Research Books

This book will definitely make you reconsider the murder of JFK, along with the cancer so many of us fight each day. It's scary to imagine what the government can do.

I was amazed when I read Dr Mary's Monkeys. This is honest research and shows just how corrupt scientists and governments can be. It also explained the connection to why JFK was murdered.

As a native New Orleanian, I was 20 years old when Dr. Sherman was murdered and remember parts of the strange story of her murder in her St. Charles Ave apartment. Having actually met a couple of the players in the book, back in the early and mid-60's, remembering the stories of the Primate Center over the years and various related vague controversies, I find Haslam's story very compelling, well researched and totally believable - it sure tied up a lot of loose ends for me about many questions I've had since 1962. It also helps explain why so many people of my generation (who took the polio vaccine in question) seem so susceptible to the current cancer epidemic, at least here in New Orleans. Call me cynical, but to me, there is nothing far-fetched in this book at all and Haslam clarifies a lot of issues/mysteries that have been successfully suppressed for 40+ years.

This book was somewhat "under the radar' here and was a word-of-mouth type of thing that locals started to talk about, passing around their copies of the book (which I could initially only find on Amazon); however, I noticed it on display at a Border's store this week (at $19.99). I've referred the book to everyone I know and I am ordering another 4 copies today from Amazon for friends - I think it is a must-read - even if you don't believe part of it, it is a book that is hard to put down and frightening on many levels.

An incredible journey.Absolutely Brilliant writing! A book that should be in everyone's home. The millions of children innoculated with the polio vaccine,that were contaminated with monkey virus'. This led to a possible
development of soft tissus in later life,(and possibly AIDS). Even worse after the discovery,was the cover-up by the Government.You can NOT put this book down.The documentation and footnotes,are flawless. The new Orleans Connection,Lee Harvey Oswald,Jim Garrison,the death of President Kennedy,and the homicide of Dr. Mary Sherman,The links to the finest researchers brought to New Orleans to try to keep the secret while trying to find an answer. One of the best and most riveting books I have EVER read!

If you don't want to be challenged, or you want to believe the Warren Commission Report that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and unaided in the assassination of JFK, or that New Orleans and the events taking place there played no part in the assassination, don't bother to read Dr Mary's Monkey, for it will disrupt your complacency and demolish your assumptions.

This book is a serious attempt to move into an area of research that is as-yet mostly uncharted with little documentation. And it is no surprise -- most of the people involved are dead -- something happened to them soon after the assassination. One has survived, though; a woman who has created more controversy and discussion than anybody connected to the assassination, save for perhaps Lee Oswald himself.

Judyth Vary Baker, who now resides outside of the US for her own safety, is the witness whose statements pull together this book into a cohesive theory of what might have happened behind the scenes of the assassination. In addition, Haslam is a good writer who uses his own experiences (they create rather eccentric credentials for his passion for his subject-matter) to give us a book that is a real page-turner. An updated and expanded version of his earlier outrageously fascinating book "Mary, Ferrie and the Monkey Virus", which gained a considerable cult following over the years, this edition has photos and documentation galore.

I have to admit I did not expect to find this book as interesting as it turned out to be. I was only interested in identifying some species within my yard and discovered quite a bit about ants. This book won't make you an expert, but it has made me see ants from a whole new perspective, so much so that I have come to like them instead of disliking them. I can also see why it is possible to kill a colony so easily. Never knew that once the queen is gone, there is no colony. I think if ants had atom bombs they would have destroyed the earth by now - killing each other. I had no idea they were so aggressive towards one another. Anyway, great book to read.

Apart from being a great book for all kind of reader, it was, for me (eight years ago!), a start point and it was probably the cause I focus my career nowadays in these small insects. It's quite nice for a child (then better with adult, not to read alone) or young people interested in natural sciences.

I loved this book. After reading it I spent the next night telling my wife all I'd managed to remember.

Journey to the Ants is a shorter version of the authors' monumental The Ants (1990), a 732-page tome aimed at professional biologists with a lot of technical language and a clear encyclopedic intent. This book, as Holldobler and Wilson explain in the Preface, is of "a more manageable length, with less technical language and with an admitted and unavoidable bias toward those topics and species on which we have personally worked."

It is a terrific book, lavishly illustrated with many color plates, line drawings, black and white drawings, photos, etc. Especially wonderful are the color prints of paintings by John D. Dawson showing ants in various activities. His style reminds me a bit of M.C. Esher. Also notable are the many photos taken by Holldobler and Wilson during their many travels and studies. They are both renowned experts on ants around the world.

The text is both informative and entertaining. Wilson in particular is a world class science writer as well as a great scientist, and his clarity of expression and enthusiasm show through. The chapters examine and illustrate how ants live in their colonies, how they hunt prey, tend aphid "cattle," cultivate fungi, raid other ant colonies; how they fight and how they reproduce. Other chapters focus on particular species, like army ants or leaf cutter ants, or "strange" ants. Still other chapters show how ants communicate especially through pheromones and touch. There is some theory on ant origins (about 100-120 million years ago) and their evolution and present distribution. I was particularly interested in and appalled by both the way some ants are parasites and how they themselves are exploited by parasites. Our esteemed authors show how ants, for all their power and evolutionary success, can be the most naive victims of beetles, flies, butterfly larva, etc. simply because they can be fooled by smells that mimic those of the colony and/or because they can be given irresistible concoctions of food or what might be called "drugs" that make them passive and acceptive of insects that will eat their eggs and larva. They are also tricked into feeding strangers on the trail and alien larva in the colony nest!

