Research Books

I enjoyed the authors' book on logistic regression analysis in 1989, and this book is just as good, or better, with many extremely practical suggestions on building regression models for survival data. Happily, the authors summarize, compare, and contrast several major texts on survival analysis which have appeared in the past 10 years. For example, they discuss different names used by different authors for score residuals. They present a helpful appendix on the counting process approach to survival analysis, which will make more advanced texts accessible to students; thus, anyone who wants to use survival analysis, at any level, should consult this book, even if he has already studied books by Miller, Lee, Collett, Fleming-Harington,Andersen, et al, etc. An unfortunate drawback to this book is that the first printing contains many careless errors, some of which may affect student learning: for example, the definition of a survival function is misstated. I recommend that you insist on the second or third printing when buying this book, and you will be quite satisfied.

The authors provide a really nice, non-technical survey of the landscape for Cox Proportional Hazards models. A nice aspect of their treatment is the care they take to reference all highly technical texts and journal articles. For example, if you'd like to find out more about goodness-of-fit tests for survival models, the authors provide ample references to the Counting Process Theory of Martingale Residuals.

The first chapter discusses the basic characteristics of survival data, including the notion of censoring (in all of its various forms). Examples of the principle types of censoring are included. The chapter also includes introductory material on the general survival model, including a nice description of the log likelihood function. Curiously, the rigorous definition of the hazard function has been omitted, probably to avoid intimidating readers who are not familiar with formal limits.

Chapter 2 continues to build up the general survival model and introduces the relationship between the survivor function and the cumulative hazard. Pointwise estimators for the survivor function are discussed, including the Kaplan-Meier estimator along with the various variance estimators. Test statistics for comparing two survival populations are introduced, including the Log-Rank and General Wilcoxon statistics. The reader is encouraged to read the counting process treatments of these statistics to see why they produced defensible hypothesis tests.

Chapter 3 is devoted to the Cox Model and Cox's partial likelihood function. Tests for significance of the coefficients are introduced, included the Wald test, log likelihood ratio test and the score test. These are used heavily in the later chapters as the basis of a model-building methodology.

Chapter 4 is a very short, but nicely written chapter explaining how to interpret the values of each regression coefficent. It also describes covariate-adjustment techniques for model diagnostics.

Chapter 5 is just a wonderful chapter which outlines classical model building techniques. This is a great chapter for anyone who has ever been thrown a ton of data (with a bushel of possible covariates) and asked to "fit a model to this stuff".
Readers who have done a lot of purposeful fitting of linear regression models won't find the basic techniques new, but use of survival specific residuals and selection criterion will probably be an eye-opener. The section on assessing the functional form for continuous covariates is also nicely written.
However, the section on Best Subsets Selection was a little too "cook-booky" for my taste.

Chapter 6 is another very nice chapter on goodness-of-fit. It discusses analysis of the various residuals and their use for analysis outliers, testing proportional hazards assumptions and overall Goodness-of-Fit.

Chapter 7 discusses the standard extensions of the Cox model, including stratification and time-varying covariates. Chapter 8 discusses parametric survival models, and is a good introduction to the SAS procedure LIFEREG. The generalization of the Cox model to recurring event data (also know as Aalen's multiplicative intensity model) can be found in Chapter 9.

My only complaint is that each chapter was designed to be read in one sitting. Individual ideas, topics and formulas can be buried in a seemingly unbroken chain of paragraphs. The lack of sub-sub section titles,etc, makes using the text as is somewhat cumbersome to use as a desk reference. I've gotten around this limitation by marking key concepts, etc., in the margin in order to give a "quick search" capability enhancement to the index.

Applied Survival Analysis is an excellent book for someone seeking a non-mathematicial explanation of survival analysis. The book covers the motivation behind the development of survival analysis, estimation of survival curves, the Cox proportionial hazards, and some parametric models. The book also covers the major methods used in variable selection, model building, and diagnostics. Someone with an undergraduate background in statistics and econometrics will understand the book. The book relies on text to discuss the methods and uses mathematical formulas only when absolutely necessary. Numerous examples are used to highlight what the text covers. The math that is used is easily understandable. This book is ideal for someone who needs to learn the tools of survival analysis but not how they were derived.

This book provides a good, clear, concise explanation of Cox's proportional hazards models. For someone seeking a non-mathematical description this is a great guide. The original datasets from the text examples can even be downloaded and you can go through the same process yourself. Because of some mistakes in the text, I would recomend looking at other sources as well.

