Planning Books

Nick Barclay and Adrian Downes did it again! After writing their first and great guide to learning and deploying Business Scorecard Manager, these two brilliant consultants wrote the great guides to PerformancePoint Server (one for Planning and one for Monitoring and Analytics).

These books are easy to read and make the technology very approachable. Additionally, the authors collaborated very closely with the development team so you know that the content you get is true to its original intent!

Couple this with the authors first hand's experience with the product and long time expertise in this space and you get two books, which are MUST reads for anyone who wants to get started with PerformancePoint Server and with Microsoft Business Intelligence.

I have been involved in architecting and designing Microsoft based business intelligence solutions for the past 8 years. I was very excited when PerformancePoint was launched because it filled a very real need in the Microsoft BI platform. It is always a challenge to find training material when a new product is launched so Adrian and Nick's books have been released at just the right time.
I enjoyed both books(The Rational Guide To Planning with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides),The Rational Guide To Monitoring and Analyzing with Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (Rational Guides)) for the following reasons:
They are clear and simple to understand
They highlight the most important techinical and functional considerations without being too high level
They are practical and not theoretical even though the first few chapters set the scene
You don't need to be a subject matter expert to understand them
They are short so you can read them very quickly

They are great books that will allow you to get up to speed very quickly on PerformancePoint Monitoring and Analytics as well as Planning.

Excellent. Every bit as good as the co-authors' companion book, "The Rational Guide to... M&A w/ PPS. This learning guide's effectiveness is especially noteworthy in light of the completely new Performance Management (PM) sophistication that the PPS Planning Module unleashes on Microsoft Business Intelligence (BI) developers of all experience levels and, of course, the essential clarity with which this guide introduces it. Although future books will, we hope, delve deeper into specific topics (especially Integration and Business Rules), this one sets a high standard with succinct, authoritative explanations and thoughtful skill-building exercises in every major functional area. As a side-note, this book showcases to experienced performance management technologists just how much sophistication and value Microsoft has introduced into the performance management product marketplace.

PART I - INTRODUCTION: The authors begin by introducing the roles that planning and budgeting processes have been intended to play in the business environment, describing how traditional business processes and technologies have inherently limited their real-world effectiveness in terms of the tasks effecting employee workflow, data accuracy, security, and ease of use, and then explaining how each of those tasks is optimized as planning and budgeting roles integrate into a business intelligence information framework. Armed with this high level perspective, readers are mostly prepared to learn how to actually accomplish this, albeit in ways unexpected by most traditional MS BI developers. Specifically, we will now be building automatically recurring write-back mechanisms so that planning, forecasting and budgetting workflows will write-back data to data marts and, by extension, cubes. We will also be incorporating more types of data sources, not as an unfortunate alternative to good ETL, but on a planned, best-case basis as performance management work-flows require. Lastly, we will be highly leveraging Analysis Services' unary operators and account dimensions.

Before jumping into the "how to do it" section, I caution readers, and especially experienced MS Analysis Services 2005 OLAP developers, that, in light of the new PM requirements just described, PPS Planning will have you building both relational and OLAP objects in ways that are ...let's just say "unique". You might not have done it exactly this way for a traditional UDM MOLAP cube. Although your careful exploration of these unique SQL Server objects is encouraged, I suggest that you delay at least some of it until after you well-understand what PPS Planning is accomplishing. Fortunately, PPS Planning automates the vast majority of those nuances, such that readers, whether developers or power-user analysts, can quickly get productive.

PART II - INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION: In addition installation, this section introduces readers to the Planning Administration Console (PAC), wherein PPS Planning applications, model sites, role-based security and data sources are initially configured, and introduces Planning Business Modeler (PBM), wherein most of the subsequent work is completed. Notably, applications created in PPS Planning are instantiated as SQL Server 2005 relational databases, and Planning Model Sites become Analysis Services 2005 OLAP databases with completely-built cubes. As a side-bar, readers are advised, beginning at this point in the text, to take care to document usernames, roles and passwords as entered in this section and to pay extra close attention throughout the book to always login to Planning Business Modeler or the Excel Add-In with the username specified in each specific exercise.

