Events Books

Andre Auw is a gifted writer and counselor. I found the thematic chapters a mosaic of simple but profound practical wisdom with gentle nudges towards personal healing. The book is easy to read with a great aftertaste. As a counselor of many years, I found the book not only inspiring but delightful - a great gift.

Andre Auw has the rare understanding of what makes excellent therapy. As clinicians we too often rely on the tricks of cognitive behaviior approaches, too scared to really engage with our clients.

Bravo Andre, please write more!

Andre Auw speaks directly to the soul's struggle and it's capacity to triumph. He invites us to turn difficult life situations into challenge: seeking and finding greater resouce within ourselves. And through his stories, he offers us models, those who have found ways to turn suffering into compassion and service to others. The pages of Andre Auw's book are alive with his elder wisdom and presence bringing us home again into our heart.

Andre Auw was my professor in graduate school (Psychology of Human Relations). I have never forgotten his gentle wisdom. he has left a life long impression on me. Now his latest work, Gift of Wounding, reafirms the notion that Peak experiences need not always be positive. He is a gifted writer, an empathetic and intuitive practitioner. I will certainly require my Humanistic Psychology Classes to read this work.

Buy this book! Why? Because it contains wisdom that touches your life, told in a gentle penetrating way that moves you to action. I have known Andre Auw for 7 years as a client and now as a friend. He has shared his wisdom and energy to bring me through several crisis as: the death of my spouse of 37 years, the death of my mother, the ensuing lawsuits brought about by a powerful political step-brother, two difficult significant other relationships, and others. All through this, his patient and loving presence showed me the way to call forth our inherent resources to face these situations. What surprises me is that he is able to put all of this into a book through well chosen stories and pithy concluding remarks to each. Highly recommended.

I read Global Squeeze when it first came out. It's much more realistic than any others I've read since. (Future Perfect, Maestro, Independently Wealthy) I can see no hope for our middle class due to the job exports in all occupational categories. For the latest real world view read Business Week, Feb. 3, 2003, "The Global Job Shift."

We are in real trouble.

The book would better be titled "The First world squeeze", because if we go by the parameters of this book, what we find is a purely First world crisis.This crisis infact looks like a boon for the labour-cheap thirdworld or developing countries. But, combined with the on going hi-tech revolution, it could mean a elite class in the third world also. This is the sort of reality we find, as we observe the yawninig gap in the developing countries also, between its rich and poor. So, it looks like that the world's poor are being pitted agianst the rich and privileged few of the world more and more as the Globalization advances. Going by the present trend in polarisation of the classess world wide it looks-the day is not far off when the working class of the world would rise in unison, to deliver a death blow to the global capitalist system- as predicted by Karl Marx 150 years back.

As an Economics major in college, I found the book captivating. It shows the ways the emerging global market affects the first world nation's prosperity, stability, and confidence. The book also raises social responsibility and personal justice issues that will directly affect everyone within the next 30 years.

This is a very effective piece of economic reporting and must be one of the most acute pictures of 'capital in the raw' that I have read, a desmerizing tonic to the endless litany of neoliberal triumphalism. Neither Marxist, nor doctrinaire, it unwittingly scores a bullseye of indirect marxist analysis of the one-and-the-same process that is the invariant of the capitalist system. This isn't even a radical statement. Slogans one way or the other are stopped in their tracks by facts here, and facts that induce momentary helpless shock, quite short of firebrand indignation. We don't live in a global democratic system. Therefore we don't live in a democratic system. Capital has beaten the pants off sentimentalism here. Democracy so-called is a good front, but otherwise an inconvenience to the predators described herein. The author produces one horrendous
statistic about forty thousand people controlling 81 trillion in assets. Capital.
Not much more needs to be said.
Your move, unless you are powerless, a democratic nobody. Checkmate?

A scary must read for those concerned about the country's future. If you feel the uneasy economic chill in the air, this book will explain why! If your city's industrial base is gone this book will explain why! If you are stuck in a minimum wage "temp" society this book will explain why! This book exposes the neo-con globalist fantasy for what it is...Free trade is not free! and Cheap labor is not cheap! Unfortunately this book does not explain why no one seems to care!!!!

