Employment Books

More than a book, this "How-To Guide" will help you hire GREAT people - every time. Hire With Your Head teaches you how to define, locate, attract, interview, assess, negotiate, and close A-players. The concepts contained in Hire With Your Head give our organization a strategic advantage over our competition. Understanding Adler's concepts are mandatory for our entire recruiting team. You can't go wrong with this book... order it today!

Ryan Cook, SPHR
VP Recruitment Operations
Sparqpoint Solutions

Hiring with your Head is an excellent resource for new recruiters and veteran recruiters as well. For me this book gives me the big picture of the recruiting process. We may be doing some of the steps correctly but if wee can not see the big picture of how it all works together you are very likely wasting time. The performance base hiring process has helped me adjust my own interviewing and I am already seeing results. It has been fascinating to see how it really works.
Mandy Calvert
Executive Recruiter
Premier Executive Solutions

Yes, I have been a big fan of Lou Adler, I have registered to his website and they always have interesting articles and web casts.

The book was detailed, well written and very informative. I have many years recruiting experience and his book was very welcoming. A good to have book.


Thanks for the continuous support Mr. Adler!

If you have the opportunity to attend his webcasts, please do so.. He is a definite leader in his profession.

Thank you Lou Adler. Hire with your Head is a great resource for recruiting. This book not only explains why you need to use performance-based hiring but it tells you HOW to follow through with implementing the process. This book is going to be an excellent tool for me to utilize in coaching my hiring managers to help me create accurate job requirements based on Performance Profiles. Hire with your Head is a great resource for any person involved in the hiring and screening of potential employees. I just wish someone gave me the book earlier in my career!

Hire With Your Head: Using Performance-Based Hiring to Build Great Teams
Fairly new to recruiting, this book is a must have for all hiring managers. It is an invaluable tool for any individual given the great responsibility of hiring for any organization.

I found Resume Magic to be very helpful. I had paid a lot of money for a professsional resume that just wasn't workig. I tweaked it with tips from this book and had a new job within 2 weeks. The only negative is there is so much information it could be overwhelming if you are starting a resume from scratch and/or have never built a resume.

This book contains many examples of resumes, including before and after examples.

Information on words to use, as well as a grammar refresher, will help you polish the phrases on your resume and avoid tiresome, overused phrases.

There is also a section on cover letters and a section devoted to making your resume visually appealing so that it stands out.

I found tons of useful information in this book, not just platitudes and superficial advice like some resume books dish out.

I checked this book out of the local library, and realized it was worth buying for long-term reference. The thing I like best about the book is the way it speaks to the basic question "Why do I write a resume?" Most treatments just show you how; this one shows you what you're trying to accomplish with a resume and how best to do that. It has many specific examples, too--so that when you're finished, you have a document that can accomplish what the resume can accomplish in today's world of work.

This book is phenominal! It is simple to read and has a workable plan to constructing a simple resume that works with your cover letter.

The is quite simply the best book on resume writing I've ever read. I've worked in HR for over 20 years, and I've never seen anything like this. Well worth the money. So far, I've used this book to write four resumes for family and friends, all of which have resulted in jobs.

If I could have given this book 7 stars, I would have.

It seems that the cruise companies have started hiring again for the new season and I was lucky enough to secure a job with Celebrity cruises. The book guided me step-by-step. At the end all, I have to do is to pack my luggage after 4 weeks. Get it and succeed as well.

If you are serious about getting a cruise ship job you would be serious about buying this book

I just received a notification that from the beginning of the next year I will work with Royal Caribbean. I am very, very happy. This has been a dream for so many years and now it will become reality thanks to Cruise Ship Job in 14 Days. It is a great book and it showed me exactly how to research this company and win the hiring manager.

For a humble, shy girl like me has always been a dream to sail the seas and see many exotic places. Now thanks to this in-depth, professional-grade book I am holding in my hands a contract from Royal Caribbean with $3,000 net tax-free salary. I highly recommend this outstanding book to everyone who wants to make their dream about working on cruise ship reality!

I was impressed from this author and his book, which established itself as the Gold Standard in applying for cruise ship employment.

The Cruise Lines International Association which I chair includes 24 of the major cruise lines. Our objective is to raise awareness about the cruise experience. If you are interested in getting a cruise ship job now, there are excellent opportunities because since 1970 and especially in the recent years the cruise industry achieved annual growth of 1,500%! We all at the International Association do our best to keep this growth. Furthermore, we make sure that the quality and standards of service also keep on getting higher.

All the best in getting an exciting, challenging, yet very rewarding cruise ship employment.