PART III - SOLUTION DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION: Here, we dive deeper. Explanations, followed by respective exercises, covering the creation of dimensions, member sets, business models, model subsites, model security are aptly covered. Although Chapter 9, "Integrating Business Data" -- which will be the least accessible for non-SQL-heads -- provides a balanced coverage of the complex topic so that readers can progress by (carefully) following the cookbook, SQL/ETL pro's will want to decide when (not if) to dive deeper into learn this (by starting with product help files) and learn exactly how it relates to traditional ETL, which it does not replace. Analysts -- prepare for initial bewilderment. Chapter 10, "Defining Business Rules", takes the complimentary approach, without losing stride with excessive business-side detail (and thus losing the interest of ETL-oriented readers), it move readers through the simple use of business model properties, rules and rule sets. Specifically, the configuration of these business rules are close to a culmination of everything learned so far in that, in text examples, they orchestrate the relationship of data "actuals" to "budgets" and "forecasts" within models and thereby govern how budget forecasts and "what-if" analyses are smoothly integrated into a performance dashboard and/or written back into the data mart and OLAP cube without jeopardizing the sacrosanct "actuals" data. Without a doubt, it feels like a very slick way to avoid ever having to say to your DBA, "Well, we've completed our what-if analyses and thanks for the added permissions, but ehhr... we can't seem to find the actual data anymore. But you backed it up, right?" Relax, `cause it won't happen here. Of note, this chapter very briefly introduces "PerformancePoint Expression Language" (PEL), which is an MDX (multi-dimensional expression) short-hand just for PPS Planning. Although additional PEL detail would have been interesting, it would also have slowed the overall pace of learning. Again, see product help files.

The book's last written topic, in Chapter 11, is "Using the PerformancePoint Add-in for Excel". It introduces readers to PPS Planning Forms (and by extension, read-only Reports ) that performance-management users will ultimately use to assign, contribute, review, edit and approve workflow tasks associated with budgeting, forecasting and "what-if" analyses. As before, the book provides an effective, self-contained introduction which showcases some of Excel 2007's new-found sophistication, but which readers will subsequently want to build upon. As elsewhere, it's essential reading and mercifully succinct (unlike this review, I'll admit).

FOUR BONUS CHAPTERS: Although not reviewed here, they are each substantial, virtually essential, and are respectively entitled "Implementing Process Management", "Consolidating Data with Associations", "Operational and Management Reporting", and "Closing the Performance Management Loop". Conveniently, and along with all required databases and code samples, they are available online at no charge.

PREPARATION: As with the authors' "Rational ...PPS M&A" book, the best way to deploy the entire platform to readers' PC's, for learning or light-development is to download the following from Microsoft: (A) Virtual PC 2007; and (B) BI-VPC V 5.1+, which includes tons of software, including PPS 2007, MOSS 2007, SQL Server 2005 Dev Edition. Lastly, I recommend 4 GB of RAM on the machine, and strongly discourage readers' from trying to use the BI-VPC with under 2GB RAM.

For all of the above reasons, this book is highly recommended!

It won't answer every possible question, but it answers the most important ones like:

-Does this apply to me?
-Is there a way to pay less taxes in Situation A?
-What are the tax implications of buying/selling/renting?

It's a handbook so you don't need to read front to back, just hit the sections of interest. I kept mine around to refer to and FOR tax time. I had some complex questions about calculating partial years' ownership for selling multiple personal residences within 2 years and it gave me everything I needed to arrange a tax plan. Always double checked w/accountant, but good to go.

Getting smart on taxes is the #1 way to improve your investment returns on real estate. This book is worth the investment.

This book is not meant to be read cover-to-cover. It would take a very patient and determined reader to go through every example and exception and tax detail. However, it is in these details that this book stands out. The language used is straightforward, the examples are well thought-out and realistic. Use the book more like a reference - go directly to the chapter related to your intended transaction; the chapters are quite self-contained.

