Book Description
As a busy business manager, would you like to spend less time budgeting, and learn more from the budgeting you do? If you answer yes, then Budgeting à la Carte is the book for you.
Most books on budgeting advocate a comprehensive, "seven course dinner" budgeting system. But unless you're the CEO of a major corporation, this is too much informationâmaybe way too much. What you need instead is Budgeting à la Carte: a menu of budgeting options that allows you to pick and choose only those items that suit your taste, appetite, and business situation.
Explained in detail by bestselling financial author John A. Tracy, this comprehensive resource covers the full range of budgeting procedures, including:
- Income Statements
- Balance Sheets
- Operating Ratios
- Profitability
- Cash Flow
- Price and Volume Tradeoffs
- Cost Allocations
- Capital Investments
- And more . . .
Budgeting, Tracy shows, is not an end in itself. It's a set of tools you can use to maximize financial performance and position. With Budgeting à la Carte, you'll control the tools, and you can decide just how much and what kind of budgeting is right for your business.
Also by John A. Tracy
HOW TO READ A FINANCIAL REPORT For MANAGERS, ENTREPRENEURS, LENDERS, LAWYERS, AND INVESTORS
"[If] you would like to have a minimal understanding of the numbers that make up a balance sheet, income, and cash flow statement . . . then How to Read a Financial Report might be just what you are looking for. Mr. Tracy's book explains in plain English the meaning of the major terms used in financial statements . . ."âThe Wall Street Journal
Customer Reviews:
A useful book on management accounting.......2002-05-09
A concise yet very informative book for managers interested in running a business 'by the numbers'. It is written in a very practical and easy-to-understand manner. I utilize many of Tracy's ideas in my own job. The book deals not only with budgeting but with management reporting, break-even analysis, project anlysis, and accounting issues in both service and manufacturing enviroments.
Book Description
Identify and explore top careers that do not require a four-year degree, plus get proven job search advice—all in one resource! This fully updated edition features thorough, current, and interesting descriptions for over 100 major jobs in convenient alphabetical order. Many of these jobs provide satisfying work, good pay, and good opportunity and involve relatively short training. In addition, a special book-within-a-book section describes the seven steps that cut job search time in half. It includes resumes by professional resume writers for jobs described in the book. In one time-saving volume, job seekers and students find everything they need to research specific careers; learn about pay, outlook, education, and skills needed; and take seven steps to land a good job in less time.
Average customer rating:
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The Heavens on Fire: The Great Leonid Meteor Storms
Mark Littmann
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0521779790 |
Book Description
Meteor succeeded meteor in such rapid succession that it was impossible to count them; at times the sky seemed full of them, and the earth was illuminated as with a morning light. Eye-witness accounts such as this, and every spectacular detail of the Leonids, the greatest meteor showers of all, can be found in the acclaimed The Heavens on Fire. In this volume, author Mark Littmann vividly tells the history of meteors, and especially the Leonids, whose terrifying beauty established meteor science. He traces the history and mythology of meteors, profiles the fascinating figures whose discoveries advanced the field, and explores how meteors have changed the course of life on Earth. Crisp illustrations capture the excitement of past meteor showers and help elucidate important concepts. The returning Leonids are now reaching their peak with great activity expected in 1999 and 2000. For all those who wish to take part in this rare experience, Littmann offers advice on how and where to find the best view. Filled with practical tips, clear explanations, and descriptions of a sight that more than one observer has called "brilliant beyond conception," The Heavens on Fire will delight every reader. Mark Littmann teaches astronomy at the University of Tennessee. His previous books include Comet Halley: Once in a Lifetime and Planets Beyond: Discovering the Outer Solar System. Both books were chosen by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific as Astronomy Books of the Year.
Customer Reviews:
Unimpressed.......2007-09-08
I bought this book after being attracted by the used price because I was interested in considering the topic of natural phenomena as they relate to religious belief.
I was amazed to find some embarrassing editing and printing errors (especially by Cambridge Univ. Press), lackluster writing at best, and to my disappointment, less coverage of peoples' interpretations of these events. Perhaps a better book will come regarding this subject, and will be more specialized - whether it be a scientific, cultural, or even religious history.
