Training Books

We bought this as a gift for the sponsors of our daughter on her baptism. This book has great ideas for working faith into conversations in everyday life and at special times of the year (Christmas, Easter, birthday).

I am really enjoying this book. I think being a Godparent is a huge honor and responsibility. I am also someone who loves to come up with clever gift giving ideas and fun ways to spend time with kids. This book has it all!

This is a great gift for godparents. Considering the awesome responsibility they've accepted - ensuring the spiritual well-being of your child - the least you can do is shell out a few dollars for the manual. They will certainly appreciate the gift, and the thoughtful suggestions it contains will help them fulfill their responsibilities more conscientiously.

Great gift for the "new" Godparents. Filled with ideas, facts and much more. Easy to read and follow.

Taking care of your body will ensure many more years of good golf. This book is a great start, with a simple 15 minute program to keep you (and your game) in good shape!

Unlike many such books, this one is excellent and serious. Follow Dr. Vad's strictures and you may yet live to shoot your age!

I wish I'd read this book 45 years ago, when I started playing golf. If you're a serious golfer -- one who wants to play your best, and works toward that goal -- you have a choice: get into a good flexibility and strengthening program, or be prepared to spend some really painful time in bed, not playing golf in beautiful weather.
This book provides what you need to lower the likelihood of encountering the pain and misery of golf-related back problems. There are no guarantees in life, but it has transformed golf for this 67-year old.

It was a very easy read. Very little golf stuff but lots of easy exercises to do and could be done in under 20 minutes for better fitness. It has three levels of difficulties. Yes, to golf better, improve on strength and flexibility as the explosive force in a golf swing could result in injury if we are not properly conditioned, especially weekend warriors.

This is one of the best books I have read detailing the ins and outs of selling today!

the book is easy to read,understan, and to follow. the book contains every thing the salesman need in his career this book is the start point in sales. read it and folow it.

I am a 25-year sales veteran, and have spent this entire time reading any and all Sales motivational books and "tips" I can get my hands on. Without exception, I found Paul Green's book one I will reference often, and anxiously refer to others. He has his pulse on the Sales game and on the sales professional. It is obvious he has passion for the profession and for those who pound the streets daily in search of their next success...he understands the process.

Mr. Green's humor is ever-apparent throughout the book, which makes it an even more enjoyable read. I recently took Good Selling! with me to read on the plane, beginning my only vacation in the last five years (I was trying to slow down). I found myself laughing and muttering affirmations out loud, as I finished the book before we reached Orlando. I made action notes in the margins, promising to implement all the great ideas (and reminders) I found in almost every chapter.

This book is insightful, empathetic, funny, and a true sales tool. Thank you, Paul Green, I can't wait for your next effort.

If you are a Sales Professional providing Point of Sale solutions to the retail market, this may be the breakthrough you've been looking for. "Good Selling" does an outstanding job of interspersing fundamentals of Human Interaction (a la Dale Carnegie) with specific techniques for increasing Sales. Neophytes to Bankcard/Point of Sale Services will appreciate Paul Green's coverage of the fundamentals, while veterans enjoy a refresher course and gain the benefit of Paul's research into the latest trends within the Financial Services community, and how recent technology is impacting today's market. Anyone interested in self-improvement, increased motivation, or just more sales will enjoy the read!

Nice going Hal you've put out another great book for runners to follow as they progress through their sport.

It seems that my biggest challenge these days is motivation and nutrition where my athletes are concerned. There are just too darn many fads out there and the real "easiest" way is when you put in the study and the work.

Hal Higdon has taken the problem out of researching your needs and put it right in front of you in this book. Read what he's giving and then incorporate it into your program.

Written by "Runner's World" magazine's senior writer, this book takes the form of question and answer over a wide range of topics. Simply put, it's a FAQ manual for runners.

One small problem with this format is, there is only one question and answer addressed per topic, so the information imparted is very specialised. To counter this, the book covers a wide range of topics from beginning running to marathon training, to injuries, to advice for young and older runners.

I would recommend this book to the beginner / inexperienced runner. Those who have been running for some time would very likely have come across most of this information before. If you're looking for a repository that contains a great deal of accumulated knowledge that can be accessed easily, here it is.

Although I considered myself to be a seasoned runner, I knew there was much that I had yet to discover before taking on my first marathon. This book helped incredibly - with everything from nutrition to preventing potentially painful or debilitating injuries. Though training to run a marathon is most certainly an arduous and daunting task, Higdon's book helps to put running into perspective and removes it from the realm of "only the talented can do it." He gives running back to those who don't know everything about the sport and are willing to learn.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is considering a marathon or even a 5K for the motivation, the advice, and the knowledge.

