Reviews Books

With the increased scrutiny on company accounting practices, executive compensation, and the Board's role in setting strategy, this book on corporate governance is an extremely timely and important one. The authors thoughtfully detail the issues Boards face, how best to work with CEOs and plan for their successor, and develop strategies for effective leadership. There's even a section on Boards for companies outside the U.S., which I found extremely valuable.

For anyone interested in how Boards work and the steps they need to take going forward (and I think any shareholder should be), this is essential reading. Highly recommended.

This is a superb book. Comprehensive and well-written, it addresses a vitally important topic with innovative ideas and practical solutions. In a field increasing crowded with prescriptions for solving the dilemmas of corporate governance, Building Better Boards stands out as a book worth reading.

The author, a lawyer and a dual citizen of Venezuela and the United States, has literally risked her life to publish this book. She has received numerous death threats and plenty of insults. A sequel to her previous bestseller, "The Chávez Code: Cracking US Intervention in Venezuela", it examines secret US documents that reveal how hard the Bush administration is trying to overthrow the democratically-elected Venezuelan government.

"Follow the money trail" is good advice for any investigative journalist, and Golinger does just that. By studying thousands of US government documents obtained through exhaustive requests of every relevant department through the Freedom of Information Act, she is revealing proof of manipulation and covert operations to overthrow Chávez.

Historians generally do this work decades after major upheavals in Latin America. Golinger is doing this research now, in "real-time", to break the secrecy of Bush's imperial designs and to prevent a coup in the making.

Is the United States funding Counter-revolutionary groups in Venezuela? Yes, says "Bush vs Chavez: Washington's War on Venezuela". Claiming that American taxpayer dollars are funding, albeit indirectly, organizations that fund the counter-revolutionary groups of Venezuela, in hopes for gaining favor with Latin America's most oil rich nation. More frightening, there is a build up of US troops in the Caribbean that are ready to threaten the Venezuelan people and their governments. "Bush vs Chavez: Washington's War on Venezuela" is highly recommended for community library social issues collections and for anyone who wants a look into the shadier actions of the Bush Administration.

That's a great guide. Every single thing in this book is genuinely classified and it's this style which makes it the best among this type of publishings. Nedda Gilbert's other works also have this very unique taste. That is the best choice for this topic at Amazon.com. Don't waste your time searching for something else...

It helps me in preparation my own esey:) The instructions are very clear and useful. I hope it will work for my apllication.
The advice is simple - I have to present my concrete plans for future.

Originally in the late 1890s, By Reef And Palm is Australian author Louis Becke's thoroughly amusing collection of short-story "yarns" about daily life in the Pacific Islands that has been brought out in a new addition by Dixon-Price Publishing and will aptly serve to introduce a whole new generation of readers to the work of a man reputed in his lifetime to be the "Kipling of the Pacific". Reflecting a lawless era in candid, nothing-is-sacred prose, By Reef And Palm is a unique, captivating, enthusiastically recommended compendium of short stories showcasing the trials and travails a century gone "Paradise".

Originally in the late 1890s, By Reef And Palm is Australian author Louis Becke's thoroughly amusing collection of short-story "yarns" about daily life in the Pacific Islands that has been brought out in a new addition by Dixon-Price Publishing and will aptly serve to introduce a whole new generation of readers to the work of a man reputed in his lifetime to be the "Kipling of the Pacific". Reflecting a lawless era in candid, nothing-is-sacred prose, By Reef And Palm is a unique, captivating, enthusiastically recommended compendium of short stories showcasing the trials and travails a century gone "Paradise".

Winslow's work is tremendously vital, epic in scope, vivid in its details. While the case study approach may seem to be disconcerting at first, the way Winslow draws the focus back out from each case to the wider horrors demonstrates the impeccable nature of his analysis. This is as good a history of our times up until the neo-con Bushian takeover as there is, showing how all the tendencies and traps were in place for war, punishment, corporate criminality, and the hollowing out of the American economy. Winslow writes not as an academic, but as a careful reader and writer, repudiating the supposed superiority of the established "Name" or academic big-thinker. Sober and free of sectarian jargon, a classic.