Book Description
Completely rewritten, revised, and updated, this Sixth Edition reflects the latest technologies and applications in spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, and chromatography. It illustrates practices and methods specific to each major chemical analytical technique while showcasing innovations and trends currently impacting the field. Many of the chapters have been individually reviewed by teaching professors and include descriptions of the fundamental principles underlying each technique, demonstrations of the instrumentation, and new problem sets and suggested experiments appropriate to the topic.
Customer Reviews:
Inst. Analysis.......2006-02-22
Though I am only a few weeks into the class this text has been very helpful. The majority of undergraduate text for the upper level classes are nearly impossible to read. This book has softened the complicated jargon and has stated the intended ideas clearly.
Warning About "seach inside" pages.......2005-04-26
The current "search inside " pages are not from the 6th edition of Undergraduate Instrumental Analysis, but from the error-filled last edition in 1994. The two new coauthors have completely rewritten the book to eliminate the gross errors displayed on the pages able to be viewed on amazon from the last edition. Please do not consider the "search inside" material to be at all accurate for the new 6th edition. Eileen M. Skelly Frame and George M. Frame II (coauthors of the 6th edition).
Average customer rating:
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Undergraduate Instrumental Analysis, Seventh Edition
Eileen Skelly Frame ,
George Frame , and
James W. Robinson
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Analytic
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General
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Clinical Chemistry
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ASIN: 1420061356 |
Customer Reviews:
The History of Evolution Told Simply.......2001-07-18
Edey and Johanson do a splendid job of detailing the philosophies and scientific discoveries that led to the formation of modern evolutionary thought. The history they present is filled with interesting details and offers a good refresher on high school biology. It begins with many pre-Darwinian thoughts and works its way up to the present (or 1990). Along the way the authors occasionally dialogue between themselves explaining various topics, offering analogies for concepts, presenting possible theories, and giving personal details about the men and women involved in this field.
...the book is more presentational rather than apologetic. On occasion the authors did generalize creationism with Biblical fundamentalism, but they also admit once to the difficulty of originating life. I would also have liked to have seen more fossil discoveries outside the realm of humanity, a discussion on stem cell and embryo development, and perhaps a brief tracing of the likely line of descent from single celled bacteria to the major classes of vertebrates. (I am a theist, so take into consideration any bias.)
Overall, there were only a few tedious pages, but it is otherwise an excellent book that I had a hard time putting down.
A great resource!.......2001-02-09
Don't worry if you are not a science-oriented person! This is a great resource for anyone interested in evolution, dna and natural selection. The book is almost a dialogue between the authors and each topic's history, growth and purpose is given in everyday language and images. If you are a scientist, you will still find this a valuable tool, especially if you've ever tried to explain some of these issues to non-scientists.
A stroll through the history of our species........1997-03-06
Blueprints is just what the title says. A look at how evolution performed its magic work, on our species and others. While I started reading this book knowing what evolution was, I left it knowing how it works. Taking you from the first scientific investigation of the relations of species, through to the discovery of DNA, Maitland Edey and Donald Johanson clearly and easily walk you through time. The concepts are explained simply and succinctly, in an entertaining style that often includes humorous incidents as the world of science lurched toward our current level of understanding. I would recommend this book to anyone, including students, who wishes to experience the evolution of evolution
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Advances in the Computer Simulations of Liquid Crystals (NATO Science Series C:)
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0792360982 |
Book Description
Computer simulations provide an essential set of tools for understanding the macroscopic properties of liquid crystals and of their phase transitions in terms of molecular models. While simulations of liquid crystals are based on the same general Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics techniques as are used for other fluids, they present a number of specific problems and peculiarities connected to the intrinsic properties of these mesophases.
The field of computer simulations of anisotropic fluids is interdisciplinary and is evolving very rapidly. The present volume covers a variety of techniques and model systems, from lattices to hard particle and Gay-Berne to atomistic, for thermotropics, lyotropics, and some biologically interesting liquid crystals. Contributions are written by an excellent panel of international lecturers and provides a timely account of the techniques and problems in the field.
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Dumb It Down: Now I'm Really Talking
Guy J. Bellaver
Manufacturer: PublishAmerica
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 1413761399 |
Book Description
Guy was born in a small farm town in Ohio. His family moved to Illinois when he was just three. As the middle child, between an older sister and younger brother, he found comfort in athletics. Guy felt relaxed participating in both soccer and baseball in his youth. The loss of his grandmother in eighth grade was a dramatic changing factor in his young growth. Personal discomfort allowed him to only visit her once during her coma prior to her death. In order to honor her life, he promised himself to develop quality life values. He learned to make the most of what he was given. Guy developed a laid-back, easygoing, laugh-whenever-possible attitude. Yet after high school, he looked for more. Those lifestyle ideals would lead to his decision to attend college multiple states away from his family, friends, and the life he knew. These are his adjustments; this is his story.