Hal Higdon is my grandfather, and I'd love this book even if it wasn't written by him. :-)

This is a great book to learn different weight lifting exercises. The pictures show alot. The book could use more instruction on nutrition.

I looked into the mirror and realised that my latest diet was again a failure. Arrgh! Although I had lost the weight that I wanted to, I was looking more like a pyramid than the hour glass I imagined. I finally realised that it wasn't how heavy we were, but how the weight was distributed inside and outside of us that mattered. "Hard Bodies" is the answer. This book, written by Gladys Portugues and Joyce Vedral, PhD., is a path to a healthier, better looking body. Working with free weights at home is inexpensive and takes very little space. However, it does require careful attention to technique. The book's photos are instructive rather than just showing off the author's success at body building, although Gladys is beautiful, definitely someone to emulate. The text provides clear and safe instructions. This is great stuff for working out with free weights at home or for augmenting a weight training program at your gym. And, it works! Copyright 1997 by Barbara Grant Ashton

I got this book ten years ago, and have been weight training/bodybuilding ever since. With assistance from this book, I found it was easier to change my body (from size 18 pants to size 8) than my mind. The pep talk at the beginning of the book really changed my life. I feel much better about myself now. When people ask me how I keep at it, I recommend this book, and am buying yet another copy for a friend who's gotten a new gym membership, to keep her motivated!

This book has done wonders for me. I started out not knowing anything about different exercises for weight training and how to start a program. Now I am working out at least 4-5 times a week and loving every minute of it. I saw results quickly and the pictures helped me understand how to do the exercises correctly. This is a must!!! I would love to see more books from the two lady authors.

This book is for preparation for the internal medicine boards, which I am currently studying for. The chapters are divided by specialty for focused review. There are over 1000 questions and they focus on points that would be found in Harrison's text.

The questions tend to be fairly difficult and I suspect they might be harder than actual board questions. However, the majority of questions focus on the key points of the "need to know" diseases of internal medicine. So knowing these questions will likely be good prep for the boards.

The answers provided are quite detailed and it is like reading a summary out of Harrison's. The incorrect answers are reasoned out, which is helpful.

In comparison to MKSAP, the questions are likely more of a "classical" disease presentation sytle and less of a clinical approach style that MKSAP often uses. Difficulty level is roughly equivalent.

I would recommend this book to anyone preparing for the boards. It should be used in addition to other question banks for diversity of preparation.

A must have for all the internal medicine residents!!!
Extraordinarilly structured questions and even better explanation focused on the highlight topics in internal medicine.

The first question I had when I was to purchase this book was whether this book was good for the USMLE Step 2 and 3.

The answer, in my case atleast, is an emphatic 'yes'. From my experience of Step 1, I have come to the conclusion that there is no quick solution to the USMLE exams - books like First Aid and some other 100 pg 'high yeild' review books can help you pass and score above average but getting great scores requires more than just that. The questions on the exam [step 1] were very varied and I don't expect the questions on step 2 to stick to what Kaplan and other review books call 'high yeild'. Being a little over-prepared is definitely worth the effort. And that's where this book is an absolute ace!

About this book - about 1000 Qs - well researched - fantastically up-to-date - it "is" the 2005 edition!. They are well arranged - meaning if you are in a chapter on rheumatology, the questions on Rheumatoid arthritis are clustered together. While solving them and while reading the solutions, one gets a wholesome idea about that disease. This also means that you don't have to read another 'review' book to get to know the subject matter. The explanations are detailed enough to make using a short review book superfluous. That the answers are referenced to the corresponding pages of the Harrison's Textbook is an added benefit.

About the questions, more impressive than the difficulty level is their construction. All choices are well thought out and there are hardly any sitters. The questions stay away from tiny details and do a great job at testing basic concepts in a somewhat difficult fashion - ideal for USMLE step 2 preparation in my opinion.

Guess that'll be it.

If you are reading this, you are probably preparing for an ABIM internal medicine exam in addition to all your other duties. There is never enough time, is there? Well, I was preparing for the ABIM recertification exam, and it had been 10 years since I'd finished residency. I had slogged through the Mayo review book over the course of five months, dutifully going over every page. Tres painful. There were three weeks left before the exam, and I figured I'd give this book a try. I quickly discovered how ignorant I was, despite doing the Mayo book. Charlie Wiener taught me a lot of critical care medicine way back when, and this text was a lot like sitting down with Charlie. If you are a former member of the Osler Medical House Staff (or did residency training at some other urban hospital), the case scenarios will give you flashbacks. The questions are well-written, and the answers give you really good feedback. The questions are highly relevant, reflecting what the ABIM wants you to know. There are a handful of errors here and there, where the letter of the answer in the key has a different letter than the same correct answer in the question... perhaps the editors changed the order of some of the answers or some of the distractor answers between editions. Mildly annoying, but not fatal.