Hosmer and Lemeshow have given us a clear, nontechnical introduction to using survival models. The book strikes a good balance between covering the basics and addressing the most recent, state-of-the-art techniques, including repeated events, frailty models, and others. They also do a good job of addressing practical issues, including estimation details and available software. While most of the examples are drawn from medicine and biostatistics, this book could also serve as a useful starting point for social and behavioral scientists interesting in learning the fundamentals of these models, as well as a useful reference for applied researchers.

My father told me that no Irishman lets the truth stand in the way of a good story. Who knows what of history is true in any culture. This book recognizes it and makes it an excellent blend and easy reading.

Seumus MacManus is a great story teller in the finest of the shanachie tradtion. This is history through story telling. Most is factual, but the folklore is weaved into the telling of the tale. The descriptions of the life and work of Daniel O'Connell are priceless. As a boy, growing up, I was never certain of what was real and what was fanciful about my Irish heritage. But, isn't that much of the charm of the Irish? I highly recommend this book to the reader who wants to be entertained and disdains dry history books. This is a fun read and a wonderful way to learn of the surprising and incredibly interesting history of an amazing people. I also recommend a new book by Frank Delaney, Ireland, published in 2004. Read it and you will understand why I prefer my history learning to include people like the Shanachies who passed on the oral traditions. But, if you really want to learn about the Irish, go to Ireland, and let the people tell you of their history and culture. I learned more in 16 days in Ireland than anything I have ever read. It is a proud culture of wonderful people. It is important for the reader to know that this was published in 1921 and reflects the attitudes of that time in Ireland.

A classic work of Irish-American partisan history. This was the Irish history taught at our grandparents knee and stories both whispered and shouted at many an auld shebeen. Unfortunately, much of it is highly exagerated and based more upon cultural politics than verifiable history. There is no doubt that the history of the English occupation has been long and cruel, but that in and of itself does not make all things Irish angelic. According to the poet MacManus, Ireland before 1169 was an idylic wonderland inhabited by saints and scholars and noble warriors. Do not misunderstand: I love this book. I retell these tales to any and all who will listen. But it is not history as much as folklore. His dedication to his deceased bride- the poet Ethna Carberry- is touching and sad, but gets obsessive as she is mentioned in almost every chapter. My old copy - 1921- contains blank pages in the back with the instructions to paste the newsclippings about the Treaty there. This book is perhaps one of the last places one can find the stories of Fin MacCool, St. Patrick, Owen Roe O'Neil, Patrick Sarfield and the Fenians all in one volume, and each capter ws writen by different experts (and Nationalists).

The gentle nature of the Irish people is greatly emphasized in this book. The ideas of democracy were practiced in ancient Ireland, according to MacManus. Women were treated as equals in a time when they were but chattle in other areas of the world. The desire to aquire knowledge is clearly evident in the way the scholars of celtic culture were respected and looked to for direction. I was amazed by the Englishmen that participated in the destruction of Irish culture. In particular, Sir Walter Raleigh and the masacre of the Spanish soldiers that came to assist the rebellion of the English invasion of Ireland. That is a part of history not taught in American schools today. We were taught that Raleigh was an heroic man. This book opened my eyes to the true barbarian he was. These are only a few of the details that shocked and interested me about my heritage. I am still reading and anticipate the aditional information I to come.

Genocide has recently become an issue again in current events. The Yugoslavians are having at the Albanians. Africans have and are decimating Africans. Germans have reduced Jewish and Roman Catholic numbers efficiently and effectively. Spanish, French, Scandanavian and English swacked the native Americans and their cultures from Alaska to the southern most end of South America. It's an old story. The English are not alone in their chapters. In fact, they still pompously and righteously perpetuate their own form of genocide at the hands of the native Irish, as they have with South Africans and Indians.

Seumas MacManus allows this to be perfectly clear, not as a biased self appointed judge, but as a historian making available in print information previously unavailable to me and others of Irish descent who have lost their roots because they've been hacked away from them by shame.

It seems once again unjust that a work which salutes the dignity, power and grace of a people is left to die its own death and is no longer published. I was looking for a copy to purchase so I could leave it for my children and their children. I know of no shenachies to continue the tales. Another positive cultural influence destroyed by the insecure British. Just think of what could have been if the British weren't so afraid of the people they didn't understand and therefor massacred and worked with them toward their mutual benefit. We'll never know.

