Resources Books

I did not enjoy this book.

Why?

Because I purchased this book thinking it was YOUNG ADULT fiction.

(a) It was not young adult fiction. Look again. Young adult fiction = TEEN fition.

(b) This story seemed to be written for CHILDREN ages 6-9.

(c) It FAILED to be exciting in any way. I was bored half the time and the other half I was drifting away in my mind to escape the boringness of the book. i.e. "I wonder what book I should read after I'm finally done with this one?"
or "Hmmm I wonder how many more chapters I have to go?" or "Oh wow we have a new president!"

Anyway...

A story with a feminist as the protagonist: check.

A story that failed to be entertaining: check.

A story that made wizards out to be bad when Harry Potter fans are reading it: check.

A book that is now listed on ebay to try to get my money back from buying the whole set?

CHECK.

This is an enchanting story that once again captures the spirit of the perky princess who had no desire to be the traditional damsel-in-distress. So, what's a contemporary woman trapped by royal traditions to do? Offer herself up to the dragons in the first place.

It's a whimsical tale that gives fairytales sly winks and twists at every corner. The characters are rich, and move the story along with their quirks.

This is not just parody, either. Ms. Wrede had managed to create her own intelligent, dragon-and-knight infested tale that creates as much fairy tale as it borrows.

I enjoyed this story, and the sequels, as a young girl. Wrede creates a magical world that has a unique feel while incorporating common elements from fairytales. I've read in several times since and still enjoy it. Dealing with Dragons is very much a girl power book - almost all of the good main characters are female, Princess Cimerone rejects the staid life society thrusts upon her and charts her own course, and the King of the Dragons ends up being a female (King is just the title of the job, designating nothing about gender). It is well written, something that can certainly not be said of all fantasy novels written for this age group, and the story is fun and engaging.

An excellent book for young children that enjoy fantasy with an odd twist. Highly recommended.

I loved this series in middle school and would highly recommend it as a fun leisure read for children in that age bracket.

This book had a completly unoriginal plot. A nuclear explosion, the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, blah blah blah. Do NOT buy this book.

I never did truly see the point of this novel, but hey, it was fun and everyone loves dinosaurs. I think it's a good project for writing, and I like the admittely contrived concept of looking at everyone's thoughts. But aside from that, why?

While the bonus installments of Animorphs are K.A. Applegate's chance to shine (a.k.a. Visser, Megamorphs #1) they can also spell disaster. And this book spells every letter. It's as though Applegate rubbed her hands and said, "Here's my chance to put in every random idea I've ever had along with ten hours of research on dinosaurs. No, make that five hours." And she does.

The adventure in the book starts with some of the Animorphs stuck in a dinosaur. Yep, that's right. Inside a dinosaur. It is as ridiculous as it sounds. From there, they venture into the land of dinosaurs trying to find one another. The dinosaurs range from huge deadly raptors who are conveniently acquired, to Stegasaurus who are being zapped by evil ant aliens.

To try to divert attention from the convenient ways all six Animorphs can come away unscratched by a massive T-Rex, Applegate puts in big crabs with about twenty eyes. Oh, and they invented broccoli. They're named Mercora. Their enemies are lots and lots of evil ants called the Nesk, which are the pitifully two dimensional race who tries and fails to be as interesting as Yeerks.

Are these elements not ridiculous enough for you? There's more. They make dinosaur sandals. They steal nuclear weapons that happen to be invented back in that time. And somehow they all survive when a massive meteor hits the world and kills everything.

Sometimes Applegate goes a step too far in the absurd (though occassionally enjoyable) ideas throughout her Animorph series. Time of the Dinosaurs goes an entire staircase. Only die hard Animorphs fans should read this. And even then, remember that this is a bonus installment not part of the main series essential to understand the plot line... thankfully.

Sorry, but this book is definately only three stars. It all starts out when Marco hears about a sunk sub and the Animmorphs go to investigate. Something goes wrong and suddenly they find themselves in preostoric times!