I believe this book is a necessary addition to any real-estate investor's library. Spending 30 minutes reviewing the chapter related to your contemplated real-estate transaction will fill you with ideas for suitable tax strategies.

This Third Edition is a great book for all real estate investors, whether yoa are an agent or not. In fact I think that is more valuable for the knowledgeable investor. The author is a CPA and real estate broker, who has written a marvelous book relating the Federal Tax code to real estate applications. There are chapters on Personal Residence Exclusion of $250,000/$500,000, Capital Gains, and Installment Sales. you will find detail in this book that is not present in any other tax book for real estate investors.

There are 4 chapters on the Section 1031 Like Kind exchange alone. There are also 4 chapters on the Passive Loss Rules. In addition there are other chapters on Home Mortgage Deduction, Depreciation, and the Home Office. The text is easy to read and very informative. There are lots of Tips throughout all the chapters advising the reader of good things to do as well as inadvisable tactics. Dealer Status is covered all too briefly in my opinion, as I would have liked to seen more on that subject. I would also have liked to seen more on corporations and there is no mention of Limited Liability Companies. But despite these shortcomings the book is excellent and covers the topics in good detail. This is obviously a dry subject and reading the manuals and guidelines can sometimes give one a headache. But with this book no aspirin is needed. This book is a must for any serious real estate investor, whether you do your taxes yourself or hire a professional. This book should be required reading before you get your real estate investor secret decoder ring.

This 3rd edition of Vern Hoven's book is an excellent reference for real estate brokers and agents. I have given it as a Christmas present to all my agents. I have also alerted a client to a potential tax problem his CPA overlooked, but I recognized as a result of reading this book.

I have used this tax guide as the main reference in writing a continuing education course on the subject of IRS section 1031 tax deferred exchanges. Vern does the most thorough job of covering this subject that I have read.

Vern covers the timing and consequence of most real estate transactions. He also covers personal tax consequences, such as "office-in-home" rules, which apply to real estate agents.

I recomemnd this book highly in all the real estate courses I teach and sometimes use it as a prize in classroom games. Whether you are a real estate investor or agent you should read this book and keep it near your desk.

Reclaiming the Commons is an excellent read for anyone interested in the natural history of New England, community farming, open space issues, and the value of farms in the landscape. This is a well written, thoughtful book that offers an inspiring vision for a future of locally produced food, protected farmland, and community involvement that farms help to create.

OUTSTANDING!Very impressive! Pointed, engaging, and inspiring from the get-go. And extraordinarily well-written -- my innate and involuntary tendency to mentally edit anything I'm reading was off in another county someplace.

This book,written by a newcomer in the environmental landscape, will become a landmark. It points the way to transform the suburban way of life into one that is sustainable.This it would do by converting suburban open spaces into community sanctuaries for agriculture,husbandry and forestry, administered by suburbanites themselves,especially by their youngsters.The great strength of the proposals is that they have been demonstrated to work by the author and his associates in the upscale Boston suburb of Weston. Another plus is the grace and humor with which the book is blessed.

In Reclaiming the Commons, Brian Donahue has given us a remarkable portrait of a thriving community farm in Weston, Massachusetts called Land's Sake. In 1980 the nonprofit organization Land's Sake was formed in Weston, a suburb of Boston, to work closely with the town's Conservation Commission on managing and using the town's growing public land. Its three founding principles were to care ecologically for Weston's land, to involve the community and especially young people with the land, and to be as self-supporting as possible through the sale of products and services. By thinking of the land as a rural space that could "benefit from our presence, rather than need to be protected from us," they opened the possibility that they could engage suburban youth with the land and produce high-quality natural products for local sale, offering ample educational and recreational activities while striking "a balance between protecting natural ecosystems and making sustainable, productive use of the land."

Land's Sake sends about one-fifth of their fresh organic produce to Boston's homeless shelters and food pantries, as well as sponsoring a Harvest for Hunger every September, thus ensuring that their surplus finds an assured wholesale market (the town pays the price to send the food to the inner city) which benefits the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the nearby urban areas. Donahue shows that suburbia "is the condition of residing outside the city proper with little functional connection to one's neighbors, aside from the schools, and almost no functional connection to the land," and he shows that community farms on common land offer a vibrant opportunity to keep farmland from being lost to development, and to transform the suburban condition from alienation to connection. This is a surprisingly powerful and exciting book that will show suburban and city readers how to become more connected to their land and to their source of food.

