Curtis Books

Instead of offering self-help nostrums, this book starts a process of helping managers develop useful answers by learning to ask incisive questions.

When I first embarked in the late 80's on a quest to start my own small strategy consulting business, after spending twenty-four years in the corporate world, I actually acquired this wonderful book, after a deliberate search, to help me to think through all the potential problems & opportunities.

What attracted me to this book was the anatomy of asking questions in the prologue of the book. According to the two authors, both business consultants, every successful ideas passes through three phases. Each phase involves a different perspective. To implement an idea, all three need to be integrated. They label them as follows:

- Visualising What to Do: Seeing & painting a clear picture of my company: identity, resources;
- Charting the Position: Aiming & drawing up a blueprint for action: strategic objectives, trends;
- Activating the Plan: Doing & implementing my objectives: tactics, role expectations;

As you can see from the above, the first one refers to the process of conceptualisation.
The second one refers to the process of strategising i.e. formulating the strategic blueprint.
The final one refers to operationalising i.e. putting the strategic blueprint to work.

The full value of seeing, aiming, & doing comes when they are integrated. Questions like (adapted for my own personal application):

- what business am I really in?
- what are my strategic objectives?
- what are my tactics?

are part of a larger mosaic. The answer to any question affects the others.

The next part of the book comprises the integration model. It starts off with the development of a Questioning Mindset. The authors emphasise that the same question can be asked in many different ways, depending on the intended results. Answers alone may not be the only objective. Just right questions can affect attitudes & perceptions. They can be asked to get the process started. Here the authors outlined the three basic question-asking techniques:

1. Startling: The Surprise Question:

The intent is to be creatively upsetting. The authors illustrate with a classic business question: What business am I in? To make it startling or confrontational, the question could be re-stated: What makes me think I am still in the business I say I am?

Questions asked this way are confrontational. The intent is to open my eyes & undermine outdated assumptions.

2. Supporting: The Helping Question:

I call this the Discovery Question. The authors draw an analogy of a trial lawyer. An experienced trial lawyer avoids asking questions whose answers he/she is not certain of. In a trial, lawyers use questions to promote their own understanding of the case to the judge & jury. Any discovery of information should happen before the trial starts. In my case, the purpose of such questions e.g. 'what business am I in?' is to discover what I already know.

3. Searching The Inquisitive Question:

Example: what business am I really in? The purpose is to find out what I don't know but need to know. The emphasis is the spirit of inquiry.

The authors stress that the best answers are open-ended, thereby resulting in useful answers that keep evolving.

The rest of the book comprises a series of well-thought question units covering every aspect of business management. , There are a total of forty four units, & each is supported by a brief rationale. They are logically allocated to the three foregoing distinct phases. Each unit is designed to develop a broad "just right question" such as:

- what business am I really in?

& expands its implications through a series of "follow-up questions" such as:

- what business will I be in a few years from now?
- what business could I be in?

As you can see from the foregoing examples, the whole exercise of the questioning processes is intended to facilitate understanding of the implications of the question & pondering of the answers. In other words, to facilitate a question-asking approach for an answer-producing payoff.

By the time I have gone through all the question units under each distinct phase, I have finally painted a constructive & enlightening picture of my dreams-come-true.

This book really stands up to its title. Until today, I have yet to come across another business book under this particular genre.

Even today, despite the torn yellowing pages & stained dog-ears, I still dip into the question list of the book to refresh my strategic thinking on emerging issues.

To sum up my review, I am proud to say that I am still running my own small strategy consulting business today. Today is my 17th year in business.

I am very happy to share this wonderful gem with readers. This book will definitely help you to develop useful answers by learning to ask incisive questions.

[READERS! PLEASE NOTE: Content-wise, this book is exactly the same book as 'Question of Business' by Curtis Page & C J Selden.]

When someone mentions The Plaza what do you first think of? Luxury? Eloise? Donald and Ivana? Dietrich or Garbo or F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in residence? The Pulitzer Fountain? The final scene from "The Way We Were?"

All of them and many, many more are here in this deluxe book about this deluxe hotel. Chock full of blueprints, wonderful photographs and reproductions of menus and paintings and postcards, this book is not just a history of a hotel...it is, truly, a history of New York City which is host to the hotel. You will learn how specific rooms (The Palm Court, The Edwardian Room, The Oak Room, etc.) were "born", how, when and why celebrities like Frank Lloyd Wright lived at the hotel, how various suites came to be decorated by and named after people like Cecil Beaton, what the scandal was caused by Mrs. Patrick Campbell, how the Duke and Duchess of Windsor celebrated their anniversary here and how Patricia Kennedy and Peter Lawford celebrated their marriage here. There are revealing photographs of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis with her husband and son avoiding the paparazzi, John and Yoko enjoying an obviously romantic lunch, Truman Capote's Black and White party and so many of the entertainers who performed at the famous Persian Room: Shirley Bassey, Ethel Merman, The Mills Brothers, Kay Thompson (mother to Eloise), Eartha Kitt, Bob Hope, Liberace, Diahann Carroll, etc. There is even an entire chapter on the many movies that were filmed at the hotel, beginning with Hitchcock's masterpiece, "North By Northwest."

