Models Books

Good reference book! Lots of detail about locations, conflicts and generals on either side.

Brings back lots of memories, Reminded me of our crossings, and a few days later coming back across on the pontoon bridge in an Ambulance for Air Evacuation to England. A must for all that was there or is interested in accurate history.

I bought this book for my father, who was at Remagen. He was one of the last to cross this bridge. He has really enjoyed reading it and has learned some new things about it as a result. He recently went back to Europe to retrace his footsteps from when he fought there and visited the Remagen sight. The book has given him some new insights, confirmed things that he knew and has been good reading for him.

Many WW2 history buffs are familiar with how the US 9th Armored Division found an undestroyed bridge over the Rhine River, staged a daring attack and how the last physical barrier into the heart of Hitler's Germany was crossed. Mr. Zaloga looks not only at the actions around the small town of Remagen itself, but how this event changed Allied strategy in the final weeks of the war. For the history trivia fan there is good information presented about the terrain around Remagen, about the various units from both sides that were involved in the fighting and about the efforts to protect the bridgehead. By grabbing a foothold on the far side and steadily building up and widening it, the Americans were able to coordinate with the large British crossing operation later and create a huge encirclement of the major German forces protecting their industrial heart. To quote a tag line from a 1969 movie "the Germans lost a bridge, thirty days later they lost a war". Very readable and organized text with good illustrations. An excellent addition to your collection.

Remagen was always of interest to me, even as a child, as my father had crossed near there. Many years later I the opportunity to correspond with fellow Tennessean Hugh Mott, a hero of Remagen, who disarmed the German charges and earned a place into the U.S. Army Engineer Hall of Fame. Despite reading a number of other books on Remagen, this one remains my favorite. Super informative, accurate, easy reading and well illustrated. Like the other reviewers, I give this one the top rating. Lots of information in a small book!

David Dole has accurately researched the prewar era of Lionel Trains in detail with descriptions and great photos. If you are collector or just interested in old toy trains young or old you will enjoy this book. The pictures of the actual trains and copies of pages from the old catalogs are worth buying the book for. My grandchildren love looking at David Doyle's book on Lionel Trains.

This is definitely required if your are intrested in these trains or thinking about purchasing one. It is a total and complete refrence for every item released in those 42 years. It has ratings, and excellent photos. It is like have an encyclopedia for my trains, as I use it to find a particular engine or engine or car #. Hats off to David Doyle

David Doyle's new Standard Catalog Of Lionel Trains 1900-1942 is the most complete guide available for Lionel products: collectors won't want to be without it. From the turn of the century until World war II, Lionel turned out toy trains for kids of all ages: over a thousand color photos blends with pricing guidelines for different conditions to accompany a history of Lionel products. Organized by type of product, from passenger cars and ballast cars to box cars, collectors will find this quite an easy reference to use.

David Doyle's new Standard Catalog Of Lionel Trains 1900-1942 is the most complete guide available for Lionel products: collectors won't want to be without it. From the turn of the century until World war II, Lionel turned out toy trains for kids of all ages: over a thousand color photos blends with pricing guidelines for different conditions to accompany a history of Lionel products. Organized by type of product, from passenger cars and ballast cars to box cars, collectors will find this quite an easy reference to use.

Very help in determining age and type of Lionel items,and value before purchasing or selling.

Summer 2000 Collectors's Value Guide for Ty Beanie Babies is great. Packed with lots of useful information, colorful pictures of all, and places to record your collections. Includes new Beanie Kids too!

Looking for a good book to give you information on your collection? I know this book sure helps me! This guide with it's color-filled pictures, and acurate Ty prices is the perfect book to help you with your collection. It also has bonus ways on how to tell a counterfeit from an original. I almost bought a counterfeit Pincess and Doby, if this guide didn't help me. It includes a time line of all Ty Beanie Baby events, plus information on how to tell which Beanie Baby will be expenisive in a year. I bought one for (sadly) $20 and it was $40 two months later. And don't forget, this book it good for all different stages of Beanie collecting! If you're a collector, this Beanie book is the book for you! :-)

as a 'novice' beanie collector, this book has been the MOST helpful in learning to recognize all the beanies/teenies/et al; don't waste your money on any others, as I have... the pics alone are great; i would be totally lost without this guide!

