Services Books

There is no better study guide for passing the postal exam than Mr. Parnell's. All info is up to date right with postal guidelines. No other study guide is as easy to understand and follow. As we all know it is practice that makes perfect.I had searched for a study guide like this and purchased three others before this from the list here.
I had a hard time understanding and putting the formulas together from other manuals.That was all cleared up after the first listen to the first cd. There are lots of secrets that no one else has.If you need any proof, I got a 100% on my exam.So do yourself a favor and purchase this guide.you need no others.

Using this book as a study guide to prepare I recently took the exam for the Raleigh area. Test results = 100% carrier, 96.8% mark-up clerk. Without a doubt, this book was the reason for my success---it prepares you for the exam in every possible facet, right down to the completely realistic answer sheets (they are set up the same on the actual exam). Don't take this test without preparing for it (as many people unfortunately do). This book will get you prepped.

I scored a 99.3 on the exam after preparing with this guide. I did this on my own with NO veteren or disabled extra points. It can be done and you can get to the top of the list. Very easy!!!!

this prep book WILL get your scores to the top 95% exam mark. the higher the score the sooner you get called in by the post office. simple as that. took the test and within 6 months, i am with the post office (long island, NY). scored a 97.84%. my friend went from a 95% to a 100% and was called in as soon as the list was available (3-4 weeks). a simple 2.16% made the difference of 5-6 months wait before getting called.

I am retired USAF, and purchased this book and CD set to prepare for the postal exam. I was one of the 5 hired out of hundreds who tested in Oct 2003. I now have 11 months as a Mail Carrier.

As we prepared for our oldest daughter's amputaion, I searched for something to help guide us along as a family. This work book is wonderful. Although my daughter was emotionally ready for her loss, Rick Ritter was able to better address some of what we may have missed prior to her surgery. I strongly recomend this book for anyone dealing with physical loss them selves or that of a loved one. Joi Warburton, Las Vegas, NV

After reading the other reviews I purchased this book. I have a degenerative muscle disease for which there is no treatment. Although I have coped fairly well up to this point, I was finding myself more and more isolated. As I answered the questions, I felt it would be better if I were going through this process with a professional. I answered as fully as I was able, but there doesn't seem to be any suggestions as to what to do with this information. The book suggests that you share your answers with three people. In my case that wasn't possible.I can see that it would be useful in conjunction with therapy. Without that professional input, the book left me hanging.

Reviewed by Christina Gonzalez, LMHC for Reader Views (5/06)

The author starts this very unique workbook with a compelling quote from Christopher Reeve, "So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable". This book is a way to help those who have found their dreams become impossible, find new ways to restructure their life, their ways of thinking and their ways of being in order to find ways to help their dreams become inevitable.

This book is oriented towards those who have experienced some type of a physical loss, whether from a disability, accident or including serious, chronic illnesses and pain. His examples range from people who have suffered knee injuries to quadriplegics, to individuals who have undergone a mastectomy from breast cancer to debilitating illnesses like muscular dystrophy. I would see value for individuals with ANY chronic health condition benefiting enormously from this book.

The author suggests that individuals who use this book consult with at least three people in their lives with whom they can share the results of the exercises which is very wise. The author takes the reader through a series of written exercises and anecdotes through six main chapters: Past and Future, Self Care and Support, Dealing with Loss: Feelings and Beliefs, Understanding Disability, Transforming Circumstance, and The Ongoing Process of Loss and Recovery. Each of these remain only questions and words on paper until the reader takes these questions and looks into their lives and then shares them with another.

As a therapist I will be recommending this book to my clients who are struggling with any chronic health issues. I would love to use this workbook with my clients in their therapy as well as suggest they share the information obtained about themselves with others in their lives. The author includes some excellent exercises to help the reader determine what people in their lives might be supportive to this process of recovery from physical loss and/or any chronic health condition.

The appendices include some excellent resources regarding therapeutic techniques and alternatives, suggested reading for coping with loss and disability, films on issues related to physical loss and disability, guidelines for watching films, and a listing of organizations and other resources that can help individuals coping with loss and disability.

