Reviews Books

I felt that the book was appropriate about Spielberg's enormous contribution to the film industry over his career. The book has wonderful pictures and stories about each film from the first film, The Sugerland Express, to Saving Private Ryan with E.T. The Extra Terrestial, the Indiana Jones trilogy, and Schindler's List among the films listed here. This book chronologizes Spielberg's film-making techniques as well the special and visual effects. I am not one of his biggest fans. I admire his work and contributions to the film industry but I prefer more than the special and visual effects. There are other film-makers and directors out there that do less with more.

If you want a good read about cinema's most amazing director, then this is the book for you. It contains lots of really great insight not just on shooting the movie, but how it even started. Though author Douglas Brode tends to get a little too political, it is a really good book that I keep coming back to. Read at all costs.

This book is a great read for the major films of Spielberg. It is done with a great deal of research by the author, who puts together a very good story line of the producer/director and how he and his films progressed over time. The author also provides excellent background information on the films, from both a technical point of view and also the creative story line. The text layout, photos, and great front and back cover photos are there to flesh out the films. It is also a fun book to read. All put together, this is a very good book to understand Spielberg, his movies, his life, and his impact on very successful creative and commercial 20th century movies.

Douglas Brode's biography of the films of Steven Spielberg is an informative and interesting book that covers the life and films of Hollywood's most commercially successful film director. From his early T.V films to Saving Private Ryan, this book covers all the facets of Spielberg's work including unknown facts about the production of his films and supplementary information. With rare color production photos and stills, this book is a must- have for any Spielberg or film enthusiast.

I host a small group and have for about a year, coincedentially I called it Finding God in The Movies. I had a hard time coming up with questions for the small group and this book has great questions right inside. Eventually more people started showing up and everyone has amazing insights! I couldn't have asked for more!

The book really helped me with me class that I used it for. Even though we weren't required to read it.

Can we find God in the movies? Yes! In this outstanding cultural book, Johnston leads us to find God in the popculture. He mentions the movie as a story teller in which people communicate their values and worldviews. He, also, teaches us what the christian movies are and how christians can watch the films; the christian movies are what deal with the real human stories and what show the reality afresh. And, when we watch the movies, we, as chrsitians, have to see the christian values such as humanity, friendship, forgiveness, reconciliation, etc. In addition to these strengths, the most wonderful character of this book is the excellent complete film study guide. I enthusiastically recommend this book for all people who are interested in popculture and its application to their real lives.

Catherine Barsotti and Robert Johnston --- husband and wife --- give thoughtful Christians a book full of tools to help them view select movies (33 in all; the oldest released in 1982) through a theological or philosophical lens.

FINDING GOD IN THE MOVIES starts with an informative introduction that discusses the film genre and theological approaches to film. What makes a good film? "Head, gut, and heart. The best movies will engage the whole person." How does a viewer find God in the movies? "Unpack the story.... What is more primary in the way the story is shaped? (1) Is it the plot...? (2) Is it the characters...? (3) Is it the point of view, where a story is given value by the perspective of the narrator(s)...? Or (4) is it the atmosphere...?...Concentrate your critical attention on where the filmmakers have centered their attention. By doing this, you will prove a more receptive viewer of the story and perhaps the Story."

Each of the 33 movie-chapters starts with a two- or three-page "synopsis and theological reflection" --- a review. This is followed by "dialogue texts" (relevant biblical passages), "discussion questions," "clip conversations" (more discussion questions but about specific scenes), and several pages of "bonus material," which includes interesting behind-the-scenes information about the making and makers of the film. Movies also are clearly linked to two helpful appendices: one listing (Genesis to Revelation) relevant biblical references; one listing (A to Z) topics covered in or themes of the movies (for example, Abuse; Affirming the Human Spirit; Anger; Arguing with God; Balance in Life).

The movie-chapters are presented in 13 categories, the more blatantly religious ("Living Our Faith"; "Images of the Savior"; "Renewing the Church") placed toward the end of the book. You might want to start your exploration in these later categories or simply bounce around. The second of the 13 categories, "Beauty, Imagination, and Creativity," discusses two Pacific Rim movies, Spirited Away and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that celebrate imagination and creativity but may be hard for the neophyte to discuss theologically.

