2D Books

"Leading self-directed work teams" consists of 6 parts. The first part introduces the concept of self-directed work teams, it's history and especially the difference between traditional organizations and self-directed work teams. Part 2 gives a case study from Kodak. Part 3 talks about the assumptions that leaders in organizations have and how it affects the SDWT. Part 4 describes the role of the team leader and a description on what team leaders do day-to-day (there are actually 2 part 4s, which is kinda weird). Part 5 talks about problems and solutions and the final part gives some tests which you can do to see how suitable you are for a team leader (I need some minor changes, it says).

I loved the beginning of the book. The first couple of chapters were fantastic and I quickly finished part 1. I didn't find the case study interesting. I liked part 3 quite a lot, but then when the book went on I felt it was not getting much better. The author tried to think of concrete tools for a team leader to use, but somehow they didn't feel natural (like the 5 stages of team leaders). Near the end of the book, I felt something was missing from the book. I don't know exactly what it is, maybe the team member perspective, maybe more concrete tools. (simulation games?)

Despite the above critique, I recommend the book to anyone involved or interested in self-directed teams. Kimball Fisher wrote in a clear style which kept me reading the book. Theory was followed with concrete examples. It's not a lot of pages so it's easy to read in a relative short time.

I learned a lot from this book. I'm a promoter of SDWT in my organization and the book made me realize how difficult the transition is. How difficult it is for supervisors to adopt their new roles and for team leader to broaden their job responsibility. It clarified my experiences. SDWT are the future but the part towards them in long.

As other reviewers have noted, an interesting read for the military leader and "ops" guy alike. But at the end of the day I tend to lump this book together with the tedious, dime-a-dozen management specials out there. As a former military officer I'll be the first to toe the line and admit that a lot of what Mr. Fisher explores is right on target - just not new territory.

At the end of the day, a good primer (or refresher) but not entirely college math.

Kimball Fisher provides a revised, updated look at the techniques for successfully leading self-directed work teams (SDWTs). He draws on basic principles described in his earlier book of the same name. SDWTs are effective, and growing in popularity. Fisher focuses on how leaders must adapt to make them work. He emphasizes the need to truly empower and support workers. He underscores the importance of making the team adaptable to the work itself, rather than clinging to a particular structure. Fisher combines principles with examples and how-to tips that you can apply in your own organization. He provides good summaries of each chapter's highlights. We [...] recommend this well-organized, clearly written book. While some of its contents are similar to recent books on creating teams, empowering employees and using a better management style, it is an excellent recap and a good guide for anyone new to team-building methods.

***The second industrial revolution is definitely in full swing. As we progress from the traditional style organizational leadership and head towards team-building and progressive leadership, this book illuminates what will work. So many leaders in the military have failed to adapt to the cultural changes of the new millenium, and thus the failure to retain Officers and Enlisted alike. All military leaders must accept that fact that EMPOWERMENT is the key to organizational success. This book defines what empowerment is and how to effectively implement the "Self-Directed Work Teams." Covers what a true leader is how "barking direct orders" is not effective as empowering others to perform. Set boundaries instead of rules. I am a military Officer and have seen many times the follies that many Officers make when making leadership decisions. This book not only shows you what is wrong with the traditional systems, but also how to implement effective leadership.

*******A MUST READ FOR ALL MILITARY LEADERS AND CIVILIAN MANAGERS*** DEFINETLY A GREAT BOOK!!!! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO ALL AS A GROWING TOOL. READ IT, LEARN IT, USE IT!

This book is a solid how-to manual for leading self-directed work teams. Kimball does a great job of explaining what self-directed teams are all about and how to lead them.

Leading self-directed team may sound like paradox, but these teams need a special type of leadership. This book goes beyond theory to explain the realities of making these teams really work. Easy-to-read with plenty of examples.

* Mark Kelly, coauthor of MASTERING TEAM LEADERSHIP: 7 ESSENTIAL COACHING SKILLS

i went up to borders and guess what they had two of a kind up to 28 and most of all THE NEW ADVENTURES now i am nineteen but i love all mka books an this is my first new adventure book this is a big deal for us new zealanders should you buy it yes or you are missing something

IN THIS STORY DRUMS AND STUFF GET STOLEN. THEY CAN NOT DO THE CONCERT. OH NO!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I admit that this book WAS mysterious and you have no idea "whodunit" when you're reading this book. However, it was really cutesy and weird. In a mystery story, when detectives have this "oh, I am THE best detective and I can solve ANY case", which Mary-Kate and Ashley had in this book, it spoils the story. I was quite disappointed when I read this book. I almost didn't read the other Mary-Kate and Ashley mysteries after reading "The Rock Star's Secret."

