Smith Books

pete english, you spelled facet wrong. hehe. sometimes when i am home alone, i google myself (copyrighted).

I borrowed this book from the library and then I'm here now to buy it for my own. This book goes through each type of disability, how they are identified and will guide you through the maze of school testing, IEP's, and how to be your child's advocate to make sure they are getting everything they should be getting from their education! Great detail on emotional growth, planning for the future and assessment measures!

I recommended this book to the LD Specialist at my childs school who couldn't thank me enough for finding this book so she has a sound resource to suggest to parents of LD children. This book not only helps you learn to identify your childs learning disabilities or learning difficulties, but also to understand them. Also, it provides the information you need to talk with the school knowledgeably about testing and LD services. It helps you understand what your part of this process should be and tells you what you need to know to successfully participate in the process. It gives you strategies your child can use in everyday life situations that will help him/her learn. And it helps you with information about the social and emotional needs of your growing child. I no longer feel helpless in dealing with this issue. This book has given me the knowledge, but also very importantly, concrete ways to help my child be as successful as can be.

For any parent facing the possibility or reality that their child has learning problems this is the book I would recommend. I cannot think of a question it did not answer or a facit of the topic it did not cover. It helped me enormously - I am on my second read and this time I am taking notes.

When my daughter was diagnosed with a learning disability I was lost at how to deal with the school system. The first time we did her IEP I did not know what to expect. There weren't any parent advocates for us at the time of her IEP. This book prepared me on how to be an advocate for my child. I educated myself about her needs from the book and had alot of confidence when meeting with the school system to plan her education for the following year. Actually I went to the meeting knowing what to ask for and how to ask for it. It worked out that the items I asked for she received. Now we constantly use the book as a reference guide when we are unsure of something. This book is good right up into adulthood when your child is choosing higher education or out in the workforce. It was a lifesaver for us and a great learning tool!

There are many reasons people write a book...money, fame, etc... My favorite books are by authors who have been in the trenches and write from experience.

Jason Smith's Leaving Campus and Going to Work is one of these books. For over 14 years Jason has held human resources positions in the media, oil and gas, and merchant industries. What Jason has seen over and over in each of these industries is that quarterlifers consistently have the same frustrations and doubts during their first year of work.

As quartelifers we wonder if we've made the right career move, what is expected of us, and how long we will last at our new job. Not only do we have these questions but Jason has also seen that as quarterlifers we tend to sabotage ourselves with certain behaviors during our first year.

Leaving Campus and Going to Work is Jason's response to this pattern. In the book he addresses the most common questions that come up during the first year of work including:

-Applying Your Education
-Unwritten Rules
-Company Culture
-The Rules of Socializing

The book is concise, practical and comes from real world experience.

Jason C. Steinle, UploadExperience.com

Excellent resource for the recently out of school and in the workplace employee--although anyone will benefit from it. Perfect gift for a recent graduate. Written in plain, practical English that is easy and a pleasure to read. I would highly recommend it to others.

Leaving Campus and Going to Work was written by T. Jason Smith after he noticed the difficulties many new hires were having adjusting appropriately to the workplace. He found that while college was preparing students academically for the world of work they were not prepared for many other aspects of it. The first year of a job is of the utmost importance as ground work for the future so it is crucial to be ready in all ways.

The book is laid on in 3 straight forward sections.

Building a Solid Foundation addresses many of the 'hidden' pitfalls of modern corporate life such as company culture, unwritten rules and how to get along with fellow employees and bosses. An interesting point is in choosing an "Unknowing Mentor," someone chosen to emulate, watch and learn from. He suggests they are chosen by
"1. How well they do what they do. (Competence)
2. Why they do what they do. (Motivation)
3. How well they fit within their employer's culture. (Fit with the Culture)"
It also covers the basic skills covered in other workplace oriented textbooks but Smith provides the details needed to bring the information to life. In the subsection "Ready-Aim-Deliver" he has 5 core components on 'what your best looks like.' He teaches how to grab that big opportunity when it arises and use it to the fullest potential. His thoughts are clear, well thought out and detailed.

Personal Realities covers how personal choices and traits can affect the workplace such as being part of a team, responsibility, and what not to do in your free time. It also examines money management in budgeting those great first paychecks and how benefits are part of a salary package, what they are and their importance.

The last section emphasizes how to balance the 3 critical parts of life, what he calls "The Me Role, the we role and the us role." He describes each role, how they interact and the dangers of not balancing each of them together. It is a vital view of how to be both a valuable employee and a successful, well adjusted adult. This is a warning that is well needed by anyone entering the modern climate of the workplace for the first time.

