Communications Books

This book addresses an old age issue existing between men and women and breaks it down in a way that we all can understand. The book made me ask my own questions and gain understanding of how men and women approach marriage so differently and why. After reading the book you feel less alone in the struggles surrounding marriage and more at peace regardless of the outcome in your life.

Great book. She got me. Wish I could say exactly how I was impacted but ... I can't.

I'm so happy to read a one-of-a-kind book that gave me insights into the different ways that men and women think about marriage and relationship....stocked with humor and great visuals of what is going on between the lines of communication. I hope that I don't have to go through it...but if I do, I'll be much more prepared. Thanks!

I went through such a tough time trying to figure out why
my bf and I weren't on the road to getting married. Great book
with insight and a very helpful way to think about things and
help me put it in perspective. I realized there are a lot of
things I could learn through this process and this book was
a great start to communication with my partner.

This book gave me tremendous insight and practical advice that I could relate to the situation I am currently in with my boyfriend of seven years. The book provides clarity and reasonable options as to what to do when faced with the situation of attempting to move your relationship forward to the next level of engagement and then to marriage. "His Cold Feet" covers how to take control of the situation and how to also take control of your own life when there appears to not be a light at the end of the tunnel any time soon. I HIGHLY recommend this book. - Jen G

Companies pay a lot of attention to a strong marketing plan for consumers but often don't pay much attention to internal marketing. One of the most powerful marketing forces you have is your employees. When they are excited about your product then they tell others. The authors of this book provide step-by-step guidance on how to get your employees to become your best marketing source by being your most dedicated consumer. They even include details on how to do things like break bad news to employees in such as way that it does not demoralize others.

Starting with Chapter 4 the authors take you on a detailed method for setting a course for action, setting goals, and then achieving those goals. Chapter 5 follows up with communicating good and bad news, choosing the right vehicle for communicating your message, and making the most of that communication vehicle. Other chapters include training as a marketing tool and using rewards and recognition. Easy to understand and apply, Light Their Fire is highly recommended.

Once picked up, this book would not easily yield to being put down again.
Written in fast-paced style, with great insight and illustrated with a fund of anecdotal evidence, "Light Their Fire" is a valuable blueprint for any organisation to follow in getting a grip on their internal processes that lead to external successes.
Throughout the book, I became aware of a feeling that issues raised in the book were pointing to the necessary creation of another one to address them... I look forward to it with anticipation.

As anyone who has ever read Dilbert knows, working for a big company sucks. The pointy haired managers are all too common. This book is on solving that problem.

People in most companies are made to feel that their contribution, their importance to the company is just about nil. Experience has shown most of us that devotion to the company is not reciprocated. We think we are doing well, we think we are doing what the company wants. And we are on the lay off list.

The difference here is communications within the company. Are we really pushing in the direction that the company wants to go, do we understand what the company is expecting of us. Most of us care, most of us don't feel that the company cares.

This book talks about inter company communications and how management can most effectively communicate their views to employees. This includes the three key points of identifying and tailoring your messages for maximum effectiveness, understanding and using various communications tools to get as much understanding out of your messages as possible, and most important, measuring the effeciveness of your messages.

This book presents internal communications in a new but easy to understand light.

We are always trying to attract new customers. We seek new and attractive ways to bring them into our work places, but we forget that some of our best advertizers are the people who work for us. Light Their Fire focuses on pulling our employees into the advertizing mix and making them part of the equation of success. Sections of the book also focus on planning, which we all lack. We have meeting with staff and plan for the meetings only hours in advance. What are you going to focus on but the negitives rather than the positives. Proper planning starts when, if not before, the meeting is scheduled. Well worth the time to read.

This basic manual teaches you how to encourage your employees to buy into your business strategy and brand before you begin selling to real-world customers. Internal marketing programs should be part of every company's operations. Authors Susan M. Drake, Michelle J. Gulman and Sara M. Roberts show that motivated, energetic employees are important assets; they can expand your business exponentially. Simply by fulfilling basic human desires for recognition, advancement, esteem and education, you can build tremendous employee loyalty. Written in a light, breezy style, which occasionally might have benefited from more detail, this book provides examples of companies that have instituted exceptional programs. We strongly recommend it to executives, small business owners, and human resource and department managers looking for strategies to energize their companies by using their most valuable
resource: their people.

This book provides all the technical knowledge that is need for busy executives to seriously ponder about how to integrate moble solutions into their company's operations. What is amazing is the simple language that is used.

My favourite chapter is the Art of Mobility (Chap. 10).