This is a great book. It's about Mary-Kate and Ashley are in a band called the Sparkles. The place that they they are in is named after Johny Sparkles. Well ther is this will. It's that if there is a kid with red hair and two blond twins (like Mary-Kate and Ashley) and if they do a great job they will get to have a music center. Every thing is going good until someone puts dye in a person that has to sing he had red hair but now it's black. And there instrments get stolen. who did it?? Was it Maggie, the people that live down the stret?? Or was it Johny's manger?? It was.....? Read this book a find out who. This was one of my favorite Marry-Kate and Ashley books (Of the case books). I know you will. I sure did.

i thought this book was great, just like the other ones. I think that the book was very detailed, suprising, and wonderful! I hope mary-kate and ashely keep writing books as good as this one!

This book is fantastic. It was such a breath of fresh air to know that someone else understands what I'm going through. I read the book twice and still refer back to it from time to time. I'm not a avid reader...however, I read this in a day. Copeing with a "diffcult" BM comes with no answers...this book is a guide to remind you that its YOUR life and no matter how hard the BM tries to disrupt it, you have the right to keep her out. Even if your BM isn't that bad...its still worth the read - because you never know when things will go sour.

This book was heartless. The title should have been "No more child support payments, please, I may have to cut out my dance lessons in the city."

This book was so on time for me. I was at a point in my relationship with my fiance that I almost walked away because I felt as if he did not respect my feelings and concerns towards the way his bm was acting and the clueless way he was drawn into her drama. This book helped me to be able to communicate better and express my feelings and respect his feelings as well. We both have grown from this situation and have learned how to deal with bm on a level that we both agree on this time around. Things have been going a lot smoother since before I read this book. I wish that the author would right more books like this, like a follow up on how to handle everything after you have made the change of mind.

This book really hit the nail on the head! It was extremely helpful. It provided a lot of new information and confirmed what I already knew. It's good to know that you are not alone when you are dealing with a BM who is a lunatic, who has poisoned their child's mind. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who has this type of drama. A must read!!!!!!!

I recently became engaged to a perfect man with a horrible ex-
although there is not a lot of drama that I am dealing with (yet) I did feel SO much better that there is " someone on my side" in terms of difficulties and how to deal with them and hold on to your relationship. The author points out in several instances when the man should step in and handle it. It also made me realize and wake up to the fact that I am not just a bystander that I need to deal with the drama that she dishes out...Gallion makes it a point to encourage the reader when to stand up and demand respect from the baby mama.

Precalculus (8th Edition) is a great textbook. A little on the heavy side (as in the weight of the book, need a wheel barrel to get it around).

At the beginning I was a bit worried about the way the book explains the material. It seemed too simple for a book dealing with more complex subjects in math such as functions, trigonometry and analytic geometry. Then again it could be said that this quality is the one that makes the book such a joy to read.

Not a single time did I felt lost or confused by the presentation. Most of the graphics and photos do supplement the explanation, and help the reader grasp the information better. One of the highlights, one that perhaps most people will miss, is the simple review questions at the beginning of each section. These little snippets of previous material force the reader to review those concepts that will be essential for further understanding.

Every new section in the book is short and clear; thus reducing the amount of explanation, but at the same time maintaining just enough so that the reader will not feel lost in the many formulas and derivations. If this book does not get "5 starts" from my review it is only because it could be more mathematically rigorous by presenting more proofs. But by not doing so it increases the clarity and easy presentation the book possesses - great book well worth the price.

I taught 2 sections of precalculus with this book last spring. This book is well designed for self study. Examples are keyed to specific exercises so the student is directed to use a concept immediately after seeing it employed in a suitable exercise.

My one quibble with the book is the way trigonometry is introduced. It seems to be needlessly convoluted so if you are thinking of adopting it you should read the first two or three sections covering trig. I chose to supplement it with my own notes.

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants to supplement a high school precalculus course with a book that is stronger on theory vs. graphing calculator techniques. There are some very inadequate precalculus texts out there. If you are serious about mathematics and your school is using an approach that employs graphing calculators in a heavy way, you may want to use this book. In that case consider an older (cheaper) edition.

Update: Another reviewer comments that the 7th ed and the 6th ed may be significantly different. Well, they are not.

Bought the teachers edition and 2 solution manual books (1500+pages each) all for 63 bucks. BRAND NEW!

Anyways, this book I find to be a lot better than many many of the other math text books out there. What is nice about this book is the simple fact that it doesn't try as hard to fool you as the others. Other text books seem to be written by people that are really advanced and think, in a way, that we are as well. They sometimes don't realize that the stuff they put down into text books might be a lot harder to someone that doesn't have a firm gasp and understanding as they have.

I mean...don't you hate text books that give you examples and solutions, but all of the examples are of easy problems and the ones that you do want to know are not shown? In highschool, I didn't know weither to use my math text books to learn or use it as heating fuel for the winter nights. Listening to the teacher wasn't very helpful because he followed the pace of his more advance nerdy students and using the book to catch up helped as much as little if nothing.

