Customer comments on this selection.
 Talk about sex and stress
Almost every example and story Mr. Greenberg relates in this book has some sexual/romantic/dating overtone to it. I found this quite funny actually.
As it's title suggests, it's a read about how to reduce stress and learn to relax and smell the roses. There are chapters on meditation to spirituality to biofeedback and of course different forms of stress. He begins most chapters with experiences that he's either had or know of someone who has experienced it.
 What a relief!!!
Fantastic! A book that teachs effective ways of managing stress with out all the mumbo jumbo. I love the assessments provided at the end of each chapter; they help you learn more about yourself (how you handle stress, your personality, and how you react to others). I was required to use this book in a college stress management class, the text definitely help me understand relaxtion techniques and all of the components of stress and relief. It provides plenty of information that is clearly stated and easy to read and understand. I recommend this book to everyone wanting to find more effective and healthy ways of living life.
 This book is lacking in some ways....
I purchased this book for about $75.00 and noticed that it is also for sale in a paperback version for about $12.00. I don't feel like I got my $75.00 worth, but if I paid $12.00 I would have had lower expectations.
What I liked about the book is that it was comprehensive in the sense that it touched on a lot of different areas. It also had excellent references. In fact, this is probably the best reason to own the book.
Unfortunately, there were several inaccuracies in the stress psychopysiology chapter and I think the author could have been more clear in his explanations. This shocked me given that the book is in it's ninth printing! I must admit the author lost some credibility with me when I hit this chapter, but the rest of the chapters seemed solid with respect to content.
The other chapters were more clearly written and I liked the roadblock model of stress that was introduced. This is certainly a useful model to use for thinking of stress intervention despite its apparent simplicity. This was probably the most interesting chapter to me. The other chapters had useful information, but they were rather superficial. They were good in terms of raising awareness about a particular topic, but they left me hungry for more information.
I did not like the author's tone and the way he delivered advice. I found that he made stress management and the solution to stress related issues sound too simple. His approach came across as stress management was simply a matter of applying his formula in an easy and mechanical way. In short, this seemed like a naive approach without mentioning the cognitive complexities that intefere with applying the formula!
If you are only looking for a survey of stress management and light coverage of the most common interventions, then this book can help you with that. However, if you want an in-depth look at the biology, I would consider "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." Be warned, however, that this other book goes into a fair amount of depth on the biology side. However, it is extremely well written and I'm not aware of ANY book that covers the health implications of stress in a more eloquent (and often humorous) fashion.
With respect to psychological interventions for stress, I think there are many books that might serve the reader better. One book to consider that is good, but more specialized is Full Catastrophe Living. I would also look at books that explore the cognitive aspects of stress management. There are a lot of them out there.
My bottom line on this book is that for $75.00 you can buy "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers" and four other books that cover the same territory much better. However, for a survey course accompanied by complimentary readings, it would probably be adequate.
If I saw this book on the shelf of a bookstore, I would probably pass because it wasn't exciting to read and I think there is better stuff available. However, at $11.00-12.00 it would be tempting to buy it just for all the references.
 well needed substitue
This book is good if your taking this course in college because my professor allowed me to use since there really was no change but just another small chapter. The newest edition is about 100 dollars so if you can first ask your professor if you can buy this one to use in class. It is a better value than spending a lot on a new edition without much change.
 I guess it's funny if you like that sort of thing.
I cannot seriously believe that this book is supposed to be a text for college students. I think this one paragraph sums it up:"Hey, Harry, here comes another shipment," said Joe Saliva to his brother. The Salivas live in the mouth and, when food enters, they help break it down to small manageable pieces. These pieces are then mailed by pneumatic tube (the esophagus) to Phil Hydrochloric Acid who lives in Stomachville. Hydrochloric acid (HCl) activates enzymes that break the food down even further so it can pass into the small intestine. Another town, Liver, sends Bobby Bile to help break down the fatty shipments. Once these shipments (food) are made small they can be placed in local post offices for delivery to various other cities (body parts). The pieces without ZIP codes are unusable and are discarded by being sent via the large intestine through the anus into space (that is, flushed into another galaxy). There is nothing I can add to that.
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