Consultants Books

This is my first review of any Amazon purchase.

This book is pre-basic. If you have no working knowledge of how even fundamental business is operated (such as opening up a checking account for business expenses), then you have no basis skill set to become a consultant...at least, not one that anyone will take seriously. This book could be wrapped up into one small magazine article in the back section of Glamour magazine.

Although Biech makes a number of good points in her text here, the vast majority of it can be chocked up to common sense. The workbook fill-in forms are nice if you're the sort of person that is so unorganized that you need your hand held at every step, but in all honesty if you fall into that category you probably shouldn't be thinking about a consulting career in the first place. Unfortunately I feel like their primary purpose is just to take up space, and make the book feel longer and more useful than it really is. If you boil this "quick start guide" down to the few pages that are actually worthwhile, you wouldn't even have enough pages to fill a pamphlet. Look elsewhere.

This book is awful...a complete waste of time for anyone with half a brain...if you only have half a brain, feel free to buy it. It's overly simplistic, obvious, insultingly simple and unlikely to help a budding consultant make a dime. If you want REAL advise, pick up any of Alan Weiss's books.

Ok, so I wasn't impressed...

This book is definately good at one thing: it makes you think about some important issues of starting your own practice, and it has lots of assignments that I think may be useful. That earns it two stars.

However, what makes this book less useful than, say, "getting started in consulting" (A. Weiss), is the fact that there is no emphasis on creating value for your customer(and setting your fees based upon that value). What Biech is saying is actually that you should divide what you think you should earn in a year by the days you expect to work etc. So whether you help a client gain $50000 or $500000 added value should make no difference on your paycheck... Being value- oriented would help you wether we're talking about gaining clients, getting your fair pay or establishing business relationships. This book hardly touches the issue, even though it's important in so many areas of the business.

What I'm saying boils down to this: There being so many better books on the subject, I see no reason to buy this one. I did, and I'd rather have spent my money on something else.

Too simple, bordering simplistic. I would have hoped for some deeper advice addressed to people who are assumed to be more sophisticated and lettered than the average person.

I have read better accounts of dramatic innings, games, and seasons than are found here. However, Halberstam's reporting brings to life many players who were just names to me. Jerry Coleman, Tommy Henrich, Bobby Doerr, Mel Parnell, and others played before my time, and it's clear that Halberstam spent many hours with them and grew to understand them as human beings, and not just as ballplayers.

This is not the right book for a statistics buff, I agree -- but it does bring back a very different era to a baseball fan of the 21st century.

Halberstam was a brilliant man whose writing only occasionally reflected that brilliance. His sports books are weak; this is probably the strongest one, but that is not saying much.

When I read this book I felt like I was a kid again. I grew up in the sixties and was not a fan of either the Yankees or the Red Sox. But, I loved baseball, enjoyed reading about the players from the past and loved it when my dad and others told me stories about baseball from the "old days". David Halberstam tells us the story of the dramatic 1949 pennant race between the Yankees and the Red Sox. He tells us not only about Teddy Ballgame and Joltin' Joe but also about the other great ballplayers on those teams. I really enjoyed learning about the contributions that were made by Reynolds, Raschi, Henrich, Kinder, Parnell and Birdie Tebbetts. Halberstam seems to know everything about the 1949 race and it appears that he was able to interview many of the players involved in the race. Halberstam is of course a great story teller and he is incredibly good at weaving cultural issues from that era into the book. Some of the items that Halberstam reveals in the book were shocking to me. This is a story from a by-gone era and you'll be surprised at a number of the business decisions that were made by the Red Sox and the Yankees and the impact of those decisions. It took me months to read the book because every couple of pages I found myself reflecting on something Halberstam wrote. For me, this was not a book to rush through. It was a book to savor. If you are over 50 you might really enjoy this book. If you are a Yankee fan, you'll love this book. And finally, if you love baseball and love to read about the old days, you'll love this book.

The late David Halberstam wrote erudite books on a wide variety of subjects. Thankfully, one of his interests was baseball. He has produced several scholarly recreations of some of the most fascinating pennant races in baseball history. In "The Summer of '49," the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees were engaged in an epic struggle for the American League title that literally went into extra innings. For Boston, it was the second consecutive season that the team tied for first place at season's end. The Cleveland Indians upset the Red Sox in 1948 and spoiled Boston's opportunity to host a city series (the Boston Braves had won the NL flag). Unlike the National League, which featured a three game playoff series format to break ties, the American League had a one game sudden death tiebreaker.

