Controls Books

To my mind, the expanding civil war in Colombia is the biggest story in the Western Hemisphere -- but no one seems to be paying much attention to it. Good thing, then, that we have Garry Leech, a talented reporter and writer whose book explains it all, from the start of the trouble over fifty years ago to the U.S.'s involvement today with more and more money, guns, and soldiers. If George Bush gets his way, Colombia is going to be the next bloody battle in the "war on terrorism." Americans need to get wise to what's going on before we sink any deeper into Colombia and a world of hurt and regret. Step one: Read this book!

This book satisfied my need for a clarification of the conflicts in Colombia. Leech does an amazing job of simplifying this political quagmire.

Leech has done the confused observer of Colombia's tragedy a great service with this short, pocket-sized introduction to the reality behind the sporadic news reports on Latin America's most violent, dysfunctional country. The book provides a clear and concise history of modern Colombia with particular emphasis on the causes of the armed conflict that has raged there for decades. Leech examines Colombia's civil war and how it differs from yet is intertwined with the drug war, while avoiding the common pitfall of completely muddling the two topics.

The book also traces the gradual U.S. entry into the fray of the Colombia's conflict, from early forays into combatting marijuana production to the current strategy that closely resembles Reagan-era strategies in El Salvador, albeit with the additional complication of Colombia being a leading cocaine and heroin supplier. Leech's answer to the uncomfortable question, "Is the drug war working?" is an emphatic "No." He explains how the U.S. drug war is failing on all of its own terms, while at the same time detailing the disastrous human toll of increased U.S. aid to the undisciplined and extremely compromised Colombian military. The role of the various guerrilla and paramilitary groups is explained, and there are also interesting new insights into the relations between the Colombian army and the rightist paramilitaries.

This book should be of particular use to those who seek to quickly learn more about the country and conflict that are fast becoming one of the primary U.S. foreign policy concerns. Its brevity and breadth should prove especially appropriate for high school and college classes focusing on current events, foreign policy, Latin American affairs, and history. A good, short read on a truly important topic.

"Killing Peace" is an outstanding book. Garry Leech provides a front row seat to the surreal violence in Colombia. Moreover, he explains why a just and enduring peace is so difficult to attain. The author is a superb journalist who documents how the flames of peace have been doused and the drums of war have been amplified. Recommended.

Killing Peace is a good introduction to the forty year civil war in Colombia. (Arguably the civil war began in the 1940s. The 1960s represent the date the rebel forces FARC emerged.) Leech provides objective descriptions of the history of the conflict, the social forces and striking class divisions generating it, how the USA's imperialist interests and interventions aggravate it, the civil war's principal players and fighting forces, the widespread human rights abuses that debase the conflict, the criminal activities employed to finance it, and the many failed military and peace approaches to resolve it.

I particularly appreciated Leech's analysis of the rise and role of the right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia, the staggering degree of homelessness and poverty created by the USA's "fumigation" program, and the USA's use of (what should be frankly coined) corporate mercenaries in the war. Although FARC is the largest fighting rebel force in Colombia, I wish Leech would have provided more information about the ELN. But, in this respect, Killing Peace is like most works on the Colombian civil war.

My chief issue with the book, and others like it, is that it tends to analyze the prospects for resolving the conflict in terms of some equitable and just accommodation among the principal players (except for the paramilitaries). But that's precisely the problem with this civil war: given the nature and extent of their human rights violations (including assassination, mass murder, terror, kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking, etc.), it is doubtful the principal players are capable of fashioning and maintaining an equitable and just settlement.

The book doesn't satisfactorily look at other options. For example, the prospects for a resolution coming from the various social movements within Colombia as well as how other Latin American regional powers and interests could be brought to bear on the conflict. Perhaps that hope is too thin for Leech, but it could very well be the only one available.

Of the many books I've read on 6 sigma, this IS the book on how to plan and deploy a 6 Simga initiative in a company. This is not a book on the tools and how to use them in detail. It is discussed, but more in terms of highlighting the training required and the caliber of people assigned.

There is a comparison and contrast of successful deployments and less successful deployments. The authors disect why they failed. They have a GE bias, in that at least on of the authors is heavily versed in the GE system. This is not to the detriment of the book, but it does color the successful path they advocate. That path is well trod and proven successful. There are variations to that that can be successful, and will depend heavily on the culture of the company.