I purposely first read a couple of other books on ants (The World of Ants: A Science-Fiction Universe (1970) by Remy Chauvin, and Ants (1977) by M.V. Brian), written by myrmecologists of an earlier generation so as to be able to better appreciate this famous work. But you need not do that. Journey to the Ants is eminently accessible to just about any literate person.

While reading I had some thoughts (as Wilson famously has had) on the differences and similarities between ant societies and human ones. Ants are not governed as we are (and as was once thought) in any way by a central authority. (They are influenced by the queen's pheromones and her behavior.) Instead ants are examples of "swarm intelligence," that is purposeful and coordinated behavior that arises from each individual doing what comes naturally to that individual. This sort of intelligence was just beginning to be appreciated when Holldobler and Wilson wrote this book. The phrase "swarm intelligence" does not appear anywhere in the book, and yet it is clear that our present understanding of how this intelligence works was gleaned in part from the work of biologists and ethologists like Holldobler and Wilson.

Ants are famous for doing human-like things that no other animals or few can do, such as gardening, tending herds, making war, and constructing elaborate living spaces. It is usually said that ants do it from pure instinct whereas we use our intelligence and the experience. Humans and ants cannot be defined independently of their respective cultures. What I wonder is, is it an artificiality to say that their intelligence, spread out as it is among the individuals and their genetic endowments, is fundamentally different from our own? Clearly ants are limited in what they can construct, what they can understand, and what tools they can make and use. I read somewhere that ants never developed fire because no ant could get close enough to a sustainable fire to tend it.

A striking conclusion is that perhaps the real difference between us comes from our ability to grow a million times bigger in size which allows us not only to tend fires, but to develop brains large enough to handle abstract thought such as in language, which further allows us to develop and share ideas, concepts, practices, and all the other aspects of our culture in a way that is impossible for ants, whose brain size is limited by their anatomy.

So, although ants were here long before we arrived, and although they probably will be here long after we are gone, it is impossible to say which life form is the more successful. We do have at present the capability, which ants do not, of enhancing our ability to survive through genetic engineering and the development of biologically friendly machines, and even the ability to migrate away from this earth so that our genes and ourselves are not in one basket, so to speak. Should a planet-sterilizing event hit the earth, we could be on Mars and still survive.

But then there is this insidious thought: perhaps the ants, like our resident microbes, will find a way to come with us!

Don't miss this book. You are in for a treat.

There is few to say that has not been said. It is very well written and the information is mind-boggling.

I must say that the author did an excellent job if he intended this book to be a record of the day to day action on all theaters of engagement between the French and the Viet Minh.

Because of the excessive level of detail, the book is very diffcult to read and appreciate. It is a mind numbing experience.

Read this only if you wish to know in detail the horrible sufferings that that combatants on either side faced in a senseless war. Otherwise you will be better off with just a summary.

The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu And the French Defeat in Vietnam

Apparently the best account ever written on Dien Bien Phu. Just two brief remarks:
1. History is shaped by strong personalities, and there was an abundance of them in Dien Bien Phu. Despite the book's large volume, there would be welcome a chapter sketching portraits of key protagonists (Bigeard, Langlais, de Castries etc), at the expense of details on arms specifications.
2.The author is favorably predisposed to French military leaders, and I tend to sustain his argument about injustices inflicted to the French army by politicians. Nevertheless, he is inclined to offer unnecessary excuses to the former, as well as to soothe down quarrels. Why not state bluntly that Cogny and Langlais could not tolerate Navarre and de Castries respectively? Even though the outcome might not be different, leadership exercised by de Castries was apparently inadequate. During this epic battle, besides heroism, mistakes had been made also on the French part, which the author appears quite eager to justify, out of respect to this unique effort.

T. E. Lawrence wrote that amateurs do something because they love to, and professionals because they must. We can thank the muses that Martin Windrow is a self-described amateur, because this work bears all the hallmarks of serious and loving craftsmanship. He places both the war, and the battle in context, he casts a glaring light upon some of its myths, and he gives serious attention to the technical aspects of the battle that the great majority of military professionals would otherwise miss, such as the state of Viet Minh artillery tactics and doctrine. Were Fall still alive and writing, Windrow would still have outclassed him. Anything and everything you want or need to know about the battle for Dien Bien Phu is here. The very best military history I've read in English in a very long time. Bravo!

the book just kind of grabbed me, twice.
first when i saw it on the library shelf, i read "hell in a very small place" many years ago and have a continuing interest in vietnam and america's involvement there.
the second time is when i started reading it, it reads like an excellent detective story, i sat and sat and finished it at one sitting, not a small feat considering it is over 700 pages long. This style is the first very notable characteristic.

not only is the writing excellent, but the author is one of those people who you can imagine talking to. he appears to a military historian from his amazon authors page. writing since the 1970's with an accent on french and the foreign legion. But this book looks like a long term research project and literally a work of love. the detail and interest he displays puts it in a class almost by itself. the only other military history that i've been this impressed by is the boer war by pakenham. The research and simply put love that went into this book is evident thoughout and is a second notable item.

there is something else that makes it outstanding, several places he shows some very unique and well thought out ideas. they are just snatches of his worldview: some pages about the wounds caused by military bullets, a couple of places where he talks about the relationships between politicians and military leaders, and his discussion about how men fight for their buddies next to them, not geopolitical big things. There are just a few of these rather tantilizing glimpses, enough to make me look for more of his books. This disclosure of the man behind the work and his ideas developed from a lifetime of study in history is remarkable and the 3rd item i wish to point out.