There plenty of information on the Boston/New York rivalry included in the book, but I was particularly interested in the developments that changing the game, not necessarily for the better. Television broadcasts were responsible for boosting fan interest in the baseball games and temporarily filling restaurants and taverns since few households owned their own television sets; within a few years, the same establishments were empty as people chose to remain at home watching television programs and the pace of the games was altered to permit more commercials to air. Announcers like Mel Allen became immediate local celebrities.

The 1949 season marked the arrival of Casey Stengel as the manager of the Yankees and witnessed Joe Dimaggio spending a significant amount of time on the disabled list. The Red Sox were managed by former Yankee skipper Joe McCarthy and seemed to rely upon two overworked pitchers, Mel Parnell and Ellis Kinder, almost exclusively. Both teams featured numerous All Stars, including Ted Williams, Tommy Heinrich, Phil Rizzutto and many more. Most importantly, the players in this era cared about winning.

I did notice two errors in the photo section. Main one was a picture of Tommy Henrich scoring after a home run off Don Newcombe. The caption below brings attention to Newcombe walking off the field after the hit. The error is the player walking off is not Newcombe, but 1B Gil Hodges. How do I know that? I knew all the Dodger numbers in those days and the player walking off is # 14 - Hodges. Newcombe was # 36 and not in the picture. The picture above this one transcribes two names, Hodges and Duke Snider I think. Minor stuff. Great book

Easy, pleasurable read. Couldn't put it down. Looking forward to the Hallmark movie February 14, 2008!

So I absolutely adored this book. I love the timeless love story between Neil and Carolyn.

I lent the book to my mother and gave her a box of Kleenex to go along with it. She chuckled at the tissues at first, but then, when she started to read it, she understood.

In my opinion, it is a beautiful story that shows love never fails. I cried through the whole book.

Unfortunately, I lent it to a co-worker, who, when she left, took my book with her. This is one to treasure forever. Best when read on a windy, rainy, cold day....

As a reader who's tired of all the so-called "romance" novels, I was hesitant to pick this book up. Once I'd started it, I couldn't put it down. This book is both a war adventure and a story about TRUE love, the way it was designed to be. I bought this book because I knew I'd end up reading it more than once!

I usually dont like love stories but this is not your usual love story. It has everything you want in a book .its one you cant put down. anyone that has ever been crazy in love will love this book.

THE LAST VALENTINE, written by James Michael Pratt is a book of faith, hope, devotion, and most of all never-ending love. A writer Neil Thomas Jr. wants to share the amazing story of the unconditional love his parents shared. Susan Allison just happens to be looking for a love story that she believes cannot exist. The story is of Lt. Neil Thomas and his wife, Caroline. Lt. Thomas must leave his wife and unborn child for war on their first anniversary, February 14, 1944. From Union Station, he gives her a long goodbye and a promise. For fifty years, on the very day they said good bye she returns to Union Station, hoping for the promise he made. On their fifith anniversary, just two days after finding out the true story of her husbands heroic death, she recieves his last valentine. The story of Neil Jr's parents gives him the hope that maybe he will be able to find a love as pure as the love his mother and father shared, and give Susan Allison the faith that there really is love that is strong enough to last through anything.
The Last Valentine was one of the best books I have ever read. At times, I would get confused when the book would continue changing from the past to the present and back to the past, I was unsure of what time era I was reading about. However, I really enjoyed how James Michael Pratt, the author, set up the reading of his book. Even though it could be confusing it allowed for me to understand the whole story. The book allowed for romance and the action of war to keep the story going and it allowed for me to feel and imagine what was happening during the whole book. I would recommend this book for people who don't mind emotional books, and who enjoy reading about romance continuing to last through the burden of World War II.

My husband has this book and we bought it for a friend who just retired and became a consultant. My husband thinks it is one of the best books on consulting that he's read.

Block's book has been around awhile, and was the first purchase I made as I contemplated moving into the "independent consultant" game. Block's straightforward approach to dealing with each phase of the consulting engagement, and his insights on handling difficult situations in the business have been invaluable to me. Eight years and many client engagements later, I still find myself referring to it often, both as a refresher and as an inspiration, and I've purchased literally dozens of copies to give to colleagues and clients alike. Truly a classic, and a "must have" for anyone who consults, or who hires consultants.

This was an amazing book from the standpoint that it identifies why recognizing your own biases and emotions is important to the consulting you do. I highly recommend it!