I don't like this book because: a)It has the whole Sario Rip thing that was already put in another book. b)When they find themselves stuck in the Creostastes(sorry, don't know how to spell it) Period, there's another alien speices. I don't like that whole thing, along with The Mutation #36, and c)How it ended was very, very predictable. I don't know about you, but I knew that the comet was going to blow them back to their own time sooner or later.

Sorry Applegate, but you couldn't give us another winner like THe Andalite Chronicles (I have a review there, too)

This book starts out with a kid seeing a submarine crashing at the bottom of the ocean. His name is Marco and he is the prankster of this group of special humans. They are Andalites,which have the power
to gather animal d.n.a. and they change into animals.Jake is the leader
then there is Cassie,Ax,and Rachel. Well they go to save the people in
the sub,While they are saving the day nuclear sub blows up and they get blown back to in time with the dinosaurs.While they are there they

encounter two alien species one friendly one not so friendly. So they create another explosion and they go home

Every year a number of new books appear for the Christmas season, seeking to show new significance to old customs, or sometimes merely to put a contemporary story in a holiday context to stimulate sales. Most of those little books disappear from memory as quickly as the year's ornaments and greenery. This book is one whose value and impact seems to grow from year to year. It can be enjoyed by kids of most ages, and it holds the interest and challenges the thinking of adults. The book is worth reading again and again--privately and out loud. The audiobook is an excellent presentation. The movie adaptation, though sharing the limits of any visual interpretation of a piece of literature, is quite faithful to the facts and spirit of the story and has a particularly poignant wrap-up. Highly recommended!

"The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" is probably the best book ever, in my humble opinion! Believe me, it is not just a children's book whatsoever. My mother and I actually sat in the hospital an extra hour so we could finish reading it before going home! The author has quite the sense of humor, and will have you laughing along as you read this politically-incorrect book on six dysfunctional siblings who decide to be in the church's Christmas play because they were told they had "refreshments" there. It is a great gift for everyone on your list this season, and will likely become a household name. It most certainly made me feel better about my dysfunctional family! It's "political incorrectness" makes it all the more funny- you can't get this kind of sick quality humor anywhere but the 70s! I'm buying it for everyone I know!

I've directed the play for a couple of years and actually purchased several copies of this book to give away as prizes in a drawing for children attendees. This book is read in both public and private elementary schools locally leading up to Christmas. The book will evoke a catharsis of emotions: laughter, shock, sadness and tears of surprise and joy. It's also fantastic for those teaching moments on character, judging others and loving all people.

The best Christmas story for children that I have ever read. With wonderful humor it manages to help children really understand the Nativity.
My seven year old grand daughter was fascinated by the children's outrageous behavior but learned a lot through their innocent questioning of the story we know so well.

This is the first year we've read this book as a family and it has been a delightful experience. The children of all ages love the story and we laugh together every night as we read it. More than that it gets us to reinforce and teach the true meaning of Christmas in a way that they can understand, relate to and enjoy. I love this book and reading it will be a family tradition for years to come.

This was the first cookbook I purchased and have used it extensively for the past 30 years. It is my go-to book for creating healthy frugal meals - frugal in cost, and frugal in resources. Most of the recipes are simple and basic so can be easily used as a base for your own experimentation. I have given away dozens of copies of this book and hope it never goes out of print.

Maybe I was disappointed in this because I'm looking at it from a bit of an insider's perspective, since we didn't buy much packaged food anyway when I was a kid, but this is really only helpful if you're currently heavily dependent on pre-prepared meals or processed foods, and utterly ignorant about making anything from scratch. I'm not trying to be confrontational, but this is very basic cooking. If you're already semi-accustomed to cooking anything from staple ingredients, you've learned 7/8 of what this can teach you.

Not so much a bad cookbook as an outdated one. The ideas covered here are covered in greater depth in _Diet for a Small Planet_ (and probably many other books), and there are more modern meatless/reduced-meat cookbooks that are much more inventive. (This is not vegetarian, although it does advocate eating less meat.)

