Kimberley

As a consumer, I've been delighted with the recent explosion of choices. As a retailer, I've been struggling to take advantage of new technologies to satisfy an expanded internet market.

This book puts the changing business climate into a historical and conceptual perspective that makes sense. They never taught us this in college in the 80's, but today they'd better teach it to business students, because success and survival in today's marketplace requires an understanding of the process described in this book.

Some people understand some of these mechanisms intuitively or hazily, based on their own observations and that may be enough, but seeing the whole concept outlined so clearly, with so many examples is enlightening and inspiring.

Who would have thought that Genghis Khan was a feminist? He set up his Empire to be ruled by his female as well as his male descendants. Although much of the documents recording this were redacted, enough remains to establish the legacy of powerful women protecting and reclaiming his empire.

I had high hopes for this book, as I love fantasy and this is the first of a long series of novels in the Deryni series.

I found it predictable and trite, with barely defined characters. Nobody surprises you. The good characters (Morgan, Kelson and Duncan) are always right and good and the evil characters (Charissa and one who won't be named due to the spoiler problem) are totally evil.

The women characters are mostly brainless ninnies, except for the evil but beautiful Charissa. Who would have thought that a woman author would populate her books with women ninnies?

Even Kelson's mother, who is the most complex character in the book, having the capability to perform both good and bad acts (wow!), has the wisdom of a stone.

Altogether disappointing. Perhaps this book would be good for young people who like their characters simple and unendowed with nuance or depth.

Bill Nancer uses composite search engine data to look at everything from our most private fears(a search engine doesn't judge) to understanding the prime selling season for prom gowns (January!) to predicting the newest social networking craze months before most of us have even heard of it.

The internet has changed the way we get informaiton, and the our search for information reveals much about our thoughts, feelings and ultimately behavior.

If you like puzzles, or are interested in why we do what we do, this book may fascinate you as it did me.

This book is a first person account of the grieving process of one woman, including the (she feels) unaccountable lapses in her ability to trust her own mind, and a gradual return to a more steady and "normal" state of mind.

There is no epiphany, where the author realizes that her life can begin anew, just a return to normalcy and sanity. We are with her every step of the way.

A novellist might have made the ending more dramatic, some great rebirth, but this story is more true in that life goes on; sadder and richer for the loss, but able to contain joy again and with an ability not to mark every day by what happened before the awful event.

Some have said that her wealth is distracting, well, her daily life was full of exactly what she wrote. I think it would have been disingenuous to fill the book with details from a less wealthy life or to leave out the details. She wrote what she did, what she saw, what she felt and how she struggled to be in control of the uncontrollable processes of life and death.

This book made me cry.