Evolution and Procedures in Central Banking

Book Description

The contributions in this volume reveal much about the institutional nature of central banks. They analyze the banks' growth and development as well as desired objectives and challenges in the future. The articles tackle the issues in a variety of ways, combining historical observation with economic theory and experimentation.

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This volume collects the proceedings from a conference on the evolution and practice of central banking sponsored by the Central Bank Institute of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The articles and discussants' comments in this volume largely focus on two questions: the need for central banks, and how to maintain price stability once they are established. The questions addressed include whether large banks (or coalitions of small banks) can substitute for government regulation and due central bank liquidity provision; whether the future will have fewer central banks or more; the possibility of private means to deliver a uniform currency; if competition across sovereign currencies can ensure global price stability; the role of learning (and unlearning) the lessons of the past inflationary episodes in understanding central bank behavior; and an analysis of the most recent experiment in central banking, the European Central Bank.

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Gainsharing: Creating and Sharing Success (Crisp Management Library, 26)
Carl G. Thor
Manufacturer: Crisp Learning
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Binding: Paperback

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The Gainsharing Design Manual

Gainsharing and Power: Lessons from Six Scanlon Plans (ILR Press Books)

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

ASIN: 1560525304

Book Description

Among the methods high-performance companies use to improve and develop is an old idea with a new name. Gainsharing is simply an incentive program that shares the rewards of improved performance with employees. The idea has a few new added twists because the "drivers" of the program may not always be related to more sales (or more anything) but would instead focus on issues of productivity, quality, customer satisfaction and safety. The idea is simply to encourage working smarter which in turn produces the means to allow for Gainsharing.

Book Description

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." So says Dick in Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part II, as he and Cade daydream of making a perfect kingdom. Even as early as 1590 lawyer bashing was a common pastime. Attorney Mel Martin has raised lawyer defamation to a fine art in How to Hire an Honest Lawyer ... and Other Oxymorons. This is a genuinely funny book.

Martin has succeeded in providing a primer filled with tongue-in-cheek humor and wry observations about the law, the people who practice it, and those who need legal services. How to Hire an Honest Lawyer provides plenty of material for the novice basher to use when he or she feels out of place at the next cocktail or dinner party. After all, when everyone else is trading horror stories about divorce, bankruptcy, and the schemes of the attorneys hired to save their collective hides, a hapless non-litigant needs to hold up one end of the conversation.

But How to Hire an Honest Lawyer... and other Oxymorons is not a simple joke book. Throughout every chapter Martin gives judicious advice. Among his quips and razor-wit descriptions of attorneys, paralegals and legal secretaries, are cogent suggestions for evaluating lawyers, determining the seriousness of cases, and coping with the long process of litigation. The author may take great pleasure in poking fun at the whole judicial system, but he clearly respects the law. Readers will gain important insights and perspectives while laughing through this hilarious guide to the vagaries of choosing the elusive "honest attorney."

Book Description

We are made of stardust--and so is all life as we know it. Every chemical element on earth except hydrogen and helium has been scattered across the universe in great stellar explosions and recycled into new stars, planets, and parts of us. In this engrossing book, John and Mary Gribbin explain how developments in astronomy from the 1920s to the present day have led to this startling realization and to a new understanding of the relationship between the Universe and the Earth. The new preface discusses recent scientific developments that confirm the idea that life must be a common occurrence across the universe.

Customer Reviews:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.......2007-01-10

What is the nature of the relationship between the Universe and life? If this sort of a question piques your interest, then you should read John Gribbin's "Stardust."

The four chemical elements most important to life as we know it include: carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen. How did these elements - the prerequisites for complex, organic molecules - come into existence? The Big Bang produced mainly hydrogen and helium (in addition to a smattering of a few other light elements). But what about the heavy elements required for life? They are the products of stellar nucleosynthesis - a process that happens in the interiors of stars. The atoms lodged in your body now, the nitrogen that is part of your DNA double helix was once `cooked' inside stars and then scattered into cold clouds of interstellar dust. If that does not give you a sense of (cosmic!) wonder, then you have not paused to let the information sink in.