An excellent handbook for the endless challenges encountered in the affordable housing field. Clear,concise and easy to read.
The author has obviously handled these situations in the past and has thankfully provided a tool for housing managers everywhere to use now and for years to come. A must for any property manager's library!

Glenn French, the author demonstrates his extensive knowledge of the Property Management process.The multidiciplined functions of property management are clearly defined in a very usable and sequential manner. The content and writing tempo in each chapter are professionally written in such a manner that provides the student/beginning Property Manager with a useful learning tool. The book is also interesting reading for persons who are interested in a better understanding of Professional Property Management.

All residential managers would profit by reading this book. Mr.French obviously has extensive experience that he conveys very effectively.

This is a careful, well written text book outlining the necessary skills, tools and education needed to manage government assisted housing. There are not many books on managing subsidized housing. This one is good because it is clear that Glenn French has had a myriad of hands-on experiences in this field. Glenn French's book is very good for anyone interested in taking on the management of government assisted real estate as a career, or to expand your business opportunities.

I began my career in public housing and ran into many problems. Mr. French's book has provided me with the information I need to grow and solve the complex problems of working in Public Housing.

I first read this book (not completely) just out of high school, for the purpose of a little education prior to declaration of a Political Science major. It was easy to read and concepts were easily understood. This book gives enough information to answer basic questions of Political Science as well as creating deeper more involved questions to be answered elsewhere. This is a great background book. Personally, I love the ancient philosphers and this book does a good job of using their best works.

I have the 3rd Edition from college and recently returned to it to read some parts that were omitted then. The book is great because it is not only a comprehensive anthology of important political thought but it also has well-written introductions that explain what you are about to read. Since some of the writers are not the easiest to read in the original, the introduction plays an important part in understanding what you are reading. And don't worry about the price -- you are buying a lifetime reference book.

I used this book in college, I think maybe an earlier edition, very good readings of different political thinks, put together very well, I must say one of the best political science text books.

I purchased this book in 1975. It is the remaining text from my undergraduate days that I keep on my book shelf... a tremndous resource.

I actually took the class of the same title at UC Santa Barbara from Dr. Ebenstein himself. Back then, he was a giant in the political science field (still is) and we stood in awe of him. At the same time, he was the only professor I had there who would invite us to a brown-bag lunch each week to discuss course work and his personal experience in Europe before and during WWII. I cherish the text as a reminder of my unbelievable good fortune to have known this great scholar as well as a kind and gentle man. He and this book continue to inspire me.

I was required to read this for my intro. to Political Science class, respectfully named Western Political Tradition. I could not think of a more useful and concise book for students to have during their studies, especially for those wanting to have the main arguments of the worlds leading philosophers.Starts with the Greeks on to present thinkers such as Hayek and Rawls, with biographical backgrounds followed by some of the works they are most famous for.

Although published in 2004, this book is a timely read. It makes a compelling case why the recent Supreme Court decision (in June 2008) about Guantanamo prisoner's rights is indeed in line with the United State's Constitution, why the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo has been unconstitutional, and how the denial of their human rights is another example of the Bush administration's war and constitutional crimes.

Anyone who cares about American morals, and the importance of upholding human and Constitutional rights, will appreciate this book.

With the exception of those on the payroll of the United States Government, Michael Ratner (with staff he directs at the Center for Constitutional Rights and volunteer lawyers he assembled) knows more about Guantánamo than anyone.

The book is a quick read at 93 pages of text.

For those who have grown up believing that the rule of law is central to our democracy, it is a chilling read.

Published in mid-2004 it reviews a broad array of the issues which had arisen as of that time and which continue to inform the realities on the ground at Gitmo today. It provides a careful analysis of the ways in which "rule by executive fiat" deviated from the U.S. Constitution, the entirety of the Anglo-American legal tradition, the Geneva Conventions, and international law.