This is the essence of this book.

Full of practical and common sense ideas for consulting professionals. Can't say that it will teach you how to be flawless in your consulting services but it will give you some pretty solid ideas.

If you are a seasoned consultant who has been applying Block's theory of consulting for a decade or two, as we have at One Big Idea Consulting Limited NZ, and if you are also, as we are,committed to 'flawless' consulting, which by definition is beyond human measurement, this audio is a solid investment of your time and concentration.

Be warned it is not for the superficial US American habit of commuter listening. Block is serious about his intention to release 'flawless' consulting skills, which are extremely rare globally. He deserves focus and concentration all the way through more than once.

Listen with head-phones and no distractions and no multi-tasking, for say, half-dozen times through his whole story... and go back into your client-centred world with renewed dedication and refreshed facilitation skills at a consulting core-level.

The only international consultant who is worthy of comparison is Rapid Results!: How 100-Day Projects Build the Capacity for Large-Scale Change Schaffer is also a very, very competent consultant with his own One Big Idea tough-tested in a wide range of 100-Day Action Projects around the world, unfortunately so far not on audio.

After reading good reviews of this book by Author William R. Stanek, I purchased a copy from Amazon. From what I've read so far, the information contained within seems great. My problem is with the actual pages separating from the binding. As I'm reading up on the subject of Group Policy on page 95, the pages were coming apart from the binding. After reading some reviews of other Microsoft Press books on Amazon, I noticed this seems to be a common problem. How can this be a reference to use over and over again if the pages are falling out. Any chance of getting a new copy that remains together after turning a few pages?

This book is great for quick reference to just about every WinServer2003 issue / reminder that you might need.

Well done book. Easy to understand for System Admin. Most of information you need to do your job.

This book covers with essential information for a network administrator.

The author is very knowledge about the Windows 2003 server and the book is very well written in very simple readable manner with lots of "screen shots".

This is the book I used the most! You will be amazed how many new things are added in the Windows 2003 Server. The first five chapters covered essentials information like server configuration, system monitoring, and performance tuning etc. Second five chapters covered area like Active Directory and Computer management such like users, group, policies etc. Remaining of the book covered area like RAID, Disaster Recovery, Files Sharing, Printer Server set up, and Network related issues.

The book is simple, easy to read, down to the points for day to day use! I would recommand this book to anyone who are in the System Administration or just want to learn more about Window 2003 Server. It Can't go wrong with $29.99. Get another book by Stanek too if you are a database administrator "Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Administrator's Pocket Consultant".

Very sharp focus, how to do everything in frank and complete style, nice little book. It does "how to" but not "why to", that is it does not usually tell you whether option is better than another. I also bought "SQL Server 2005 Programming" by Robert Vieira, have not had enough time to review that one, but I found it did offer the kind of information on options that I was seeking, passed it around and it got some good discussions started.

This book helped me, when I was working on my Masters, to formulate a pattern that exists with polluters: deny there's a problem; deny the problem is important; deny they had anything to do with the problem; blame the victim; seek government immunity from prosecution.

Given the current crop of scientific, corporate and government blunders -- bad pharmaceuticals, fatal side effects, toxic toys, tainted food and more -- this book should be read again now, as a new book. It's completely relevant.

One thing that the authors don't think about is that: Most people are not only not educated enough to understand the specialist jargon that goes with many industrial products, but that if they did try to interpret it *based on their limited information/ understanding* disaster would result.

The authors also don't get into what happens when a well meaning government agency overregulates an industry SO MUCH that it ends up being of benefit to no one. Examples abound-- that were not dealt with in the book.

1. The FDA has such tight regulations on drugs that they end up costing 2-3 times more to produce/ sell to the American public than what they should. And much of this cost is legal fees, excessive testing, and clinical trials.

2. The trucking industry is also something that is heavily regulated. There is a chronic shortage of truck drivers in the industry because there are so many regulations that many people who would be perfectly competent truck drivers can't get a chance at working. (For reference, automobiles kill 40,000+ Americans per year, and trucks kill about 900. An average truck driver might drive 55 hours per week compared to the single digit hours that are driven by a passenger car.)

3. Everyone is whining about the price of gas, but no one knows whether the high cost is because of refineries operating at peak capacity or because of insufficient existing oil supplies. No one will ever be able to test this, since a single refinery has not been built in the last 30 years in the United States.

