Adam Books

Great resource to get ready for the Peds section of the step 2 exam. I was impressed with the depth of discussion on each case that the author somehow managed to trim down to one page. Excellent photos as well. Well-written and definitely very high yield.

Loved this book and the whole series. Great way to review, because this is how the boards are - lots of long clinical vignettes where you have to know not only the diagnosis and treatment, but how to manage it over time. Concise, high yield and easy to understand. Great photos as well. Definitely check this series out.

As a future peds resident, I wanted to do well on the peds boards questions and this book was a big help. The cases are written so you can guess the diagnosis before reading about it on the next page. Well-written with very good explanations and good photos (I finally know what the thumb sign of epiglottitis and an impetigo rash look like!)
;]
Highly recommend.

Faith Ralston's new book "Play Your Best Hand," expertly tells on how leaders, managers, and career professionals everywhere can maximize the use of their own talents and the talents of the people they supervise. It's a nifty, slightly undersized book designed to resemble a guide to playing poker. If you ever wanted to understand how to make it in the is world, here is the ultimate playbook!

Play Your Best Hand is a breakthrough book for anyone who leads a team of knowledge workers. The author clearly articulates what these new breed of workers want and don't want from their leaders. This knowledge alone is invaluable.

Ralston also shatters old management paradigms focused on improving weaknesses. Instead she gives compelling advice and practical guidance to leaders on how they can best leverage their teams' and employees' natural talents.

According to Ralston, there are four basic talent types:
- Diamonds are the innovators who challenge the status quo and see opportunities.
- Hearts are the motivators who gain commitment, build trust & resolve conflicts.
- Clubs are the activators who get things going, set up systems and initiate change.
- Spades are the implementors who manage/improve processes and handle the details.

Other key points covered in Play Your Best Hand include: 1) Each talent has its "flip side" when overused. 2) There are natural conflicts inherent between certain talent types and 3) Organizations need ALL talent types to be successful.

This book is filled with ideas on how to maximize your employees' strengths, deal with talent differences, address performance issues and create a winning team. Best of all, Ralston knows she's writing for busy leaders so she nets it out in her very easy-to-read, conversational style.

Jill Konrath, author of Selling to Big Companies

Play Your Best Hand is a tremendous resource whether you're planning your first career, climbing the corporate ladder, leading a team, or growing your entrepreneurial business. If you have lost track of your talent or maybe never quite knew it in the first place, you'll be back on track within a few pages, ready to turn your strengths into productive and fulfilling action! Faith Ralston has put together a book that I'll go back to many times.

The DVD of the Power of Nightmares was recently released.

The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis


This is a great documentary, recommended to anyone interested in getting a grasp of today's world.

This is essential viewing for all Americans . It lays bare the myth of a so-called war on terror. Pieces of this have made the rounds on the web and in the internet archive and its release officially by the BBC is long overdue. What American journalism should have been doing from 2001 on.

This three-part series is remarkable in it's scope and depth. It shows the parallel development of radical Islamic forces and neo-conservatives and goes into the fascinating and chilling details that show how the neo-conservatives actually fueled terrorism and oppressed citizens (well over 600 in America and Britain) with false charges. This is very well-researched, it is definitely not an opinion piece. There are many clips from interviews of insiders as well as plenty of footage from news events and speeches. This directly addresses many myths, from how Russia fell (with neocons and Islamic fundamentalists taking credit for it), to how charges against citizens (including many people in the middle east) were trumped up in a fear-driven witch-hunt. It ends with how blatantly people are being arrested because they might commit a crime, and the consequences of this approach to society. If all you've seen is American news, this will be like finding out that Santa Claus doesn't exist. There is abundant information to show that most of the terrorist threat is a fabrication. The part about neo-cons believing CIA propaganda even after CIA TOLD them it was false was shocking.

This book is an outstanding reference for the primary care pediatrician in office practice. It is much better oriented to day-to-day pediatrics than Nelson's and its imitators. The CD-ROM is very useful and easy to navigate. As a bonus, the CD-ROM contains all of the excellent illustrations for Zitelli & Davis' superb Atlas of Pediatric Physical Diagnosis.

This book is an outstanding reference for the primary care pediatrician in office practice. It is much better oriented to day-to-day pediatrics than Nelson's and its imitators. The CD-ROM is very useful and easy to navigate. As a bonus, the CD-ROM contains all of the excellent illustrations for Zitelli & Davis' superb Atlas of Pediatric Physical Diagnosis.

This book was a great reference in residency and now in practice

I know that everyone is anxiously waiting for the next approach to business improvement. My own journey started with Ollie Wight himself and the refrain that the days of the expeditor were over. I'm not sure if I was an expeditor at the time but that was my first job and in the week before I retired I did the exact same thing I had done 33 years before. One of our salesmen called me (VP Operations) to make sure we would be making a shipment as the customer's unit was down. The biggest change was that we had received the order in the morning, manufactured the product, and had the product delivered before midnight, to Freeport, TX from Chicago. In the old days we would have told the salesman no, he would have called his boss, who would call my boss who would call his boss, and so on until it reached the top of the company and we were told to do what the customer wanted. Of course by this time we lost a couple of days and no one was happy.