As the mother of a child with Cerebral Palsy and as a psychotherapist myself, I found this book to be highly valuable for people dealing with any type of physical loss. As I mentioned above, just buying the book will not do anything. Filling out the exercises will help, but will not make a huge change. Filling out the exercise, following the author on the journey that he is leading the reader on and sharing with those close to the reader will make a great deal of difference. Some of the exercises I found helpful for those suffering from debilitating mental or emotional illnesses and even less acute health conditions such as asthma or others. This book is highly recommended to any individual who has suffered a physical loss and is still struggling to find their dreams. It would make a great gift from a supportive loved one who is also willing to make a stand to be there with the reader as they go through these exercises, and it would make an excellent aid to an individual who is currently seeing a therapist. I would not recommend this to someone who just wants to do the exercises randomly, haphazardly or in order to just keep their answers to themselves and not share them with another.

Rick Ritter, MSW, has created an easy-to-use resource to help people confront a life-changing illness or disability. He could simply give good advice, relying upon his experiences as a disabled veteran, a social worker, and a competitor in events for disabled athletes. Instead, he engages the reader in answering questions, gathering support, finding resources, and taking a completely positive approach to difficult situations.

I love the workbook format, because it forces the reader to begin thinking about and acting upon ways to continue with a life that has become altered. Of course, altered doesn't mean over. It just means different. Ritter avoids sugar-coating those differences or the emotional, social, and physical problems that accompany them. However, he ultimately provokes the reader into finding ways to deal with those obstacles.

Ritter ends with a brief but inspiring look at his life, followed by a variety of resources. I suggest his workbook as a great beginning for anyone facing physical loss or disability.

Rick Ritter has written a superb self-help workbook that will benefit readers who have suffered a physical loss or disability. Ritter has included 50 questions to be answered by the reader. He recommends these answers be shared with at least three other people. In responding to these questions, the reader is able to reflect on his or her disability or physical loss. The book engages the reader in discovering ways to deal with their physical loss. To those readers who have experienced such a loss, the workbook will provide a sense of empowerment to those still in grief or depression.

Ritter himself has experienced his own disability. As a social worker(MSW), he has had the opportunity to work with 100 people who have suffered a physical loss or disability. His workbook provides a roadmap for readers to follow to reach attainable goals.

Also included are interesting short stories of people he has worked with ranging from amputation, breast cancer, muscular dystrophy, AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, and quadriplegia. He recounts how these people were able to cope with their loss.

Having a disability or having suffered a physical loss doesn't necessarily lead to unhappiness. How one responds to that loss is what really matters. Rick also uses spirituality, support systems, and holistic methods as an approach to coping with the loss. Resiliency is crucial in facing any loss or disability.

As a mother of a son with cerebral palsy, I can see how this workbook could be very useful. He is now a happy young man working as an attorney. His disability didn't stop him from being productive. Also, having battled my own muscle disease along with rheumatoid arthritis, I found it helpful. As the daughter of a mother transfused with HIV contaminated blood, I can see how this workbook could have benefited her.

The resources included at the end of his book are certainly a bonus. He has listed helpful organizations, suggested reading, and films relating to physical loss and disability.

Rick Ritter has given his readers a wonderful gift. "Coping with Physical Loss and Disability" is an empowering book that will benefit many readers. I highly recommend this workbook. Thank you, Rick for caring. Your workbook will be appreciated by many people.

Nancy A. Draper (Author) A Burden of Silence: My Mother's Battle with AIDS

I nearly didn't purchase this book. I bought it only because it came with another book ('Street Crazy' by Stephen Seager) which I had to read for a Psychiatric Technician Program that I am going through. I decided an extra book that deals with the type of patiens I will eventually be working with could only help me in the future.

This book was incredible. It is not from a doctors point of view like most books would be, it is from the point of view of the patients themselves and/or their families. The stories are so tragic and you can't help but feel bad for the situations they have had to go through. There are also pictures of each person which only made me feel more for each of them.

For anyone in the mental health field, work in a prison, or are going to work in either of these fields I highly recommend this book. If people were a little more considerate of the homeless and mentally ill maybe some, if not most, of them would not have to die in the streets or commit suicide in prison.

Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill As a long time staff advocate for the National Alliance on Mental illness (NAMI), I found the book and its multiple story accounts very accurate and heart rendering. For the uninformed, the stories may be so impactful that they will find it hard to understand that a society could mistreat its citizens so badly. Good book.