The amazing aspect of this book is that is only 189 pages. T. Jason Smith was able to pack a huge amount of information into this small package by using the shorter sub sections with their combination of personal anecdotes and concrete advice. He adds a healthy dose of humor to balance the tough look at the transition from education to the workplace. This is an ideal gift for anyone entering the workplace for the first time.

Jason Smith was right, I accepted my job offer and thought "now what?" Thanks to him, I now know what to do in order to make good decisions for this first job, and with my new paycheck. And the greatest part is that he did this without being condescending and with real life examples and humor. The sections on finances, benefits, mentors and secret rules contained very good information that I have not seen anywhere else. Anyone graduating from school or moving into a new position should read this book.

A friend of mine bought this a few weeks ago and I borrowed it to read while travelling to a job interview. It was not what I was expecting. Alot of books like this are very wordy and kinda hard to read, but this book explains things in what I call 'normal' language. I saw why each topic (and there were many) was discussed in the book (they made sense to know if you were working), and while there were some definite dos and don'ts in the book, most of the chapters told you the pros and cons for you to make the decision. I'm still looking for a job right now, but I've already picked up a few things that would even help me in my temp jobs. I would recommend it.

After dinner, I started reading Warren Smith's book, "The Light That Was Dark," and kept reading until 3:00 in the morning -- only needing sleep kept me from reading clear through to the end. It is one of the best written life-changing stories I have read. You forget you are reading a book, and find yourself right there with Warren as he is taking you through his jorney from a very much involved New-Ager, seeking to do only good -- but finding he had gotten himself caught in a dark demonic world. He then takes you through his incredible rescue by the REAL Jesus. All I can say is -- get the book!

Warren Smith gives a fantastic account of how he left the New Age/Occult movements of the world and found the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a sometimes chilling and definately moving book that will really bring to light the battle raging around us that we cannot see in the Spiritual world. I would highly recommend anyone to read this novel as we see these demonic practices becoming more and more prevelent in the days we are living in.

I enjoyed this book by Warren Smith, and found it to be well-written, thoughtful, and honest. Mr. Smith is very open in the book about the events of his life that led up to his involvement with the New Age. I found that he really took risks, as some of the stories that he shared (specifically about the "Mad Magician") could be used against him by people who support the New Age Movement.

My favorite passage in the book is on p. 147: "Finally, after all we had been through, I was starting to see that the heart of the gospel is not so much that God helps those who help themselves, but, rather, that God helps those who can't help themselves. It was not in affirming our strength but in recognizing our weakness that we had finally learned to ask the Lord for help. It was His grace, not our own self-sufficiency that had saved the day."

This would be a good book to give someone who is involved in the New Age Movement or the occult. Read this along with Inside the New Age Nightmare by Randall N. Baer. Both books expose the truth about what the New Age really is.Inside the New Age Nightmare: For the First Time Ever...a Former Top New Age Leader Takes You on a Dramatic Journey

Like a novel in the way it made you turn the pages to find out what happens next. Really interesting and well-written. I felt the author was painfully honest about himself and tried to relate exactly what happened as accurately as possible.

This is a good account of one person's (actually two) experience with chasing spirituality the wrong way and finding out that evil actually exists despite what some New Age teachings say. It's a good lesson, and a quick easy read. I read it in one weekend and I usually take weeks to finish a book. My take is this: if evil exists in the material world around us, then why wouldn't it exist in the "higher" realms above us, but in a more sophisticated form? Asking blindly for any and all spiritual assistance from the "other side" is as foolish as a blind person standing on an inner city street corner and yelling for any available help. They might get helped or they might get mugged. Better to have a seeing eye dog or friend along who knows the territory. Overall, I liked the book.

From beginner to expert this book contains all of the answers to your lingo needs. It is packed with examples and thorough descriptions.

I can't find an updated version of it - if anyone knows of one please let me know!...

This book has got to be the best computer related book I ever bought. I wish there were reference books in this format for every other programming subject like Perl and JavaScript. It's the only book you will ever need for Director's lingo.

The thing I like most is having the Lingo grouped by subject, it makes things so easy to look up.

Darrel, please make a reference like this for Perl!!!!

If you are already familiar with the Director interface, and want to do things in Lingo that most people only wish they could do, pick this book up right now! This is the only book I use on a daily basis for quick information. Darrel Plant not only gives a clear explanation on every command but also gives you examples that you can understand and use in everyday applications. I also greatly appreciated the way that the book content is organized. Rather than list the commands in alphabetical order, they are grouped according to the type of element or function that they control. It's nice to put something together that the user/client likes, but use this book and they will be saying, "Awsome! Love it! Wow, how did you do that?" ------ Thanks Darrel

...your life will be easier if this book is within reach. I even take it with when I have to go on-site to a client. Very useful having the Lingo grouped by subject. Also very useful icons by each Lingo word showing if it can be used in Shockwave and which versions of Director it can be used in. A must-have for a Lingo programmer.