John Gribbin reviews the long, intellectual road that led to this startling discovery. Before one could say that we are made of stardust, scientists first had to answer many other questions, like what stars are made of. Besides being a good science book, "Stardust" is also a good book about the history of science, showing, for example, what a vital role the development of photography and spectroscopy played in 20th century astrophysics. One of the especially interesting historical lessons here concerns our understanding of what goes on in the Sun (and the other stars for that matter) to generate heat. Before arriving at the answer that stars generate energy by nuclear fusion, which converts hydrogen to helium, there were many failed hypotheses, such as the gravitational collapse hypothesis. This problem, of how the Sun generates the energy that it does, was for some time a point of contention between the geologists and evolutionary biologists on the one hand and the physicists on the other. The former camp required the Sun to have been in operation for a very long time, in order for evolution to have the sorts of immense temporal scales required for the emergence of complex life, while the physicists estimated that the Sun had to be much younger, in order for it not to have exhausted its energy reservoir. Remarkably, it was the application of quantum physics (the physics of extremely small particles) which eventually provided the science needed to explain how stars shine.
The book is filled with many other stories, showing how our scientific knowledge of the Universe progressed in starts and stops. The B2FH paper (named after the scientists involved: Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler and Hoyle), entitled `Synthesis of the Elements in Stars' was a watershed event in explaining the exact process by which the heavy elements are generated inside stars.

These heavy elements (from carbon to iron) are ultimately expelled in several different ways: (a) through the gradual stripping of Red Giant star's layers, or if the stars are massive, (b) through novae and supernovae explosions. Supernovae explosions also provide the energy needed to synthesize elements heavier than iron. The scattering of fine dusty particles (stardust) provides the site where chemical interactions can occur as well as the seeds for a complex interstellar chemistry. Spectroscopic studies have more recently revealed the existence of organic, polyatomic molecules as part of the interstellar chemistry -- our Galaxy is seeded with the ingredients for life.

The appendix offers a short review of theoretical physicist Lee Smolin's principle of cosmological natural selection (an alternative to versions of the Anthropic principle). Many of the ideas presented here (at the cutting edge of cosmology) are extremely abstract and speculative and present many difficulties in terms of being subjected to experimental testing. However, they make for highly fascinating reading.

One of the themes in John Gribbin's book concerns the co-dependency between science and technology and the intimate connections between the two. Improvements in one ultimately lead to improvements in the other, and so on, in a circle. Technology continues to make gains. Some of the latest developments in cosmology are mind-bogglingly strange and there are indications that more big findings will emerge in the not-so-distant future. We may be in for another radical paradigm shift relatively soon, that will once again change our view of the relationship between the Universe and us, and our place in it.

brilliant mind.......2003-07-16

highly enlightening/illuminating ideas straight from the mind of the stars!

awesome.

best book of all time.......2003-03-21

this book will tell you your place in the universe. every human being on the planet should be required to read this book. i have read every word in this book and i highlighted alot of text. i will re-read this book throughout my life.

also, read 'river out of eden' by richard dawkins for information on human evolution.

"We are all starstuff".......2002-02-01

Carl Sagan was fond of the observation that "we are all starstuff"-that the atoms and molecules in our bodies were forged in the big bang and in the heart of exploding supernovae.

Gribbin fills in the background on that observation, describing how the simpler elements are formed during the big bang and how more complex elements are formed inside stars, particularly when they explode. It is a two-fold history, both of how astronomers and astrophysicists (a remarkably recent discipline) discovered how these were formed and of the universe itself and how it developed.

The only complaint I can come up with is that Gribbin gives Sagan too little credit, never quoting him with the statement above, even though it's truer and more characteristic than the "billions and billions" phrase the impressionists like to use. It's ironic that part of Gribbin's subtitle is the title of one of Sagan's most notable books.