This book, however, can actually teach you pretty much everything step by step, especially if you use it with the solutions manual which shows you step by step how the answers are achieved. For once, I'm learning more from the book than from the teacher. They should hire the book, it would be cheaper. I'm sure the book will grade us by a curve as well and be nicer to us. This whole summer semester I've been learning almost everything from the book, the teacher is just extra.

The way the book is made, its an accumalative (spelled wrongly I bet) kind of thing. You can learn it all if you go through it from a to z, beginnig to end. Of course you'll still need guidance here and there, but it is made so clearly that it gives you a peace of mind. Suddenly, the secret codes are being decoded.

A pretty looking book that'll probably cost you a bundle (USED in textbook store for $109!?) however is all worth it. Spend your money on something that is really worth it and get this, solutions manual about $35 more or less.

COLLEGE MATH: 1+1=3 (Learn it well young grasshopper, cause one day, we shall see which affects the other more)

why are the reviews for the 6th and 7th edition of this book the same? is there no difference between editions, such that reviews for the 6th should be kept for the 6th. the 7th edition might have changes that could cause some to review/change a viewpoint about its content. maybe at the core they are the same book/method, but it is overall a different book and the reviews should be kept edition specific.

it is my opinion that amazon will not post this as it obviously not a review, but it my contention that the 8 posted are not reviews of this edition, either. why are they posted?

I am working as a senior sales manager and think that the book is excellent and I highly recommmend it to every sales manager.
Other sales management are normally full of some theory and concept. However, this book by professor Robert J. Kevin is Super Super Super practical with many valuable and sensible tactics. I especially appreciate the chapter of staff motivation and recruiting. It is very useful and practical for managers to perform these duties effectively and efficiently. I believe that this book can help corporate to increase greatly this profitability by means of excellent sales management

While this book may have some useful information, it is not very interesting at all. At no point during my reading, did this book EVER catch my attention. I had to read it for a class, and only got through the first chapter.

The book is very important to refresh our thinkings about Sales.
There are a lot of ideas ( no new ideas ) that will help us to revival our Sales strategies and ways to manage our Sales Depts.

I've been reading a bunch of books on this topic lately, and this one is excellent (you wouldn't believe how bad some of them are).

It is fairly dense and not childish or cute at all. But it is very well-written, with each sentence saying what it says, and the next sentence saying the next thing that should be said.

Those of you looking for that rare book that is smart but accessible should give this one a try. I get the impression that if you got a sales management job, took a copy of this book to work, and just did what it says to do, every day, you'd be well above average at your job.

*******

Postscript to McGraw-Hill: The awful cover illustration probably cost you thousands of sales. This book is NOT about a guy with a tiny head standing at a cash register, glowing or otherwise. Your audience for Sales Management books is NOT guys with tiny heads standing at cash registers, glowing or otherwise.

The new economy has presented the sales manager with a whole new series of challenges. Author Robert J Calvin explains that during these tumultuous times where technology has shortened the life cycle of products and services, lengthened the time it takes to sell them, leveled the playing field between vendors and customers, and created customers that demand more thereby creating more aggressive competition, the sales manager needs a plan for success. This book lays out a detailed plan for sales managers to follow to ensure success in these times. It begins with three assumptions:
· A sales force is no better than its management.
· A sales manager's job is to get work done through other people.
· A manager's job is to make heroes not be one.
With these assumptions in mind, the author focuses on certain topics essential for the sales manager's success:
· Creating the Sales Force. Learn to carefully choose and plan a sales force for constantly changing needs. This team will need to be confident and enthusiastic to maximize performance.
· Strategy and the company. Sales forces must be structured according to the company's needs and their structural organization.
· Perfecting the Program. Sales managers must utilize regular performance reviews that set standards for success, motivate toward success, and of course, measure success. This is essential in facilitating excellence.

I'm not sure why Plato ever became so famous based on this book.
He states as fact things that are only conjecture really.

It makes basically no sense at all based on what we now know about modern science, the human body, etc..

But then Plato didn't have access to all that we know now. In that sense it can be interesting to see how someone tried to apply simple ideas to explain everything.

And he does try to explain everything in this short book from the creation of the universe to the creation of the human body.

However the information about Atlantis is fascinating. In that part of the book it appears to me that Plato really is stating facts but yet that is the part that many people (including the author of the appendix) say is science fiction.

To say that mythology including the story of Atlantis is science fiction is "highly unphilosophical, nay rediculous"

(Poseidon: A Link Between Semite, Hamite, and Aryan (Paperback)
by Robert Brown ).

Or people like this guy try to explain mythology by relating it to more conventional places, events, etc.. where it doesn't fit at all. That's because they don't understand mythology is talking about metaphysical and supernatural events.

Yes Atlantis was a real place. It was a super race that started I guess about 50,000 years ago and was light years ahead of our current society. Many people today are experiencing past life memories about Atlantis where they see the amazing crystal technology, genetic engineering, time travel, etc..