Ty Beanie Babies Summer 2000 Collecor's Guide is a great way to inventory your collection whether you collect Beanie Babies, Buddies, Teenie Beanies, or *New* Beanie Kids. This book details with a picture of each baby and value by version tags. It also has a guide to distinguish which "hang tag" or "tush tag" you have. Whether you have a large collection or just getting started, I highly recommend this book for you.

Looking for a good book to give you information on your collection? I know this book sure helps me! This guide with it's color-filled pictures, and acurate Ty prices is the perfect book to help you with your collection. It also has bonus ways on how to tell a counterfeit from an original. I almost bought a counterfeit Pincess and Doby, if this guide didn't help me. It includes a time line of all Ty Beanie Baby events, plus information on how to tell which Beanie Baby will be expenisive in a year. I bought one for (sadly) $20 and it was $40 two months later. And don't forget, this book it good for all different stages of Beanie collecting! If you're a collector, this Beanie book is the book for you! :-)

who are 11 and 13. They wanted me to read the whole chapter about the snow-sampling expedition. They are thrilled and disturbed by the whale hunts and the vivid descriptions of the ice, and they are more interested in the science than I expected -- but as another reviewer noted, the author is a parent, too, and while the science isn't oversimplified, it is set out in plain language.

My kids want to go to Alaska as soon as possible, "before it's all melted and gone forever" as my daughter says. And my son wanted to know -- "Mom, if I can figure out cold fusion, will you be proud of me?"

All the accolades by other reviewers here are well deserved. This is a wonderful read; the science is woven into the story so seamlessly that you don't realize just how much you're learning. But I think the most important message of this story is that the earth has an intrinsic value and beauty that we do not have the right to destroy.

So, get this book. Read it. Donate a copy to your local library. Maybe our children really can save the planet. This book could be the inspiration.

I flew a Jet Ranger helicopter for ERA Helicopters in the spring of 1969, shortly after oil was definitely discovered at Prudhoe Bay. I was the farthest west contract at that time, living with and working for a seismic crew. As a result I had to learn a lot about surviving in the white-out, memorizing the shapes of all the tundra ponds, various willows and other Arctic shrubs, snowy owls and ptarmigan, and so forth. Reading this book brought me back to all those adventuresome skills and a time just before we were all so skeptical of our society and its outcome. Working in extreme outdoor jobs then was a lot like the life described in this book. Certain abilities to pick up on local lore of the Natives, as well as the most advanced technical thinking was expected of you, and comforting. I have enjoyed seeing anything about the Arctic's North Slope of Alaska ever since, and hope we can move forward into our complicated future without confiscating that amazing habitat up there. And good luck to the Arctic Ocean's inhabitants and their ecology; they are going to need it for what we have done to the atmosphere. This writer is a fine journalist for conveying what we have learned so far.

To most of us Global Warming is a distant and sketchy thing. We don't really know what to believe (although in recent years we haven't had nearly as much snow as before). In Alaska steady warming 'everybody knows is a fact.'

The title comes from the interplay between the whale hunting Inupiaq Eskimos and the visiting scientists trying to get a better understanding of what's happening to the climate of the world. Indeed the strength of the book is in Mr. Wohlforth's understanding of both cultures and with his gift in writing so that he is able to explain the world view of both cultures.

This book tells many stories centered on the theme of climate change as seen in Northern Alaska. The Iñupiat people have lived around what is today Barrow, Alaska for over a thousand years. As with many indigenous peoples, they have a keen awareness of their natural surroundings. For the Iñupiat, knowledge of weather, ice and whale behavior is a matter of life and death, both moment to moment in a climate so harsh the cold can kill quickly and in the larger life of their villages, where successful whale hunts are needed to feed the people.