The path they advocate attacks the common organization barriers that ANY initiative will face. So in that sense, the book is broader that just 6 simga. Those elements are:
* Active and strong leadership from the top

* Appropriate resources, people and funding
* Demand results
* Be willing to change internal policies and procedure to support implementation

This is a must read for anyone planning an implementation, or looking to fix one.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in how to successfully deploy Six Sigma in a large organization. Most books on Six Sigma are either technical (focusing on the tools and methodology) or are high level explanations of the basics of Six Sigma and descriptions of the wonderful impact it has on organizations. This is one of the few books I have found that focuses on the details of planning, organizing and managing a Six Sigma deployment. It is thorough and comprehensive. I led a corporate-wide Six Sigma deployment for a Fortune 1000 company and can confirm that the advice they provide is right on target. They have good, practical guidance based on real experience.

This book differs from most other Six Sigma guides in that it identifies, by name, companies that failed at Six Sigma. So many authors have presented Six Sigma as something magical that it is refreshing to see its warts. Make no mistake - the authors are not out to debunk or dethrone Six Sigma, a management philosophy and method that has been their professional life for many years. They clearly believe that Six Sigma is worth the investment of time, brain power, leadership and political capital that it requires. But they aren't afraid to point out the fact that it does require serious investment, and that management must sustain its commitment for years to unlock the full benefit of the Six Sigma approach. The book is a tolerably good read, albeit dry. It mercifully spares the reader any puffery or promotion, and it lays out the axioms of Six Sigma life in a very lucid format. Occasionally, it stoops to cliché, but not terribly often. We recommend it to those who need to know what it really takes to achieve Six Sigma performance, and how to begin.

This is a book about getting your organization to adopt Six Sigma. This book focuses on excellent techniques that are needed for convincing upper management of the value of Six Sigma. The target audience seems to be CEOs and their top assistants. In fact the authors pretty much concede that implementing Six Sigma is impossible without CEO intervention. Little can be found to help line managers implement a culture appropriate for Six Sigma. This fine book would have been even better had they addressed line issues more aggressively and had more on how to communicate Six Sigma in a manner that would not leave the "rank and file" thinking Six Sigma is just "old water in new bottles".

I dare say in many companies, the rank and file will assume that Six Sigma is ineffective jargon. Further, this will to a large extent be due to oversimplified misunderstandings of Six Sigma. Most Six Sigma training emphasizes that Six Sigma is used when the solution is unknown. Yet I only hear people mention Six Sigma when they have a solution (sometimes a solution in search of a problem). "We need to finish this project to improve our Six Sigmas" and "we should [insert project goal] so we can all get our green belts" are typical of the comments I hear that are laughable to someone who understands Six Sigma.

This book's weakest sections are the first few chapters. The authors compare companies who had successfully adopted Six Sigma and those who did not. The authors believe that the successful adopters shared (and the unsuccessful companies did not have) the following characteristics:
- committed leadership
- use of top talent
- supporting infrastructure

The authors eventually come out and say that the CEO should dedicate a percentage of his/her time to Six Sigma: money is not sufficient! Having worked at GE, this conclusion seems inevitable: Jack Welch did, in fact, put a lot of personal attention into adopting Six Sigma. However, we don't all work for someone like Jack Welch.

In his autobiography, Welch describes not giving bonuses to those who were not working on Six Sigma. This was his way of ensuring that all the top talent were working on Six Sigma projects because otherwise managers would be unable to reward their top talent.

GE had another thing going for it that set the stage of Six Sigma: a culture of managing by facts and numbers and not opinion. Remember, when other companies were "focusing on core strengths" in the mid 1980s, GE was expanding in finance, particularly leasing. Why? It supported their other businesses and created tax shelters that saved tremendous amounts of cash. As long as these subsidiaries could demonstrate ever-increasing profits, they could get ever-increasing resources. Subsidiaries that could not come up with the numbers were sold or shut down, debates about "core" or not core did not enter into the picture. In this environment, if Six Sigma could demonstrate results, the corporate culture would adopt it. Certainly, Welch's actions made Six Sigma happen more quickly, but he had won the battle long before when he fostered a results-oriented culture.

Being able to briefly and clearly describe what you are trying to do has become a critical tactic in modern leadership. In business we call this a "mission statement", in politics, its called, somewhat derisively, a sound bite. The next edition would benefit from the reworking of one of the early chapters to one that would help management create a Six Sigma mission statement.

I've read some other books NOT on Six Sigma that by analogy bring home the weakness of Six Sigma literature. To learn how to create a mission statement, I recommend Carville and Begala (2002). They used a passage in the Bible, John 3:16, as an excellent example: "For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten son so that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have everlasting life." They assert that this passage summarizes in 25 words the essentials of Christian theology. To paraphrase Carville and Begala, if the Bible can explain all the important tenets of Christianity in 25 words, surely 25 a word sample mission statement for Six Sigma can be provided for those who want to convince an organization to adopt it.