With all the controversy about evolution versus creationism Plato provides some assistance:

"Birds were produced by a process of transformation, growing feathers instead of hair, from harmless, empty-headed men, who were interested in the heavens but were silly enough to think that visible evidence is all the foundation astronomy needs."

"Land animals came from men who had no use of philosophy... while their skulls were elongated into various shapes as a result of the crushing of their circles. And the reason some have four feet and others many was that the stupider they were the more supports god gave them, to tie them more closely to earth."

"But the most unintelligent and ignorant of all turned into the fourth kind of creature that lives in water... their makers thought them unfit to breathe pure clean air, and made them inhale water, into whose turbid depths they plunged them."

Poseidon: A Link Between Semite, Hamite, and Aryan

The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls: Unlocking the Secrets of the Past, Present, and Future

The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Reader's Edition)

Edgar Cayce's Atlantis and Lemuria: The Lost Civilizations in the Light of Modern Discoveries

Edgar Cayce's Egypt: Psychic Revelations on the Most Fascinating Civilization Ever Known

Plato's Timaeus is a dialogue (more like a speech actually, since Timaeus talks uninterrupted for the last 100 pages or so) which is his explanation of the nature and purpose of the universe. He decides that a supreme being (termed God, but not the same as the Christian or Judaistic God, as he is neither omniscient nor immanent. He is there but he is silent.) created the universe. It was not creation ex nihilo, but rather he used some already existing material, a plasticy substance upon which the ideal Forms can be imprinted. So, this God thought of the Forms, then created the physical universe by imprinting said Forms upon the "recepticle of being." Thus the physical universe is imperfect because the recepticle can not perfectly imitate the Forms.

Plato also discusses the makeup of the universe, and unfortunately he is often so incorrect as to not even be worth reading, other than as historical background to other developments. For example, he goes on for a long while about how all mater is made of triangles. Or later he discusses the interchangability of fire, water, earth, and air.

Though many parts of the Timaeus are not especially helpful, there are many parts which are greatly important to understanding ancient thought, both of Plato's time and that of those who were greatly influenced by him, especially Augustine.

The Critas is an unfinished dialogue, the sequel to the Timaeus, in which Plato does not get past a preliminary discussion of an ancient civilization which was supossed to be analyzed in this dialogue. The reason that this dialogue is read (besides being a work of Plato) is that this ancient civilization is Atlantis. It is in this book that we have the first mention of that mythical island. In the dialogue it is claimed that the famed Salon brought the tale to Greece, and that he had learned it from the Egyptians. It is debated whether Plato believed in Atlantis, or whether he invented it to illustrate his point in the dialogue. In either case, it is an interesting read.

Overall grade: A

If there is one book to own, it's this one. Every night read sections 15 to 22 slowly. The rest of the book is important for other reasons, but sections 15 to 22 shaped the face of modern physics, philosophy, and religion in matters of cosmology and cosmogony. It's relevance today is still a matter of scholarly debate, but a few simple substitutions of modern terms for Plato's gives the reader a familiar set of problems, viz. those of modern physics, without being anachronistic to Plato in the least. The current "prime stuff" theory of space, is reached for by Plato in his discussion of space. The amazing success of mathematical description has its origin in Plato connecting the Platonic solids with the first theory of chemistry. Our modern notions of order and pattern emerging from complexity that we see in Mandelbrot and Wolfram are clearly stated by Plato in section 21. You'll see exactly where to place the concepts of quark or Kaluza-Klein, by careful re-reading of these sections. Of the most primary importance, is the unsolved problem of existence and reality as posed then and now. After reading it enough to know the ancient context from our modern one, of this last question one can ask just how far we have or haven't come in 2500 years.

Plato is deep. That can't be emphasized enough. He deals more with physics in "Timaeus" than in any other extant work. This is not so much a belief system, or paradigm, presented, so much as ideas. Nowhere does Plato actually endorse these views (although they are well worth learning). He sort of asks the reader to listen with an open mind, and THEN be critical. I found something interesting in one of the parts on geometric physics that seems to have excaped every commentater I am aware of,so who knows what else is still hidden after more than 2,000 years?

You get Atlantis stories, flood myths, the Atomic theory, evolution/reincarnation, medical/biological theory, and creation myth. Running through some parts is some very interesting (to me, at least) mathematics. All from one of (if not the) clearest mind(s) I have ever read. Not to mention an excellent writer.

"Critias" is unfinished, whether it was left that way, or the ending has been lost. It's the earliest tale of Atlantis we have (Atlantis is only discussed very briefly in "Timaeus"). It can be taken as a morality parable. On the other hand, it may also be a myth that found it's way to Plato...or even a relatively accurate historical account. Or all of the above. Because, like I said: Plato is deep.

