R Books

It has been said there are three approaches to dealing with mistakes: Dumb people make mistakes and do not learn from their mistakes; smart people learn from their mistakes, and really smart people learn from the mistakes of others.

Dr. Deryl Leaming provides that third approach in a way. This is not to say he made mistakes in his many years as a college administrator, but his excellent book does provide the reader the opportunity to learn from his significant experience.

He has been there, done that, so to speak, when it comes to leadership in heading a program.

His latest work deals with all the key aspects of being a university department chairperson -- legal issues, faculty matters from hiring effective faculty to dealing with faculty problems, and student matters.

Through the tips in his book he provides experience-based advice that can be of significant benefit to the new or even veteran department head.
He has been a university professor, department chairperson, director of a school of journalism and dean of liberal arts. The reader of this second edition of his academic leadership book can learn from his experience to avoid mistakes in leading a department.

He covers a great deal of advice on procedures, including a number of forms that will be useful.

This second edition is a good read and provides practical advice, particularly for the new department chairperson.

REVIEWER: Ralph J. Turner, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Marshall University
lph J. Turner, Ph.D., professor emeritus, Marshall University

This second edition of Academic Leadership: A Practical Guide to Chairing the Department is an extraordinarily comprehensive treatment of ways to address the variety of challenges facing department chairpersons in institutions from all types and sectors of higher education. The author, Deryl Leaming, provides an inviting and accessible style of writing that joins abundant references from relevant authorities with occasional episodes from his personal experience of several decades as chair and dean at some four different institutions. The result is a preeminently practical primer that will give new department chairs a valuable roadmap to success in a notoriously difficult position. It is excellent reading for those contemplating serving as a department chairperson or other academic leader. The volume is so comprehensive that even experienced chairpersons will find the book to provide a helpful review of ways to meet their responsibilities and challenges.

This new volume is almost twice as long as its predecessor, offering an expanded treatment of issues raised in the first edition and reflecting more emphasis upon the complexities of today's financial realities. Major sections deal with common concerns about leadership, handling matters of department vision and management, addressing legal issues, contending with a large variety of faculty and student matters, as well as attending to one's own career. The 30 chapters are compact and quite accessible. All are useful and contain lists of web and print resources. I particularly appreciated the units on sexual harassment and the implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as the one on dealing with chronic low achievers. Some 17 appendices provide helpful examples of different policy guidelines and methods of communication.

Anker Publishing has a large variety of often-expensive volumes for academic leaders. Some overlap and others lack originality or comprehensiveness. By contrast, this is a stand-out value that will set a standard for some time to come.

Dr. Leaming is truely a gifted writer and instructor. He has given more to his students than some are capable of comprehending. The books he has written and his experiences throughout his life make him a special gift to all who read his work or get to know him. He is an extremely precious gift to his students. He goes out of his way to encourage and teach his students. He makes sure his students are preparing for life within their current level,but more importantly,for their future endeavors. A gifted person who only wants to share what he knows in the hopes of helping others.

I wish the dean had given me this book a year ago. It would have made my life much easier. The book is easy to read and has solid ideas on how to be a more effective chairperson.

If only I could get some of the administrators of my university to read the book!

I am not only new to academic leadership, but I am new to this country. Deryl Leaming's book has served as an enlightening guide for me, and has helped me earn the assistance and respect of my faculty. This book is among the best investments I have made in my academic career. Thank you.

This superb overview of the civil war in photos, maps and illustrations makes you feel as if you're there in Federal Blue or Rebel Gray. One can learn much from author Bruce Catton's readable prose, or by merely viewing the hundreds of photo's and illustrations. Readers get a feel for the tragic conflict, from its pre-war controversies to the sad days when North and South were at each other's throats. We learn about military leadership, strategies, army life, battles, morale, slavery, sociology, politics, etc. Catton has done an excellent job, although this book is more overview for general audiences than detailed history. For that reason Civil War buffs will want this volume as a companion to detailed writings from authors like Catton, Shelby Foote, James McPherson, etc. Still, this is a superb effort, one that should be of equal interest to general readers and aficionados alike.

This book is filled with illustrations of paintings as well as photo's of the time period. A great find for the civil war buff. It has a index of battles and units that make it a fun for anyone who needs a good resource of information. It is Hard bound and is a large book. I have the book on World war 2 and Love it also.