I got my pass notice from the ABIM today. I'm convinced that Charlie's book made a crucial difference. Yeah, the book lists for $55, but it's a bargain compared to the $550 it costs to take the recert examination over. :-)

Good luck!

Mary Pat and I went to Chicago expecting to see something fabulous. I don't get it. We didn't see any of the churches, but we got a great room at the Fairmont. We had full body massages by a Japanese man.

We got lost trying to find John's mansion in Lake Forest or Kenilworth. Anyway, Mary Pat enjoyed the church pictures. After Ernest Thorp's war book, it's my favorite Wapella literary feat.

I bought this as a gift for a friend. It's a great reminder of the church where she got married. It also has the church where her parents and grandparents were married as well, so she was thrilled!

If you are Catholic, from Chicago and dislike the hexagons that are being passed off as Catholic churches in the last 50 years, you will love this book!

Many inner city and suburban parishes are treated, grouped by geographic location.

Agreed it is a little pricey, but it beats driving all over the city and climbing into the choir lofts to take your own pictures.

A great gift idea for parents, grandparents from Chicago!

If you don't believe that Chicago has some of the best looking Catholic churches in America, you should take a look at this book. Sixty-eight of the almost 400 churches in the Chicago archdiocese are featured, some in much more detail than others.

The author seems to have a thing for older, more traditional churches over newer ones, which is just fine by me. Most of my favorites are here - Holy Name Cathedral is present, of course, as is St. Michael's in Wicker Park, which was burned in the Chicago Fire, and Holy Family, which wasn't, although it was almost torn down a decade ago. St. Ita and St. Jerome on the North Side are featured, as is Our Lady of Lourdes, which was once moved across the street, spun 90 degrees, and then split in half to double its size. The South Side has its masterpieces as well - St. Rita of Cascia, St. Philip Neri, the darkly lit Queen of Peace, with its incredibly ornate flat ceiling, and the fantastically bright and beautiful St. Columbanus. The great Polish churches are well represented: St. Mary of the Angels, modeled on St. Peter's in Rome, closed and almost torn down once; the St. Michael on the Southeast Side; the sad and tragic St. Hedwig; St. Hyacinth - now a basilica, and an enormous one at that, the largest and arguably most beautiful Catholic church in the city; St. John Cantius, another nearly destroyed masterpiece, now completely renovated and with its own order of Latin-speaking priests. I could go on and on.

Two churches are not even active Catholic churches anymore: St Boniface was closed 15 years ago, and the fantastic old St. Martin's just off the Dan Ryan Expressway is now Protestant. And there is the wild story of St. Gelasius, just south of Hyde Park, vandalized, nearly burned down, closed, and now being rebuilt as the Institute of Christ the King.

I think a few really great ones are missed. Namely, St. Ben's on the North Side, whose bell tower dominates Irving Park for literally miles, and St. Martin de Porres (formerly St. Thomas Aquinas) on the West Side. Perhaps St. Sabina's on the Southwest Side belongs, although the interior is all screwed up -I don't think any other Catholic church has a big neon "Jesus" hanging over the altar. St. Mary of Perpetual Help, in Bridgeport, is an outstanding church and certainly belongs in the book, as does the beautiful and unique Lithuanian Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Marquette Park.

On the other hand Loyola's Madonna Della Strada is an oversized white barn, and St. Gabriel in Canaryville, despite being designed by the famous Burnham & Root team, is too small and too low. And St. Peter, downtown, while a fine church, is not really in the "great" category, either. The chapel of St. Mary of the Lake at Mundelein Seminary is a great example of Congregationalist church, being all white and almost featureless, but a lousy example of a Catholic church.

But this is quibbling. All the photos, by James Morris, are in stunning full color, and the text is mercifully short, yet well footnoted. Perhaps a bit overpriced at $60 for about 160 large pages. Robert Cameron's Above Chicago, for example, has the same number of much larger pages but costs half as much. All in all, a beautiful book, very suitable either as a gift or a bit of self-indulgence.