This book is a great read for action officers and DoD staffers! I found it very helpful upon my recent assignment to the Pentagon. Must read for military and civilians working at operational and strategic levels of national defense! Many thanks to the author for their insights!

A great book, highly recommended for anyone working in the Pentagon! I'm in my first Pentagon tour, and found this book immensely useful. My initial impression of Pentagon life was professional bewilderment: totally new vocabulary, totally new set of concerns, different rules for doing business. Much more so than with most of my 'new' jobs along the way, this one totally threw me off with with respect to the norms and expectations.

There are many courses for navigating these strange waters (most of which I've attended), but there's so much to learn that these courses are primarily focused on the "What Is It, and How Does It Work?" level. The "What's normal?" level is usually left off the end (due to time constraints), for the student to work out on his/her own. I've been blessed with very patient bosses, and have been allowed to work out 'normal' for myself, but I frequently had so many questions that I'd hesistate asking them all at once. And then came Assignment Pentagon - a life saver.

I stumbled across Assignment Pentagon about three months into the job - 2-1/2 months too late! Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down - it spoke to my nagging questions and left me a MUCH better informed Action/Requirements Officer. The turn-around in professional understanding was so profound for me that I've been recommending it to anyone else that checks in here, and think it's absolutely critical to understand the place you work in the depth that Assignment Pentagon delivers it.

Many thanks to the authors for putting this much-needed work together, and for keeping it updated. I only hope that they're still updating it when I've got my next set of orders to the Pentagon.

This book was first published in the 1980s, and has been apparently revised as recently as March 2007. The edition I read comes from 2002. The book is interesting. It fulfills its billing as a straight guide to what is important inside the big five-sided building along the Potomac River.

Maj Gen Smith's most interesting piece of insight comes about half way through in his discussion of the media and the Pentagon leadership. In discussing the role of the daily "Early Bird" news roundup, Gen Smith asserts that senior Pentagon leaders read the volume diligently, seeing the press not as an antagonist, but rather as a source of new and interesting takes on what they may or may not already know.

Unfortunately, Gen Smith has a bad habit of occasionally interjecting his personal opinion into his otherwise objective analysis. Also, even though the book says it was revised for 2002, it appears that many sections of the book have not been updated since its original publication 15 years earlier.

All in all, this is a solid, brief overview, of some of what goes through Pentagon employees heads on a daily basis. It is worth the read for that reason if for no other.

I am the author of this book. When the new administration took office, it was time to update this book about how the Pentagon works, how to work with the Pentagon and how to work within the Pentagon. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about the Pentagon and what I have tried to do is stick to the realities and to destroy some of the myths. I have received many comments about this book. The most surprising ones have come from people who work in corporations who have told me that this book has given them lots of ideas about how improve their performance in their present jobs.

I am the author of this book. When the new administration took office, it was time to update this book about how the Pentagon works, how to work with the Pentagon and how to work within the Pentagon. There is an enormous amount of misinformation about the Pentagon and what I have tried to do is stick to the realities and to destroy some of the myths. I have received many comments about this book. The most surprising ones have come from people who work in corporations who have told me that this book has given them lots of ideas about how improve their performance in their present jobs.

Ev's a wild man, he's crazy, ya gotta love that guy. Bada bing! Land grab, way to go, pow! What a loon! Sign me up!

An interesting book that covers a range of strategic issues involved with space. Lays out the basics of space operations. An insightful read.

The geopolitics of space will be a more timely topic in the years ahead with so many spacefaring nations seeding fleets to 'the Moon, Mars, and Beyond.' The serious treatment of geopolitics of space is of growing importance. The space regimes fashioned by diplomats of the past must evolve in the years ahead to foster commercial activity and private property ownership. Astropolitics is abound as most recently evidenced by the reaction to President George W. Bush and his space policy internationally. This book is essential reading for those seeking to grasp the multiple issues that must be addressed on the direction ahead.

The introduction of the beliefs and dictums of geopolitics, the school of thought bringing together geography and international relations, in space theory and practice was, admittedly, long overdue. This is masterfully accomplished in this book, which, while been accessible and democratic in its style, is highly informed and thought-provoking.
With the traditional struggles over terrestrial supremacy being far from over, the arena of space offers a new field for the realization of the power strategies of the contemporary "Great Powers". This is turn directly affects the power relations back home (Earth, that is), shaping thus the political landscape of the near future.
The author, drawing from a plethora of geopolitical, historical and space-related records, has produced a compelling and essential read, concretly laying the foundations for a new, inter-disciplinary and highly relevant ground.

