Q and A Books

This book is very good, have a lot of sections, very good explanations in the back. The only thing i don't like is that previous edition had a cd with many questions; this book unfortunately does not come with one.

I purchased the Q and A book and used it in conjunction with the larger Appleton and Lange outline review book. I found doing the same chapters in both books simultaneously gave a good review. I also purchased th AAPA review for re-cert and did the pre-test CD about two months before the test. I probably wouldn't purchase all three again. It sets you back about $200. Yes there are occassional typos but otherwise the format is clear. I did 15 minutes to 2 hours a day reviewing starting three months before my PANRE and I passed with a score of 637/700. Just get the two A and L study guides, concentrate on areas you feel weakest in and you'll do fine.

After purchasing this book, I felt much more comfortable taking the PANCE. I just received my results and I passed. This book not only gives you an idea of what the questions will look like, but also shows you hints and tips on answering the correct answer. Recommended!

I don't like it at all....just questions. Boring. Not really a review, just a pre-test sort of thing.

Hated it.

And the CD does not work with MAC.

I bought this book with the Appleton & Lange Outline Review. There is material in one book that is not covered in the other and vice versa, so I believe I am of to a good start. However, there are at least a couple of errors. Once I find an error, it slows down my studying pace to determine which answer is the true correct one. On page 35 it reads patients with congestive heart failure should restrict their sodium intake to 1 gm/day. But on page 102 in the A & L Outline Review it's 2 g/day. I asked a Registered Dietitian, and she says it's 2 gm/day. On page 303 Question 23, the correct answer is said to be A, but on page 389 in the A & L Outline Review, the correct answer would be D. On page 62 Question 19 the correct answer is C, not B. Question 46 on page 113 suggests metronidazole is a better antibiotic than penicillin for acute tetanus infection, but the Outline Review on p. 503 says to give penicillin G. On page 154 Question 31 the correct answer is D not A. The answer to Question 10 on page 177 states "Aspirin use would be less likely with this patient due to the history of gastroesophageal reflux." Yet the question does not mention at all that the patient has any kind of GE disorder. Page 212 Question 50 the answer could be A or C according to the A & L Outline Review, pp 208 and 212. Page 214 states magnesium sulfate is not recommended for preterm labor, yet the A & L Outline Review states on page 245 that magnesium sulfate can be recommended. Page 200 Question 69 the correct answer is B, not A. Page 302 Question 11, the correct answer can be either C or E. Page 315 Question 68, did the editors mean "antagonist" and not "agonist"? Page 406 Question 10 the correct answer is B, not A. Page 352 Question 12 states "the most common type of gallstone in the US" is (A) mixed. That means (E) cholesterol is the wrong answer. However, page 530 of the Outline Review says, "Most stones are cholesterol." A brief Internet search reveals some reliable websites saying 80% are cholesterol, but Wikipedia says most stones are mixed. There are more "typos," but I got tired of listing them.

I should start by repeating points made before that this is NOT a casual read, nor does it have anything to do with the game you see on the field. It's all about the business side of Pete Rozelle's NFL of the late 60's through the early 80s, and anyone reading it should be prepared for a lot of financial talk.

Having said that, I've enjoyed this. As mentioned before, the profiles of Rozelle and the owners are excellent, although very few owners come off looking good as human beings. It's interesting to see how Rozelle steered a very diverse group of driven, egotisical men along the same course for so long until Al Davis upset the apple cart and opened the gate for franchise shifts by moving the Riaders to LA (although Carroll Rosenbloom deserves far more "credit" than he gets for moving the Rams out of LA to Anaheim). CR's widow, Georgia, comes off as equal parts manipulative and clueless.

If you're looking for heroes, you won't find them here (although Rozelle was definitely impressive in a lot of ways). If you're looking for a concise, if sometimes dense, history of NFL business in a pivotal part of the modern era, this is it...just don't expect to speed-read it in a day. It IS worth the effort.

Well researched and written by former draft-dodger David Harris, this now dated book remains the best book written about the NFL.

Only here will you get the behind the scenes look at the NFL's "Glory Years" throughout the 60s, 70s, and into the Early 80s. David Harris must have done a ton of research and let me tell you, it is all here. The detail is often mind numbing - which might drive away the casual fan (hence the 4 star rating instead of 5).