This book was precisely the book I was looking for. This particlar book had maps and drawings that no other book had. I remember the book from my high school days and have looked everywhere to find it. I expected it to be an older book and the one I got was in great shape for its age. The seller was very concerned that I knew it was and older book and communicated with me to make sure I was satisfied. Boy!! was I. should have come to Amazon in the first place when I first started looking for the book. A lesson learned.

I was looking for more detail. It did not have enough actual photographs for me, there were too many paintins. If you want a history of the civil war there are good books to read.

This was my second Civil War book, which I received for Christmas when I was 12 (thanks Mom!). My love of the subject probably has a lot to do with this excellent volume, which I pored over for many years. It is loaded with photos, illustrations, and maps as well as Bruce Catton's EXCELLENT narrative. While this narrative does not go into extensive detail (the enormous scope of the war prohibts this), it is clearly written and a treasure trove of knowledge for those interested in a one-volume overview of the Civil War. Catton was a much respected Civil War historian who influenced many of today's historians. This book (which had been out of print for years) has recently been reissued with all new photos and illustrations while still preserving the original Catton text. As these new illustrations tend to be more informative to the Civil War student than the original version's (the original had a lot of photographs of Civil war battlefields as they appear today, which are of limited usefulness), this is the preferred edition. The new edition has a white dust jacket, while the original had a grey dust jacket. Either edition, however, will serve you well in studying the deadliest war in United States history. HIGHLY recommended, especially to beginning Civil War buffs or anyone who would like to read about one of the most important chapters in our country's history.

This is a wonderful book. It really fleshes out the remains of Rome's ancient monuments

We're planning a trip to Rome and like to prepare by reading about places we'll be seeing. This gives a very good explanation of the Roman building remains in an interesting manner.

Great book
love to see rome then and now
makes history come alive

This book uses overlays to show what Ancient Rome looked like when everything was new and in good shape. Then, you can flip the overlay and see how things look now. I always wondered how things looked then and wished I had a time machine to go back to those days. This book is the second-best thing to a time machine. The artists have done a great job of reconstructing the famous buildings, forums and temples. The book is well worth the money and is less expensive from Amazon than buying it in Rome.

This is a great book but way too expensive. I could have bought the exact book in Rome for less than half the price from a vendor at the Colosseum but decided to wait until I got home.

got what i wanted FASTER than expected, and in absolutely great condition!! will use them again, if i need to purchase any other books!!

Dr. Schiraldi has written an excellent guide to helping anyone to manage anger. With so many books on the subject out there it is hard for the untrained person to choose which is best. As a clinical psychologist, I can highly recommend this book. It offers easy assessment exercises, practical self help techniques and useful guidance for living a more peaceful life. I frequently recommend or give this book to my own patients. Thank you for such a wonderful contribution to anger management!

I found this to be a very helpful, common sense treatment which I have utilized in numerous situations.

Drs. Schiraldi and Kerr have collaborated to produce a comprehensive, well written, holistic guide to this complex field. It offers practical steps and experiential excercises for both the layman and professionals. This book is a must read for all adults who are struggling with anger and interpersonal conflict in their lives. As a licensed child psychologist, I can attest that parents will find the Drills and Reflection sections particularly helpful when dealing with the stresses of managing conflict at home.

I found this book to be extremely helpful and user-friendly for a range of target audiences, both academic and non-academic. It could be used not only in anger/stress management courses, but also as a self-help book for adults or even teens. Unlike a lot of other anger/stress management resources, this book creates a program that moves from basic principles to skills-building to application in a way that I found to be particularly effective. The authors use a holistic approach to anger/stress management, covering all aspects of health--physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual--which is especially important in addressing this issue. Great book, and very affordable too.

Anthem is a terrific read about our on-going drug war and its failure. This big (740 pages) novel tells how one cadre of a U.S. government group plans to eliminate illegal drug addicts and users forever. The fascinating characters and the authentic story line are very unique and creative. The aircraft crash scenario and investigation are enough to make one stay off commercial airlines! Its gory and done through the eyes of crash investigators and leads the reader to a core story line that is one-of-a kind. There is extreme violence (like real life) and much more in this new novel that excites the senses. Moreover, there are far more core-value and American patriotism senses to this novel. It just about covers everything America stands for; both the good and the not-so good. This a teriffic movie in a big book! I most highly recommend this exciting read for non-Sunday School. I want another book from this new author! Better yet, how about another novel and the movie!