The heartbreaking stories in this beautifully written book expose what happens to people with psychiatric disabilities who reach the end of the line after not receiving desperately needed mental health care. Meticulously researched and at the same imbued with deep sympathy, Pfeiffer's case studies detail the journeys of six people as they move inexorably toward catastrophe, finding themselves in brutal interactions with the criminal justice system. With the closure of many psychiatric wards and an ensuing lack of decent, appropriate care in the community, our jails and prisons have been delegated as the mental health facilities of our time. They are utterly inadequate to the task. Behind those walls are hundreds of thousands of ill people who cannot adhere to rules. Many are placed in solitary confinement, where they violently injure themselves or commit suicide. Pfeiffer sensitively reveals the effects of this torture on vulnerable individuals with mental illness.

New York State is on the verge of passing a law that greatly restricts the practice of placing people with psychiatric disabilities in solitary confinement, the first state in the country to do so. We must immediately begin to improve mental health care in the community, so that people do not find themselves in jail as a result of untreated symptoms. Pfeiffer spells out this message unambiguously. Her book should be required reading for anyone with any interest in human rights and assigned as a textbook in every medical school.

The author of Crazy in America introduces us to 6 of our brothers and sisters whose lives were devastated by mental illness along with the families that care deeply about them. Three committed suicide while in isolation cells in both jails and prisons. Luke in a Texas jail, Jessica in the New York prison system and Joseph in the California Youth Authority Facility. Two more, Alan and Peter died in separate incidences at the hands of Florida police officers whose very presence exacerbated the symptoms of their illness. The pain and anguish of the five individuals and their families unfolds before your eyes as you read their stories.

The sixth person the author writes about is Shayne, my niece, the focus of my advocacy work and truly a special person and survivor. As I read Shayne's story I grieved for the horror that was unfolding once again before my eyes. The anguish of not being able to stop the crime that landed her in jail and eventually an Iowa prison. The self mutilations of her right eye and two years later her left eye. Six months after blinding herself she dislodged four of her teeth trying to bite off her finger. Visions of this vulnerable and sick woman destroying herself one digit at a time terrified my thoughts as I pleaded and begged for help from whomever would listen. Four months later Shayne tried to bite a whole through her cheek and I wondered if it would ever end. All of these incidences happened while in isolation cells. Shayne has proven, at least to me, that isolation is not treatment. The prison environment was to stressful for her coping skills and she started a downhill slide 1 year into what would be 5 years behind bars.

It is hard to write a review of a book that causes you to feel so much pain and suffering. I do however thank Mary Beth for being the caring and knowledgeable advocate that she is. Shayne and her family are forever grateful that she has used her journalistic talent to tell the stories of these six vulnerable and loved individuals in the hopes that changes will be made before to many more have to suffer being criminalized because of a misunderstood illness.

If countries are judged by the way they treat their most vulnerable citizens than I grieve also for America because our mentally ill are being hidden from view behind prison walls which is where they were 150 year ago. The medications necessary to stabilize symptoms of mental illness are available. The knowledge of what needs to be provided to ensure their success living in the community is known. It will take the will of the people to provide these basic necessities. Call your legislatures and congressmen and tell them to support laws aimed at helping those with disabilities.

For years, I have watched the homesless people walk up and down the main streets in the city closest to where I live, the thought crossing my mind that these are the result of budget cuts which closed the nearby psychiatric center. While I'd read about the crisis for this same population, (Many of the articles were written by the same author as Crazy in America, Mary Beth Pfeiffer, an advocate for these people for many years.) the extent and the consequences of this institution's closing, and others across America, was never as clear as they have become as a result of reading this book.
Pfeiffer's heartbreaking case studies document the problem the mentally ill confront within the penal system, a system never intended to deal with this personnel. Through these tragic case studies, the author demonstrates that a system that punishes the mentally ill in the same ways it treats other prisoners is a set-up for these victims. At the same time that her book focuses on and evokes sympathy and compassion for the mentally ill, it also causes the reader to question how our prisons function for anyone in America.
While this book may hold particular interest for workers in the mental health field, it is of importance for employees in our schools, judicial system, and for anyone who has a mentally ill person in his/her family. It seems this book reaches out to everyone, and hopefully, will encourage people to work toward the changes in a system that is broken for a large percentage of the people involved in it. We must watch over those incapable of caring for themselves.
This is a must read for any socially responsible person in America.
As for the author, a superb example of investigative reporting! Well done!!!