Still, if you consider yourself a true NFL fan and have always been fascinated by the behind the scenes machinations of the powerful clique of franchise owners, take a look at this book. I have yet to see a book on the NFL as comprehensive as this one.

Harris places far too much importance on the loyalty to individual cities, but his portrayals of the villians of the NFL (read: Al Davis, and the other owners) are certainly superb.

With its latest expansion franchise selling for over $500,000, there is no question that the NFL is the predominate sports league in America. "The League: The Rise and Decline of the NFL" helps to tell the story of how it became so. It provides a great look at the pivotal period in the development of the NFL: from the ascension of Pete Rozelle as commissioner in 1960 to the franchise moves of the 1980s. Not a book for "students of the game" looking for points of view of players and coaches, "The League" focuses more on the business end of football. It is excellent reading for any fan who wishes to know the "inside story" of how and why the NFL became the big business that it is today. The book does this by providing a thorough history of the league's relationship with television, its monopoly status, and the beginnings of "franchise free agency". Harris's intensive research and use of personal interviews also provides a unique "behind closed doors" glimpse into the world of football team owners and executives.

An execution is the deliberate and methodical fulfillment of a planned series of actions meant to acheive a specific objective. No one, not a criminal nor a legally authorized servant of the State, can "execute" a human being. One can execute a legal order to carry out a sentence of death by whatever means. The other can execute an illegal imposition of his will.
A dictionary, indeed.
Next time, do try to review the book.
Or, failing that, pick nits with greater care lest you prove lice ridden yourself.

The book itself gave me little information of which I was previously unaware, but did serve to crystallize the issue and provide a few useful barbs to hurl in debate with the more Liberal folks I know.

I just started the book. I was disappointed to find this statement on the first page of acknowledgments...."two rich boys executed their parents for financial gain, and the criminal justice system could not convict them of what they surely deserved, first degree murder". An execution is a killing carried our as directed by a legal system. It is impossible for a person performing an execution to be convicted of murder. The Menendez parents were murdered. No amount of planning, deliberation, skill in doing the deed makes a killing an execution unless ordered by a legal court system. It is still murder no matter how "professionally done".

Mr. Wilson, has certainly identified some major problems in the criminal justice system. Having been involved in the criminal justice system myself for over 15 years I certainly can identify with what his says and he is right on point. Some other excellent books on this subject is: Judge Judy's book "Don't Pee On My Leg and Tell Me IT'S Raining". Ken Hamblin's "Pick a better Country" is another excellent book.

James Q. Wilson presents, yet again, a very interesting social science treatire on our current dillema in jurisprudence. It is important to note that Wilson is a neoconservative, and by that I mean he believes the state can cultivate certain attitudes, mores, beliefs, and behaviors in the population through a series of incentives that will guide the behavior of particular individuals. Thus, one of the most important things for a state is to provide incentives -- a clear, moral and legal code that will influence the behavior of the general population. Wilson argues, and to which I agree, that when the law is unpredictable, and the chance of escaping the laws' penalties are reduced or absent, crime will increased. This became true in Britain.

Now, to the larger point brought about in Wilson's book: social science is to explain; the law is to judge. The problem, Wilson argues, is that recently we have blended the two. While the general population wants us to clamp down on criminals, juries are providing quite leniant sentences. How is that possible? Rather than blame the juries, Wilson explains how this is possible.

The main reason is that our court system has moved away, although slowly, from an objective standard of law -- one in which the question is whether the defendent did (or did not) committ the crime, to one where we analyze the reasons, motivations, thoughts, ideologies present in the person who committed the law. By doing this, we encourage juries to be far more leniant--because instead of their judging the question: did he do it or not, they are trying to analyze all the information based on their own knowledge and "expert" testimony, and thus they rationalize lesser sentences based on their own prejudices. Thus, they substitute the objective law that actually exists for their own feelings. This may be well and good in the short term, Mr. Wilson argues, but what happens when the precedent for these kinds of decissions develops and we get verdicts like the first Menendez brothers trial, in which the jury was deadlocked, even though it was clear that both brothers had killed their parents in their sleep and were clearly not threatened at the time. What happens is right. Anyone who fails to read Mr. Wilson's book misses out on knowing where our current actions are taking us. And Wilson does provide many informative solutions to this problem, such as having court-appointed experts and judges explaining the facts in the case among other ideas!