He discusses how a great percentage of persons were selected to be prisoners at Guantánamo, a great many by bounty hunters capturing persons far from any battlefield, the bounties paid for by U.S. tax dollars. He discusses extraordinary rendition of prisoners rendered to countries known to torture, the "outsourcing" of torture.

He recounts the abuse and torture suffered meted out to those interrogated at Guantánamo and links the methods used there to those later made infamous by the exposé of interrogations at Abu Ghraib.

The more serious reader will appreciate the 66-pages of primary source documents collected in the appendix covering a broad range of topics from the original lease of Guantánamo from the Cuba to relevant parts of Geneva Conventions to a series of memoranda issued by various departments of the executive branch which framed some of the major issues that the detentions at Guantánamo present for our country.

For anyone concerned about the state of our democracy, this is an important book.

This book provides a really concise, clear and powerful explanation of the American interrogation camp at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. The author who represents some of the detainees and has interviewed them paints a vivid picture of their hideous treamtment. He demonstrates that the camp is not only outside the law, but a threat to the safety of us all. If you want to know why Guantanamo has become iconic in the Muslism world for everything wrong with the US, read this book.

This book consists of interviews of Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, by writer Ellen Ray, plus relevant UN and other documents. Ratner was co-counsel in Rasul v Bush, which the New York Times called "the most important civil rights case in half a century" because on 28 June 2004 the Supreme Court ruled against President Bush that the US military could not hold what it called `enemy combatants' indefinitely, without charge and without access to legal representation. The Court ruled that the prisoners had the right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts.

The Bush government then set up `combatant status review tribunals', supposedly to decide whether the detainees had been correctly designated as enemy combatants and therefore were being rightfully detained according to the laws of combat. However, the administration breached the Supreme Court's ruling that the prisoners had the right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts, since all the tribunals' members are military officers.

Guantanamo is `an interrogation camp', which is flatly illegal, under US and international law. It harks back to Stuart Britain's offshore penal colonies which were beyond the reach of law, forms of executive imprisonment which the 1679 Habeas Corpus Act made illegal. The US detention centres in Iraq, Afghanistan and Diego Garcia and on board US aircraft carriers are modern Devil's Islands.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has reported that US forces had inflicted on the 550 prisoners illegally held at Guantanamo Bay psychological and physical coercion that was `tantamount to torture'. It said, "the construction of such a system, whose stated purpose is the production of intelligence, cannot be considered other than an intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture." At least three children, between 11 and 13, were held at Guantanamo; some are still there today.

The British state is guilty of collaboration and connivance with these illegal US state actions. British courts, like US courts, are using as evidence statements made under duress and torture in these US-run camps, thereby condoning the use of torture.

You need to read this book. Since the suicides of last week, the US government has sealed off Gtmo from the world - no lawyers, no press. It is vitally important that we understand what is going on there and close Gtmo down. Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray have collaborated to produce a highly readable "primer" on this disgraceful period in US history. I used this book in my human rights courses.
Susan Gzesh, Director, Human Rights Program, the University of Chicago

Alain Paul Martin gives us a new, non-traditional, and thought-provoking guide to intelligence gathering and strategic planning. This book is must reading for decision makers. Its incisive analyses, practical framework, and real-world examples provide valuable lessons that can be immediately put to use as we cope with our ever-changing world. Mr. Martin deserves our congratulations and our gratitude for this masterful work.

Alain Paul Martin's "Harnessing the Power of Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Surprise Events" is a great pleasure to read. This practical book is clearly based on extensive research and fieldwork in competitive intelligence in America, Europe and Japan. For over a decade, Japan has been shifting from large-scale manufacturing to a knowledge-based economy, and moving production facilities to Asian countries. The competitive-intelligence method and road maps described in this book can help managers fast-track projects and new-product development, and succeed in this new environment.

As a scientist who has made the transition from managing R&D in a global company to educating graduate students in management, I recommend Martin's book to entrepreneurs, scientists and fellow educators. I also agree with Harvard Professor Mark Thompson who states: "Alain martin has deftly incorporated, adapted, challenged, and complemented the insights of Fuld, Porter, Sun Tzu, and others to achieve a superb practical guide to the strategic and tactical management of institutional information."