I would also recommend Michael Lewis' "Moneyball" as a companion book. Lewis (author of "Liar's Poker") uses Wall Street trading as an analogy to explain why the Oakland Athletics baseball team is one of the successful franchises with much less money than most. But I also see an analogy relevant to the topic of Six Sigma. "Moneyball" shows how one can achieve superior results by testing what everyone thinks they know with fact gathering and rigorous analyses. Moneyball will inspire anyone trying to implement Six Sigma to value testing assumptions with measurement.

A quick read of the reviews on Amazon will give you a feel for why people are skeptical of 6 Sigma: the feel-good tone of most writing on 6 Sigma and the insistence that it "is not a flavor-of-the-month management trend" make many of us suspect that 6 Sigma is not much more than hollow jargon and acronyms. The readers are left with the essential difficulties of positive change in any organization: you need to overcome assumptions that your organization's subculture may not even realize it has. What a corporation does by accepting Six Sigma is that it empowers people to gather data to challenge what "everybody knows". Most importantly, it sets a standard of very high quality, which reinforces the sanctioning of data-driven change.

I feel that this book comes up short in this regard, as do the other books I've read on Six Sigma, but otherwise is a good description on how an upper-level manager can bring about organizational change in general and implement Six Sigma in particular.

Without a doubt this is one of the best books ever written on Six Sigma and I should know as I have read nearly every book written on Six Sigma over the last three years. However, let me clarify something up front. This book does not delve into the tools of Six Sigma nor the actual statistical methods of Six Sigma like Air Academy Associates excellent books `Basic Statistics' or `Understanding Industrial Designed Experiments'. What this book does, however, is address the following topics which so far every other book on Six Sigma has failed to cover and clarify:

1. The right projects, the right people: Identifying your company's most promising Six Sigma opportunities and leaders.
2. How to hit the ground running: Providing leadership, talent, and infrastructure for a successful launch.
3. From launch to long-term success: Implementing systems, processes, and budgets for ongoing Six Sigma projects.
4. Getting the bottom-line results that matter most: Measuring and maximizing the financial value of your Six Sigma initiative

What makes this book such a good value is that the author's of the book clearly know what they're talking about and their wisdom from implementing actual Six Sigma projects is priceless. This book is really a blueprint for implementing and sustaining Six Sigma and provides excellent advice on how to avoid the pitfalls that so many companies have run into during their failed attempts at implementing Six Sigma. The book is written in clear, easy-to-understand language with just the right amount of graphs and charts so even people who know nothing about Six Sigma will benefit from reading it. My advice is to buy this book and Michael George's outstanding book `Lean Six Sigma' together so that you truly get an appreciation for what Six Sigma is and what it can do when combined with Lean.

This is the book that provide the experience for real Six Sigma implementation. If you are looking for real method from Expert Experience. I reccommend this book.

Very detailed & specific; you can find what you want easily. Keeps you away from theory of Lean Six Sigma, rather brings theory close to practical applications.

I agree with the other reviews and will not repeat their praises here. Keep in mind that, as Wedgwood says in his book, you need a statistical reference to understand the details of statistical tests; he does offer a high level view of the statistics to help a mathematically challenged person better understand what the test is all about and why it's being used. To execute a particular statistical test will require more than is found here but that is not a problem. I find his explanations of tool use to be generally more understandable than in other references. Wedgewood has an uncanny sense of exactly what it is you need to know and understand about a tool and it's use to be effective in using it. We adopted this as our text for the Six Sigma Black Belt training because the students most often needed help when deciding which tool to use and when to use it. Wedgwood is unique in creating 25 categories of problems into which most projects can be sorted. During the "define" phase he urges the practitioner to decide where in these 25 categories the particular problem best fits. Such a task forces a special attention to the nature of the problem and once it is properly categorized there is a set of sensible suggestions offered to point the way to generating a solution. As a result of the categorization this book is not designed to be read through from beginning to end. It is a useful reference and self directs attention to where the problem solver needs to go. No other book is like this hence it needs to be on your shelf!

The key to Lean Six Sigma's success is the effective combination of two things: roadmaps that lead the practitioner down the problem-solving path and the tools that he or she will use along the way. Dr. Wedgwood's new book is as complete an exposition of both as I have seen. This volume is a very cleverly organized work as well. He begins with the matching of roadmaps to process problems - each of some 25 specific problems (high schedule variation, broken measurement system, etc.) has 3-4 pages devoted to the correct roadmap to follow to fix it. These roadmaps reference the tools that can be used, and these are then described individually and in depth in a following chapter. There are also a couple of short and helpful chapters devoted to tools for discovery and process control.

You won't become a Six Sigma Blackbelt by reading Dr. Wedgwood's book...but if you are one, "Lean Sigma, A Practitioner's Guide," will be a great addition to your bookshelf. It's an excellent book and bound to become the standard for Lean Six Sigma classroom instruction and a best friend of the practioner in the field.