Other than that, this is a gripping and easy-to-read relating of some of the fundamental concepts in modern astronomy. Highly recommended.

The magic of the stars.......2001-09-14

Stardust is a magic bok about the cosmic connec tions between the atoms in our bodies and the stars themselves. I rate this John Gribbin's best ever book, and much clearer than Marcus Chown's Magic Furnace. If you only read one science book this year, it has to be this one!

Stardust: Supernovae and Life: The Cosmic Connection

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Stardust: Supernovae and Life: The Cosmic Connection
Mary Gribbin John R. Gribbin
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ORX92K

Book Description

Codiscoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace should be recognized as one of the titans of Victorian science. Instead he has long been relegated to a secondary place behind Darwin. Worse, many scholars have overlooked or even mocked his significant contributions to other aspects of Victorian culture. With An Elusive Victorian, Martin Fichman provides the first comprehensive analytical study of Wallace's life and controversial intellectual career.

Fichman examines not only Wallace's scientific work as an evolutionary theorist and field naturalist but also his philosophical concerns, his involvement with theism, and his commitment to land nationalization and other sociopolitical reforms such as women's rights. As Fichman shows, Wallace worked throughout his life to integrate these humanistic and scientific interests. His goal: the development of an evolutionary cosmology, a unified vision of humanity's place in nature and society that he hoped would ensure the dignity of all individuals.

To reveal the many aspects of this compelling figure, Fichman not only reexamines Wallace's published works, but also probes the contents of his lesser known writings, unpublished correspondence, and copious annotations in books from his personal library. Rather than consider Wallace's science as distinct from his sociopolitical commitments, An Elusive Victorian assumes a mutually beneficial relationship between the two, one which shaped Wallace into one of the most memorable characters of his time. Fully situating Wallace's wide-ranging work in its historical and cultural context, Fichman's innovative and insightful account will interest historians of science, religion, and Victorian culture as well as biologists.

Customer Reviews:

best treatment yet.......2004-01-04

Although it is premature to think that the continuing attention to Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) merits the notion a "Wallace Industry" is underway (as is the case with Darwin), this new study certainly stokes the fire. It is, simply, the best monographic analysis of Wallace's life and work yet produced. Fichman uses a contextualist approach to create a treatment which is roughly chronological/biographical in organization, yet deviates as necessary (and often) to explore the nature of, and influences on, Wallace's thought--which ranged all the way from evolutionary biology, astronomy, and other hard sciences to spiritualism, social criticism, and land reform.

Wallace is "elusive" because his world view was both all-encompassing, and rather complex. A chronic problem with Wallace investigations has been an unwillingness by most scholars to read enough of his vast output to get a complete idea of what he was about. As a result, the common view has been that he in part gave up on natural selection around 1866 to adopt spiritualist (and later socialist) beliefs: the so-called "change of mind" hypothesis. As Fichman reveals, a newer point of view is emerging: that Wallace's stance had always been more or less teleological, that he probably always did consider man to be a "special case," and that both natural selection and spiritualism--equally and necessarily--fit into this stance as he explored its logical ramifications.

I am still not easy with Fichman's view that Wallace was a theist: his spiritualism was based on the perspective that the "world of spirit" constituted a *natural* reality, obeying laws of organization like the rest of nature--and this was the case, regardless of whether he actually turns out to be right or not. Still, Fichman uses the "*no* change of mind" hypothesis to explore a lot of interesting things in Wallace's work, including its connections to the ideas of Charles Peirce and William James, and his wholehearted commitment to the means of social progress. The ramifications for today's world, moreover, are extraordinary: it really *is* possible to maintain an internally consistent philosophy leading both to good science, and to a healthy, far-seeing--and spiritual--humanitarianism.