While this is not exactly what I was expecting, I am pleased with the workbook. The exercises are very clear and concise and easy to do. The treasure map exercise is also fun! This book is a much easier to use version of The Secret (yes, Gawain's book came first, I know, but The Secret has been the one most talked about in the past year or two). I like this one better.

If you ever wondered about life, If you ever wanted help but did not know where to begin, then begin with this book. It will open opportunities and heal wounds you never knew you had.

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When used together with Shakti Gawain's "Creative Visualization", this combination provides you with all the tools you need to create a road map for a better life.

And then they show you how to travel through life using your map.

a wondeful way to learn how to set goals and put ones dreams into action!
love it and its fun.

Excellent book. It helps one to consolidate the information given in the paperback book.

I have purchased this book for several of my pregnant friens and their friends over the years and find it the best one so far.

Many business books talk about how to get new customers
to come into our front door . . . there's nothing wrong with that,
of course . . yet Feargal Quinn in his excellent CROWNING THE
CUSTOMER says what's really important is his Boomerang
Principle: the name of the game is getting the customer back.

Quinn, founder of the Superquinn supermarket chain in Ireland,
developed this principle when as a youngster, he watched
his father operate a successful holiday camp . . . guests, at
the end of their week's stay, were encouraged to return the
next summer . . . when and if they did, it was easy to
determine that any particular week--or even summer--was
successful.

CROWNING THE CUSTOMER presents many similar ideas
that may sound equally simple, but amazingly, just aren't
put into practice as often as should be the case.

For example, in Chapter 7, Quinn talks about how to make
customer panels work . . . this one chapter alone is worth
whatever you might pay for the book . . . you'll learn why it
is imperative that you do the following:

1. In selecting your panel, touch all the bases but don't worry
too much about being fully representative.

2. Don't pay your panel members

3. Let your customers set the agenda.

4. Keep your side as small as possible.

5. Be aware of the flattery obstacle. (In other words, don't just
let your customers compliment you.)

6. Don't answer back.

7. Circulate a report on each customer panel widely within your
organization.

8. Take action on the comments, suggestions and criticisms.

What I really liked about CROWNING THE CUSTOMER were the
numerous examples on found on virtually any page . . . in
reading it, you'll come across useful tidbits that can be
applied to business and non-profit organizations . . . among
them, to name just a few:

* In our business, we have a rule which requires our top
management to do their own household shopping once a month.
This gives them first-hand experience of what shopping is like, seen
from the customer's perspective.

* After using names, the most important step towards seeing
your customers as people is to actually look at them.

* The next time you are tempted to say, "Which will we go for,
this market or that one?" try asking yourself: "Can we not
go for both?"

This guy invented everything there is to know about REAl Customer satisfaction , and way ahead of Harvard or other gurus.
The principle he illustrate in this book are valid for tomorrow.
I bought multiple copies of the book , and I am giving it as a gift to everybody who claim to understand customer care.

First of all, i would like to thank Mr. Quinn for his book and attention. the book is excellent i tought many thing from it. The language is very clear and has alot of advices that applicable to any businees again, tahnk you for the book with respect Sayed Omar The American Uinversity in Cairo

This excellent book is not out of print! It is available through Amazon.co.uk in both hardback and paperback. It is an excellent read and a must for anybody in the service sector.

Dr. Fancher makes many excellent points in this book. There is a lot more reform that needs to happen in psychology and psychiatry. It's good that there are courageous people like Fancher who will raise these crucial issues.

I am giving up half-way through. The outline of this book is great, and the points made are valid. But it is not written well. Specifically, it is very wordy and repetitive. The author makes a point, discusses the point, then makes the point again a page or two later. I got it the first time.

I am toward the end of the section on the Behaviorists, and have just decided it is not worth finishing. I would give an example of the wandering wordiness, but it would take too much text to convey this oft-repeated problem. An editor needs to get hold of this and fix it up.