Ian Wedgwood has written a book that is a roadmap in itself to problem solving using the combined toolset from six sigma and lean. This book is not just another book of tools. It shows the reader how to define the problem and then how and why to apply tools to solve the problem. This book is the best book I've read on six sigma or lean that is focused on helping project leaders find a solution. It is designed as a roadmap for business leaders to understand the nature of their problem; know which tools are best to solve their problem; know when, how, and why to apply each tool; and how to get a problem solution. An aspect I found most useful was the section on identifying the problem and defining it in measurable terms. I known much about the tools individually, but this book has helped me get projects started the right way. I now see that the section on "Define Tools" would have helped me get to a problem solution much quicker had I applied the principles outlined in this book. It seems so simple after reading this book, but I can see where a simple roadmap to identifying the problem first would have made me much more efficient in the application of six sigma tools. This book helps make the not so obvious simple to understand.

After helping the project leader know how to define the problem correctly, Dr. Wedgwood then explains each tool in a unique way. He actually helps the business leader know why the tool is important in addition to how to use the tool. Wedgwood makes sure that the belt knows more than just which tool to use, he makes sure the belt knows why the tool is essential to business improvement. Charts and roadmaps make the task of process improvement easy. And, since everything is explained so well, the project leader is better informed and can answer questions from others. Although not written as a textbook, its clear roadmap for problem solving makes this a book I would want all my students to have on their professional bookshelf. It has already helped me in getting started on a new project myself, and I've been around the academic side of six sigma for many years.

This is an excellent book, written in laymen's terms, for understanding the complexities of living with and/or treating a brain tumor.... a very good read for anyone who has a tumor or for anyone who has someone they love with a brain tumor. This is a basic primer.

I may be biased, as Dr. Black performed a surgery on me 7 years ago, but I think he has done a very good job in relaying the ins and outs of tumors in an easy to understand book for the average person. It is organized in a way that you are able to look back to certain sections for guidance at your stage in treatment.

This informative guide, written by Peter Black, M.D., Ph.D. (along with medical writer Sharon Cloud Hogan) is a welcome addition to the resources that are available for the brain tumor community. Dr. Black, an eminent neurosurgeon, brain tumor researcher, and professor at Harvard Medical School, offers his expertise about a variety of topics that affect brain tumor patients and their loved ones in an easy to understand format. The book is divided into five parts: An Introduction to Brain Tumors, Types of Brain Tumors, Living with a Brain Tumor, Treatment Options, and Recovery. Chapter titles include "What a Brain Tumor Means for Me and My Family," "Choosing Supportive Care," "Working Toward Wellness," and "Reasons for Hope," in addition to the expected sections about specific tumor types, chemotherapy, surgery and radiation treatment. Issues that affect adults with brain tumors, as well as specific pediatric concerns, are clearly explained. In addition to his technical expertise, Dr. Black's warmth, concern and compassionate approach to his patients is evident throughout this book. His tone is optimistic and reassuring, including helpful suggestions for patients at every stage of their brain tumor journey. At the end of the book, more than 40 pages list practical resources, including contact information for adult and pediatric brain tumor treatment centers throughout the United States and Canada. This wonderful book should be required reading for anyone affected by brain tumor issues - current patients, long term survivors, family members, and medical professionals. As a health educator and a brain tumor support group facilitator (as well as a long term brain tumor survivor myself), I have already purchased several copies of this book to add to the lending library of my local brain tumor support group. I am grateful to Dr. Black for writing this excellent brain tumor guide, which will benefit so many people who are affected by all types of brain tumors. Nancy Conn-Levin, M.A. (Oakhurst, New Jersey)

My father was diagnosed 4 months ago with an anaplastic astrocytoma grade III. The neurospecilist told us right away: "your father won't last more than a month". Here we are, my father has passed through radiotherapy for a whole month and chemotherapy (temodal) will last for 5 more. Every day he is getting better in all aspects (his movements, vision etc...). This book has something really great, you learn what you need about the process since the diagnosed, information about the different kinds of brain tumors and the doctor who wrote it has something very important for the familiy and friends... HUMANESS. You will learn that there's no final diagnosed. EVERY ONE AND EVERY BRAIN TUMOR is different and has different behavior and not because the CT or the MRI tell us a devastating news, it means the panorama will be so dark. Go on; buy this book because it is a relief for all whom are passing this complicated period.

I wish I'd had this book when I first learned about my brain tumor. It's full of important information from the beginning of the diagnosis to after treatment and how to cope with it all.