Robert Sharak
Executive Director and Vice President, Marketing and Business Development
Cruise Lines International Association

This was an interesting book. Not fantastic but I think it could have been. The author states she has her choice of stories from dozens of women and while she says she picked them for their variety, sometimes it didn't feel like it. That being said however, her portrayals of these women is excellent. She is able to empathize with them because she was going through the exact same thing. Army wives who are really hurting do so in silence because they don't want to be included in the ranks of whiners who want attention. She lets their voices be heard in a way that honors their sacrifices and the duty that their husbands are called to. This was one of the first books about deployment that I really enjoyed.

Although I am the wife of a retired soldier who spent 24 years in the Army with two tours in Viet Nam, I still could identify with these women during their husbands' deployments to Iraq. I was especially pleased to read about Baumholder since that was where we were stationed in the 70's. This is a different war from ours, the Army has changed, women are much more independent than I was in the late 60's and early 70's when my husband went to war; however, the loneliness, worry about your spouse, counting down of days until he/she comes home, sometimes the anxieties and sheer terror that you feel...those things remain the same. This is one of my favorite books about this war and I think that it is ideal reading for any woman who watches her man leave for war. I was glad to read that the Army has Family Readiness Groups and support groups for the families. A glimpse into these women's lives was so revealing and I felt their pain. Just an excellent read, in my old Army wife opinion.

As a military spouse and after reading so many great reviews here and elsewhere, I felt the need to read this book. It was a little fluffy for my liking. I did relate to events and day to day life of the women. However, I felt as though a lot was missing from this book. I was left wanting to know more about the characters. I think it could have been developed a little more.

all i can say is that by reading this book the last 3 deployments my husband has gone thru and the time i have spent by myself and the kids are finally validated.
im a army wife of 8 years, and 3rd deployment survivor.
i am german where my husband was stationed at for 10 years, and deployed to iraq twice from there.
i got the book and instantly started to read, and i couldnt stop, i sat on the couch for 6 hours crying and sobbing.
and realizing what i have been thru, some of the things i have pushed aside, as my husbandactually deployed from darmstadt in january, pushing into iraq right away, i pushed aside not sleeping for 2 years, while everytime at night i started to jump up when i heared car doors slam, checking the window as my heart almost stopped.
i am one of these women, and i feel after reading this book that i am somewhat relieved.
now that my husband is deployed for the 4th time in his career, i told him as soon as he gets home he will read that book to understand what i had to deal with.
i absoloutly love this book and will keep it for my kids to read, when they grow.
i am at peace in a sence.
thank you jessica redmon

Finally, a book that got it right. I've gone through my husband's 6mo deployment in 2002 to Kosovo living by myself in Schweinfurt. Then the next deployment to Iraq in 2004 while stationed in GA. This time with the surprise of finding out I got pregnant sometime in the week before he left. There was talk about an extention for them, but thankfully, they came home 1 year to the day. We are now on our third deployment. This time Afghanistan. I'm now home with three dogs, a three year old and a new baby that was 3 mo old when he left. Each deployment has been totally different with our location and family size. I love this book because every woman's story was a bit different. In their job status, family size and coping mechanisms. All were right on! I know and knew women just like them. I read this book after borrowing it from the library on post. Now its going on my Amazon.com wishlist and will be recommending to anyone who will listen. Thank you Jessica for giving us an outlet to share with the world of what its really like.

I read this book while breastfeeding my baby in bed. Since I am a working mother, who found it extremely difficult to combine work and nursing, I found this book absolutely helpful. It had great advice on most pressing nursing issues and also lifted up my spirits and confidence. A must read for all nursing working mothers.

This book is a "must have" for any nursing mommas going back to work and hoping to continue the breastfeeding relationship. I wish I had had this book when my first daughter was born and I went back to work. I felt so alone in my extremely challenging endeavor of pumping and working. If I had had this book, I would have felt supported, vindicated, inspired, and most of all, would have had the collective wisdom of other women who've learned how to make it work.

I now plan to buy this book for all my friends who are having babies and planning to continue their careers out of the home. I would also recommend Working Without Weaning but if you're only going to buy one book, this one will tell you most everything you need and it's so darn affordable! It's also well written and backed up by research.

Hurray for a couple of super-moms who managed to pump AND work AND somehow find time to write a book! Most books are written by stay-at-home moms who could never understand the pump/work dynamic. (No offense to them but even my local LLL leader couldn't help me because she has never experienced working out of the home 40 hrs/wk, away from her baby, dealing with pumping and storing milk and all the rest.