Book Description

"Why do Southern Belles hate going to orgies? Too many thank-you notes!"...Bubba Jukebox"This book would've cracked the stone face even of Louisa May Alcott. Too bad Jones wasn't around when I was-I could've purloined his stuff like he has mine."...Mark Twain (Via Rachel Receiver, Psychic-in-Seattle)"At last, an American product that's actually good for you, ergonomically and environmentally safe at any speed-recommended for corporations, members of congress, and all adult branches of the private sector."...Nalph Rader"Sultry Magnolias is exceedingly despicable. It is in the poorest taste from each deplorable joke on every opprobrious page. I loved it!" ...Sir Chinston Wurchill"Why do Southern Belles hate going to orgies? Too many thank-you notes!"...Bubba Jukebox"This book would've cracked the stone face even of Louisa May Alcott. Too bad Jones wasn't around when I was-I could've purloined his stuff like he has mine."...Mark Twain (Via Rachel Receiver, Psychic-in-Seattle)"At last, an American product that's actually good for you, ergonomically and environmentally safe at any speed-recommended for corporations, members of congress, and all adult branches of the private sector."...Nalph Rader"Sultry Magnolias is exceedingly despicable. It is in the poorest taste from each deplorable joke on every opprobrious page. I loved it!" ...Sir Chinston Wurchill

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An excellent source of information on the Coast Guard.

Guardians of the Sea: History of the United States Coast Guard, 1915 to the Present
Robert Erwin Johnson
Manufacturer: US Naval Institute Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Alexander Hamilton

Please Don't Just Do What I Tell You, Do What Needs to Be Done: Every Employee's Guide to Making Work More Rewarding

ASIN: 0870212443

Customer Reviews:

An excellent source of information on the Coast Guard........1999-09-07

I wish I had found this book when I made my decision to join the Coast Guard. It answers a wide range of questions on everything from why Coast Guard vessels are called "cutters" to why members of the service wear the present-day blue uniform. From the first chapter, concerning the formation of the Coast Guard through the merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the Life Saving Service, to the final chapter describing the rescue of 319 passengers from the burning liner Prinsendam in 1979, this book holds the reader's attention throughout. It also deals with the mistakes as well, such as the Simas Kudirka incident, in which a Lithuaninan seaman tryig to defect was allowed to be taken back to his ship, and the collisions which sank the cutters Cuyahoga and Blackthorn. Anyone considering joining the service, or anyone who just wants to know more about our smallest branch of the armed forces, should read this book. It has helped me to understand more about the work I do in the Coast Guard than any other source of information.

Book Description

This is the undisputed best introduction to the history of the world-wide pattern of British activity in the nineteenth century, embracing its expansive spirit as well as its formal territorial empire. The dynamics of this extraordinary enterprise are considered broadly: the high-political concerns of strategy and international geopolitics are analyzed, as well as the economic dimension, missionary activity, and racial attitudes, together with a wide range of cultural aspects, including sport and the pursuit of sexual opportunity. Nor is the personal contribution of some of the leading Victorian figures neglected.

Customer Reviews:

Deep and rich.......1999-07-22

A rewarding but sometimes confusing read, "Britain's Imperial Century" examines the rise and fall of the British Empire everywhere from North America, to India, Africa, and Australasia. Aimed at students, the book is a good, interesting read compared to most soporific textbooks. It is not however an ideal starting point if you are not familiar with the topic. Prof. Hyam assumes a level of familiarity with the subject I found a bit steep, even as a student of British history. Unfortunately, the organization is a bit tricky as well, and jumps from subject to subject with little order. If you know something about the British Empire and are looking for a scholarly, engaging study, Hyam is your man. If you are just poking around - keep going.