BTW, I had the privilage of meeting James Q. Wilson, a recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which was awarded to Mr. Wilson by President George W. Bush.

-- Michael Gordon

This is a good contribution to a usually muddled discussion. I think that even people, like myself, who disagree with most of Wilson's attitudes toward criminal justice should agree with most of what he says here.
Wilson favors a vocabulary of religion and traditional philosophy and displays a certain longing for English Victorian traditions. He has nothing to say, though the opportunity couldn't offer itself more starkly, of attempts that might be made, and made at less financial and human expense, to prevent crimes from occurring through non-punitive means like education, the
elimination of poverty, help for drug and alcohol abusers, attempts at reconciliation of disputes, banning handguns, improving pop-culture, etc. Wilson is not disturbed by America's extreme rate of incarceration, and slants his figures to minimize it. (For example, on p. 4 he says that Americans' belief that our courts are "more likely" than other nations' to excuse an offender and to moderate a penalty is "right" because an offender's chances of going to prison are "about the same" as in four other countries.) Wilson suggests that we may imprison so much because our crime rate is so high, and that our crime rates (in certain ways) may be so low because we imprison so much. Obviously an opposite case could be made with exactly equal plausibility: our crime rate is high despite or because of our culture of incarceration, and we incarcerate despite low crime rates (and because of factors like political cowardice and financial profit for prison companies).
Wilson favors the best science in court rooms, but takes for granted certain powers of deterrence for which there isn't any evidence of that quality. Wilson also speaks of "deterrence and retribution" without explaining the latter term at all. Wilson seems (bottom of page 4) to think that it is good to imprison based on a past record, though on pp. 90-91 he cites a study
showing that juries vary their sentences radically based on records, on psychological testimony, and on the likeableness of a person - things which Wilson, rightly, I think, complains are largely irrelevant. (Though I don't expect to hear him questioning the use of juries.)
Wilson also has relatively little to say about the horrors of our prisons as reported by many human rights groups. He describes inhumane punishment as a thing of the past. And he dwells little on the possibility that some acquittals that have been labeled cases of abuse-excuse may be jury nullification on the basis of disagreement with laws and/or punishments. In two instances Wilson does show that he is aware of the prevalence of this sort of thing (pp. 77, 110).
I am obviously coming at these matters from a different perspective than Wilson. But I agree with his main point and take it to be an important one. There is a difference between explaining the causes of a crime and dealing with that crime in a court of law. An explanation is not necessarily an excuse, and vice versa. I even think that Wilson is right in those cases
where some readers will, no doubt, call him sexist or racist. I do not think that past abuse of a wife justifies a wife's killing a sleeping husband. I think that treating a woman as helpless is precisely NOT feminism. I would even combine Wilson's dismissal of the alcohol excuse with his dismissal of the female excuse and say that, yes, on occasion drunk women willfully have
sex (though, of course, a drunk woman can also be raped).
That said, I think that Wilson could make his case a little better. The abuse-excuse is part and parcel of the same way of thinking that convicts criminals in America, a way of thinking from which Wilson does not attempt to escape. This thinking might be called anti-consequentialism. It is sentimental and backward-looking. It may lean toward vengeance or sympathy, but it does not aim at reducing crime and crime's damage in the future. It
does not take seriously goals of restitution, reconciliation, rehabilitation, protection, or even deterrence (which needs to be studied and at least guessed at, not just assumed). Wilson approves of some moderate degree of sympathy and vengeance, but not of what he sees as their extremes. This is different from treating them as irrelevant in a court of law and productive both of the excuses that bother Wilson and of the "Victims' Rights Movement" and its lynching speeches which bother some other people.
Wilson recognizes the conflict that most people believe exists between responsibility and determinism. He professes (and I've never seen an even remotely convincing argument for anything else) a belief that everything is caused. He then points out that if we excuse whatever is caused we will excuse everything. This, he says, is absurd, and therefore we shouldn't do
it. I agree with the conclusion, but am not sure the argument will convince everyone. For Wilson, anything that requires radical change is, for that reason, wrong. On pp. 60 and 100 he dismisses certain conclusions because to accept them would require rewriting a lot of laws and court decisions. Well, so what? Is that a good enough argument for people more open than Wilson is to change?
I think there is an argument for Wilson's position that will be more persuasive to people who, for example, would like to see our incarceration rate drastically cut. Wilson analyzes the problem well. He points out that juries often long for an explanation of how something came about. But he does not do enough to prove his point that such longings should, in many cases, be irrelevant. Wilson suggests admirable rewordings of legal distinctions. And he makes a strong case for holding people responsible for their delusions and misconceptions. But he doesn't make a clear enough case.
Wilson bases this last stance on the standard of what a "reasonable person" would do, rather than a "subjective" judgment. But he, himself, sometimes scare-quotes the notion of a "reasonable person."

