Reviews

Taking cue from The One Minute Manager, Zapp!, Fish! and Who Moved My Cheese?, The Hamster Revolution uses a parable to show how to better manage and organize e-mail and information. The hamster represents people endlessly running on the wheel of e-mail. Right away, I start using concepts from the 90-minute book. Considering I’m an organized person, that says something.

In the story, Harold the Hamster receives a visit from an information coach to help him with e-mail and information management. Harold is a person who turned into a hamster because e-mail and information trapped him on a figurative hamster wheel.

Harold and his coach think aloud as they explore his e-mail habits and inbox to find the problem areas. The banter between the two gives the reader insight into why something doesn’t work and how to fix it. Their comments mirror what many of us think when we’re drowning in messages. Though cheesy at times, the story quickly explains the how, what, and why without confusing readers with dry writing.

I was eager to discover the secret of COTA, the concept for creating folders named Clients, Output, Teams and Administration. COTA also represents the order of priority. The Clients folder receives top honors on the hierarchy than Output. Administration gets thrown to the bottom of the pile where it belongs. But this concept isn’t as foolproof as the authors make it sound.

They state that you won’t run into a situation when an email or document belongs in two folders. However, if that should happen — then the document belongs in the one higher up on the COTA ladder. Furthermore, the system serves departments and teams best.

COTA won’t work well for personal use (the authors apparently have another system for this, but information isn’t available yet) or a small business like mine where I’m a freelancer working on a computer that houses both business and personal information.

Furthermore, not everyone will know what some things mean such as EOM (end of message) or NRN (no reply needed). These require teaching others and a team setting would adapt to that better than a lone person who must explain it in many individuals. EOM and NRN should become as standard as smilies, but they’re far from there.

Some advice might sound common sense or old news to some people, but the authors share lesser known or new concepts. The book has had positive impact on my e-mail habits, and for what it is worth, that opinion comes from a long-time e-mail user (the days of BBSes — pre-Internet).

• Title: The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You
• Author: Mike Song, Vicki Halsey & Tim Burress
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• ISBN: 1576754375
• Date: January 2007
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 128
• Cover Price:12pt”> USD: $19.95 Amazon: $13.57

WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition is the “Swiss Army Knife” of travel as it contains 14 travel-related tools in one neat little package. The subscription-based application wirelessly provides updates to weather reports, world times, flight schedules and statuses, currency rates and satellite maps.

Itinerary

The itinerary holds all the information regarding your flight, car rental, hotel, cruise info, train and even meetings. Since services can e-mail you the itineraries, it might be easier to copy and paste the information into your device than to go through the Itinerary tool. [Click image to view larger]

Area Codes

When people give you a phone number, they might not include the area code or dialing prefixes assuming that you know them. The Area Codes tool provides GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), US and Canada area codes, and international dialing prefixes. Search for codes by entering the first letter of the city or country to jump to it. However, if you want to do a reverse lookup (i.e. enter the area code to find out where the call came from), you’ll need to rely on the Internet or another tool as this one doesn’t do reverse lookups.

Map

View the world day / night map to quickly see where it’s day and night around the world. Tap any spot on the map to identify the city or select the city from the list to see its exact location. A nice tool that would be nicer if we could zoom in.

Measurement and Currency

Someone tells you that where you want to go is 16 kilometers away. Americans continue to hold out on converting to the metric system, so enter the distance into the measurement calculator to find out that the destination is 10 miles. It also converts areas, length, speeds, volumes, weights and temperatures. Currency calculator works similarly where you can select three currencies for converting. Since currency rates change, the tool stays updated through the subscription service.

Packing List

Instead of starting a packing list from scratch, use the checklist in WorldMate’s Packing List. Check the items you need to pack, and they appear on “My List” so you only see what you need to take instead of all the items you’re not taking. Packing List also sorts items in categories for easier finding.

Tipping/Tax Calculator

Not all countries operate the same in terms of taxes and tipping. The Tip, Tax Calculator lets you select the country and service (restaurant, bar/pub, hotel porter, taxi, concierge, deliveries, airport and general) so you can figure out what you will owe. The calculator also gives you the option of adding the tip, tax or both amounts into the calculation on top of the bill amount.

Clothing

Business trip or not, you might want to shop for surprises and clothes for yourself. But the sizing in Europe, UK and Japan might not be the same as home. Instead of picking out three different sizes of shoes that look about your size — use the Clothing chart to look up your shoe size and find the right size. If you’re a female size 8, you’re a size 40 in Europe, 6.5 in England, and 25.5 in Japan. The application advises using the chart as a guideline.