Desmond Lee, the translator of the Penguin edition of Timaeus and
Critias, claims his goal is an accurate representation of Plato's
thought, as opposed to maintaining style or convention. Indeed,
despite the purported obscurity of the original Greek, his work
plainly reveals Plato's ideas. Timaeus presents some of Plato's
clearest statements on issues related to science and psychology,
the focus of this review. Lee provides a good introduction, section
summaries, and helpful diagrams of Plato's ideas, but few footnotes
and no index. Incidentally, Timaeus and Critias introduce astrology
and the famous story of Atlantis, one of the most intriguing
mysteries in literature. Lee writes an appendix on Atlantis, pointing
out its mythical qualities, clarifying Plato's descriptions with maps,
and outlining the case for its historical origins. This edition would
be a good choice for readers interested in the source material for the
Atlantis legend and a summary of its ramifications, with a short
bibliography. The importance of Timaeus, however, is its presentation
of Plato's philosophy in its maturity, one relevant to science.

Materialism dominates Western culture today. Briefly, materialism
identifies reality as the objects that people perceive and manipulate
in their environment, or the particles that comprise them. The following
concepts fit nicely with this outlook: causality as a product of lawful
interactions among objects, reductionism where the events we perceive can
ultimately be attributed to universal laws and material particles, and
an evolutionary theory that explains the development of the universe
through natural laws from elementary particles. These materialist
meta-theories are the foundation of today's science.

Plato's philosophy denies that reality is only material objects, because
they merely reflect an underlying perfect, good, and beautiful reality.
In the Republic, Plato provides a memorable metaphor for our illusion of
reality in his depiction of cave dwellers who are constrained to see
only flickering shadows cast by firelight on the cave wall, oddly shaping
their conceptions. Plato's depiction of the world as image resembles
religious doctrines, such as the Hindu concept of maya. In the Gospels,
John's portrayal of Jesus as the manifestation of God's plan (logos - the
Word) resembles Plato's perfect eternal template from which earthly
objects manifest themselves. Unlike religous doctrines, however, that
ascribe natural phenomena such as diseases or psychological disturbances
to the will of gods, Plato sets out to explain the processes underlying
these disturbances, implying the possibility of establishing relations
between the ideal and its image through a rational investigation, and of
manipulating these relations, which might be called Platonic science.

Plato's model consists of a perfect eternity of Being having ideal
forms that only the most gifted in this mortal life can, with effort,
vaguely glimpse via thought, versus our ordinary, sensible, protean
world of Becoming which is constructed based on the ideal forms with the
four elements: fire, earth, water, and air. Timaeus distinguishes these
two realities as "that which always is and never becomes from that which
is always becoming but never is." The world's creator used the eternally
unchanging forms of Being as "his pattern for the form and function of
his product." First, the creator god made the heavens and the gods that
inhabit it, then set the conditions for making the inhabitants of earth,
but left to other gods actual implementation of these creatures. The gods
made humans with both immortal (intellectual soul) and mortal (body) parts,
the immortal part sharing much in common with that of the gods and the
whole universe, including its motions of Same and Different. Timaeus
provides all the preposterous details for this creation, including how
the soul is bonded to the body, the geometrical shapes corresponding to
the four elements, etc. Besides Being and Becoming, Timaeus describes
the third aspect of reality, the Receptacle, an unchanging plastic substance,
without attributes of its own, in which the perfect forms are impressed and
which provides the space for the position of objects in our world.

Plato casts his psychology as the workings of the soul. Timaeus refines
the concept of a tripartite soul from prior dialogs into a rational,
immortal executive that resides in the head; a good, mortal part in the
chest that governs passion, courage, etc.; and an inferior, unruly, mortal
part below the diaphram that exercises the appetites. Each of these soul
parts has a motion copied from the cosmos, which must be exercised for
proper mental health, and balanced with the exercise of the body for overall
health. Human inability to control such motions is the original cause of
irrationality and conflict. Timaeus mentions only in passing the theory
developed in the dialog Phaedrus, which describes motivation as the memory
of an ideal form, as when love results from the beauty of a person who
mediates recall of divine beauty. Timaeus describes sensations as the
product of motions of objects that are transmitted to the soul by particles
that pass through sensory organs, causing pain or pleasure, heat or cold,
hard or soft, etc., depending on their characteristics (e.g., size, speed,
strength). He formulates the basis of pain as a sudden departure from the
normal state and pleasure as a return to it. Thus, Plato presents theories
about mental structures, sensations, emotions, motivation, space and object
perception, and abnormal psychology.