This seems to involve too many repetitive casseroles, dismal-sounding bean bakes, slightly-misguided attempts at ethnic cooking, and awkward 1970's "proto-vegetarian" meals. Oh, and it's bland. Way bland. I ate a lot of this stuff at Quaker potlucks when I was a kid, and I thank my lucky stars that, nowadays, people are becoming so much more familiar with creative ethnic foods. It also involves a lot of dairy and a lot of frying (or, at least, more frying than my mother and I have ever done, combined), and lots of white rice and white flour, which are not particularly nutrient-rich.

This was a great idea in its day, but now that "green" has become so popular, I think there are plenty of more interesting and less fatty books available that could serve the same purpose but would taste better.

This book taught me ways to save that have probably saved me a few thousand dollars over the 20 years I've owned it. First, the authors point out ways to avoid so-called "time saving" products that cost more, and often unhealthy, and really don't save time anyway. Second, I learned ways to make use of leftovers - like throwing a variety of vegetables, meats and grains from the fridge into a soup or casserole.

This is a strange little book. I will say that is has some redeeming features: some good granola, bread and dessert recipes for people who are already confident in the kitchen. However, a number of the main dishes are just odd (beef heart, anyone?). The recipes are consistently loaded with unnecessary fat - cheese on the vegetables? ground beef in minestrone? more than one creamed chicken recipe? More importantly, this book didn't contribute much to the frugality of my kitchen. If you grew up in a moderately frugal home, you are already familiar with most of the the tips and dishes in this book. This book will help you if you are new to planning family meals -- otherwise, just stick with Joy of Cooking.

The "More-With-Less Cookbook" is a real gem. My wife has had a copy for years and turns to it often for meal ideas. I will be ordering a new copy since hers is really worn out.

The included 500 recipes are all interesting, and mostly very practical, but the real value of this book is in the outlook provided by Doris Longacre. I have found myself skimming through the book and enjoying her insites.

So, for some very good and practical recipes, and for down to earth wisdom, this cookbook is highly recommended! Also see Mennonite Community Cookbook: Favorite Family Recipes, it is fantastic!

I'm debating what book pieces seem to define Christmas for me. Oddly this is up there, maybe the story I like the most to reacquaint me with a tear or two, I never can get through it dry.
On the surface the Grinch is impossibly unlikely to undergo transformation into a better and kinder being. He's so delightfully bad, glad to stop Christmas from coming. With his lively old Max and his clumsy old sacks this fellows a far cry from the Saint Nick he represents. How fascinating that this Grinch could be used to compare/contrast with Santa Claus, an interesting thing for a teacher to try with a class....anyway just for me when I raised my children it was the 1st book I gave to a three month old 1st daughter inscribing it "mom's favorite." And my favorite part would be Cindy Lou Who, not more than two, as well as the line, "maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more." A message of peace for one.

I would think anyone would enjoy this, but I often underestimate my ability to be wrong. It's a pretty nifty piece to me.

When I was a child, I found the Dr. Seuss books a bit scary because I didn't much like abstract or surreal stuff. Fast forward many years and I have a daughter who is just learning to read so after seeing that she enjoyed a Dr. Seuss book in the doctor's office I thought I would order this book and give it a spin. This particular edition comes in a nice metallic finish green and red cover. It feels like a quality book.
After reading it to her the first night, I had to read it two more nights after that in succession. It was great fun for me too because the rhyming prose allows the reader (who may not be a great thespian) to do some role playing and added intonation. The illustrations are both unusual and vivid which helps stimulate the young reader's imagination. Finally, the essential story message which is to have a heart is a good one particularly in times such as these. Highly recommended!

the product arrived in a timely manner...and was much more elegant than i thought a "deluxe"' edition would be...i'm very pleased !!!

HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS!, by the incomparable Theodor Geisel - aka Dr. Seuss, is a true Christmas classic. It is a story of hope, faith, and epiphany, and of discovering the true meaning of Christmas. Who else but Seuss could tell such a story so entertainingly, in so few words, and all in rhyme?

That grumpy old Grinch thought Christmas was about presents... and food and decorations and things of that vane. But he stole everything, down to the crumbs too small for the mouses, and Christmas still came! It came joyfully, noisefully, loudy proclaimed! This made our grizzled old Grinch puzzle and puzzle until his puzzler was sore, and until he realized that Christmas was so much more. He returned all the presents and food for the feast, and then our grinny Grinch, himself, the Grinch carved the roast beast.

Only Dr. Seuss could spread the true, pure message of Christmas without any reference to religion. He communicated directly to children of all ages in his wonderfully wacky and wise rhyming, teaching us all about faith, hope, and love.

What a perfect book for this Christmas season. I introduced it this year to my 3 1/2 year old, who just loves it. As her new Christmas favorite, she requests it nightly. And I am happy to read it to her again and again.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

The holiday season would be incomplete without the annual reading of this delightful tale that introduces the little ones and many of the big ones too, to the residents of Whoville. A timeless tale where one will meet Little Cindy Lou Who, Max the Dog, and the Grinch, whose heart is two sizes too small. In the end, the Grinch is not the only one that discovers the true meaning of the holiday. Another Dr. Seuss classic.

Advanced Water Distribution Modeling and Management is not only a complete and current reference for professionals involved in water distribution systems but also an essential textbook for undergraduate and graduate courses. In fact, what makes this book different is that it contains from basic hydraulic concepts up to the most recent researches and experiences in a comprehensive language.

Thank-You Haestad Mdthods for developing such a wonderful program. I use this book as a guide almost everyday.

This texttbook, that I recently reviewed, was for me a great experience. This is a must have book for any Civil consultant involved in hydraulics. It is both a guide to water modeling and a practical reference to water distribution operation and management. Thanks Haestad Methods.

This reference has given us an edge in satisfying client needs from the simplest capacity study to the most complex model. It has helped make our competent modelers more efficient and the up-and coming modeler function like a pro. Many common questions and problems are anticipated and clearly answered. Because the book so thoroughly covers system management issues, I believe many parts should be required reading for water resources engineers.

I wish I knew of this book's existence years ago. For too many years, I have been using several other reference books to "answer" my never ending questions and doubts on modeling and related subjects.

It even has reference on non-concontinuous flow condition. A great book with lots of "weight." The price was right, too, I received this gem free as a bonus for signing up to attend a wwebcast sponsored by Haestad.

The Amazon reviews were extremely helpful in selecting this particular editon of Go Dog Go. I wanted the same edition my children (as toddlers) had enjoyed, and without the reviews I may have received an abbreviated, later version.

Go, Dog.Go! by P.D. Eastman, is a great book for young children ages 3-8. it shows children the differences between these comparisons.:big/little, like/dislike, in/out, top/bottom, up/down, over/under, day/night, work/play and different colors. This book is meant for getting children to try to read all by them selves. The vibrant and exciting pictures of different looking dogs will keep young children's attention. This book is a little long for young children's book, it's 64 pages long. I strongly recommend this book for any little kid it's a good one.

This was my 4 girls' favorite book EVER when they were little. I highly recommend it for any and all children out there.

A Seuss-style easy reader just made for dog lovers of all ages. A classic in every sense and a wonderful book to read to little ones just emerging into reading on their own. The colorful illustrations keep your child's attention, along with the dog action! My kids love this book and I recommend it. For the same ages, another colorful easy reader is Ladybug Baby Bug, by Janice and Mark Perkins. I really think you'll enjoy both in your home collection.

I hadn't seen this book for at least 25 years or more, until my mom started reading it to my son (her grandson). I was instantly transported back to my own young childhood, to the point where I remembered pages before turning to them. I remembered where the dogs were going and why they were going fast -- they were going to a dog party, a big dog party!