Not what I was looking for. It sounded like there was pricing information in book, but there was none.

This will be the authority on broken bank notes and obsolete currency for years to come. Mr. Bowers is no doubt one of the very few individuals in the world that could bring all this material together and make an extremely readable and much needed volume available to numismatists and students of economic history.

if you are looking for a great history reference that shows how paper money fits into the history - this is your book, Mr. Bowers does a great job in researching his history and he shows how the currency and banking fit.

If you are looking for a good paper money reference, you will find this book very frustrating to use. As a paper money reference I thought it to be very disorganized and frustrating for me to use. BUt this book is still a great addition to my library.

Coverage of Northeast states like Maine, was excellent and probably better done here than elsewhere.
What I can't understand is why Mr. Bowers tries to do everything, when there are still books needed in areas where he has the most expertise.

I liked the book.

Bowers has compiled a substantial body of material that traces the evolution of American currency from the wampum used by native Americans and early settlers to the broken bank notes that effectively disappeared after the Civil war. Even a tome this size is unable to cover that much ground in any real depth, but Bowers makes intelligent decisions about when to go into depth and when to trace the superficial edges. On the whole, this is an invaluable resource for the beginning collector who wants a lot of information in a single place.

This book is not your typical data book with only pictures and current values for each note (such as Haxby, etc). It is a history book of many notes issued in the United States. It covers the years 1782 - 1866 and is mainly focused on "obsolete notes."

For those who only collect notes as a commodity, this is not the book for you. For those who collect to own a piece of history, this IS a great book for you. Given the large task that the author had, he has done a very nice job. If he were to cover every detail of every note, he would never finish. However, the final work is very nice!

I give it 4.5 stars and not 5 because he did not (and could not) cover all notes and history.

Mike Pingle who has done an amazing job on the charlie's angels web-site has done a really nice job on this book.I really enjoyed the Farrah Fawcett interview and looking forward to reading the rest. I also learned he is doing a Q guide to Wonder Woman and will buy that as well. If your a true Charlie's Angels fan you will enjoy this book.

THIS is the book that should have been written all along. Mike Pingle scores a home run and a touch down with his 2nd attempt at honoring Charlie's Angels and this time with a true shout out to the gay audience that has made Charlie's Angels so popular 30+ years later.

Unlike the Angelic Heaven book which was fraught with editing nightmares - this guide is sleek and polished. The interviews with Angels Farrah, Cheryl, Tanya and Jaclyn give a true inside to what was happening during the run of the show and the appeal after. The photos supplied by the Angels themselves and fans, give a real insiders view.

Even the cover art is fabulous and truly captures the style of the 70's with the iconic status of the show.

Way to go Mike!

Tom (Philly PA)

Mr. Pingel's second tomb honoring Charlie's cherubs offers a light, fairly entertaining read. The book includes interviews and quotes from former Angels Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd and Tanya Roberts. It also includes a couple of pointless interviews with Jose Eber and Bob Seagren. Okay, since Farrah's hair did become a national craze, I can see why Eber was included but Seagren???? He was a guest star in one episode!

The book also includes a background for each character. "Celebrity" polls asking various questions such as "Who is your favorite Angel?" "Which Angel are you and why?" Various episodes are highlighted. There's a list of what seems to be any series that ever made any mention of Charlie's Angels.

