I found this book to have some good lessons infamily dynamics
341195
I found this book to  have some good lessons infamily dynamics. It has a good story line.
250300
I haven't read Reiser's previous books, but gravitated to this book because I grew up in a large family and am currently the father of four. No matter where you are in the world or your background, if you have kids, there are certain core experiences all parents have at one point or another: trying to feed an infant, potty training, teaching your child how to ride a bike, dealing with teenagers, and so on and so on. What Reiser does is select a few experiences from his life as a father and expound on them in a familiar and humorous way. This is a quick read with relatable experiences, and even though I didn't take away any life-changing parenting lessons from this book, I realized that I am like most parents, in that I am an imperfect parent who is failing as often as I am succeeding, but at least I am trying.
3185048
It was a good story and there are lessons to be learned from this story.  All families could get a good lesson from this.
3618706
This book started out slow for me at first but ended up being a great book that I took away a lot of transforming life lessons from. Many readers will pick up this book looking for a self help type book expounding upon the topic of adversity and how to use it as a gift to improve your life. While each chapter does conclude with key life lessons on adversity the book is really a memoir of the author's life story. I found his life journey fascinating from a childhood in South Africa to practicing psychology in the United States. I also enjoyed how he brought the characters in his family to life and told many interesting tales from his childhood, teenage years, time in the army, and in his breakthrough research. This book made me wish I had spent more time with my grandparents when they were alive hearing the tales of their lives and the lessons they gained from them. This was a wonderful book for me.
2992029
Avalanche is the "parable" of Andrew Carver, the multi-millionaire real estate developer who, after one too many shady deals, quits his job to find himself facing a crisis of faith and reason as he rediscovers his values, his family, his health, business purpose and general life direction whil undergoing both pleasurable and painful lessons and changes in his life and his friends.  That's the general outline of the story.

As a parable, there is a lesson, and the authors use the lesson of holistic planning, values based needs analysis and mind-body-spirit-wealth model to both educate the reader on the importance of balance and principles based planning, but also to promote their own practice by having the protagnist visit their website and use their planning tools.

So, what you are getting in this book is a mildly interesting story, a solid look at values based planning, and an "infomercial" for the authors' planning practice and approach.  It's not a bad read, just a bit too transparently promotional for my liking.
1720334
When I saw this on Amazon Vine, I thought that it would be a nice thing to pick up for my 4 1/2 and 2 1/2 year old.  Taking nothing away from this book, my kids are probably a bit young for it.  That being said, it is still a good read with a modern spin on ethics.

Pros
*  26 short, mostly easy to understand stories on 26 different aspects of morality (honesty, forgiveness, tact, politeness, patience, etc.).
*  My 4 1/2 year old daughter already gets some of the lessons, so I look forward to really leveraging the Q&A in a year for an even fuller experience.
*  Nicely written.

Cons
*  These "stories" aren't as beautifully written and lack the character development of the historically common more traditional religious stories and fables I grew up with.  Those stories taught lessons in morality with amazing character development and mesmerizing story lines.  Elliott and Lucy (the children) are not very well developed and you don't really get to know them, or what they are like, through these stories.
*  26 is too many.  Certain topics seem a bit duplicative.  I would have reduced the # of topics and developed the remaining stories more extensively.

All in all, well worth picking up!
82455
I downloaded this book just to see if it had any money saving ideas that I hadn't already been using all of my adult life. It had a few that I wasn't already doing. The best part about this book was that I could have my kids read it and it put the lessons that I had been teaching them all their lives into black and white.
3844252
I have found it useful for young children whose parents are going through a divorce they don't understand.
1236539
Yes it was very insightful and it gave me some new skills to deal with what life brings to us sometimes.
2319003
Though I don't intend to part with all of my possessions and live in a "tiny house" as the author did, there is a lot of appeal in living a simpler life. The author quoted a scholar who said that "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." Though I learned the lesson long ago, you only have to visit an upscale mall on a weekend to realize that many do not know that "Buying Things Will Not Make You Happy" and that "The Stuff You Own Owns You" and "Love Life Not Stuff".  (some of the chapter headings in the book)

There is lots of practical advice in the book regarding downsizing, simplifying, using debt wisely and finding meaningful work. The advice is aimed at a younger demographic of singles or couples who are just starting out, perhaps with college debt who are overwhelmed with the choices that they face regarding a consumption lifestyle. However, the book could have been better organized. It seems repetitive at times, and disjointed at others.
2230877
I really enjoyed the lesson of this book, however, the author got there by showing us, not telling us. She uses stories from famously driven, successful people from history to talk about the purpose of Vows as well as examples from her own life. Every exercise was applicable to me, but there were a few that I really gravitated toward and found memorable. One was discovering the vows we had already made by listing our accomplishments as well as the underlying vow that it was fulfilling. There was also another exercise called "Time is Running Out" that asked you to reflect on unfinished projects you would like to complete versus unfinished projects to discard immediately if you only had three years to live.
3026751
I do my best to avoid spoilers when writing about books, but this is more of a warning than a spoiler, the story does touch on some very strong emotional triggers, and some folks might find some of the incidents in the book a bit disturbing.

The author works in family counseling and draws from her experience to write this book that is often torn between love and hate, and sometimes the blurred lines between the two.

