Economics Books

I purchased this book after skimming a lot of others in the same category. It's a really quick read with some fun side stories that take you from airline choices to interview prep to what to expect at training (a.k.a. the "charm farm") I felt so much more confident about my interview and ended up being offered a position!

I bought this book for a friend of mine. She read it and got all the hints to be a flight attendant, well really to get the job after difficult interview processes. She wasn't a FA but now she have worked for 2 airlines (AIR NOSTRUM and CLICKAIR). Fascinating, explicit and encouraging. 2-thumbs-up.

This book recently helped me get a job offer to attend Continental Airlines training. The book is actuate about the types of questions that they will ask you. Defiantly prepared me for an interview that I was really nervous for. I highly recommend this book for any person who wants to become or is thinking of becoming a flight attendant.
Good Luck with your interview!!

The book was very helpful. I have tried interviewing for a flight attendant position with various airlines off and on over a period of several years. I was never able to get past the first part of the group interviews. I was doing a lot of things right, but Kiki's book mentioned several things to do/not do which were different for what I had been doing. I followed her advice and the first interview I had following the purchase of the book, I not only made it to the one on one interview, I was offered a job!
Kiki is extremely helpful answering any additional questions via email and is very prompt in responding. Her resume service is also excellent.

I found this book to be jampacked with little tid bits of information & very easy to read. Purchasing this book would be an inexpensive begining however i am still on the lookout for more information regarding this career.

Book is very basic to say the least, I was expecting a lot more! What can you expect for $14 though right?

This book it's fantastic, it talks about very simple things that a person can forget sometimes.

The Web Site that is included gives you a lot of new information about Adwords if you register in it, which is I think a very good thing.

Awsome book and easy to learn.

Congratulations!

If you are new to Adwords, like me, or are an existing user that needs to learn more - this is a MUST READ!!! The author takes the technical and puts it into layman terms. Although the author offers a little more reading flexibility, I advise the new user to walk through this book in a sequential fashion - obviously if you are an existing user then select the chapters that make sense and support your immediate needs - for all Adword users, make sure this becomes one of your top reference books. Yes, in addition to any material publised by Perry Marshall - his materials are also in my Adwords reference library as well, but you can never have enough reference material that is grounded on a stable platform, i.e. "Adwords for Dummies" by Dr. Jacobson!!!

Howie's book caught my eye one day while browsing. I wasn't even the guy who ran our Adwords account. I became that guy over night. If you just started an Adwords account, be grateful you aren't a few years in and 100K plus wasted on worthless clicks. Buy the book, digest the book, live the book, that's all i can say. I did, saved 10K in the first month, that's 10K we can use productively. The book is easy and fun to read with a step by step approach for correct Adwords use. Hope i've been clear, you're dumb if you have an Adwords account and don't read this book. Thanks Howie

I've recently begun an Adwords project and found that this was very helpful in getting me started. It also provides many ideas and resources for future improvements of my usage.

I read this book in two days. The more I got into it, the more I was excited and motivated to get to restoring and repairing my credit. I had several complicated questions in my head before reading the book, and the book answered them all. Such as...my company credit card reports on my credit, is this good or bad? Read the book carefully, and take notes and you will learn a lot! I plan to read the book a second time so that I can really, really understand what I am doing before I start the process. And the best part yet. This evening I emailed the author with two questions I had regarding things he mentioned in his book, and he emailed me back within an hour. How great is that! He is clearly knowledgeable, and you will be confident you can repair and restore your credit after reading this book.

Tons of information Packed into a Manageable size (finished in 4 days - comfortably) All the answers were there, much more efficient than other reading I have done on the subject - Thanks!

I bought this book because of all the other excellent reviews... But it is more for BUILDING good credit than repairing it. If you really want to repair your credit, spend some money and get a good attorney to help you.

If you are trying to get a handle on your credit issues and don't know where to start, I strongly suggest you purchase this book. Best Credit is a great read - and, in my opinion, the best of all of the credit repair books available. The author, Dana Neal, provides a super clear road map to great credit, while at the same time offering a fascinating and even entertaining journey into the twisted world of credit reporting and the collection industry.

This book is really well structured and easy to read, a relief considering the complex and legal nature of the issues. Mr. Neal starts with the basics and eases into the more difficult subjects in an understandable way that really brings them to life. If you have had any type of credit issues, as I have, this book will really open your eyes. You will also find that the author offers extremely clear and practical instructions on resolving your problems. And if you have ever had to deal with a collector, this book will leave you feeling absolutely empowered. I recommend it highly.