Buy this book and it will give you immediate ROI!

Authors and consultants Ravi Kalakota and Marcia Robinson emphasize that the mobility revolution is in its early stages and provide insights on its anticipated stages of development. This insightful and authoritative book is well written and well organized. We from getAbstract recommend it to executives, managers and information-technology specialists, though general readers with a jones for high tech also will be blown away.

This book presents an excellent executive overview of the mobile applications landscape. The strength of the book is the unique perspective of extending "E-business" investments to the "M-business" -- mobile/multichannel -- environment. It presents the business side of mobile - CRM, SCM, Mobile Office and Mobile portals - without getting mired in the alphabet soup of 3G, GPRS, UMTS etc.

I am a newbiew to the whole mobile world. I was intimidated by all the technical jargon that was being thrown around. This book helped cut through the fog and provide a business perspective of "why businesses should care?" and "what apps make sense". I highly recommend this book.

The landscape of mobile enterprise applications is covered extremely well in this book. Unlike other books that talk primarily about consumer applications, the authors focus on leveraging existing investments in E-business and extending them into the mobile arena. Highly recommend this book if your company is beginning to think about Mobile Applications and next generation IT investments.

"Been there, done that, and here's the proof". Not merely anecdotal information, this book leaves you wishing that Scott Berkun worked down the hall from you. Straight to the point, he defines what works, what doesn't, and why. He lays out the real world examples that create the framework to support his teaching. For a book on project management, this is an easy read. Better yet, the information is easily applied to your current project.

This gives some great insight, not only on how to do project management well but on how to manage people in general. I wish more of the managers I have worked with over the years had had this available.

If you are not a manager, but work in IT this is still worth your time. It gives a great look into just what project managers are dealing with, and how you can best help them succeed.

The concepts and advice are all things that I would want every team member to know well, with any team I was on. And it is all born out of hard work and excellent experience. This isn't a bunch of purely idealistic advice - it is grounded in reality.

I've read first edition of this book and Scott's other book - Myths of Innovation. Was very happy about both of them.

So when time came to recommend good book for my manager I had no doubt. After that he was screaming everywhere how this book is :)

[...]

In these last days of vacations, I've managed to finish reading this really cool book on project management. Even though I'm not a project manager, this was one of those books I've heard lots of good things about and I can tell you now (after finishing reading it) that I wasn't disappointed with it.

Besides being fun and easy reading, you'll find lots of great tips on this book. For instance, I'll be using some of the ideas presented on the Skills and Management parts on my work from now on. If you ask me, I'd say that the last chapter (Powers and Politics) is more than enough for justifying the book's price!

Overall, I'm giving it 9/10 and I'm putting it on my special reference shelf, where I've already got Peopleware (ok, I've just noticed that I haven't publish a review on this book on my blog. I'll do it on the next days), The mythical man-month, etc. So, if you haven't read this book and you're on the development business, do yourself a favor and pick a copy and then read it from cover to cover! You should to be a better professional after reading it!

Scott does a great job again in the new edition of this book of providing well-organized, practically useful guidance on how to work on and run a project. Even if you're not actually in charge of a project, I'd recommend this as a book to help you understand what should be getting done on it. The three biggest areas he focuses on are how to ensure a project has proper focus and clear priorities, how to run meetings and do feature-level design, and how to handle a project as it moves from start to finish.

The key to proper focus and clear priorities is the tie between the mission, goals, features, and tasks in a project. Scott provides a great framework for tying them together, ensuring they're created, and ensuring the team understands them.

The advice on running meetings and doing feature-level design is the only area that might not work as well for those outside of Microsoft. While I highly identify with it, and think that he's clearly stated the best practices for our environment, your mileage may vary.

Finally, he does a great job of talking about the difference between the start, middle, and end-game. Many people try to use a single process throughout and either overburden the start of the project or allow the end-game to spin wildly out of control. Scott's very clear about how to apply the right level of touch and raise the process bar at safe but necessary increments as a project goes on.

For this new addition, he addressed all of the negatives of the original - honestly, it's so good that if you have the first I recommend buying the second! I particularly enjoy the exercises, especially the reflective ones, as they help to cement all of the lessons I should've learned when I read the first version...

This is a grate and very useful book. It is very clear and understandable, it have many actually information about movie business which I cant find anywhere else!

I bought this book because I'm getting involved in the movie making business (my expertise is mainly from a product development background). Even though a film can be viewed as a product I needed to understand the complex market in which I'm getting into.