WorldMate Professional supports many handheld devices, smartphones and cell phones. It’s a worthy investment for frequent travelers so they can stay updated on all important travel-related information. Mobimate also has a standard edition, which offers fewer services for a lower subscription rate.

Those who rarely travel won’t need something as powerful as WorldMate. Other applications exist that don’t require a subscription. However, this means you’ll need to enter the currency rates yourself for calculating and it won’t be updated unless you regularly check the rates. Weather applications that don’t rely on over-the-air updates can be updated when connecting the device to the PC through the cradle or USB cable.

WorldMate is available for just about every mobile device. Even a 2007 edition is available as well as a standard edition. Here are links to get you started and figure out what you’d be interested in.

Try WorldMate

Books on writing often reiterate the same advice we learn over time, the reader sometimes lucks out in using a tidbit or two. Realistically, no one has time to study the advice and put it to practice. Thus, it’s not a bad thing for a book on writing to cover the things we’ve read before. The more we read about it, the more it sinks in.

But you can’t read A Writer’s Coach in the same way you read any other writing book. This one goes deeper meaning a reader may absorb the information better by reading one chapter at a time to understand and practice the concepts. Coaching an athlete to improve at something doesn’t happen overnight. Thus, this book targets the serious writer who needs to move beyond the basic books on writing in order to take writing to the next level.

I try to avoid writing general reviews that tell the reader nothing, but Hart is a master in explaining the concepts of method, process, structure, and everything else he covers. It’s difficult to capture them into a little review when I try to avoid long reviews.

Business and life coaching grows more popular because they’re effective in helping people change behavior and improve. In thinking about coaches, I reflected on my childhood years when I played sports. The best coaches point out the right way to swing a bat, serve a volleyball, or shoot a basket. They also help players review their weaker moves so they can fix their form rather than let them continue using bad form, which will hurt them in the end. “Coach” is a fitting word in the title because Hart takes the coaching approach in showing the writer the right form for taking an idea from start to finish.

The book speaks more to journalists and non-fiction writers. However, much advice works across all writing genres — so those who thrive on telling stories can glean a few valuable lessons from Hart. Expect to find high quality content that you find in the best college textbooks — except subtract the stiff and convoluted writing. Hart’s writing style makes the reading easy. A Writer’s Coach contains smart, clear and logical guidance that will take a writer’s writing skills to the next level.

Title: A Writer’s Coach: An Editor’s Guide to Words That Work
Author: Jack R. Hart
Publisher: Pantheon
ISBN: 0375423273
Date: August 2006
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

As a mother of two young girls, Huffington wanted to provide a guide for female fearlessness. She does this by capturing her experiences in dealing with fear. Her first serious encounter occurs when her own mother shows the courage to stand up to German soldiers who threatened to kill everyone if they didn’t reveal where Jews were hiding. The then nine-year-old Huffington feared not only for her mother, but also for herself.

In the book, Huffington maps out the path for reaching fearlessness through her own stories and those from female guest contributors. One of the more common fears among women concerns looks and self-image. Huffington explains how she felt about her looks and her insecurity in high school and college. She goes on to share stories of others and her own experiences, tossing in advice that we’ve heard a thousand times before. Discover an activity that you enjoy as a way of getting exercise, for example.

Though Huffington says she battled to achieve a certain physical appearance, get real — the woman was attractive and never had an obvious weight problem, although she apparently fought many food battles and won. Having the self-confident women who overcame dwelling on their large size or less than good looks speak up would be more inspiring. “Never get up from the table feeling stuffed or guilty, but also never get up without feeling satisfied” is a good example of the advice you get from the book. It would’ve been better to hear more from the likes of Anna Deavere Smith. Please don’t confuse the talented actress with Anna Nicole.

This isn’t to say Huffington — who has accomplished much since her Greek beginnings — has nothing to offer. A person doesn’t become successful like Huffington without a large effort on her part. Her writing talent is evident in On Becoming Fearless and most chapters offer something of value to the reader. The fact is, however, that other authors and books do a better job of inspiring readers on the topic of dealing with fear.

The best parts in On Becoming Fearless come from other women’s stories and the guest contributors who shared experiences fearlessness as the essence without letting their fame or ego get in the way. But really, the advice is common sense. Those who didn’t pick up some of the ideas posed in the book will appreciate it more. On Becoming Fearless still makes a nice read, but it shouldn’t be someone’s hope for a solution in facing fears.