This is a book for Christians who have an understanding of common grace, "the wider work of God's Spirit throughout and within all creatures and creation," and for those who are open to dialogue with the secular world. What are some of the films discussed? Life Is Beautiful. Ulee's Gold. The Hurricane. Simon Birch. Chocolat. We Were Soldiers.

By using this guide you might get the hang of facilitating a movie-discussion group and then move on to films you wish the authors had included. We'd all have our own list. Mine? The Trip to Bountiful. Cinema Paradiso. Babette's Feast. The Quarrel. Smoke. Maybe I should check out Johnston's earlier book REEL SPIRITUALITY: Theology and Film in Dialogue (Baker, 2000).

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

I really enjoyed the book Frodo Franchise. I must have because I got two of them. Actually, I was curious about how a movie got made, especially one that I loved as much as Lord of the Rings. But I don't know why I got two.

DVDs can be stamped out in seconds, while VHS tapes are slower to produce because they have to be recorded in real time. Time is money, and so the movie industry's movers and shakers acted decisively to all but eliminate the VHS format - by charging video rental stores exorbitantly high fees for the rights to offer VHS rentals and much lower fees for the rights to offer DVD rentals. Author Kristin Thompson (Honorary Fellow in the Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin-Madison) traces how this and numerous other profit-driven directives have permanently changed the modern film industry in The Frodo Franchise: The Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood. Central to The Frodo Franchise is the story of Peter Jackson's celebrated three-film adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings", and the lasting impact it has had on cinematic and entertainment culture. "The Lord of the Rings" was utterly groundbreaking in that it was, from Jackson's initial vision, a commitment to three full-length movies to be released over a short period. Yet the success of the film itself is virtually eclipsed by the immense profits of the franchise label - toys, video games, movie-related books, collectibles, and countless other Lord of the Rings licensed merchandise. The Frodo Franchise examines this franchise phenomenon and its repercussions on modern cinema (where the real money to be made lies in a film that will spawn profitable sequels and merchandise, rather than one-shot stories), with especial attention paid to the construction of "The Lord of the Rings" trailblazer trilogy. Accessible to lay readers and cinema scholars alike, and illustrated with numerous black-and-white photographs as well as an inset section of color plates, The Frodo Franchise is an utterly fascinating, completely unbiased behind-the-scenes look at the creation of Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies and their effect on both the body of Tolkien's famous mythology and cinema as a whole. Highly recommended.

The Frodo Franchise is a MUST-HAVE for anyone who is passionate about: The Lord of the Rings movies, Peter Jackson and how he and his fellow creative geniuses revolutionized the movie industry, New Zealand, the LOTR fan world, etc. It is an engaging, carefully researched and very detailed work about all aspects of the PJ/LOTR phenomenon. It includes great photos, important interviews, fascinating information about the way films are marketed and how LOTR took that to a new level, etc. The title tricked me--for some reason I thought it would be a negative book; however, it is clear Thompson is a Tolkien fan who was at first skeptical about the films but then grew to love them. This book is an in-depth look at all things LOTR and, much to this reviewer's delight, it is clear the LOTR phenomenon is not going away anytime soon. Thank you, Kristin Thompson, for this wonderful and important book!

This book is an intimate look at the creation, filming, and deployment of The Lord of the Rings movies. It discusses all the key participants, the role of New Zeland, how fans influenced the movies over the Internet, and how the film industry is fundamentally changing because of this project. It is well documented and close to the events because the author had access to everyone involved, producers, director, actors, techis, the works. The book is also a great action-packed read. Maybe the best film book we have seen this year!!

This book is a great read for any fan of the series.

I purchased this book for my boyfriend for christmas and I've kind of stolen it back (we live together so it's not a big deal lol). This is my favorite anime of all times. I love the story, I love the characters, and I especially love Sousuke and Kaname together. Even my boyfriend who "doesn't like anime" loves this series and wants to cosplay from it! *omgshock* I reccomend EVERYTHING that has to do with this series!