Professor S. Ohara, Chiba Institute of Technology, Japan

I have read countless publications on strategy and competitive intelligence. Since I was often disappointed, I was hesitant to buy the new book "Harnessing the Power of Intelligence" and commit precious hours to study its content. But I quickly changed my mind after glancing over the long list of testimonials from well-respected intelligence experts and executives who highly recommend the book. It is now clear to me that author Alain Paul Martin has distilled the lessons of his extensive field experience to craft a practical framework that has been successfully applied in the private and public sectors.
Apart from the first Chapter, which I skipped, here is my impression about the rest of the book.

Chapter 2 "Building A High-Performing Organization" offers tips on the role of chief intelligence officers, issue managers, intelligence collectors and other scanning resources in an intelligence-centric organization. The section on intelligence culture deserves a greater coverage.

Chapter 3 "Building Intelligence Capital" starts with a brief discussion on scanning but the competitive-intelligence road map is a real gem.

Chapters 4 and 5 on intelligence platforms, search engines and the invisible Web are relevant to a wide range of occupations and activities beyond competitive intelligence. Just by applying the tips in the Brain Stem-Cell Case Study, I got my money and time worth within a week of reading Chapter 4.

Chapter 6 "Intelligence Security in Business and Government" does not provide new material to intelligence experts but is a good primer, filled with examples, for managers.

Chapters 7 and 8 examine the process of opportunity and threat incubation through the lenses of Martin's powerful paradigm. The illustrations suggest that the instrument is already used to capture new markets, and anticipate and manage various risks. The appendix on the Mad-Cow issue in Britain supports the framework and adds credibility to it. It is written by Dr. Brian Morrissey, a veterinary scientist who led government R&D on a host of complex national and global issues related to food and health protection.

The ideas and tools described in both Chapters 9 and 10 are the most advanced I have ever came across on stakeholders' analysis. Chapter 9 offers novel tips to identify the players who can make a difference in managing projects or reaching deals. It also sheds a new light on the role and power dynamics between these players. Chapter 10 helps readers map the positions and perceptions of the stakeholders, a pre-requisite for strategy formulation. Chapter 11 is a basic introduction to psychographics and VALS. Chapter 12 completes the book with concluding remarks about the application of intelligence to our personal lives.

The book is highly recommended to managers and students in military colleges, business and public administration. Chapters 7 through 10 will be of great interest to intelligence analysts who are constantly in search of new ways to connect the dots. I hesitate between a rating of 4 out of 5 stars for expert readers and 5/5 for managers. Actually, the framework alone is worth 5/5 and is without match in the world of competitive intelligence.

The stories featured in A. P. Martin's Harnessing the Power of Intelligence are fun to read and talk about, at work and at home. I have used some of them to alert my customer-service team about hidden risks and untapped opportunities. We have been applying the ideas of the first six chapters (Part I) for about three months. Our interactions with customers are yielding better results. We are now moving aggressively to prevent tampering with our information assets as noted in the section titled "How Good Organizations Lose Intelligence".
Four of my high-school educated supervisors, who read the book, found Part I a down-to-earth eye-opener, and right on target, for making wiser choices and avoiding costly errors. They, however, thought Part II would be more applicable to middle and senior management. A drawback: the cases in the chapter on Psychographics lack the detail necessary to be useful.
I have also read C. S. Fleisher's Strategic and Competitive Intelligence. Both books represent, in my opinion, two different, credible and complementary approaches to intelligence-based decision-making. Except for some references, there is virtually no duplication of content. A big bonus!

"Ninety percent of the information used in organizations is internally focused and only ten percent about the outside environment. This is exactly backwards." -- Peter Drucker

As usual, in one pithy phrase, management sage Peter Drucker captured the central problem facing organizations in uncertain environments -- they look in the wrong place. In volatile times, humans tend to hunker down in the cocoon of the controllable. Effective leaders embrace such times as an opportunity for greatness, when the prepared organization can jump ahead of ostrich-like competition.