Mayu seems to hear the unspoken cries of the suffering, and sometimes does things that cross the line between good and bad in order to do what she believes will help those in pain.

The lessons she learns about life take on a stronger influence on her life, when she realizes that her marriage, to a man that seemed to be perfect turns out not to be what she expected.

More an emotional story, but with many true to life facets, I ended up reading this in one day, because I became so caught up in the story and wanting to know what would happen.
4306212
I liked how the book showed the implications of previous relationships had on all of the characters in the book.  These relationships were both recent and distant.  It was also a good lesson on truthfulness with others.  It also explains how keep half truths can be our worst nightmare.
3826455
Written by a licensed Christian counselor/social worker, The Parenting Business provides a lot of valuable insight as to why a child might grow up having emotional and social problems if they are not given enough parental love, guidance, and care.  Each chapter begins with a quote from scripture.  It is followed by examples of real life cases of young men and women that Ms. Esparza counceled during her career as a social worker.  She also includes lessons that she learned from raising her own children as a single mother.

Probably one of the most useful chapters in the book is the one entitled, "Solidifying Common Ground."  As many of us know, it is often times difficult for families to get together and connect.  Our lives lead us on a whirlwind of activities that seldom give us time to really get to know each other.  This chapter gives several ideas to help families do just that.  Some of those ideas include: Ride a city bus together, cook together, do a family project, schedule a regular family playtime, and go to an event like a high school football game where nobody in the family is a member of either team.

Ms. Esparza also emphasizes using care in the way we talk to our children.  We need to listen without being judgemental or overly emotional, and we need to encourage them rather than criticize or belittle them.  This is all common sense for diligent, concerned parents, but it is interesting to see case studies of children who were verbally abused and became juvenile offenders.  For those who have teenagers that are becoming difficult to comunicate with, there are examples of situations and dialog that could help keep the lines of communication open.

This is really a very good book not only for parents, but also for other counselors and social workers.  The "Christian" aspect of the book was not terribly overwhelming, so I do not believe that those of other faiths would be uncomfortable reading it.  The insights form Ms. Esparza's hindsights are good for everyone regardless of religious background.
3907340
My parents were not hoarders but I had a very close relative who went from having her house not overly neat but you could always visit and many of the major holidays were spent at her house to never being able to visit her. And it was sad to help her children clean up after her death.
A major goal of this book is to help the child of a hoarder deal with their emotions and shame about their parents and help them cope even if nothing can be done for their parents or their parent's home. It goes over the depression a lot of children of hoarders have. It offers practical exercises such as listing the roles in life that the parent has fulfilled, having a mindful conversation with the parent, listing 3 ways they value the relationship they have with their parents among others. It also offers solutions to help getting rid of the stuff after a death. I thought this book was well worth reading.
2907262
Rich dad, Poor Dad is not exactly the Wealth of Nations nor the Millionaire next door-but it's worth reading. On one level it's an interesting book to motivate you financially. On a deeper level it makes you question some basic principals of parenting, financial habits learned from your parents, and pecuniary prudence (my fancy way of saying the philosophy of dealing with money).
Several of his schemes on how to make money (buying foreclosed property and turning it over for profit) are now used by so many people that it's rare to find such a great deal anymore--it's a good tip nonetheless.
Kiyosaki pounds home some basic (some controversial) points about assets and liabilities--he asserts that your house should be thought of as a liability not an asset like other properties because of how homeowners tend to think and spend unrealistically on their own home.
The title gets its name from the core philosophies of two men, one Kiyosaki's natural father (well educated poor dad) and his friend's father and (high-school educated rich dad). The book includes many examples of what his rich dad would say versus his poor dad. Poor Dad would say: The love of money is the root of all evil, I cant afford it and I'm not rich because of you kids. The Rich Dad would say: The lack of money is the root of all evil, How can I afford it? and I'm rich because of you kids.
As other reviewers have mentioned, this book is great for beginning investors but also provides some great new real-estate ideas to more advanced investors.
3002381
I read this book a few months after my daughter was born and I was already implementing a few of the AP techniques. I hadn't ever really read much about the style of parenting, but I assumed it was basically doing what was instinctual to me. I was curious what it all actually included, and I was curious on Mayim's specific take, so I checked out the book.

It was a good read. I felt like she explained things in a way that showed she knew what she was talking about, but that could be understood to someone who wasn't interested in reading a lot of technical explanations. She also included stories of her own experiences to back up what she was saying and include some practical application. I would have liked a little more "how-to" but as she explained, it wasn't intended to be a handbook. Also, at times I felt she was a little too apologetic that someone might believe she was judging them. I disagree with comments that said it was judgmental. I felt it was anything but. She explained what she did. She also said that anyone could implement these techniques if they wished to, whether at home full time or not. I didn't take that as preachy, or that she thought everyone HAD to, but that if you wanted to but didn't think it could work, she was assuring you it probably could.

Ultimately I probably followed 80% of the AP style before reading and after reading still do about 80%. But it was interesting even to read about things I didn't implement. Regarding EC, it's not something we practice, but it was interesting to read about. And the idea that we can learn the signals of when babies are "eliminating", I did start to watch my daughter and I see the signs pretty easily. However, we still decided it wasn't something we were going to focus on doing. Maybe in the future, maybe not. This book just helped to confirm that listening to my instincts about mothering wasn't crazy and could produce happy, well adjusted children.