Full Metal Panic is an awesome show. I'm a girl and I think that the show is for both guys and girls personally. This book has stuff that goes on in the anime within it. A perfect item for your FMP collection.

I just got the book today, so I haven't looked at it in great detail... but the overall impression is great. Too bad that only about the first 1/3 of this book is in color...

Mr. White describes his experiences with training a goshawk for falconry. He has no guidance beyond an ancient manuscript and things go horribly awry. An outstanding book, a pleasure to read. Also an example of why current US regulations require a falconry apprenticeship period.

As a fan of The Once and Future King as well as falconry, I couldn't wait to start reading this book. It is an absolute gem. White's descriptions are extremely vivid. No one should be daunted by the fact that this book was penned in '51 or that it is about falconry; his story is immensely (and enjoyably) readable.

Thanks are due to New York Review Books for putting back in print this wonderful book. The edition is well produced. A quibble is that Marie Winn who writes the introduction is clearly not familiar with ,or comfortable with ,"field sports". T H White (and many modern writers and followers of fishing,falconry and related actities) would take issue with her distinction between being a natural history lover and a practioner of fishing,shooting,ferreting etc. More seriously, she writes that White "blithely snagged salmon". White fished for salmon and caught them fairly using a fly. He wrote many fine passages about his salmon fishing and the pieces are still found in anthologies of fishing literature. To "snag" a salmon means ,to those who fish ,that he took salmon illegally and unsportingly, by jerking a hook into the body of a salmon.There is no evidence that I have heard of that he would ever have done this.To suggest it does his memory a grave disservice. The introduction by Steve Bodio,himself a falconer, to the 1996 Wilder Places edition of The Goshawk is,to my mind, far better at exploring and explaining the reasons why this is a much loved book.

I highly recommend this book to anyone, even those with no interest at all in falconry. The author is so skilled and talented that I'd say that he could write an entertaining piece about paint drying. Enjoy!!

I purchased this book to use as part of an 8th grade Grammar curriculum. It is wonderful! The stories and activities made learning the concepts fun. My son didn't even realize that he was doing schoolwork. An excellent choice for anyone learning grammar - or someone just brushing up on their skills. Two thumbs up!

This book is filled with useful information and helpful exercises. It helped me to understand grammar concepts my own English teacher could not explain to me. Thanks to this terrific and fun-filled book, I was able to get through 8th grade English easily. My teachers and parents have noticed a change in my papers as well as a better understanding of grammatical concepts. Anyone who is lost in the world of English grammar, should pick up this book.

Great book! The format is set up so that you can work straight through, or easily hop to specific grammar points. Little quizzes help you to see if you are understanding the concepts. I know this book will get a lot of use.

Terrific book! Was so helpful. I totally recommend it for anyone having trouble learning the rules of grammar!!!

This book is an excellent read, and a useful resource. Almost every common grammatical question is addressed (e.g., is it who or whom?) in a practical manner. Great gift for someone on their way to college, in academia, or for whom English is a second language.

If you've ever started a meeting by saying, Hello, my name is blank, and I love to use commas- then you have found your bible. Grossman's modern look at grammar is both fun and challanging. And unlke some others on the market- Grossman shoots from the hip. Learn from her? Yes. Enjoy her? Absolutely. Explain her? Never.

Ellie Grossman's book on grammar is one of the finest I have ever read on such a topic, and after 14 years of school I have read a lot of grammar books. I have always been bad at grammar and found it to be so boring, but this book kept me interested. Her funny stories and examples of how common grammar errors can be so stupid, that you hardly realize it. For the first time I was beginning to understand the mistakes I make and how to fix them. Plus she doesn't fill her book with grammar rules and other confusing junk she just tells it as it is. This book is very helpful and I recommend it for anyone who has had trouble with grammar.

Ellie Grossman has achieved the imposssible: she has made the grammatical pitfalls of our language easier to manage in a clear, concise, jargon-free, and FUN way! Never thought grammar could tickle your funny bone? Well, it does in this reader-friendly guide to some of our more common language blunders. This is a book to share!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Guess that'll be it.

