Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success Review

Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success
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I read a lot of books on persuasion, influence and sales. The disappointing fact is that most of them simply rehash the same information and rarely provide any new and exciting content. Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success is not one of those books. Like a breath of fresh air, I rank this as one of the most informative books on positioning and persuasion I have read.
Instant Appeal: The 8 Primal Factors That Create Blockbuster Success will show you the primal factors that cause people to choose one thing over another, whether it be a product, a company or a person. The book is well researched and provides ample notes along with an index. These are things the less rigorious books in this field often lack. Despite this it is an easy and fun read. I did not feel it was overly technical, but that the technical information validated the points made in the book.
While theory is great, the reason I read books like this is to learn some fact or technique that I can apply that will have an immediate impact on my business or personal life today. Again, this book delivered. In every chapter of the book I found myself extensively underlining and scribbling notes in the margins on how I can apply the information.
I highly recommend this book. It is so good that it is one of the rare few that has a place on my desktop bookshelf, along with Kevin Hogan'sThe Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking & Dave Lakhani's Subliminal Persuasion: Influence & Marketing Secrets They Don't Want You To Know for immediate reference.

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The Complete Book of M*A*S*H Review

The Complete Book of M*A*S*H
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The good news is, that the photography and cast interviews in this book are fantastic. There are hundreds of color stills from the series, capturing the flavor of the show and some of it's most memorable moments. Plus, the background material and the the interviews have some real depth, going into detail about casting, how the actors developed their characters, praises and complaints, interesting retrospective thoughts, etc. That part is GREAT!
The bad news is, that the episode summaries leave much to be desired. As the author herself states, she was working primarily from scripts. That's a bad idea because, as every media buff knows, there are often last-minute changes and ad libs during filming that aren't in the scripts. Not to mention what happens during editing. The definitive version isn't what's written down on paper, it's what you finally see on the screen. The result is, that characters are misquoted in the book, and sometimes the "wrong" plotline is given preference. I realize it's a daunting task to watch 11 years of episodes over and over, but that's a must if you are going to write the "complete" book about a TV series. So, for making those plot summary mistakes, I'm docking the book one star.
Still, it is a very nice hardcover reference, and will certainly help you put your tape collection in order. (Although, now that the series is coming out on DVD, with all the episodes already in order on the discs, that won't be as much of a problem...) Even with it's deficiencies, it belongs in every MASH collection.

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Full of the people, scenes, and emotions that made M*A*S*H an eleven-year television sensation, this is an homage of wit and warmth. Each of the 251 episodes are reprised, complete with interviews of the people who made it and acted in it. More than 200 photos capture key scenes as well as intimate backstage moments.

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Children's Book Corner: A Read-Aloud Resource with Tips, Techniques, and Plans for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents Grades 1 and 2 Review

Children's Book Corner: A Read-Aloud Resource with Tips, Techniques, and Plans for Teachers, Librarians, and Parents Grades 1 and 2
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Judy Bradbury has created another winner with this second book in her Children's Book Corner series. The heartwarming and sometimes humorous manner in which the stories are summarized in this book have inspired me to look more closely at some of the more unfamiliar titles. The take-home pages for parents, as well as the many other useful references, techniques and follow-up links, make this book a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to make reading aloud to children a rewarding experience.

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Authors by Request: An Inside Look at Your Favorite Writers Review

Authors by Request: An Inside Look at Your Favorite Writers
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I've purchased several copies of "Authors By Request: An Inside Look At Your Favorite Writers," as gifts for my children's teachers and student teachers. It's a wonderful gift for educators because it profiles the popular authors our kids are reading, plus offers writing tips and activities. I also bought a copy for my sister, a teacher, and for our family bookshelf. We love books at my house and this paperback really highlights some terrific writers. It's a good book at a good price.

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Authors by Request is a fun book that shares inside information on the lives and work of today's most popular children's book authors. Kids, parents, teachers, and librarians will appreciate the handy writing tips, little-known facts, reading lists, and inspiring stories compiled in this book. Adding to the writers' biographies are photos, young people's testimonials telling who their favorite authors are and why. In addition to the creators of the phenomenal Harry Potter and Goosebumps series, award-winning writers featured include Louis Sachar, Brian Jacques, Avi, Andrew Clements, Christopher Paul Curtis, and Lois Lowry.