Book Description
This is the second volume covering the use and variants of the King Tiger, in both photographs and text., b/w photographs, line drawings, 11" x 8 1/4"
Customer Reviews:
Detailed enough.......2007-01-14
I bought this short (47 page) booklet as a reference as a hobbyist. There is enough good detail on unit marking and the slight variations of the models of this tank to be of use to the modeller and even history enthusiast. The photos are great, many of which may be first published in this booklet. There are more detailed and lengthly publications on the Tiger tanks, but for the price, this one is very good.
An excellent source on the King Tiger tank.......2004-04-29
This is an excellent source on the King Tiger tank; it represents a pictorial guide to the development and operations of the King Tiger. It provides information on the technical development, through some text, but mostly pictures, and drawings (including three cutaway drawings of the interior of the King Tiger's turret, and hull). Most of the book is on the units and operations of the King Tiger tank, almost every unit to receive King Tiger tanks is summarized with a few paragraphs on that units operation from 1944 to 1945, and accompanied by interesting pictures that illustrate the units operations. The pictures are never or rarely published before, the book is worth buying just for the pictures (as many come from private collections or those who served with the King Tiger tank units). The book also has a table listing the complete deliveries of King Tigers to units. This book is worth buying if you are interested in the King Tiger tank.
An excellent source on the King Tiger tank.......2004-01-08
This is an excellent source on the King Tiger tank; it represents a pictorial guide to the development and operations of the King Tiger. It provides information on the technical development, through some text, but mostly pictures, and drawings (including three cutaway drawings of the interior of the King Tiger's turret, and hull). Most of the book is on the units and operations of the King Tiger tank, almost every unit to receive King Tiger tanks is summarized with a few paragraphs on that units operation from 1944 to 1945, and accompanied by interesting pictures that illustrate the units operations. The pictures are never or rarely published before, the book is worth buying just for the pictures (as many come from private collections or those who served with the King Tiger tank units). The book also has a table listing the complete deliveries of King Tigers to units. This book is worth buying if you are interested in the King Tiger tank.
An inexpensive photo essay of the King Tiger in service.......2000-12-17
If you cannot afford Wolfgang Schneider's massive two-volume "Tigers in Combat" series (published by J.J. Fedorowicz in Canada), then this little booklet is a useful alternative. While the other Tiger books usually reprint the same propaganda photos with useless captions, Schneider actually gives a very brief history of each Tiger unit, and offers a handful of photos showing the King Tiger in service with that unit. Thus, you get a better understanding of different camouflage and marking practices in each Panzerabteilung. Combine this title with Thomas Jentz's King Tiger book published by Osprey, and you have an economical but authoritative reference library on the beast.
Book Description
A wonderfully bold and wide-ranging narrative of the world's defining events from the beginning of civilization to the early Renaissance. "Her style is a marvel of clarity. And, in sheer readability she is a match for any historian living or dead." --J. H. Plumb, The Sunday Times.
Customer Reviews:
Suprisingly, Better than Expected.......2002-05-20
I must admit that I came to C.V. Wedgwood's "The Spoils of Time" with some trepidation. I have read a number of her books over the years and I know that she was a scholar on 17th century Europe, so seeing a volume by her detailing the history of both western and eastern civilizations from the beginning of time until the Renaissance was quite suprising. However, she managed to write an effective book.
Each civilization that she discusses could have had a tome by itself, yet she was able to weave an enjoyable narrative despite jumping back and forth from Chinese to Indian to Greek or Roman and back again. Her writing style was exquisite and never boring to the reader.My one major complaint was the paucity of footnotes, especially on the sections written about eastern civilizations. It would be useful to know who she was consulting to form her ideas and to refer readers to other books on the subject. A bibliography also could have been included.