Anthem is a terrific read about our on-going drug war and its failure. This big (740 pages) novel tells how one cadre of a U.S. government group plans to eliminate illegal drug addicts and users forever. The fascinating characters and the authentic story line are very unique and creative. The aircraft crash scenario and investigation are enough to make one stay off commercial airlines! Its gory and done thruough the eyes of crash investigators and leads the reader to a core story line that is one-of-a kind. This a movie in a book! I most highly recommend this exciting read for non-Sunday School. I want another book from this author! Better yet,how about another novel and the movie!

Mr. Loeb has done a wonderful job of weaving aviation, foreign intrigue and the evil side of the illegal drug industry. It is all possible and even more believable after 9/11, even the descriptions of the B-727 being flown like a fighter. It is obvious that Mr. Loeb has some time in that aircraft. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has lived on the edge or wishes they could. But it is not for the faint of heart, it's real, though fiction, it can happen, though it hasn't, and it is told in a story line of an aircraft accident investigator's viewpoint, which gives it a uniqueness of its own. Don't wait for the movie, although, I am, now that I read the book.

After establishing respect for the Lakota Nation and their culture, the author advances that heritage to the 22nd Century through the leading force of the novel. The author successfully uses that force to combat the South American drug trade (pushed by Americans high in our government). The book involves the American Embassy, foreign generals, diplomats, sabotage, military might, heart breaking romance, large scale murders, plane crashes and much more! Anthem is a fast moving adventure. An especially strong must read for American minorities so they might better understand their role in re-establishing America as their, and our friend, to all nations striving for freedom.

I really enjoyed this book. It was full of suspense down to the last page. It amazed me to learn that it was published BEFORE 9/11. The characters amost jump out of the pages and I couldn't help thinking what a great movie thriller this would make. The scary part is when one wonders whether this plot could really happen. Also, I learned a vast number of 21st Century acronyms having to do with aviation and the military. Great book.

Wow!! No one should walk into the AP Spanish Language Exam without having studying and prepped with these practices.

I have a large collection of books for learning spanish and this book turned out to be one of the very best of them. I know that it is a book angled toward preparing students for the AP exam but
it just so happens to be one of the most user friendly, well designed and comprehensive books for learning spanish out on the market today. I am an advanced college spanish student and therefor I didn't get the book to prepare for the exam. I got it because it offers a well structured and comprehensive review as well as many helpful drills and practice tests. I think a book structured like this is probably the best way to study a language on your own. So to all you who may have been put off by the fact that it is an exam preparation book please do yourselves a favor and buy this book.

Absolutely the best book around. The subject review is a big exhaustive, but well worth your money. Going through the entire book will guarantee you a 4 or a 5!

First, I should say that I didn't actually use the book as a review, but my teacher did use two of the practice exams (not sure how many come with it in total) in class. We did one full length exam on a Saturday morning (I got a 5) and there was another one that we did in sections over a few days. This morning, I took the real College Board AP Spanish Language exam and it was a little different. Not completely different, mind you-REA got all of the basics right-but something about the tone and feel of the exam was different. The reading passages weren't actual narratives, but factual writings, two of them were reprinted from newspapers. On the listening section all of the accents in this book were from Spain (use of "ceceo") but none of them were on the actual test. This isn't a bad test, but some of the other review books are probably a little better. Again, I did not use this for review of grammar or look at the book at all, just the practice tests.

I really enjoyed using this book as a form of supplementary preparation for taking the AP Spanish Exam. I found it to be an excellent source of information for all of the material covered on the exam, and some of the practices excercises actually more than prepared me for the material on the exam. The audio CDs were essential in preparing me for the oral component of the exam, and made studying more fun. I Am grateful to the authors of the book, since their work helped me to score a 5 on the exam. I would strongly recommend this book to test takers.