Reading Anil Menawat and Adam Garfein's new book Profit Mapping brings back a lot of memories and the realization that along this path of continuous improvement that some things worked but nothing seemed to be the solution that was advertised. A lot of us have seen great benefits to the lean journey but along the way it always seemed as if we just were not quite there. There are those examples where On-time delivery is 100% and inventories approach zero and analogies of reducing the level of the water to find the rocks drives the next level of improvement but the net result seems that while the business is better, a lot of times the individual improvement projects do not meet expectations or drive the business to the next level.

The book drives the concept that everything in business is a set of processes and that changes to each of the process need to be evaluated for the consequences both intended and unintended. This can be done theoretically before you take action by integrating a financial analysis (income statement) with the various scenarios. It provides a roadmap on how this can be done but to me the biggest value is that it drives the logic that there are no absolutes but that with the facts you can pick and choose those actions dynamically that will have the biggest impact on the business. It may even support the position that it is better left alone but that has its own political complications. The example in the back of the book shows that there are times due to equipment and demand profiles that having inventory in queue is more realistic and better for the business. Some of this is dangerous territory....

For everyone who has been through the mill, this is more than just another book. It hopefully sets the stage for all of us to realize that rules of thumb are just that and to drive a business one needs to do what is right for the customer and concentrate on those things that are proven to truly impact the business and are not just another notch on the belt of completed projects. This book is a keeper.

This book is a "must read" for managers who rely on "rule of thumb," and "best guess" methodologies that have held sway in every business that I've ever been associated with.

The authors set out clearly how you can take control of your future, and test the results of an action or strategy before you commit resources and potentially set off down the wrong road. But first you've got to take on board the idea that simply projecting past results is no way to forecast, because those results came from different demand and capability circumstances than you face now.

I thought that the authors argued convincingly that you must understand the factors that affect your business, and which of them you do and don't control. The ProFIT-MAP methodology then lets you test those factors for sensitivity, so you can concentrate on the things that really matter to the overall goal.

Now you need to know the dynamics of your process. The authors break the business into 3 areas, Processes, Resources and Finance, and urge us to make sure that an "improvement" in one area doesn't result in major disruption elsewhere. (I could never figure out why cost savings in a production process, was rarely reflected in the overall bottom line.) Now I know, "tunnel vision".

Having followed the 6 Phases detailed in the book, you can generate different scenarios and analyse the impact across the board.

It might sound like a lot of work, but you're already doing a lot of work - guess work mostly, and once you've done it the first time, it's easy to continue. Remember, to make the broadly correct decision, you don't need to know the minutiae. But every time you reiterate, you add better data for tomorrow's decision support.

Speaking of figures, the authors offer a specification for real-time data collection and software integration that I have yet to see in the real world. However, help may be at hand, I notice that the Menawat & Co's website now makes mention of something called "ProFIT-MAP Dashboard", which promises integrated analytics. I will be watching this space.

Anil Menawat and Adam Garfein provide in this brilliant volume "a tool for aligning operations with future profit and performance." To their credit, they explain with meticulous care how to drive operational excellence through profit mapping to create a sustainable edge which they correctly characterize as "the management roller coaster." In this context, I am reminded of the familiar assertion that "you can't manage what you cannot measure" and how important it is to "measure only what matters."

The maps with which Lewis and Clark began their journey of exploration in 1804 were crude and over time revised as the journey continued until 1806. The same is true of the documents with which - more two centuries later -- senior-level executives begin an exploration of their own organizations, in search of hidden resources and new opportunities. Following their Introduction to this volume, Menawat and Garfein, examine various challenges to business execution, present a "parametric framework" by which to "drive the system," and explain how to "win before taking action with a structured methodology," then shift their attention practical action steps in combination with two case studies in Chapter 10. The first examines a common dilemma of "doing no harm." The second illustrates ProFIT-MAP's potential to drive radical cost reduction without sacrificing quality or throughput.

With regard to ProFIT-MAP, Menawat and Garfein offer it as a "forward-looking management decision methodology" which enables senior-level executives to "navigate [both] the forests and the trees of business strategy and execution proactively." It consists of six phases: Project Objectives (please see pages 155-167), Process (pages 170-177), Resources (pages 177-180), Finance (pages 181-184), "What if?" (pages 184-187), and Business Execution Option Choice (pages 193-202).

With regard to the first phase, I am reminded of what Peter Drucker suggests in an article written for the Harvard Business Review (1963): "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." Obviously, it makes absolutely no sense to create a totally accurate map - even if guided and informed by the ProFIT-MAP methodology -- to achieve an objective that will not increase profits and improve performance.

To me, some of the most interesting and most valuable material is provided in Chapter 4 as Menawat and Garfein explain how and why the Parametric Activities-Based Framework (pABF) offers a practical approach to measuring the right variables in any enterprise in order to reconstruct the whole system. One of the greatest benefits of the pABF is that it eliminates the need for patches or workarounds. On pages 101-102, Menawat and Garfein cite eight specific reasons why the pABF is a better estimation and reconstruction framework than others which lack a methodology or a process for applying one.

It seems appropriate to conclude this brief commentary with a brief excerpt from Chapter 1 in which Menawat and Garfein duly acknowledge various challenges to profitability and competitiveness. However, although "managers may not be able to do anything about high fixed costs in the near term, they can do a lot more operationally to increase effectiveness and quality while striving to reduce cost. In order to overcome changes in demand and financial constraints, organizations must learn to be become cost-competitive; price competitiveness is not enough. Industry leaders win by focusing on operational execution, cost management, and customers. The devil is in the details, and they understand that success happens only when the plan is grounded in reality, as opposed to invalidated expectations." This is precisely what Thomas Edison had in mind when asserting that "Vision without execution is hallucination."

Congratulations to Menawat and Garfein on a brilliant achievement.

I receipt the book very quikly and in excelent conditios of use, as a new book.

I'm a graduate student now and my field is creep and shrinkage of concrete.with those books which written by Prof.Neville,I've begun my graduate study and made some progress.These books are really a big help to me

This was the recommended textbook for my undergraduate program in civil engineering in Pakistan for the course titled, guess what "Properties of Concrete". I am now a practising water and wastewater engineer, and my main focus is not concrete. However, I have very good memories of the ease with which I could follow the text even at the undergraduate level, and also how the book was comprehensive enough to give almost all the answers as far as I was concerned. Excellent book, and very well written.

We just got this yesterday and it's already a favorite. My six year old has always loved "Don't let the pigeon drive the bus," and I found the humor similar. The illustrations are beautiful and the story has a surprise ending that made us both laugh out loud. Have fun reading it!

Mr. Rex has the unique ability to entertain not only his target audience, children, but also the next couple of generations (up, of course). My entire family "gets a kick" out of his incredible drawings and use of color, as well as the story lines and choice of words and humorous, tounge in cheek prose. I have all of his books to date (and will continue to purchase each new one as he publishes them). Thanks, Adam.

Adam Rex's PSST! tells of a bunch of animals who've been cooped up too long at the zoo. So when a little boy with capable hands happens along, he finds each exhibit wishes him to bring them something special. It's a unique, hilarious story highly recommended for any collection.

i can't put a value on how much my dad enjoyed answering these
questions and how grateful i am to be able to do this and
have this info. i wish everybody could ask these questions
while they're able to get the answers. getting this info.
and sharing this intimacy with a parent is priceless.
these questions would be great for mom, too.

I decided to buy this book and email my dad who lives 3,000 miles away what I called "The Question of the Day" and get to know him better. I wrote his responses inside the book for my kids to read one day. He was so open to the emails and looked forward to getting them everyday. I even turned it around and answered some of the questions that I could so that he could get to know me better too! I got married at 20 and moved away from home and now that I am in my late 30's I felt that it was important to get to know my dad who has always been a bit reserved and I think found it easier to email his answers to me than to actually talk about them. Becuase of this book, I do feel closer to my dad! Try it, some of the answers will surprise you too!

I originally got this for my fiancee since he was going to Iraq in a few months. His son is 6 and to give him the peace of mind. Well now I am sending this book to my father. You could also use this for your Mom or anyone in your family! A great way to add to your history and relationships!!

There is a lot more info on the Quiller series at www.quiller.net, a fan site.

This is my fourth of the Quiller series and I loved it! There is a plot to kill Gorbachev and destroy any chance at unification in Germany. Quiller is called in by the KGB to help find the very powerful opposition. As usual, you get a full view of Quiller's thoughts and conversations he has with himself while running a dangerous mission. His field back up is not the usual Ferris, but a 'well mannered' Director named Cone, who tries in vain to assist Quiller but remains at attention if needed. The plot twists around and teems with suspense, even though you know how it will end...

It was a bit hard to get into the first little bit but it took offand went out of sight. You never knew what was coming next. Hall is amaster at letting the reader think exactly what Quiller is thinking and planning. Simply marvelous.

There was always the view of the busy harbor-ocean liners,freighters,tugs and barges.In the hot summer months there was always a breeze on the open deck. During heavy fogs there were close calls-making the trip a real adventure. This authenic book brought back good memories of my days commuting on the railroad ferries of the Hudson.The many rare photos and the short histories of the ferry operators add to the local color, and increase the value of this book.

There was always the view of the busy harbor-ocean liners,freighters,tugs and barges.In the hot summer months there was always a breeze on the open deck. During heavy fogs there were close calls-making the trip a real adventure. This authenic book brought back good memories of my days commuting on the railroad ferries of the Hudson.The many rare photos and the short histories of the ferry operators add to the local color, and increase the value of this book.

co-author raymond baxter's authentic deckhand stories blend well with the historic photos and brief histories of the railroad ferry companies. dispatching of the chambers street boats had been "dumped" somewhere over the years on the gatemen. Once the rush hour ferry Youngstown left two minutes earlier than the scheduled 5:28PM departure. As a result a large number of angry commuters missed their Erie suburban commuter trains out of Jersey City. Many interesting stories abound. The photos of the ferries and the deckhand stories enabled me to relive my years of New York commuting by train and boat. Fordham University Press deserves praise for this book.