I'd not a fan of military histories, nor an i particularly interested in the genre. But i do like his writing. I find the careful analysis of what happened, what lead up to it, how people responded fascinating and as yesterday proved, somewhat addictive. There is an overwhelming number of names, who went where and fought whom, etc, those datum that make up military history, but it is not so bad that it bores or obscures the ideas. He is a very careful documenter of the facts, desirous of completeness and setting the historical record straight. All elements which appear strongly in the book.

There is another thing remarkable about the book and it's author, a desire to look at the facts and the events and truly learn from them. To see this part of our world, a somewhat dark one, filled with the dead and lost, and remember them not just for their sacrifices but what these things have to teach us about ourselves and the societies we find ourselves in. and the first place to find the meaning of events is to get them right, to be factual and see what happened and propose why. something that this book does in a uniquely interesting and useful way.

i sure wish the militaries of the world had more thoughtful people like this author, either in their general staffs or in their officer universities. perhaps a significant dose of reality and history is what more of our military leaders need before embarking on disastrous campaigns.

This is a superb and well constructed book and is by far one of the best accounts of the Battle of Dien Bien Phu that has been written. The author gives the reader a great insight to the formation of the Viet Minh and their rise to become a formidable fighting force whose journey to power led to the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

The book is well balanced and very readable. It gives a well presented account of the battle and how it unfolded and also shows how, although the French were defeated, at some stages of the fighting, victory could have gone either way with the staggering battle casualties suffered by the Viet Minh.

He also deals with the communist purges in the north after the French had been defeated and the division of the country into North and South Vietnam.

This fine book would not be out of place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the military campaigns of Vietnam.

This book is essential for any english or elemtary school teacher. I teach social studies and found many ideas within it informative and relevant. The book is written in an approachable way, filled with mini-lessons and examples of her own students writting. An easy read and needed guide for great practice within the classroom. I highly recomend this.

You can let students have choices about what to write and still have formal guidelines, unlike what the other reviewer/teacher wrote. Nancie Atwell's book is based on years of her own first-hand experiences in the classroom, and, as someone who assigns and reads well over 1000 formal essays per school year to over 200 students, I'll listen to Atwell's advice before some burned out teacher's rantings about the need to drill, drill, drill.

Atwell's research and dedication to the true teaching of literacy in classrooms of all levels has changed my philosophy of teaching forever. Those who judge her approach without attempting to understand it, are only missing out on an innovative and fresh approach to how English should be taught.

In my own classroom of tenth graders, I have gone from yawns and glazed eyes to students who leave my classroom at the end of the school year saying "I could write for pages and pages about how you've helped me become a better writer." I still address grammar, literature, "5 paragraph" essay writing, and the dreaded (and overrated)state tests. Instead of being students who force themselves to read and write for a grade, they are readers and writers who are proud of the accomplishments they produce in literacy.

I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about changing the way literacy is taught in our schools, and creating not only engaged students, but people who love to read and write.

I bought two copies of this book from Amazon, for myself and my class aide, on the strength of the other teachers' recommendations here. The book is as good as the most enthusiastic reviewers say it is, but it is seriously flawed, and to some degree self-contradictory, because it talks too much. As good as are the author's approaches, she doesn't really need 484 pages, plus numerous appendices, to get the message across. In fact, she buries the message in verbosity.

Note that other reviewers found the book easy to read. But if you are already convinced that you want to refresh your approach to teaching reading and writing, you may grow impatient with the overabundance of anecdotes, homilies and elaboration.

Teachers know there is no itemized recipe for teaching, but a book on teaching writing could at least demonstrate the virtue of being concise. Mrs. Atwell should read her own quotes and not "cloud the issues with jargon in place of simple, direct prose...." (p. 16). (This is one of numerous quotes of Donald Graves, who returns the favor by endorsing her book in an exemplary brief foreword).

As one who likes quoting great writings in every chapter, the author could have used and applied the Hellenistic Demos: "I will be moderate in all I attempt and do Nothing to Excess."

Summary: it's just too much of a good thing. I'm going to spring for the workbook (Lessons that Change Writers) and generate even more royalties for the author, in the hopes it is more to the point.

A book that helped inspire me to become a teacher. Some other reviewers may not find it totally "practical" for them to adopt, but anyone with common sense would know that you take what works best for you from as many legitimate resources as possible and adapt.

A friend maintains that "very few conspiracies don't get found out".. this is definitely true in this case, but how many other experiments have been done on children, perhaps wards of the state in numerous states using private agencies subcontracting with state child care agencies that we might never hear about?

Of particular interest is the Fernald school chapter, where MIT researchers befriended vulnerable kids and traded "friendship" and "caring" for doses of irradiated milk the kids were made to drink without their knowledge or consent in Massachusetts.

The release of Eileen Welsome's book "THE PLUTONIUM FILES- America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War" in paperback will hopefully make this important book more accessible to the general public.