The book does contain a lot of information. Some of it interesting but much of it pointless. Like "Angelic Heaven", the few photos presented are black and white (some are rather fuzzy as well). The book is made up of your basic low grade paper as opposed to the high gloss paper quality of "The Charlie's Angels Case Files." This latter book still remains the definitive essay on the series. Oh, and Tanya Roberts fans may be disappointed. In the entire 228 pages, there is only one photo of her. Guess we know who Mr. Pingel's LEAST favorite angel is.

Just received my copy of the Charlie's Angels Q Guide today. What fun - especially the illustrated cover. Inside are some cool candid on-the-set photos of the Angels along with comments/interviews all throughout the book from Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd and Tanya Roberts. Also really enjoyed the heavenly tidbits dispersed throughout the book connecting the actresses with the various people they have worked with throughout their careers. And I also liked that only SELECT episodes were profiled and given more indepth details. VERY NICE BOOK - AND VERY NICE QUALITY! I'm ready to purchase more copies to give to family and friends . . . . and hopefully they'll have as much fun as I am having with this book!

My long awaited (new?)copy of The Q Guide to Charlie's Angels arrived doggy eared and half beaten up - it must have been one of the original proof copies. That said, it certainly wasn't an editor that did the proofing. An entire episode description is missing from season 1 - THE MEXICAN CONNECTION - which was the 2nd episode of the series and arguably one of the best episodes of Farrah's run. Although Mr.Pingel managed to cover this episode in his first "Angels" book - ANGELIC HEAVEN, it is skipped over entirely in his new book. Oddly enough, on the page opposite where THE MEXICAN CONNECTION description should be placed (after HELL RIDE and before NIGHT OF THE STRANGLER), it is briefly listed on a truly wasted page dedicated to Charlie's Angels shower scenes.
Like in ANGELIC HEAVEN before, the photos here are again of poor quality and all black and white. If ever there was a television show that screamed for color photograpy, it's CHARLIE'S ANGELS! Hopefully someday, an "Angels" book will get it right. Otherwise, the book is full of entertaining insights and testimonials. Angels fans will certainly enjoy this quick read. Mr. Pingle obviously loves his subject matter. I only wish he loved proof reading as much.

Even though Quest 64 is a Role Playing game that stresses 3d eye-candy, with no depth of story, plot, and no long lasting appeal (all three are essential, along with others, for a good rpg). The guide has all the information youll need to beat the game rather quickly (u can beat the game in under 10 hours) thats if your lucky to find it used. However the maps could of most certainly been better so it gets four stars in my book.

A good game with a good guide,the guide helped me with battling and other things.My one complaint is that the maps are very poor,they don't help me at all.Otherwise,the guide is great,just be prepared to travel with a bad map.Good Luck!

A decent guide overall it's focus is more on magic spells and battle tatics, and less on story which is a plus for some but not all. Good for people who don't want a guide full of "spoilers."

This was a great book and helped me alot. It gives you where ALL the elements are, which is awesome. This has some in it that I've never seen on _any_ statagy guide before. Only the maps bring down the rank

Overall it was a great book for someone who really likes it like me. The maps could have been better though. But it also showed where to find every spirit so that helped a lot.

I admit to being biased (my family moved to Albany around the time this story is set and has stayed since) but still insist this is a great period story that is at times hilarious, at times heart-wrenching, and never dull.

Although period literature is definitely in no short supply, Kennedy writes this book with a distinctly mystical flair that adds a stern dose of magic to a time most authors relegate to stuffiness and pomp. In addition, his characters here are immediately endearing, espescially Maud, Magdalena, and Daniel Quinn himself.

I'm less coherent than normal having spent the night awake reading this great story in lieu of sleep, but for anyone interested in, well, good storytelling set with a historically accurate backdrop of Albany and canal-town New York as a whole,
Quinn's Book recommends itself.