Since June 2004 I've lost 35 pounds on a low-cal medically supervised diet that used pre-packaged shakes and entrees. Going into the maintenance phase now I am looking forward to starting to cook again. After receiving this cookbook for Christmas, the third in a great series of cookbooks, I went through and dog-eared the pages of the recipes that fit my criteria of low-cal.

Tonight I made Beer-Braised Pork Chops, page 219. It was EXCELLENT and sooo easy and less than 30 minutes. Only 5 ingredients. The moistest pork chops I've ever made. I ate one serving, only 173 calories, and put the other servings into individual containters in the fridge and freezer for quick meals later in the week. Don't let the Low Carb title of this book limit you. Pick all the great recipes that can fit into any nutritous diet regime.

Now I do need to disclaim that Lauri is my sister. BUT, I have a BS degree in dietetics and would not endorse any cookbook I did not believe in. In college I lived with Lauri off and on and she is one of the most creative cooks ever. She taught me how to cook meals from scratch that were sooo tasty. A better learning ground than any food classes I took for my degree. She cooks with the passion of an artist, marrying herbs and spices just right is a real niche. And as an educated mechanical engineer she has refined the science of EACH recipe, testing them over and over in her kitchen before adding them to her cookbooks. If you've ever made a recipe from a book, magazine or the paper that obviously was incorrect in it's methods, timing or proportions, like I have, you will appreciate that Lauri tests EACH of her recipes to perfection so you know you can count on it coming out just right. ENJOY.

I am so excited about this new low carb cookbook: so far every recipe has been incredible! I usually have to "tweek" recipes in most low carb cookbooks (including the recipes from the low carb queen Dana Carpenter). But so far with Lauri's new cookbook, most of my margin notes are simply a heart symbol next to the recipes that I love (which are so conveniently listed at the beginning of each section). Lauri's first cookbook was good but this one is great! I applaud how well this cookbook is organized. Each section has the recipes categorized as Induction, Weight Loss and Maintenance. This has been very helpful!

When I get a new cookbook, my first choices are the vegetable and chicken recipes. So far I have made the Chicken in Coconut Sauce with the Hawaiian Salsa (incredible!), Chicken Paprika (oh my god!) and the Aspen Chicken (outstanding). As for the vegetables, I've tried the Turnips Au Gratin, Poached Red Cabbage and Pepper Jack Cauliflower; all are super great. But the Mock Rice Pilaf is out of this world and brilliant! I can't wait to try all the wonderful looking variations offered.

Now let's talk about chili - the Slap Me Silly Chili is unbelievably delicious and what a cute name! This chili has a little heat (although not as much as Lauri seems to think it has) but it is the flavor that slapped me silly. Wow! It is so good! The blend of spices and textures is excellent. Perhaps it is the chorizo sausage that sets this chili above all others.

For breakfast I have tried two variations of the pancakes and love them. The spiced Pumpkin Muffins are delicious and so very moist. I had the Hot Cereal this morning which has 12g of fiber and it is wonderful too. However, I did tweek this recipe by omitting the psyllium husk (because I didn't have any) and substituting a bit more flax seed meal.

As for the desserts, so far I have made the Blackberry Yogurt Pie which was outstanding and a really healthy dessert option as well as the Ginger Pecan Cookies which never completely cooled as my whole family gobbled them up. I'm looking forward to making the other cookie recipes.

Although I have tried only a handful of recipes so far, I am astounished that each one has been so incredibly wonderful! Move over Dana Carpenter, it looks like you are going to be usurped by Lauri Ann Randolph as my new favorite low carb cookbook author.

If you are looking for an easy to understand, easy to use low carb cookbook, with tasty recipes to indulge in, this is the book for you. It is a well organized book with a friendly tone.
I love how she adds special details about prepackaged low carb foods, sweetners, fats and oils, herbs and fiber, to a simple course in cooking with alcohol. Lauri's a good teacher, who shares her wisdom in a down to earth fashion. Whenever I pick up her book, I feel like I'm visiting an old friend. Right now I'm going through a soup kick, and Lauri has some amazing soup recipes, from her Pumpkin Coconut Soup to her Barbados Stew. I love how now and then she shares her story about what inspired her to create the recipe. It really is a treasure of a cookbook, and one that I highly recommend whether you are watching your carb intake or just looking for good eats!

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful .. each recipe is perfect and easy to make! The instructions are so clear that even I can cook like a pro. Some of my favorite recipes are the Cheesy Chicken with Artichokes, Confetti Snow Peas, Curry Turkey Salad, the Sauerbraten and the Chicken Caesar Salad. I've also made the Almond Cookies at least 10 times since the first of the year; they are so good!

This cookbook is huge, packed full of great recipes. And there is lots of other information in it too, like the proper oil to use for different cooking methods. The discussion on the different cuts of beef has been useful for me too.

