The Glamour of Grammar, Roy Peter Clark – Giveaway
Early in the history of English, the words "grammar" and "glamour" meant the same thing: the power to charm. Roy Peter Clark, author of Writing Tools, aims to put the glamour back in grammar with this fun, engaging alternative to stuffy instructionals. In this practical guide, readers will learn everything from the different parts of speech to why effective writers prefer concrete nouns and active verbs. The Glamour of Grammar gives readers all the tools they need to"live inside the language"--to take advantage of grammar to perfect their use of English, to instill meaning, and to charm through their writing. With this indispensable book, readers will come to see just how glamorous grammar can be.
Read "Dream Blurbs"
Interview with Roy Peter Clark
Roy Peter Clark blogs at Writing Tools @ Poynter.org
THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS...Thanks to Hachette Books I'm giving away 3 copies of the The Glamour of Grammar to a US resident (No PO Boxes). Now through the end of August 2010 you'll get a chance to enter.
MANDATORY - To enter become an e-mail / RSS Subscriber (see top right inner sidebar) of The Book Faery Reviews and leave a comment below of who you think would like this book (it could even be you!)...
For additional entries...
- Tweet - @farrah from #tbfr is giving away 3 copies of The Glammour of Grammar at http://bit.ly/cdHt5R
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Good luck to all!
I received a copy of this book from Hachette Books who are also sponsoring 3 more copies for this giveaway.
Achieve Anything in Just One Year, Jason Harvey – Review
TITLE: Achieve Anything In Just One Year
AUTHOR: Jason Harvey
PUBLISHER: Amazing Life Press
PUBLICATION DATE: January 1, 2010
PAGES: 376 pages
GENRE: Non-Fiction, Self-Help, Motivation
The last self improvement book you will ever need!
Learn to make small daily choices that will transform your life. Find your personal inspiration. Rediscover your motivation. Propel yourself out of an unfulfilling existence.
The key to a happier life is contained in the dreams you already have. Your aspirations can create new opportunities, a fresh direction for your life's path. It is possible to unlock them. It's never too late. You have started today by looking at this book.
With his accessible, unique approach using tangible daily steps to reach achievable goals, Jason Harvey can help you succeed by taking small steps to a better you.
Comprehensive and inspiring, Achieve Anything In Just One Year will teach you how to:
- Set goals and stick with them
- Take daily action that creates a ripple effect
- Stay motivated, focused and balanced
- Feel happier everyday!!!
- Define, pursue and celebrate personal success
Learn to equip yourself with the tools to become your own personal life coach, without relying on outside motivation. You have the power to do anything you desire. The possibilities are within you. It's time to nurture that spark and let it catch fire.
Jason Harvey is a Certified Life Coach and the founder of The Limitless Institute.
THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS...Achieve Anything in Just One Year is said to be “the last self improvement book you will ever need”. Going through the book I thought the daily exercises could definitely help one achieve their goal(s) in that time-frame. In fact I’m going back through the book as it was intended; day by day. I think if I set my calendar up for daily reminders to complete the journaling exercise of the day I’d benefit greatly and be more motivated to keep going towards completion of a goal. My biggest personal issue is that I tend to start off strong and wane through. This book may be different for me. Each day is comprised of a daily quote to inspire/motivate you for the day and then there is just one page to read (in truth it’s more like a half page of reading). The paragraph digs more into the quote and you’re given an opportunity to journal an experience or complete some other assignment related.
So far the book looks promising but ask me again in a year after I’ve gone through the daily exercises.
5 stars so far…
Topless Prophet, Alan Markovitz
TITLE: Topless Prophet
AUTHOR: Alan Markovitz
PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2009
PUBLISHER: AM Productions
PAGES: 307 pages
GENRE: Non-Fiction - Autobiography
One man’s story of what it takes to run a strip club empire – the dangers, secrets, pitfalls, surprises – and rewards – and the business lessons learned.
What is it really like to open and run a successful string of strip clubs? “It’s not at all what you think it is,’ confides Alan Markovitz, author of a new book and owner of the nation’s leading gentlemen’s club. Topless Prophet: The True Story of America’s Most Successful Gentlemen’s Club Entrepreneur offers a rare glimpse into the world of gentlemen’s clubs, taking us behind the scenes of the operations of one of the nation’s most successful club owners. Where other books provide insight on the scandalous side of strippers, escorts, and x-rated entertainment, Topless Prophet is as much a business book and autobiography of an ingenious entrepreneur as it is an exploration of what goes into staying on top of an industry filled with cut-throat competition, corruption, celebrities, and beautiful women who make a living dancing. Alan Markovitz, who owns several Penthouse Gentlemen’s Clubs and the country’s No. 1 ranked adult entertainment club (The Ultimate Strip Club List (www.tuscl.net), The Flight Club, Topless Prophet chronicles a first-hand account of a Detroit businessman who has helped change and grow an industry while overcoming many challenges, some life-threatening, some business-endangering. He has spent nearly the past three decades reformulating the ultimate fantasy setting for men.