All of Gathje's research is well documented and written in a fascinating style: charming, inviting, intimate, warm, classy and yet filled with good humor. RECOMMENDED.

This book is a great buy. If you are a fan of NY, you will haveheard of this hotel, its history, its decor, its beauty. YOU HAVE TOSTAY A NIGHT. Take a stretch limo from the airport, book a mini suite[from airport if arriving in low season - to get the best rate -always speak with "Front Desk" (only)] Your partner willlove you forever and you'll enjoy the trip soo much more.... This booktells the story of the hotel history - did you know there was aprevious hotel of same name on the site? It has many pictures throughthe years, right through the Hilton. Trump and now Fairmont ownerships- it tells the film-makers story, visits from the famous, the stars. Agreat book on a great hotel. Love to hear about your stay, we stayedDec 1999...

Having lived in "the cottage" at Sharksmouth, this book came to life. You feel the magnitude of these remarkable women from a time when it was not the norm for women. The sense of their accomplishments exudes from the pages. It is written with tenderness and wit. Truely an enjoyable read on a snowy night with a crackling fire and a glass of wine. It reminds me of "A Woman of Substance" by Barbara Taylor Bradford.

What was it that shapes character? how would you envision an interesting future for yourself, use your intelligence and energy if you were one of ten children born in the late 19th century to a prominent New England family? Isabella Halsted, a refreshingly straightforward writer, remembers her grandparents, uncles and aunts in Boston and at their Manchester summer home - a "Victorian-Gothic castle" by the sea. Of the five sons and five daughters, it is the four maiden aunts who fashioned amazing lives beyond the usual patterns of their day, or even ours. The boys went to Harvard; the girls were on their own. Healthy and strong, these young women had imagination, self-confidence and plenty of individuality. Separately, or together, they excelled in sports (golf), served the Hampton Institute in Virginia (one as Dean of Women), fostered health clinics for the poor and served in them, galloped through British society, learned carpentry, studied social work professionally. The youngest took a prominent role in Red Cross work in France during World War I, was appointed Assistant Chief of Refugee Affairs in Paris and soon afterwards, Chef du Bureau until long after the war ended, later awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French government. Mrs. Halsted's first-hand observations and stories about the family she remembers are thoughtful, sometimes critical or amusing, always cogent. Excellent photographs.

My daughter is 9 month old and she loves this book. She can flip the pages by herself and watch sheep disappearing, she can touch the sheep and feel how soft they are. We owe also "Five little ducklings." Those two books are definitely our favorite!

My 15 month old daughter LOVES this book. The sheep are well-attached so they are able to handle some abuse from a baby.

this is the book recommended by our nursing school. i'm glad they chose this one because it's a great book, very easy to read and understand. Comprehensive. I also got a good deal: was able to buy this brand new for only $20!! :)

I am three weeks from graduation, and did not have an understanding of pharmacology, but when I found this book in the store, I had to purchase it. Any book written by this series is worth having for an emerging practical nurse. The study guide is comprehensible as well. At least, I'll have a mastery of the drugs by the time I take the state boards!

this is a old paperback that I read years ago but it is a good book. It just shows you what someone will do when they are alone & hungery. I felt very sorry for Roger. He would never have done what he did if Angela had not put him it that problem.

Curtis Bok, of the famous Bok family, was a Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. He had also served for many years as a trial judge in Philadelphia, was president of the Philadelphia Orchestra, a patron of the arts, and generally an all around brilliant and compassionate man. "Star Wormwood", set in the Depression, tells the tale of one Roger Haike, a starving juvenile who was convicted and executed for killing and partially eating a young girl. Mr. Justice Bok acknowledges the horror of the crime and doesn't balk at recounting the gruesome details, but does balk at sentencing anyone to death, arguing that a criminal justice system based vengeance must ultimately fail.