Barrow has also been the site of scientific Arctic climate studies since the 1800s. A parallel culture of scientists has developed in the several research stations in the area. For many years, the Iñupiat and scientific communities have coexisted in varying states of tension. Both recognize strengths in the other but their ways of approaching life and understanding the world are very different and often not possible to reconcile. While the scientists have frequently consulted with and tried to learn from the Iñupiat, the scientists have typically found this a frustrating exercise and the Iñupiat have had enough bad experiences with researchers on short projects not really understanding the people or the place that they do not easily trust outsiders.

Charles Wohlforth has lived in Alaska and did a remarkable job of coaxing stories out of the Iñupiat. They are storytellers - telling stories has long been deeply ingrained in their culture and way of life. We hear some of their stories as well as those of the scientists. Perhaps most remarkably, we meet a scientist who returned to Alaska to adopt the Iñupiat way of life as a whaling captain instead of pursuing his scientific career and Iñupiat who have made their way as scientists even as they live next to the people they grew up with.

But most important, while we see the effects of global warming and climate change as seen by the scientists doing research and the Iñupiat whalers trying to cope with the impact of bad ice and warmer weather on all aspects of whaling, the author reminds us that these local effects are just a snapshot in one place of changes that will affect us all. Reading this book compels an appreciation for the depth and breadth of knowledge of an indigenous people surviving the changes in the modern world while preserving their native ways and traditions.

We know why this book was honored with the 2005 Los Angeles Times Book Award for science/technical writing. Wohlforth cheerfully tackles the deep fog of climate science (even some of the career scientists he interviews seem hopelessly befuddled by the complexity of it). But he approaches it both as a journalist who makes his living by storytelling, and as a father used to gently encouraging his four bright, curious children to understand their world. He can distill a century of mind-numbing bench science into a metaphor that his 10-year old can understand and that readers of all ages will appreciate.
To get the story he drops into whaling expeditions and arctic research explorations with equal aplomb by chipping in and becoming one of the team. (The comparison is not unlike the cinematographers who capture on film the drama of a Mt. Everest ascent: the only way to get the picture is to strap on the gear and make the climb themselves, right alongside the adventurers they're filming.)
Getting and telling the story is what Wohlforth knows how to do. In his book, he captivates us by telling us what his "characters" know how to do. From the fox who knows how to skitter across a thin sheet of newly-forming ice without falling through, to the native who knows how to take compass readings by studying the shadows on snow drifts, to our generation's academic elites who know how to wrap their minds around the infinitely complex equations that underlie the mysteries of climate change. In the end, it's really not so mysterious: the signs of climate change are obvious and all around us.
Read this book and prepare to be moved and enlightened, just as you will be charmed by the people whose lives, livelihoods, and ways of knowing are as diverse as the environment itself.

I really liked this book a lot and found it very useful in modifying my mindset. Its going to be difficult to put this into practice given the complexity of the topic and the time needed for good persuasion but the benefits are clear not just for individuals attempting to persuade but for the organizations they work for. That's it!

Jay Conger's new book is a must read for managers on all rungs of the corporate ladder. Most organizational behavior books shower readers with platitudes, but this book goes beyond. Conger gives current examples of persuasive leaders (both positive and negative) and then shows the reader step-by-step how to begin building the skills necessary to powerfully pursuade. The exercises and practical tips make the book a highly effective tool. Conger's techniques have helped me grapple with difficult negociations at work. I find that I am much more analytical and have a better appreciation of the inner dealings that go on within my work teams. At points the book makes pursuasion seem a bit too easy (at least for me), but it is a key book for all of us read and learn from. Honestly, I use the skills that I picked up reading this book outside the office just as much as I do inside. We all need to learn to pursuade and this text lays a solid foundation for us all to do so.