Yet, few management advisors opine on how to combat these human tendencies and systematically scan, analyze and act in uncertain environments. Michael Porter's classic works on Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage did dispense advice on competitive intelligence gathering, but did not attend to the conversion of intelligence into commercial advantage. Alain Martin's new book "Harnessing the Power of Intelligence" compiles tested processes which create such value.

Martin's frameworks are based on research at American Express, Boeing, Dell, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, and Microsoft as well as application of his ideas in businesses, government, and the military. The book has the most up to date, and complete list of intelligence sources. For example, Martin cites the University of California at Berkeley "invisible web" project, which has shown that search engines only document about 15% of the business intelligence available publicly, because the vast majority of it is either not in a standard hypertext format or not linked to a public domain name (the silent campers). His framework on issue incubation, shows that large scale issues go through a relatively predictable process of incubation and development. Many leaders make the mistake of getting on an issue too early or too late. The issue incubation process delineates ways to recognize the progression of topics, and provides advice on if, when and how to intervene. Martin also has a tool called, Factional Analysis that helps a manager analyze who is likely to influence a volatile situation (from allies to adversaries). This tool is much richer than the traditional stakeholder analysis for it includes roles that do not fit in the normal economic calculus. For example, he includes "fanatics" in the analysis -- people whose sole purpose is to disrupt.

A leader can take the advice in this book and use it to guide outward looking intelligence, assess the current state of issues (or do a triage on a surprise event), and then take concerted action.

At points, the book does suffer from the same weakness of Porter's books in that its desire for completeness, the text often has a "list-like" feel. But, on balance this book provides a framework full of tested tools to turn uncertainty into value.

This book is logic, well-reasoned, and has lots of footnotes pointing to research studies and reliable sources of data. Even if you disagree with their prescription for how to fix the problem, you will get a lot from this book by following along with their diagnosis of the problems facing our health care system.

The book's greatest strengths may also be it's greatest weakness. This book is "wonkish" -- filled with hard data and logic. If you're looking for entertaining anecdotes or emotional arguments, this is not the book for you.

...but only in the title. A well written book both describing (in surprisingly concise writing) the problem, as well as laying out a path towards fixing it. I can't say I fully agree with his proposals, but I am much better informed, and my views have been altered as a result of this book. In my mind, that is a terrific outcome for any book of substance.

Intellect with humility is hard to come by. Cannon and Tanner define a clear path for all Americans to have health insurance and they have the humility to believe in Americans as wise consumers. Different than politicians who 'know what's best for you,' they trust you to make prudent decisions for yourself. Free markets are healthy and they provide an excellent outline for cost savings and a healthier 'you' by putting you in charge of your own well being. I want to thank Cannon and Tanner for being Americans and loving freedom, especially in the face of fear mongering socialists. God Bless America!

"Healthy Competition" by Michael F. Cannon and Michael D. Tanner of the Cato Institute is a critically important book for both those interested in health care policy as well as for every American as we all eventually consume health care services.

Cannon and Tanner's book starts with a foreword by the Hon. George P. Shultz: "We begin with a riddle. What country's health care system offers the best health services in the world, is consistently criticized for not being accessible enough, and yet is so accessible that overutilization is leading to runaway costs?" The answer is, of course, America.

The following 147 pages offers a detailed analysis of what's wrong with American health care (government and insurance industry policies that lead to overuse of medical services) and what's right (the strong remnants of a free market system that encourages innovation, high quality, at an often lower cost). Both detailed and heavily footnoted, but also very readable at the same time, "Healthy Competition" strikes the right balance between a dense academic paper and a clarion call for action.

In concluding the book, Cannon and Tanner write:

"Despite its marvels, America's health care sector continues to present troubling symptoms: excessive costs, uneven quality, a lack of useful information for patients and providers, extraordinary waste, and enormous burdens for future taxpayers. An accurate diagnosis points to too much government influence and too little choice and competition. Proposals to increase the role of government would aggravate these symptoms. More subsidies or controls would drain from the medical marketplace even more of the dynamics that drive other sectors of the economy toward lower prices and higher quality. The only sure remedy is to restore those dynamics to the health care sector.