If people were able to regulate industries by the political process (say, by referenda or voting for candidates that would pass strict legislation), whatever came along after what currently exists would be FAR WORSE.

These authors need to pick up some books on Economics-- specifically ones that deal with information asymmetry (as in, how corporations have a better idea of what they are doing than third party observers).

Other than that, the book is very well written with lots of good examples. It's worth picking up-- in spite of my low rating thereof.

Capitalism - market economy - free enterprise - these are the jewels in the crown of civilization which, since the renaissance, have brought unprecedented wealth, prosperity and freedom to large parts of the world. Capitalism has struggled and eventually triumphed over its historical adversaries; in earlier times, popes and kings and in our time socialism and communism. In the 21st century, since the collapse of the Berlin Wall, international corporate capitalism is bursting, like fireworks, in triumph; merging, globalizing and buying governments. What puny opposition remains is easily dispatched with a broad range of powerful weapons which have been developed over the years. Today the only real threat to capitalism is capitalism!
Socialists may practice socialism and Christians may practice Christianity but if by capitalism we mean a competitive market driven economic system, then capitalists do not practice capitalism. Theorists notwithstanding, capitalism is not an ideology, it is merely a description. Capitalists are not trying to implement some philosophy, they are only trying to make a buck any way they can. To a capitalist the biggest enemy is not socialism or labor unions or liberals or environmentalists, or even big government, the biggest enemy is risk. Risk of not making money. Risk of losing money.
Making money and avoiding risk in doing so is what capitalism is all about. But it is precisely in the risk taking that society draws its benefits from capitalism. That is the dilemma. Risk promotes wise investment resulting in efficiency, innovation and the creation of wealth, not just for the capitalist but for society as a whole. But a lot of capitalists fall by the wayside in the process. It is in the capitalist's interest to eliminate risk and society's interest to prevent them from doing so. The way to avoid risk is to control the market and to do that they must also control the government. This struggle has been going on for hundreds of years: capitalists forming monopolies, oligarchies and trusts and society breaking them up.
So long as society can keep pace with all the tricks and turns that capitalists take to avoid risk, the world would continue to reap the blessings of capitalism. But for the capitalists to succeed in eliminating risk, they would have to eliminate competition resulting in a monopoly of corporations with as much efficiency and innovation as any government bureaucracy. The ultimate risk-free climax would be monopoly and oligarchy and the corporate-run government necessary to keep it that way -- functionally indistinguishable from a Mafia run state or a Stalinist one. Capitalism, instead of an engine which pumps wealth to society and makes some capitalist wealthy in the process, would become an engine which sucks the wealth out of society, making a handful wealthy by impoverishing the rest.
We see this process going on in third world countries today and we are seeing the beginnings of it at home, in America. All three branches of government are increasingly under the control of corporations. Both political parties are addicted to corporate financing. Mergers, acquisitions and globalization, all techniques for eliminating risk, are rampant. The media is being merged and taken over by corporations and increasingly being used as public relations outlets for the corporations.
Right now society is not keeping pace. The tricks and turns that corporate capitalists use to avoid risk have gotten trickier and twistier. Just as a mosquito injects an anesthetic so that you will not feel it is sucking your blood, corporations are coopting the very processes by which people recognize what is going on so that more and more we are living in a virtual reality without realizing it. Sort of like a Potemkin village or like the movie The Truman Story where a boy is born and raised on a television set without knowing it. And as corporations merge and grow larger, they have even bigger budgets to build even more elaborate and convincing "sets". But this is not science fiction. The "sets" are being built around us as you read this.
Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber of the Center for Media & Democracy have been documenting this process for years. Their publications include a quarterly newsletter, PR Watch, and several books including: Toxic Sludge Is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry, Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?, and now Trust Us, We're Experts. While flippant and amusing, these books and articles tell a very chilling story of corporate public relations manipulation and spin control growing exponentially in size, audacity and sophistication.
The "father of public relations", Rampton and Stauber point out in Trust Us, is Edward L. Bernays, son in law and disciple of Sigmund Freud. By following Bernays' philosophy one can see the road map to the future. Here are some of his ideas [pp 42 - 44]:

** scientific manipulation of public opinion is necessary to overcome chaos and conflict in society
** In almost every act of our lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons ... who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind.
** while most people respond to their world instinctively, without thought, there exist an intelligent few who have been charged with the responsibility of contemplating and influencing the tide of history
** public relations is an applied science, like engineering, through which society's leaders could bring order out of chaos
** being herd like also made people remarkably susceptible to leadership.