"One important aim of this book is to challenge your stereotypes of persuasion. We usually think of persuasion as something reserved for salespeople-certainly not for managers. What I am going to propose to you is that, quite to the contrary, persuasion skills have become absolutely essential to the job of managing-far more than we might imagine. Much of what a good manager does today is sell: sell their ideas to coworkers; sell their organizations on change; sell their bosses on new investments. But it's not traditional selling. A large part of what we do as effective managers is to find optimal solutions for problems through investigation, discussion, and debate. We then convince our organization to get behind them. It is in the convincing part that we face our greatest hurdless-getting buy-in. This is where the skills of constructive persuasion play a vital role. So leave behind your older notions of persuasion. It's time for a paradigm shift. Your effectiveness depends on it" (pp.14-15).

In this context, in Chapter 2, after listing wrong ideas about persuasion as following:

1. persuasion is simply mustering the best arguments for something;

2. persuasion almost always involves stating your position up front;

3. persuasion means being assertive-often very assertive; and

4. negotiating and deal making are at the heart of it.

Jay A. Conger writes that "These are some of the stereotypes people have about the act of convincing. There are several others. Together I call them the 'killer myths' of persuasion-'killer' because they can kill our ability to be effective and our motivation to become better persuaders."

Killer Myth 1- The most effective persuasion is the hard sell.

Killer Myth 2- Persuasion is a one-way process.

Killer Myth 3- Effective persuaders succeed on the first try.

Killer Myth 4- Good persuaders don't need to compromise.

Killer Myth 5- Great arguments are the secret to successful persuasion.

Killer Myth 6- Persuasion is pure manipulation.

As a result, he writes that "Now that we know what persuasion isn't, we may be wondering what constructive persuasion really is." Hence, he shows four distinct steps such as (i)building your credibility, (ii)finding the common ground, (iii)developing compelling positions and evidence, and (iv)connecting emotionally to becoming an effective persuader, and he discusses these steps/the four elements of effective persuasion throuhout the following four (3-6) chapters.

Highly recommended.

As a recent MBA graduate, I found "Winning 'Em Over" to be a perfect complement to my formal education. By drawing on the disciplines of rhetoric, communication studies, management, and even storytelling, Jay Conger weaves a provocative and compelling argument for a fundamental and generational shift in the nature of management - from an Age of Command to an Age of Persuasion. Conger proves with contemporary examples what Aristotle knew thousands of years ago - that the author/audience (or persuader/persuadee) relationship is a covenant based on trust and mutually beneficial outcomes, that the audience must be an active participant in the process of persuasion, and that persuasion is a subtle art form. The beauty of "Winning 'Em Over" is that Conger explains the essence of this art in the context of the modern-day manager. In doing so, he provides the tools by which we can begin to understand the route to effective persusasion and, by extension, exemplary leadership. To become effective managers and leaders, we NEED to understand and adopt the principles examined in this book.

As an indication of how good this book is, I bought five copies when it came back in print. There are less than a dozen business books I have more than 2-3 copies of (Drucker is half of them.) It's that good.

As a leadership consultant who regularly has to assist Directors, Vice Presidents and above - many of them in technology-heavy companies - this is the book I used to recommend most often, and it breaks my heart it is out of print. It is good enough that I have contacted Mr. Conger directly. Here's what I've found: it speaks in language that most executives can understand, and with a litle bit of coaching this book provides a framework for them to see what they are doing and not doing when it comes to internal communications, relationships, and, yes, politics. I am no longer amazed at the lack of caolition-building and relationship development skills of executives, but I come across it constantly. As such, I often find that great ideas are NOT being implemented either do to a lack of understanding of, or blatant disregard for, the need to PERSUADE others of the viability and effectiveness of the recommended course of action.

If you're a bright executive who wonders why someone with less technical depth than you has gotten promoted in front of you, this book is a good place to start looking. Ask yourself whether you are as good interpersonally as you are technically.