Markovitz overcame many unique circumstances, including when he:
- Had to testify against the Mafia when they threatened him.
- Saw his club raided by the police as part of a smear campaign by a competing Eight Mile club owner – and spent the weekend in jail.
- Was shot by one of his own dancers after he fired her.
- Saw his dancers try to unionize to block a new compensation system.
- Had one of his clubs tank after the local city (Ft. Lauderdale) changed the laws about alcohol being served in strip clubs.
- Was blocked by political cronyism when he tried to open in Las Vegas.
- Got sued for trademark infringement by Boeing.
- Was accidentally shot by a drunken patron, an off-duty police officer.
- Had his father, a Holocaust survivor who became his business partner, negotiate with a menacing biker gang that threatened his first club.
“The business of entertainment has a lot of glamour and glitz – and beautiful women for sure -- but it’s filled with many forces that can challenge and chew you up in no time,” says Markovitz. “The key is to think ahead, exceed expectations, be ready for a fight, and be wise enough to know when to walk away.” Markovitz’s story begins with humble roots growing up in the Jewish middle class neighborhood of Oak Park, Michigan, the son of a television repair shop owner. He starts out like a kid in a candy store, working the bar for the neighborhood strip club as a teenager. Markovitz befriends the owner and seeks him out as a business partner when he ventures out to buy his first club at age 22. From there on he comes back stronger from every challenge, crisis, or adversity he faces along the way to establish himself at the top of the topless business.
Topless Prophet also shares Markovitz’s personal experiences, professional insights, and vision for the future of adult entertainment. He reveals just what it is about the allure of the dancers that captures men’s hearts and wallets. He tells us if customers really have a chance to date a dancer and discusses how he romanced some of the dancers. He also shares how one unhappy ex-girlfriend/stripper drove her car into his club looking for blood.
Markovitz shares many insights about how to be successful in business, and admittedly bares mistakes made along the way as well. He explains how he:
- Moved the strip club experience from a blue-collar to white-collar audience.
- First discovered moving dancers off the stage to tables and then customers’ laps – and went from paying his dancers to having them pay him.
- Had to work alongside a business partner who hired two hit men to kill him.
- Manages over 300 dancers at each club.
- Attempted to bring the strip club setting to airplanes and golf courses.
- Got swindled out of a million dollars when trying to buy a club.
- Views expansion, upgrades, location, quality of service, the competition, pricing, and knowing when to wage a legal fight.
“The formula for success is fleeting,” says Markovitz. “Just when you think you know what it is, it changes. You can’t be complacent in this business.” Markovitz certainly knows what it takes to make millions and have fun doing it.
The Male Factor, Shaunti Feldhahn – Review & Giveaway
Title: The Male Factor
Author: Shaunti Feldhahn
Publisher: WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group
Publication Date: December 29th, 2009
Paperback: 320 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction, Business
Many talented women today risk undermining their careers without realizing it, simply because they don’t understand how they are perceived by their male colleagues and customers.
In The Male Factor, best-selling author Shaunti Feldhahn reveals the inner reality behind men’s views — the unspoken expectations that no man would dare to publicly acknowledge, and no woman would learn from an HR department. These revelations include:
• Men’s unwritten ‘rules’ of the workplace
• How men perceive workplace emotion
• What common situations with female colleagues most frustrate men-- and why
• Why revealing clothing can sabotage a woman’s effectiveness
• Why some men think flextime is fine, but equal compensation for it is not
The Male Factor equips women with the information they need to make informed decisions and compete on a level playing field.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Shaunti Feldhahn is a nationally syndicated columnist and the bestselling author of For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men and For Men Only, which together sold one million copies. She holds a Master in Public Policy from Harvard, worked on Wall Street and now lives in Atlanta, Georgia.
FIND HER HERE... Facebook - Twitter - Website
FROM THE BOOK FAERY REVIEWS...As a woman who's worked many male-dominated workplaces, this book was a great eye-opener. It made me realize the mistakes I might have made that had I known how to act more like a man I may have gone further. This is definitely a book for all women to read when dealing with any sort of relationships with the opposite sex.
Definitely a keeper for my office shelves and one I'd read again when the need arose. 5 stars for a great resource book.
THE GIVEAWAY...MAIN RULE – Be an e-mail or RSS subscriber AND leave a comment with the name of one of her other books (visit her site). (if this rule is not followed then no others will count )
Additional Entries can be done by clicking on each link below or performing an action:
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- 2 Extra Entries – Write a post on your blog or Facebook linking to my blog.
Giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. This giveaway will run now through midnight on January 30th, with winner being announced February 1st. Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all valid entries and notified via email. Winners will have 48 hours to contact me before another winner is chosen. Please check your emails AND your spam folders for an email from me if you are a winner.