That's a shame - the author does a very good job of defining the theory and the scientific basis of the major schools of psychotherapy, and then noting how far the theory is from its scientific claim. For the intellectual content, I agree with other reviewers that this is one of the best books to do this. However, it is a lot of work to slog through all this writing to cover the wide but discrete range of theses presented.

The author makes profound statements about the human condition, normalcy, and pathology, including as understood by the schools of therapy. But he presents this elliptically. His case could be stronger if he simply stated his counter-arguments, supported them, then went on to the next chapter. The counter-arguments actually add up to a nice profile of what it means to be human, whether disturbed or not!

I was excited to get this book. I have read a lot on this topic. Like the author, I am also trained as a psychotherapist, and like the author, I am quite concerned about the way that therapeutic training ignores the truth that most of what we do is based on philosophy and belief and only to a small (but increasing) degree on science.

I was surprised at the quality of writing when I began reading. I then figured out my mistake: I picked this used book up for a good price, thinking it was written by Raymond Fancher, who wrote the marvelous book, Pioneers in Psychology. That also covers historical and philosophical bases of psychology. When the writing proved annoying, I looked closer and realized it was a different Fancher!

If you conduct research in this area and want a good account of the premises of the major schools of psychotherapy, and you want a good account of their criticisms, this is a valuable book. for example, an ambitious undergrad could write a strong paper with guidance from these arguments. But you will have to work at it -they are not clearly presented.

If there were still hippies, this book would not have to be written. Thinking back to those days, I recall my friend Alex coming from therapy one day and saying, "Psychologists basically want you to conform." He was right then, but in our age of conformity, common sense statements like that will not be enough to educate a public inundated with data showing the efficacy of therapy. This book fills that vaccuum and reveals the hidden ideology of each of the contemporary schools of psychotherapeutic schools so cogently, succinctly, and logically that it would probably be blacklisted by most graduate Psychology departments. It is equivalent to Galileo's revelation that the Church had a vision of the solar system, not based on study but on wish-fulfillment. Taking on the psychoanalytic enterprise, behaviorists, Beck's cognitive psychology, and psychopharmacology in one fell swoop, he demonstrates effectively that that the theorists and practitioners of these various "methods" have molded their views in the same way pre-Columbian map makers designed atlases: through conjecture, impressionism, and powerful cultural biases. Regardless of the implied assertions by many that psychotherapy is rising to the level of a science, Fancher shows this to be far from the case. This is of particular importance today as there is a strong move toward defining evidence based or empirically based therapies that work--probably an artifact of pressures from HMO's rather than greater sophistication of understanding the nature of mental illness. Fancher presents two major problems: one is that in dealing with what is a "healthy individual," one must have an ideological basis; and second, the "subjects" are not reliable. Ever take an employment test with a question "Have you ever stolen from an employer?" How would YOU answer? This is a rather crude example, but you get the point. But if you think about the claims therapies make, and think rationally, it seems fairly obvious psychologists are either poorly trained in logic, poorly educated in the nature of human culture, value, and imagination. One gets the feeling from reading the anayses of the reasoning behind what makes therapy work that most psychologists/psychiatrists don't even read the newspaper. One salient example is the popular Beck Cognitive Therapy industry. Your thinking determines how you feel; change your mind, change your emotions--all in 12 easy sessions. I can imagine Doestoevsky or even John Steinbeck in these sessions. "See, John, when you THINK people are poor and exploited and powerless, you will feel sorry for them and write those pessimistic books of yours. Now, just look around, do you see anyone starving to death in my office?" That might be a bit of hyperbole, but not far from the truth. But it is certainly the truth that such methods--if taken at face value--have the potential of converting the search for the end of psychological suffering and the search for meaning to a reductionist level that approaches the quest for mental health on the same level of taking dance lessons to get dates. Fancher hits home when he challenges each of the popular forms of therapeutic schools, showing even psychopharmocology is an enterprise based on Nielson ratings, figuring out what therapists want their patients to feel, then trying to get the chemistry right. At times the author uses a bit more ammunition than he needs. Having hit the nail on the head, he will occasionaly add a few swings of the hammer. Also, while psychopharmocology does have its ideology, it does appear to relieve some suffering at least some of the time, so I'd be hesitant to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Rather than provide more summary, I'd make the point that if you are interested in the field of therapy or counseling--either as a professional or consumer--if you don't read this book, it would be like trying to play chess without knowing what any of the pieces do or how the game is played.