Here is a list of all the churches, copied from the publisher's website:

Downtown Chicago

Holy Name Cathedral (Near North Side/Gold Coast)
Assumption (Near North Side/Gold Coast)
St. James Chapel at Quigley Preparatory Seminary (Near North Side/Gold Coast)
St. Peter (Loop)
Old St. Patrick's (Near West Side/West Loop)


North Chicago

Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Lakeview)
St. Ignatius (East Rogers Park)
St. Alphonsus (Lakeview)
St. Vincent de Paul (Lincoln Park)
St. Josaphat (Lincoln Park)
St. Clement (Lincoln Park)
St. Jerome (East Rogers Park)
Our Lady of Lourdes (Uptown)
Madonna della Strada Chapel (Loyola University/East Rogers Park)
St. Michael (Old Town)
St. Ita (Edgewater)
Queen of All Saints Basilica (Sauganash)


Northwest Chicago

St. Hyacinth Basilica (Avondale)
St. John Berchmans (Logan Square/Bucktown)
St. John Cantius (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
Holy Trinity (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
St. Stanislaus Kostka (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
St. Viator (Irving Park)
St. Mary of the Angels (Bucktown)
St. Boniface (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
St. Hedwig (Logan Square/Bucktown)
Holy Innocents (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)


South Chicago

St. Michael (South Shore/South Chicago)
St. Martin (Englewood)
Nativity of Our Lord (Bridgeport)
Holy Cross-Immaculate Heart of Mary (Back of the Yards/Canaryville)
Institute of Christ the King (formerly St. Clara⁄St. Gelasius) (Woodlawn)
St. Anthony (Pullman)
St. Gabriel (Back of the Yards/Canaryville)
St. Basil/Visitation (New City/Back of the Yards)
St. John of God (Sherman Park)
St. Thomas the Apostle (Hyde Park)
St. Ambrose (Kenwood)
Holy Cross Monastery (formerly Immaculate Conception) (Bridgeport)
St. Rita of Cascia (West Englewood)
Corpus Christi (Oakland/Grand Boulevard)
St. Anselm (Washington Park)
St. Columbanus (Greater Grand Crossing)
Our Lady of Guadalupe, Shrine of St. Jude (South Chicago)
St. Philip Neri (South Shore)
Our Lady of Peace (South Shore)


West Chicago

Holy Family (Near West Side/University Village)
St. Pius V (Pilsen)
Our Lady of Sorrows Basilica (Near West Side)
Holy Rosary (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)
Notre Dame de Chicago (Near West Side)
St. Adalbert (Pilsen)
St. Paul (Pilsen)
St. Nicholas Cathedral, Ukrainian Catholic Church (Wicker Park/Ukrainian Village)


Chicago Suburbs

St. Thomas Aquinas Priory Chapel, Dominican University (River Forest)
Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary (Mundelein)
St. Athanasius (Evanston)
Chapel at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Barat College (Lake Forest)
Marytown, Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe (Libertyville)*
St. Peter (Skokie)
St. Edmund (Oak Park)
Ascension (Oak Park)
St. Giles (Oak Park)
Immaculate Conception (Waukegan)
Chapel of the Holy Spirit, Divine Word Monastery (Techny)
St. Francis Xavier (Wilmette)
St. Joseph (Wilmette)
Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity (Winnetka)

Excellent. This book was extremely helpful in outlining new approaches to training designs for the current and emerging generations in the workplace. As a consultant who not only trains but works with trainers, it provided insight about my audience as well as concepts to assist other trainers

Once again, I wished I had read Dr. El-Shamy's book sooner. We already knew that there were huge shifts in training and development on both sides of that podium we never use anymore anyway. Susan gives practical tips, games and a CD that helps you bridge generation learning styles as well as anticipate what to do with a training world that continues to shift to a requested more individual AND electronic delivery. How am I gonna do that? All ways perhaps, including streaming video, blogs and why not the ipod? This book is particularly designed for experienced trainers facing increasingly younger clients. I originally thought it was a little pricey but with the CD I think it is a bargain. Great resource.

I needed this! I tend to think of training the way I was taught, lectures, an occasional exercise, some testing. This book really pointed out the differences in learning styles between generations. Gives information on how to alter your training style to be certain you are providing information in a way that makes it easy (and fun!) for everyone to learn. Full of tools and tricks to help keep the audience engaged, and how to know if you are suceeding. Lots of example games and interactive activities that can easily be customized to any topic.

Full of practical knowledge and advice, this is a resource I'll use often.

I found HOW TO DESIGN AND DELIVER TRAINING FOR THE NEW AND EMERGING GENERATIONS to be a really valuable resource for addressing training needs of audiences of different ages. It's written so that both new and experienced training professionals can gain helpful information. The manual is full of useful tips, techniques, activities, games and insights to engage the younger generation of trainees as well as other generations in learning experiences. This is a resource that I'm sure I'll refer to often in designing and delivering training!