I bought this book for my mom and she loves it! She is from Panama and has a dark skin complexion. She saw a lot of herself in Alek esepcially in her stories about familiy life. It's amazing how things stay the same even though years have passed, technology improved and continents separate you.

Alek Wek shared a story with me, through this book, that helped me to appreciate the mind of child growing up in poverty, in a family, in a culture, in a world of others who are not alike. Alek's story helped me to make connections to the old ways of my mother's mother and my mother and the very old ways that perhaps originated back in Africa; ways that were somewhat preserved from modern "civilized" ways. Alek's story helped me to appreciate the story I am leaving and hope to leave with my own children. Alek's words encourage me to be careful with my own (to say that Alek is "well-spoken" would be an understatement. As an aspiring author, myself, I would say about Alek's writing: it would seem she truly appreciates the gift of language and the power of thought behind it). Alek's book is appropriately titled in my opinion, she is not the girl of an impoverished African village or primitive tribe, she is not the rags to riches to story. She is Alek, a unique life force that has been affected and infected by the life around her.
This was a special treat for me for many reasons but mainly because it reinforced my hope that our kids are listening; not only to our words but to their environment. It was again a special treat for me...to be infected with the spirit of Africa, to feel the power of her words and her love for herself...who she truly is.

I'm not a fan of reading. I really only picked up Alek Wek's book because she came to a book singing at my school, Howard University. She impressed me as a down to earth, humble, kindly demeanored woman. She personally autographed it and took a picture with me. I sat the book down for several months, but, when I did pick it up over the Christmas break it gripped me. It is both entertaining and informing. She speaks about her life as child growing up in war torn Sudan, and the atrocities which occurred there, her move to New York and London, her subsequent conquering the fashion industry, and her eventual return to her birthplace. Throughout the book I literally laughed at times, and was on the verge of tears at others. It not a difficult read. It's simply a really good read. Pick it up!

this book is amazing, touching, i cried my eyes out. its very inspiring and motivational. it made my everyday problems seems so little compared to what she went through. i will definitely recommend this book to everyone.

I think the book was excellent. I would have like to have read about how she met Riccardo though.

This is the best coverage of Lionel's promotional sets of the period in print to date. Highly recommend to all Lionel collectors, and to those who loved these sets peering through various Christmas catalogues, warming a boy's heart in days gone by! Nostalgic and authoritative!!

Drawing upon thousands of authentic Lionel documents, "Authoritative Guide To Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1969 - 1969" is an 848-page illustrated compendium showcasing the more than 700 electric train outfits (also known as 'uncatalogued train sets') that the Lionel company created exclusively as promotional items for retailers that included Sears Roebuck & Co.; Montgomery Ward; Spiegel; Western Auto; A&P; Quaker Oats; and others. Because of the limited numbers manufactured, these promotional outfits are among the most valuable items in the history of model railroading. These outfits never appeared in Lionel's consumer catalogs and information about them simply unavailable -- until now. John W. Schmid has been collecting toy trains with his father for decades. After the 2001 auction in which the Lionel Factory Orders and other miscellaneous internal company documents were purchased, Schmid embarked upon years of extensive research in newly found documents and has now distilled that research into the pages of an impressively descriptive catalog. The result is "Authoritative Guide To Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960-1969", a work of meticulous scholarship that is unique in the annals of the enduringly popular hobby of model trains and railroads. Included is how all the engine and cars came to be individually packed; descriptions of the original outfit box (including outfit inserts and packaging); pricing for the complete outfit (and even the empty box alone); original production quantities; diagrams for packing the outfit in the outfit box; instruction sheets, packed envelopes, as well as peripherals (track, transformer, oil, wire, smoke, etc.) Also available in a hardcover edition (9781933600031, $89.95), John Schmid's "Authoritative Guide To Lionel's Promotional Outfits 1960 - 1969" is impressively informative and enthusiastically recommended for all dedicated model railroading reference collections.