(excuse my english, I'm Swiss) Before purchasing this book or even knowing about it, I had some heavy problems in finding the right way (or a shorter one) to solve several problems in programming Multimedia-applications. I ordered this book and everything changed! It's descriptions are so easy (even when you aren't originally english-speaking!), because you just can read the text and know what the command, keyword, property a.s.o. is all about. You have even more than one solution showed in examples. There is only one bad thing: if you use this book very often, the cover of the book looks old soon; it could be a little stronger. My suggestion: if you suffer a headache from studying and controlling your non-functioning scripts, you better get this book as soon as possible and keep it handy! You will gain a hell of a time!

Have fun

Best regards

Patric Simon

There are several outstanding books on the general subject of Six Sigma and Eckes has written two of the best. Previously in The Six Sigma Revolution, he examined major corporations such as Motorola and GE in which Six Sigma programs really did create revolutions which continue as I compose this review. These are properly acclaimed successes. Of course, little (if any) attention has as yet been devoted to those organizations which initiated and then later abandoned Six Sigma programs. The reasons for doing so vary, of course, but most can be classified within two categories of resistance to change: cultural and technical. As O'Toole brilliantly explains in Leading Change, it is a formidable task to overcome what he characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In this volume, Eckes suggests all manner of strategies and tactics by which to overcome resistance and then sustain Six Sigma programs, once launched. Correctly, he stresses the importance to an organization of achieving a "balance" between its culture and its technology. Moreover, at a time when change is (literally) the only constant and occurring at an ever-increasing velocity, its is also a formidable challenge to maintain the proper balance of the two. For many years, I believed that most people fear change. I no longer believe that. Rather, I have become convinced that most people fear the unfamiliar. Hence the importance of constant and effective communication between and among everyone involved. Eckes suggests that this book will show his reader how to "Create the need for Six Sigma" but, in fact, the need probably exists already so there is a need to help everyone recognize that need and appreciate the importance of responding to it. Therefore, Eckes also shows his reader how to "Shape a vision of Six Sigma so that employees understand the desired results and new behaviors of a Six Sigma organization." Also, he shows the reader how to "Mobilize commitment to Six Sigma and overcome resistance" which is inevitable. Only then can any organization change its systems and structures "to support the new Six Sigma culture." Next: "Measure Six Sigma cultural acceptance" and "Develop Six Sigma leadership." All of these components are absolutely essential, difficult to integrate, and even more difficult to sustain in appropriate balance. In this volume, Eckes explains how and he does so with precision and eloquence.

In recent years, I have become more involved in Six Sigma or process improvement programs which vary somewhat in terms of their design and scope but all of which encountered several of the "pitfalls" which Eckes discusses in Chapter 8:

1. Feeling obligated to achieve quick success

2. Clogging up agendas with competing distractions

3. Having unrealistic time frames

4. Ignoring previous quality efforts

5. Conducting poor Six Sigma cultural planning and follow-through

6. Delegating (i.e. dumping) cultural development or seeing it as a one-time event

7. Not having appropriate cultural goals or objectives

8. Not allowing for unexpected interruptions

9. Allowing false or cosmetic positive readings to suggest authentic cultural transformation has been achieved

10. Underestimating resource allocation

Of course, whether or not involved with Six Sigma initiatives, any organization can experience some or even all of these "pitfalls." In this book, Eckes offers sound, street-smart advice on how to avoid them. Time and again, he places great emphasis on the importance of cultural values by which everyone involved in a Six Sigma can be guided and, when under duress, sustained. Herb Kelleher has this in mind whenever he explains what Southwest Airlines competitive advantage is: "Maintaining excellent customer service involves a process of getting people to understand the importance of it to them in their daily lives as well as in others'. We were a little concerned as we go bigger that maybe some of our early culture might be lost so we set up a culture committee whose only purpose is to keep the Southwest Airlines culture alive. Before people knew how to make fire, there was a fire watcher. Cave dwellers may have found a tree hit by lightning and brought fire back to the cave. Somebody had to make sure it kept going because if it went out, there would be serious problems. That cave dweller was the most important person in the tribe. I said to our culture committee, `You are our fire watchers, who make sure the fire does not go out. I think you are the most important committee at Southwest Airlines.' I really do believe that to be the case." This is precisely what Eckes means by "culture" in this book. For everyone in any organization already embarked on a Six Sigma program or now considering one, this is a "must read."