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

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

Good luck!

Much of the contextual material in this volume is out-of-date, given the fact that the eight articles originally appeared in the Harvard Business Review years ago (1965-2001). However, I think the core concepts remain sound and provide a valuable frame-of-reference for understanding the advances in decision making that have occurred during the last five years. For example, Peter Drucker suggests a sequence of six steps: classify the problem, define it, identify possible answers, determine which is "right" rather than acceptable, build into the decision the action(s) necessary to implement it, and then test the decision's validity and effectiveness. Yes, these are obvious steps. However, but the number of well-publicized bad decisions that have been made in recent years (e.g. Adelphia Communications, Arthur Andersen, Enron, Kmart, and Tyco) suggests the implications and consequences when decision-makers ignore one or more of these steps.


No brief commentary such as this can do full justice to the rigor and substance of the eight articles. It remains for each reader to examine the list to identify which subjects are of greatest interest to her or him. My own opinion is that all of the articles are first-rate. One of this volume's greatest benefits is derived from the fact that a variety of perspectives are provided by a number of different authorities on the same general subject. In this instance, "advances [to date] in strategy"

Readers will especially appreciate the provision of an executive summary that precedes each article. They facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key points which - presumably - careful readers either underline or highlight. Also of interest is the "About the Contributors" section that includes suggestions of other sources to consult. Here are questions that suggest key issues to which the authors of these articles respond:

How to make and then measure an "effective" decision? (Peter Drucker)
Comment: Effective executives do not make a great many decisions. They concentrate on what is most important.

What is a rational method for making trade-offs? (John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa)
Comment: Making wise trade-offs is one of the most important and difficult challenges in decision making. Needless to say, the more alternatives you are considering and the more objectives you're pursuing, the more trade-offs you'll need to make.

Why is humility essential to effective decision-making? (Amitai Etzioni)
Comment: Only fools make rigid decisions and decisions with no sense of overarching purpose, whereas the most able executives practice more humble decision making that offers the benefits of flexibility, caution, and the capacity to proceed with partial knowledge.

What are the most common interpersonal barriers to decision making and how to overcome them? (Chris Argyris)
Comment: One of the most common observations in company studies is that executives lack awareness of their own behavioral patterns as well as the negative impact of their behavior on others.

How to analyze the nature and extent of the given problem? (Perrin Stryker)
Comment: Even veteran managers are likely to be very unsystematic when dealing with problems and decisions, and their hit-or-miss methods often produce bad decisions based on erroneous conclusions.

What are the hidden traps in decision making? (John S. Hammond, Ralph L. Keeney, and Howard Raiffa)
Comment: Bad decisions can often be traced back to the way the decisions were made - the alternatives that were not clearly defined, the right information was not collected, and the costs and benefits were not accurately weighed.

When to "trust your gut"? (Alden M. Hayshi)
Comment: Our emotions and feelings might not only be important in our intuitive ability to make good decisions but may actually be essential because they can help us to filter various options quickly.

Those who share my high regard for this volume are urged to check out the recently published Harvard Business Review on Making Smarter Decisions as well as other titles in the Harvard Business Review Paperback Series such as those on Becoming a High-Performance Manager, Change, Corporate Strategy, Decision Making, Effective Communication, the Innovative Enterprise, Leadership, Leadership at the Top, and Measuring Corporate Performance.

Being an effective manager requires being a good-decision maker too, having ability of using factual and quantitative information to analyze what is the most efficient decision to reach a well-defined objective. Making good decision by applied management science approach is the benefits that managers expect to learn combining with past experience to decide on what should be done. However, in the real-reality (as opposed to virtual reality, as a model), many decisions can be made under the highest-level conceptual understanding. In addition, a better understanding of decision making can be broken down into six sequential steps according to Drucker (pp. 2-19)

1. Classifying the problem in order to tell if it should be solved based on either principles or pragmatic concept. The problem can be categorized in three groups. The first group is the generic problems; for example, in a manufacturing organization, it may happen the situation like total amount of products decreasing. At this stage, the product control or engineering group will look at what is going on in a production line. To illustrate, the coupling in the pipe carrying steam or hot liquids, rather than the problem of production processing. This kind of problems frequently happens. The second group is a unique problem for the individual institution. The third group is a truly unique problem which happens out of exception. The truly unique events are rare and have to be treated individually. Unlike truly unique events, the other two groups require a generic solution. They require a rule, a policy, or a principle. Once the right principle has been developed, all manifestations of the same generic situation can be handled pragmatically by adjusting the rules to each specific case.