This is one of the best books on American crime that I have ever read. It is excellent because it illustrates the connections between street crime, drugs, U.S. foreign policy and --above all -- corporate greed and amorality. From the jungles of Burma to Miami, from the woods of Oregon to the S and L scandal, this book is sweeping in its analysis, and highly accessible. Clearly written. Critical. Thought-provoking. Calls it like it is.

I've been mostly disappointed by the Case Review Series. One exception had been the Ultrasound book, which was above average for the group.

Dr. Reddy's book is another pleasant surprise.

The book arrived with several others a few months ago and I accidently discarded it along with the shipping box into my recycling bin, thinking it was a catalogue. The book is very thin (less than 1 cm thick), although it actually has a reasonable page count.

I later recovered the book, disappointed that I'd spent so much on a pamphlet, and stuck it on the bottom of my stack of books to get around to reading.

Now, I'm very happy I saved it for last. After completing this book I feel fairly confident that I will at least understand the anatomy of any major cardiac lesion/anomaly presented at the ABR exams. Dr. Reddy's text ties together many of the cases seen in Pediatrics and Chest and provides reasonable multimodality support for these entities. It's also up to date, unlike many of the other Case Review Series, and the image quality is excellent.

The book also duplicates many of the cases on the UCSF Cardiac MRI CD-ROM.

Now, Dr. Yousem, please take a close look and consider remodeling the other books in the series after this text.

The Case Review Series may be the most useful books I have used during my residency. They have been enormously helpful in preparing for boards and just learning cases. This cardiac addition is no exception. I'm a little disappointed by the publisher going to a thinner stock paper (several times I accidently turned 2 pages which spoiled the next case) but other than that it's very deserving of being in the series.

How the series could go from an A to A+ (are you listening, Dr. Yousem?): make the discussions more succinct with rapid-fire headings like Findings, Diagnosis, Differential, Key Points (i.e. - what a board examiner might be looking for). We can get the rest from our other textbooks. My thanks to Drs. Reddy, Yousem and all the other CRS authors.

I love anything that's a conspiracy. When I heard about Carmen Piper through a friend of mine, it sounded like a Da Vinci Code ripoff to me. But now that I've read it, I think it's even better than the Da Vinci Code since it deals more with my real life concerns regarding health and prescriptions. The FDA wields the power of the FBI in this book, and they use it to their full advantage. I don't wanna give a spoiler, but this book is definitely a page turner, with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. Would recommend to any conspiracy theory nut!

I love anything that's a conspiracy. When I heard about Carmen Piper through a friend of mine, it sounded like a Da Vinci Code ripoff to me. But now that I've read it, I think it's even better than the Da Vinci Code since it deals more with my real life concerns regarding health and prescriptions. The FDA wields the power of the FBI in this book, and they use it to their full advantage. I don't wanna give a spoiler, but this book is definitely a page turner, with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. Would recommend to any conspiracy theory nut!

This is my second Cato Review book, and it is mostly exceptional from beginning to end. I am neither a politician nor an attorney, just someone highly interested in constitutional issues and libertarian thought. The authors found a reasonable balance between scholarly essays (loaded with footnotes) and accessible, in-depth reviews of cases and the relevant concepts.

The erudition of the authors and their quality of writing is quite impressive, at least to this layman. None of the essays comes across with even a hint of mere casual thought. Rather, the authors review history, drill into the arguments from various perspectives, and speculate on future implications. For those of you who think Cato might just reflect conservative or libertarian bias, obviously a regular theme is the expansion of federal power at the expense of property rights and other classical liberal throught. Even so, the authors are not polemicists ranting from one page to another, and no justice is spared. One can predict the befuddlement over some decisions by the usual big-government suspects, yet Justice Scalia and Thomas also take their lumps.