Of course that "leadership" can only be exercised by those who can afford the price of the Hill & Knowltons and APCOs of this world.
Here are some cases of virtual reality cited in their latest book. Big contributions, free junkets and the promise of future jobs are the more obvious ways of corrupting legislators but less obvious and more subtle is the use of public relations to actually manipulate the "facts". A typical example of how this works is illustrated on page 14.
"In the Fall of 1997, Georgetown University's Credit Research Center issued a study which concluded that many debtors are using bankruptcy as an excuse to wriggle out of their obligations to creditors. Lobbyists for bank and credit card companies seized on the study as they lobbied Congress for changes in federal law that would make it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy relief. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen cited the study in a Washington Times opinion column, offering Georgetown's academic imprimatur as evidence of the need for `bankruptcy reform'. What Bentsen failed to mention was that the Credit Research Center is funded in its entirety by credit card companies, banks, retailers, and others in the credit industry. The study itself was produced with a $100,000 grant from Visa USA and MasterCard International Inc. Bentsen also failed to mention that he himself had been hired to work as a credit-industry lobbyist."
Coopting and distorting the very sources of knowledge and information which informed people, legislators, scientists, government officials, the press, etc. rely on as being objective and scientific is one of the most clever and the most egregious techniques for creating virtual reality. As an EPA employee I have seen many examples of self-serving corporate sponsored "scientific" studies being foisted off on EPA and used to justify weak ineffective regulations or no regulations at all. The fraud, if discovered at all, is rarely discovered by EPA. In the absence of high level support there is very little incentive for science bureaucrats to look closely at studies with powerful backers.
From p. 199: If you want to know just how craven some scientists can be, the archives of the tobacco industry offer a treasure trove of examples. Thanks to whistle-blowers and lawsuits, millions of pages of once-secret industry documents have become public and are freely available over the Internet. In 1998, for example, documents came to light regarding an industry- sponsored campaign in the early 1990s to plant sympathetic letters and articles in influential medical journals. Tobacco companies had secretly paid 13 scientists a total of $156,000 simply to write a few letters to influential medical journals. One biostatistician, Nathan Mantel of American University in Washington, received $10,000 for writing a single, eight-paragraph letter that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Cancer researcher Gio Batta Cori received $20,137 for writing four letters and an opinion piece to the Lancet, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and the Wall Street Journal - nice work if you can get it, especially since the scientists didn't even have to write the letters themselves. Two tobacco-industry law firms were available to do the actual drafting and editing. All the scientists really had to do was sign their names at the bottom."
If the virtual reality created by public relation firms were only limited to selling toothpaste and deodorant we might not get too concerned about it. Falsifying medical research to defend harmful and dangerous products is a troublesome escalation. But there appears to be no limits to the uses of PR and no concern by the users of its ultimate impact. The issue of global warming, which could possibly plunge humanity into a new dark age, is being surrounded by the fog of virtual reality by the practitioners of PR as if the stakes were no more important than the selling of mouthwash.
Rampton and Stauber point out in pp 267-288 of Trust Us that PR firms hired by the major industrial emitters of greenhouse gasses have created dozens of influential sounding front organization such as "The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition", "The Global Climate Information Project", "The Information Council for the Environment" and "The Greening Earth Society" which have saturated the media, Congress and the public with industry spin so as to make their case by sheer volume and noise. Since the facts and the scientific community are so overwhelming against them, the object of the public relations onslaught has been to slow down, confuse and defuse public clamor for resolute action. Friends of the Earth International calls this "lobbying for lethargy".
There is legitimate scientific debate about the source and rate of global warming and a lot of the spin addresses that, but a lot doesn't. Some of the dirtier tricks played are:

** An attempt to stimulate anti Kyoto Treaty email to President Clinton by promising to enter writers' names in a $1000 sweepstakes drawing.
** Appealing to anti-abortion activists with the claim that "Al Gore has said abortion should be used to reduce global warming."
** Touting phoney petitions of scientists discrediting the theory of global warming.
** Circulating phoney "scientific" papers made up to look like they had appeared in reputable peer reviewed scientific journals.
** Some industry flacks claim the Earth is actually cooling while other claim that global warming is a good thing.

The scary thing is that lobbying for lethargy is working.