Think about it. Seriously think about it. What was the downfall of your quality endeavor? Your performance improvement plan? Your Six Sigma initiative? Was the wrong strategy used or was it the wrong tactical approach? Mostly likely it was neither your strategy nor your tactical approach. The failure was most likely do to people. Most likely your people hadn't really bought in. Buy-in from your people is necessary for an initiative such as Six Sigma to be successful. The people in your organization create your organizations' culture. How do you get cultural buy-in? How can you sustain that buy-in?

In the book Making Six Sigma Last, the author, George Eckes shows us how. Through heart-felt stories, humorous personal examples, and real business illustrations the author takes us through the process needed to create and sustain a culture that supports Six Sigma.

First we learn about Q x A = E. This powerful formula shows us that: "Q" Quality, the technical and strategic elements of a Six Sigma initiative, times "A" Cultural Acceptance, of the technical and strategic elements of Six Sigma, determines "E" the success of the Six Sigma process. Then, the author addresses resistance. We are reminded that it's a natural process for people to resist change. Eckes describes four types of resistance and offers specific strategies for overcoming each. The next chapters show how to sell it and then manage it. Now it's time to ask did it work? Did you get the cultural buy-in you were attempting? How do you know? In Making Six Sigma Last, Eckes offers a model that is used to measure the cultural acceptance within the organization or as Eckes says, "how well Six Sigma has been baked into the organization". Five case studies are used to illustrate these concepts. Then through profiles of leadership, the author shares real business examples of what worked, what didn't and why. Finally we learn how to sustain the culture that will support Six Sigma initiatives with the chapter on pitfalls: 10 things to avoid.

Making Six Sigma Last is an informative and easy read. It's effective and efficient, hallmarks of Six Sigma. The book leaves you inspired and hopeful that this stuff really can work. Don't start without it!

What I enjoyed most about this book was the applied "psychology of business" in other words, how to get people (organizations)to do what you want them to do and like it!

The book gives you answers to the "what if" questions that anyone trying to succeed in changing their corporate culture has. The examples and the personal tone of the book make it a fast, informative and easy read.

No one knows Six Sigma, which seeks near perfect customer satisfaction, like George Eckes, the consultant who literally wrote the book on it (The Six Sigma Revolution: How General Electric and Others Turned Process into Profits). In his second book, Eckes emphasizes the importance of molding organizational culture to generate broad acceptance of a Six Sigma initiative, using illustrative examples from his workshops. He describes ways to overcome internal resistance to change, to sell the program's benefits and to get key people as well as the masses on board. If you are launching a Six Sigma program, Eckes provides many specific suggestions of strategies you can employ. But because much of Eckes' wisdom can be applied more generally to organizational change efforts, we [...] recommend this insightful book to any executive, whether or not Six Sigma is your strategy of choice.

The new book: Making Six Sigma Last, by Mr. George Eckes, is the the most comprehensive and excellent road map to reach corporate cultural excellence.

The previous book by Mr. Eckes: The Six Sigma Revolution, successfully teaches us the way to implement the tactical component of Six Sigma: process management excellence.

The current book is the only book to date that offers a complete process to achieve the key strategic component of Six Sigma: corporate cultural excellence.

Mr. Eckes has again produced an enjoyable, very enlightening and important Six Sigma book that is easy to read and comprehend.

It is perfect for corporate executives, managers, employees, consultants, quality practitioners, and students of best business practice.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my high regard for the outstanding book: Making Six Sigma Last.

Regards,
Marc St.James
November 24, 2001

This book is a good resource for managers trying to develop brands where experience accounts for and important portion of the value perceived by the customer.
It is well structured, goes beyond the obvious.

As the CEO of a software company, I have been searching for PRACTICAL advice for enhancing the experience for our customers. Most books I have seen are full of theory and are basically worthless. If you don't walk away from this book with a list of action items, then you obviously don't care about serving your customers.

I believe that this book will be on my desk as a reference for a long time. It will take a couple of years to implement all that I learned.

Definitely worth the read!

Actually, the title of this book is somewhat misleading because Smith and Wheeler have as much of value to say about how to create an appropriate customer experience as they do about how to manage it effectively. In fact, the two are not only connected, they are interdependent. The ultimate objective is to establish an ever-increassing critical mass of customers who are "advocates" or as Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba would characterize them, "evangelists."

Obviously, customer relationship management (CRM) is a multi-stage process which begins with obtaining sufficient and relevant information about the target customer (or customer segments), proceeds through the design and implementation phases, continues with refinement and modification based on rigorous evaluation of CRM initiatives and measurement of their impact. Effective marketing creates or increases demand for whatever is offered whereas effective CRM ensures that "customer satisfaction" becomes "customer loyalty" which, eventually, becomes and remains "customer advocacy."