For anyone who enjoyed this work, I can suggest several others by Wedgwood that readers may find interesting. On English history her trilogy on the English Civil WAr are good. The individual titles "The King's Peace", "The King's War", and "A Coffin for King Charles". For those interested in 17th century French history try "Richeleau and the French Monarchy". The "Thirty Year War" is still a good starter for German and Central European studies. Finally, anyone interested in Dutch history should consider "William the Silent" a biography of the father of Netherlands independence from Spain. Unfortunately, a number of these titles are out-of-print and may be difficult to obtain. A good research library or out-of-print bookseller can help find them, Amazon.com also has some of these in stock.
A great start.......2002-03-29
Reading this book is an unadulterated pleasure. Wedgewood has a wonderful eye for detail: she out-narrates some of the more absorbing novelists I've read recently. At the end, I was left with a lingering sadness that she didn't live to write the sequel: the world since 1550. (I don't know if she really planned to write a sequel; but the book is crying out for one.)
Excellent one volume world history.......2001-10-05
C.V. Wedgwood takes on a daunting task--a history of the world from the origins of civilization to 1600, all done in a few hundred pages. I came to this book hoping to put together in my mind all the jigsaws of world history that never quite interlocked together correctly (where did Genghis Khan come in relation to Attila the Hun? which of the Romans were which, and why? just how the heck did those hittites fit in there, and can anyone make sense of the Phoenicians?). The book met and surpassed my expectations. Ms. Wedgwood's book is almost conversational in its easy readability, and yet one gets a lot of facts and a lot of perspective in the mix. I came away learning a great deal, without the usual attendant mental strain. A good read, and a non-taxing one. I particularly enjoyed the "quick takes" she offers on each of the major world religions. I might have wished for more coverage of Scandinavia, of North America, and of Africa south of the
northern region, but this is still a good global survey.
Average customer rating:
- Felt like reading a laundry list
- A Wonderful Look At The Insights Of An Intellectual Titan!
- Publisher responds to customer review
- C. Wright Mills: Letters and Writings, A Brief Review
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C. Wright Mills: Letters and Autobiographical Writings
C. Wright Mills
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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C Wright Mills An American Utopia
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The Sociological Imagination
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The Power Elite
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Radical Nomad: C. Wright Mills and His Times (Great Barrington Books)
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White Collar: The American Middle Classes
ASIN: 0520232097 |
Book Description
One of the leading public intellectuals of twentieth-century America and a pioneering and brilliant social scientist, C. Wright Mills left a legacy of interdisciplinary and hard-hitting work including two books that changed the way many people viewed their lives and the structure of power in the United States: White Collar (1951) and The Power Elite (1956). Mills persistently challenged the status quo within his profession--as in The Sociological Imagination (1959)--and within his country, until his untimely death in 1962. This collection of letters and writings, edited by his daughters, allows readers to see behind Mills's public persona for the first time.
Mills's letters to prominent figures--including Saul Alinsky, Daniel Bell, Lewis Coser, Carlos Fuentes, Hans Gerth, Irving Howe, Dwight MacDonald, Robert K. Merton, Ralph Miliband, William Miller, David Riesman, and Harvey Swados--are joined by his letters to family members, letter-essays to an imaginary friend in Russia, personal narratives by his daughters, and annotations drawing on published and unpublished material, including the FBI file on Mills.
Customer Reviews:
Felt like reading a laundry list.......2006-11-11
Having regarded "Sociological Imagination" one of the few most exciting books written in the field, this one greatly disappointed me.
A Wonderful Look At The Insights Of An Intellectual Titan!.......2000-10-22
No one has written with more verve and authority about the awesome and frightening capabilities of man than the late C. Wright Mills, a prominent and controversial sociologist who wrote such memorable tomes as "White Collar", an exploration of the emerging American Middle class in the early 1950s, and The Power Elite", a provocative examination of the nature of power, privilege, and status in the United States, and how each of these three critical elements of power and property in this country are irrevocably connected to each other. At last look, both books were still in print and are still used in both undergraduate and graduate sociology courses throughout the world. After fifty years, that in and of itself is powerful testimony to his enduring value as a scholar and an original thinker.