Clearly written, easy to read fast, adequately indexed, and academically referenced, this book is a mixture of excellent investigative reporting when the subject is chicanery, good general advice on not being fooled, but appalling lapses on a few technical subjects. When the authors explain how much of what we see or read is composed by public relations (PR) firms, even pointing out that as much of 40% of what is in newspapers is supplied by PR firms, they are at their best. Many excellent examples are given. The common techniques of faking "impartial" experts (who are actually paid consultants), and dummy NGOs that are industry fronts are explained in detail. One "impartial expert" case that surprised me was that of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop who was said to have taken money from industry for favorable testimony. One case was that of his denying allergies from latex gloves (p257). PR for politicians is given some airing as well. PR techniques of admitting past guilt, promising to reform, and showing concern are all there. The authors wrote that organizations that can pay the most to PR firms are the ones that can cause the most damage. Their bias is shown by neglecting exaggeration and junk science from environmental groups. They wrote that "junk science" is an undefined term used by industry apologists. They give examples of how easy it is to fool typical American citizens, including ones with college degrees (p290), yet they have faith that providing accurate information, most of which may have to be sought out as opposed to broadcast on TV, will somehow inform enough citizens to make a difference to their preferences and votes. Well I, for one, wish it were true. IMHO their last chapter "Questioning Authority" is the best, with examples of propaganda, such as name-calling, testimonials, bandwagon, fear, etc. But they themselves resort to this on some issues. There are some recommended resources of which their own periodical PR Watch and www.prwatch.org should be valuable so long as they stick to the tricks of the PR trade and avoid actual technical issues they do not understand, as shown in examples below.

Consumers' Union, which really is funded from subscriptions, is held up as an ideal example. But during the 40 years I subscribed, I was appalled at the failure of Consumer Reports to warn about the tendency of several models rear-engined cars with swing axles to turn over; a mistaken report that one model spun out on hard braking; two tire scams since the 1970s ignored; a biased medical advisor from about 1980-2000 who dismissed all supplements; and CU's change from real consumer focus to promoting environmental stands of dubious accuracy. There were so many errors in one of CR's articles on choosing a camera that one of the major photography magazines devoted an entire issue to them. But CU is honest!

What a shock to find that these worldly and cynical authors swallowed, hook, line and sinker, two of the biggest scams of the twentieth century! First they wrote that total fat and saturated fat are bad diet choices for diabetics (p15ff). This nonsense had been dispelled in at least 30 books, many old enough for these authors to have seen. You can e-mail me for a list: kauffman@bee.net. One recent clinical trial of many showing the benefits of low-carb high-fat diets is: Nielsen JV, Joensson EA, Low-carbohydrate diet in type 2 diabetes. Stable improvement of bodyweight and glycaemic control during 22 months follow-up, Nutrition & Metabolism 2006;3(22) doi:10.1186/1743-7075-3-22.

The other was on potentially "uncontrollable and unprecedented" global warming caused by human emissions of carbon dioxide. A sure sign of bias is the term "greenhouse gases" when only carbon dioxide is really meant. Authors wrote that "...concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are currently at their highest level in 420,000 years." (p268) First, the main greenhouse gas by far is water vapor, and no one knows what its concentration in air was more than 200 years ago. See: Kauffman JM (2004), Water in the Atmosphere, Journal of Chemical Education, B81(8), 1229-30. Second, direct chemical assays of carbon dioxide found it at levels higher than now at least three times between 1812 to 1965, so there is no correlation between carbon dioxide and warming, and there was no runaway warming. See: Beck, E.-G. (2007), 180 Years of Atmospheric CO2 Gas Analysis by Chemical Methods, Energy & Environment, 18(2), 259-282. The value of carbon dioxide as a fertilizer is omitted, yet there are fears that not enough food can be grown in the future for an exaggerated population expansion (p269). The "bandwagon"ploy is used to dismiss 20,000 scientists and engineers who signed the petition from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine (www.oism.org & hit "petition project") stating that the current warming is not caused by carbon dioxide emissions. Authors claim that fake signatures sent by e-mail abound on the website. Actually, written signatures had to be mailed, and a check for the fake signatures listed in "Trust Us..." found none of them. Authors fearfully claim that 1998 was "...the hottest year ever..."(p285) when actually the 1930s were warmer than the 1990s, and the period from 1000-1450 AD was warmer still. See: Soon, W., Baliunas, S. (2003), Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years, Climate Research, 23, 89-110. And every year since 1998 has been cooler.