At this point, it is worth noting that, in several dozen research studies on what customers consider to be most important, three attributes were almost always ranked among the top five: feeling appreciated, convenience (i.e. easy-to-do-business-with or ETDBW), and perceived value. Cost? Depending upon which research study is consulted, it was ranked 9-14 in importance. By the way, Warren Buffett once observed something to the effect, "Cost is what you charge but value is what they think it's worth." Marketers and service providers would be well-advised to keep that in mind.

Credit Smith and Wheeler with providing a remarkably thorough analysis of how to manage the development of relationships with customers which evolve from their satisfaction to loyalty to advocacy. As Bernd Schmitt correctly notes in the foreword, "Towards the beginning of this book, the authors distinguish two key routes toward a Branded Customer Exerience: `experiencing the brand' and `branding the experience.' Experiencing the brand...begins with the brand, turns it into a promise, and delivers on it. Branding the experience is about creating an innovative experience for customers and then branding it.."

Starbucks offers an excellent example. Under Howard Schultz's leadership , the international chain of gourmet coffee shops demonstrates how to combine "excperiencing the brand" and "branding the experience." The result is that Starbucks has become, as Schultz proudly notes, not a "trend" but a "lifestyle." Perhaps no other organization treats its part-time employees treats better (both compensation and benefits) and they reciprocate with a consistency high level of service (both competence and cordiality) and thus function as - yes - advocates. According to Schultz, "What we've done is said the most important component in our brand is the emplopyee. The people have created ther magic. The people have created the experience." Appropriately, Schultz entitled his autobiography Pour Your Heart Into It.

One final point. Most organizations which have problems retaining valued customers probably also have problems retaining valuable employees. Hence the even greater relevance and value of what Shaun Smith and Joe Wheeler share in this book. Peter Drucker once observed, "If you don't have a customer, you don't have a business." There corollary to that insight: "If you don't employees who are competent and cordial as well as committed to the enterprise, you won't have any cuistomers."

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out McConnell and Jackie Huba's Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customers Become a Volunteer Sales Force, Leonard L. Berry's Discovering the Soul of Service: The Nine Drivers of Sustainable Business Success and On Great Service: A Framework for Action as well as Theodore Levitt's The Marketing Imagination (which includes his classic HBR article, "Marketing Myopia"), Kenneth E. Clow and Donald Baack's Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications (Second Edition), George E. Belch's Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, P. R. Smith and Jonathan Taylor's Marketing Communications: An Integrated Approach, and Noel Capon and co-authors' Total Integrated Marketing: Breaking the Bounds of the Function.

Also, Irving Rein and co-authors' High Visibility: The Making and Marketing of Professionals into Celebrities, Kellogg on Marketing (edited by Dawn Iacobucci), Kellogg on Integrated Marketing (co-edited by Iacobucci and Bobby Calder), and finally, Harry Beckwith's What Clients Love: A Field Guide to Growing Your Business.

We do Graphic Design for Restaurants which is all about "The Experience". We have not only started using some of the suggestions for our own firm, but are purchasing copies for clients as Christmas presents.

I bought this and several other books on this topic of a project at work. This so far has been the most comprehensive and thoughtful book on the topic. There are plenty of templates and workflows to help a team frame their customer experience goals and is supplemented with substantial facts and figures that resonate with executives. This book will provide me with much of what i need to clearly articulate these ideas to my leadership (as i build yet another powerpoint deck to do so).

My only gripe is that while many of these themes transcend time, we need a good 2008 version of this thinking that incorporates the huge changes in the internet and pervasive connectivity. References to technology were very light, i'm assuming so as not to seem outdated in this fast moving world.

Debra knows and applies TOC as well as anyone including Goldratt. This book is still a key part to understanding TOC.

Debra has done a nice job with this book. I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Theory of Constraints.

This is a grate book that explains how measurment indicators might confuse management, and make mistakes that really happen in buissness. In states several measurment indicators based on TOC that help in understanding what should be done in the company.

Very good book, but if you want to learn about TOC, you should stack it with other TOC books.

The book focusses on the root problem behind all those dysfunctional metrics around us. It explains very clearly (also for people not trained in financial jargon) how the wrong focus on the wrong metrics in the top of the organization can have impact on the complete organization and may impact negatively the quality of decisions throughout the company.

Very much recommended!

This is an excellent book if you are serious about TOC. It covers the basic how-to subjects currently in the liturature, and goes into new territory showing how to reconcile Management/Throughput Accounting with GAAP Acounting. Despite the great material I have two complaints: 1) The book is difficult to read due to the small font and wordy style 2) The book fails to recognize the existance of Lean Manufacturing and Six-Sigma tools that could break the dilemia presented about sprint capacity and buffer size. The second issue is one that any experience practitioner of Lean/6-sigma will easily recognise and correct.

