Power: A New Debate Realism and the Balancing of Power: A New Debate

                    ASIN: 0691124256

                    Book Description

                    Why have states throughout history regularly underestimated dangers to their survival? Why have some states been able to mobilize their material resources effectively to balance against threats, while others have not been able to do so? The phenomenon of "underbalancing" is a common but woefully underexamined behavior in international politics. Underbalancing occurs when states fail to recognize dangerous threats, choose not to react to them, or respond in paltry and imprudent ways. It is a response that directly contradicts the core prediction of structural realism's balance-of-power theory--that states motivated to survive as autonomous entities are coherent actors that, when confronted by dangerous threats, act to restore the disrupted balance by creating alliances or increasing their military capabilities, or, in some cases, a combination of both.

                    Consistent with the new wave of neoclassical realist research, Unanswered Threats offers a theory of underbalancing based on four domestic-level variables--elite consensus, elite cohesion, social cohesion, and regime/government vulnerability--that channel, mediate, and redirect policy responses to external pressures and incentives. The theory yields five causal schemes for underbalancing behavior, which are tested against the cases of interwar Britain and France, France from 1877 to 1913, and the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) that pitted tiny Paraguay against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.

                    Randall Schweller concludes that those most likely to underbalance are incoherent, fragmented states whose elites are constrained by political considerations.

                    The Rape of the Wetlands
                    Average customer rating: Not rated
                      The Rape of the Wetlands
                      Keith Wilkins
                      Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
                      ProductGroup: Book
                      Binding: Paperback

                      ContemporaryContemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
                      ConservationConservation | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
                      GeneralGeneral | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
                      ReferenceReference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
                      ASIN: 0595139523

                      Book Description

                      Cody Matheson, PhD in marine biology, faces a ruthless developer, sexual intrique, and threatened death as he struggles to save pristine wetlands from destruction.

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                      5. The Duchess of Kent: The Troubled Life of Katharine Worsley
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