Many of the proposals advanced by Bok have either been outstripped by history or rendered moot by the U.S. Supreme Court. For example, the Supreme Court has recently ruled that juveniles, and the mentally retarded, may no longer be subjected to the death penalty. "Star Wormwood" was written long before the crack cocaine explosion that fueled an exponential explosion of violence and a decreasing public and judicial tolerance for the rehabilitative needs of the offender, the lodestar of the book (though certain large urban jurisdictions have seen the benefit of treating rather than incarcerating the non-violent addict). What
really resonates in "Star Wormwood" is the depiction of the trial of young Haike, where both the elected prosecutor and the elected trial judge have their eyes on the next rung up the legal ladder and both see the unfortunate defendant as nothing more than a means to help advance their careers. They act in concert, aided by the unceasing "Burn the Witch" editorials of the local press, to strap a teenager into the electric chair. Fight as he might, and he did fight the good fight, Haike's court-appointed lawyer, a man who volunteered for a job nobody else would do, was unable to save his client's life.

Capital punishment was abolished by judicial decree in the early 1970's only to be resurrected by Congress a few years later. It still shakes its hoary, anachronistic head in the United States, the last western democracy to retain it. Accordingly, "Star Wormwood" still retains vitality, vibrance, and-though the crime depicted occurred more than seventy years ago-timeliness.

I found "Beyond the Beach Blanket" a beautiful and easy to use field guide -- terrific photos and really interesting material. It contains much more information than the average field guide -- a lot of fun facts and cool stories about the lifecycles of beach creatures. It really covers a lot of different types of animals too -- clams and other shells, plus tidepool animals like sea urchins, plus what the book calls "near shore creatures" like fish and sharks, plus marine mammals AND shore birds. It's an all in one guide for the beach.

appreciate Marina Curtis Tidwell 's Beyond The Beach Blanket: A Field Guide To Southern California Coastal Wildlife all that's needed is proximity to a Southern California beach and a general appreciation for sea life. From thirty-year-old clams to strange jellyfish, color photos supplement science-filled but lively descriptions of the habits and habitats of Southern California's beach wildlife. A lovely, recommended pick.

Reading this book was like a ride with Skip in a shiny old car, sucking down a cold beer and hearing all about the history of this essential American highway.

A well written book packed with photos. You needn't even have ever visited Springfield to enjoy this look at the past and at the history of Route 66. Fun!

"Blackadder" is one of the most brilliant television shows ever. The star, Rowan Atkinson, along with other series regulars such as Tony Robinson (as the perpetual dogsbody with a cunning plan,) Tim McInnerny, Stephen Fry, and Hugh Laurie carry this show through four distinct historical periods, with more laughs than could possibly be expected. Series one starts in the fifteenth century, with Atkinson as Prince Edmund, the illegitimate and despised son of the lunatic king, Richard IV. During this season Edmund adopted the moniker "The Black Adder" only after Baldrick advised him it was much more awe inspiring than his original choice "The Black Vegetable." (Note that while his name is spelled "Blackadder" in the scripts, when it is used as a title in season one, it is spelled "Black Adder.") This season sets the stage for Blackadder as a conniving and scheming con man, a reputation he and his Blackadder descendants live up to through the rest of the series.

Seasons two and three see a progression though history with Edmund first becoming Lord Edmund Blackadder, in the court of Elizabeth I (who is delightfully played by Miranda Richardson,) and later becoming the butler to Prince George, the Prince Regent, who is the idiot offspring of crazy King George III. These seasons provide the most laughs of the series for me, and I am particularly enthralled with the episode "Ink and Incapability" in which Baldrick burns Doctor Johnson's new dictionary. This episode is the ultimate in Blackadder humor, witty and urbane, yet full of madcap comedic moments as well, especially when Blackadder introduces new and confounding words for Dr. Johnson's considerations: "Contrafibularities, sir. It is a common word down our way....I am anaspeptic, phrasmotic, even compunctious to have caused you such pericombubulations." (Of course in true Blackadder fashion this only gets him in trouble, as Coleridge, the poet and Johnson ally threatens to thrust an Oriental disemboweling cutlass up his "ignoble behind.")

The forth season of Blackadder sees Atkinson as Captain Edmund Blackadder in the British army during the trench warfare of World War One France. This series also had a lot of laughs, with my favorite episode being "Private Plane," in which Blackadder and Baldrick join the Royal Air Force and are forced down behind enemy lines. They are subsequently interrogated and insulted by the Red Baron ("How lucky you English are to find the toilet so amusing, for us it is a mundane and functional item, for you it is the basis of an entire culture.") and sentenced to teach home economics to a convent of nuns for the duration of the war. One thing about this season (and two of the others) is that in the last episode of the season the entire cast dies, which elevates the series into a peculiar blend of black comedy and social commentary which I have still not grown fully accustomed to.