I have been in the mortgage business for 20 years and this is the most informative book I have ever read on how the credit scoring system works. I am incorporating his strategies for my mortgage clients to help them qualify for lower interest rates.....Gerry

Watch out. Here is first hand knowledge of what to expect from the One Worlders. Don't let this happen, God forbid.

I don't like novels. I bought this book thinking it was about The Reconquista, about a large part of the USA breaking apart from the USA, I started reading Mr. Matthew Bracken's book and I couldn't put it down. The United States will break apart. Why do you think we have 6 flags over Texas? Maybe someday it will be 7 flags over Texas. Again, I couldn't put the book down! Wonderful. Regards, Keith Renick, Peachtree City, Ga.

This latest effort by Matt, DOMESTIC ENEMIES - The RECONQUISTA, (DETR) was a great read. It follows ENEMIES - FOREIGN And DOMESTIC, (EFAD). I found both books to be totally enthralling from start to finish. Having just read EFAD the previous week I had to continue the story. The current story, DETR, continues five years later and has good historical links back to the earlier story line. This story of love, both of Country and of family, is supposed to be fiction, but I have to think - Is it? - Really? Are we presently living the early stages of the story? Is the expanded development of the storyline currently, albeit gradually, coming to pass here in America and the Southwest? Maybe the 'Constitutional Convention' has already taken place. Going back in the book to a quote that caught my attention I think about it again; "In war you either kill, or you are killed. And I am still alive!" Living in the Southwest, and having been in many of the areas in which much of DETR takes place, made it all the easier for me as a reader to be absorbed into the story as an unnoticed observer. Theodore Roosevelt has a short paragraph before the beginning of DETR that you'll want to look at again. It all makes sense in the end.

Both books are written in an easy to read style that kept me going. Enough interesting detail that I know I could recognize the characters if they walked down the street. Actually I think I have already seen some of them. Once I opened the book, sleep was out of the question. I had to follow Ranya in her quest for liberty, freedom, justice and love. It was easy to join her with patriotic empathy during her journey.

Two great books and I highly recommend them both. And I sure hope Matt gets the third book of the trilogy to the printer soon.

American Patriot!, 338LM

Whoooee!! What a bodacious book. Writers of fiction, who write didactically (which Matthew Bracken does in spades), can change the paradigms of history in a big way. And god knows, we need to change the political paradigm of America in a major way. If this novel is read widely, it could be just such a paradigm shifting vehicle. It is a powerful story with very endearing characters, edge-of-your-seat tension, and a fantastic ending. Can hardly wait for the sequel.

Unfortunately because of the despicable PC times we live in, this book will encounter mountains of resistance and calumny from the establishment. But then all contrarian literature has to endure the smear tactics of the orthodoxy it is attacking. I'm sure Bracken is well prepared for it.

That the quislings in control of our federal government are selling the country out regarding the immigration issue is clear by now to all but the blind. If you want to get a glimpse of what lies ahead for us because of how our government is handling the Latin invasion from the south, this book will parcel out a powerful warning to you. Bracken has a fine grasp of the corrupted political, economic, and sociological forces that threaten us as a nation today. And he incorporates this understanding beautifully into the dialogue, the setting, the theme, and the plot of his novel.

In addition, Bracken creates riveting scenes of heart-thumping action and emotional-moral conflicts throughout that come at you like a hailstorm. After the reader meets the heroine, Ranya Bardiwell, in the first few of these scenes, he senses that this is a woman like Mitchell's Scarlett O'Hara and Rand's Dagny Taggart. From a man's point of view, great literature simply must have a strong, captivating female lead. Domestic Enemies: The Reconquista fills the bill admirably.

One caveat: Bracken has the ability, with the way he fashions his prose, to plunge the reader totally into the scene he is describing. You see, hear, feel, and sense vividly where he takes you and what he portrays for you. Some of the scenes are gory and quite explicit. So if you're squeamish, be prepared to grit one's way through a few ghastly rides. The overall message and its ultimate denouement, however, more than make up for these occasional but strongly visceral surprises that ambush the reader.