This book covers everything from starting the breastfeeding relationship on the right foot, introducing bottles, buying the right pump, negotiating time/space with your employer, sleep-deprivation, anxiety about being separated from your baby, the challenge of juggling career and family priorities, the challenge of being perceived as "less productive" at work now that you're juggling everything else. It has a nice balance of informative narrative from the authors, interspersed between the journal entries of the "Milk Mamas" group sharing the lactation room at IBM. I wish I had colleagues in my workplace to share this kind of journal with but reading their comments made me feel like I was not alone in my struggles.

Unlike other books I encountered, this book does not start from the premise that new moms should consider quitting their job or giving up their careers. It starts with the understanding that you are going back to work, either by choice or necessity, and aims to give you all the tools you need to successfully continue providing your baby with breastmilk for as long as you want to. Towards the end, it addresses the potential alternatives such as flex schedules, part time work, or putting your career on hold. But it doesn't start off making you feel like you're a bad mother if you go back to work.

Now that I've read this book (and a couple others), I just know I'm going to be more successful with pumping and working this time around with my second baby. In retrospect, it helped me see that I actually did a pretty good job the first time around (100% breastmilk until 6 months; daughter weened herself at 9 months when my milk supply dried up). I just felt like such a failure and like I lacked the kind of support I needed.

Definitely buy this book NOW and read it cover to cover if you are going to be a working mom! You'll enjoy and appreciate it.

This book will make you laugh, cry and everything in between. A huge inspiration and motivation for working moms wanting to breastfeed. Thank you to the authors for publishing this!

I've bought a lot of stuff from Amazon, but this is the first item I'm reviewing, because I really liked this item. Being a working mom is tough in so many ways and this book shows us that there are alot of women who are experiencing the same feelings as I am experiencing or have experienced before. Pumping can be such a tedious task, but most of us are doing it just for the sake of our little ones. Pumping at work is no fun at all, but seeing the comradery these women shared inspired me to seek the same sort of support circle in my own company. Also, this book shows us that there are different ways of doing things (timing of weaning, etc.) and there are different viewpoints on being a working mom...and that there are lots of options for working moms -- and that you just have to go after it once you've analyzed your options. This book is a good resource and it's funny, too. I highly reccommend it!

This book gave me a new perspective on continuing to breastfeed after my 2nd child was born. I was back to work at 6 weeks, and this provided a laugh and tremendous insight to how people pull mommyhood, pumping and executive roles off! Also an easy read and only took a few subway rides to finish!

I admit that (1) I don't work alone; (2) I've never worked alone; and (3) I never thought that I ever would want to work alone. I'm a born "groupie" who has always been most comfortable immersed in a "team effort, melding my work with the works of others. Unfortunately, I was given this book by a friend who thought I deserved a "better life," and unfortunately a read it. Twice. I keep saying "unfortunately," because I have now been turned around,having been harshly bitten by the workalone bug. I want to go out and see what I can do on my own. I'm going to do it, and it's all the fault of this book. I'll let you know what happens...

This is the kind of book that gets you all charged up and roaring to get going. I am not at all certain that all current and potential solo workers possess the multi-directional energy and stick-to-it-iveness that obviously inhabits Dr. Felsher's inner self, but I do suspect that most of us, given the opportunity, should give "working-alone" a try. Success at this venture seems to be the very best kind of success one could wish for.

After finally obtaining and reading through a copy of "Working Alone," (which I understand is now out-of-print), I am convinced that the author has put together a not-so-minor classic that clearly deserved a wider readership than it received, (a view shared by several previous reviewers). I am not certain if the fault rests with a complacent/inactive publisher not eager to promote and publicize a book from an "unknown author," or a complacent/inactive author,ignorant of the wily ways of the book-publishing industry. Given Mr. Felsher's positive and aggressive nature espoused in the pages of the book, I suspect more the former than the latter. Whatever the reason, I certainly hope that he can be persuaded to devote some time to delivering a follow-on book -- perhaps even as an e-book. I, and several others, it would seem, eagerly await such a development.

i was impressed -- really impressed -- with this book. very important lessons on virtually every page. "telling it like it is" is little more than a cliche nowadays, but by heavens, that's exactly what this fellow consistently does. a pleasure to read, it must have also been a pleasure to write. i look forward to more of the same from him.

I am a consultant, working by myself (president and chief bottle-washer) out of my home in suburban Baltimore. I've heard good things about this book, but was unable to locate a copy until last week. I was finally able to get a (used) copy of Working Alone, and having read it and believed it thoroughly, it has earned an honored spot atop my desk, and will remain there indefinitely. This is a sure "must-read" for anybody out on his own. A lesson on every page (well, maybe not _every_ page, but close). Count me as a big fan...