2. Defining the problem. After classifying the problem is generic or unique, it is quite easy to define what the problem is about that we are dealing with. However, it is the most important part of the whole decision process because sometimes the definition of the problem seems plausible but incomplete. In order to avoid this kind of carelessness, Peter F. Drucker suggested all of the decision makers check this process, defining the problem, again and again against all the observable facts and discard a definition the moment it fails to encompass any of them.

3. Specifying the answer to the problem to see if the decision is on the boundary conditions or not. A decision that does not satisfy the boundary condition is worse than the wrong definition of the problem. Therefore, before picking up the optimal solution, a decision maker has to deeply think about a question, "what are the objectives the decision has to reach?" Clearly thinking about the boundary conditions will help decision makers identify all of the possible decisions which can satisfy the needs.

4. Deciding what is right, rather than what is acceptable, in order to meet the boundary conditions. It means before paying attention on making decision acceptable by the compromise, adaptations, and concessions, we have to let the solution fully satisfy the specifications. However, if a decision maker does not know what will meet the boundary conditions, the manager cannot distinguish the difference between the right and wrong compromise. As the right and wrong compromise, Peter F. Drucker had an interesting description. The right compromise is like an old saying, "Half a loaf is better than no bread." In the contrast, the wrong compromise is like, "half a baby is worse than no baby at all." From this interesting description, it is easy to realize that deciding the right decision is more important than choosing the acceptable one.

5. Building into the decision the action to carry it out. Converting the decision into action is the most time-consuming steps in the decision-making process. It is true that we will not know the decision is the most efficient or not if we put the decision into practice. There are several questions that have to be answered before committing the decision, "Who has to know this decision?", "What action has to be taken?", "Who is to take it?", "What does the action have to be so that the people who have to do it can do it?" From those questions, it is obviously that an appropriate person who carries out the decision must have enough capabilities of adjusting his/her behavior, habits or attitudes once a decision becomes effective.

6. Testing the validity and effectiveness of the decision against the actual course of events. The feedback of decision action is the important information for a decision maker in order to realize the result of the decision model also for the future model building. However, information should be built on the direct exposure to reality, rather on decision makers themselves. Above all, six steps of decision process are the stepping stones for decision making. Although a good decision may be made under the decision-making process, sometimes the decision will still fail because of the mind of decision makers. The way the human brain works can destroy the choice we make. In the article, "The Hidden Traps in Decision Making, (pp. 143-67)" John Hammond, Ralph Keeney, and Howard Raiffa list nine psychological traps that may affect a way that a decision maker makes business decision.

1. The anchoring trap makes people give inappropriate weigh to the first information we receive. In business, for example, although it seems the decision that a manager predict how much product need to be produced by taking the former sales reports as a reference is reasonable, the old sales numbers become anchors because it may let a manager put too much attention on past event but not give enough weigh to other factors. Under this situation, it can lead to a poor forecast.

2. The status-quo trap means people may have biases on the situation we feel comfortable with so that we will not choose other alternatives even they are better. In order to make decisions rationally and objectively, a decision maker always have to keep in mind that the decision will be acted under the status quo and never consider status quo as the only alternative.

3. The sunk-cost trap is another serious biases. People always believe that successfully past decision even though it does not work anymore at the present. In order to put the suck cost away, a decision maker can listen other people's viewpoints and those people must to be those who did not experience the earlier decisions.