Title: On Becoming Fearless … in Love, Work and Life
Author: Arianna Huffington
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
ISBN: 0316166820
Date: April 2007
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Cover Price: USD: $12.99 Amazon: $10.39

The book begins with absorbing insight into the life of the drones and queen bees. The queen bee sits all day while her slaves service her and feed her royal jelly that no one else can have. Who knew the world of bees could be fascinating and resemble the corporate world?

Death By PowerPoint takes a satiric approach in exploring what’s what in the corporate world. Flocker describes employee personalities and situations, and explains how to deal with them, or rather protect yourself and stay under the radar. Casual Friday? What do you do? Even something simple as casual Friday can make a worker bee fret. Get tips on dealing with “fashionipulation” for manipulating your world with clothes.

Learn how the cubist culture got started and what cube decorations say about a person. The elephant in the room doesn’t exist as the book punches the art of politics in the face. Throttle a passive-aggressive communicator’s attempts to take advantage of you and protect yourself from the backstabber. The corporate lingo chapter covers original and “I wish I had thought of that” terms. It doesn’t rehash too many of the terms heard in the corporate halls.

The e-mail etiquette chapter offers little new material, but the book would be incomplete without it. Rarely does an office skip the mandatory fun events, so prepare yourself for that upcoming team-building session with the “Mandatory Fun” chapter.

Funny quotes and curious facts appear sprinkled throughout the pages along with sticky notes and abused bathroom door characters. Beware there are R-rated words and scenarios such as the chapter on office romance, but not too much.

Anyone reading this must take care in deciding whether to follow advice since some wouldn’t fare well for the worker bee while others could lead to a memorable moment at the office. Death By PowerPoint offers tips and a much needed laugh at the dysfunctional corporate world. Treat the book more as a humorous one rather than a self-help book.

Anyone needing comic relief or an escape from the throes of the corporate world should grab this easy and fun read. Like Office Space and Scott Adams’ Dilbert, Flocker uses words exaggerate the corporate life and provide tips for surviving The Office-like environment without going insane.

Title: Death By PowerPoint: A Modern Office Survival Guide
Author: Michael Flocker
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 0306815125
Date: November 2006
Format: Paperback
Pages: 219
Cover Price: USD: $12.95 Amazon: $10.36

The iPod has that certain something that leads its users to adore it like nothing before. People want nothing but an iPod. No substitutes even when the non-iPod has more memory, comes in your favorite color and costs over $100 less than an iPod. So how did the iPod earn this special treatment and the ability to compel people to say, “Cool” when they hold one?

A book cover in the disguise of an iPod, albeit on paper, still manages to ooze coolness though it isn’t the real thing. Scroll your finger over the cover’s button and scroll wheel and you can feel the smooth button extend slightly above the scroll wheel. Apple has established itself as a company that goes all out when creating a product, but there’s much more to the iPod story than people realize. The Perfect Thing explores many aspects of the story.

As a deaf person, I’m hardly the music lover who would take an interest in the iPod. I received the book as an abstract assignment and it gripped me from page 1 to the index. I received an iPod video for a gift (I do enjoy some songs that I pick up and learn by heart. Plus, I used it to listen to children’s books in audio to practice listening), but someone stole it.

While reading The Perfect Thing, I couldn’t help but order an iPod Nano straight from Apple’s Web site complete with my name engraved on its beautiful red skin. I also bought a cover to protect the iPod as I don’t like it when my gadgets get marks on them. But then I reached the part where Steve Jobs took offense to seeing Levy’s iPod covered up. Because of that, the beautiful red color and the way the aluminum felt — I took off the cover for good.

The chapters, like iPod’s shuffle feature, are independent and don’t go in a specific order except the first chapter. I don’t know if that’s true, as I haven’t seen another hard copy of the book.

“Perfect,” goes behind the scenes of iPod’s launch in October 2001, not the greatest timing after 9/11. “Download” covers the revolution of downloading and digitizing music including codec, MP3s, WinAmp, Napster and the record companies suing. “What makes an item cool?” sets the tone for the chapter titled, “Cool.” Can there be a formula for coolness? This chapter teaches great marketing lessons from Apple’s design, packaging and advertising of the iPod.

“Origin” returns to the iPod’s roots on its development and the things that came before iPod that affected the iPod’s creation. There’s a reason we use the word podcast instead of audiocasts when referring to audio feeds. “Podcast” visits the formation of citizen broadcasting from CB radio to podcasting.