Our 2.5 year old boy really loves this book, and even more satisfying, I can see it really making him think about language and how to say things. Beyond the little "romance" story line, I personally think the main benefit of this book is that it shows a little one how the English language works.

Think prepositions. If you've ever tried to learn a foreign language or know one, you'll know that prepositions, and how they work are among the most difficult things to master. This book shows how most of them work, for example, "two dogs, in a house, on a boat, in the water," illustrated to demonstrate the meaning.

Our little guy is growing up bilingual (American Dad, Italian Mom), so his speaking is somewhat delayed as he sorts everything out. It was a true joy to hear him the other night say "green up" (well, more like "geen up") and "yellow down" for the page where "the green dog is up, and the yellow dog is down."

So, as the many other reviews have noted, there is so much positive about this book, and I join the others in recommending it very much. Fun, educational, and interesting to look at -- what more could there be in a kids' book?

This is a great gift for a baby shower. It encourages parents to read to kids from birth and tells them why it is important. It then gives book titles for every age and summaries of each book. I read to all 3 of my sons until they were seniors in high school. They all have doctoral degrees or are working on them. They attribute their success to a love of reading!

Let me start by saying I've become thrifty since I had children. Given that I don't work outside the home as much as I once did, I've been getting my books from the library at least as much as I've been buying them, but this is a book I have to own!

Jim Trelease is "preaching to the choir" with me, as we read to our children before they were even born, and then continued since the day they were born. My husband and I are both big readers, and we enjoy reading to our children every day. I initially got this book (from the library) to look at the list of suggested titles to read aloud. I wanted suggestions that would make sense for my children and their respective ages/abilities, including titles I might not otherwise come across....I thought I'd skim quickly through the front half of the book (the research which is meant to inspire parents to read to their children) since I was already motivated to do so. I wanted to get to the list of titles. But I found myself stopping to read the research with excitement and added motivation.

I picked up tips about the types of books to choose, the fact that we can read (and should read) aloud to our kids until they are teens (my sister whose children are 9 and 12 had mistakenly been thinking that she shouldn't read to them much anymore in order to force them to do most of it themselves....she was thrilled to hear that she should continue to read aloud to them and went immediately to the library to get some books), the ways to present even more opportunities to our children to read, etc. For example, this morning I read a section in The Read Aloud Handbook about how to get a 12 year old to sit still for a reading, and the author suggested reading to the child while the child is washing the dishes. The book shows a photo of the author doing this with his own son when the son was 12 (the son is now ~40). The author goes on to say that when he suggests this to parents, he gets some funny looks, and he points out to them that if there is a 12 year old in the house who doesn't have to do the dishes, then that child has a higher IQ than the parent ! :-)

This morning, my husband read a little to my son, who is 5 1/2, while he was eating breakfast, and when I wanted to motivate my son to come brush his teeth before school, I lured him with the book. I got no complaints about coming (which I usually do), and between my husband and I, we knocked off a chapter in the book!

There are so many little tips in the book, and the book is an incredible source for suggestions of books to read aloud. The author has a website which includes many of these book recommendations, I think, and even updated ones since the book went to print in 2006.

Yes, I got this book out of the library, but thrifty as I am, I am going to have to buy a copy of this book as it has so much information for the many years to come that I know I'll want to reference it again and again as I choose books to read to my children.

A great book and resource for parents. It is so important to get children involved with books early on. No better way is to read to them and interact with them and at the same time teach them reading skills.

Just like some things can only be learned through experience, some books cannot be summarized. They must be READ. Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook is one such book. There is no short-cut.

This book is chock-full of "Wake up, America: We're killing our readers!" statistics and anecdotes. Parents and Educators of all levels need to read and, in the words of Kevin from Freak The Mighty (Scholastic Signature): "Be Amazed."