Of many minor questionable claims, the authors wrote that "lead" in gasoline is actually tetraethyllead, a poison. OK. But they did not know enough chemistry to realize that it does not exit the tailpipe of cars as "lead" but as lead bromide, which is so insoluble that it barely damaged plants near roads (p91). Nor did they realize that the end of leaded gasoline in the USA was the finding that it damaged catalytic converters (p95). Devra Lee Davis is their star witness on environmental cancer prevalence, but you might look at my review of her book "The Secret History of the War on Cancer".

If everybody believes something, it's probably wrong! We call that Conventional Wisdom. "Trust Us We're Experts" is one of the few books that I recommend to all of my patients that enter my office. The information in this book has the power to potentially save your life, since it provides the reader with the tools to spot propaganda that's regularly disseminated to the masses.

Americans are the most conditioned, programmed beings on the planet. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased! It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public consciousness by a thousand media clips per day. I feel that Stauber and Rampton do an excellent job at guiding the reader through the PR industry and expert deception that is propagated daily. My recommendation is to buy this book today then kill your TV!

Dr. Matthew J. Loop

- Author of "Cracking the Cancer Code"

I got this new job where I am working overnight shifts (11P-7A) and by proxy have refound my long lost love: reading.

I got through nearly 260pg. of this book last night and can't WAIT to get to work to finish it up... I'm engrossed with Gaby, Alex, Eguchi... At the moment, I want to spit in Lester's face... I have been drawn in and can't put it down.

AWESOME!

This isn't a bad book, as the one who labeled it "doggeral" states, but it isn't life altering, either. The characters are thinly drawn and the plot has some frustrating run-arounds that seem like contrivances. The ending is satisfactory and inspired and there are plenty of gaijin references that would most likely be missed by folks who have never spent significant time here. These are funny and bring up feelings of understanding from those of us who know Japan and, to be honest, made this book more interesting than it might be to others.
This is an easy read and a pleasant fiction piece that, while it won't fill you with complex philosophical jewels, will engage you while you're riding on the JR.

Truly horrible. I very rarely do this, but I felt compelled to launch this mess into the trash. Full of bigotry, anger, frustration, gross mischaracterizations, misrepresentations, and envy, this book was clearly an act of theraputic lashing out by an older foreign woman who felt isolated and unattractive while living overseas. Not a good reason to write a book. The unimpressive writing style could have been overlooked if not for the offensive tone. Not everyone is suited to life in a different culture, and there are those foreigners living in Japan who spend most of their time carping about everything and never move past that stage in the assimilation process. The author seems to have been of just such ilk. Perhaps most problematic about this kind of writing is that many people who do not have first-hand knowledge of life in Japan may swallow all of the author's bile whole and uncritically and her negativity will be transmitted like a virus. I absolutely recommend against going anywhere near this mess.

two years ago i picked this up at *&* (another bookstore) to read while waiting for someone. i got about 1/3 through it then had to go. i wanted to finish it so checked the library - our library system didn't own it, wouldn't buy it, and never could manage to ILL it for me. so i just gave up. but over time, i couldn't get the story out of my head - what happened? of course, each time i went back, i would look for it, but by then i had forgotten both title and author.

last month i couldn't stand not knowing, so i did some searches on amazon and found it after some tedium. finally, i was able to finish it! definitely worth the time to find. i loved the characters - i didn't find any of them truly evil, even the Big Bad Baddie was understandable from his point of view - and some, like Gabi's boss Eguchi, were surprisingly multifaceted. it was a nice balance of mystery and characters and setting.

i LOVED the ending. it was exactly as it should be. no hollywood ending here. i'll be looking for more by this author, set in japan or not.

AMERICAN FUJI is a great read--I feel like I have just returned from a long vacation to Japan. Sara Backer captures the Japanese culture and helps me understand it. From the fascinating funeral director who only speaks English in Beatles' song lyrics to the lame female secretary who secretly rebels against rigid Japanese society, the story kept me reading and pleasantly surprised on every page. I recommend it to anyone~

Highly recommended. I'm a new consultant in the field of personal productivity, and this is coming in handy. Great stories, many "laws," and inspirations for those of us who are new to what value we can give to clients.

Developing your soft and thinking skills...a concept not just for consultants. Summarily, the focus is on listening first, listening second, confirming what you heard third, and then proposing multiple potential solutions rather than assuming the answer is known. The focus is on building blocks of relational problem solving being given more weight than a curriculum vitae full of classes, awards and companies.

Jerry is a dynamic and charismatic writer. This book is nothing short of a classic! I highly recommend this book to business execs and consultants alike.