Fifteen-year-old Daniel Quinn doesn't know his life is about to change on a wintry day in 1849. An orphan, the result of a particularly bad cholera epidemic which wipes out his whole family, Daniel apprentices himself to the boatman, John the Brawn, as a helper in lieu of living in an orphanage. But when the boat containing the actress Magdelena Colon, her maid, and niece, Maud Fallon, is upset by a large block of ice, fate intervenes, causing Quinn's fortunes and fate to be interwoven with Magdelena, Maud, and John the Brawn.
This was a wondeful novel, full of rich language, and subtle humor, which portrays the life of the Irish in the mid-nineteenth century with startling realism. Daniel's family seems to have arrived in America well before the parade of famine Irish, so starkly portrayed by Kennedy in all their squalor. While not attempting to stereotype the Irish immigrants, we see them as the white, upper-class citizens of New York did, a scourge and pestilence bringing filth and disease with them. At one point in the novel they are herded on railroad cars and transported away from Albany as undesirables, dumped on some less fortunate area of the state.
Though the fate of the Irish immigrant is not the main theme in the novel, Quinn's background of being a penniless Irish orphan doesn't increase his chances of gaining the hand of Maud, though she declares her love for him upon their first meeting when she is but thirteen to his fifteen. Fate throws them together over the years, but it is not until he is a grown man that he finally seems worthy of the precocious Maud.
Besides the obvious love story the historical perspective works well. We are treated to a look at the anti-Catholic Know Nothing Pary, the forerunners of the modern Republican Pary, Abolitionists, the Underground Railroad, and the New York City Draft Riots. A very enjoyable story.

I came late to William Kennedy's work and may have to take other reviewers at their word that this is not his best. But it's certainly pretty good, and I'll find out if the rest is better. He captures a kind of crazed picaresque worldview which is something like E.L. Doctorow on drugs. His disasters are gigantic, larger than life, and so are most of the characters. It's hard to tell if it's magical realism or just totally unlikely, but it's funny as hell and a tremendously fun and quick reading experience--in spite of the mass violence and misfortune and desperate poverty it describes.

If someone set out to write a parody of Kennedy's works, it would read a lot like Quinn's Book. Hard to put down, yes; telling details, of course; but undermined by preposterous characters and an offensive kind of magical realism. Billy Phelan's Greatest Game and Legs were much better.

An excellent book, just excellent. My cousin read me the first sentence and I was hooked. This novel made me think of Doctorow's Billy Bathgate and Helprin's Winter's Tale, and it's just as good as those masterpieces. Now, has anyone else wondered about the mysterious but obvious relationship between this book, Winter's Tale, and Paul Auster's New York Trilogy (e.g., there is a character named Daniel Quinn in New York Trilogy)? And what other references am I missing? What is going on here?

Half of this book was introduction. Although the introduction was very informational, There was too much. And it's true, they did leave out the Munchkin,Bengal,and there were a few more. I just can't remember them at this moment. This was a very good book though. I just don't recommend it to anyone who is tring to decide what breed they want.

The Simon & Schuster Guide to Cats is unique in that essential information is provided in a concise format for every breed of cat, including a picture of each breed and its variations. The information provided per breed is one or two pages of information that includes origin, coat, color, body, head, eyes, tail, character, ideal owner, environment, diet, recommended care, reproduction, faults, and varieties. Also included are symbols that tell the reader whether or not a particular breed is particularly playful or requires extra grooming. It is ideal for the cat owner or potential cat owner who wants to understand the particular needs of a particular breed of cat. No other guide I have found gives such a wealth of information. As other reviewers have noted though, newer breeds are omitted, such as the Munchkin, Bengal, Selkirk Rex, and LaPerm probably due to the age of this guide which was published in 1983. It is for this lack of updated information that I give it four stars instead of five.

Like the best-selling Simon & Schuster's Guide to Dogs, this new Guide to Cats is the best available, whether you need it primarily for identification, to help you choose a breed suitable for you, or for pure
reading pleasure. Concise, informative, and illustrated completely in full color, this book describes the fascinating history of cats and features 40 longhair and shorthair breeds, detailing for each its origin, coat,
color, body, head, eyes, tail, character, ideal owner, environment, feeding, care, mating, faults, and varieties, in accordance with North American standards. In addition, colorful symbols assist the reader in
understanding and appreciating each breed at a glance.

Over 200 full-color illustrations covering shorthair and longhair breeds, with a description of origin, physical and personality characteristics, ideal owner, diet, care, and much more, including helpful symbols for such traits as Good Mouser , Good with Children , and other traits.