We live in a watershed era of history today. A series of very dangerous crises are descending upon us that are going to end our world as we know it (such as immigration overload, massive public debt, social security bankruptcy, oil shortages, inflation-stagflation, etc.), all of which have been brought on by the hubris and ideological insanity of our federal government over the past 70 years. Human nature being what it is, the collectivists in Washington will not be able to recognize their heavy-handed connection to the maelstrom of difficulties engulfing us. They will merely react like robots to do what they do best -- suppress, exploit, and propagandize for more federal control over American society. A horrific and illuminating look into what kind of future is coming our way because of this obtuse governmentalism lies within the pages of Matthew Bracken's novel. Read it, and pass it on to all those you care about.

Really wanted to love this book. Couldn't get there.

Unfortunately the author did not create a plausible environment for his heroine to operate within. In addition, the speed in which she was able to infiltrate and gain trust in one of the many villainous organizations did not help the suspension of disbelief.

Having said that, there is much good about the book. Ronya Bardiwell is a well developed character. The gun aspects are excellent. Much of the interaction between the characters is outstanding. It is a fast paced romp.

In the end I was glad I read it and would not dissuade you from doing so. Be prepared for some awkwardness born of an author that reached a bit too far. Still, I suspect that if you are moved to read a book such as this you too will find much to enjoy.

It doesn't take a genius to know this is a great read! If you are curious about finding the genius in yourself and others, then this is the book for you. It is clear, concise and uses stories and situations that we can all relate to.

Alan Gregerman's book Surrounded by Geniuses was a great read! Not only did it pertain to my work life, but also to my personal life. I would recommend this book at everyone.

A fun read. Delivering compelling value is key and Dr. Gregerman has hit the nail on the head with his observations about products and services in our own neighborhood that do it daily.

A delightful and thoughtful book that reminds us to take time to look at our surroundings. The best ideas in business need not be the most complicated. A little bit of "back to basics" plus a little "thinking outside the box" can take one a long way.

Gregerman has put together a unique array of narratives from the cheetah to Lockheed's rocket science program to delineate key attitudes and mindsets toward maximizing both the potential of your business and value to your customer. I see value in this book for both non-profit and for-profit entities/professionals. Highly recommended.

I ordered Advertising Secrets from our state library system because it is out of print and I didn't want to spend the high prices from the resellers. When I received it, I realized it is an exact copy of The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman which IS in print and is sold for about $39 here at Amazon. The "Adweek" version is word for word the same except for a slight mention of the internet to update the book and a change of title. So don't waste your money trying to get the out of print version. Just go to The Adweek Copywriting Handbook and you'll have a replica of "Advertising Secrets".

And that is what makes this book so good.

Sugarman never did much writing for other people.
He wrote to cover his payroll and build his own
business - risking Millions of dollars a year,
OF HIS OWN MONEY, to test his ideas.

He confesses he lost more often than he won but
when he wrote a winner he sometimes won big. Along
the way he learned harsh truths about business.

He's not only a gifted and original copywriter,
he's a shrewd business strategist - Sugarman
promoted electronic gimmicks and gadgets that
would get severely devalued as new technology came
along, sometimes in a matter of months - so he's
particularly relevant to writers and marketers
in the "internet marketing" niches today, where the
novel and hypey often carries the day.

I read Sugraman's ads when I was a kid and also
Drew Kaplan's (when will that Masked Man write
a book?) and was transfixed. Still later in I
discovered J. Peterman's catalogs.

I got started writing copy for my woodworking business
before I lost interest in the long hours and physical
grind of production. Writing copy later became the
keystone to my success online - and Sugarman was the
first copywriting "bible" I acquired.

I wouldn't actually recommend this book as the first one
you read - it's about marketing and the mail order business
as much as it is about psychology and copywriting... so
it doesn't cover salesletter structure in a way that will
be useful to everybody just starting out... unless you
sell gadgets like Sugarman did. I'm not saying he is not
a master because he clearly is - just that there are other
books you might want to read first like Victor Schwab's
excellent book.

Of the dozens of books I have read on the subject this one is the only one that I feel was well worth the purchase price.

Ideas backed by facts not opinions.

I think it was about the second chapter, maybe earlier where he mentioned the 'magic stat thermostat'. Well, back when I was a kid in the early 80's (read like 10 years old), my dad used to get tons of mail order catalogs (like Hemmachler, sharper image, etc...), and liking technology at a young age, I used to look through them. Well, JS&A must have been one of them as well, as I specifically remembered this ad! I recalled the ad tearing the product to shreds before recommending it (I even remebered what the thing looked like). It was that substantantial, that as a 10 year old (roughly), I recalled it today. At the same time, I recalled another ad that I thought was odd - some handheld game that was supposed to be some big conspiracy. Sure enough, that was one of his ad examples at the end of the book.