ARRL publishes a handful of titles that occupy the pinnacle in ham radio publishing, including their license manuals, Operating Manual, Handbook, and, of course, the Antenna book. There is nothing that really compares to ARRL's antenna book in terms of either raw coverage or quality. While there are engineering texts and a ham radio titles that dive far deeper on narrow topics, the ARRL Antenna book covers a vast range of antenna types and topics - and in more detail than the majority of hams will ever care to absorb. This book can be read for its more advanced technical content or, alternatively, be used quite effectively as a project book. I don't often see this book discounted. I couldn't find it new at a discount at the last hamfest I attended, for example, nor is it discounted at my local (unnamed) ham radio store. Couple that with free shipping from Amazon, and it's a deal!

You know, I'm just starting out in HAM radio and I was very excited to hear that ARRL makes all these books. So I've been buying them here and there. This one, the antenna book, explains it all (about antennas). It's awsome ! Good from new to experianced !

As this purchase was to replace my copy of an earlier edition that was lost in a tornado, I didn't have any reservations in buying the latest edition, still a great resource. A nice balance of theory and construction how to do it. I do like that the print edition now comes with an electronic edition.

This is the bible for ham radio antenna design. Also covers transmission lines and propagation. Both theory (at graduate EE level) and practice (at the level of mere mortals). -- ws2i

The Arrl Antenna Book is a must have for any antenna designer. Amateur radio operators, shortwave listeners and commerical users will benefit from both the theory provided and the practical examples of proper design executions.

When I began reading this book,I anticipated a telling of the nazi shadow engulfing the Jews of Austria in the style of-say- Primo Levi, or even Zweigs recollections in his 'World of Yesterday' autobiography. But Appelfelds style is unique. Yes, the nazi shadow is coming to engulf.As readers we know what their fate will be. But Appelfeld tells the story from the universal human perspective where we evade reality and interpret everything the way we want it to be, not as it actually is.

Jews are gathered in Badenheim for their annual vacation. The 'sanitation' department has ordered all Jews to register. The residents know they will be going to Poland.Dr Pappenheim talks of the new opportunities; how it is essential people return to their own country of origin. (The atmosphere of evading reality is heightened as nobody asks 'Why?') Langmann is angry. He is Austrian. Why should he be uprooted over a mistake? Peter the pastry shop owner blames it all on Pappenheim for bringing decadence to the town with his art festivals.(Again, no one asks what has this got to do with their situation-even though Peters accusation is a common myth espoused by the nazis.) Fussholdt carries on writing his major critiques on jewish philosophers and culture whom he dispises despite his own judaism.

Throughout, there are no Cassandra characters. Only quickly appeased comments (They took my house is somehow turned into an understandable action by the residents.)Even at the end, Pappenheim is convinced they cannot have far to travel when 40 filthy cattle trucks arrive at the station to take them to Poland; its all ok.



This book is a mere 148 pages and must be read in one sitting to gain the full effect. It transcends the era and the crime it portrays, it tells you of mans fatal flaw in disbelieving the evil that can occur. Trusting to decency and reason to quell brutality. You know that these people know, but even as a reader, you would feel uneasy in trying to break the truth to them.



Appelfeld has a unique way of writing and a message for both his own people and all of mankind. This was an honour to read.

Badenheim is a quiet, idyllic holiday town in Eastern Europe. The 'leader' of the town, Dr Pappenheim, is busy preparing for the annual festival, writing letters and sending telegrams to beg and plead for musicians and artists from Vienna.

While the preparations are under way, the Sanitation Department begins quietly undertaking a rigorous inspection of each and every house and shop in Badenheim. Among the many questions asked is how many and who of the residents are Jewish. The vacationers and locals alike think nothing of the questions, nonchalantly confirming or denying their religion, and returning to their food, their wine, their entertainment. Here and there, a few people discuss the increasing powers of the Sanitation Department - they have just recently closed the Post Office - but nobody seems to mind. Badenheim is quiet and peaceful, and that is how they like it.

Time passes. The impresario, Dr Pappenheim, is still writing letters, but he senses that they are going off into the void, never to return. A few - very few - letters are still allowed into Badenheim, but for the most part, the Sanitation Department has closed off the city. Guards are posted to deny entry or exit to any man, woman or child of Jewish descent. It happens so slowly that nobody really notices, but at one stage, almost all of the non-Jewish people have gone, and of the tiny trickle of visitors allowed into Badenheim, every person is a Jew.