"Although there are dark clouds on the horizon, we are heartened by the creation and steady growth of health savings accounts. HSAs have already begun to change private-sector health care from within, and will enable a reexamination of the role of government in health care."

The last citation in "Healthy Competition" comes from a June 1, 2004 Harvard Business Review article by Michael Porter and Elizabeth Teisberg. It deals with the oft-heard argument that we somehow should not apply free market principles to the health care sector:

"It is often argued that health care is different because it is complex; because consumers have limited information; and because services are highly customized. Health care undoubtedly has these characteristics, but so do other industries where competition works well. For example, the business of providing customized software and technical services to corporations is highly complex, yet, when adjusted for quality, the cost of enterprise computing has fallen dramatically over the past decade."

Cannon and Tanner accept this argument while also embracing the argument of many of the proponents of government control of health care because it is special and distinct from other parts of the economy - they just come to the opposite conclusion, concluding in their last paragraph, "...Unlike software, wireless communications, or banking, health care involves very emotional decisions, which often entail matters of human dignity, life, and death. However, we do not see the gravity of these matters as a reason to divert power away from individuals and toward government. Rather, we see the special nature of health care as all the more reason to increase each consumer's sphere of autonomy. The special nature of health care makes it all the more important that we use the competitive process to make health care available to more consumers - and makes it all the more important to get started now."

Two side notes of a personal nature: on February 1, 2007, I introduced AB 245, a bill that would allow the tax deductibility of contributions to HSAs (California is one of only four states that do not treat HSAs as tax deductible); and author Michael Cannon is someone I have grown to respect from our first meeting in 2004 as Lincoln Fellows of the Claremont Institute. I suspect we will be hearing quite a bit from Mr. Cannon over the next few decades - and, if policymakers are smart, they will listen carefully to what he has to say.

Reviewer: Chuck DeVore is a California State Assemblyman, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard and the author of "China Attacks."

I enjoyed the book and found it presented a well organized argument for why it is so critical to allow the markets and consumers to experiment with new methods of controlling health care costs and improving access. I also appreciated the author's acknowledgement that health care is a special service that is critically important in our lives. That is what makes reforming the system so challenging.

The book makes clear that market based proposals to reform health care are designed to lower the cost of care and increase coverage. These are proposals that are critical to all Americans.

This is a very thick book... and for good reason. It has photos (albeit black and white ones) or photo-rendered sketches of many potential wedding and reception venues. Each venues' pages come with the stuff you need: the seating capacity and approximate prices. There are also other sections of the book focused on vendors for flowers, etc. I recommend this book if you're trying to get a feeling for "what's out there" with regard to venues. It's a great place to start, and you'll probably feel like you've covered a lot of ground once you've gone through this book.

Wonderful book, a must have!

This has been an invaluable book during my wedding planning. When I got engaged in December 99, a girlfriend suggested that I buy the SoCal edition immediately to start finding reception and ceremony locations. I did buy it, and whipped through the whole book one evening. Sitting there reading, I quickly dismissed reception site after site and determined that the book just couldn't help me. I put it aside.

Then I started actually going out, visiting places, and realizing that it wasn't so easy to find the perfect place! I quickly realized I was going to have to work a lot harder than I thought to mesh the right church location, my number of people, and a convenient indoor reception site. So I came back to the Guide--time and again! Soon I had it dogeared and filled with notes as I reconsidered the options I'd been so quick to skip past earlier. The statistics on each site helped keep me focused and helped me and my fiance consider new places when others fell through, and keep the attributes of each place in mind. The descriptions of the reception sites are detailed, positive and generous-but-not-misleading. We ultimately booked a site listed in the Guide and are thrilled to have found it.

Now that I've moved on to choosing a photographer, I went to the Guide again. First I read through each photographer's profile in the book, then went on the Guide's website! It's so easy to use - - it allows you to jump to photographers' websites and see their portfolios, all without making appointments or driving around! I feel satisifed that I don't need to look beyond the professionals listed in the Guide, since the authors have already done the legwork in finding people with high standards and good customer service.