Maybe its the very american style in which this book is written, but I am afraid it switched me right off. Sorry couldnt recommend this to an English user - AT ALL!

Along with "The Art of War", I read this book 3-4 times a year. Why? Because I keep falling back to the silly state I was in before I first read them.

I think the title throws off a lot of people. This really isn't a book about consulting as a business. Heck, it's not even about consulting as a hobby. Actually, the book isn't about consulting. It's about communication...hence the "...Giving and Getting Advice Successfully" part of the title.

Look, most of the time, when a person has a problem, it's not because of lack of intelligence that he can't solve the problem. This book goes a LONG way explaining why it's a culture, or context, or perception problem and that the person consulted isn't there because he's smarter. It may be that the situation just doesn't ALLOW the problem to be solved. Or it may be that the person has been experiencing the problem too long.

As an example, like any couple, my wife and I ask each other to do things. Some of the time, we REALLY need the other person to do exactly what was asked. The problem was that neither of us could discern those situations. So, I took Gerald's advice and created a trigger. Now, when either of us makes a request and then follows it with the trigger, the other party not only agrees to do the thing....but recognizes that they better do or suffer the consequences. (BTW, the trigger is "It's important to me." When I hear those words from her, I KNOW I need to really listen to what she's saying.)

If you read this book and only learn 1 secret that improves your communication, then you'll get your money back in spades. Or, be like me, reread it on a regular basis, and grow.

This is an exceptionally clear text. All the basics of corporate finance are covered with real life examples taken from real corporations (large and small). The explanation of the concepts and the logic behind all accounting parameters is very clear. Higgins knows his stuff well and does a great job in guiding the reader to a good understanding of the subject. The material is well organized and it flows in a logical manner. Mr. Higgins even managed to sprinkle some humor throughout the text, which makes it all the more enjoyable.
This book is worth every penny.

It is one of the best books I have ever used for course reference. One of the reviewers (on the back cover) taught me the Corporate Finance course at HBS with this book as the reference text and it was a great learning experience. I also find this book as a great reference material for my CFA exam. Can't wait to get my hands on the next edition.

Beware which version is purchased! I purchased a "new" copy of version 4. (The version number was not advertised.) The current version number is 8 and it appears to be only available from the current publisher, McGraw Hill as an $85- paperback. If you are not taking a class the older version may be ok but I am in a class.

The CURRENT VERSION IS 8

I am in the financial services field and a self learner, too. I wanted this book for my business library and to help me brush up on financial analysis. This book did not disappoint me. It is very well written, although I would recommend a newer edition.

Unlike most textbooks the book by Higgins can actually be an engaging read. It doesn't get into too many technical details on any of the subject matters covered, but includes some interesting sections that I haven't found in other general (and much heavier) financial management books. For instance, I liked the appendix on the venture capital method of valuation and the explanation on how venture capitalists arrive at a required percentage ownership given multiple rounds of financing.

It was used as a background text for a case study course that I took as part of an MS in finance program and I believe most of us enjoyed it..

This is a book that every Windows system administrator and every Windows power user should have.

Stanek is widely and justifiably known as an expert in Windows administration. In this terse volume, he shows just how powerful the commnd line is in Windows and how to take maximum advantage of that power through direct commands and scripting. He does, in fact, provide a short and very effective "course" in command-line scripting.

In 25 chapters, Stanek walks through every major area of system administration and shows how powerful the command-line can be.

Stanek truly knows his business and his style is admirably concise. One of the must-have books for anyone who really wants to become a Windows virtuoso.

Jerry

Every so often, you may need to do something in command line form, and this book will help you remember what you know you can do, but can't quite remember how.

I bought this book because it was put out through the same publisher that makes the Windows xxxx Administrator Pocket consultant. I hadn't formed any opinion until I sat down and actually read it. It's well written, interesting and very informative. It has many syntactically correct working examples of how to do admin work on some section of a Windows Server or Workstation. A good reference source also.

This is a useful reference to have. It covers everything from configuring network interfaces to writing your own scripts. If you are using an older version of Windows or you have Windows XP Home edition, there are a lot of commands in this book that are going to be about as valuable to you as a half-chewed cat turd.

If you have access to Active Directory on the Windows Server platform, then you'll learn about a whole host of powerful utilities and commands that will make your life easier and make you feel pretty cool about yourself, too.

This book is very good for System administrators wanting quick fix to everyday administration problems.