Dolman's thoughts in Astropolitik should be essential reading for anyone interested in space power and its relationship to the security of freedom, democracy and the United States in the 21st century. This book will definitely be required reading for military space leaders in the future, and should be read by every space leader or enthusaist today be they from the military, civil, or commercial sectors. Realist politics and unilateral action may be disheartening to some, and many may be opposed to Dolman's 'advice' at the end, but the logic and arguments he presents are sound and must be addressed by any potential opposition.
In all, Astropolitik will become a classic of space power theory.

I thought it was an excellent book. The author was clearly very knowledgeable both as a basketball player and as a quantitative analyst. Probably this dual identity is also what allowed him to communicate the findings so well to non-analysts while preserving enough of the meat of the analysis for pure analysts to see where it would all lead to.

Best book on sports statistics that I've read.

First of all, I am the author, so the 5-star rating is admittedly biased, but also honest as I wrote the book under the influence of award-winning books like "Guns, Germs, and Steel," "Good to Great," and "Ender's Game." Now that it's 3 years after Basketball on Paper went to press, a couple years after the description here was written, and a year or more after the book got me a job in the NBA, I wanted to add an updated description.

I wrote the book in the hopes of presenting a scientific _method_ for approaching basketball. By "method", I mean that it doesn't present a magical all-encompassing rating for players, but rather a _structure_ for basketball as genetics provided a structure for understanding life and biology. The possession-based concept introduced early in the book allows you to evaluate strategy, the chemistry of a team, and, yes, who are better players. It doesn't matter whether it's the NBA, WNBA, college, high school, or the international game -- the methods apply and I've applied them. The book focused on the NBA and WNBA because that was where the statistics were most readily available going back more than a year or two. That is changing and I have already seen foreign leagues incorporating my work into their game.

This structure does introduce formulas, nothing more complicated than the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division that I learned through baseball cards when I was 10 years old. For coaches who want to avoid these, I actually recommend reading the last chapter first because it summarizes the conclusions of the previous chapters. For people interested in player evaluation, the book has numerous lists of player stats, how many wins and losses they contributed, and how they did it. This includes players as far back as Bill Russell, but as recent as Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, and Allen Iverson.

For baseball fans, I should say that Bill James' work on Win Shares in baseball paralleled mine in basketball, though we did take slightly different approaches. Bill has even said of the book, "Excellent writing. There are a lot of math guys who just rush from the numbers to the conclusion. . .they'll tell you that Shaq is a real good player but his team would win a couple more games a year if he could hit a free throw. Dean is more than that; he's really struggling to understand the actual problem, rather than the statistical after-image of it. I learn a lot by reading him." I am happy to say that experts in statistical evaluation of baseball (like Bill), football (like Aaron Schatz and Ben Alamar of Pro Football Prospectus), and basketball are all communicating about the common goals we have for doing scientific evaluation of team sports, where analogies to business team environments and global politics abound.

I realized as I wrote the book that there were a million projects that I could do from what is in the book. Those projects have come about and grown even before I joined the Seattle Supersonics in October of 2004. Evaluating strategy has grown so much from the basics in this book. Player evaluation, especially as they move from one league to another, has evolved. And, with the experiment of the 2004-05 season, I got to show how the work significantly helps coaching a team. That season, I joined the Sonics with a fixed roster that was universally picked for last in their division. I worked with the coaches, management, and players to provide a different perspective to their own backgrounds, one that complemented their own expertises. At the end of the season, we won our division, we upset the experts by winning our first round series, and we gave the ultimate NBA champions one of their toughest playoff battles. I felt that we should have won the championship -- perhaps naive, but also a measure of the belief I had in not only the work in Basketball on Paper, but also in the ability of the staff and players I worked with.

Now that I do work in the NBA and apply new tricks of the trade, I can't really write another book sharing my secrets. But Basketball on Paper contains the framework, the basic insights, and a lot of the numbers for understanding a lot more about the beautiful game.