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Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds Review

Imagination and the Arts in C.S. Lewis: Journeying to Narnia and Other Worlds
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This is an exceptionally good discussion of the topics indicated in the title and a fine book for readers who want to think about qualities that make so much of Lewis's writing appealing. Schakel's case for reading the Narnian books in their original publication order (i.e. starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) would convince CSL himself that the current marketing of the series as beginning with The Magician's Nephew is a mistake). His book will get many readers to look beyond Lewis to music and pictorial art that Lewis cared about. I would rank this with George Sayer's biography JACK as one of my two favorite texts on Lewis.

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Imagination has long been regarded as central to C. S. Lewis's life and to his creative and critical works, but this is the first study to provide a thorough analysis of his theory of imagination, including the different ways he used the word and how those uses relate to each other. Peter Schakel begins by concentrating on the way reading or engaging with the other arts is an imaginative activity. He focuses on three books in which imagination is the central theme—Surprised by Joy, An Experiment in Criticism, and The Discarded Image—and shows the important role of imagination in Lewis's theory of education.
He then examines imagination and reading in Lewis's fiction, concentrating specifically on the Chronicles of Narnia, the most imaginative of his works. He looks at how the imaginative experience of reading the Chronicles is affected by the physical texture of the books, the illustrations, revisions of the texts, the order in which the books are read, and their narrative "voice," the "storyteller" who becomes almost a character in the stories.
Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis also explores Lewis's ideas about imagination in the nonliterary arts. Although Lewis regarded engagement with the arts as essential to a well- rounded and satisfying life, critics of his work and even biographers have given little attention to this aspect of his life. Schakel reviews the place of music, dance, art, and architecture in Lewis's life, the ways in which he uses them as content in his poems and stories, and how he develops some of the deepest, most significant themes of his stories through them.
Schakel concludes by analyzing the uses and abuses of imagination. He looks first at "moral imagination." Although Lewis did not use this term, Schakel shows how Lewis developed the concept in That Hideous Strength and The Abolition of Man long before it became popularized in the 1980s and 1990s. While readers often concentrate on the Christian dimension of Lewis's works, equally or more important to him was their moral dimension.
Imagination and the Arts in C. S. Lewis will appeal to students and teachers of both children's literature and twentieth-century British writers. It will also be of value to readers who wish to compare Lewis's creations with more recent imaginative works such as the Harry Potter series.


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Performance Literacy through Storytelling Review

Performance Literacy through Storytelling
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Literacy is more than just reading. "Performance Literacy Through Storytelling" is a guide to embracing storytelling and performing when trying to teach younger students the importance and joy of reading literature. The performance arts can also do much for students outside of literacy, such as learning to express oneself, or engage in cooperation and creative thinking. A complete and comprehensive guide for teachers and educators about using performance arts as a part of the literary learning experience, "Performance Literacy Through Storytelling" is a recommended educational manual.

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Literacy Online: New Tools for Struggling Readers and Writers Review

Literacy Online: New Tools for Struggling Readers and Writers
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Books are in perfect condition and came so quickly! I was shocked at the rate they shipped, as I had only selected regular shipping.

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In recent years, while the computer has gone from a schoolhouse novelty to an invaluable teaching tool, Julie Wood has researched how twenty-first century technologies can help all students achieve full literacy. In Literacy Online, she demonstrates how strategically employing your classroom's computer can help you find new solutions to a perennial challenge faced by every elementary teacher: engaging and encouraging struggling students while developing their reading and writing skills.

All you need to do is get students to the keyboard, then Literacy Online's practical suggestions for using computers will develop underachieving students' literacy skills in a project-based environment rich with meaning. Wood demonstrates how digital-based lessons encourage growth in seven key literacy characteristics:

word recognition
fluency
comprehension
vocabulary
reading and writing across the curriculum
process Writing
motivation.
Literacy Online shares concrete ideas for teaching and planning in support struggling students as well as guidelines for evaluating the helpfulness of websites and software. In addition, a companion website (http://www.heinemann.com/literacyonline) features reproducible brainstorming sheets and links to successful model programs across the country where the literacy abilities of students have improved dramatically thanks to the integration of technology.

Best of all, Literacy Online is written for any teacher. Technophobes will begin helping emerging readers overcome their difficulties on Monday morning with easy-to-use tips that capitalize on basic skills like word processing, browsing the Internet, and communicating by email, while technophiles will find innovative options to improve students' reading and writing sooner by extending into web design, the use of a variety of computer gadgetry, and even speech recognition software.


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TIME for Kids BIG Book of Why: 1,001 Facts Kids Want to Know (Time for Kids Magazine) Review

TIME for Kids BIG Book of Why: 1,001 Facts Kids Want to Know (Time for Kids Magazine)
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This is a good book for kids of all ages. I have grandson 12 yrs. old and he thought it was a great book. There are many questions that he asked me over the years and I always tried to give him the correct answers however there were times that I was not satisfied with the answers I gave. This book explained the answers in a way that was easy to follow and understand.
I enjoyed reading this book with my grandson and we both learned some new things.
Good Job..........