The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914: Imperialism from the Perspective of World History (Critical Issues in History)

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The British Imperial Century, 1815-1914: Imperialism from the Perspective of World History (Critical Issues in History)
Timothy Parsons
Manufacturer: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0847688259

Book Description

Ideal for adoption in introductory and upper-level classes in European and world history, this book provides a concise narrative account of the rise and fall of British imperialism. Focusing on the transition from informal to formal empire which broadene

British Empire 1815-1914 (Access to History)

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British Empire 1815-1914 (Access to History)
Frank McDonough
Manufacturer: Hodder Murray
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0340593768

Book Description

This volume examines the major themes and events in British colonial history in the light of recent historical research, to provide an introduction to the topic. The book sets the Empire within a broad historical context, explaining its evolution and considering its impact on British society.

The British Empire, 1815-1914 (Access to History)

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The British Empire, 1815-1914 (Access to History)
Frank McDonough
Manufacturer: National Textbook Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0658005960

Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793-1945

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Collision of Empires: Britain in Three World Wars, 1793-1945
A. D. Harvey
Manufacturer: Hambledon & London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The only previous war to match the world wars of the twentieth century in scale and impact was the French War of 1793-1815. This book is the first book to compare these conflicts, which together shaped the history of the modern world. A.D. Harvey relates the causes, conduct and outcome of these wars to the fundamental nature of the societies which fought them. Political decisions, economic power and social attitudes interfaced with the demands of military technology to determine the outcome of each case. Britain is the centre of focus, but is seen against a background of the other combatants. Harvey's ability to make large-scale generalisations is backed up by a wealth of fascinating and carefully documented detail, making this outstanding and exceptionally well-written book a pleasure to read. The author has tackled a huge subject and has not been afraid to face up to either its complexities or its implications. By asking new questions and using a range of unfamiliar sources this book provides an unusually profound analysis not only of these wars but also of the nature of modern society and of our understanding of the past.

Commerce & Industry: A Historical View of the Economic Conditions of the British Empire 1815-1914

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Commerce & Industry: A Historical View of the Economic Conditions of the British Empire 1815-1914

Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Defence and Diplomacy: Britain and the Great Powers, 1815-1914 (New Frontiers in History)

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Defence and Diplomacy: Britain and the Great Powers, 1815-1914 (New Frontiers in History)
Christopher John Bartlett
Manufacturer: Manchester Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Providence and Empire: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain and Ireland, 1815-1914 (Religion, Politics and Society in Britain)

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Providence and Empire: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain and Ireland, 1815-1914 (Religion, Politics and Society in Britain)
Stewart Brown
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0582299608

Commerce & Industry: a Historical Review of the Economic Conditions of the British Empire from the Peace of Paris in 1815 to the Declaration of War in 1914, Based on Parliamentary Debates

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Commerce & Industry: a Historical Review of the Economic Conditions of the British Empire from the Peace of Paris in 1815 to the Declaration of War in 1914, Based on Parliamentary Debates
W. (ed.) Page
Manufacturer: Constable
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JNOW48

Book Description

THE OFFICERS OF THE CLANDESTINE SERVICES (CS) of the CIA ARE CALLED UPON TO DO SOME OF THE MOST DANGEROUS WORK IN THE WORLD.

"They enter hostile buildings and go down into foul, black sewers in the dead of night to bug the enemy. They do business with Communists and other autocrats, with terrorists and crooks, to seek the truth and try to undo evil. They work endless hours to live their cover as well as to perform their primary duty. They face the fear of exposure and/or death. They are on duty twenty-four hours a day, all year, for their entire career. All of that and more, but since the work is secret there is no chance of renown or gratitude from the public.

"When youve finished this book (unless you are now or have been an espionage professional), you will have learned quite a lot about life inside what is often called the second oldest profession. This memoir is a worms-eye view of spying in war and peace: of what day-to-day espionage was like for some of us during the Second World War and in the depths of the Cold War that followed it." -from True Men and Traitors

Customer Reviews:

A Fascinating, Realistic Account of Life in the CIA.......2002-11-04

This is a factual, no nonsense account of what it is really like to work for the CIA. There are no embellishments, no twisting of the truth for entertainment value. This is a true story of one of the "true men", who lived by the rules and who has a rich inventory of experiences from which to draw. This is a perceptive recounting of a life well-lived and the policies and actions - both good and bad - which have shaped our nation's premier intelligence agency.