Oliver's work shows a maturity that has been lacking from many basketball evaluation books--John Hollinger's "Basketball Prospectus" being another exception. Not only are players evaluated statistically but their roles on their teams are considered in context in relationship to their numbers. If you want to gain an understanding of basketball as perhaps you've never had before, and are willing to accept the ambiguous nature of numbers themselves, this is the book for you!

I have been using the formulas and ideas presented in Dean Oliver's book for the past three years. I was never a math fan, but my spreadsheets for calculating basketball statistics are the most complicated I have ever created and it was this book that started my obsession. The book inspired me with a fascination over a new way to look at the game and the players that bring it to life. Mr. Oliver's work was just a starting point and over the past few years I have added other formulas and other mathematical approaches to looking at the game, but I would not have gotten anywhere without this book. It is an essential tool in my toolbox for evaluating and enjoying the game of basketball.

This is a great book for people who are both numbers geeks and basketball geeks. I wish that there was more of a focus on college basketball, but that's just me. The author even replied to a couple of my questions regarding some of the formulas via email. Highly recommended for a basketball fan intrigued by statistics and indexes.

The news about public school education has been bad for almost 30 years. Statistics published by city, state, and federal information banks show that kids are just not learning what they need to know, schools are overcome with violence, teachers are demoralized, and yet billions of dollars are literally shovelled into the system. Where does this money go, we have all asked,as we walk down our children's school hallways and have seen the paint falling off the walls and ceilings, the broken desks and chairs, and we have heard about the lack of services and resources going to our kids. There has been little documentation of the misappropriation of these funds until now. Lydia Segal has written an excellent and important book on this topic that will become THE textbook on corruption, theft, fraud, and patronage within the Board of Education not only in New York City, but also in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Lydia Segal, a former Investigator of the New York City public schools, says that very little of the dollars allocated to students in our public schools actually gets used by them. She details how coding problems, the procurement process, compartmentalization and opacity of information leave administrators with only two options: good corruption (which ultimately helps the kids) and bad corruption (which never helps anyone but the perpetrator and his/her allies and accomplices). Indeed, the system fights those who try the good corruption route. Ms. Segal describes in graphic detail the "godfathers" and "godmothers" (the school board members), who obtain jobs for their "pieces". Furthermore, no one who reads her chapter "Lessons From Local Political School Control", with the sub-headings "How Language Illuminates the Pathology", "No Real Accountability", "The Ease of Building a Patronage Army", "Controlling the Tools For Patronage", and "Exploiting Parents' Poverty" will ever listen to a school Principal, Superintendent, or School Board official in the same way. Our perception of public school education is changed forever by this book.
The pathology of this corruption suggests the remedy, Ms. Segal says, which is decentralization of power into the schools and the hands of the Principals. The 52 pages of footnotes, interviews, and reference materials as well as the easy reading style make every word Ms. Segal writes believable, although depressing. There is no question, however, that anyone who is interested in school reform and/or who works toward a goal of establishing an education system that puts children first must read this book.

I almost did not buy this book. I would like to understand why our schools are doing such a bad job at educating our kids. The title to this book suggested a narrow focus on issues such as bribery, which, while interesting to a District Attorney, do not seem central to the problem.

What I discovered, however, is that this book really covers alot more ground that the title suggests. Yes, Segal is a lawyer, and she started out in this area by investigating honest to goodness corruption. She is concerned about bribery, waste and abuse, all of which are larger problems than I had realized.

The book goes way beyond those relatively small issues, however. It really gets to the heart of WHY our schools stink, in a way that I have not seen anyone else do. What Segal really gets into are the reasons why our largest school districts are such ossified bureaucratic dinosaurs. She tells a number of really hair-raising stories about how totally the system does not care about efficiency or educational quality, and, perhaps more imporartant, she explains WHY the system can not care. It is a very interesting story. It goes back to the early 20th century when the Progressive Movement was fighting urban corruption, and scientific management was all the rage. The bottom line, however, is that our large systems have fundamental, systematic problems that make it astonishing that they teach as well as they do. As Segal makes very clear, tinkering around the edges with curriculum reform and such like will do next to nothing, until the organizations are fundamentally retooled so that basic efficiency and educational quality become a focus again. As things stand, there is so much red tape, so much administrative ho-ha and general bureaucratic nightmares that there is no possible way that the system can deliver a quality product at a reasonable price.

Very important book.