There is a quiet horror to Badenheim 1939. Throughout this very short book, it seems as though with each page, the oppression and terror of World War II is approaching the Jewish people of Badenheim, but they never see it. With every freedom slowly being denied - the shops are closed, the gates are sealed, outside communication is forbidden - the reader is left to wonder if this time, if this time when the Sanitation Department closes the pastry shop, say, will they understand? But they never do. Everything happens over such a long period of time, and so quietly, that nobody really seems to realise when they are suddenly trapped, except for a few minor characters who are slowly going mad, the cracks in the calm facade they have wrapped themselves in widening with every minute.

This book is most effective because we know what happened to the Jews post-1939. We know where they are going, and what will likely happen to them. The Sanitation Department assures them that they will be transplanted to Poland, and everything will be fine. They believe because they have to believe. Towards the end of the novel, the razor wire, the guns, the dogs all make an appearance. To ignore what is happening is suicidal, and yet they do. After all, how could a race of people imagine that they would be persecuted in such a terrifying manner? Surely, their minds would shied away from such horrible information, from the mere idea that a man - a country - wanted to eradicate six million of them? And yet, that is what happened, and that is how the novel ends, a perfect, bleak, dark ending that is all the more horrifying for how completely reasonable every single tiny little step leading up to their incarceration inside a derelict train, headed, presumably, for Auschwitz.

Badenheim 1939 is a powerful book because it shows how easy it is to accept something unacceptable, if it is presented in small, reasonable, easily palatable pieces. None of these characters are overly bad, or good - they are absolutely normal. They squabble, they argue, they love, they laugh, they sing, they cry. In fact, throughout the entire novel, nothing untoward happens to any of them - except for the encroaching holocaust.

Aharon Appelfeld's beautiful and highly polished novel, Badenheim 1939 was originally published in Hebrew in 1975. Although the Holocaust forms both the historical backdrop of the novel as well as its imaginative focus, it does so from behind-the-scenes and, as such, is subtle and implicit in its assertions, all to its enormous credit.

Badenheim 1939 is set at an Austrian vacation resort during the spring of 1939. A seemingly unremarkable assortment of middle-class Jews on holiday have gathered at Badenheim, only to later be united by what would become history's most atrocious turning point. The "Music Festival" resort of Badenheim will, soon enough, become a place of Jewish detainment from which the only exit will be via forced transport to Poland.

The vacationers, however, for the most part, remain in blissful unawareness of what is to come. Spring is in the air and summer is about to blossom; the Jews spend their days strolling the hotel gardens, visiting the cities cafés, sampling strawberry tartes at the local pastry shops, engaging in sports and bickering, gossiping, bargaining and complaining, much as any other vacationer. The mounting horror, which every reader of this sensitive and elegant book will realize, is made all the greater by the fact that it is a horror the characters simply cannot, or will not, see.

Badenheim 1939 is written with an artistic subtlety and insight with which most modern readers remain sadly unfamiliar. Appelfeld's concern, in this book, is with the prelude to the German catastrophe and not with its actual occurrence. The author, himself a Holocaust survivor, makes virtually no mention of the Nazi atrocities and shows no interest in the graphic portrayal of the brutalities committed. Appelfeld is certainly not oblivious to the facts, he simply has chosen to place his focus elsewhere. In Badenheim 1939, the Holocaust is an incipient threat rather than a full-blown horror.

Appelfeld's prose is more akin to lyric poetry than to narrative fiction and shows a tremendous gift for rhetorical restraint that is rare among writers. This is a beautiful and quiet tale, exquisitely told with imagery, understatement and indirection. The effects of the narrative accumulate and change in much the same way the seasons do, in increments that are minimal and yet extraordinarily moving. This is history, but it is history perceived at its most mundane. In this remarkable manner, Appelfeld creates something of extraordinary beauty and yet, manages to intensify the tragedy.

In the end, Appelfeld's characters do, of course, suffer the horrors that befell all Jews, of every nation, whether directly or indirectly. The genius of Badenheim 1939 lies in its projections of a gradual, incipient menace and its portraits of Jewish reactions, which range from ready adjustment to slowly unfolding despair.

It is in the space between the reader's knowledge of what is beginning to unfold for the Jews and the latter's own blindness to it that the book registers its most powerful impact, once again doing so without any direct reference to the ovens, the gas chambers or the camps. Appelfeld's artistic beauty lies in his amazing ability to suggest rather than describe. Giorgio Bassani was able to do something similar in The Garden of the Finzi-Continis but Appelfeld is, perhaps, the more superior.