If you really want to explore all possible options for your ceremony, reception, and event professionals, you will love Here Comes The Guide! The hardcopy book and the website are thorough, pleasant to read, and - - most importantly - - really helpful. My mom keeps saying, "I had no idea it was this complicated to plan a wedding in this day and age!" Here Comes the Guide goes a long way towards relieving the complication!

While the bulk of the Guide is dedicated to reception site listings, the vendor listings in the back are very helpful. The listings are not mere "paid advertisements." If you read the book, The Guide explains how each vendor undergoes a thorough screening process--something even the most persistent bride likely wouldn't have the time or ability to conduct.

As The Guide states on Page 483, their process "involves interviewing 15-20 other event professionals. We call every single reference and ask about the professionalism, technical competency and service orientation of the advertiser in question. ... Those candidates who received consistent, rave reviews made it into The Guide."

Using The Guide as a starting point (combined with the internet, magazine ads, and friends' recommendations), I conducted exhaustive research of my own of wedding professionals in Los Angeles and beyond. I wound up hiring three vendors who had been featured in the Guide (caterer, band and florist, 11-11-00 wedding). All performed beyond my greatest expectations, and my guests cannot stop raving about the "fabulous," "amazing," and "out of this world" food, music, and flowers. Clearly, The Guide got it right.

So don't be fooled by the relative size of the vendor section compared to pages allotted to reception sites. The vendor section may be small because they are the cream of the crop, thanks to the Guide's legwork.

I am so glad that a friend told me about this book. I was so daunted by the search for a location for my wedding, I didn't know where to start. This book (and their fantastic website by the same name) made it really easy. They give great descriptions and the pricing information helped me narrow down the places I could afford. It saved me so much time, I was able to actually enjoy looking for a reception location. Thank you, Here Comes the Guide.

A very well written thriller, with fully-developed, complex characters that jump off the page, and a plot that keeps you guessing as to what will happen next. A remarkable first novel. Recommended!

This well crafted page-turner is full of plot twists that keep you wide awake and thoroughly engaged with Jim Nordberg, the narrator, as he warily deciphers the roles of each of the other characters, many of them re-emerging from his past. Neff makes Nordberg an appealing person with whom to identify, someone with a history of convictions but not always the gumption to act on them, now returning from nursing failures back into a world that needs him. The settings, ranging from poverty to posh, from city to village and forest, with all the heat, humidity, stench, and desperation of Nicaragua, feel truly authentic. For those of us who suspect that not all the players in the Iran-Contra drama have been dealt with, this is a particularly good read.

HIDDEN IMPACT has all of the makings of a great novel. The characters are brilliantly created, the setting is realistic, and the plot is entertaining and fresh. Charles B. Neff tells this story through the eyes of Jim Nordberg, a middle aged man who is looking to revitalize his life by rebuilding Nicaragua where, years before, he lived as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

After Jim arrives in Nicaragua, he learns about the existence of secret diary that contains information from his past. In order to keep this diary out of the hands of the public, he teams up with some old, and new, friends and finds himself on the adventure of a lifetime.

For being Charles B. Neff's first novel, I was very impressed with HIDDEN IMPACT. There were a few typos and grammatical mistakes, but the story itself was richly written and highly entertaining. If you like political thrillers, this book is a must read.

"Hidden Impact, a debut novel by Charles B. Neff, hits its mark with exceptional writing, a riveting story, and fascinating characters."
-- Dana E. Blozis, writer, editor, and book reviewer

Set primarily in Nicaragua, author Charles Neff tells the tale of a middle-aged Jim Nordberg who is looking for meaningful work to energize his solitary existence. Nordberg returns to the setting where he first became a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1970s, hoping to help rebuild Nicaragua while infusing himself with much needed life. Shortly after his arrival, Nordberg's past returns to him in waves as business associates, friends, and enemies reappear in his life one by one.