The gist is, nothing in education is more important than the goal of creating lifelong readers. Besides the duh-factor of not being able to do anything else in academics if one is not truly literate, for the good of society, for the good of our posterity, for our own personal gain, nothing replaces lifelong reading. And yet, in Chapter 1, Trelease demonstrates to the readers that "By twelfth grade, only 19 percent read anything for pleasure daily." In Trelease's own words: "Any business that kept losing that much of its customer base would be in bankruptcy."

I am a parent. I am a teacher. From both standpoints, I can tell you that Trelease is absolutely, completely and totally correct. Education must be built on the foundation of true literacy, and Trelease's argument is that true literacy cannot be attained without voluntary reading.

Therefore, once again, it is the moral and societal obligation of education to create lifelong readers.

I am only touching on one part of this significant work. Besides being monumentally important for parents and educators, it's actually a fairly interesting read. Trelease throws in the perfect balance of anecdotes and statistics to keep the reader entranced. And while the bibliography for recommended read-alouds is in now way comprehensive, it is certainly a great place to start.

This book is on my Top 10 list. If you're a parent, read it, and then ask the principal of your child's school to read it. Our future as a society might well depend upon it.

This book is appropriate for every caring parent. I am a homeschooling mother of three and I can't recommend it highly enough. After reading the library's copy I had to buy my own copy, plus several for friends and family members who have kids. It is full of high-quality info and ideas about reading to children, and about them ultimately reading to themselves. There is also an organized and valuable "recommended books" list in the back. Wonderful!

The Great Brain is one of the best all time books for boys ever written. In my humble opinion of course. The prose is engaging capturing the attention. The stories are exciting and compelling. The chapters are just the right length. And it has all the elements that young boys love from Cowboys and Indians to cops and robbers. What more could you ask for?

But of course, looking back on my childhood as I place this book on the shelf for my own little boy, I realize that the moral lessons this book taught so covertly were lessons that stayed with me: tolerance for other cultures and religions, compassion for those less fortunate, love of family. These are foundational values and the Great Brain teaches them. And the thing is, as a young person, you don't realize you're getting a lesson, you just know you like the story.

In the book The Great Brain written by John D. Fitzgerld was awesome! The book takes place in Adenville, Utah. There are some main characters this book, Tom (T.D) who is known as the great brain, Swyen (S, D) who is the eldest and acts mature, John (J, D) who is the youngest and is always up to something, Abie who is a store owner, and Mr. Standish who is the new school house teacher who everyone hates. Tom, John, and Swyen's father ordered a water closet, which is a bathroom, and they let people see it if they paid one cent. They made forty cents total. When Swyen got the measles, John was jells because he had never gotten sick first and then got to rub it in his brothers face. So one day John decided he wanted to get sick. John went over to his friend Howard who has had the mumps. So he decided to sneak into his house and started breathing in Howard's sick breath, and what do you know, John got sick. Abie had fainted once, twice, Abie died from malnutrition. They had a funeral for him that very day. Mr. Standish was the new school house teacher. Mr. Standish had paddled Tom for not being a tattletale, and Tom swore he would get back to Mr. Standish. So anways Swyen had gone to a Cathloic school in Salt Lake City so Swyen was gone and it was now just Tom and John. Andy their friend had stepped on a rusty nail and had not been able to return back to school. He ended up getting a prosthetic leg.

I learned that you should not lie for any purpose. Like when Tom found a way to get rid of Mr. Standish and when Tom's father asked if he had known anything to know about it and Tom never spoke a word intill his mamma made him tell. I also learned in this book that helping people is good. Like when Tom helped Basil get out of a fight, or when Tom helped Andy play baseball.

I recommend this book to someone who likes smart kids and funny stories. Like the time John wanted to get sick and he got the mumps. Why I think that the book is funny because it is all about fun and making life worth living.

The is a wonderfully, great, terrific book! They need to re-release the Great Brain movie from 1978 starring little Jimmy Osmond! Also, if I may suggest, try reading the Adventures With Boys book series-- Just as good!!!;)

I poured through these books continuously in my youth. I would beg for a trip to the library so I could find just one more I hadn't read.