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(Just like) El Cid's Bloomers Review

(Just like) El Cid's Bloomers
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Jake is an estate agent by day, local rock star by night. When his wife kicks him out of their home, he takes up with a teenage groupie named Jade. While not exactly happy with his life, he is.... making due. But when Jade announces she is pregnant, his wife decides she might want him back, and a record label just might want to make him a star, his meager Resistance is turned on its head.
Tim Roux has woven a delightful tale of rock and roll, and I loved every minute of it. I loved Jake's story, both learning about his present situation, and the past that led up to it. I felt like the characters in this book were real and very relatable.
The book was very funny, but it was a wry, snarky sense of humor (my favorite kind), so some readers may have a difficult time relating at first. As an American, I did not get all of the British references in the book, but that did not in any way detract from my enjoyment of the book. All in all, I found the book incredibly entertaining. Anyone who loves rock and roll is sure to feel the same.

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Jake Pembleton is a Hull-born singer-songwriter who once killed a man. This doesn't make him the East Riding folk-singing Yorkshire Ripper of CrackTown's famous song, but it still plays on his conscience. Now he is in real trouble. Ever since returning home to his wife and kids to find his suitcases parked outside his front door, Jake has been holed up in that wild and lawless part of Hull known as `The Avenues' with a springy nineteen year old groupie who is so sexy that she nearly gives him a heart attack each time she steps out of the shower. Jake's only hopes are Harry, his wife's new boyfriend who keeps her sane, and that he will never meet his Kirkella-dwelling parents-in-law again. Beyond that, he just sits there clutching his guitar, writing his songs, loving his girl, and praying for better days and relief from a day job he is too ashamed of to talk about.

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Film-induced Tourism (Aspects of Tourism) Review

Film-induced Tourism (Aspects of Tourism)
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This book analyzes how films change our perception of place and is the first definitive work about film-based tourism. Highly recommended.
EXCERPTS
Many visitors to film sites and sets do not expect to see exactly what they viewed on the screen, rather they share a fascination for the 'inauthenticity' of the film media. They can now return home, 'knowing how it's done.' and brag about possessing an insider's knowledge. (p. 112)
Entertainment for the masses is regularly decried by numerous academic-based social commentators as bland, insipid, unchallenging, unsustainable and inauthentic, yet it remains a mainstay of the tourism industry. (p. 185)

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Film-induced tourism has the potential to revitalise flagging regional/rural communities and increase tourism to urban centres, however it carries with it its own unique problems. This publication explores such elements, delving into the disciplines of sociology and psychology, along with the fields of destination marketing, community development and strategic planning.

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The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2008 Edition Review

The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2008 Edition
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This latest entry in this venerable series is one of the best--and the most inclusive, too.
Thankfully, it includes many more cartoons from foreign cartoonists. It's wonderful to enjoy an international cartooning perspective.

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The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2008 EditionThe Best of the Year in Editorial CartoonsAll of the top political cartoonists in the world contributed to this collection of the best cartoons of 2007, from Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index website, the most popular cartoon site on the web (www.cagle.com). More than eight hundred cartoons cover the major topics of the year, from lovesick diaper astronauts to the surge in Iraq. We have cartoons on Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, Paris Hilton in jail, Senator Larry Craig in the bathroom, the presidential candidates, poison Chinese toys and much, much more! News junkies and cartoon fans won't want to miss this great cartoon history of the year 2007!

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The Crafty Reader Review

The Crafty Reader
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Scholes' prose is crisp and clear. His critique of the New Critics is hardly new, but it is efficiently done. Perhaps most interesting is the range of texts Scholes' approaches, from poetry to online posts by High School students to the Bible (read through Southern Baptists and the Pope, among others). He does a good job looking at Harry Potter and Edna St. Vincent Millay alike, and in both cases, he shows how satisfying reading can be when we strip away the demands of the New Critics and allow ourselves the luxury of a reading informed by an understanding of genre and history. One of the most useful things in this book for me was its neat description of the evolution of a genre (Scholes describes the renaissance, classical and baroque periods of genres like Fantasy and Mysteries).
As an English teacher, this book is something of a Bible for me. I refer to it often when I am trying to explain what and how I try to teach. That said, it is, admittedly, short on technique. It is not always (or even often) clear how to bring Scholes' ideas from the page to the classroom. To be fair, his intent was not to produce a manual, but still, as a teacher convinced by much of his argument, I often wish he had. In spite of his critique of "virtuoso readings", much of the joy of this book comes in appreciating Scholes' own considerable virtuosity as he takes on one underappreciated genre after another.
Scholes' readings are delightful and his language is refreshingly unpretentious. This is a fast read and well worth the effort for any interested reader and, especially, for any teacher of English.