I have struggled my entire marriage with disabling feelings of shame, guilt regarding sex. In counseling I was able to use this book to pin-point the specific things that were bothering me, and with specific information I was able to approach my husband in a way that he was able to understand that he wasn't to blame and to change his methods to be supportive to my healing. We're both committed to life-long marriage, but this book may have saved our relationship.

Men who are loooking to give their spouces fullfilment in all aspects need to read this. It has helped us in our mariage.

My wife and I have used this book in working with the Penners and were able to transform our sex life from having problems to a fun filled and exciting time that has brought us much closer
together in our total marriage

This book is very thorough and offers great step by step guides to enhancing sexual intimacy among married couples with many biblical references. Great book and unbelievable resource. Still a work in progress.

This book had all the basic info to construct a bautiful wedding...It showed how the era evolved and included helpful ideas.

This book is not for brides only. It is for everyone who would like to recapture the romance of a Victorian wedding. It has beautiful pictures, great ideas and resources.

There is something old for those who want to learn about the actual customs, traditions, fashions, and etiquette of Victorian weddings, and there is something new for those who want to plan a wedding now in the romantic Victorian tradition. And for those who enjoy the pure romance of it all, there is a chapter on notable Victorian weddings, those that were impressive then as well as now, beginning with that of the one who started it all, Queen Victoria. This is a beautiful book from beginning to end.

This book has everything the lover of romance and Victoriana could ask for! It is full of helpful historical information as well as practical advice that can be used for a beautiful wedding in the Victorian theme.

I absolutely loved this best. I love the victorian era and this book let you see how it all began. It talks about the courtship that lead up to the marriage of Victoria and Albert. What was worn, what the bride carried, proper ettiquete, the decorations, how the families were involved. There is also tips on how you can have a victorian wedding. I used quite a bit of resources from this book for my own victorian wedding. It also has great colord pictures.

This is a good book. It covers lots of ideas. I really enjoy reading it.

As a Kindergarten teacher it is often hard for me to find cross cultural lessons that are developmentally appropriate for my students. This book provides many chapters on the rationale for introducing culturally relevant curriculum into your classroom. More importantly, it gives numerous activities and instructions on how to do so. I wish I would have read it sooner.

Roots and wings is a fantastic book. I really recomened to everybody to read it. It is a very good view to learn more respect for different culteres, races, religions, and so forth.

This book is a must have for current and future teachers. The author does a good job of presenting detailed information on Multicultural education. If you are not sure what Multicultural education is or how to include it in the classroom, this book will help you through. It includes over 60 pages of activities you can do with children that support culture,as well as suggestions on how to change the classroom environment to be multiculturally supportive. The book also gives background information on how children develop and how predjudice is formed. In a society that is so diverse, children need to learn to accept and value differences. Teachers have the very important job of teaching children tolerance and can get a good start after reading this wonderful book.

The photography is spectacular as always with Roses books. I just made my first recipe from the book: Lavender Ice Cream on pg 93 and came across a discrepancy that I hope does not echo throughout the entire tome. The first one is the fact that you're to use a SMALL saucepan and stir the yolks (5.25 ozs), part of the sugar and salt and add 32 ozs. of hot cream/milk to this mixture. A small saucepan is usually 1 qt to 1-1/2 qts and too small for a recipe this size. In addition, the lavender does not get strained as is shown in the photo. In terms of visuals and texture, it doesn't get high marks, although the flavor is absolutely heavenly. I would suggest steeping the lavender in the hot cream/milk, making the creme anglaise and then straining the entire thing. Since this is my first recipe, it would be unfair to rate all the recipes as problematic. The recipes do seem very good.