This is the best book on comparative clinical psychology/psychiatry I've ever read.

If psychotherapists/psychiatrists were considered faith healers (which this book makes clear they are), this book would qualify as a book on comparative religion, and it would make one question their faith.

Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, Cognitive Therapy, and Biological Psychiatry are all analyzed, with their core beliefs and assumptions described in detail. Each school's standing with the scientific facts is mentioned.

Cultural reasons why Americans accept certain therapies, or come to accept them in spite of their unscientific bases, are also given.

The most noticable omission is the lack of any discussion of Albert Ellis' Rational Emotive Therapy, although many of the comments about Beck's therapy apply to RET too.

The chapter on biological psychiatry could have provided more background on its history, as well as mention more specific psychiatrists' and pharmaceutical companies' influences. For biological psychiatry, "Blaming the Brain" by Elliot Valenstein (mentioned in this text's acknowledgements) is also recommended.

Without coming out too strongly (which could create a backlash), the book does an excellent job of pointing out how biological psychiatry's illness model is used to justify prescribing psychoactive drugs with no proven specificity in treating "illnesses", in a culture which otherwise wages war on psychoactive drugs.

The only noticable editorial error was a major misspelling of "renaissance".

Okay, I wrote this, so of course I like it--and since I have to give it "stars" in order to post, I give it five.

But the point of this "review" is to say that the book will be back in print this Fall (2003), from Transaction Publishers/Rutgers, with a new intro and a new title--"Health and Suffering in America: The Context and Content of Mental Health Care."

The hype about mental health care in the last five years or so has grown more and more outrageously false. I'm glad Transaction wants to keep this book in print, as a corrective to the nonsense that those who profit from mental health care would have you believe.

I am hoping to be in the performance of this play. I have read it twice so far today and that was after my audition this morning. I do hope I get to play any of the characters... they are ALL so very lovable and fun. I enjoyed the reading of it very much and hope the good read can be magnified on stage. Depends entirely on dirrection of corse

I student directed an interpretation of The Curious Savage at my school. I couldn't have chosen a better play. The story is poignant in its morals, showing the terrible havoc that greed and unkindness can render. It also is a shining tribute to the power of love, and its healing power. Incredibly witty and fast-paced, the audience hardly has a chance to laugh before they cry, but they are there for the ride all the same. This is play is an enjoyable read, and even more enjoyable to work with. Highly recommended!

"Parcheesi! The royal game of India!"

I saw John Patricks The Curious Savage on stage and I think it's awesome and than went and bought this book and I love it!

Mrs Savages step children belong in a zoo!

i was fairymay in a school production, and it is the best play i have ever done.it is a very open minded script, so you can percieve it however you want. it is totally awesome

The Curious Savage is fantastic and will be a great read, I had the privilege to see a wonderful performance of this play and it is now one of my favorites, My mother's friend played Fairy May who though I liked all the characters she was one of my favorites and had some of the best lines. I actually went to see this play with little excitement thinking I would be bored but I definitely was proved wrong and was just amazed with how wonderful and original it was. I highly recommend the book to not only actors but to anyone who likes to go to the theater and if you ever hear of a performance of this play in your area than definitely go see it, I'm hoping our local theater will put on another production as this is something I will gladly see again and I highly recommend that all stage directors and actors consider putting on a production so other theater goers can have the experience of seeing this wonderful play!

The ideas are great, easy to put in place and reap the rewards. This author knows customers and contacts centers. jl

There are many ideas and concepts in this volume that all contact center professionals could use. Well done.

As a senior exec in R&D I have often been frustrated with the lack of discipline in every support services division I have worked with. Mr. Schulz has provided the foundation, best-practices and execution triggers for support services in one book. I highly recommend this book and have procured additional copies for our international sites. The support-services playing field has hereby been leveled.

J. Clonn

Not your typical business book. There are many great ideas and a number of best-practices are presented and discussed. On the downside the author should curb his flippant comments and stick to the business at hand.

\tr

Thisi s the first review I've written. I've got a stack of business books. Most are filled with common sense advice, advice I really do not need and a waste of my [money]. BUT, The author of this book provides clear examples, examples that can be used right away, advice worth buying the book for. I am impressed.