This alone should be a testament to exactly how powerful his ads are. Not too mention, his writing style as an educator in the field of written ads is astounding - I could not put the book down.

Although geared toward catalog sales, the techniques clearly can apply to the web as well. So, if you are interested in selling anything - order this book now!

I have never been so impressed by a copywriter
like I have been with Joe. I saw him speak a long
time ago at a Mark Joyner event and bought this
book. I have had it by my side ever since.

I couldn't recommend it enough!


Matt Bacak
Author of Secrets of the Internet Millionaire Mind
and The Ultimate Lead Generation Plan

This is my 3th book a read about creativity. I really found it very intersting, with good methods, and aldo written in an intersting way.

What I really like most y that the research behind this book, has really ponder the most important genious way of creating, so it has a good background and very well supportted.

Mind-mapping helped considerably narrow down visual arts individual style to preferred media and suitable materials, saving me much wasted time, expense and creativity.

This is the best book on or about creative thinking I have ever read. I've recommended it to everyone I know who is interested in creating ideas and new ways to look at the world. Thanks.

This is something that is tickling my mind, after reading first few chapters of this book, I closed it, stood up, walked around my living room with my hands folded back. I looked outside the window and saw few kids playing the park and was forced to think something.

We are first as kids made to learn few things and are forced to treat those things as basic and important that is not true (refer to Michael's blog about Thomas Edison's Greatest Blessings). Now after reading the book Thinkertoys and Creative Thinking, I feel like its not that I have to learn these new concepts but there is an entire process involved of first of all unlearning most of the stuffs from past and then relearning the new concepts.

And when I say that I have to look at the kids I wonder what they are being tought in their schools only to find one day that they have to unlearn some of the concepts on which they are spending or rather wasting their time.

Do read the book, as mentioned earlier it makes you smile after every chapter as you discover immense possibilities of what all can be achieved in your day to day life.

Author Michael Michalko delivers his best performance to date in this book. The book is filled with information on, and techniques for using, our creative processes. Many of the techniques are easy to learn, requiring only a little bit of practice to get used to them. Most of the book centers around: helping an individual generate many possible ideas about something, which will be critically evaluated at a later time; visualizing the problem and potential solutions; seeing from another's perspective, even the problem's in one case (quite effective sometimes); collaboration and creativity. This book already helped me deliver a 5 star essay on a very controversial subject. I followed its advice, producing as many ideas as possible in a short time, without rejecting any at first. Also, visualizing the data, as recommended, formed the basis for my later outline, which was complete enough that a rough draft was no work at all. So, for me, buying this book paid off already. I think anyone buying this will read it for a few minutes and then recognize they have a winner in their hands.

I have used Gregg Reference Manual for over 25 years. It is great for business letters and for writing formal papers in school. It is required for school again now that I am back in school.

I use this reference on the job. The focus on business writing helps when I have trouble determining what style is best to use for composing email, proposals, and similar business writing requirements.

I also use the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) as a cross reference.

Recommended.

This manual has everything you need to ensure you are grammatically correct. My office uses it daily as a reference. I would definitely recommend that every office keep a Gregg Reference Manual on hand.

Have a question about colons, semicolons or commas? It's all here. Whether writing a term paper or business document, the Gregg Manual is a must-have. I had not heard of it until I was hired to edit reports and it has proved invaluable. Everything is covered, from how to write numbers to proper phraseology. Worth the money.

I started a new job in which I reference this book frequently. I would recommend it to anyone who is in need of a quick reference.

Ricardo Semler calls himself a maverick, but he's actually a visionary. Semler, now 49, was way ahead of the curve 25 years ago when he radically altered the structure and philosophy of his father's company, Semco. Long before most businesses acknowledged that employees were thinking, feeling human beings and not timecard-punching robots, Semler rebuilt the infrastructure at Semco, eliminating layers of bureaucracy and allowing employees to decide their own fates. They determined their own schedules, pay scales and dress codes. Semler drastically reduced paperwork; he restricted memos, for example, to a single page. He believed that empowered employees, freed of their corporate shackles, would be motivated, creative and productive. You may find some aspects of that approach unrealistic or totally impractical for your organization. You may even think Semler is crazy. At the very least though, getAbstract believes executives should give careful consideration to his approach. His innovations are still relevant, even a quarter of a century later.