Classic writing of the foundation of nursing by Miss Nightgale. Guides the nurse in her duties to the profession and her and the ward.

Florence Nightingale greatly influenced modern nursing, to focus on the needs of the patient and establish nursing as a profession requiring assessment skills as well as caring presence. This brief, well-written & clearly understandable book is a must for the personal library of any nurse or nursing student. It is amazing to realize how advanced Nightingale's thinking was in her era; her lessons remain essential today and provide a basis for understanding why we do the things we do. A great read for anyone interested in nursing!

I received the book within a few days of the order and it was in perferct condition.

A book for true Nightingales! I enjoyed this book a great deal, some parts had me laughing out loud. It is an excellent gift book for nurses!

This makes a wonderful gift for a nursing student who is graduating, a nurse who is retiring or one who is being promoted. It is fascinating reading from a historical aspect will be relevant until the end of time.

I was so dissapointed at how quickly I read half of an 800+ page book. I did not want this book to end due to the fact it is such a marvelous read. If this is not the authoritative book on Patton it should be. This book is a window into the mind and thoughts of Patton in the heat of battle and I can think of no other book that comes close in bringing this to light. Based on the way Martin Blumenson pieced together all of Patton's personal communications and diary entries in chronological order makes this a very unique biography. I read volume I of the Patton Papers and although it is very fascinating it does not come close to volume II. This is because volume II deals exclusively with Patton's WW II exploits and his infamous incidents. Although Patton had his imperfections and despite some of his views being distasteful, I can think of no other military leader in modern times I would want leading our troops into battle. If you love American history and WW II in particular this book on an American legend definitely belongs on your shelf. Martin Blumenson did a masterful job putting this book together.

Martin Blumenson's has created a fascinating and surprisingly readable biography of the World War II hero, General George Patton. Blumenson has taken the General's diaries, personal and official letters and combined them with letters written to him and newspaper articles written about him. These are arranged in chronological order.

The period covered by this book was the most active of Patton's lifetime. In the last three years of his life, Patton had adventures enough for several lifetimes. After playing a major part in the conquest of North Africa, then Sicily, Patton was sidelined for nearly a year after the slapping incidents. During this time a disinformation campaign was put forth to convince the Nazis that Patton would command a non-existent army group that was to invade the south of France. A month after D Day Patton took command of the recently formed Third Army and drove across Europe, playing a pivotal role in the Battle of the Bulge.

In this book, Blumenson splices together the actual documents written by and about Patton as the actual events unfolded. Despite being an amalgamation of material from so many different sources, the book reads like a novel. Blumenson very rarely adds his own editorial commentary. This is done in a way that enhances the flow of the narrrative. My only complaint is that it frequently is difficult to determine where these asides begin and end. This readability is what makes the book great and unique. Having read many other biographies that over-analyze and inject the authors' personal opinion into the narrative it is refreshing to simply have the facts laid out in front of you.

Patton had an amusing tendency to give sarcastic nicknames to his rivals and adversaries. Omar Bradley is "the tentmaker," both for his Arab name and his tendency towards caution, Eisenhower is "divine destiny" for his political ambitions. General W. Bedell Smith, Eisenhower's hated chief of staff, is variously referred to as Beadle and Beetle. At the same time he is privately mocking these people, Patton takes great pains to praise and flatter them publicly. He even admits to himself in his diary that he is a shameless bootlicker and rear-end kisser when necessary. Patton justifies his actions because he feels he must be a sycophant to fulfill his destiny of leading men in battle. Patton even advises his son (who was a West Point Cadet at the time) that the way to advancement at the Academy is to seek out the Commandant and Superintendent and suck-up to them and their wives as much as possible.

I had low expectations for this book. Every other collection of the letters of famous men I have read has been interesting in spots but unreadable as a whole.Even the famous collected letters of Pliny the Younger are mostly dreary reports to the emperor and uninteresting notes to friends. For Blumenson to have created such an entertaining and informative document from similar material is a remarkable achievement.

This second volume of his memoirs deals with World War II and the battles that made Patton a legend. Author Martin Blumenson lets, "Ol Blood and Guts," tell his own story through letters and official correspondence giving the reader an intimate view of the public and private man that captivated the world's attention for four years.