"Marketing to Moviegoers" is an incredible way to get insight on all aspects of the film marketing process: from creative ad campaigns, test screenings, media buying strategies, product placement, merchandising and getting to know the distribution strategies for both big studios and independents.

Rather than a how-to manual, Robert Marich compiles numerous examples and case studies, in an enticing and easy to read format (using indsutry charts and graphics), that allowed me to understand what to expect when producing, promoting and distributing my film in a few days.

I think this book, with its broad coverage of the movie industry and its practices is a great compliment to "The Complete Independent Movie Marketing Handbook", because the latter focuses more on step-by-step recommendations on how to get your movie packaged and sold.

As London bureau chief of The Hollywood Reporter, I covered the whole range of movie marketing strategies, from bad to brilliant. Bob Marich gives those who market movies and those with an interest in the film business a great inside look at how it's done, from market research to promotions and publicity to distribution. He covers major studio releases, movies distributed by indies, and foreign-language films. This is a great read for anyone who cares about how movies reach the ticket buying public.

This book is a must-read for any aspiring or practicing film marketer -- even marketers of non-entertainment products can learn a few tricks here. Thoroughly researched and logically presented with a liberal use of tables, "Marketing to Moviegoers" leaves no stone unturned in its elucidation of the whys and hows of selling a movie to the public. It delves into everything from concept testing and surveys to trailers and projection equipment and even the special challenges posed by foreign-language films. Should be required reading at all film schools.

I have written on films for a decade for VARIETY and have subsequently free-lanced for other publications. I found "Marketing for Moviegoers" a highly comprehensive account of marketing in the industry, of films winding their way to hoped for profitability employing multiple strategies through multimedia and ever expanding technologies. Even the most seasoned professionals in marketing will want to compare notes with this book's wealth of information and anecdotal material. It is definitely a must for neophyte filmmakers or those aspiring to that calling so that they will know exactly what they are getting into.
As the book gives a thorough rundown of the fields of marketing research, media advertising, promotional tie-ins, merchandising, publicity and distribution it carefully notes the opportunities and pitfalls of assorted game plans. Chronicles of standard industry practices are interlaced with boom or bust investment tales. It is especially skillful in coping with the constant changes of new technologies. On the subject of the Internet, for example, the various advances and retreats, strategies and counter strategies are duly recorded.
"Marketing for Moviegoers" bolsters its points with numerous charts and examples of recent movies. While this book's primary appeal will be to those in the trade its inside story of the intense media battle for consumers' dollars should have the attention of some just plain moviegoers.

There have been a couple of other books on message passing, but most of them have been anchored to a particular operating system or language. This book is the first to offer a general treatment of messaging, as a way to merge disparate middleware installations.

At the end of the day, messaging technology is just another way to allow distributed code to interact. Blunden takes the time to compare and contrast messaging against other distributing computing techniques. The result is that the reader can understands the relative advantages and limitations of messaging, so that they can use the right tool for the right job.

At every turn, Blunden grounds his explanations using concrete examples, so that the reader has a solid frame of reference (I can appreciate the author's humorous 10-page implementation of a DCOM server, basically to demonstrate how awkward a distributed technology can be... it's no wonder DCOM faded away).

The author of this book has obviously seen combat in the trenches. The fact that he would discuss deployment requirements like auto-update and secure network communication is proof enough.

I particularly enjoyed the bits of storytelling that Blunden hides in between technical discussions. In one part, he talks about working at a company in the throes of Y2K conniptions: "Like a 15-year-old kid studying for an algebra test, the company that hired me had waited until the last minute to do its homework. In September of 1999, the CIO put down his copy of Fortune Magazine long enough to realize that something needed to be done. Angry customers might file lawsuits, which would ruin the CIO's plans for a weekend cottage in Bermuda."

This book does an impressive job of looking at a "niche" of computer science and analyzing it in the backdrop of contemporary production requirements. The book provides an extensive presentation of background theory, a 10,000+ line working system, lucid documentation, and a discussion of alternative improvements and approaches.

To demonstrate the cross-platform/cross-language feasibility of his distribution, the author offers three different client pieces (C, Java, and Perl). This is a round-trip explanation of messaging passing that does a conscientious job of covering all the bases.

This is a very instructive learning-by-implementing book, in the tradition of Tanenbaum's MINIX. Blunden walks one through an in-depth analysis and implementation of a real message passing server.

I'm a little put off, though, by the fact that I find 10 5-Star ratings for this book, all posted on the same date by the same reviewer. C'mon.