This is my 4th low carb cookbook and the only one I need. The weight is starting to come off again because I am enjoying cooking again. So if you are only going to buy one cookbook, then I highly recommend this one; you will not be disappointed.

if there were more stars for reviews this book would keep going. laurie really "gets" it. these recipes are awesome and i didnt think she could get better than the last book which i bought for friends for gifts. this book is the best of the best she gives us info on some of the things we have to buy for seasonings as well. i can now mix herbs to give to friends along with the book . picture a basket with the book and a packet of herbs de provance that you made up yourself i am blown away by all the additional info in this book as well this author approaches cooking from the perspective of making food with ingredients from the market,made without being time fussy and making enough to have additional meals. there are all different carb counts for all phases of the lifestyle and best of all many of the higher counts give choices to leave something out for the induction phase, while still being able to have the item now isnt that original... i can have pancakes many different ways and she has lots of breakfasts for those of us who dont ever feel like eating breakfast. she uses the new dairy beverage (hood countdown) for some recipes in place of cream and i find that the cream makes things very thick where the dairy beverage gives more of a custard texture.i have never had hicama going to try that soon. i reviewed all my other cookbooks and when the weather gets better ill be having a yard sale. if you can only afford one or two low carb books i can tell you my shelf has laurie's two books and george stellas and you dont need any others . that is until laurie comes out with number three.....

This book makes low-fat cooking exciting, easy and very tasty. It is refreshing to have access to a low-fat approach without the push to eat all the chemical driven, high calorie "low-fat" processed foods. Yes, finally real foods and real variety made healthy and easy!

I bought this cookbook a number of years ago, and I can honestly say that it changed the way I think about cooking. For example: before this cookbook, my primary seasonings were salt, butter, and minced onion; thanks to this cookbook, I've reduced my salt usage by at least a factor of 3, and I've learned how to get more "bang for the buck" on the salt I do use with other herbs and spices. I was greatly reassured by the writers' assurance that they understand the principle that if it doesn't taste good, you won't eat it - the recipes reflect this understanding, as the need to reduce fat is balanced with the need for appropriate taste and texture in the final product. Recipes such as Hungarian Cabbage and Royal Indian Salmon have become staples in our household. I highly recommend this book.

Cooking is my hobby and I have had this book for over a year now and have used it many times. The recipes are very tasty, I've used many of them over and over. The low fat chocolate cheesecake is wonderful, as is the potato-cheese soup. In addition, the book starts off with a chapter on nutrition and a chapter on kitchen utensils and spices - I think both chapters would be very helpful to the novice and the experienced cook (consider myself experienced). I am now ordering this book for a friend of mine, in the past have given it to my mother, brother and mother-in- law. If I could have only one low-fat cookbook, this one would be it. I strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in really yummy low-fat cooking

Love the book- bought 8 more similar titles. Replaced all the cholesterol-laden, fat-dripping, high calorie cookbooks I used for years. Great CookBook. Easy - Tasty - Healthy, oh my! GOOD RECIPES.

This book has such a nice variety of lowfat recipes... with soups, salads, sauces, side dishes and an emphasis on main course recipes. Good flavor and lowered calories... Worthwhile.

Los planteamientos del autor sobre la formación en las carreras asociadas a la ingeniera es cierto. El libro es un esfuerzo por cerrar la brecha entre la teoria y la práctica del diagnóstico de maquinaria, me ha servido como herramienta en mi área de trabjo, lo recomiendo ampliamente, es el mejor libro que leido sobre el tema

It explains fundamental machinery behavior, static and Dynamic measurement, data acquisition, processing and intrpretaion. Detailed case histories.

Mr. Eisenmann has compiled his years of "hands on" experience into this book. Although the information contained within the book applies to most types of rotating machinery, it's focused on high speed process machinery with journal type bearings. I've read dozens of vibration analysis books and none even comes close to this one. It is a must have for any vibration analysis who needs to understand non rolling element bearing type machines.

Al leer el libro de los Srs. Eisenmann, el lector se identifica totalmente con el acontecer diario de una empresa de mantenimiento e identifica la estrategia tradicional de enseñanza seguida en nuestras universidades.

Actualmente en America Latina existe un literal divorcio entre las universidades y la empresas, este libro constituye una herramienta vital para cerrar esa brecha, sirve tanto al profesional como al estudiante, suministra la teoria suficiente para manejar y entender como manejar las situaciones que en el día a día se presentan en los equipos y maquinarias.

Es uno de los pocos libros que debe incluirse en el maletin de herramientas de uso diario, es ideal para utilizarse en charlas técnicas y en grupos de análisis y discusión operacionales, ya que sus planteamientos son claros y precisos y estan al alcance del lector, sin llegar a un excesivo manejo teórico.