All of the big battles are here: "Torch" in North Africa; "Husky" in Sicily; "Cobra" in France and Bastogne which some call, "his finest hour." Patton played a key role in each of them. His tactics, featuring rapidly moving armor and mechanized infantry forces supported by mobile artillery and air wrote the book used for decades to come. However, he never overlooked the human element. Machines could never replace well trained and highly motivated soldiers personally led by competent commanders. His success was undeniable but he often proved to be his own worst enemy.

Patton's well known slapping of a shell shocked soldier followed by his unintended slight of our Soviet allies made headlines. Newsmen jumped at the opportunity to sell papers by printing anything controversial about a man whose name evoked emotional responses from friends and enemies alike. This was an "enemy" Patton couldn't comprehend. It was the one "fight" he was destined to lose.

General of the Army, Omar N. Bradley said in his book, A General's Life, (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1983) ". . .I believe it was better for George Patton and his professional reputation to die when he did. . . . He was not a good peacetime soldier. . . In time he probably would have become a boring parody of himself-a decrepit, bitter, pitiful figure, unwittingly debasing the legend."

An unknown poet said it best:

"In times of danger, not before, God and soldiers all men adore. Danger's past and all is righted. God's forgotten, the soldier slighted."

No truer words could describe Patton's career. Relegated to a desk job; his primary function was to serve as grist for political and journalistic mills, a truly sad ending for an outstanding military career.

This work is an outstanding history of World War II and of the man himself. You can't call yourself a serious student of WWII unless you have read both volumes. A GREAT read. 5 stars!!

Harold Y. Grooms

When I saw what a project of a book this was at 857 pages, I wondered if I would ever get through it. It took no more than 15 or 20 pages to convince me that I would enjoy every page of it. This is a great read, especially if you are already a Patton fan. His diary entries and letters are honest and blunt, and offer great insights into Patton's winning style and strategy, his distaste for putting allied considerations over American interests, his frustrations with the press and his superiors, and his deep distrust of the Russians. Blumenson weaves these innumerable entries and letters into a seamless and easy-to-read narrative of Patton and his heroic exploits. Fans of the movie will love seeing lines taken word for word from his diary entries. I truly loved this book -- one of my favorite reads of all time.

I used this book while writing a paper for my Graduate level International Relations class. Although it is not considered a classic, it possess and delivers enormously relevant information regarding one of the greatest and most controversial master of war acknowledged in modern history. I commend this book as an pleasurable read, as well as an highly effective intellectual reference instrument.

Too often, when a good novel makes the transfer from one media to another, the result is less than stellar. How often have you seen a good book make it to the silver screen, only to have the heart and soul of it lost in the translation? I saw that this comic was available for quite a time, but hesitated purchasing it because of what I "knew" was usually done in these situations. However, I weakened because I do enjoy Smith's Libertarian Universe series so much. I was curious too, if truth be known, and besides, I needed a fix of something by LNS.

I am very glad I did!

The artwork is typical of the genre... garish colours, almost cartoonish drawings, but close enough for you to tell who is human and who isn't,... but they are very effective and lovingly drawn. They do the job of presenting the characters involved effectively. If only one artist did all this work, his work ethic is amazing. I would be interested in finding out just how long the project actually took!

The "heart" of the novel, "The Probability Broach" has been kept, especially the heartfelt dialogue between Clarissa and Win just after his forceful interrogation of their Federalist prisoner. This is, I feel, a very key point in the novel/comic, and it is well done. I understand LNS himself had a say in what was presented, and I feel it shows. Even if you have not read the original novel... and who in their sane mind would NOT read the novel?... you get the total overall picture of what the book "means", and what the author is trying to make you understand about Libertarian values. All the important events and characters are presented in the correct sequence.

After I completed the comic version... and it was good enough to get me to read it almost uninterrupted... I couldn't resist, and so broke out the original novel again, and read it for perhaps the 20th time, just to compare. It was good to read it again, but I was satisfied that the graphic novel "does the job" nearly as well. Yes the novel is better, for me, in giving detail and feelings, but the comic version was great too!

I lent the comic to my son-in-law, and he totally enjoyed it, not having read any LNS before. When he finished he asked me if I had the novel. He is presently reading it. But, we are two very satisfied readers of the graphic novel of The Probability Broach. If you are an L. Neil Smith fan, you should get this work of art, simply as a collectors piece. However, I feel you will be very satisfied with its presentation. New readers will be able to see and understand what they should about this particular political viewpoint, and go away happy. I ,for one, wish this were a reality, however, I fear Man's evil nature prevents it. There are just too many "Red Barons" out there who want or need to control others to allow this revolution to take place.

I just hope "The Venus Belt" gets published in this format as well, but I doubt it will. The work involved in producing something like this is worth it for a one-of-a-kind effort, but since no "new" Libertarian values are presented in the second book, the need to publish is simply not there... but, I hope I am wrong.