Detailing the effort of the US government to test the effects of Plutonium and other radioactive substances on people, the book outlines first the creation and evolution of the nuclear program that created the need for such testing, and then the US government's attempt to conduct such testing on its own citizens without their knowledge or informed consent. On strictly a superficial level there is much here which will attract the "x-files" crowd: Super-secret installations, eccentric scientists and far-fetched experiments on unsuspecting citizens. The kind of information that makes conspiracy theorists sit back from their computers in darkened little rooms, pump their fist in the air and utter that now-hackneyed phrase: "The truth is out there"

Fortunately for the reader, Welsome assiduously avoids such sensationalism and instead draws a largely compassionate picture of the US government's program and of the people who perpetrated it and who participated in it. Welsome's well structured and organized account of the growth of the plutonium testing programs involving critically ill persons across America during the Cold War years teems with information and insight, yet it manages to treat victim and perpetrator alike with a measure of respect and empathy that places this book well above the level of the standard "Shocking Expose". To her great credit Welsome goes beyond merely packaging the results of her extensive research and alarming discoveries in a "tell-all" book.

Certainly, THE PLUTONIUM FILES introduces information which, by its nature is bound to shock and disturb many, but the book also addresses the too-often forgotten issue of context: Was what happened acceptable by the standards of the time in which it occurred? In addressing this question Welsome probes more deeply into her subject, examining the duality, the moral dichotomy, inherent in the decision to implement this program. In a time when the world was still dealing with the results of a devastating world war and the possibility of another seemed likely the need for answers had an immediacy which could be ignored only at the world's peril. Hard decisions had to be made and extraordinary measures taken; Welsome is clearly cognizant of this as she assess each program and as she examines and balances the need against the action and its end result, the author treats the reader to some of her best analysis.

The Plutonium Files- America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War is certainly an important book; one which adds a significant chapter to the recorded history of the growth of atomic science. Despite its scientific topic and exhaustive sourcing the books narrative is direct and engaging, its organization straightforward and its conclusions informed and objective. A book that is well worth its price, Welsome's book would be a great Christmas present for everyone from an avid historian to the omni-present x-files fan; who will find much in here to confirm their most exotic fears. Overall an excellent book for which the author has received two much deserved awards.

This book was completely amazing.

First, you want to be appalled {as well you should} with the amount and type of experiments that were carried out {radioactive cocktails for pregnant women!!}. How could anyone do this to another person??

Then, you think of the people in your own life who have gotten bone marrow transplants, or radiation treatment for cancer. It gets harder to hold the original doctors as evil monsters. Don't misunderstand me - informed consent is a must. How do you inform them of outcomes that are absolutely unknown - how do you start to know?

I thought a lot about this book as I read it, and continue to think about it now that I'm done. I'm sure there must be a middle ground between what they did, and what needed to be done. It is riveting and amazing.

This book has been haunting me since I finished it almost a year ago. How could we justify human experimentation? In the name of national security in the time of war? In the name of national pride in the age of nuclear arm race? Or, simply for the sake of personal career advancement? The answer is: WE CANNOT. What strikes me is that some of the scientists in question were building their career and reputation by conducting these secret experimentation. They were enjoying their fame and success while their victims and many generations after (if the victims still managed to have children) continued to suffer. What disgusts me the most is that even in the final moment of their life some of these scientists still denied any wrong-doing. When I read to that part, my heart ached and I could not hold back my tears, for I was a scientist too. Now a year later, I am still haunted by those stories. But more so I have come to realize a new question: If those experiments were done on other animals instead of human, would the book still raised the same controversy and interest?

This book is scary to say the least. It is well researched and details what is a practice probably still going on today in experiements we do not know about. I was particularly troubled by the Fernald school, where unwanted kids were befriended by MIT researchers who took them on trips and gave them presents in return for the kids drinking radioactive milkshakes. Was some of this done to generate data for use in bringing the first commercial microwave to market by Raytheon?

I was a guinea pig of sorts growing up in state child care and years later was confronted in an interview with what i suspect was a NSA employee as to whether i knew what " a controlled experiment is". As a young child, a former Pentagon official befriended me and tracked me,keeping files for research purposes over a 20+ year period.

Whitey Bulger is alleged to have been a participant in the MK Ultra experiments involving LSD.

I strongly recommend this and Jonathan Harr's "A Civil Action" to anyone!

I am always looking for what I think is the best sales book to recommend. This is the book for B2B sales this year. A very high sales performer, Bill Stinnett has really hit the mark with this book. If you coupled the strategies and methods of Stinnett with the strategies and tactics used by Bill Freese, (Question Based Selling) you could build the ultimate sales machine in your company. I am just blown away at the thoroughness, quality of process and thought that has gone into this book. When I asked Bill for a review copy he arranged to call me to find out where I was coming from and what I did with the reviews. This gentleman dots the i's and crosses the t's.

Buy it, read it, and keep it on your read often, do not lend bookshelf. Of course if you are content with the status quo, this book will only make you realize how much more there is out there. I am really pumped by Stinnett!

If you want to improve your sales and connect better with your customers, buy this book! Each chapter is full of "aha!" insights that will enhance your understanding of your customer's needs.