I love Rose Levy Beranbaum's cookbooks, but this one is one of her best! The recipes are explained in full detail, with tips on how to avoid the most common problems. There are gorgeous full color photos and well thought out serving ideas. The recipes are all wonderful, especially the chocolate orange cheesecake, lamb osso buco, graavlax, cookies, and of course her beautifully decorated cakes. The book also includes staple recipes, and listings of where to buy some of the more exotic ingredients and suggestions for those that are less daring. An all around wonderful cookbook

`Rose's Celebrations' by noted author of authoritative `Bibles' on baking cakes, pastries, and bread, Rose Levy Beranbaum has all the appearances of a `throwaway book, given its picture laden cover, oversized format, and the author's aforementioned expertise in baking rather than in savory cooking.

While the book has some limitations as a source of savory recipes, it has many virtues that should appeal to most foodies and amateur cooks.

The very first virtue is Ms. Beranbaum's enthusiasm for cooking and baking of all sorts. Her genuine love of culinary arts and her ability to communicate this passion in words is unmatched, in my opinion, by all but Julia Child, Rick Bayless (see `Rick and Lanie's Excellent Kitchen Adventures'), and Grace Young (see `Breath of a Wok'). I'm not saying there are not lots of great cookbook writers, it's just that Ms. Beranbaum seems to be able to draw one into her culinary world with an unrivaled attraction. For starters, she has one of the very best descriptions of the differences between baking and savory cooking. Everyone who has read a book on baking knows that measurements are much more important in baking than in savory cooking. What is less evident is that this doesn't mean savory cooking is easier. It means that the skills of constant triage needed to monitor the progress of savory cooking require just as much, if not more practical experience to get right. Add to this the variability of meats and vegetables when compared to the high level of uniformity among flours, sugars, butter, and eggs and you start to see that there is more to expert savory cooking than may meet the eye. And this from a baker.

The ability to share her enthusiasm is oddly paired with a highly technical approach to recipes, both savory and baked. As with her baking recipes, many measurements are given in multiple units, by volume, by metric weight, and by Imperial units' weight. This means that the units most familiar to the average amateur are here, but if you happen to be in a position where you have to multiply a recipe by two or four or eight, the weights make this very easy. I also give Ms. Beranbaum high marks for admitting to rounding off the Imperial to metric conversions. I have seen very good cookbook writers have close to 20% discrepancies between Imperial and metric weights or volumes with nary a word of warning.

This level of detail in various units means that this is an excellent book for a caterer. As it happens to be a series of recipes for holidays, the utility to caterers and large-scale entertainers is doubled. This is the only book other than Martha Stewart's classic `Entertaining' which gives good resources for cooking for a crowd of any size. That is, this is the only non-baking book for the amateur that fits this bill. I have seen expensive books for professionals which do this, but they are expensive and not friendly to a non-professional reader.

This book is divided into the four seasons and within each season there are sets of recipes for entertaining various events.

The major events for Winter are New Year's Eve, Washington's Birthday (dessert only), Winter Dinner for Friends and St. Patrick's Day. Spring events are Easter, Passover, and Mother's Day plus miscellaneous dishes for a spring luncheon and a wedding shower. Summer events are Father's Day, Fourth of July, Birthdays, and Labor Day. Fall events are Columbus Day, Halloween (dessert only), Election Day (dessert only), Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and Christmas. A very special bonus is recipes for Glace de Viande and Glace de Volaille (Beef and Poultry Essences or glazes).

The book also contains an alternate table of dishes by type / principle ingredient which identifies dishes of Beverages, Breads, Soups and Stocks, Sauces, Beef, Lamb, Poultry and so on. You get the idea.

If, like me, your main interest is simply collecting good cookbooks and gleaning good ideas from them, this book is definitely a winner. One of the more interesting items I found was a merging of the principles of a court bouillon and a buerre blanc. Ms Beranbaum poached fish in a simple wine, vinegar, shallots, herbs, and oyster liqueur bouillon, then reduced the poaching liquid and added butter to create the buerre blanc. I may want to ask Miss Rose if she possibly forgot to mention anything about straining the chopped shallots from the reduction before adding the butter, but the idea is still a great `two birds with one stone' method.