4. The confirming-evidence trap makes people find out the information to support an existing predilection, rather than to conflict it. On the other hand, people will try to discount the opposing information. In order to avoid the confirming-evidence trap, a decision maker can set up a clincher, let other people argue it, and listen people's advice.

5. The framing trap happens at the beginning of the decision process. When it occurs, the decision goes wrong because a decision maker has already misstated the problem.

6. The Estimating and Forecasting Traps have three minor traps,

a. The overconfidence trap makes people overestimate the accuracy of the forecasts.

b. The prudence trap causes people to be overcautious when people make decision under uncertain or risky situation.

c. The recall ability trap leads people to give incorrect weigh to recent, dramatic events.

The book rightly emphasizes the facts that a good decision not only relies on clearly defining the alternatives, collecting the correct information, and so on during the decision-making process, but also relate to the benefits and costs which are weighed accurately. Furthermore, the background, the experience of a decision maker will be one of the factors which affect the decision making. Except the factors of individuals, the economic circumstances will influence the decision and its action too.

There are several books from the Harvard Business Review that follow this simple format - essays on critical topics by the leading minds in the field compiled into a short book of around 200 pages. One of these critical topics is Decision Making. That topic is the focus of this book.

There are hundreds of books on management, strategy, leadership, etc. but not many are purely dedicated to treating the subject of Decision Making from a theoretical and abstract perspective. This book contains 8 short essays presenting different theories by people by Peter Drucker.

The first chapter starts off with an impressive treatment of The Effective Decision. It is impressive because of the wisdom packed into these few pages and the aptness of the title. The author (Peter Drucker) dispels the myths about the most effective decision makers being the ones that can think fast and manipulate a large number of variables in their heads. Instead he explains that the best decision makers are the ones who focus on impact instead of technique. He then systematically explains a simple process to follow to achieve the same results as the highly successful executives.

The book then moves on to topics dealing with how to make trade-offs, humble decision making (which is nothing but accepting that your first impressions may be wrong and be open to changing the direction of your thoughts as more information becomes available), interpersonal barriers, hidden traps, when to trust your gut, and analyzing problems. The essay on interpersonal barriers was very familiar to me as I had experienced the situations described several times in my own career.

The book is simple - it has no pictures, just some tables once in a while and some blank paper at the end of the book to takes notes. The size is small like a novel but very potent! When I first saw this book at a bookstore, I didn't think much of it. But I picked it up because of the Harvard Business Review name on the front cover. I couldn't put it down once I started reading the first chapter and immediately purchased a few books in this series.

These books and especially this one can be described in only one word - potent. They are like text books or Ph.D papers except they are very practical. These are some of my favorite management/business books but they are difficult to digest. Since they are abstract in nature, one has to read them very slowly and read them with total concentration. The authors don't spend time painting a picture in detail and trying to get you excited. They get straight to the point and finish it in less than 20 pages. If you read these books like you would read other books, you are likely to miss the point.

This book in particular is very unique as there aren't that many books dedicated to just Decision Making. Enjoy learning from the masters! Good luck!

Don't let the title mislead you, this book won't make decisions for you. I will however, give you the ability to make use of your most powerful business tool: a convincing guess. Many times I would stumble blindly through the veil of uncertainty, only to arrive on the otherside; lost, confused, naked, and too sore to sit down. But, now, after digesting these powerful articles, I can make my way through uncertain times; clothed in conviction and sitting on a soft pillow of apathy.

Can't say much about this Because it wasn't for my personal use. It did arrive in timely manner though. Good job to the seller!

This book is for an MBA class and as Harvard Business Cases are concerned there are some interesting factual articles in this Supply Chain Management review by Harvard.

I'm a 25 year Supply-Chain Manager in the USAF. I enjoyed reading this and relating to the changes in mind-sets in supply chain management. Logistics, Supply-Chain and Distribution managers have contributed to companies and the militaries success's or failure's...

I thought the book presented several interesting examples through eight papers covering various supply chain topics. Several of the papers have appendices with very useful information. This is a good book to take on a plane and read on one or two flights. But, subsequent research would be required to obtain the details necessary to actually implement the concepts.