Rarely has the tragic end point of Jewish fate been invoked no clearly and disturbingly and yet so indirectly. We come away from Badenheim 1939 as though from a finely-rendered tone poem, complete with the knowledge that we have been absorbed into a special moment in time and in feeling; in this case, the moment just before the trains departed for Poland, the final pause before the end.

Badenheim is a an Austrian resort town whose denizens are almost all Jewish. This short novel describes the reactions of the residents of the town as preparations are made to deport them ' to the East'. It describes the gradual series of changes in which the town is slowly closed down, and its residents denied their privileges and enjoyments. A number of characters stories are highlighted including the Impressario Pappenheim who has for years organized the Music and Dramatic Festivals in the town.The story of a half - Jewish waitress who identifies with the Jews and who injures herself in desperation is also told. Also an assimilated writer who mocks Herzl and Buber and worships the satiricial Karl Kraus is despicted. Most of these characters are living in the delusion that they are about to be deported from Austria to go to a better life in the East, in Poland. Appelfeld is a master of depicting these small games people play with themselves, these small self- deceptions which keep them from facing a horrible truth.
In the end the town closes down and the residents and vacationers of Badehnheim are taken away. When four old dirty trains hook up with them they still refuse to see the reality. And the concluding thought of escape is that they must be going 'on a short journey since the cars are so dirty'.
Assimilated Jews, often self- hating but even more often painfully human in clinging to delusions of their own normalcy and safety are the subject of this work. It is all prelude to the Disaster and Destruction the Shoah which is to destroy them all.

Aharon Appelfeld, one of Israel's greatest writers, has had only a handful of his 40 books translated into English. It's too bad. Then again, it's too bad Appelfeld didn't write "Badenheim 1939" under the pen name "Albert Camus" --- if he had, this 148-page novel would be taught alongside "The Stranger" and regarded, rightly, as a modern classic.

Appelfeld is a very unlikely writer. But then, it's remarkable that he's alive. Born in Romania in 1932, he was a quiet boy, an only child. He was just 8 when the Nazis shot his mother and deported him and his father to a concentration camp in the Ukraine, at which point they were separated for twenty years. Aharon escaped to Russia, where he was a shepherd. In 1944, at 12, he joined the Russian Army. When the war ended, he made his way to Italy and, finally, to Palestine. He spoke so many languages he couldn't express himself in any. And he had only a year or two of schooling. But he managed to enroll in college in Jerusalem and, soon after, to begin writing stories in Hebrew.

Appelfeld has one great subject: understanding what happened to his people. "I'm dealing with a civilization that has been killed," he has said. "How to represent it in the most honorable way --- not to equalize it, not to exaggerate, but to find the right proportion to represent it, in human terms." What kept him from depression, bitterness, suicide? "I've never been an angry person. This is what saved me."

"Badenheim 1939" --- the first of Appelfeld's books to be translated from Hebrew to English --- is a modest, precise, even-handed tale. As it should be; this is a simple story, of a single season in a resort town favored by Jews. As the novel begins, Spring has arrived. So have the musicians. And the first tourists.

Dr. Pappenheim is the local impresario; he's all bustle. Expect to see him at the Post Office, sending telegrams and opening letters. But this season is unlike all others. For one thing, the Sanitation Department has increased powers --- it's now authorized to undertake "independent investigations." For reasons not made clear, these investigations include the construction of fences and rolls of barbed wire. Appliances appear, "suggestive of preparations for a public celebration." The visitors to the resort expect "fun and games."

And, indeed, the office of the Sanitation Department is starting to look like a travel agency, thanks to the new signs: "The air in Poland is fresher" and "Get to know the Slavic Culture" and "Labor is our Life." There's plenty of time to think about those signs; walks are now forbidden, guests must stay on the grounds of the hotel. It's a nice break in a dull day when the Sanitation Department puts maps on Poland on sale.

The Post Office closes. Just as well. No mail is arriving --- and who knows if letters are getting out? But more people suddenly show up, all of them Jews. Here for the Music Festival? Apparently not.

And now it's Fall. The cakes of summer are no more. Ditto cigarettes. Lunch is barley soup and dry bread. Concern? Bad dreams? Of course. But no one can really believe that what is happening is more than an inconvenience. At worst, a mistake.