Today, Plato's descriptions of creation, physical and biological processes,
human anatomy, and psychological functions are so erroneous as to be
humorously entertaining. Rather than dismissing too facilely his more
general philosophy and its relevance to psychology, however, we might
consider his account as symbolic and his specifics as suggestive. Stripped
of such unverifiable concepts as soul and divinity, could his work outline
a psychology that has value over that of materialist approaches? Alternately,
will ever more closer examination of the brain, for example, eventually yield
full understanding of self-awareness, thought, and consciousness, just as
expected when one has the circuit diagram of any machine? Plato had, at times,
an uncanny ability to see truth. Observed motions of stars do actually result
from different motions. Humans really are made of star stuff. Could Plato
genuinely have glimpsed eternal truths? Before you make up your mind on such
questions, you will have to study Plato's Timaeus.

Nobody, but nobody, understands the nuts and bolts of selling like Tom. If I were stranded in middle America trying to make a living in sales with only one book in my car this is the one! A must read for any new sales person or a great refresher for any vet!

I have absolutely NO sales experience. None, zilch, zero.

I studied medicine since the age of 18 and eventually received my Medical Assistant, EMT, LVN and Paramedic Licenses. I then studied more, continued to grad school and received my Masters Degree in Chinese Medicine.

How does this relate to me now? Folks, don't fool yourself. It does not matter what you have studied or what degree you received. 99% of us need to "sell" ourselves. Yes, even doctors and lawyers! Having a "niche" is important, but you still need to know about SALES in general.

I wondered why many doctors simply "drop their prices" while others charged double and sometimes TRIPLE than others. Was the technique different? Not hardly. It was the presentation, communication, the value and confidence.

Thank you Tom for this book, you have made a difference!

The days of the sterotypical "salesman" is over. No more pink pants, gift of gab, talking and not shutting up is over. I talk less, listen more and am simply amazed over and over of my results.

Don't "talk yourself" OUT OF A SALE!

Read this book, its worth it!

I enjoyed reading this book. Tom has a great way of presenting his material in a way that is easy to remember. I use and have shared with other salespeople the qualifying system that he outlines in this book and found it to very effective in getting the imformation needed to move the customer toward owning my product.

The author is an astute student of the language of selling and has some good closing techniques that help refocus the customer on making the decision to buy. In short, I have made money and helped my customers make good decisions using the techniques I learned from this book. It is worth your time to read.

I think that of all the sales books I have read, this is the best. It is more powerful than Hopkin's "How to master the Art of Selling" and also more concise. I think that the advice in this book can actually be put to use by people dealing with well educated consumers, it won't double your sales, but it will stimulate imporvement, I recommend it if you are in a sales career, or thinking about it.

Tom Hopkins's book, How to Master the Art of Selling, is the Bible for many sales people. In that book, he outlines the 7 steps for selling: prospecting, originating contact, qualification, presentation or demonstration, handling objections, closing, and getting referrals.

In Low Profile Selling, he builds on that book by focusing attention on the 4 areas that make the most positive difference in creating a higher income (originating contact, qualification, handling objections, and closing). His message is that the emotional tone you set in these four areas makes all of the difference. "Act like a lamb. Sell like a lion."

These observations are based on the distaste that many customers have for the usual strong-arm tactics that many salespeople use. Mr. Hopkins encourages you to use questions to do your work for you, and provides many scripts and examples of how to do this. Although I think he is on the right track conceptually, I found the material here clearly inferior to the newer book, Socratic Selling, both in terms of explaining the need for questions and in the tone of the scripts. I found the material here to still feel manipulative to me as a potential customer.

In chapter three, he encourages you to build rapport. Again, this is the right concept, but the execution is clearly inferior again to any of the many good books on Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Consider "How To Make People Like You in 90 Seconds or Less" as a much better resource in this area.

I graded the book down two stars for its obvious weaknesses in explaining the details in these two critical areas. Basically, I think Mr. Hopkins needs to update this book to expand and improve these two sections.

Should you read this book? Yes, I think so. It will give you a good overview on the importance of connecting emotionally with the other person. Chapter 6 is excellent on the importance of the words you use to make the person you are talking to comfortable or uncomfortable. The goal setting work in chapter 10 will also be very helpful to you (although it would have worked better at the beginning of the book). I do suggest that you also read his earlier book and the two new ones I cited above that he did not write if you want to make the most improvement.

After you have finished reading and applying the four books discussed above, I suggest that you also spend some time sharing these principles with someone you care about who is also involved in sales. You will improve much more by teaching this material to someone else than by just focusing on applying it yourself.

Exceed all your goals quickly!

"William Cooper's Town" certainly deserved recognition with the 1996 Pulitzer Prize. It is an intriguing look at the development of a frontier community in the earliest days of the republic. The story of parvenu William Cooper's rise and eventual decline from political and social prominence in Upstate New York is well-told with keen insight into the fractiousness of early U.S. politics.

James Fenimore Cooper's first great success in the literary world was a fictionalized account of his father's life. While there are many valuable histories of early American life, Taylor's book is particularly fascinating due to the parallel between William Cooper's life story and his son's novel, "The Pioneers." "William Cooper's Town" is a unique combination of political history, social analysis and biography linked to a study on James Fenimore Cooper's literary effort to vindicate his father's struggle for wealth, social prominence and prestige.