People judge each other by the clothing they wear, they do the same by the playlists they carry in their iPods as “Identity” delves into the fashion statement of playlists. No one expected Apple to make a comeback, not even when Steve Jobs returned in 2000, and “Apple” touches upon the comeback and how Apple surpassed the market’s expectations. The iPod attracts thieves and the earbuds send a message to the public “to leave me alone” as the “Personal” chapter looks back at the Sony Walkman, the white earbuds, hearing loss and how users personalize their iPods.

The shuffle feature scrambles music hence the name for the cheapest and smallest iPod Shuffle. The feature is simple, yet the chapter on “Shuffle” offers fascinating insight into the possibility of a conspiracy behind the shuffle formula. Some people swear that some songs, artists and whatnot get more attention than others do. But everyone at Apple, including the engineers, says shuffle works randomly. Intriguing stuff anyway.

Marketers, iPod lovers, Apple lovers, Mac lovers, business people, technology people, gadget people. The book will appeal to all of them. After all, Levy writes, “The iPod is a pebble with tsunami-sized cultural ripples.”

Title: The Perfect Thing: How the iPod Shuffles Commerce, Culture, and Coolness
Author: Steven Levy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 0743285220
Date: October 2006
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 304
Cover Price: USD: $25.00 Amazon: $16.50

The book guides the reader through the three-part process to prepare, deliver and follow through in getting to a positive No. No doesn’t come easy especially when trying to please a client who asks to move up the delivery date. You’re afraid to say No because it means losing future business, respect and perhaps, your job.

The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes not only helps you improve your negotiating skills in such work situations, but it also applies to your personal life. With the tips in the book, you won’t fear the consequences of saying No and you’ll find ways to make the situation work out for everyone.

Have you fallen into one of the three-A trap? Tripping up in one of these traps means the person takes steps Accommodate, Attack or Avoid when encountering a No situation. These traps won’t make anyone in the situation feel good about the solution. Accommodate means saying Yes when we want to say No. Attack means saying no poorly. Avoid means saying nothing at all and not taking care of the problem.

The book digs up situations that you know you could’ve handled better. Applying the concepts from the book to past situations will prepare you for doing better next time without worry of blowback. Self-help books face the challenge of encouraging their readers to change. The idea of a positive no sounds difficult — and it isn’t easy either — will come to readers if they take the time to understand and apply Ury’s advice. Don’t expect bandage style advice that can fix anything with a simple stick-on.

Of course, you could prepare and set up a great response for a positive no, but what if the requestor doesn’t take no for an answer? Ury shows how to prepare Plan B, a backup plan. He also shares a decent amount of real-life examples, large (court case involving a large company and a customer) and small (not having time to help), of how people handled such situations.

Crack the book and it takes no time to become engrossed in Ury’s clear and breezy writing style. The book flows and the length satisfies. Fans of the Ury’s classic best-seller will appreciate this one and won’t feel a sense of déjà vu in having read Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In.

Title: The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes
Author: William Ury
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553804987
Date: February 2007
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Cover Price: USD: $25.00 Amazon: $16.50

Authors can’t rely solely on their publishers to do the marketing for their book especially self-publishers. They need to take it in their own hands and the Internet simplifies the task. However, are authors making full use of the Internet? Plug Your Book! is a checklist complete with instructions so authors ensure they explore every potential book promotion resource.

The book’s introduction gives good advice on how to use this book. Make a copy of the table of contents and cross off each item as you do them or pass over them. To be thorough, read the book and decide which methods work best.

As a frequent book reviewer, I’ve seen successful authors rely on many of the tactics covered in this book. Book marketing goes beyond using Amazon, blogs and your own web site. Weber shows how to get more mileage from these resources and points to others like social networks, search engines, and tags.

Creating an account in MySpace may be obvious to most. Some tips Weber offers for making MySpace work for you including making the right friends, managing your top eight pictures, and paying extra attention to specific parts of the profile. He provides detailed advice so there’s no confusion on what to do.

The Internet makes it easy for authors and publishers to use other identities in posting positive book reviews and buying books to boost the book’s rank. Weber briefly addresses the ethics of marketing books online.

Authors and Internet pros who know about most of the resources covered in the book will benefit because of its organization, scannable contents, readability and conciseness. Plug Your Book! succeeds in ensuring the author makes the most of every opportunity and resource.

Title: Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors
Author: Steve Weber
Publisher: Weber Books
ISBN: 0977240614
Date: February 1, 2007
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 208
Cover Price: USD: $24.99 Amazon: $18.99

Norman opens the book with a discussion of three teapots he owns. He doesn’t use them, but he loves how each tells a story. One is impossible to use, one is a classy glassy Michael Graves design and one is unusual. Norman says when we like the look of an object; we’re more willing to overlook its design flaws as opposed to using something with no flaws and an ugly design.