I had all but forgotten about them until my oldest showed a keenness for reading. Now I'm ordering them for her for Christmas. I hope she gleans as much joy as I did from them! I used to love to pretend that Papa was handing out his sage advice directly to me.

This is such a wonderfully written series for young readers. You really can't go wrong with them, and hopefully my daughter will review this for you some time after Christmas!

This book is a wonderful protrait of 19th century rural America, but people should be aware that it was written at a time when there was much more freedom of speech than we have today. Topics in the book include suicide, religious intolerance and fear of immigrants. There is a scene where the boys go skinny dipping and also one story concerns John mating his dog, so this book probably should not be brought to a public elementary school for fear it might offend someone. Also there are no African-Americans in the book, and while the book does portray Jews, Moromons, Protestants and Catholics coexisting, there are no Muslims in this book, so it is not very politically correct. Also the "I" word is used casually and no mention is made of the plight of native Americans, except to say that they are the only non-immigrants in America. Women are displayed in subservient roles, always cooking, cleaning and taking care of the sick, although all the boys are portrayed as having chores. [...]

This book is not new, but still has a lot of good ideas and vision inside. Highly recommended!

Much of this book is spent explaining what should be obvious to the best managers, but which corporate culture and priorities tend to work against. In general, the book looks more at typical mistakes than at recipes for success. At the same time, the advice is solid and they often provide data to back up their assertions.

If I was a manager at a typical and mediocre corporation, I would not recommend this book too much-- it is hell fighting against corporate culture. However if you work for the best or you are starting a business and want to be the best, this book is extremely important. (If you are a manager working at a mediocre corporation, start your own business or get hired by a better company after you read this book!)

The main premise of the book is that people matter more than management or technology. Any business leader worth his salt knows these two points, yet most managers or leaders ignore them. This book helps give form to the ideals and specific guidance to get there. It is well recommended to everyone who manages software projects.

It's hard to find at Amazon a book rated with deserved 5-stars. Even harder if it's got a good review by Joel Spolsky. Peopleware is one of them.Simple language, short chapters with plain ideas inside and a touch of psychology, altogether produces a confusing feeling. It seems as if the book tells you nothing you didn't already know but there is where its power lies: you end up thinking that you could have written this book.

I've got the second edition which is splitted in six parts. The first one, it's a general and enjoyable review of what the hell managing people is and why it's so hard. After that, we're explained how our noisy office environment sometimes makes our productivity plummet. Don't worry! Low-cost solutions are also included. Next two chapters are both about people: how to hire the best and how to bring them up within productive jelled teams. Watch out, you must keep teamicide away from teams. It also talks us about CMM and what it calls "The Big M's", explaining its influence over creativity.Last but not least, this second edition adds several chapters dedicated to topics like chaos control, organization learning, process improvement...all of them from the corporation-level perspective.

All that stuff just to conclude that people is the most valuable resource in any organization. This book doesn't taste like one of those stale books about business emotional intelligence ...it just shows plain concepts and applicable daily ideas. What turns this outstanding book into a classic is that its principles can be applied to almost any project or business (related to IT or not). My piece of advice would be "if you manage people, read this as soon as possible".

So...bosses, Peopleware is waiting for you!

Great book on managing people and their space in a technical environment. A must for technical managers.

I was surprised at how relevant this book still is more than 20 years after its initial publication. Depressingly, it seems the authors' suggestions have not been followed by many employers. I recently changed jobs and am in a cubicle for the first time. I have been struggling to think in my cubicle, and this book confirms my suspicion that it is my work space and not my brain that is causing the problem. Even when I am not being interrupted, I am always slightly on edge wondering when I will be interrupted. The down side of the book is that the solutions and suggestions for improvements are quite difficult to implement. I just finished the book tonight - I wonder if I will do anything differently tomorrow because of this book. Probably not - maybe the fun part of the book is grumbling about our common work situations.