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
Young Guns, Robert Tuchman: Author Guest Post
Today’s graduates face the toughest job market in 10 years. Their peers only a few years older, who just started their careers, are now back on the job hunt with few prospects. There is a highly competitive pool of applicants for companies that aren’t hiring. What options do these bright, young, ambitious people have? To wait for the economy to recover and recruiters to come knocking? Or to take that ambition and passion and turn it into something tangible? Now is the time to become an entrepreneur—take that drive and start realizing your dreams.
In Young Guns: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own, Robert Tuchman shows professionals that they can start and succeed in their own business with examples of many entrepreneurs under the age of 35. There is no better time to take a chance than when you’re youthful, bold and have very little to lose—and he knows from experience.
Young Guns is a book for young entrepreneurs. It includes business advice, graduation advice, networking hints and information on starting a company. Everything a young entrepreneur needs to know is in this book. - FROM AUTHOR SITE
AUTHOR GUEST POST...How to Handle Pressure: Writing Under Deadlines
Whether you are a journalist for The Daily News or a copywriter for an ad agency, even a college student guzzling coffee and red bulls the night before your term paper is due, as a writer we have all been under pressure at some point. Handling pressure to meet a deadline can be difficult especially if is needed in the next hour or by the end of the day. There are some key things to remember as you write under the pressure of the clock ticking.
The first and most important things to remember are to take a few deep breaths and relax. Chances are if you have been given a quick and abrupt deadline your boss, editor, or publisher even college professor trusts you enough that it will be efficient, detailed piece of writing. So just take a few minutes to settle in and begin writing, your nerves can be used as an advantage.
Next, you should review what you know and conduct some research. Planning is everything, it has been done but writing a term paper the night before its due is a difficult task if you don’t have any direction. When you find your direction point, continue with at least three sub-topics that relate to the direction you want the piece of writing to take. Do some brainstorming, research, generate quotes from reliable sources or databases and your writing will unfold and the pressure you felt before will be applied to rapid typing and words becoming sentences and paragraphs in front of you.
Take another second to breathe, your almost there. Conducting and gathering research is nearly as important as knowing your audience. Listen to your professor during class if he or she refers to a Kennedy historian that has a great book surrounding the assassination of JFK, it might be in your best interest to visit the library and skim a few chapters of that book. If you are writing to a predominantly liberal driven magazine it might be in your best interest to think about the vocabulary variety in your piece.
Finally, use your time wisely. Remember now the clock is ticking. Don’t waste time focusing on what you are going to eat on your lunch break or what the guy in front of you is working in, stick to the task at hand and you will be able to complete it. Another few key things to keep in mind, stay well hydrated, eat a good breakfast, and if you are still having a difficult time with writing under pressure and losing focus try to take a yoga class, it helps to relax not only your muscles but clear your mind so you can focus on one thing at a time. Right now it’s that deadline, and time is running out.
Robert Tuchman
www.pcevents.com
www.premieresports.com
My monthly column in Incentive Magazine
ABOUT THE AUTHOR...Robert Tuchman started his own company as a young gun at the age of 24 and shows professionals that there is no better time to take a chance at starting a business than when you’re youthful, bold and have little to lose in YOUNG GUNS: The Fearless Entrepreneur’s Guide to Chasing Your Dreams and Breaking Out on Your Own (AMACOM 2009).
When he graduated from college, Tuchman was quickly forced to abandon his dream of becoming a sports reporter. Applications to television stations and newspapers across the country were ignored and eventually he accepted a position as an investment advisor at Lehman Brothers in New York, followed by a stint Paine Webber.
Still desperately wanting to break into the sports industry, he joined Sports Profiles after reading about them in Entrepreneur, working out of his apartment selling sports magazine advertisements. Quickly realizing that everyone to whom he sold ads wanted the perks (tickets to games or luxury trips to events) more than the ads, he decided to start a business that catered to this niche called Tuchman Sports Enterprises (TSE).
Within two years of working out of that tiny one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment, with one phone and a fax machine, his company was named to the annual Inc. 500 list of America's fastest growing privately held companies and as one of the top 100 promotion agencies by Promo Magazine. He started TSE with no money and no investors and ended up selling it for millions of dollars to Premiere Global Sports. Last year TSE, now the Corporate Events division of Premiere Global Sports, earned over $70 million dollars in sales. Robert Tuchman currently serves as President of that division, still guiding his company in its new form.
He writes a monthly column for Incentive magazine, an industry magazine for incentive and meeting planners. He is also the author of The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live, a sports travel book. His articles have appeared in ESPN.com and Sports Business Journal.
A favorite commentator on the sports industry, you may have seen him recently discussing Michael Phelps on “Anderson Cooper 360” or the “CBS Morning News.” A frequent guest on “Your World with Neil Cavuto,” he has also appeared on CNN, BET, and has been featured in USA Today, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Entrepreneur. - FROM AMACOM BOOKS SITE














