Triumph Reviews

I am sorry to see this paperback release of Dear Barbara, Dear Lynne is out of print. It is worth the search for a copy - check out my review under the original title. Carol Frost Vercollone, infertility counselor and author of Helping the Stork

A story that for some might be hard to believe but for others, who have suffered at the hands of an abuser very believable! This book offers incredible hope, would make an awesome movie! Some love 'dirty laundry' others have lived like lives. Would be a great match to a nineties Daddy dearest...in this world where we life every day hearing stories of things that happen to 'other peoples kids' well what would it be like to be the 'other person's kid?' Man, what a thought, did anyone ever take the time to think what that would be like? Maybe it's because of stories like these that our jails are so full, or perhaps could be empty? What a concept, to let abusers read this, survivors... perhaps it would make that difference, lower that jail supporting almighty tax dollar perhaps? Heavy story really heavy but encouraging too! a must read, a must give to friend and foe alike! written by a survivor, transcender...

This is John Grisham's The Testament meeting real life. Mary Beth Lagerborg through God's help brings the story of the Raschers to life. The Raschers are a missionary couple in Irian Jaya that are used in miraculous ways. I prayed, dreamt, hurt, and triumphed with the Raschers in this book. I put the book down feeling the Raschers were part of my life. This book blessed me and I pray it blesses you.

I was delighted to read the newspaper bits, opinions, myths, lies, and speculations, as well as interviews with Doc, friends and foes. Fun and fascinating transport back to the time and place.

For fans of jumble mania, this collection of puzzles is a must purchase. The puzzle selections provide hours of intrigue and adventure. This book is a real challenge to the avid jumble-junkie.

Jim Collins operates a management research laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. Together with Jerry I. Porras he wrote the bestseller 'Built to Last' (1994). This article was published in the January 2001 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

This article reports on the author's research into how good companies can become great ones. "We looked for companies that had shifted from good performance to great performance - and sustained it." Eventually, the research identified 11 good-to-great examples who on average outperformed the general stock market by 6.9 times for 15 years. (There is a sidebar explaining the research method.) According to the author and his research team all great companies had one thing in common: Level 5 leaders. "Level 5 leaders are a study in duality: modest and willful, shy and fearless." Level 5 leadership requires personal humility and personal will. But the author notes that it is not just level 5 leadership that catapults these companies into greatness, it also requires vision and strategy, faiths and facts, breakthrough momentum, focus, technology, and discipline. The weakest point in this article is that Collins admits to not being able to answer the question, "Can you learn to become Level 5?" He advises to practice the other good-to-great disciplines which will help you move in the right direction.

This is certainly a great article, which is based on Collins' latest bestseller 'Good to Great' (2001). It provides great insights, based on a five-year research study, on how companies can outperform the market. The only thing that is missing is a 10-step guide to level 5 leadership. I highly recommend this article to managers and MBA-students. I also recommend Daniel Goleman's articles into emotional intelligence, 'What Makes a Leader' (1998) and 'Leadership that Gets Results' (2000). The authors uses simple US-English.

There have been a lot of books written on that most fascinating American icon, Charles Lindbergh. This is one of the best. It's an even-handed, insightful look at the man who was at one time the best-known individual in the world. It's a great-looking book, especially all the photos--and there are some great ones, including some rare ones and also a color section that's full of great images. It's just a wonderful book, and the text is above average--I've read a lot of Lindbergh books, but this is one of the best overviews of Lindbergh's life that I've seen.

Jonathan Pearce's A Little Honesty: Trials And Triumphs Of A Prince Of Balona is the ninth published "Balona Book" in an impressive series of novels for teenagers. Sixteen-year-old Zachary Taylor Burnross acts far more immature than an upperclassman should be. But Zachary is surrounded and pressured by very adult problems, such as his mother's possible adultery and his elderly father's gradual mental degeneration. Surrounded by people who talk to him of sex, marriage, and threats to blow up his school, his own desires for a motorcycle and a date with a TV star could be lost amidst the tumult of conflicting troubles. A Little Honesty is a highly recommended and entertaining novel which does not talk down to adolescent readers.

I just got done reading the paperback version of this book and it's a hoot. Highly recommended. In short, it's a hilarious (and often melancholy) autobiography about the author who's a classic underachiever, drifting through life by drinking, (trying) to get laid and playing the drums. When that doesn't work out, he goes back to college and gets an english lit. degree. In the end, Magnuson finally finds his place in the world through self-acceptance and love. It's also a very pointed critique of those (your basic "politically correct" types) who engage in the very same stereotyping (this time - of the male lummox) that the lummox is so often accused of doing. Like Jim Goad's "Redneck Manifesto," the moral of the story may well be that stereotyping is inaccurate, and therefore dangerous, whether it comes from the left or the right.

And if that doesn't pique your interest in reading this book, then read it because, to use Magnuson's words, it "kicks bum!"

This is an extraordinary narrative in its subject matter and in its writing. As the author, William Mishler, says, it is "a contemporary American story well worth telling, " and he relates this true drama with a sympathy and an energy that do full justice to the enduring courage and resilience of its hero. We are carried along vividly from a quiet, small town in Oregon to a contentious courtroom in Wisconsin, where a dramatic trial takes place. Steven Sharp lives in aptly named Eagle Valley in Eastern Oregon, where the rhythms of country life and hunting and fishing form his character and his destiny. He suffers a horrendous accident with a defective tractor and baler, in which he loses both arms in an attempt to clear some hay from the baler. His agony is described in stark detail as he desperately yet deliberately uses razor-sharp metal in the machine to sever both arms that are being mercilessly pulled into the baler; he then finds the courage to cauterize the stumps on one of the red-hot rollers. Steven tells his story to the author and in the courtroom with a calm and modest conviction that he did what had to be done to save his life and his sanity. He earns our immense admiration and empathy for this act of bravery and for his persistence in helping his team of lawyers bring a successful lawsuit against the Case Corporation of Wisconsin. Case brought all their wealth and power in an attempt to deny Steven his due, but owing to a committed team of Minneapolis lawyers and Steven's and his family's perseverance, Case lost in court and in subsequent appeals. A note at the end of the book indicates that three years after the final verdict, Case has done absolutely nothing to warn their customers of the life-threatening dangers of their machine. William Mishler, a fine poet and writer, becomes deeply involved in the human and legal aspects of the drama, which he describes with a superb attention to detail in an intensely absorbing narrative of great imaginative power