This year's book has some particularly attractive cases that caught the public's eye. My favorite chapter was on Granholm, the case on wine and favoritism for in-state producers. Author Stuart Banner (a name unfamiliar to me) covered extensive background on key points from the old days through Prohibition and beyond, much of which was new to me, and quite fascinating. Perhaps the topic was aided by its accessibility, as opposed to the finer points of some esoteric debate.

The infamous Kelo case was combined with other decisions into another excellent essay on the decline of property rights. "The long history of judicial solicitude for the rights of property owners is simply discarded as unwanted baggage from our constitutional past.... Unless the Supreme Court breaks free of statist thinking about property, there is little prospect that property rights of individuals will be restored."

A third widely-known decision was the Grokster case on file sharing, as the Court has struggled to refine "fair use" and copyright guidelines, mostly starting with the Betamax case. The author clearly explains why the Court has not seen the last of these cases.

The book begins with a fine introductory summary of the Court's term, and a lecture by Richard Epstein on how the Progressives of the 1930s (and thereabouts) shifted constitutional thought from its original bearings to the legacy we see today. His focus is on the rise of federal power, especially through the near-limitless Commerce clause, and the decline of individual rights, with examples from labor law.

The other chapters include:

* Commerce power as demonstrated by the Raich marijuana case
* Whether enforcement of a restraining order is a right or a benefit (Castle Rock vs. Gonzales)
* Commercial speech as secondary to political speech, as demonstrated by mandatory payments to government-sponsored marketing programs
* Establishment clause cases, such as the display of the Ten Commandments
* The Arthur Andersen case and the responsibilities (and liabilities) of companies for the actions of their employees
* Booker and mandatory sentencing, with an interesting spin on the decline of jury trials
* The relevance of international court decisions to American courts.

The book concludes with a look toward the 2005-06 term. As that term has already completed, the assessment can be compared with reality, and Jonathan Adler was spot on in many predictions.

There are a few books I buy with every new publication: World Almanac, The Best American Essays, Cato Handbook on Policy, Statistical Abstract of the United States, and the Cato Supreme Court Review. The one I look most forward to is the Supreme Court Review. Some people may think this book is too much a glimpse into the sausage factory, and maybe it is too esoteric for some. However, if you have any interest in the way one third of our government works then this is must read material. The Cato folks do a nice job digging into decisions made in the prior year that impact our liberty and freedom with respect to our Constitution.

While all three publications have been very well done, this publication was one I was really looking forward to in light of the devastating eminent domain decision made earlier this year with Kelo v City of New London (a major blow to individual liberty and property rights). Balanced, well researched, and cited almost to a fault, this book can be easily utilized by a law student but it is written with the laymen in mind. The format is logical for each case with an introduction, background, summary of the court's opinion, analysis, and conclusion.

In the 2004 - 2005 issue, the Cato Institute addresses some very important decisions: property rights, enumerated powers, the first amendment, the establishment clause, crime and punishment, regulatory issues, executive power and foreign affairs. It may seem trivial to some, even progressive, that major decisions have been made that violate our basic liberties with which the founders so clearly concerned themselves. But, I think that regardless of your political stance this is an important read. Heck, it may even stimulate you into action to take back your country.

I'll admit that one can hardly be expected to take in the whole book in one sitting, but for a stimulating read even in small sections this is a great addition to any library or bookshelf. Thanks Cato Institute. Keep up the fight for individual freedom and liberty --no one in government is.

I have enjoyed this study guide so far. From what I can tell it covers all aspects of the CCS-P exam not just the coding. Great tool to use.

Great study help in preparing for the exam. Also using the PRG guide.

Up to date, with rationales, for the reason one answer is correct or not correct. Very organized.

I had originally planned reading the Core Curriculum text, but then realized that wasn't going to happen. Instead, I just did the review questions in this book. It is divided by topic and gives rationales for all the answers in the book. I went through the book once and passed my NICU RNC exam on my first try.