I bought this book with the expectation that the Bluebox message server would be a token implementation.

Whoa! Was I wrong; this book shows the full monty! It includes a message server engine, a log server, a database interface, a license server, and auto update engine, recovery facilities, and a heartbeat monitor. Fortunately, the 100 or so classes that make up the distribution are well documented and a user manual is included in the book. The last few sections of the book also have some interesting anecdotes that are worth reading.

One of the few WM development books, and certainly the only one that merits five stars. This book is thorough, timely, and informative about the technologies relevant to making great WM apps in native and managed code.

I purchased this book, among others, to learn more about the compact framework. This has ended up being the one that is always on my desk and constantly referred to. There is information in here that is not on any google search, and the code used by the author to demonstrate complicated operations (such as creating opacity in CF forms), is easier and clearer than I have seen anywhere else. A very good book, and well worth purchasing.

Definitely a good book: I found it very complete and easy to read. Useful and interesting, straightaway.

Got 2 copies for my moble development team. The book is simply invaluable. Either you read cover to cover, or select any chapter of special interest the result is in depth information and guidance. Very often our two copies are not enough for everyone in the team.

It is like my bitacora or bible when i am offline. I guess it has a little of everything you need to know in very compact book (i thought a 600 book will be wider but the size is great)

This book lays out a powerful approach for succeeding in almost any situation involving communication skills. The clear explanation and excellent examples make it easy for the busy person to apply and to start reaping the benefits. We are all "sellers" in one way or another, and this book provides invaluable assistance for that crucial function. Buy this book and you will improve yourself.

From the moment I started reading Move the World, I gained very useful and immediately applicable help on improving my communication skills. As a nonprofit executive, I know I will be more successful fundraising by more effectively being able to "persuade" and "motivate" potential donors. Very well written as well.

I'm sure this would be a five star book for any person starting out in his or her studies of communications and persuasion. Since I've studied dozens of other books on this topic, there were fewer new insights provided by the book. The lever metaphor was indeed an excellent learning tool that I think will help many readers. Without revealing too much of the value that one should pay for in a book like this, know that the lever metaphor is based on the proper alignment of your audience, your knowledge of the audience and your message.

The GAP method was very simple, but sometimes simplicity is enough. I felt the "Understand Your Audience" section could have been more detailed. It was the shortest of the GAP chapters.

However, chapter 6 on essential speaking skills was probably the best single chapter I've ever read on speaking skills. While I had heard or read everything in there before, the information was often presented in new ways and it was a refreshing way to get a reminder.

In the end, if you're new to persuasion and public speaking, this book is a must have. If you've been around for awhile, it will be a great refresher for you. The reality is that if you don't know everything that's in this book, you don't know everything you need to know about public speaking and persuasion.

Blessings,
Tom Carpenter

It is so valuable to approach/frame a sales pitch as an opportunity to teach. And you can only teach if you understand where your audience is coming from. "Move the World" is a great way to approach an audience.

It is entirely common for presenters to miss how really limited an audience's understanding is. The listeners may have titles and job positions that seem to be "right up your alley", but in fact they don't understand the situation nearly as well as you do. And they certainly haven't thought about it as much. So presenters/salespeople miss some key "buy-in" connections as they are speaking. Presenters/salespeople really have to lay out the groundwork of a situation (teach) to the audience in a way that leads them to the desired conclusions, based on where they are coming from and what knowledge they start off with. This book drills into us the very valuable lesson of planning your pitch by thinking about the audience's perspective more than your own, and thinking about what they need to learn in order to see the world the way you do. I use this for my own sales team again and again...

Move the World provides a concrete approach to public speaking and sales that applies to everyone. Whether you are trying to sell to a group or just convince a colleague that your opinion counts, Brenner's book will help improve your interactions through a simplified and easy to understand message. The personal anecdotes and simple style make it very readable. I highly recommend this to anyone who is trying to improve his/her communication skills.

Savoured the book from start to finish. It took me 2 weeks to read the last 20 pages because I did not want it to end. I am looking forward to reading the next Gillian adventure.

Everyone loves an adventure (or at least reading of one) and most of us will never take a boat from China to America. Envious of this one, I curled up by my fireplace and read Mr. Ding's Chicken Feet with a taste for the fascinating journey of a Caucasian woman on a boat full of Asian men. I was not disappointed.

The author sets sail on an ocean of cultural difference and wins over the hearts of the crew - a rough and salty bunch who sit spellbound by her in English class.