Here Mills focuses memorably on the qualities and uses of the sociological perspective in modern life, how such a scientifically based way of looking at, interpreting, and interacting with the larger world invests its user with a better, more accurate, and quite instrumental picture of what is happening meaningfully around him. For Mills, the key to understanding the value in such a perspective is in appreciating that one can only understand the motives, behavior, and actions of others by locating them within a wider and more meaningful context that connects their personal biographies with the large social circumstances that surround, direct, and propel them at any given historical moment. For Mills, for example, trying to understand the reasoning behind the sometimes desperate actions of Jews in Nazi Germany without appreciating the horrifyingly unique existential circumstances they found themselves in is hopelessly anachronistic and limited.
On the other hand, one invested with such an appreciation for how biography and history interact to create the meaningful social circumstances of any situation finds himself better able to understand the fact that when in a country of one hundred million employed, one man's singular lack of employment might be due to his persoanl deficiencies or lack of a work ethic, and be laid at his feet as a personal trouble, it is also true that when twenty million individuals out of that one hundred million figure suddenly find themselves so disposed and unemployed, that situation is due to something beyond the control of those many individuals and is best described in socioeconomic terms as a social problem to be laid at the feet of the government and industry to resolve. To Mills, it is critical to understand the inherant differences between personal troubles on the one hand, which an individual has the responsibity to resolve and overcome, and social ills, which are beyond both his ken or control. Indeed, according to Mills, increasingly in the 20th century one finds himself trapped by social circumstance into dilemmas he is absolutely unable to resolve without significant help from the wider social community.
Thus, for both psychological as well as social reasons, a person using the sociological perspective, or invested with what he called the "sociological imagination", is more able to think and act critically in accordance with the evidence both outside his door and beyond himself. Fifty years later, such a recognition of "what's what" and "who's who" based on the ability to judge the information within the social environment is as valuable as ever. This is a wonderful book, written in a very accessible and entertaining style, meant both for an intellectual audience and for the scholastic community as well. While it may not be for "everyman", any person wanting to better understand and more fully appreciate how individual biography and social history meaningfully interact to create the realities we live in will enjoy and appreciate this legendary sociological critique and invitation to the pleasures of a sociological perspective by one of its most remarkable proponents some half century ago.
Publisher responds to customer review.......2000-09-21
A customer review on this site states that the editors have changed the word "men" to "people" in the letters. As the publisher, we would like to place this statement in its proper context.
The unmarked edits only occurred in the Tovarich letters, those that were written to an imaginary Russian correspondent. Mills "made it clear [to his agent] that he wanted the Tovarich writings to be edited before they were published . . . his marginal comments included these instructions: 'very good, use it,' 'can't use this,' 'cut somewhat.'" And so, unlike for the rest of the letters, the editors "did not mark deletions with ellipses and occasionally changed the location of paragraphs, shortened a heading, or relaced a heading with a phrase that Mills had written in the text. Although we usually left the original references to men, boys, women, and girls in these essays, we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people.'"
In the rest of the letters, the only editorial changes were spelling corrections and occasional deletions (the latter are always marked with brackets).
C. Wright Mills: Letters and Writings, A Brief Review.......2000-06-02
I have been eagerly awating the publication of these glimpses into Mills' 'personal' life. The book is organized, for the most part, chronologically. Its contents are mostly letters written by this most influental radical intellectuall of the cold war period. The letters (and autobiographical writings disguised as letters) reveal Mills to be as intense, focused, and dedicated to his social analysis as I, a student of his work, have imagined him to be. The writings are beautifully composed; Mills was indeed both a scientist AND an artist. His musings are inspiring for any student, scholar, or critical minded person who wants an insight into Mills "private" reflections. This book could also serve as a wonderful guide to a study of Mills' life-work, as we are given insight into his concerns and struggles during his writing process. I do have a complaint...his daughters, who have no doubt taken painstaking efforts to compose this work, have been so bold as to alter the language of his personal writings... "we occasionally changed 'men' to 'people'" (p. xiv). I think we are wise enough to realize that Mills language is a reflection of the social and historical context in which he lived...Regardless, we are lucky to have this invaluable resource that provides endless reflections into the life and though of C. Wright Mills. END
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Labour/Le Travail, published by Canadian Committee on Labour History on September 22, 2002. The length of the article is 2003 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Wright Mills -- Letters and Autobiographical Writings. (Reviews/Comptes Rendus).(Book Review)
Author: Ella Haley
Publication:
Labour/Le Travail (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2002
Publisher: Canadian Committee on Labour History
Page: 348(4)
Article Type: Book Review
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Book Description
In the critically acclaimed Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Manhattan journalist Susan Shapiro revisited five self-destructive romances. In her hilarious, illuminating new memoir, Lighting Up, she rejects five self-destructive substances. This difficult quest for clean living starts with Shapiro’s shocking revelation that, at forty, her lengthiest, most emotionally satisfying relationship has been with cigarettes.