Taylor's book is an interesting new twist on the old story of a rising man on America's frontier. I recommend it highly. It is well worth your reading time.

What a pleasure, what a joy to read this book. It's rare that history rises to such a wonderful pitch -- anecdote, analysis, historial context all wrapped up in one fine package.

I stumbled onto this book while perusing library shelves while my daughter picked out some kid books for herself. Since it won a Pulitzer, I thought I'd take a look. And I was treated to an amazing amalgam of history, economics, politics, and literary analysis. I love books that explore myths and then separate the fact from fiction, and I can't think of any that have done it in a more entertaining way.

If you like history, you'll love the sweep of about 50 years on America's early frontier. If you like politics, you'll love to learn about early New York political machines. If you like economics, you'll learn all about how trading economies were built almost from scratch in the States. And if you like name-dropping, there's everyone from Alexander Hamilton to Aaron Burr to Thomas Jefferson to James Fenimore Cooper.

That's a pretty pretentious word to use and Taylor's book does begin to plod at some points but I think this is a fascinating account of early American pioneers. Taylor looks at William Cooper, the father of the author James Fennimore Cooper and his founding of a town in the wilderness of western NEw York just after the Revolution. In tracing the rise and fall of the fortunes of the Cooper family and Cooperstown, he gives us a great account of early American politics and life. Taylor reminds us that the edge of the Northeast was once a wild and unsettled frontier. he also shows us that the frontier, far from being some sort of idyllic outpost, was intimately connected, economically and politically, with the rest of the nation. At the same time he gives us an important social and political look at the post Revolutionary US where a man like William Cooper, a humble workman from NEw Jersey was able to work his way into becoming one of the most well respected land speculators in the country. Taylor wraps up the book with a look at the legacy of the Cooper family and how James Fennimore Cooper became a major influence on how Americans viewed the frontier. Overall a great book and worth the time and effort to read it

This book has been well-reviewed and well-praised by several other people. It is a great book, well-deserving of its Pulitzer. The author is able to write prose well, and so distinguishes himself from many other historians. Conceptually, he has pulled together a wide range of strands that make up the history of the era, including the literary, economic, political, and social, and woven these strands into fascinating and engaging patterns. His research is solid, and his footnotes useful. Given the other reviews, here I will only try to add a perspective I found lacking in reading those other reviews.

I walk away from this book thinking it fell just a jot short of what it could have accomplished, mainly because the author seeks a unifying theme in William Cooper's search for "gentility". If the book were to be about gentility, I'd like a bit more perspective on the age and more comparisions to others. It is difficult to write a book on such a theme while focusing on a single family. I do not think this is a work on gentility, nor is it grounded by others' work on the subject. There is still a book to be written here, and "William Cooper's Town" is going to be useful groundwork for that history.

If the book is about Cooper, as it seems to want to be, I believe tying virtually every chapter to a single theme oversimplifies an obviously complex man, and results in many of the other insightful thoughts about the man and his age being underemphasized. The continual focus on gentility, by the end, seems too forced. Perhaps some of Jane Austen's characters can be overwhelming motivated by their need to demonstrate gentility, but Austen still enriches the world of such people with foils, and reminds us periodically that they are as much charicatures as characters. While William Cooper's son may have turned him into a bit of a charicature, the historian need not (and clearly this historian did not want to).

None of these comments should dissaude anyone from picking up this book - it is a wonderful work that will be influential for years to come, and it is written with a great sense of the subjects' humanity.

William Cooper lived through the most prolific time of change in American history. And in telling the story of his time and life Alan Taylor has delivered to his audience a compelling documentation and narrative of how this period of remarkable transformation affected one individual and his family, the settlement of the New York frontier, and the political landscape of the frontier. William Cooper's Town is, first and foremost, a biography, yet it also functions as a regional history, and a literary analysis of James Fennimore Cooper's the Pioneers. With respect to these three features, Taylor divided his book into three sections: ascent, power, and legacies. Each tells a different story of William Cooper and exposes disparate characteristics of his personality and his success as a land owner and speculator, politician, and father (both of the people and of his children). Most important, each section of Taylor's unique book relates to Cooper's ambition for gentility, something which he vehemently strived for both in himself and his children. The reader gains a keen sense of the difficulty and unpredictability of frontier settlement from William Cooper's Town. Cooper acquired and lost his entire fortune in twenty-five demanding and challenging years. In addition, Cooper exemplifies the restraints left on social mobility even after the American Revolution. Cooper never obtained the greatly sought after gentry status.
Taylor's story of William Cooper widens our perspective of the early Republic. The era dominated by elite political figures like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and John Adams, also included important characters on the periphery. While much of the United States early success is owed to the "founding fathers" its expansion must also be credited to men like William Cooper even if he was not a political genius and erudite.
Taylor's book is not a survey; rather it is mostly William Cooper's story. It is not the complete social, political, and economic history of the New York frontier. The closest Taylor comes to this is his discussion of political debates within Otsego County which effected the entire state's political status. Still, Taylor's book will certainly support anyone who researches a broader study in the future.