`How to Hire, Train, & Keep the Best Employees' is an excellent resource for all small business owners. This book contains all of the vital information you will need to achieve higher employee productivity, better time management for employees and managers, and decreased turnover for your company. Podmoroff's book will also teach you how to effectively advertise for a position, screen potential employees, and motivate employees enough to make them want to stay with your company.

All of the information in this book is extremely helpful, but I was most impressed by the samples and templates provided in the book and on the CD-ROM. The book includes sample forms for applications, interview sheets, and orientation outlines to demonstrate the guidelines that Podmoroff explains. The CD-ROM takes things one step further by providing you with printable human resource templates for applications, follow-up letters, and performance analysis forms. Between the book that teaches you all you need to know and the CD-ROM that puts the theories into action, you will be well on your way to running a more productive, less stressful business.

On a side note, I was also very happy to see that some of the profits from this book are donated to The Humane Society of the United States. Even if I didn't think that this book is the best of its kind--which I do--I would rather invest my money in the author and publishing company who support a good cause.

This is quite possibly the best book I have ever read about employee relations. It starts off with how to find the right candidate. How to advertise when there are openings, how to conduct the interview and many more helpful topics.

The best part, however, is on how to retain the best employees. It talks about communication problems and how they can inadvertently cause conflict and problems within a business. The author then spends considerable time addressing ways to convey a bad message -such as you screwed up- in a productive way so that the employee doesn't feel bombarded with criticism and can begin working towards a solution. Chapter 3 is a great reference even for communication within personal relationships.

The author then goes on to discuss affective leadership and team building. All of these things will go a long way to create a great and productive crew. I especially liked the discussion on proper employee training. The author emphasizes finding the right person to fit into an organization and then training that person on what is expected of them. All too often I've seen people just dumped into positions without even a job description. No one can possibly work effectively that way.

The book also comes along with a great CD-ROM which has templates for employee applications, interview questions, a confidentiality agreement and more.

Almost all small business owners struggle with one universal task: hiring and keeping quality employees. Author Dianna Podmoroff has finally written a guidebook that offers expert guidance for hiring top-notch employees, sound advice for keeping them, and tips on follow-up training. From the first chapter on Successful Recruiting Strategies to the last chapter on Employee Retention Essentials this guide flexes its muscle with valuable, and more importantly, useful information. The accompanying CD-ROM offers a convenient source of information that can be quickly accessed and printed; including templates for professional employee applications, samples of follow-up letters, interview analysis and performance reviews. Two of the best features in this handy reference tool are the Leadership and Team-Building and Motivation chapters. Many hiring guides tend to gloss over, or even omit, one of the most important aspects of successful hiring: keeping, training and developing quality employees that have a vested interest in overall company success. Podmoroff outlines wonderful ideas, which more companies should implement, such as job sharing, flexible schedules, shared leave banks and phased retirement. Overall, this book is a must-have reference book that will ultimately give you the edge over your competition.

"How to Hire, Train, & Keep The Best Employees." This book teaches you to do that, and then some. I was introduced to behavioral interviewing techniques that I can't wait to put into practice. I am confident that these techniques, along with a structured recruiting process - will paint an accurate portrait of job candidates. The mention of real-life, bizarre interview responses left me in stitches. The book also offers tips for welcoming and training new employees. I found the sample orientation schedule extremely helpful. The section on keeping employees was most insightful as it dealt with communication. I learned how to "own" my comments to avoid sounding judgmental. The book also teaches you to transform person-oriented comments into the problem-oriented comments that bring about better results. I had no idea that some of the things I say could have such an adverse affect on others. I definitely plan on using these tips in my professional and personal life. This book seems to be geared toward the Human Resources professional. It even comes with a CD of 75 HR forms. I found it to be applicable to anyone in business.

This book didn't have a bunch of filler words or stories simply to make it long, it was straight to the point and was very useful. Each chapter left you with something to think about and the people that wrote it really knew what they were talking about!

This is a very good book and helped prepare me for the real world. I stumbled upon (...) and wanted to get opinion from other people that have looked at the site?

Its a simply written book, very concise and without any hype. I bought it because I felt I am not really able to gauge what is expected of me in the job and just 2 weeks into my dream job I started complaining.

I wish I had read this book before starting. Or even better, before I went for job interviews!! After reading this book I realised what mistakes I made during some of my job interviews.

This is the first review I have ever written for any book.

What a TERRIFIC book! This book is right on target with my own experiences. I only wish I had read it sooner. I would have avoided key mistakes in my first few months on the job. A MUST have for new graduates entering the work place.