Great book. Amazing story.
Lot's of good lessons to be learned here. I read it all the way through and enjoyed the writing style a great deal. A quick read with fascinating stories and good information.

I think this book gives In Search of Excellence a run for its money as the all time great. This book really promotes a different way of thinking about the workplace in a much more collaborative way. I can't wait to start his other book the Seven-Day Weekend.

I have been strugling about how to have an organization or a corporation that are at the same time efficient and humanistic/democratic. Although people normally receives these types of ideas with reserve, the feeling is that it is almost impossible (take out the "almost" if you wish).

After reading Maverick everything changes. We have heard histories before, for example, ancient Athenas, Robert Owen cooperative success in 19th Century England, Mahatmas Ghandi, and so forth. However, rarely a 20th Century corporation has gone so far as Semco, at least to the best of my knowledge.

If you are interested in "real" humanistic-democratic management, you must have this book in your reading list.

Maverick is the story of Semco, an medium size Brazilian company who has set free their employees. The owner, Richardo Semler has been on a journey to continuously improve and innovate their employee related practices. Maverick describes this journey, the steps Semco took, the effect it had and the reasoning behind it. The changes they have gone through is innovate, thought provoking and may be even revolutionary.

What are these innovations? They range from flextime for factory workers, letting people control their own work to more extreme practices like completely abandoning the organizational chart to people who can set their own salaries! Chapter after chapter, Richardo describes these changes, starting with the smaller ones and ending with the large and most thought provoking changes and ending the book with a speculation about how his ideas and Semcos experiences might influence other companies and maybe the general business culture.

Maverick is very well written. It took me 2 days to read it, it kept me reading all the time. Well structured and really builds up to the end. Also the end, for me, was not dissapointing and looking forward to reading Semler's follow-up book.

Very much recommended.

Right from the gitgo Ben Hamper's Rivethead grabs you with gritty gusto of passages such as the above; Hamper is an extraordinary writer about life for the ordinary guy... at least the ordinary guy who winds up as an automotive assembly-line worker for General Motors in Flint, Michigan--once considered the Automobile Capital of the World. The author is a natural shop rat, growing up in Flint, with an alcoholic mostly absentee father and a long-suffering, working-three-jobs mother trying to raise the family as practicing Catholics.

...

For my complete review of this book and for other book and movie
reviews, please visit my site [...]

Brian Wright
Copyright 2008

The endless monotony and idiot bosses drive anybody with an IQ above their shoe size to do something to kill the thought that, if they're lucky, they only have 30 more years of mind numbing drudgery to go before they can retire. I'm not saying alcohol abuse is the proper outlet, but it does seem to be the most common and most convenient. Good book, excellent portrayal of what exactly "blue collar America" does for a living.

Ben Hamper shares his life as a worker on the GM assembly line in Flint, MI. Bold, frank, honest and often hilarious. This book was recommended to me years ago and for some reason I never read it until now. Hamper chronicles a part of American history (manufacturing jobs) that seem to be going stateside or as Ross Perot once described in a quip about NAFTA, what's that whoosing noise? manufacturing jobs headed to Mexico. This is prose for the ages. Loved the book.

I didn't really like reading this book because I too work in a (once) major three Auto plant. I didn't feel that it properly portrayed some of the workers. It made it sound like all workers are like the author where they just really don't give a damn about anything except having a joking time on the job. It also made the workers sound like they were underachieving, undereducated, bottom of the barrel workers and I didn't care to have that stigma for all of us. I hold two bachelor degrees, like my job and take it serious!

I grew up with people like Ben Hamper in a place which was much like Flint. For the first couple years of my adult life, I did the kind of work he did. What he describes is the tail end of a lifestyle; the lifestyle of the shop rat. It's dirty, monotonous and smelly. Many of the people you work with are either below average in intelligence or in sanity. Drugs, booze and having no concept of "forethought" are fundamental parts of the culture. It's nihilism with a rivet gun. If you come from a place like that, chances are, your only way out is via a jail cell or a career in the military. Or, you could win a workmans comp suit. Which is presumably how Ben got out.

I miss rust-belt working class america. It's a hard life, and it doesn't have much in the way of rewards, but the people who make it up are genuine in ways that others are not: they have a lot of heart and spirit. Ben's book brought it all back in a great galloping rush of memories. If you've ever wondered what the factory working classes are, or at least were like (back when we had factories); read the book.