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Pocket Posh Girl Crosswords: 75 Puzzles Review

Pocket Posh Girl Crosswords: 75 Puzzles
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Very nice little book, for girls only!! I enjoyed having it in a very long flight. And it is nice in my bag ! Ideal in summer holidays.

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Rick Steves' Great Britain 2007 Review

Rick Steves' Great Britain 2007
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This is a wonderful resource book for anyone going to the UK for the first time - or the tenth! It explains the simplest, most basic things, some of which you never considered. Literally thousands of minutiae on money, taxes, rail and bus travel and tickets, where to get information, etc. Mr. Steves also packs into the books a multitude of honest reviews of attractions, from "Don't miss" to "Skip," and includes honest descriptions of places to stay, based on your preferences. He even has suggestions for where to go based on the number of days you have available.
This is the best travel guide of any kind I've ever seen, and its format is such that you can throw it in your bag and take it along. A fabulous job!

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Out of This World: Why Literature Matters to Girls (Language and Literacy Series (Teachers College Pr)) Review

Out of This World: Why Literature Matters to Girls (Language and Literacy Series (Teachers College Pr))
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In Out of this World: Why Literature Matters to Girls, Dr. Holly Blackford challenges our assumptions about how girls interact with text. Her research, consisting primarily of interviews with a cross section of girls, concludes (among other things) that girls don't necessarily identify with female characters in literature. This contrasts with the intuition of gender sensitive curriculum developers that have tried to add strong female characters to book rotations in public school English departments in order to encourage girls.
Blackford's book opened my eyes, as a teacher, to some considerations of how genre and convention expectations may affect my students. For instance, in discussing The Scarlet Letter, Blackford points out that interviewees expected the book to follow the twists and turns of the mystery or Gothic genres. When, instead, Hawthorne solves the mystery of Hester Prynne's lover early on, modern readers may feel confusion about why well-known genre conventions are shed. A class discussion of genre expectation may be a useful tool in overcoming many students' objections to the classic novel.
Out of this World: Why Literature Matters to Girls is a well written, intriguing and thought-provoking collections of ideas and research that will prove of great interest to teachers, curriculum specialists, parents of girls, or anyone involved in the development of reading practices in youth. Blackford's unique voice and willingness to explore beyond the expectations of the field of children's literature will undoubtedly make her someone we will be hearing a lot about in the future.

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The Expat Arc: An Expat's Journey Over Culture Shock Review

The Expat Arc: An Expat's Journey Over Culture Shock
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This book didn't make me want to live abroad, but it certainly made me appreciate how much effort it takes to maintain a family life in a very different environment. Danie chronicles the move and the adjustments to living in Chennai, India where her husband's job takes them. Her humor and frank candidness give a fresh perspective to her family's travails, from dealing with unwanted slithering guests to navigating the local markets. Her pictures beautifully illustrate her stories and we really get to travel along on her 'journey' over culture shock.

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"Don't read this if you're expecting deep insights on culture, politics or religion in India. Oh no. I'm fartoo shallow and lack the intelligence necessary for that. I'm not an expert about anything. I'm just herefor a good time and amusing myself about it to stay sane."Danielle Barkhouse researched and prepared for her family's relocation from Illinois to India. She was an experienced expatriate, so she thought she knew the range of feelings that she would experience.She was wrong. "I have found that most expats don't really talk about culture shock. We all look at one another and know we're each going through it at some level. Some people will say they're fine, when they're reallynot. And then there's me. Let's just put it under a microscope, magnify the details and write about it!That's all this really is, a magnification of the details." (more)

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BRANDchild: Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids: Understanding Their Relationship with Brands Review

BRANDchild: Insights into the Minds of Today's Global Kids: Understanding Their Relationship with Brands
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Martin Lindstrom does a great job letting the reader know that the root of success when communicating with kids is understanding kids, their lives, dreams and hopes. He not only analyzes data from 7 countries, but includes his own experiences with working with kids and with kids related brands. He is able to get his point across without being boring, looking at the subject form different angles.
I also checked out the MartinLindstrom.com site. I think it is a great site, with tons of brand info related to kids and general brand trends. Well done!

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