As stated in the preface, this book was “born out of the authors’ twelve year collaboration in teaching vipassana retreats throughout the world.”  Goldstein and Kornfield were two of the three founders of the Insight Meditation Center in Barre, MA where I did my five day silent meditation retreat last year.  I try to always be reading one meditation book in order to supplement my daily practice, and this was slim volume was a good choice.  Brief and simple, it focused on some simple actions that one can take to enhance daily living.  One of the things I love about vipassana is the endless lists: the four foundations of mindfulness (awareness of body, of feelings, of thoughts, and of truths, the laws of experience;  the five training precepts (do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, do not use drugs or alcohol, do not engage inappropriate sexual behavior; the eightfold path to righteousness.  This is a good book for the beginning meditater—straightforward, not too detailed, and a good mixture of the theory and the practice. For those interested in more reading about meditation, go to the Essay section of this site and click on Meditation.