A two-pack-a-day smoker since the age of thirteen, Susan Shapiro quickly discovers that it’s impossible to be a writer, a nonsmoker, sane, and slender in the same year. The last time she tried to quit, she gained twenty-three pounds, couldn’t concentrate on work, and wanted to kill herself and her husband, Aaron, a TV comedy writer who hates her penchant for puffing away. Yet just as she’s about to choose her vice over her marriage vows, she stumbles upon a secret weapon.
Dr. Winters, “the James Bond of psychotherapy,” is a brilliant but unorthodox addiction specialist, a
former chain-smoker himself. Working his weird magic on her psyche, he unravels the roots of her twenty-seven-year compulsion, the same dangerous dependency that has haunted her doctor father, her grandfather, and a pair of eccentric aunts from opposite sides of the family, along with Freud and nearly one in four Americans. Dr. Winters teaches her how to embrace suffering, then proclaims that her months of panic, depression, insecurity, vulnerability, and wild mood swings win her the award for “the worst nicotine withdrawal in the history of the world.”
Shapiro finally does kick the habit–while losing weight and finding career and connubial bliss–only to discover that the second she’s let go of her long-term crutch, she’s already replaced it with another fixation. After banishing cigarettes, alcohol, dope, gum, and bread from her day-to-day existence, she conquers all her demons and survives deprivation overload. But relying religiously on Dr. Winters, she soon realizes that the only obsession she has left
to quit is him. . . .
Never has the battle to stem substance abuse been captured with such wit, sophisticated insight, and candor. Lighting Up is so compulsively readable, it’s addictive.
Customer Reviews:
Honest, funny, Couldn't Put it Down!.......2007-01-22
I loved Susan Shapiro's book "Five Men Who Broke My Heart" and couldn't wait to pick this one. It didn't disappoint. She has a fresh, open, honest, and funny as hell voice that makes it less like reading a book and more like reading a good friend's journal. She's open about all her flaws and she just has a way of setting the scene that makes you feel like you were there in the room with her. I just started her latest book SECRETS OF A FIX-UP FANATIC and it's also fantastic. This is one of those books that once you start it, you can't put it down.
Enjoyed the hell out of this book.......2007-01-20
I'm almost completely burnt out on memoirs. I have finally outgrown "chick lit" novels about protagonists turning 30. And didn't want to read some dry take on addiction. But I wasn't quite ready for a "serious" novel. Ergo, "Lighting Up" really hit the spot. I doubt the veracity of some of it, there are a few parts where she kind of contradicts herself, as if there were two different versions of the story and it didn't all get smoothed out during the editing.
But it comes down to this: I couldn't put it down, I laughed and I CARED and that says a lot.
p.s. folks who have problems with the fact that Shapiro is self-absorbed might want to avoid books where people fully admit there problem is not earth-shattering in the grand scheme of things.
car wreck.......2007-01-03
Shapiro is a late comer to the genre of the self-help, diaristic memoir. Nonetheless she has not learned anything from those who have written in this territory before her. The book is an extended magazine article, as if putting her text in quotations as conversation makes it a novel. But it is so filled with self absorbed congratulatory writing that it becomes somewhat perverse in its hold over the reader--like the magnetic attraction of a car wreck. In the book Shapiro is an attractive (?) forty-two year old woman who has sex with her husband (which is apparently a big deal for her. I predict her husband will dump her for another woman before she is fifty), becomes smarter than her therapist, and becomes a successful writer with a perfect extended family. Except no children because she was too busy obsessing about herself during child bearing years. Who has empathy for this protaganist? With her luck I expect to see this book as a made-for-TV movie very soon. Hallmark channel.
Fabulous!.......2006-08-29
This book is funny as hell and hard to put down - can emphasis with someone who writes about her struggles with giving up smoking and drinking while living "in the center of Manhattan, where I could get any substance I wanted delivered within twenty minutes"...
Wonderful!.......2006-08-29
I am a psychologist who specializes (and has coped) with addiction. This book is a must read! Page for page, Susan Shapiro is a great writer.
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