Stinnett is an apostle of the "diagnostic approach" to selling, in which the seller undertakes a process of discovery to identify what results the customer is trying to achieve. The focus is always on the customer--his motive, the urgency of reaching the objective, the consequences of doing nothing and remaining where he is, the expected payback from attaining the objective, the resources the customer has available to devote to the effort, and the risks he will face in moving in a new direction. These "Action Drivers," Stinnett explains, govern and control just about every buying decision. If a sale falls through, chances are that one of these "Action Drivers" was missing.

In the first half of the "Think Like Your Customer," Stinnett analyzes how buyers evaluate their options and assess risk. Weeks after reading the book, I still open it up and turn to the chart on page 49, where Stinnett lists the eight major types of value your customer may be attempting to derive from a relationship with you and your company. They are:

Economic Value (increasing revenue, reducing costs, better utilization of assets)
Emotional Value (need for recognition and security)
Simplicity Value (making the easy choice and reducing headaches)
Relational Value (repaying loyalty and commitment; avoiding potential conflict)
Political and Image Value (looking good to others)
Guidance or Advice Value (access to expert advice)
Quality Value (reducing product defects; better service)
Time Value (shorten time to market; free up time for other things)

Stinnett points out for each of these denominations of value, there is a corresponding denomination of risk. Since value and risk are two sides of the same coin, a seller can increase the perceived value of his offering--and overcome prospects' perennial objections about price, by focusing carefully on the customer's concerns and reducing risk in the areas of value that are important to that particular customer.

In the second half of the book, Stinnett dissects the anatomy of the customer's buying process. Instead of focusing our attention on how we sell, Stinnett says we should concentrate on how the customer buys and--more importantly--what affirmative steps we can take to help the buyer move through each stage of the buying process that the buyer needs to traverse in order to buy from us.

Nothing in "Think Like Your Customer" is startlingly new; rather, Stinnett teaches how we can turn our thinking inside out and look at a transaction from the perspective of the buyer.

This book is well organized and highly readable; the reasoning is persuasive, and the advice is immensely practical. Immediately after reading "Think Like Your Customer," I began to conduct conversations with my clients using the tools and skills Stinnett provides. The difference in the quality of the communication was nothing short of amazing. Buy this book and profit from its wisdom!

When I read books on persuasion, I'm looking for effective tools. One of the reasons I like this book is that it has valuable information I don't remember seeing elsewhere.

The chapter on what customers really want is worth far more than the price of the book. It identifies the factors that must exist for a customer to buy from us. And it teaches how to weave key questions about these factors into our informal conversation with the customer.

Another example: The book teaches how to learn what specific results a customer really wants and how to tie that to our product or service. The specific "result" a customer wants may differ greatly from the generic benefits we assume our product or service's features provide.

I've found that using Stinnett's tools to focus even more on how the customer thinks increases sales and the number of satisfied customers.

Bill Stinnett concludes the Introduction to this book with a remarkable statement: "Now let me be clear: I don't take credit for any of these truths [culled from a variety of other sources]. I didn't make them up. They have been there all along, waiting to be observed. My life's work has been to recognize them and organize them in an effort to advance my own career and yours." Stinnett refers to popular sales methodologies which include Strategic Selling®, Solution Selling®, and SPIN Selling®. Whatever the given methodology, its ultimate outcome is an increase in revenue which, Stinnett duly acknowledges, can be accomplished in three ways: maximizing sales velocity, increasing average "deal size" or the "wallet" share, and increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Throughout Stinnett's narrative, his emphasis is on presenting and then explaining "a winning strategy" (actually an aggregate of several strategies) to increase his reader's understanding of how and why customers buy. The chapter titles for Part 1, "Why Customers Buy," correctly indicate how practical his approach is: What Customers Think About, What Customers Really Want, How Customers Perceive Value and Risk, The Cause and Effect of Business Value, and The Value of Customer Relationships. It should be noted that, along the way, Stinnett also offers excellent advice with regard to all manner of "how not to's" and "why nots" when formulating and then implementing what should be a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective game plan to increase revenue.

To me, some of the most valuable material in the book is presented in Chapter 8 as Stinnett explains how to reverse-engineer the buying process. That is, in Stephen Covey's words, "begin with the end in mind." This is a process by which to identify what must happen before a given customer is ready to buy. Previously in Chapter 2, Stinnett introduced what he calls his "Customer Results Model" which involves a process that begins with fully understanding the prospective buyer's current situation. I agree with Stinnett that there is no inherent value (as perceived by customers) in the solution offered by a given product or service unless it will achieve the prospective buyer's desired outcomes or results. As the former CEO of Home Depot once observed, people don't buy a quarter-inch drill; they buy quarter-inch holes. In this context, the quarter-inch drill fills a gap between a current, often an urgent need and filling it.

One of this book's several reader-friendly devices is the isolation of key points presented in bold face. This facilitates and accelerates frequent review of those points later. For example:

"It's a lot easier to sell somebody something if it's positioned as a way to help them achieve a goal or an objective that they already want to achieve." (Page 15)

" Far more critical than what is valuable and important to your customer is why it is valuable and important to them." (Page 65)

"A deep, meaningful, high-trust relationship with a client who has no business disparity [i.e. compelling need], no motive to take action, or no means to take action even if they did have a motive, equals no sale. It's just a relationship." (Page 105)

"It's not what we do in our sales process, but what the customer does in their buying process, that really matters." (Page 135)

"We should spend 80 percent of our time and effort on the 20 percent of our opportunities that carry a strong urgency, motive, and consequence, because these are the deals that can close." (Page 179)

None of Stinnett's key points is a head-snappy revelation, nor does he make that claim. However, all of them - preferably reviewed in the sequence in which they are presented - offer valuable reminders of where the proper focus and emphasis should be during a high-probability customer's purchase process.