As a mother of two, facing the tough choice between public and private schools, I found this book full of critical insights as to how the public schools really work. Segal's analysis of the perverse incentives, corruption, and overwhelming bureaucracy that are dragging down our schools is compelling and persuasive. Her suggestions for what should be done to fix the system are intelligent and long overdue. Everyone with school-age kids should read this book now!

A real eye-opener, this very well-written and powerfully argued book finally helped me understand why
urban public schools never seem to have enough money
to educate our children despite repeated national and local efforts to change that. Ms. Segal contends that waste and abuse are the primary culprits and offers thorough and persuavie doumentaion that this is indeed true.
Because she concludes that the problem is with
pathological systems, not people, she spends a good quarter of the book discussing how to overhaul the systems.
The suggestions are overwhelmingly intelligent, inspiring, and above all, realistic.
This book is a must-read for anyone looking for concrete and specific ways to improve our educational system.

A real eye-opener, this very well-written and powerfully argued book finally helped me understand why
urban public schools never seem to have enough money
to educate our children despite repeated national and local efforts to change that. Ms. Segal contends that waste and abuse are the primary culprits and offers thorough and persuasive documentation that this is indeed true.
Because she concludes that the problem is with
pathological systems, not people, she spends a good quarter of the book discussing how to overhaul the systems.
The suggestions are overwhelmingly intelligent, inspiring, and above all, realistic.
This book is a must-read for anyone looking for concrete and specific ways to improve our educational system.

I lost my husband suddenly and tragically, - a widow at age 26 -- having lost my high-shool sweetheart, my first and only love, my best friend, my center of gravity - my world......
My mother gave me this book in the hopes it might bring me out of my severe depression.......
While I found myself greatly upset by the fact it focuses on losing a child, - and not your life companion, I felt bitter as I read it.... but because it was so well written and such and lovely book, - and because regardless of our losses being so very different, - I could still very much relate to much of her emotions, her questions, her fears..... - and my sincere heartache for this woman having lost her young child, then seeing how she managed to find hope, healing, gratitude, and so much more --- even way she was able to view this loss as a blessing -- in that her precious child blessed her by teaching her what was important, and encouraged her to make much needed changes in her life, change her focus, recognize the signifigance in all things and take nothing for granted --- it was so very touching, so inspiring, - so beautifully written. Even though it did not relate to my own grief or personal tribulations, being so very different to lose a husband than to lose a child, -- still, -- I must give this book five stars -- And I hope that anyone who is grieving the loss of their child will consider this empowering, comforting, and inspiring book above all others. I promise you, no matter how deeply you ache or how great the abyss in your heart -- this book will indeed sow the seed to begin mending your broken spirit and to heal your heart.

Lost in my own tragedy, the passages and lessons in the book gave me hope for the future. It reconnected me with the world and put life and death in perspective.

The book consolidates the many readings available on the afterlife into to one concise easy read. Dr. Geller leaves you aligned with a higher spiritual power and life purpose.

This book is a rare gem. A book about dealing with the tragedy of death that offers comfort and hope and maybe some kind of answer for the bereaved. So many of these books have the author wallowoing in sorrow for the 150 pages and do nothing to ease the pain. But this book is different-it brings comfort to the bereaved. What an achievement! Thank you for this book. It it meant to be read over and over again and to passed on and recommended to other people in pain.

This an excellent book combining the many facets of our spirituality, validating many of my own conclusions. I especially enjoyed the chapters on pre-birth experiences and near death experiences. Each chapter flowed into the next relevant topic. I also liked the way Dr. Geller looks at different belief systems as "costumes". I have believed this for many years.
I recommend this book to anyone with questions about one's past, future, or anyone who has witnessed death or lost a loved one. I could not put this book down and am looking forward to reading some of the referenced books.

After loosing my sister three short years ago, I have read many books and been confused, upset or lost with a great deal of them. Dr. Geller gives you an outline, if you will, of her own loss and then describes the feelings and emotions of dealing with such devistation. Through this journey together the reader begins to empathize with her and learns from her emotions and spiritual guidance. Not guidance as these are the steps to mourning but more the spiritual enlightenment you can open yourself up to be guided by.
I found her spiritual growth to be a relief and a light at the end of the tunnel. Well written and easy to follow.

Too many Market Research books tend to be dry tomes, focusing on quantitative methods but written in a fairly theoretical style: they talk about why research is useful, and how surveys are conducted. Ho hum.