Pick another book.......2002-08-09

This was a very disappointing book. The author may have been a fine CIA Operative, but an interesting author he is not. He was not into sharing much detail of "spook" type work. This was more a descriptive political analysis of the countries in which he was assigned and a moralistic soapbox against those agents (rightfully so) that turned into traitors. The book itself was almost void of any specific operations and their analysis.

Book Description

With captivating blue eyes and dark hair, Jenny Lauren looked as though she'd stepped out of one of the ads for which her uncle, Ralph Lauren, is famous. It was not long, however, before she found herself in a world where it was easy to see herself as less than perfect. She was ten years old when she first starved herself. After many years of bingeing, purging, and compulsively exercising, her body fell apart. Her colon herniated and she was forced to undergo surgery. At twenty-four, living in chronic pain, she wrote Homesick as a cautionary tale that she hoped would touch many.

This unflinching account details her struggle with anorexia and bulimia, yet is also a much larger story that focuses on universal issues: the intricacies of family ties, the pressures of society, the search for selfhood, and ultimately the power of hope. With flashes of wit and a knowing beyond its young writer's years, Homesick is a riveting and emotionally complex story of pain and hard-won recovery that no reader will forget.

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This startlingly plainspoken and unflinching first-person account by the niece of fashion icon Ralph Lauren details a wrenching struggle with anorexia and bulimia -- and speaks powerfully to a widespread failure by the medical community to understand eating disorders.

Customer Reviews:

Knew her once.......2007-07-22

I am sorry to see all the negative reviews here that attack the author and her family. The author's writing is honest, brash, and brave. I would certainly give this book to any teen or pre-teen girl in the hopes of ramming home the damage that can be caused by not taking care of one's body and giving it enough fuel.

Anorexia/Bulimia are a huge social issue for women and in no way should be taken lightly. Actresses and models afflicted with these illnesses prove that no amount of money, fame, catering to one's ego, etc. can fill whatever hole lurks inside a persons soul. There have been many studies showing an acute mental glitch may be the cause of such disorders, much like depression. No one would ever tell a severely depressed person to 'stop whining' and to 'just get over it', or call them self-pitying.

It is one thing to not enjoy a book, you are certainly entitled, but to diminish the author's illness, family, lifestyle etc. is just uncouth.

There have been a few reviews here that claim to be written by friends of the author or those who have known and spent time with her and I would like to add something to the mix.

I do not know the author personally any longer but did go to grade school with her for a short while. I remember her as a happy, friendly, kind, and of course beautiful young girl. Still, I don't remember her for her beauty, I remember her for being fun, creative, honest, and funny.

I am sorry to hear about her struggles as an adult, and her harrowing medical experiences. I am most sorry to see that people feel that if you are born into a wealthy family, and are good looking, then any ill that befalls you is your own fault and somehow you are creating it.

While it is possible that some of the causes of the author's ailments were emotional, and still to this day not recognized, please keep in mind that recovery, from anything, does not happen overnight. Aren't we all learning to recover from something or a series of something's, our entire lives? (Problematic childhoods, devastating break ups, failures, betrayals, and the like)

As for her parents 'doling out' cash to fund her medical treatment, I certainly hope any parent would take care of their child of any age that was going through such a horrendous experience. Parents are tied by their blood and love to their children. When a child suffers, his mother suffers ten times as much for her child.

The best I can say about the work to those undecided is to read the ecerpts available and judge for yourself.

An epic quest without an ending.......2006-07-23

I have never read anything where the author is so frustratingly self-involved and yet so amazingly lacking in self-awareness. The whole book is a poorly written festival of whining.

The writer spends the book searching for a cure to one ailment after another--all using her parent's money. Anytime they don't automatically pony up with the money she whines until they give in (bad enabling parents, bad, bad!).