At last a train appears at the station. An engine with four filthy freight cars. The last paragraph shows how the worst thing you can imagine can be sold to you as something else. How easily you and yours can be lost. And, in one of the greatest sentences ever to end a book, how you can go to your doom still believing it's all going to be okay.

Managers face competing interests in running a company. Their compensation programs are set to try and focus their performance, but if it is only set on revenue the company might end up losing money while paying the top executives big performance bonuses. If it is on net income, they can manipulate the accounting by cutting the heart out of future business, again, damaging the company while getting a big paycheck. If you put them on straight salary, you won't be able to hire most of the best talent. So, what do you do?

The Balanced Scorecard was originally created in the private sector to create management goals that, yes, balance a variety of factors. You use historical and industry data as well as current performance metrics. The interests of shareholders and stakeholders are also balanced in some way, as are any other combination of factors that can help managers get a better picture of what matters to the success of the company and the benefit of its owners, its employees, and its stakeholders.

This book takes this tool and shows you how to adapt it to public sector entities and nonprofit agencies. Paul Niven draws on his years of experience and shows you how to tweak the model and use it to increase your organization's effectiveness. He also takes us through the success story of Charlotte, North Carolina.

If you are interested in this model and are a governmental agency or a nonprofit organization, this is a fine resource.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

A very clear and practical view of the Balanced Scorecard tool. The text has the right amount of theoretical background and gives very enlightening exemples and advice to those interested in this field. However most of the exemples comes from private sector and non-profit organizations. Little from government and armed-forces.
But in general terms this is an excelent book. I recommend it.

This book is informative and keeps your interest. Lots of case studies and examples. The author keeps the focus on why scorecards should be used and places emphasis on how to keep them useful.

Balanced Scorecards make lots of sense for the For-Profit world for which they were originally developed. What makes this book so good is that they have concentrated on what makes Non-Profits different and how to conceptualize how the BC works in that arena. The book is well written and easy to understand. It is a must for all non-profit execs.

Very helpful approach in developing a measuring tool for monitoring ministry growth and tracking to Vision.

One of my three kidlets learned to read at age 3, and the book that he learned to read first was "Bear by Himself." He had a great pre-school teacher named Mary. One day I came home from work, and he had this book and was reading from memory, or so I thought. I began to listen carefully, and then after he read the book, I pointed out some words to him at random, and by gosh, he was reading! And, he understood what he was reading and what the story was about. I thank Mary for her patience in teaching him, wherever she may be. She was wonderful! My son is a voracious reader, and continues to read, just like all of us in our family. I am ordering him a copy for Christmas!

When I was little, my parents (mostly my dad) read this to me all the time and I loved it! It is so sweet and I think every partent should read it to their kids!

I used to read this book to my children when they were very small. It was a reminder to them that everyone needs quiet time. I was hearbroken when it got lost and searched everywhere for it. Now that it is back in print I can read it to my youngest! I would love to get a copy of the original as the illustrations were so peaceful and beautiful.

I love this book. The text is tender and thoughtful (although perhaps a tad on the precious side), the illustrations are sweet but not overly so--Bear comes across as an energetic little guy, even though he is alone. But I do have two suggestions, don't know if anyone from the publisher will read this to hear them! One is to publish it as a board book; the hardback version might not last long with the intended age group. And the other is to publish a "Bear by Herself" version, with a little girl bear, sort of like the two versions of "Once Upon a Potty." ;-) I'm not rabid about being politically correct, but this seems to me to be a book that particularly lends itself to personalization; I think young kids will really identify with Bear.

I went to my local book store and they couldn't find "Bear by Himself". I bought the original when my son was 3 years old and misplaced it. He's been asking about it recently and wished he had it. It warmed MY heart to know it still had a special place in HIS. I was so happy to see I could obtain another copy of it through amazon.com, but feel I may be disappointed as the more recent version has different illustrations as one reader shared. I still plan to order one, though, because the text is unchanged. The original illustrations were so beautiful and calming...I remember it so vividly. My son is now 12 and still loves being alone at times. He really relates to the bear. It was great to share the same feelings with all of you! I'm willing to spend a bit more for the book to get the original. If any of you know how I can obtain one, please email me. Thanks so much.