This book has it all for any vibration engineer

Using the Profit Maximization Techniques developed by Walt Thrun will allow any production facility to calculate their maximum profit obtainable. Now there is no need to guess what your optimum product mix should be for your plant, what Capital Projects to implement, what your budget and forecast should be. This has the potential to revolutionize productivity as we measure it today. Let's quit getting better at doing the wrong things and start doing the right things.

As an engineer in a manufacturing environment I loved the book because it quantitatively expresses the contribution that engineers make to the bottom line. This book will definitely be popular with SME and AIIE. I have been fighting the standard cost battle for years, knowing that it didn't work, but not knowing exactly why or be able to offer an alternative. This book nails both of these issues down in succinct fashion. This book is a real winner!

Imagine having a tool that could make quantum leaps in company profitability with no added capital investment, cost reduction, or product price increases. It's about working smarter, not harder. It's about using existing manufacturing resources to make the most of the one resource every manufacturing operation shares: time. Within this text lies that tool, evidenced not only in my reading of the book, but in my application of its concepts. Like any tool, it will only be effective when the reader moves past reading the directions to putting the tool into action.

This easy-to-read book offers a refreshing new look at non-traditional methods to measure manufacturing performance in terms all decision makers can understand...profit! Armed with readily available computer tools, Walt Thrun confidently and logically assaults conventional thinking and methods in performance measurement and leads the reader to obvious conclusions about the relationship between constraints and profitability. Such measures as "overhead absorbtion, cost allocation and plant utilization" are replaced with "profit optimization, contribution maximation and return on investment". He demonstrates, in detail, how to quantitatively measure the impact of strategic decisions and manufacturing improvements on the bottom line. The concept that local optimization results in global optimization is effectively debunked. The concepts of this book are consistant with the body of knowledge described by the American Society for Quality for Quality Engineer and Quality Manager certification. This book is a "must read" for ASQ members and other quality professionals interested in quantifiable measurement of process improvements.

Walt's book brings together some important elements of Engineering Economy, Operations Research, and more recent works that stem from the The Goal and Theory of Constraints. However, Walt concentrates primarily on the strategic planning facet and leaves detailed scheduling and capacity analysis to other works. He uses "total contribution" and "total system ROI" as the criteria and introduces "integrative reasoning" as a philosophy to optimize product mix and evaluate a variety of tactical and strategic options. This philosophy is presented in a single, continuous case that extends through the entire book, becoming stronger as it flows from example to example and chapter to chapter. The progressive case study is a chain of tightly related examples which evaluate and rank strategies for product mix, productivity improvements, outsourcing, contract manufacturing, capital planning, budgeting, acquisitions, and multi-plant synergy.

After reading lots of of other current works and spending time on the job, one still may not learn the key lessons carried in this one book.

This is an exceptional work of real empirical science. Steve Biddle has a hypothesis that "force employment" is a more important determinant of military success than either technology or preponderance of military forces. He subjects this hypothesis to a wide range of analytical and empirical tests, and the evidence in support of his argument is compelling. And the author has the foresight to raise many of the issues that occur to a skeptical reader, and to treat them with reasoned analysis and data. His prose is clear, and this is compelling reading even to one who is not an expert in this field.

Stephen Biddle, a Professor at the US Army War College, has produced an important book on modern warfare. He shows how material forces, numbers and technology, only count if used in the modern system. Force deployment shapes the role of material forces. He analyses full data-sets of modern battles, proving that bigger is not always better.

The increasing lethality of firepower means that since 1914 exposed mass movement is suicidal. Only the modern system of using combined arms, cover and concealment enables the attackers' forces to survive the defence's response.

Biddle looks at three significant battles, firstly, the successful German attack of March 1918. For preponderance theorists, the Allies should have stopped this attack dead. The German/British force-to-force ratio was 1.5/1, among the least favourable of any major attack of the war. The British had a few more tanks, but the main weapons were still the infantry and guns of 1915-18, a defence-dominant technology. The British official history blamed the fog, as if there had been no fog until then.

The Germans won an unprecedented breakthrough, advancing 40 miles across a 50-mile front. The Germans implemented the modern system tactically and to some extent operationally; the British didn't. This broke the great stalemate, not new technology, US intervention or exhaustion.

Biddle's second example, Operation Goodwood in July 1944, was the failed Allied effort to break out of the Normandy beachhead. The British had more troops and weapons: 1,277 tanks, 4,500 aircraft and 118,000 troops against 319 tanks, several hundred aircraft and 29,000 troops. If preponderance theorists were right, the British would have won, but they tried an exposed mass tank charge, unsupported by infantry or suppressive artillery.

