Associations Books

I am a psychiatrist in training and I really find this book helpful in understanding the concepts of family therapy.

I am a psychiatrist in training and I really find this book helpful in understanding the concepts of family therapy.

Here in a single volume is an abundance of basic information and sound counsel which will be especially helpful to those involved in business development for small-to-midsize organizations. (I use the word "organizations" because non-profits as well as for-profits obviously need to increase revenue while strengthening relations with various constituencies.) Don't expect to find any cutting-edge thinking here. Because the material is basic, however, don't think that Luther has little of value to offer to marketing, sales, and other customer service professionals with many years of experience. He organizes the material within five Parts:

The Role of Marketing Within a Business

Decisions to Be Made Before Developing Your Marketing Plan

Developing Your Brand Personality

Developing Your Marketing Plan

Feedback: Using Controls and Market Research to Complete the Loop

Luther then provides three excellent appendices: A Marketing Plan Outline, Thirty-Eight Market Characteristics, and Explanation of the What-If Sales Model. I highly recommend this book to owners/managers of chain franchises (e.g. dry cleaners, quick-print shops, and even fast food restaurants) as well as to independent insurance agents, sole practicioner attorneys, and others selling goods or services who generally neglect business development among their clientele within their local community. Presumably Luther understands that much of his material will not be directly relevant to a given reader. To his credit, he provides more material than most readers need. It remains for each reader to determine which ideas and initiatives are most appropriate. I think all readers will benefit from the disciplined thinking which Luther advocates throughout the planning, implementation, evaluation, and modification process. Those who wish to explore additional resources are urged to check out Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination (a "classic"), Al Ries and Jack Trout's Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind (another" classic"), Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling (another "classic", especially for those selling big ticket items), Jacques Werth's High Probability Selling: Re-Invents the Selling Process, Dan Seidman's The Death of 20th Century Selling: 50 Hilarious Sales Blunders and How You Can Profit from Them, and Carl Sewell's Customers for Life: How to Turn That One-Time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer...

I liked this book because it got straight to the point. He provides a through plan for your marketing plan. It interrelates all the departments that are affected by what marketing is doing. Ultimately, if you were going to present this plan to C-level management you would get their support. It shows that Marketing has worked with other departments to make a plan that the whole company can buy into.

I highly recommend it to someone that knows marketing but needs guidelines for putting together an effective plan.

"Mastering the Reimbursement Process is the single best source for the physician, medical office staff, or others to get a comprehensive understanding of health insurance, claims submission, and the follow-up necessary to get paid by third parties." - Michael T. Myers, Jr, MD, MBA, Director, Health Care Regulatory Group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP

With Medicare compliance and false claim risks increasing, this is a wonderful guide for Physicians and those who bill for them.

I want to recommend this book to anyone who has diabetes or is involved with someone who has it for the very simple reason that it makes understanding the disease and what to do about it something that everyone can read.

The no-nonsense approach spells out just what is going on, why it is happening and how you can easily take back control of your life and your health. The writing of the book takes the guess work out of understanding where other books I've read seem to go to deeply into the science of the problems without relating them to everyday experience.

If you are in this situation and you need someone to talk plainly to you about it, give this book a try. Ithink you will be glad you did.

Janette Kirkham's Mastering Your Diabetes Before Diabetes Masters You tells how to manage the many emotional and practical aspects, from learning about new terminology and avoiding complications to understanding treatment options. Exceptionally handy for daily living.

I tremendously enjoyed reading about the young players that are ready to challenge just about everyone on the PGA tour! I read the book yesterday , just before watching Duval battle it out w/ Tom Lehman- with the other guys just behind him- TIGER, and Leonard! This is a great , fun book to check out!

Masters Of The Millennium tells the story of how "twenty-something" players Justin Leonard, David Duval, Tiger Woods, and Phil Mickelson are changing the way the game of golf is played as they etch their names onto the leaderboards week after week. These superstar golfers are electrifying galleries on stops all over the tour, and taking the tradition-filled game of golf to an entirely new audience that had not previously followed golf as passionately as they do now. Masters Of The Millennium provides insights from these young players and enables the reader to learn how they respect the players that walked the fairways before them, and why they hold the future of the game into the new millennium. Masters Of The Millennium is "must" reading for all fans and players of the game of golf.

This book can be enjoyed by a lay person. It requires no special previous knowledge. It is just plane fun as well as interesting and in some ways novel. Gardner is a good writer and will keep your interest. I have seen a number of books on math puzzles and games, this one was the best I had seen when I first saw it. (since then I read other Gardner books that surpass this in, at least, volume.) If you are curious at all you will like it.

On first thought, one would expect a circus that lacks clowns and elephants to be dull, dull, dull, but in this case that thought is wrong, wrong, wrong. The difference is of course in the quality of the ringmaster. From the first sound of "step right up folks," to when the lights fade out in the bigtop, one is led from one exciting ring to another. For the author does what all accomplished circus acts do, he makes the difficult seem easy.
This material, like that of many of his books, originally appeared in the "Mathematical Games" column of Scientific American. Some of the puzzles explored here are optical illusions, eccentric chess, patterns of induction, dominoes, and matches. Along the way he also discusses artificial intelligence, the solar system, and the abacus. And all are of course in his simplistic, yet complete style that has made him a favorite for nearly forty years.
If you are a fan of Martin Gardner, you have probably already read this book. If you are unfamiliar with his work, then change that state at the first opportunity. You will be glad you did.

Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.

This books contains a large collection of competition problems that will help anyone preparing for a competition succeed. Topics vary from geometry, to algebra and number theory and to combinatorics...a jewel for those high school students preparing themselves for a major league competition. A must have for national trainers.

This is a dream book for 3 kinds of people:

Anyone who is (has been) seriously practice(d) the mathematics contest. Any teacher/professer who tried(or is tring) to train students. Anyone who loves the intriguing mathematical problems and know the deep joy of solving problems.

This book contains more then 20 national MO problem-sets in 1998/1999 from around the world, as well as some missalaneous regional contest problems. For 1998's there are full solutions for each problem, while for 1999's there are only problems. It is obviously the next issue will be 1999/2000, with solutions for 1999 and problems for 2000. I hope this series will go on and on.

I must say that this book is never for the young adults but for those who love solving and appreciating mathematics problems.

This is a really well written, and well thought out biography of Matt Kenseth. Every Matt Kenseth fan should enjoy this book. The only thing I could possibly complain about would be that it ended too soon, hopefully there's a sequel in a few years telling us about his "Cup Championship"...

The author of this book is Kelley Maruszewski, Matt Kenseth's sister (and also Matt Kenseth Fan Club head honcho). This easy to read book is packed with pictures and stories of Matt's career from his earliest days in Wisconsin to his most recent Winston Cup victory in Las Vegas. It's lovingly written from the perspective only a close family member could share. It's a worthy addition to the library of any Matt Kenseth or Nascar fan!

I gave this book to a friend who lost his wife to cancer and needed to talk to his children about ways to cope and remember her. The family read the story together many times and it helped to guide his discussion with his children. The story is great and the artwork is engaging for children. This book should be on the shelf of every physician, psychologist, or healthcare professional who deals with children who must cope with the loss of a parent. In fact, you can never tell when a client may lose someone important to them and this boook provides concrete strategies for helping children deal with loss.

When her father died, young Samantha Jane lost her smile. She feels such sadness because she misses her father so very much. Sammy Jane is also now worried about her mother and whether or not they can ever be happy again. Is it right to feel happy when her father can't be with her to enjoy what life has to offer? Deftly co-authored by Julie Kaplow and Donna Pincus, and very nicely illustrated with the artwork of Beth Spiegel, "Samantha Jane's Missing Smile: A Story About Coping With The Loss Of A Parent" will gently guide young readers and their families through the feelings, thoughts, and wishes that young children aged 4 to 8 experience when a parent dies and provides them with helpful tools for overcoming their natural and inevitable grief associated with such great loss. Simply put, "Samantha Jane's Missing Smile" should be a part of every elementary school and community library collection because every school and every community will, from time to time, have children who have lost a parent and stand in need of what Sammy Jane has to share with them.

Oh, what a help this book would have been when I was a library director. It's tough trying to convey to city commissioners, city managers and other funding entities what the value is for library services. (VA)
"This book is designed to serve large to medium-sized public libraries, gives librarians the tools to conduct a defensible and credible cost-benefit analysis (CBA). This hands-on reference covers the economic basics with librarian-friendly terms and examples, preparing library leaders to collaborate with economist-consultants." (summary by South TX Library System)
Here's what the book covers:
1. Introduction to Cost-Benefit Analysis for Public Libraries
2. Cost-Benefit Analysis Fundamentals
3. Important Considerations Before Commissioning a CBA Study
4. Preparing to Measure Benefits
5. Measuring Library Benefits: Identifying and Sampling Library Users
6. Measuring Library Benefits: Preparing the Survey Instruments
7. Measuring Library Costs
8. Measuring Return to Taxpayer and Donor Investment in Your Library
9. Wrapping Up Your Study: Communicating Your CBA Findings
10. Conclusions: Evaluating What Your CBA Study Accomplished
Appendix A. Measuring Consumer Surplus by Using Contingent Market Purchases or Rentals of Substitute Goods: A Technical Appendix for Economists
Appendix B. Sampling Cardholders
Appendix C. Survey Instruments
Appendix D. Calculating and Reporting Survey Response Rates
Appendix E. Technical Insights for the Project Consultants
Glossary
Bibliography

Written by the research team of Donald S. Elliot, Glen E. Holt, Sterling W. Hayden and Leslie Edmonds Holt, who spent more than a decade developing, testing, and refining their methodologies, Measuring Your Library's Value: How To Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis for Your Public Library is a straightforward guide for any librarian under pressure to quantify the value of benefits provided to the public. Written in librarian-friendly terminology, chapters cover "Important Considerations Before Commissioning a Cost-Benefit Analysis Study", "Measuring Library Benefits: Identifying and Sampling Library Users", "Preparing the Survey Instruments", "Measuring Return to Taxpayer and Donor Investment in the Library", and much more. Step-by-step instructions, examples, charts, walkthroughs of mathematical calculations and their principles, numerous appendices including sample survey forms, and much more round out this first-rate guide for any library professional especially in today's era of tightening budgets and higher demands of accountability from public services.