The book is a collection of scripts and has several extras germane to the time period being satirized which are also well done. I like the excerpt from "Dr. Johnson's Dictionary," with definitions such as "left behind - part of the sitting apparatus of a personage," and "leek - a long, thin Welsh tomato." There are also helpful lists of the "Duties of the Prince Regent," "Duties of a Butler of a Royal Household" which includes "Commissioning moleskins (as and when necessary)," and "Duties of an Underscrogman." Baldrick, being the Underscrogman serving under Edmund is responsible for (among other things): "Removing and making good all squoles, whiffen-plugs, and blunters," "Cleaning the wulger-hole," "Quilping," "Cliving," "Groving," "Arranging the sheep droppings into neat little pyramids," "Frossiking the hounds," "Folding the glut-pile," and of course, "Making sandwiches."

This is a wonderful book, though if you are unfamiliar with the series, I recommend buying the DVD set and watching the shows first; a subsequent reading of this book will ensure many more laughs. As a side note, profits from this book go to the charity Comic Relief, a brief history of which appears in the last three pages of the book.

I recommend this book very highly for intelligent wit, and I likewise recommend the television series on DVD interphrastically.

The authors Richard Curtis and Ben Elton are well known to BBC audiences for their comedic masterwork, having been severally and individually part of the Vicar of Dibley, Mr. Bean, The Young Ones, The Man from Auntie. Rowan Atkinson, the lead actor in this series, also collaborated as writer and actor in other features such as Mr. Bean and the Thin Blue Line. John Lloyd was the producer who helped bring this series to life.

The Blackadder series, begun in the 1980s, was a comedic masterpiece set forth by Rowan Atkinson and his comrades. From start to finish, the first series was a masterstroke of wit, irony and comedic styling that fits both the contemporary and medieval situations perfectly. The combination of slapstick and intellectual humour blended well, and the literary types will not miss the occasional credit of William Shakespeare as a collaborating writer on some episodes -- this might well be the kind of comedy Shakespeare would have produced today.

The first series was set in the pre-Tudor royal family, projecting that Richard III won at Bosworth Field, and Richard IV succeeded him, until after many adventures, the entire royal family was done in, and Henry Tudor reworte history thereafter. The first series starred Brian Blessed and Elspet Gray as the King and Queen, and Robert East as their eldest son, the Prince of Wales. Rowan Atkinson played the second son, who with companions Percy and Baldrick (Tim McInnerny and Tony Robinson) create most of the comic scenes. BlackAdder variously becomes the Archbishop of Canterbury, the betrothed of the Spanish Infanta, a witch on trial, and finally, however briefly, King of England.

The second series sees Percy and Baldrick following a descendent of Blackadder in Elizabethan times; as befits the period, the characters are more vibrant and saucy, particularly Blackadder, who still seeks his fortune as one of the Queen's suitors. Here he variously becomes the royal executioner, a sea-faring discoverer, a bankrupt noble, and finally a traitor to the crown, albeit not without a sense of humour. Miranda Richardson puts in a spectacular performance as Queen Elizabeth, with Stephen Fry and Patsy Byrne in attendance. Stephen Fry will recur throughout the series.

In the third series, Blackadder is still close to the crown, as the butler of the Prince Regent, a despised position to a despised person. Baldrick is still around, and the Prince is played by Hugh Laurie, who will recur in the final series. Done almost as a period comedy, the very titles and situations pay hommage to the day of the Scarlet Pimpernel, Dr. Johnson's dictionary, and the conflict with France. Through an interesting set of circumstances, butler and prince trade places, and the Blackadder finally becomes his intended goal, albeit in the name of someone else.

In the fourth and final series, Blackadder has fallen from a great height, and is an officer in the trenches of World War I. Baldrick is still there, and Percy and the Prince have transformed into fellow field officers, with Stephen Fry playing a bellicose general here as he did Wellington in the third series. The main device of this series is the effort by Blackadder to escape the trenches, by variously becoming an artist, a theatre producer, a chef, but to no avail finally, producing a sombre end to the dynasty.

The book is a fabulous companion piece to the series, as the BBC is known to do with television series of success. The six episodes of each of the four seasons is laid out in script-narrative form, with a generous collection of side offerings, such as the Blackadder family tree, the menu of Mrs. Miggins' pie shoppe, and other pieces of interest related to but not found in the actual series. The cast is included at the beginning of each series section. The book concludes with a partial collection of some of Blackadder's best insults.

This book was printed in aid of Comic Relief, who give a brief outline of their history of funding good causes in the last few pages.

This is a must-have for any Blackadder fan. Regretably, it does not contain the addition special features (such as the Victorian Christmas of Blackadder), but for any devotee of the series, this is a requirement.

This is a must-have book full of God's goodness that teaches you to hold on to his promises with testimonies and serves as a guide for the backslider as well as the christian that's continually seeking God. After reading this book I got an even bigger boost of encouragement that I needed!

I really enjoyed this book it really expose the cries from my heart. Dealing with day-to-day issues this book gives you vital scriptures that will remind you of God Promises.