Diverticulitis Cookbook

Diverticulitis Cookbook: A Comprehensive Diet Guide with 200 Proven and Delicious Diet Recipes to Prevent Flare-Ups and Improve Gut Health, Sophia Robinson, self-published, 2021

You have just left the doctor's office complaining of cramps and constipation, only to be told that it is diverticulitis. An internet search might provide a list of symptoms, along with a list of foods to avoid. Are you stressed about what you can eat without having a flare-up? This cookbook attempts to give some answers.

It talks about the causes and symptoms of diverticulitis, along with the latest science. The book talks about preventing attacks, and dealing with mild to strong symptoms. There is a list of foods to eat, and of foods to avoid. Included are 200 recipes to improve the health of your gut and prevent flare-ups.

This book feels very detailed and accurate. For anyone with chronic gut problems, whether or not you have been diagnosed with diverticulitis, reading this book is time very well spent.

The Dragon Grammar Book

The Dragon Grammar Book: Grammar for Kids, Dragons and the Whole Kingdom, Diane Mae Robinson, 2017, self-published

Intended for middle grade children, here is a very accessible book about English grammar, that most hated of school subjects.

The author clearly explains things like the difference between and adjective and an adverb, or the correct time to use 'who' or 'whom'. There are quizzes at the end of each chapter to build on a student's knowledge. All of the sentence examples deal with kings and castles and dragons (who doesn't love dragons?).

This is an excellent supplement to the usual dry school textbook. It is also recommended as a homeschool textbook. Older readers, who barely survived English grammar class, should also read this book. It will help a great deal.

The Pinochet Plot

The Pinochet Plot, David Myles Robinson, Terra Nova Books, 2018

Will Munoz is a successful attorney in San Francisco. He is also the son of Ricardo Munoz, a well-known Chilean writer, who died when Will was a child. His mother's suicide note asserts that his father was murdered on the orders of Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile for more than 15 years in the late 20th century.

Will learns that his father wrote a novel, as yet unpublished, that would have been very unfriendly to Pinochet. A million-dollar reward was established, by Pinochet, for the return of the original manuscript and all published copies. As Will starts to ask questions about his father's death, focus turns to the CIA's famous, or infamous, MKULTRA mind control program. Chuck Evans was a part of MKULTRA, along with Milton Fisher, his CIA handler. After the program was "officially" cancelled, could Milton have kept Chuck supplied with drugs, and turned him into some sort of assassin-for-hire? As an extra complication, Chuck is also Will's step father. Could he have killed Will's father, and married his mother, to find the novel and get that million dollar reward?

This is a very "quiet" novel, in that there are no car chases or hair-raising escapes from the bad guys, But it is a very well-done novel. It explores a pair of unpleasant bits of recent American history, and it is very much worth reading.

Ideas are Free: How the Idea revolution is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations

Ideas Are Free: How the Idea Revolution is Liberating People and Transforming Organizations, Alan G. Robinson and Dean M. Schroeder, Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2004

In this hyper-competitive and economically uncertain world, there is a free resource for efficiency and money-saving ideas that few companies have accessed. Why not ask your employees for their suggestions to make the company better?

It's not as easy as putting up suggestion boxes, and waiting for the flood of ideas. First, look at your corporate culture. If yours is the sort of company that discourages ideas from employees (workers are there to work and not think), it will take a lot of work on the part of senior management to convince employees that, this time, things are different. The actual idea submission form must be short, no more than one page. There needs to be a system in place where every idea is acknowledged and evaluated within a specific period of time (for instance, within 24 and 72 hours, respectively). If a middle manager is "sitting on" an idea, for whatever reason, senior management needs to know about it.

In many cases, the immediate supervisor is most qualified to evaluate ideas. Feedback is very important, especially if the idea needs more work, or if the idea has to be rejected. Explaining the reason to the employee will keep them from getting discouraged. When an idea is approved by the right people, there is no reason for it to not be implemented sooner, rather than later (within hours or days, not at the start of the next quarter). There should be continuous checking of ideas to see if they can also be used elsewhere in the company. Managers seem to be only interested in the huge, million-dollar idea. Is there something wrong with a few thousand-dollar ideas?

Setting up a system of monetary rewards for ideas is popular, but not needed. The best "compensation" for an employee is to see their idea implemented, to know that they had a hand in bettering their company. It is very easy for a company to do rewards the wrong way, increasing mistrust among employees. The authors show how to do rewards the right way.

Filled with many real-life examples, this is a clear and insightful book about a surprisingly easy way to get money-saving ideas. This is applicable to all sorts of companies, big and small, and is very much recommended.