I was amazed that anyone could go through the process of writing such a book and not start to gain some sort of self-awareness. For example: Jenny complains that she needs an operation. The doctor does not want to do it. Jennie demands it. After having the operation she's told by some lay person that the operation was a bad idea. Jenny then rails at the doctor for butchering her. Has she forgotten that she was the one that demanded it against medical advice?

The saga of how she took more pain medication than she was supposed to and then got painfully constipated is another example. (Jenny, if you're reading, don't take more pain medication than you're prescribed, and if you do, accept the consequences, don't blame it on others!)

Then we get to hear how hard she works at getting better by spending weeks and weeks at a spa (yet again spending her parents money while contributing nothing to society--unless you want to argue for the Bush theory of "trickle down economics").
The final insane leg of the journey is a trip to South America (yet again paid for by money wheedled from her parents) to visit a healing guru. As much time or more is spent talking about what kind of souvenirs she bought as anything about her visit with the guru (who charges a fee for bottled holy water in the gift shop. Yes the healing guru has a gift shop!) Money wisely spent.

The whole book ends with Jenny saying she has not found any significant resolution to her quest but that she will continue to do basically the same thing she's done throughout the book over and over again until she finds what she's looking for!
The most unfortunate thing about all of this is that this book actually got published and that Ms. Lauren got paid an advance more than twice what most Americans make in a year!

This book has no insight whatsoever. Anybody who thinks that this could be a good book for others with eating disorders should know that it will leave the reader frustrated and with the sense that there is little hope for a cure even with more resources than 99% of the population. If anything, this book is a badly written portrait of self-pitying self-centeredness enabled by privledge.

Ultimately, I feel for Ms. Lauren. She is obviously dealing with a lot of pain. I just don't think that the book she wrote is of enough value to share with the world. If anything, it's probably done Ms. Lauren more harm than good because her whining must feel more legitimate now that it's in print. Maybe the final blame should go to the editor who believed that the Lauren name would sell enough books to turn a profit no matter how unworthy the content.

Read it.......2006-05-11

This memoir is amazing so far. Vivid and clever writing, Jenny Lauren is a unique person and it is so sad how her eating disorder brings her down in those adolescent years.. but it is enlightening to read how she recovered from it.

She does not skip the details, she includes everything in her account, the gruesome and the triumphant.

Buy it.

Interesting Story.......2006-03-28

I agree that this book is somewhat annoying in that the author is very indulged. She does acknowledge this. I found her frank discussion of the repulsive side effects of her eating disorder to be illuminating. No one could claim that this book glamorized eating disorders. I found her discussion of living with chronic pain, constipation and lethargy to also be well-written and sad. I was shocked however, that she wrote about seeing the best specialists her parent's considerable money could buy only to reject them and to find healing with a 'psychic surgeon'. What is she thinking? Sure, her doctors were not helpful, but did she really believe that someone who claims to diagnose her after looking at her for two seconds really 'saved her life'? She also did not give her doctors a chance, in that every two pages she was writing about how she saw a new doctor and was trying out his recommendations. While John of God may not charge for his 'services', it really it obvious that he makes alot of money from the herbs he sells,and from the accomodations that people have to stay in to see him. Jenny Lauren actually offers her services as a lecturer on her website. What she has to say or offer is not very clear.

It isn't as bad as you all make it out to be, but it isn't the best either........2006-02-12

Although Jenny Lauren does annoyingly whine on and on about her health problems, I couldn't put this book down. I can't relate to her bulimia or anorexia, I can relate to her image issues. I agree with many customer reviews here that say "get over it already". But there is something to be taken away from her book.

If you're thinking about it, I would definitely buy a used copy, just in case you don't like it, then you aren't out quite as much.

I think that it takes a certain person to realize that it does take something to find yourself, even if you are a spoiled rich kid who gets all the awesome free clothes you could ever want. Or maybe, in spite of that. It's worth reading during a weekend, or ... maybe on a flight.

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