Wow! This book is a must have for every Lionel collector and individual seeking to find their childhood train set...and the book is a bargain at ANY price. In 2001, the author, John Schmid, purchased internal, long-lost records from the Lionel archives for over $43,000. It took him five years to compile these records and photograph 100s of Lionel train sets into this unbelievable book value. This book contains all NEW information you will NOT find anywhere else.

The book details over 700 of Lionel's most mysterious train sets (outfits), the ones it made exclusively for retailers and promotional firms. Names we're all familiar with: Sears, Wards, Penneys, Spiegel, Quaker Oats, S&H, Western Auto, etc. Since these "special" sets never appeared in a Lionel catalog, NONE the them have been fully documented before. Individuals and collectors have spent years trying to find out the value and contents of these long lost train sets. Now, thanks to John's painstaking research and beautiful photographs, everybody has access to this priceless information.

The "Authoritative Guide..." provides everything that came in a train set, how many were made, who the trains were sold to, substitutions of items, pricing for the train set, pricing for the empty set box, and even how to pack the trains in its set box!

It is also much more than a book about sets, over 60 pages detail new information about the items that came with each postwar Lionel set. Stuff I never knew including how to identify different train cars, engines, boxes, instruction sheets, accessories, envelopes, trucks and couplers, etc.
Everything you ever wanted to know about what is included in a Lionel train set is provided.

As a final bonus, I was able to relive my childhood memories of the retailers my mother used to drag me to. John provides a description of each of the retailers (many no longer in business) that Lionel provided promotional sets. Yes even the US Army sold Lionel trains.

I could go on an on about how great this book is, but it is best to just buy it and see for yourself. You will not be disappointed.

One incredible source of Lionel information . . . way more than just sets. Covers promotional outfits with new information purchased from the Lionel archives. This is the first time this information has ever been published!!..."For every Lionel collector, 100s of individual item variations never before documented, a must have for any postwar collector, well worth the money". Written for all types of Lionel collectors . . . first time buyers to hard core collectors.

This book is exactly what it states in the title - "The Authoritative Guide". It surpasses any other documental guide available today because it does not only use marketplace data, rather, it uses actual Lionel data from the company archieves combined with field data to take it to the next level - a level of greater understanding of how and why these sets were created and to their scarcity and value. This book is a bargain at any price! With 848 pages and 700 outfits, it costs the same, if not less, per page, than any other guide. With this new, never before published information, the book will more than pay for itself in no time because now these previously unvalued sets have realized some serious collector values! For years collectors have been wondering what was in all those uncataloged sets Lionel produced in the '60's. Now the mysteries are solved. The volume of detail is incredible. In my 25+ years of collecting, I have never seen as much presented in one volume. Avid collectors will be conversing in terms as never before such as referring to product variations and paperwork by their stock or dash numbers instead of simply by their catalog number. Novice collectors will have the opportunity to quickly become as learned as experts that spent decades on information gathering at train meets around the country. This book will re-energize the toy train hobby and has single-handedly redefined the standard for information presentation. John Schmid's years of work on this book have certainly paid off and we should all be thankful he chose to share this information with the world. I'm already anticipating his next work, whatever it will be. In time, this book will become as much a part of Lionel history as the trains themselves. The renaissance has begun. Well done!

I couldn't out this book down! Allee is a down to earth girl who gets swept into the wonderland of modeling. Her smart observations make her journey a joy to share, and the details of the modeling world are truly fascinating. Fischer tells a story that is fresh and satisfying, giving readers a strong character to root for every step of the way!

...in a lot more ways than one.

Braless in Wonderland has an edgy cover and an even edgier title, sending the messages "Glitz!" and "Fashion!" and "Fiction for mean girls!" It's ironic really, because that's so not what's going on here...and yet it echoes the main themes of the book eerily well.