There are dozens of excellent books on the art and science of sales, and this is one of the best.

Well-done!

This is one of the best books on selling I'd read in years. In the software world, hard-sell is dead. Try consultative selling the Bill Stinnet way. I used some of the ideas in the book eg., mapping out the buying process and offering it as as part of an important visual information to the gatekeeper to reach the decision maker - and it works! I have used the concept of getting the buyer to think about destination "C" with us rather than trying to be too focused on the offer in "B". There is also a section on how to qualify a prospect with ideas that are worth committing to memory. A combination of Bill's ideas and my experience has turned many of my well qualified prospects into paying customers today.

If you are a career saleperson then this one is definitely for you.

Good book to instill leadership qualities in your workforce. This should be the basis for required college course in all business degree programs.

If you're into winning any sort of competition, not just warfare, this is an excellent book to read, concise and to the point. You can read it in a few hours and be forever changed by it. My only criticism is that, judging from the endnotes, it leans a bit too much on Carl von Clausewitz and too little on modern thinkers such as John Boyd, a USAF fighter pilot whose impact on Marine Corps tactics is considerable and widely acknowledged. As the disasters of subsequent German history would demonstrate, war is not, as Clausewitz believed, diplomacy taken to a new level. Wars are much more costly and difficult to extract oneself from than a conference in Geneva.

Also keep in mind that it's not enough to win a war. You also need to win the peace that follows. During World War I and for several years afterward there was a fierce debate over how to make a peace that would last. Pacifists thought the world would come to learn that wars don't pay, an idea so absurd no one mentions it today. Internationalists thought the League of Nations could keep the peace, even though it soon failed its first test, a war between Poland and Russia that immediately followed the war. Militarists, a group little seen immediately after such a bloody war, continued to insist on the importance of bigger and bigger battleships. Even Churchill, although he later regretted it, thought for a time that disarmament would work.

In retrospect, there was only a few who got it right and the one who got it right the best was a popular English writer, G. K. Chesterton. In 1932 he would warn that Germany was going to find itself a dictator and that the next war would break out over a border dispute between Germany and Poland, precisely what happened in 1939.

If you want to win a war, read this book. If you want to learn how one war can be used to prevent the next war, read Chesterton, who bluntly wrote in 1917 that, "Peace without victory is war without excuse." Chesterton also gave some of the most telling arguments against pacifism ever put into print, noting that: "the real point against the cause of Pacifism is that it is not a cause at all, but only a weakening of all causes. It does not announce any aim; it only announces that it will never use certain means in pursuing any aim. It does not define its goal; it only defines a stopping-place, beyond which nobody must go in the search for any goal."

--Michael W. Perry, Editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War II

Elegant in its simplicity, powerful and profound in its application -- this is a superb, practical primer on leadership.

This is the best book that I've ever read regarding military doctrine-- it elegantly sums up the most relevant points of Clausewitz and Boyd's OODA Loop to come to sound military principle in less than 100 pages. It also includes a number of references to the Eastern military philosophy (think Art of War and the Book of Five Rings, both required reading for the Japanese businessman) and ties them to our Western military philosophy quite elegantly.

If you aren't familiar with Clausewitz then I'd recommend picking up On Strategy by Summers; Warfighting will not give you all of the elements necessary to understand concepts like Friction.

This book travels with me wherever I go-- it is relevant to business and even personal development and is more than worth the price being charged for it.

Warfighting was written for the Marine unfamiliar with maneuver warfare to pick up, flip through, memorize the axioms, and apply in battle. As such, like most other field manuals issued to soldiers, it is a distillation of a large swath of ideas from Sun Tzu to Liddell-Hart. That said, it packs a good punch for such a small work. If, however, you're looking for a more detailed illustration of the principles outlined here, you might take a look at B.H. Liddell-Hart's "Strategy" as well as Thomas Cleary's translation of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."

Additionally, those westerners who enjoy axioms focusing on the flux of life, war, or what have you might also like to take a look at Heraclitus' "Fragments." The basic tenets of Taoism that permeate Sun Tzu (and, by proxy, "Warfighting") can be equally well found in Heraclitus. His primary "thesis" if you will, "nothing is stationary, life is flux," is the axiom upon which maneuver warfare strategy is founded.

The book was well-written and interesting for the most part, but I think its conclusions misrepresent the contribution of Herceptin to the battle against breast cancer. Post-marketing studies have shown that Herceptin is not the wonder drug it was hoped to be. The book downplays the cardiac side-effects which are both more common and more serious than Bazell lets on. Nothing has changed in the battle against cancer. Despite the entry of this new weapon into the arsenal of oncologists, the quest to defeat cancer is still (to mix my metaphors) more like sticking boards in the sand to hold back the tide than building a sea wall.