In looking over her Italian based recipes, you may not want to discard your Marcella Hazan or Mario Batali recipes for these, but they do have some novel ideas, such as the addition of Angostura bitters to the spaghetti (tomato) sauce.

If you are especially fond of formal entertaining more than four people at a time, this may be the best source of recipes you will find. It does not cover as broad a range of events as, for example, Sheila Lukins' `Celebrate', but the recipes are much more impressive for formal occasions.

To make the book a really good resource, it probably should have been about twice this size with better coverage of many events, but at a list price of only $25 and the likelihood of a good discount, I recommend this book as a great `sleeper' find for foodies, culinary readers, and entertainers.

This is a colorful, well-illustrated cookbook with recipes for many kinds of celebrations. The recipes I've tried work well and are delicious, and the author's obsessively detailed style makes it easy to follow her recipes. It is worth trying to find this book.

This book is definitely a must-read for everyone, martial artist or not. It reads fairly quickly, and is one you'll want to read again. Each of the '42...secrets' are life-lessons. They give you insight into the time when Samurai lived, and explains how the lesson applied then and how it applies now. We all have something to learn from their code of Honor, and this book can help everyone.

THE BOOK of FIVE RINGS (Go Rin No Sho) - Summarised!!

I really can not emphasise enough how BRILLIANT this version of The Book of Five Rings is. Most other translations of "Miyamoto Musashi's" book are long and hard to understand, or more precisely, you can read it, understand the words easily enough, but the meaning and the important LIFE saving lessons don't come though very well......

......but this book by Boye De Lafayette Mente is just so well written and laid out. He breaks down all the lessons from "Musashi" into small chapters. Once you've read the book a couple of times all you need to do is just look at the chapter headings for a quick refresher & apply these skills to your life.

THIS IS NOT JUST A BOOK FOR BUDO or MARTIAL ARTISTS!! It's for everyone. Musashi devoted & sacrificed his whole life into discovering how we should live successfully & conduct ourselves. He was the very best swordsman in Japan of his time, never once was he defeated (or even cut). This was all down to his unique approach to his fighting, from the lessons he learnt during duals he was asked at the end of his life to summarise and tell the world how he became so successful.

This really is a cracking book. It takes the "The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi" and summarises it (in plain easy to read & understandable English) into 42 easy to follow and understandable chapters & steps.

It can be easily read in a day or two, but its best if it's RE-READ a couple of times at least 'though. It gets straight to the point. Each chapter is dealt with in just a page or three.

Apply these important principles to your life and work, as well as to your chosen Martial Art. Samurai Secrets may have been a better title perhaps?

Do look out for Boye Lafayette de Mente's other titles. His style of writing is very easy going and precise. He makes the subject matter easy to absorb and understand.

For example try "The Japanese Samurai Code" and Enjoy!! If you buy the actual translation of "The Book of Five Rings" then Thomas Cleary's version I think is the best. I say this as there are many translations of the same book and most are in the old classical direct translation style and not easy (for me anyway) to digest.

I really am so surprised that there are no other reviews raving about this translation of this version of the Book of Five Rings.

You really WON'T be disappointed!!

Musashi Miyamoto was a famous Japanese warrior who lived from 1584 to 1645 who recorded his philosophy, strategies and tactics in a short treatise just before his death. Samurai Strategies: Forty-Two Martial Secrets From Musashi's Book Of Five Rings by Boye Lafayette de Mente adapts Musashi's military precepts and martial arts ideals to the modern world of business. Swiftly carrying readers through the philosophical issues faced in business procedures and identifying the most effective premise from which to work, Samurai Strategies draws from Miyamoto's philosophy and is very highly recommended reading for corporate executives and entrepreneurs for it's conceptual approach to life lessons learned in ancient theaters of war and directly applicable to modern business practices.

I am very glad to have found this book.

My first encounter with the life story of Miyamoto Musashi, Japan's most renowned combat strategist, was in the early 80's when I started to work for a large heavy & construction equipment conglomerate, which dealt primaily with Japanese principals & their products. For the first time in my life, I was introduced to Japanese management culture, & the first 'Japanese' book I read was 'The Book of Five Rings', translated by a Victor Harris, a mechanical engineer like me.