Debbie Reed Fischer paints a engrossing picture of a world--modeling--that I knew nothing about and felt slightly repelled by, like her protagonist Allee. I got sucked right into it along with Allee and along with her learned that appearances can be SO deceiving. Though the details about life as a model were fascinating (I will never again look at a chicken cutlet in quite the same way), it was Allee's growth and journey through that life that made it so wonderful, and Allee's discovery that feminism can have many meanings that is important here.

Read this book. Fun and entertaining? Abso-freaking-lutely. Thoughtful and thought-provoking? Even more so. It deserves all five of those stars.

Not only is Debbie Reed Fischer a fantastic person, but she is also an amazing author. I read this entire book in one night, including under the covers with a booklight since I just could not put it down. I love this book and know everyone else will too.

I have to say that when I started to read this book I figured it would take me a few days even a week to complete. But that was not the case. I am not the target audience as I am much older than the teens it is targeted for but I have to say it brought me back to my own Teen and early 20's. The cast of characters and the backdrop of South Beach were on the mark. Debbie Fischer keeps you constantly wanting to turn the page and see what else is going to happen. My favorite character happened to be the grandma and I can only imagine if she is taken from a real life family member. The book touches on all facets of a young womans life and what decisions she has to make as well as proving who she is to her peers. I actually finished it in an afternoon and look forward to other publications from this author. Here is to taking me back to vacations and party days in South Beach. Every girl dreams of becoming a model and Debbie Fischer allows us to see that we all have a path it just sometimes takes longer than others to find it.

Did you know that models practice smiling with their tongue behind their teeth to hide the dreaded black space? It's something that Allee Rosen would never have thought of as she stuffed rolls of toilet paper into her backpack for her art project.

Allee's headed to Yale to be an English Literature major. Yale! Or so she thought. She finds out her rocket scientist dad failed to save enough money for the prestigious school. So, for now, she's finishing her senior year of high school, working at Wal-Mart, and trying to decide whether or not to give in to her dad and go the University of Florida to major in something sensible, like science or business. Yuck.

Her life changes the day she takes her sister, Sabrina, to the mall for a modeling agency's talent search. Instead of signing Sabrina, aka "The Fluff," they want Allee! The brainiac. The feminist. The total opposite of a girly-girl. Allee knows this is crazy. She doubts it's even legit. But it's an offer she can't refuse. It could mean earning the extra money to get to Yale.

Following a dream-like trip to Miami to meet the owner of what turns out to be a highly respectable and sought-after agency, Allee moves into an apartment for the models. Allee finds herself struggling to believe that she's actually pretty. Serious by nature, she fears she'll never be able to let loose and have fun with the camera. Will she ever get a booking? How can she compete with the beautiful, intimidating, and fiercely competitive girls she's rooming with? What the heck are chicken cutlets? And what if she makes it big? Will she choose to leave Wonderland behind and go to Yale in the fall?

BRALESS IN WONDERLAND thrusts the reader into the world of modeling. Debbie Reed Fischer zooms in to focus on the often cutthroat competition between models, the necessary obsession with weight and the risks some models will take to lose just a few more pounds, the glamour, the parties, and the clothes. Oh, the clothes! If you are even the tiniest bit interested in a modeling career, I'd suggest you pick up a copy of this book. And for those of you who think you'd never consider being a model? Just remember, neither did Allee.

Reviewed by: Cana Rensberger

I have studied and used dozens of books on the topic of competencies, and many are useful, but this is the one I return to most often. My copy of this book is ragged, dog-eared, coffee-stained, and marked by many colored tabs for quick reference. Competence at Work changed my approach to human resources, and I actually earned some national honors and recognition for innovations in assessment and workforce planning by using it as a guide. It yields an effective understanding of competencies and how to apply them in processes such as recruiting, selection, development, performance management, succession, and workforce planning.

Some insights and tools in the book are particularly valuable:

Criterion sampling:
Compare high performers to average performers in order to understand how each performance group achieves their different levels of success.

Operant measures:
Measure how people operate in the real world as opposed to how they respond to a list of multiple-choice items. It describes Behavioral Event Interviewing (BEI) as the preferred approach, but you might have to access other sources for a complete understanding of the BEI.