I believe flickr.com is a good example of this from a web site perspective. It isn’t so much about flickr’s look-and-feel, but many of the non-designers, everyday Internet users understandably find the site difficult to use. flickr.com gained a reputation in the world of web design and IT — the kind of people who find their way around the more difficult to use sites — and many flocked to it because of word of mouth.

A friend of Norman’s enthusiastically showed off his recent purchase of old, heavy and shiny drawing instruments including compasses, dividers and extension arms. For the author, the instruments evoked negative memories of using the difficult and messy tools. Enough time had passed for his friend to overlook the negative experience he had with the tools. Thus, when he found them, he saw them as a collectible reminding him of the “good old days” rather than something he hated using. Had those negative experiences been more recent or memorable, would he have bought the set?

The focal point of Emotional Design is that “attractive things work better.” Norman explores how emotions affect purchase decisions based on three aspects of design: the visceral (appearance), behavioral (performance) and reflective (memories and experiences).

Understanding the three parts of design helps a business make the most of their product designs and marketing efforts. After all, an ad has images and those images can stir emotions. Service-based business can turn the intangible into the tangible and apply the concepts from the book.

Norman offers intriguing examples in the book to show how objects evoke emotions. The book loses its way in the last part when the author delves in the world of robots. While it talks about the possibility of robots having emotions, it tells nothing about “products” and human behavior. Except for this part, the book was a quick and fascinating read. Those who want to understand how design influences purchases will enjoy the book. Many of its concepts apply to business situations related to selling and designing products.

Title: Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things
Author: Donald A. Norman
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465051367
Date: May 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 257
Cover Price: USD: $15.95 Amazon: $10.85

I recently read an article that says executives have higher vocabulary than the average person. Managers, too, but not as high as executives. This book is a great way to expand your knowledge.

A devotional is a short religious service. Religious and spiritual devotional books break down religious readings into short chapters to help readers grow closer to G-d. Readers typically read a little bit each day. The Intellectual Devotional has nothing to do with religious practice, although religion is one of the fields of knowledge covered in the book.

In fact, the only thing The Intellectual Devotional has in common with a religious devotional is the concept of reading one short passage on a daily basis. Instead of growing spiritually, you exercise your intellect with knowledge divided into the following seven “fields of knowledge” as the book calls them:

Sunday: Religion
Monday: History
Tuesday: Literature
Wednesday: Visual Arts
Thursday: Science
Friday: Music
Saturday: Philosophy

Every entry takes up no more than one page. This style lends itself to easy reading unlike encyclopedias where entries appear alphabetically like terms in a dictionary. It’s difficult to decide where to start and stop reading. The Intellectual Devotional covers one topic related to the day’s knowledge field within one page. The entry contains details that normally would be too much for an encyclopedia, and this makes the reading more captivating.

The book contains 365 entries for reading one per day for a year. I admit it. I cheated and read at least two entries a day — not as if I would wait a year before writing this review. I took care to absorb every entry, as that’s what “devotionals” are meant for — digging deeply into the reading.

I’m grateful my liberal arts education, which provided me with knowledge from a wide array of topics much like what this book covers. In spite of the education, I’ve plenty more to learn and believe in lifelong learning. The book fulfills this need nicely as I finally grasped some topics with which I was somewhat familiar, but lacked concrete knowledge. The book also refreshed my memory of long forgotten knowledge.

The nice thing about the book’s set up is that I pick up something new, but it won’t get in the way of another book I’m reading. I read one or two entries, put the book away for the night and spend the rest of my time reading my current book.

If the book spawns more like it, it won’t surprise me. I’d love to see more. Maybe with a different set of seven fields of knowledge, or perhaps the seven fields of knowledge get their own books for those who wish to delve more into the field.

One minor criticism — a couple of the more complex topics are difficult to understand since the writing didn’t clarify them well. Think of an engineer explaining a formula in engineering terms instead of layman’s terms.

The Intellectual Devotional sends minds thirsting for knowledge on a pleasurable journey with every page. Whether or not a person becomes a better conversationalist isn’t as important as the feeling that comes with picking up a morsel of knowledge. It also makes a wonderful gift to almost anyone thanks to its diversity of information.

Here is the audio CD that the article about vocabulary referenced. I emailed the author asking if there is a script or book that comes with the audio since I can’t follow audio without help.

Title: The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class
Author: David Kidder and Noah Oppenheim
Publisher: Rodale Books
ISBN: 1594865132
Date: October 2006
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 375
Cover Price: USD: $22.50 Amazon: $13.50