The book was in great condition. Seller let me know that the book was in the mail which was nice.

The book looks suspiciously skinny for a cell biology book but it really is so well written that the author made it comprehensive without being too wordy. Although lots of people swear by the Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th Edition (Bruce Alberts et al... and I own that one too), I found it too wordy and not as fun to read. This book however is lucidly written and has everything that a graduate student or senior undergrad would need to know in Cell Biology.

I used Cell and Molecular Biology (I just called it Gerald Karp after the author) extensively during my undergrad and am still using it in graduate school (I'm getting my Masters in Microbiology).

Cell and Molecular Biology by Gerald Karp is surpassed only in diagram clarity and simplicity by Cooper and Hausman's "The Cell: A Molecular Approach" which has the best diagrams of all cell biology textbooks but is slightly less comprehensive (I own that one too!). The book is neatly arranged and the continuity of topics within a chapter and from chapter to chapter is very good unlike Molecular Biology of the Cell, 4th Edition.

Although sold separately for something like $38.00, the book has an associated study workbook sort of thing with it that is pretty good for testing your knowledge in the important and tricky concepts. For every chapter in the textbook there is a section of multiple choice questions, a section of experimental-data interpretation questions, a section of thought questions, and explain the role of each of the following" type questions. All questions except the thought questions come with answers. And there is a review of the key topics in the textbook for every chapter. I would greatly recommend buying the text and the study book together, especially if you're gearing to take exams like the Subject GRE.

This is one of the most complete and easy-to-read book ever! I have studied with Gerald Karp books since I was an undergraduate student (Biochemistry, and Karp book was always by my side, very useful). This book explain the cellular metabolism, structures (cytoskeleton, microtubules, filaments, genes,relations between genes and proteins, DNA repair, cell cycle, cell signalling, lot of concepts that are not easy to understand at first, Karp does it very simple. You will love this book. I can strongly recommend it. Another excellent book I can recommend is Molecular Biology of the CELL by Bruce Alberts....is excellent! and before you take an exam, I will suggest the "Outline of Molecular and Cell Biology" by the Schaum's series. Well, that's it for now, I wish you the best in your career (I have been there, I know how hard it can be and choose the proper books!) and always remember, keep working and practicing, because practice make the Master!! :)
Your friend,
Laura Fazio
MSc Immunology - Biochemist

I've come to appreciate this book more and more over its succeeding editions. It has now replaced both the Alberts et al. and the Lodish et al. books (both nevertheless excellent) as my favorite textbook on cell and molecular biology.

It is concise, covers a very large range of subjects and has very clear graphics. I think it is better balanced than many of its competitors in the sense that the reader never gets the impression that the author sacrificed certain subjects to give more room to his favorite ones. On many occasions, I was surprised to find things in here that I couldn't find in the bigger (and more "fundamental") Alberts and Lodish.

It references papers and review articles that are very current, and is very up to date on its content.

I think Gerald Karp is doing a very good job with each new iteration of this book and I will recommend it to my students.

Another introductory book in the biology of the cell. I would say that the book is divided into mainly two sections, Cell structure and DANA, DANA replications etc. Second part takes almost two thirds of the book. I would prefer to read other Gene books when it comes to that point but for the cell structure, it is not bad. Some colored pictures, computer animations makes it easy to visualize things. Sections called "experimental pathways" scattered throughout the text takes you into current issues related to the subject. They are also quite sophisticated issues rather than practical problems. I think this book requires considerable guidance when read alone. I could not call this book as self sufficient or easy to read one compared to books by Alberts or Baltimore.

It took so long to get it. My class only had 2 classes left.
I didn't need this anymore.
Linda Morgan

I have this book, and really think that it has a vast ray of information that helps the Physical Education Teacher prepare a developmentally appropriate Lesson.

I have used this book for two years now and found it helpful with lots of practical information. Implementing the lessons will require the lesson plans(not included) to fully utilize the contents of the book. This book is Sport based and Standards based. There are 36 weekly lessons which gives the program lots of structure. The author assumes you have enough space (indoor & outdoor) to teach the program. The cost of equipment can be high although there is a pretty good section on "How to make your own" equipment. I believe this book is a good resource, chapters are organized and mirror the weekly lesson plan book.

This book has great listings of activities to do with kids, whether in the academic setting or a camp/child care setting. Fun games, exercises and other activities are easy to look up and have good directions. A solid textbook for new teachers.

This is an excellent aide in learning how to teach physical eduation to elementary school students. Pangrazi is an excellent author and essential information and helpful tips to teach physical education. Overall, this book is the most useful and I am definately not selling it back.