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK, IT DESCRIBES EACH BREED, WITH MANY EXTRA'S THAT OTHER BOKKS DON'T INCLUDE, SUCH AS TERMPERMANT AND ENVIRONMENT. I ENDED UP GETTINNG A CAT FROM THE SHELTER, BUT THE SECTION ON CAT CARE STILL HELPED ME, EVEN THOUGH IT'S NOT THE BEST BOOK TO BUY JUST FOR INFORMATION ON CAT CARE.

I think this book was okay but it has more introduction than breeds. It also left out a few breeds like the Munchkin,Bengal and more. If you don't mind having a few breeds missing than this is an okay book.

Great book for persons just starting QFD within their organizations. Straight forward step-by-step chapters that build upon each other to arrive at a comprehensive understanding of QFD concepts and mechanics. Team/group excercises within each chapter make this a great introductory training manual to solidify learning of material covered in each chapter.

I stumbled into QFD by accident: while browsing through sample drawings in Visio I spotted a "House of Quality Matrix" under Business Diagrams. The drawing looked fascinating, which led me to do a quick search on the Internet. The search yielded a large number of hits and interesting content. That, in turn, led me to this book because capturing and validating requirements is a difficult undertaking and I am always on the lookout for new techniques and tools.

The book opened a whole new world to me. The opening chapter, "The Role of the Customer in Design", starts with an example of using QFD in a project and gives compelling reasons for using this technique. Subsequent chapters walk you through the mechanics of a generic design process. This prepares you for the detailed treatment of QFD that follows.

Based on my initial research QFD looks simple and straightforward. However, this book reveals a rich process and set of procedures that show its real power (and complexity for large undertakings). For example, I discovered that the "house of quality" structure can have multiple matrices, each of which is linked. This gives both forward and backwards traceability, but requires painstaking attention to detail. This is where this book proves its value - it breaks this complexity down into manageable pieces and provides you with a thorough understanding of the process.

The section that I found most meaningful and valuable addresses customer segments. I am an IT consultant who specializes in service delivery, so my natural focus is on strengthening alignment between IT and the business processes that IT supports. Among the things I learned from this section are: how to effectively identify customer segments and classify them, what measurements are meaningful (especially important for satisfaction measurement), and ranking and prioritizing. One of the most powerful prioritization techniques that I discovered in this book is the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). This technique is an excellent way to objectively quantify priorities and requirements. The steps are relatively simple: 1.Choose the requirements to be prioritized. 2.Set the requirements into the rows and columns of the n x n AHP matrix. 3.Perform a pair wise comparison of the requirements in the matrix according to a set criteria. 4.Sum the columns. 5.Normalize the sum of rows. 6.Calculate the row averages.

However, for a large number of requirements this can quickly get complicated in a hurry. The simple math for small numbers of requirements gets replaced by sophisticated (to me) matrix techniques that are outside of my skill set when the number of requirements to be prioritized grows. Also, AHP is useful for managing requirements revealed via surveys. Most of my requirements come directly from contact with end users. I have found that a facilitated meeting using paired comparison techniques to be as valuable aas AHP. This is not covered in the book, which I found to be a minor shortcoming. If you want details about paired comparisons I will be happy to share them via email.

The rest of the book addresses QFD within the context of quality planning and management, and measuring the effectiveness of quality. Interwoven into these are valuable tools and techniques, such as affinity diagrams, TRIZ and various analysis techniques. While the remainder of the book began focusing on manufacturing, which is outside of my professional specialty, I found the material interesting because some of my clients are manufacturers and it gave insights into business processes that will surely prove valuable in the future. Almost everything in this book was new to me. The author did a magnificent job of explaining how to effectively capture, prioritize and management requirements in ways that I never expected. Moreover, the methods embodied in QFD are both powerful in that you can actually capture the voice of the customer, and practical in that you can trace a final design (product or process) back to customer requirements. I also learned about some powerful techniques, such as AHP, that I would have never discovered had I not read this book. If you are involved in requirements management, product or process design or quality then this book will be a valuable addition to your professional reading.

I appreciate the way the author communicates. His style is as simple as QFD, but QFD wouldn't have been simple for me without the book.