Nordberg quickly finds himself entrenched in the search for a missing document containing sensitive information about those who supported the Contras in the 1980s. To find and protect the document, Nordberg faces difficult decisions and is thrust into the face of danger at every turn. Nordberg, suspicious of the novel's other characters, finds himself drawn to a woman from his past, Luci Fuentes, who was a young teenager when they first met. Fuentes joins Nordberg in the adventure, trying to save her family and a struggling Nicaragua in the process.

Hidden Impact is a well written book full of politics, history, and adventure, with a slice of romance thrown in for good measure. Neff artfully presents each of his characters, slowly unfolding the subtleties of each one while drawing them into the action. As the novel's main character, Nordberg is the unlikely hero whose past failures undermine his confidence. Despite his flaws, Nordberg is a good guy at heart and easy to relate to.

In Hidden Impact, readers will find an extraordinary first novel that is well written, easy to read, and hard to put down. Neff's storytelling skills will quickly enrapture even the most stubborn of readers, drawing them quickly and completely into the adventure ahead.

Hidden Impact is a fast read, beautifully crafted and developed. The intrigue kept me guessing, and the hero's solution to the complicated web of corruption is brilliant. The violence is disturbing at times, but much of the value of this novel is in its realistic portrayal of actions in a third world setting. A touching love story is sensitively portrayed, the heroine a truly courageous and intelligent woman who fulfills a mission of service while surrounded by pain and tragedy.

Hidden Impact is a very satisfying novel.

This book is not only exquisitely written but extremely informative as well. The utter incompetence of high-level government employees that is exposed by Cassara is enough to make your blood boil. If you thought the government was infallible, think again. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who is concerned with the well-being of our country.

I'm sort of a government/spy stories buff, and I really enjoyed this book. The first half is sort of a story, almost like reading a novel, while the second half is almost instructional. The author makes a lot of good recommendations in the last chapter. This guy should go into politics!

What a great book! My husband somehow was able to get a copy of the book a few days before it came out (he lives for this type of stuff), and I picked it up the other day while he was at work. Four hours later, I was finished. I couldn't put it down. My reading usually consists of romance novels (I'm not ashamed), and to be honest, I only picked up this book out of sheer boredome. Boredom turned to fascination very quickly, and I was hooked after reading just one chapter. While there is a good deal of government jargon, the auther does a great job of explaining everything. Still, what I liked most about the book were his stories. This guy has had an amazing life! So many adventures, I'd love to meet this guy just to hear him tell some stories. Not to diminish the importance of the book, as he does say a lot of things that our government should be paying attention to, but he's a great storyteller. He definitely puts a personal touch on a sticky subject. Anyway, it's a great book, and believe me, I usually stay away from these types of books. My husband and I actually sat down and discussed the book for almost 2 hours last night...he was very impressed with my knowledge. Great book, I hope he writes another one.

The author provides an insightful and at time intense criticism of inner governmental workings. Depicting through first hand experience the bureaucratic failures that have resulted in the continued operation of many criminal and terrorist financial networks. The removal of these "financial networks" is crucial, to ensure our victory in the "War on Drugs" and "War on Terror". These failures can cost lives, as so dramatically depicted by the author. To someone who seeks to pursue a career in government service, like myself; this book is an invaluable tool. In depicting the failures of previous generations of government employees, it serves as a "wake up" call to both current and future governmental employees. This will help to prevent these errors from continuing to happen in the future. Finally, the authors' career serves as an example of excellence in government service, that the new generation of government service employees should aim for in their career.

HIDE AND SEEK: INTELLIGENCE, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND THE STALLED WAR ON TERRORIST FINANCE is a 'must' for any who would understand one of the failures of the U.S. in 9/11. John Cassara is an expert in terrorist financing and money laundering and here surveys the lack of reporting requirements before 9/11, efforts since, and how the failures of law enforcement have helped foster terrorist efforts. HIDE AND SEEK could not have been written without an insider's knowledge of how foreign intelligence, domestic efforts, and international finance works: the fact that John Cassara has such knowledge lends authority and depth to a survey which encourages law to follow the unusual paths of international terrorism's money networks.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch