Berry Books

The hardest sell for quality companies is to their staff. This book is a great help for management efforts to communicate effectively with staff the importance of providing high quality, caring customer service.

I'm a CFO for a large service company. I first read the book in an MBA program in 1991 and it has never left my "often used" book shelf. Extremely concrete explanations and examples that can be put into real life. We are developing a training model for our employees from the book. Nothing but kudos for Berry and Parasuraman!

The terrible thing about Berry's/Parasuraman's book is that, altough it first has been published almost a decade ago, its message on the meaning and the importance of service hasn't become more widespread. Why should you read this book? - Good ideas for new (meaning: not commonly known and accepted) service ideas. - Useful checklists - Altough scientifically based the book is still easy and fun reading - Very good section on complaint-management

A good book for facts about planets and space put into simple terms, but the book is now nearly 30 years old, the best thing about this book is seeing what people believed about the universe 3 decades ago and compare those beliefs to today's.

This book widens our perspective with serious extrapolation of our current growth in physics, chemistry, economics. Berry delightfully presents alternative ways to terraform Venus (seeding the atmosphere with blue-green algae). Then he discusses plans for Mars, and moves on to the biggest challenge to our future economy...no less than the dismantling of Jupiter and Saturn to build a "Dyson Sphere". Berry presents a fair assessment of the growth of Man's global, then inner solar system economies, and some insight into the politics of building such a sphere. Overall, a grandiose vision of the future which one keeps wishing to reread every so often. --dcm

Written in 1973, this classic is one of the first books written for a general audience that refutes many of the glaring errors of the doomsayers and presents a positive, balanced argument for the future of humanity (with facts, figures and formulas).

Authors such as Victor Koman with his Kings of the High Frontier and engineer-entreupeneurs like Dr. Robert Zubrin are those who, along with Berry, keep the hope of the new Frontier alive.

Topics covered include the terraforming of venus, faster than light travel, dyson spheres and a calm well reasoned explanation that even if he detonates his nuclear weapons, man cannot destroy life on earth permanently. Berry reasons therefore that we should stop wringing our hands and apply ourselves to planning for our future not only on earth but throughout the solar system.

Finally, how can you resist a book that includes an appendix entitled: 'A do-it-yourself Guide to the Special Theory of Relativity' that explains Einstein's theory of near light speed travel in less than three pages with the correct math in a way even I can understand?

This does have great tips on grammar; however, some of the book is definitely outdated. Also, it seems to me that this type of book would be written primarily for those of us who aren't naturally adept in English usage -- if that is the case, I think the author should remember the KISS rule (Keep it simple, stupid) and avoid sentences like this one in chapter 13: "A false comparison is one wherein a comparative or a superlative degree construction is used without a clearly stated basis for the comparison..." . Who needs to muddle through sentences like that! Otherwise, though, this book can be very helpful.

common grammatical and word meaning errors in English. Learn to use proper English. Useful for speakers as well as writers. A good example is the reflexive pronoun "myself". Do you know the proper usage of this word? What about when to use "may" versus "might"? If not, this book is a good start. I think most people could benefit from this book. The problem with errors in speech is that we unaware we are making them and often repeat them. Others, however, may pick up on our mistakes. Also, this book is concise and a fairly quick read.

I've owned this book for about ten years and moved it with me whenever I get a new technical writing assignment. It has saved my writing hide with the subject matter experts numerous times! It shows the most common errors made in English usage in an easy-to-understand manner. I had trouble with misplaced modifiers and "like" as opposed to "such as" for years. This book helped me learn which way is correct usage!

I like the straighforward and often humorous style. I'd love to see future editions.

Even though this book was first published on 1996, the framework presented by Mr. Berry to achieve Extraordinary Customer Service is still valuable and actual. It has 13 chapters and each one gives a pure meaning of every treated subject. It's not another Customer Service book...It's an strategy customer service book.

Mr. Berry's insights can be applied from Face to Face to Call Center environments and it's a must-read to Top-Executives that have started a company focus change and are wondering why it's the innitiative failing or getting down the hills. The answers could probably be: Your company it's not competing for talented people, has not embrace the technology, has not empowered your front line teams or the most elementary one...maybe have not created yet a Customer Service strategy since the beginning (Of course, where everyone in the company was included, not only you). All this answers are ON GREAT SERVICE.

Extraordinary book.

I recently re-read this book (1996) and Berry's subsequently published Discovering the Soul of Service (1999), curious to know how well they have held up since they were first published. My conclusion? Rock-solid. In fact, both books are even more relevant - and more valuable - now than they were when Leonard Berry wrote them. That is amazing...and commendable. In this volume, he presents what he characterizes as "a framework for action" to provide and then sustain great service. The word "sustain" is critically important. Those organizations whose people always provide great service (e.g. Nordstrom, Ritz-Carlton, The Container Store) consider perfection break-even.

Berry carefully organizes his material within 13 chapters. In the first, he introduces the aforementioned "framework for action" (Exhibit 1-1 on page 5); in the last, he shares his thoughts about "the artistry of great service." As he convincingly explains, great service is both an art and a science...and is the result of several factors which include a total commitment, enterprise-wide, to specific principles. "The purpose of this book is to teach the lessons of service quality [begin italics] implementation [end italics]. The book focuses exclusively on [begin italics] how [end italics] to improve service quality." With regard to the aforementioned principles. Berry observes that customers are most likely to do business with companies that "are reliable, excellent in interactive service, prepared to cover if the service fails, and eminently fair. These principles are the essence of service excellence." And they always will be.

I especially appreciate Berry's focus on real-world situations in which these principles are clearly demonstrated. Specifically, in a variety of companies which include Longo Toyota and Lexus, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Hard Rock Café, Lakeland Regional Medical Center, Bank One Texas Trust Division, and Harold's. These exemplary organizations illustrate how to deliver great service, one customer at a time, day after day, month after month. Of course, that is not easy to do. "Nothing in this book suggests that the excellent service journey is easy. It is not. But it is immensely rewarding, not just financially, but spiritually. Excellence nourishes the soul."

In the final chapter, Berry explains what "the artistry of great service," not only to customers and service-providers but indeed to entire organizations and even industries. With the passion of an evangelist but with the precision of a surgeon, he reviews all of the essential ingredients of great service. They include leadership enterprise-wide, a fundamental belief in human potential, having a reason for being...and doing, informed decision-making, collaborative, and an inspiration to excel. Are these "old fashioned values"? Of course. But keep in mind that Fortune magazine's annual list of the most profitable companies includes the names of many which are also on its annual list of the most highly admired companies. Year after year. That is not a coincidence.

Berry's thinking is so clear and his insights are so sound that this book (although written more than ten years ago) will continue to guide and inform any organization's efforts to complete its "journey" from good to great service, whatever the size and nature of that organization may be.

LEONARD BERY SE CONSAGRA COMO UNO DE LOS PRINCIPALES AUTORES SOBRE EL SERVICIO Y LA MERCADOTECNIA DE SERVICIOS. MEJORAR LA CALIDAD DEL SERVICIO AL CLIENTE ES HOY UNA PRIORIDAD Y BERRY ES UN VISIONARIO DE ESTO. NO LO DEJEN DE LEER.

This book was donated to my middle school library by a student. I hadn't intended to sit down and read it, only doublecheck its suitability for the library patrons. I thought I'd glance through it before just "placing" it on the shelf. First of all, the title led me to guess that the book was non-fiction about pirates/history, etc. However, I was happily surprised to find a mysterious and charming ghost/pirate story set in NC, my own backyard. It brought the rich history and excitement of NC coastal lore to life in a quick but colorful read. I read through the entire story, it was quite captivating, and was not disappointed.

I read the book before giving it to my son and couldn't put it down! I also purchased copies for my nieces and nephews. Although I grew up in the mountains, I was transported back to my childhood and spent that summer on the beach along with Kaitlin and Cameron! A mix of pirates and romance will captivate the imaginations of both boys and girls. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

I was immediately transported back to my teen summers on North Carolina beaches.The sights, sounds, tastes (shrimp burgers!) and even my first kiss all came vividly back to me in the descriptive prose of this book. Must be a great book - my memories are 42 years old! I read this book to preview it before I gave it to my Granddaughter. I couldn't put it down...read well into the night! I found the characters delightful and the story had just the right mix of mystery, scarey stuff and romance for the younger readers.It isn't often that books for this age hold appeal for girls and boys. I think this one is destined to become a favorite of the young and old alike. Can't wait to discuss it with my Granddaughter!

Purchased prior to our trip. Found it very helpful in planning, gave good idea what to expect esp. history on islands/traditions. Maps were accurate. Referenced many times while on vacation. Agree with other previous post...do not attempt to do cross island hike alone as it is not marked, Pa was an excellent guide. A visit to Atiutaki highly recommended. Spent 3 days at the Atuitaki Lagoon Resort...wish it would have been more.

Great little book. Lots of helpful info. Essential to really understand the islands. Arrived on time and lives up to the reputation of Lonely Planet.

My fiance and i were fortunate enough to holiday in the Cooks for 2 weeks in January 07. In the lead up to our trip i purchased this guide and studied it carefully. All the sections were well written and comprehensive. The history and environment section made for interesting background reading and helped to get an idea of life back in the old days as well as the current situation.
The section dealing with Rarotonga and its capital Avarua, as a whole was useful and the information (sights, accomodation, where to eat/drink and shop, other amenities) for the most part (95%) accurate - even prices more or less. We did a daytrip to Aitutaki and that section was also quite good. There were also sections on all the other Southern & Northern group islands but i cannot comment as we did not go to any of these. Still made interesting reading though. The maps were also accurate and well detailed.
One thing i would disagree with is attemting to do the main cross island hike on your own. It is possible but there are no signposts, and the trail itself is quite difficult to find and follow in places, not to mention quite treacherous and hard going in the wet season. We went with Pa a local guide and it was a wise decision as many people have been injured or worse attempting this hike.
Other than this, my main gripe is with actual construction of this book. The plastic coating on the cover started to peel soon after purchase and the pages are starting to come loose from the spine. All this without any heavy duty wear and tear. I think Lonely Planet need to increase their quality control and improve the construction of their guides so that they do stand up to more rigorous use, after all that's what they are for.

A friend of mine bought this for me as a present, and initially I was unsure. As an arogant British person, I will have to say that not a lot of American humour is clever enough to make me laugh, but this was both - clever and funny.

It's quite irreverent, so you'd have to like laughing at 'sick' stuff, but it's not juvenile, gross out humour. It's intelligent. The cartoons are also beautifully drawn. Mr Berry, we want more! I loved it!

Heard about this book through a friend, who was constantly raving about it. Was worried about the contents because of the title, but was open to reading it. Good thing. This is high-quality satire!

I started reading "The Raunchy Roach Show" on the internet back in 1999. I use to read it everyday for my daily laugh. I got one of the first copies when I found out it was available. These were the strips from the first year that I missed. Although I liked the funny single strips, I really liked the Televised Public Execution story with it's twisted ending. I recommend this book of comic strips and I don't even like comic strips.

"If an adult calls you teacher..."--buy this book.
Feeling isolated teaching in a college? Wondering if your school is the only one treating faculty so poorly? Berry helps us see the big picture and provides strategies for essentially saving the American higher ed. system.

Berry has assembled the elements of one of the higher education's biggest challenges - contingent faculty.

Using the familiar style, Berry's book provides a time-check on part-time faculty's situation, and is supported by examples, sufficient qualitative and quantitative analysis, and an honest assessment by Berry.

At first scan, the book's organization appeared to be disjointed, but a subsequent thorough read revealed a linkage between the many complex issues surrounding the contingent faculty challenge.

I found the book a good resource for research on the changing hiring patterns in higher education. Plus, it helped me to better understand the faculty who report to me.

Agent Provocateur

Reclaiming the Ivory Tower
Organizing Adjuncts to
Change Higher Education
by Joe Berry

reviewed by:
Martin M. Goldstein
Santa Monica College

My father, a New York lawyer and political liberal of long standing, used to refer to certain airy intellectuals as people who were "very smart, but had no brains." This concept kept coming back to me as I read Joe Berry's analysis of the current state of higher education in America. His discussion centers on a workforce transformed in one generation from one of almost exclusively full-time tenure track positions -- the traditional "Professor" -- to one where such positions are now the minority.

Sometime in the mid-90's a majority of college teachers became contingent laborers, as either part-time or full-time temporary -- not counting the routinely abused grad students, or the growing for-profits and non-credits, where contingency comes standard. This new class of professors have fewer benefits (like job security or health insurance) and lesser pay, and are doing the majority of the work.

If such a thing happened to auto workers or nurses or elementary school teachers, we'd have seen them permanently weakened as union bargaining units. Rather, this happened to college professors, very smart people who seemingly did not have enough brains to prevent their job positions from eroding before their eyes, effectively disappearing in their working lifetimes.

All of this and more is covered eloquently in Joe Berry's new book, which clearly lays out the current situation and focuses in on the largest and most exploited part of this new professoriat, the contingent academic laborer, the part-time teacher, the fabled freeway flyer who is more often in LA a gridlock groaner. Part historical analysis, part organizing handbook, Berry's book places both the problem and the solution on the table.

Essentially a market force model has been introduced to the academy, and when that happens, you get a situation like Santa Monica College where I teach, a highly-respected community college which now has 286 full-time teachers, and 995 contingents who teach a little over 50% of FTES's, although state law mandates a 75/25 FT/PT floor for this ratio. Money talks, and market forces have spoken louder than state appropriations, public pressure, or union negotiations in the last three decades. So much for the Master Plan -- this is cheaper.

But there are signs of change, and the defeat of Gov. Schwarzenegger's anti-labor initiatives recently may be a turning point. It gives one pause, however, to imagine how that election would have turned out if the firefighters and nurses and grade-school teachers had let happen to them what happened to the professoriat. Fortunately, they had enough brains not to.

This new force for this change comes mainly, as would be expected, from the exploited class, which is developing a class consciousness, and good old fashioned labor organizing is shaping it into a movement. Joe Berry is a contingent labor activist of long-standing in California and Chicago, one of the founders of COCAL, the Conference of Contingent Academic Labor, a national coordinating group for the burgeoning movement, as well as a teacher and organizer in the Chicago area. He knows whereof he speaks.

The "do's" and "don'ts" of organizing on your campus and in your region is the heart
of Berry's book, and his decades of experience in the trenches of labor organizing show up in the completeness and the conceptual rigor of his analysis. If you are mad as hell and don't want to take it any more, don't go to a window and shout. Rather, buy this book, read it carefully -- and then do something about it!

It's that kind of a book. Berry's clear sense of moral purpose, as evidenced by his title, comes through on every page. This is someone who is not just complaining or explaining, but working to better the world of higher education while doing both those things. It's a truly admirable task, and he has written a truly admirable book about it.

MMG

I really like this book. I love to grow plants from seeds and this book helps me understand how that works and how I can grow even more things from seeds. As well as grafting and other techniques I've never tried. It is a bit technical, but I am only a home gardener so it's pretty easy to work out.

I was pretty disappointed with this book. There`s a lot of methods described to make more plants, but I don`t feel any of them is described in a lot of depth. Furthermore, the author uses a LOT of chemicals when growing and propagating plants, which is something I feel opposed to as a organic grower. I really can`t see why this book was elected one of the 75 best books by The American Horticultural Society?

My mum turned me on to plants when I was quite young, and I had tried to read some of the horticulture books that she had in her library (boring!). I bought this book for myself, because I wanted to learn more about propagation, so at first, I did not think this book would be much help since I prefer hard covers to paperback (personal choice), but even before I finished reading it, I was putting some of what I had read to use, and have on numerous occasions been asked questions that I could answer thanks to this books information. This book is full of useful information on how-to that you can put to use almost immediately, and it is not a dull read.

I have recently had a co-worker and a close friend of mine ask me about grafting, and I have referred them to this book. My friend liked the material on grafting that I spoke with him about so much that he wants to borrow my book for more information on the subject, and I have since put another copy of this book on my wish list to give it to him as a gift for his library.

Mark did a wonderful job of offering help on how to be more productive. Even though I am in a relationship, I was able to glean some information from the book on how to be more productive and how to open up more in my business relationships.

Thanks for writing this, I am really excited about putting into action what I learned. Thanks! Great book. Flowed nicely, well written. Great Job!

Great book! Lots of advice but practical stuff that a person can really apply to things in their love life that are just not working! heck, in your life period.