I read this book in just a few days. It prompted me to give myself a breast exam and low and behold I found a lump.
Turns out I had developed a cancerous tumor but caught it in the early stages. This book changed my life in sooo many ways

I am a newly diagnosed young woman with breast cancer that over express her2/neu. I am considering taking Herceptin for an early stage cancer. I would not have this possible choice were it not for the wonderfuly minds and efforts of the people that created Herceptin. My thanks to Dr. Slamon and Dr. Ullrich! And really mostly, my thanks to the brave women who faced this horrible disease and enrolled in the trials. This book reads like a novel. I couldn't put it down and read it in 1 sitting. It's a thriller! If I had 1 small complaint it would be that it only very lightly touches on the possible side effect of heart damage especially when used in conjunction with Adriamycin, which weighs heavily on my mind. This is a great read for breast cancer patients and anyone who wants to read a great book.

This book gave new light and explored old beliefs about breast cancer. I have never been so impressed by the intellect of such a powerful author as Robert Bazell. Every part of the Her-2 intereasted me and each page left me completely speechless. I would recommend this book everyone willing to explore the idea of an outstandingly facinating book.

I had to read this book for my Biotechnology class and although I am close to failing it I found Her-2 to be pretty exciting book.
Her-2 by Bazell and King is about breast cancer, however, it reveals many other interesting things about the drug industry and how progress is made in the medical research field. There are different stories and view points and the authors have succesfully managed to combine all this into a book that both teaches and thrills us. I recommend this book to everyone who wants to learn more about breast cancer and about the insights of creating and bringing to the market a revolutionary drug - from selection of the trial patients to the President's office.

Most of the comments there already says all - it's definitely a mega weapon in sales manager hands, what author gives, and book can be read and re-read again, there are lot of examples, situations analyzed - just great.
Just one thing I wanted specially note: THANK YOU, to author, who were the first (at least I saw), who explained how to react on the answer: Yeah, buddy all's great with ya offer, but your price is 2 times higher than all other vendors"
Thanks!

I have written 3 sales books and I believe Paul Cherry has written as good a book on questioning as I have ever seen. He takes asking questions to a new level and we recommend it to all of our clients. I have read it twice and I plan to read it over and over. If you believe that by asking better questions you will be more effective in selling then this book you have to read. You won't get one idea about a great question you will get 20. We believe that effective selling demands that as sales people we provoke thought when we interact with our customers or prospects and questioning is the best way to do that. Paul Cherry shows you exactly how to ask questions that engender thinking. An absolute terrific sales book.

Very affordable. Quick read. Great help in training new sales people. It's always a challenge to get my sales staff to really connect with customers and close a sale. This simple book helps them figure out what to say, or what to ask.

Skillful questioning is a key to high-level selling. This well known truth that caused me to buy this book hoping it would further my knowledge base.

I found it poorly organized and very very hard to read. At the end of the day it wasn't worth the money I spent.

Finally, a sales guide that gets right to the point. I've read so many of these sales and marketing texts that lead the reader through a series of generalized statement such as "get to understand your clients needs" or "know who buys your products". These are pretty obvious statements in my mind. Of course, getting to know my customer's needs are going to help my business. It only makes sense that I will sell more if people actually need what I am selling. But how do I find out who my customers are, what is really important to them, and most importantly how do I get them to buy from me rather than from my competitors?

Questions That Sell is the answer. This book gives detailed examples of real questions to use to engage a potential client so that you can actually find out what they need, what their current problems with your competitor are, and how willing they would be to buy your product. I particularly liked the sections on how to determine whether the individual talking to you really wants you to phone back tomorrow or if he or she is just trying to let you down easy, how to determine if you are talking to someone who can actually make a buying decision, and ways to move along clients wanting to sit on the fence.

Operation Desert Storm was unique in the annals of American wars. Soldiers were given thorough physical examinations, found "fit for combat", trained to fight, and then sent into a hostile environment with the intention of defeating Saddam Hussein's forces -- thought to be the largest military organizations on the planet. Upon arrival, most U.S. military personnel watched as technology did their jobs. After months of exposure to biological and chemical warfare (and only one hundred hours of ground fighting), most of them returned to civilian life without so much as a token physical exam. Then the consequences (perceived or real) began to emerge as a result of their having been subject to experimental vaccines, radioactive depleted uranium, and rage at the seeming indifference of the American government in general, and the Veteran's Administration in particular. The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy is Steven Manchester's vividly recounted and personal story of his experiences before, during, and after the Gulf War, along with stories of friends made and lost, battles anticipated but never fought, and broken promises to a generation of American men and women who answered the call of their country and put themselves in harm's way to advance national policy and security. No 20th century American military studies collection can be considered complete without the inclusion of Steven Manchester's The Unexpected Storm.

Truth is often times stranger than fiction, but rarely revealed in a biography.This book is a "MUST READ"for anyone is interested in the Gulf War.The author tells an excellent story about his experiences and those around him.

Truth is often times stranger than fiction, but rarely revealed in a biography.This book is a "MUST READ"for anyone is interested in the Gulf War.The author tells an excellent story about his experiences and those around him.

"Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them." FDR


"The Unexpected Storm" is the story of one soldier's journey from the moment he and a friend made the decision to join the military to the quiet beach where he found peace at last.

Steven Manchester joined the army while still in high school. Later he transferred to the 661st M.P. Company, a National Guard unit out of Massachusetts. Normally the National Guard isn't sent into battle, but Saddam Hussein made life anything but normal in 1991. Sergeant Manchester found himself destined for Iraq, leaving behind a wife to deal with a work-related injury and financial difficulties alone.