Coming back to today: The author of this particular book is quite right. Miyamoto Musashi's original work was written for samurai warriors who are steeped into Buddhlist & Shinto precepts, in the code of the samurai, in the long traditions of the samurai, & in allusions that were part of the culture of the times. Like Japanese artists who leave it up to readers to complete their work, Miyamoto Musashi left it up to readers of his work to fill in the details of his allusions & advice from their own store of knowledge.

Henceforth, it wasn't easy for me to read 'The Book of Five Rings.' It took me quite a while to figure out the essence, digest the work & eventually managed to distill about ten strategies which I could understand & apply in my own sphere of work.

In this particular book, the author has attempted to identify & explain, in plain English, the philosophy, the strategy, & the ways of winning that Miyamoto Musashi sought to pass on to his disciples. The original work is about how to fight duels to the death & win! The author has made the fighting principles equally applicable to winning in business, & in virtually all other endeavours. In fact, he has elegantly distilled them all down to 42 strategies (compared to my original ten strategies)!!!

The author's writing is almost straight-talk, & in easy-to-understand language. I would even recommend all teens to read it in order to achieve a quick headstart in life, as the 42 strategies are also applicable in studies & in sports.

Interestingly, the Book of Five Rings is, in Miyamoto Musashi's own words, "a guide for men who want to learn strategy."

In life, eveything is possible. It is just a question of strategy.

On the whole, this is excellent work. It therefore deserves a rating of 5 from me.

This is a very direct account of what I should have been doing for the past 10 years. It would have saved me a lot of money and left me in a position to retire. Instead, I did what everyone else does and put off the planning that my financial life so desperately needed.

I read this book and was shocked. Not only at how simple the author has made it to think strategically, but also at the mistakes I have been repeating over time.

A book worth its weight in gold!

Great book. Very understandable and insightful.

Condensed many topics into this easy to read book. It really makes me think.

Liked this book very much.

The Scarcest Commodity is very easy to read, and really got me thinking about the mistakes I have been making.

Not only did it make me examine my mistakes, but also motivated me to take action towards managing my finances with an emphisis towards someday retiring.

School Crisis Survival Guide by mental health counselor Suni Petersen and Ronald L. Straub provides hundreds of guidelines, strategies, and working plans for counselors and teachers to help students in grades K-12 to deal with any manner of crisis or tragedy from personal loss, tragic accidents, and terminally ill classmates, to incidents of suicide, violence, and natural disasters. School Crisis Survival Guide address why every school needs a crisis plan and how to form a crisis team; provides step-by-step instructions for developing and administering a crisis plan custom designed to fit a schools particular need, ranging from setting up a student counseling program to dealing with media, to preparing memorial services; offers in-depth information on the impact of crisis and death on faculty and students of all ages, and the necessity of dealing with "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder"; lists a wide variety of individual and group activities for all age groups with respect to the different stages of traumatic reaction; and even presents specific ways for handling such common yet unpredictable events as suicide, and the associated trauma and grief that violence, death, and natural disaster will leave in their wake. No public or private grade school, junior high, or high school counseling department can afford to be without their own reference copy of School Crisis Survival Guide.

I recently purchased this book in "used" condition from the bookseller booksbyjoe.com. The book arrived within three working days and in perfect condition. I recommend this book for all new school psychologists, or school administrators who must be aware and prepared for the events that may occur on their school campuses.

As a school crisis coordinator, I used this book a number of years ago to write a crisis response plan for a school. As a presentor at conferences, both at state and national level, I often recommend this book to individuals who have the responsibility to write a crisis response plan or to provide intervention during times of crisis. I was pleased when it was again made available after being out of print. Thank you.

As a school crisis coordinator, I used this book a number of years ago to write a crisis response plan for a school. As a presentor at conferences, both at state and national level, I recommend this book to individuals who have the responsibility to provide intervention during times of crisis. I was pleased when it was again made available after being out of print. Thank you.