But here is a Market Research book that feels real. Bonnie Goebert is a senior researcher who has run countless groups and experienced the hard crunch of difficult respondents and the challenge of digging into topics that others find difficult to articulate. She knows the score: and knows that the mission is bring back to the client a living, breathing understanding of what motivates their customers and what will drive success.

Bonnie has an ethnusiastic, grab-your-lapels style of writing and sharing her insights and experience, and this is what gives the book a very real credibility. She comes over as the senior guru everyone wishes they could learn from.

If there's a main theme here, it is her passion for going beyond description ("respondents said this...") and nailing the insightful idea that follows. As she says: the zip-loc bag didn't get invented because consumers wanted a zip-loc bag. It got invented because somebody listened to consumers discuss the mundane daily battle to wrap Johnny's sandwiches and store yesterday's left-over meatloaf.

In this sense the book is a zesty hybrid between a how-to guide on running groups and an example-laden treatise on how big ideas come from little insights. Bonnie goes beyond simple listening, and she encourages us to do the same. A great read for researchers, ad agency strategists and marketers alike.

Two other books on focus groups you might like to follow up: The very original guidebook: Focused Interview and a lightweight introduction for qualitative newbies: Moderating to the Max: A Full-Tilt Guide to Creative Insightful Focus Groups and Depth Interviews

I usually don't write reviews, but this book compelled me. I have read a lot of books, but I really learned something from this one. My advertising approach will be different from now on.

This book is a great collection of insights and case studies of how other companies have utilized qualitative research methods to uncover key learnings and how they have both successfully and unsuccessfully implemented ideas for the consumer. A terrific read for all marketers.

Warm, well written, insider's book based on thirty years of focus group research. Written with a voice that listens. Bonnie Goebert obviously likes people and likes listening. Her insights into customer motivation would help anyone who wants to sell anything to anybody, especially corporate types who sometimes forget that the consumer is us.

I loved this book and I wish all those high flying ad agency people would read it. What are the thoughts that float through a homemaker's mind as he pushes his cart through the supermarket? You know what yours are, but do you know what his are? Bonnie Goebert says listen, ask the right questions. Don't try to con, talk down to or objectify the consumer because the consumer is us. This is the perfect book for account executives, art directors, copywriters, market researchers and anyone who's ever wondered how people make the decisions they do when they go to buy a product, any product. It's full of interesting anecdotes about human behavior, insightful observations and common sense conclusions that could help any company looking to jump start their business. It's lively, well written, and as the culmination of thirty years of focus group moderating, impecably researched. If more ad agencies and CEO's read this book, they'd find out who we really are...and what we really want. Wouldn't that be nice?

Having experienced schizophrenia firsthand in my immediate family beginning in the 1950s, I was interested in seeing what medical explanations are being explored and what progress has been made regarding this devastating illness. This book beautifully presents necessary background data on brain function and on basic chemistry and genetics, and then gives lucidly presented information about new strategies and treatments. Various fields of medicine, genetics, and chemistry are coming together to present the real albeit complex picture of what these awful illnesses are about and how we can work to live with them or overcome them. Mental illness must be liberated from individual guilt, shame, and social stigma, which are still very strong in human society. Only knowledge of the facts can free us from these crippling attitudes, and this terrific book goes a long way to help. The author's PhD in literature also adds a humanistic touch to a scientific work, which I deeply appreciated.

BRAVE NEW BRAIN follows up the classic THE BROKEN BRAIN, both written by Dr. Nancy Andreasen. She is a recent winner of the National Medal of Science, and a great thinker in the fields of medicine and philosophy of medicine. The book is written for the general public so they will become part of the great revolution of knowledge in the neurosciences. She details not only traditional psychiatric illnesses, but expands this view into the neurological illnesses. This is important as now psychiatry and neurology begin to merge, each developing a new respect for the field of the other. She details how psychiatry cannot solve all of our modern day society's woes, but must turn these over to individuals to seek answers. A recommended book for any public or private library.

As a society we face, is it medicine or out of my house. We have some knowledge of medicine but what we don't have is knowldege of what to do with our nations poor, we need to think about this. Walking is important for people on medications but they don't tell you about this. What they don't tell you is not to drink coffee's etc. Or that many over the counters in general are bad. Our knowledge continues to grow as a society, however, there are many things we don't know. Nancy C Andreason gives a good review of things, and a well rounded perspective of things in her Brave New Brain. I am interested in also her genetics research as well. I believe the NAMI which she has mentioned is not the best helping organization though, and there is not much outside support or resources to help disabeled people which I think we need more of, when they don't have there families anymore. We need to think about how we are going to house homeless etc.