Competency definitions and scales:
These alone are worth the price of the book. Based on behaviors that are empirically related to performance in a wide variety of jobs, they provide a quick-start to comparing performance groups and developing competency models, and they provide a framework for both assessing and developing competencies in people.

The principles and methods outlined in this book allow one to construct and apply competency models and human resource practices that get results. If I could have only one book on human resources, it would be this one! If I could have only three, the other two would also be by Spencer: Reengineering Human Resources and Calculating Human Resource Costs and Benefits.

Lyle Spencer has written a book that is lucid, well-organized, and a concise reference on human competence. If this was history, you would know that he had been there and had not merely interviewed those who were. This is so because his work is informed by original research. Spencer begins the presentation within a framework of competence that is criterion-referenced. The competence dictionary is organized around competency clusters that are well-defined and behaviorally anchored. But theory is not left to wrestle with the reader's experience. Spencer provides the practioner with a guide that takes the user through all steps in the conduct of a competency study. Spencer closes with a set of generic competency models that the practioner can tailor to his or her client before drawing the reader's attention to the variety of applications that study data may serve. Though a bit pricey, you can purchase it with the knowledge that it will stand up well as your single source of reference.

The phrase "essential reading" is a cliché, however, this is truly essential reading for anyone seeking to understand competencies.

Not bed-time time reading; this is a technical book for HR professionals. Detailed and lucid (although the neophyte may prefer to start with something a little lighter, eg some emotional intelligence work by Goleman).

A good index and bibliography.

This book gives a comprehensive competency dictionary using behaviorally anchored rating scales for each competency. It also gives step by step guidelines on how to use the dictionary in all types of HR decision making. It is clearly written and is based on years of extensive research. Using this book eliminates the need to use expensive and dependency creating consulting services. Every HR professional should have it on their shelf. Moreover, as a training professional, if I had to choose 2 books to have on my bookshelf, I would choose this book and Performance Consulting by Dana Gaines Robinson.

This book present the components of the job competence assessment approach,including the competency dictionary, which lists, defines, and provides scoring criteria that can help you predict superior performance for most jobs,It's provided to step by step guidelines on how to use the dictionary in all types of
job.
You will understand what is competence from this book!I strongly recommendation!

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This book is so fun to read! My 9 month old baby boy loves to touch the caterpillars and turn the pages himself. The butterflys at the end of the book are a great surprise for him. Highly recommended!

My 2-year old son loves this book! He loves touching the caterpillars and then always says "OOOH!" at the end when he sees the pop-up butterflies. He never gets tired of it. Edit: he ripped out all the butterflies. They are too flimsy. But he still likes to look at the bugs on each page and touch the catepillars.

This is by far my daughter's favorite book. She immediately took a liking to it at 4-5 months, because the book has bright colors and the popup at the end excited her. She is 11 months now and gets so excited when she even sees the book. She can't wait to get to the end to see the popup butterflies. She has torn them when she tries to grab them, so I'm buying a replacement, but no other books that we have gets such a positive reaction. Whenever my daughter needs a distraction, all I have to do is pull this book out.

My son loves all these kind of books. Ladybugs, butterflies, monkeys, the stars one too. We keep searching for more like these since he loves them so much. All them are to be read each night without fail. He has started to count with me as I turn the page and he is not even 2 yet !

This book is positively awesome. The colors pop, there are lots of fun pictures to look at, and the caterpillars are fun to touch. My son, who is not yet 1 1/2, loves it. The only problem I have is the final spread, which is a pop-up page featuring butterflies. My son adores the butterflies and wants to see the final page as much as possible. He does make a special effort to be gentle with the butterflies, but they're pretty fragile. One has a bent wing now, and the wing sometimes catches on the other butterflies when we try to close the book. Other than that, though, I have no complaints. These wriggly, wiggly caterpillars are definitely welcome in our home!