This book is not very well written. It jumps from one detailed description to another, without giving enough overview or bridging material. It seems like this book evolved from presentation slides, and the author failed to include enough of the bridging, higher-level exposition that keeps people oriented from slide to slide. This is a little disappointing, and it makes it more difficult to get value from this book.

This book provides a nice overview of QFD with more than adequate examples. One of the nicer things is that it provides Workshop forms from which you can begin putting together a training forum. However, where this book fails is in the original authorship and editing. To be honest, it must be one of the most poorly put-together books I have read. Incorrect spellings, incomplete thoughts, and figure-to-text mismatches makes this book all but un-readable. If you need a book filled with examples at a decent rate, this is the one for you. If you can, skip this train and spend your money more wisely on a book that the author and publisher obviously took more time than a weekend to put together.

This is a terrific book by literate, droll writers who really love and know the city. It's extremely idiosyncratic, which is part of its pleasure. How many other guides would give so much coverage to sento (public bath houses) or serious appraisals of 5-buck noodle joints? I only wish they would keep to their promise and update it annually.

Tokyo Q ... is an English language web site that covers the cultural scene in Tokyo. This book pulls together many of the reviews and listings published over the years.

It's a small book. The listings do not attempt to be comprehensive, and don't cover the mainstream hotels and restaurants you'll find in the typical guidebooks. It tries to be the guide your friend who's lived in Tokyo for 10 years would write, sharing his favorite places.

There's a photo of a sketch map in the center of the book which explains the neighborhoods of central Tokyo. On a recent business trip, I found this the single most useful two pages in any guidebook (and I bought several). I still needed the others to get around, but now I had a perceptual map of what I was doing.

If you're just going on business, you can probably skip this book. If you have a few days to explore, it's probably worth picking up. Don't miss Rick Kennedy's book, Little Adventures in Tokyo, which is essential for an exploratory newbie.

This little book won a spot in my bag every day I was in Tokyo, and that is the best of compliments when you are out exploring a city all day and want to travel light. I used it mostly for restaurants and it never steered me wrong. I quickly tossed my copy of Zagat Tokyo because it is biased to the most expensive places, TokyoQ has excellent listings in all price ranges organised by type of food. Dining is a huge part of the Tokyo experience and it's worth seeking out great restaurants. A couple of the places I chose from this book were a bit out of the way but well worth it.

Directions are not always given, which annoyed me until I accepted the fact that the only way to find an address in Tokyo is to find a police box and ask. Apparantly giving directions really is the main purpose of the Tokyo police.

I enjoyed the attention given to modern Architecture, an other main component of the Tokyo experience. I also loved the little sketch of neighborhoods, not a road map but more of a personality map. The sento section is much more extensive than I found elsewhere and an experience not to be missed.

TokyoQ is not an all-inclusive guide book, but it does an excellent job of filling in the gaps left by the others.

To the ill-informed, Ken Rickety and his dancing poodles may succeed in presenting Tokyo as wonderfully incomprehensible, just as Dave Barry makes it appear extraterrestrial. But one must wonder how far from "Home Sweet Tokyo" TQ's collective travels has taken it to arrive at such twaddle. Tokyo is a big city, and as such has an abundance of quirkiness. But so too have Chicago, Copenhagen and Lima, to name but a few. Dig deeper, and the reader will quickly discover Rickety's sun has long set: The mindset of his ilk has never fully been able to ford the eighties, a decade that irrevocably changed the course of Tokyo. Rickety's is a world of jazz, and quaint coffee shops, and bath houses, and factory workers benignly breaking the antiquated codes of their parents' generation. Although perhaps fascinating to the social historian, these facets have little to do with the Tokyo of 2001. Somebody please tell him; but politely, of course.

In addition to the online travel shorts they have published (I think on a weekly base), this is a great little book to carry to Tokyo. It's a quick read (2 hours, so you can read it 6 times over on the flight) with many memorable stories and experiences that made me looking forward to enjoy the city, aside from the typical tourist attractions. This is for those who want to see Tokyo from the insider's view as many hidden gems (restaurants, shops, backalleys) are revealed in this guide. However, this guide could've been even better is it had more points of interest for those ages 17-25, rather than mostly for ages 30+ type of interest.