He arrived under the most beautiful sky he had ever seen with a little bit of fear, and a heck of a lot of courage and determination. He wasn't fighting for oil as some would have him believe, he was fighting for all the women, children, and men who had suffered under the cruel hand of a sadistic leader. Sergeant Manchester's heart was in the right place.

The long grueling months in the hot desert took its toll. Hours turned to days, days to weeks, and weeks to months. He witnessed children blown apart by landmines, the twisted metal and burned soldiers in the aftermath of technological warfare, and senseless deaths. He dealt with a platoon sergeant who wobbled on the edge of insanity, and he was constantly sick from the inoculations and "preventative medicines" shoved upon him by the US Government. And, though the war was over, Sergeant Manchester still felt as if he were living on borrowed time and dodging the Grim Reaper.

I felt as if I were a ghost shadowing his every step, seeing what he saw, hearing what he heard, and feeling his emotions. I laughed, I cried, I smiled, but above all else I was touched beyond measure. In the end, Sergeant Manchester sacrificed almost everything for his country and the Iraqi people. He returned home to a hero's welcome, but also to a government that shoved him out the door and left him to fight his physical and mental pain on his own. Finding peace within him proved to be a cruel battle in its own right.

I recommend you read "The Unexpected Storm", and then you'll understand why I continue to thank Sergeant Manchester and soldiers like him with every breath I take.

It's not often that I pick up a book about something other than the Vietnam War but I'm so glad I did. The Unexpected Storm: The Gulf War Legacy by Steven Manchester is amazing! It's not that the war was amazing but rather the way the author has depicted it and perhaps amazing is still not the right word to use.

As I opened Chapter One for the first time Steve was talking about being onboard the C-5A Galaxy plane that was taking his National Guard unit off to the Middle East. He wrote candidly of his feelings toward the war and his fellow soldiers. He was open and honest throughout the entire book.

This was the first time the American public watched as members of the National Guard and various Reserve units around the United States were being deployed along with their active duty counterpart troops to serve their country. No it's not the first time units of that nature were deployed but this time was different. Everything was aired on television and the country quickly became aware of the sacrifices our men and women in uniform were making. Many were leaving spouses, children and jobs behind. In some instances both parents of children were being deployed and their children were being left with grandparents or other family members.

Steven's group was no different. Many members of his Military Police (MP) Company from Massachusetts were married and had families. Throughout the chapters he reflected on some of them. He spoke of how he and "his comrades have come to heal their nation from a ghost that has haunted them for two decades: the poltergeist of Vietnam." He wrote of seeing "the after-effects of 41 days of uninterrupted bombing." AND how "The Arabian Desert has been used as a testing ground for every new weapon in the American arsenal." He held nothing back including his feelings and emotions.

The war itself ended on 28 February 1991 but that's when Steve's group was really put to work. However, Steve's war began earlier when he was first injected with the many shots required of the soldiers before they could deploy. They were already getting ill from those shots and the pills they were forced to swallow frequently that were supposed to protect them from various known nerve agents. Now "Steve's body is invaded with its own ghost of torment." He and his fellow soldier's have been "brutally introduced to `The Mystery Illness'" better known to the American public as Persian Gulf Syndrome.

As Steve sat onboard that C-5A he reflected on his life, family, friends, and how he got to that point in his life. He realized he was 23 years old and now responsible for ten other lives in his squad. His wife was being left behind, out of work due to a back injury, to handle everything that he normally did.

He wrote about growing up in a loving household in New England-an area that I'm very familiar with-of his school years, and his best friend. Steve spoke of their very special friendship. His friend wanted to go in the Marine Corps but Steve thought that joining the Army and being trained as an MP would help him in his ultimate goal of working in Law Enforcement. They chose the Army National Guard. He wrote about their Basic Training, the first MP Company they were assigned to, and the company that Steve transferred into that eventually went to Saudi Arabia.

Steve wrote of his parents and siblings. He spoke of his uncle who served in Vietnam and how that war affected him. This author readily shared the love of his life, his girlfriend who became his wife, with his readers. They had a story book romance which went bad in large part due to the after effects of the war.

Steve wrote about finally getting the word that his group was returning home. They attempted to smuggle some souvenirs out. They were on their way to the most glorious homecoming scene in decades in the US. Steve had seen and experienced so much. He wrote "the Army had broken him down....He was affected physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually."

The soldiers were whisked through out-processing-nothing like what they went through when they were in-processed. "The Army wasn't even pretending to care. Like their Vietnam War predecessors, Uncle Sam just wanted them off his menial payroll." They soon learned "It was going to be a long fight." This was going to effect his relationship with his wife too.

His book went onto explain what was done to him, how it effected his relationship with his wife, and what he ultimately did. When his wife became pregnant he worried the whole nine months that he would have passed on his illness to his son. Steve spoke of deciding to change jobs and how he came to realize what would make him feel better.

As I said at the beginning this was an amazing book. This is one book that needs to be read in its entirety by everyone. Go through his life with him, journey to a foreign land, and pray for him as he goes. This is truly an inspirational story even though the author has changed the names of the people and units to protect them and wrote it in third person. I highly recommend it.