/KK

This book does an excellent job at describing from an MD's insider viewpoint, the forces of change in American medicine from the 1970's to 2001, when Dr. Rosenblum finally closed his practice. The author, in just 114 pages, manages to succinctly but clearly explain the forces driving the decline of medicine in America...the interplay of patients, doctors, nurses, politics, insurance & pharmaceutical companies, medical schools, hospitals and more.

More than just a description of the decline of American medicine, I found this book to be a real education for anyone curious about "why things are as they are." Why do I have to wait so long for an appointment with my doctor? Why is there so much paperwork when it comes to my medical needs? How come our government leaders aren't doing anything to make things better? Why do those medical residents have to pull so many all-nighters, and is that really any good for them or their patients?

Students interested in a career in medicine would do well to read this book to better understand the forces in play that they will face. I also hope public policymakers will discover this book as it articulates the challenges through the eyes of a doctor and offers some modest starting suggestions for change.

Overall, a very enjoyable, educational and worthwhile read.

This is a well written and thought-out explanation of the definite decline of American Medicine. I started reading and could not put the book down until I had finished. Dr. R. has written in good lay-language to really clarify and explain this awful mess. I am 75 years old and worry about the years I have left, but I worry so much more about my children's older years. It is a dismal outlook. I hope that someone can wave a magic wand to help this situation and bring back the "family doctor".
Dr. R was my family doctor for many years before we moved out of the state and we saw how frustrated he was because he could no longer practice medicine from his heart and mind. I will do anything I can to try to bring back real medical care.

Dr. Michael Rosenblum has taken the time to clearly detail the problems confronting our medical care system today and in the near future. This is a must-read book. I wonder why the national press has not picked up on this very informative and enlightening book. Where are the commentators when we need them?

Dr. Rosenblum gets it all right here. Preserving excellence in health care for future generations will demand a serious soul search, particularly on the part of insurance carriers and other 3rd parties (including trial lawyers). The brightest and best students are loathe to study medicine because they cannot afford the education/sacrifice, and afterwards they cannot afford the spiraling overhead and risk of practice. Primary care medicine has indeed been thrashed. The doctor lays down his message with brilliant clarity. Fine suggestions are made (so don't give up hope). This potent little book is required reading.

Dr. Rosenblum gives a detailed explanation of the current crisis that we are facing. His concise overview answered some of the questions I have asked for years. Where have all the doctors gone? What has happened to the care I remember receiving as a child? How can we possess great technology, but feel as if we are unable to access it readily and with the support of our physician? This book is a "must read" for those of us who expect and value the best health care possible.

Fantastic, entertaining book!! Loaded with history and recipes -- Who could ask for more??? Highly recommend.

Fine addition to anyone's cookbook collection and a great gift for the
rail fan. Recipes are easy and they work! Don't expect to lose weight!

Great book! Wonderful back story of an era mostly gone. Recipes are particularly interesting and became the theme for a wonderful party. Research done by the author is staggering. Bravo!

Really a fun book to have for the railroader with someone who loves to cook. Tons of fine recipies from railroads all over the country. SOME EXPERIENCE REQUIRED! I tried my hand at a dish, but it didn't turn out right despite following directions to the letter. Recently, Mom and I were successful. Her years of cooking experience handed down from Grandma paid off, because she noticed a missing step. Some basic preparation steps are left out becuase by the time a cook was assigned to the diner, he didn't need to see everything on paper. Since then, Mom and I have enjoyed many more weekend cooking classes with the dining car cookbook. Although many projects have turned out well, I'll always recall our first as my personal favorite: Western Pacific Rice Cream Pie. Good times!

The book "Dining by Rail" was purchased at the urging of a ten-year old son who is a rabid railfan. The book not only has a treasure trove of the most famous recipes from all the different rail lines, but it features a marvelous history of railroads from the point of view of the customer, the cooks, and others whose job it was to provide customer service. One also learns how the menus on the trains reflected the relations with the most important commercial customers of the railroad, an aspect nostalgic railfans don't always think about.

The book is well written and carefully researched. The pictures are evocative, and the recipes very easy to follow and recreate.

Altogether, this book is providing my son and me with a interesting and tasty railroad education!