Having experienced schizophrenia firsthand in my immediate family beginning in the 1950s, I was interested in seeing what medical explanations are being explored and what progress has been made regarding this devastating illness. This book beautifully presents necessary background data on brain function and on basic chemistry and genetics, and then gives lucidly presented information about new strategies and treatments. Various fields of medicine, genetics, and chemistry are coming together to present the real albeit complex picture of what these awful illnesses are about and how we can work to live with them or overcome them. Mental illness must be liberated from individual guilt, shame, and social stigma, which are still very strong in human society. Only knowledge of the facts can free us from these crippling attitudes, and this terrific book goes a long way to help. The author's PhD in literature also adds a humanistic touch to a scientific work, which I deeply appreciated.

Nancy Andreasen is one of the top researchers in the field of Schizophrenia so is a good person to write this book. This is a very good book on the underlying causes of schizophrenia and other brain diseases and prospects better treatments and cures based on this knowledge. Great reading for a person who wants a better understanding of how the genetics revolution is impacting our knowledge of mental illness. Writen for a layman with some background or interest in science and biology.

It's a textbook. That being said, it is filled with extra material, like case examples, a CD-ROM, etc. I didn't look at any of that because my business law class went at such a slow pace we only looked at about 10 of the chapters. If you are buying this for a class, you should come away with a lot of good information from this book without feeling it is too much of a boring chore to read through.

Very fast delivery, thanks I was in a hurry and you have made me very happy.

This is an excellent text at various levels of interest, desire, talent and time. The text is arranged that given the time, the Instructor can dig deeper and deeper into thorny topics. Additionally, curious students can rely on numerous web sources for enhanced views and greater depth.

Further, there are additional sources for the Instructor available through test banks and outlines. This is my favorite text to teach from. It is neither dry with enough cases to stir the imagination of the younger students nor MTV'd and contains sufficient current cases to give older students and retired students pause to consider. 5 stars. Larry Scantlebury

This is an excellent text. It incorporates the law, as well as
legal research methodologies. For instance, a standard chapter
contains an outline, common law sources,constitutional,
statutory and administrative laws/rule-making. The work cites
computerized legal research in WESTLAW and LEXIS. Relevant
international legal citations are listed. The applicable
United States Code is cited by Title and specific paragraph.
In some cases, individual state legal codes are cited. There
are exhaustic sets of historical and statutory notes, cross
references and federal practice notes. Each chapter has a
comprehensive case study with a brief synopsis, cited case
and final disposition. There are teaching suggestions at the
end of the instructor's manual together with discussion
questions, research assignments and an explanation of footnotes.
In addition, there is an exhaustive section on essay question
answers.

Here is a model answer:
Stare decisis is a doctrine that prescribes following earlier
judicial decisions in deciding a current case if the facts and
questions are similar. Courts attempt to be consistent with their
own prior decisions and with the decisions of courts superior
to them. Stare decisis is important because part of the function
of law is to maintain stability. If the application of the law
was unpredictable, there would be no consistent rules to follow
and no stability.

The volume has detailed coverage of the following areas:
o Business Ethics o Int'l Business Law
o Employee Rights o Employment law
o Occupational safety o Accounting and the law
o Securities o Mergers and acquisitions
o Insurance o Real Estate
o Financial institutions o Unfair competition
o Advertising o Environmental law
o Health Care o Sports and entertainment
o Hospitality management o Communications
o Government contracts o Legal representation of business

There are significant software support systems; namely,
o Legal Clerk Research Software System
o Computerized Instructor's Manual
o Computerized Questions/Answers
o Case problems on diskette
o CD
o Lecture Builder Software
o Westest
o A Classroom Management System
o WESTrain
o Transparency Masters
o Sample Moot Court and much much more

This text is an excellent purchase for collegiate law students.

I am using this textbook in several of my classes, and let me just say- it has everything I could have hoped for. The chapters are laid out well, many cases are cited, and the student is given actual cases to figure out, with the citations given at the end so he can find the actual outcome. I've found this to be among the best textbooks. It is so good, in fact that I've reccomended it to several of my friends who are going into business for themselves. This covers nearly everything they'll need to know regarding contracts, secured transactions, warranties, etc.
Love the law!