Because of the obvious vast expanse of ocean to cross, you know that the author is going to have to face a few things she has probably never had to before, and deal with them. There is, after all, no escape on a small boat in the middle of the ocean.

Kendall reveals the color of the crew over the course of the journey as if she were polishing up tarnished brass. It was great fun to read about the men as they blossom at the hand of their teacher...though the revelations were not one-sided.

Not surprisingly, I felt the poignancy at the sight of land, which meant having to say goodbye.

Kendall writes with an unpretentious clarity, humor and heart. I definitely recommend it.

Ji Lians book very good. Makes me laugh. Have to laugh and wake up husband to read good part. I like this book. I like especially page where I am mention. I am Li. I am beautiful asian/american. Not Chinese. I too, don't like chicken feet.

I spent the academic year of 1999/2000 teaching English in Shenzhen. I spoke no Chinese, at the time, and had no formal teaching experience. So I could definitely relate to Gillian's frustrations, culture shock, and malentendus. It's 1991 and Gillian is a grad student in Galveston, TX. The semester is coming to a close and she spies an ad on the bulletin board for an ESL teacher aboard a ship sailing from Shanghai to Galveston. After a hard sell Gillian manages to land the job aboard the all male ship. The company flies her to Shanghai where she boards the ship. The reader witnesses her feelings about being the only woman on the ship; loneliness and some sexual harassment egged on by the only other American on board. She experiences a Sapphic awakening as she realizes in her state of isolation that she doesn't have any romantic feelings for her boyfriend. She manages to break through the cultural, gender, and language barriers to form some attachments to her students and especially Mr. Ding, the cook. The book is riddled with faux pas but the funniest part, I would say, is when she saves Mr. Ding by hurling the violent Panamanian vendor into the Canal.

In Mr Ding's Chicken Feet, the author, Gillian Kendall, comes across at first as maybe a little naive and unwary. She is a risk-taker. Her apparent lack of serious doubt about the whole enterprise, her trust in her fellow human beings not to harm her and her faith that it would all work out made me a little nervous on her behalf. But she is vindicated by the experience and it is her empathy and geniality that are the keys to her success. Observing Kendall's openness to life and her willingness to reach out across cultures became one of the pleasures of reading the book. A cynical reader such as I am found it instructive to watch her interest in humanity unfold and be repaid.

Her story really takes off once the ship leaves shore. Then it leaves behind any experience I and probably most readers have had. Shipboard life with a completely male crew who mostly speak very fractured English seems so weird and challenging that you half expect the book to be a story of failure -- perhaps noble failure but depressing nonetheless. So it's very satisfying that she actually makes a difference to the sailors' English and lives. She is inventive in her methods and determined to give her employers their money's worth and thereby wins the crew's respect and affection.

Kendall can write -- just see her description of the terrible storm at sea. It had me rigid with tension. Shades of Conrad in Typhoon. She has a distinctive and likable tone of voice. The book tells an optimistic story in an unpretentious way and gives you faith in the power of empathic teachers (and English!).

This book lives up to all its good reviews. Guarantee yourself a better grade by buying and reading it. It is exactly what it says, a "Study Guide". Although you can pass the exam with just this book, I recommend learning the material in a lengthier manner. Either take the instructor-led courses or buy the Microsoft training kits (I bought the kits), and then read this book just before you take the exam, using it as a "Study Guide". With the help of this book, I passed by a wide margin on my first attempt. There were a couple items covered in the book that were not covered in the MS training kit, but which did appear on the exam. (I won't be specific because of the NDA).

I share all the opinions above. Though the book is rather thin, the content is a real treasure. It covers all one needs not only to pass the NetEss exam but also to get a real knowledge of the subject. I used it together with the Exam Cram and scored 900+ points. It's written very professionally. And it's amazingly cheap! I would strongly recommend the book to everybody learning networking and working towards MSCE.

This book was very easy to read and gives most of the important details needed for the exam. Since it does not include example questions, I used transcender exam questions as a supplement. When I first took the transcender tests after reading the book I knew enough to BARELY pass if the transcender had been the real exam. After doing transcender over and over until I scored 100% then taking the real exam, I passed with a 900/1000 (766 required to pass).

A friend recommended that I purchase a Kinnaman MCSE study guide for my first exam. I have since passed two tests, currently studying for my third. These books are all you need to pass.

This is a concise book which will get you passed on the 70-058 exam and teach you something along the way. You could pass the exam with just this, but I would recommend pairing it with the Microsoft Press study guide as Kinnaman's networking essentials book has no test questions.