Having read the novel The Probability Broach, I was very interested in seeing the graphic novel. It was very well done, and compliments the novel well.

I would highly recommend it to any Probability Broach/L. Neil Smith fans.

I had read the novel first, and so I was a bit skeptical when I read the comic version. I was very amazed to see so much from the novel included in the comic version. After reading the comic version, I could not recall that anything had been left out. Very well done and entertaining. The illustrations were well done and quite similar to what I had visualized in my imagination while reading the novel.

In this era of so many comics being turned into big screen movies, I cannot wait for the movie version.

Probably the best book on liberty and freedom has been transformed into a beautifully illustrated Graphic Novel. Scott Beiser teams with the author of the original book L. Neil Smith, to create a new and stylishly updated version of the original novel. Beiser's artwork jumps off the page with depth and clarity, evoking feelings of immersion into this world. If I could dive in and live there I would. Excellent!

This graphic novel has to be considered both as an SF/Action-Adventure story, and as a piece of Libertarian propaganda.

As SF, it's colorfully imaginative, and runs with a theme previously used in L. Sprague De Camp's Wheels of If and the TV show Sliders (with a dash of Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia thrown in). The story is usually fast paced, but there are a few points where the propaganda acts like an unwelcome speed-bump (as when the medic spends two pages preaching to our Gulliver character about the psychological problems of pacifists who won't bear arms in self-defense). The art is eye-catching, and filled with whimsical background touches (e.g. the cameo appearances by Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Olsen, Peter Parker, and Billy & Mandy).

The Probability Broach is also largely successful as Libertarian propaganda (more successful than the environmental propaganda in Callenbach's Ecotopia, which shares a similar narrative structure). The alternate history of the "over the rainbow" world has plenty of shocks for casual readers, and encourages them to delve with an open-mind into real-world history regarding the Whiskey Rebellion and minor American politicians like Albert Gallatin. More importantly, its alternate world is largely plausible, especially to readers who have already been steeped in the works of Hayek, Virginia Postrel, Ayn Rand, and Milton Friedman, or who have already been persuaded by themes in Reason Magazine or John Stossel reports.

There remain gaps in the argument, though: like most Libertarian fiction, marriage and children seem out-of-place in this world. As in Ayn Rand's fiction, children are typically ignored, or if they appear at all, they enter as though they'd wandered in from a Victorian-era book written for children: the children are thoughtful and well-mannered enough to handle the responsibility of gun ownership or contract law at six years of age, instead of being subject to the kind of wild passions and fits that seem to demand authoritative parenting and restraint. In a post-Columbine world, the idea of gun-toting seven year olds strikes a sour note (though there is a temptation to see the kind of private school system that would avoid creating either Columbine-style pressure cookers of forced attendance, or the petty tortures cited in privately-run British boarding schools like the one depicted in Kipling's Stalky & Co.).

Further, the graphic novel is guilty of card stacking. "Our" world is depicted as one in which every historical example of government encroachment (short of pre-Civil War slavery) is carried one step further. For example, Executive Order 6102 (a Great Depression measure that prohibited "hoarding" of gold) is not only still in force in 1987 (instead of having been repealed on Dec. 31, 1974), but has been expanded to cover other precious metals.

Finally, the propaganda doesn't seem to adequately address why anyone short of a would-be dictator would be tempted away from the Libertarian model. Marxism never arose in the alternate world (Gallatinism swept Europe instead), slave-holders were *talked* into emancipation (by a President who, historically, was one of the few Revolutionary leaders who didn't include a manumission clause in his Last Will), the Plains Indians were apparently quick to reject tribal authority and the notion that their land was Sacred (in the alternate history, Manifest Destiny continued as a series of peaceful trades of land for precious metals and "stock options"), the Tragedy of the Commons never resurfaced (perhaps the alternate world's Confederacy arrived at a common law distribution of property rights for the broadcast frequencies, ground water, and air?), and Freemasonry is the closest thing witnessed to religious extremism.

The alternate world's Confederacy participated in a few variants of the "good" wars, but always via privately raised armies of volunteers, a method that uncomfortably resembles the distinction between 2001's nation of Afghanistan and the "unaffiliated" Al-Qaeda network that it harbored. The novel is gutsy enough to directly address the security question (how does a society that doesn't believe in borders or arms control stop a foreign army from assembling within its borders?), but the answers given seem terribly weak in a post-9/11 context, and remind readers that in real world history, an organized army was able to easily defeat a rag-tag band of farmers in the Whiskey Rebellion.

But despite these open questions, the graphic novel and the society it depicts remain compelling. I look forward to reading the unabridged prose version!