Biddle's third example is Operation Desert Storm of 1991, which US forces won with an unprecedentedly low loss rate. US forces used the modern system, the Iraqis did not. The superior US air technology did not eliminate the Iraqi resistance: 2,000 tanks still fought back after the air assault. US troops with or without advanced ground technology, and those fighting local engagements at better or worse odds, won equally convincingly.

According to Stephen Biddle force employment or the use of combined arms is the secret to military success not superior technology or overwhelming numbers. The first example that Biddle uses is the opening German offensive in 1918 against the British in which they succeded intially against the English army due to effective coordination of artillery and infantry. The second case that Biddle brings up is the British operation Goodwood against the Germans in 1944. The British failed, according to Biddle, due to the lack of cooperation between infantry and armor.Also Biddle dispels the myth that technology alone won Desert Storm because the Marines,equipped with only sixties era tanks, were able to defeat the Iraqis with superior tactics. The only weakness of Biddle's book is that he leaves out the two cases in which opponents with superior nummers defeated a force with effective force employment methods which is the defeat of the Germans to the Russians in the summer of 1944, and the rout of the Americans from North Korea by the Chinese in the winter of 1950. Otherwise, Biddle writes an effective case that force employment and not technology is the most important factor in military victory.

I'll begin by saying that this is an excellent book and highly recommended to anyone interested in the field. Well written and great to read even for a non-military reader.
Unfortunately, the case studies and battles are not really described, and if you were not already familiar with the battles before (as I was not in 2 of 3), the analyses will not help to gain any real understanding.
Second, the model presented is an excellent tool for "post mortem" analyses. However, since according to the model, the major factor that will decide the outcome of the battle is force emplacement, and since it cannot be known in advance what will the force emplacement be (neither for friendly nor for enemy forces), the model cannot really be used to predict outcomes of future battles. I see this as a major problem with the model.

Prof Terry Tucker, Senior Doctrine Developer, Saudi Arabian NG Modernization Program;
The author presents a balanced, provocative and well presented case for how victory or defeat occurs in battle. This book is designed for both the tecnical numbers kind of person and also the less technical. The chapters can be read as a stand alone or you can also go through the entire book. Either way it has immense value.
The thesis of this book is that force employment, or the doctrine and tactics by which forces are used in combat is centrally important. This book is great reading, is controversial in its presentation but clearly provides both empirical and quantitative analysis to support his position. THIS BOOK IS A MUST READ.

And this book proves it. Finally someone has let the cat out of the bag that alternative medicine has been used for centuries to conquer alcohol craving and alcohol abuse.
I'm happy drinkers have more options with this book. Now, in addition to cutting down or stopping, they can get a little extra help with the herbs and supplements in this book. Every drinker should own this book.

that message is we have to start thinking out of the box when it comes to
alcohol abuse treatment. i gave this book to a friend of mine who has a
drinking problem but was dead against stopping or going to AA. he was
receptive to this book because it gave him some organic alternatives to
drinking less. in other words it got him started doing something about
his drinking.

some people just need a little shove to do something about their drinking
and this book provided that little shove.

I'm a drinker who has struggled on and off with booze for years and I'm ecstatic someone has finally written about a more organic approach to problem drinking. This book gave me a different perspective. I was especially interested in how chinese and ayurvedic medicine treat drinkers and the concept of "balancing" my life so booze becomes less important and I drink less.

This book opened my mind up. I guess no ones written about alternative medicine to address alcohol abuse because the disease concept and AA are so deeply ingrained in the US.

I am so happy I came across this book at amazon. It's the only book I've
found that talks about how other alternative medicines and other cultures
view alcohol abuse and how to treat it. I was thinking about getting
prescription medication to cut the desire to drink but after reading this
I don't need to. There are lots of herbs to do that at the natural food
store. I've read Cornett's other book, 7 Weeks to Safe Social Drinking:
How to Effectively Moderate Your Alcohol Intake, and she always covers
interesting things.

For me the vitamin and supplement part was the best. It talks about things
you can buy over the counter to cut craving. The Chinese and Ayurveda
medicine parts were really interesting too.

I realize this is only one take on problem drinking. But if you take these
suggestions in the book, along with her program in her other book to
improve your drinking habits you can cut craving and consumption without
prescription medicine.

This is one of the most interesting books I've read about alcohol abuse - it really offers a different take on problem drinking and how to fix it. It's the first book I've found which discusses how different alternative medicine approaches have treated alcohol abuse for centuries - long before AA came along.
Homeopathic, Chinese and Ayurvedic and western herbs are covered - explaining how each of these systems views alcohol abuse, how it develops and the best ways to treat it. Another major theme of the book is balance. If one's life is a balance of physical, mental and spiritual components, the less need there is for alcohol. Truly a fascinating read and helpful to me personally.