I must not be an immune, because I was thoroughly enchanted by the story and characters. I enjoyed it so much that I am going to stay up late and the next one .

In this follow up to Enchanted, Inc. (Katie Chandler, Book 1), Katie Chandler, a young twenty-something living in New York City, is once again in the thick of things over at MSI (Magic, Spells, and Illusions, Inc.), the epicenter of New York City's magical community. As an executive assistant to the CEO of MSI Katie has seen more than her share of fantastical occurrences. A mere Manhattan mortal, Katie has no magical powers of her own, but is rather "magically immune" which means she is the perfect person to expose all the crazy hocus pocus, cloaked lies, and deceptive enchantments going on behind the scenes at MSI.

But all this takes a place on the back burner when Owen Palmer, the sexy wizard Katie's been secretly swooning over, reports that a spy has been in his office. Katie's boss puts her on the case to discover the identity of the spy. It's no small task, and Katie is further distracted by the arrival of her parents, who have flown up from Texas to see how their daughter is faring in the big city. Now, Katie has to juggle finding the spy while keeping her parents in the dark about about what she really does at "work." To make matters worse, Katie is shocked to find that she's losing her own magical immunity. As she becomes susceptible to charms, enchantments, and spells, Katie fears her position at MSI might be in jeopardy.

Katie must now conjure up her own form of "magic", utilizing her natural instincts to find the spy, regain her magical immunity, and win the heart of the hunky wizard!

Once again, author Shanna Swendson has done a terrific job combining fantasy and chick-lit. This engaging, humorous novel will delight fans that loved the first installment, and win over new readers too! A truly fun, easy read, Once Upon Stilettos is a great book with a fantastic plot filled with truths, heartaches, and joys that anyone can relate to. I highly recommend this book!

Reviewer's Note: Enchanted, Inc. (Katie Chandler, Book 1) laid the groundwork for this novel, and Stilettos continues where the last book left off. I highly recommend reading Enchanted, Inc. (Katie Chandler, Book 1) first for maximum reading enjoyability, but if you don't/can't, do not worry, as you will not be lost in any way with this second installment of the adventures of Katie Chandler.

I love this series! It is the ONLY series I have ever given 5 stars! Highly recommended!

This is an excellent series full of suspense, humor, and creative plots.
The characters are memorable and entertaining. It's a feel good read. Want more!

After reading 'ENCHANTED INC.' I was very excited to read the next book in this series by Shanna Swendson, 'ONCE UPON STILETTOS' and I am happy to say that the second cast it's spell on me just as the first did.

In this book Katie Chandler is back, only this time the trials and tribulations of working for MSI, Magic, Spells & Illusions are starting to take a toll on her personal life. Katie and her boyfriend don't seem to be on the same page, the evil Phelan Idris seems to be out to, if not ruin her life, at least make it considerably more annoying and when her parents come to NYC for a visit she has to be on double duty as a tour guide and protecting her mother from magic. Because as Katie soon finds out her small town Texas mother is an immune too!

To make matters worse it seems that there is a spy at MSI and the spy's target seems to be none other than Katie herself! But all of this couldn't come at a worse time because in the midst of it all Katie begins to lose her most valuable resource, her immunity.

I am really enjoying this series. It is everything that you would hope for in this type of series. It has charm to spare, lots of whimsy and just a dash of romance to top it all off. I think anyone would be sure to enjoy these Katie Chandler books just as much as I have.

It works. You just need to know how to formulate and elaborate on what you've done on jobs. The examples and templates are helpful. The book is easy to navigate. You'll learn creating your Fed resume and KSAs is like writing a school paper - you have to research and connect your main points. Federal Resume Guidebook Strategies definitely helps you in doing so. I highly recommend it!

Consider the "Federal Resume Guidebook, Fourth Edition," as the bible for serious federal job seekers. A few months ago I attended a Transition Assistance Program (TAP) class before I retired from the Air Force. The TAP instructor lightly covered federal resumes, KSA's, etc., I was totally confused. Family, friends, and former co-workers all provided me with advice on how a federal resume should be written, formatted, and distributed. After several misses on the job market I decided to purchase this book. HALLELUJAH ! This book will take you step-by-step on the federal resume process with some excellent federal resume samples you can use on your quest for a career with government agencies. I also decided to invest in the Entry-Level and Mid-Level Assessment Service offered by the authors company, The Resume Place. If your are serious about your federal job search I strongly suggest you purchase this service. You will not be disappointed. One last item, the author Ms. Kathryn Troutman personally provided me with the assessment and offered some great suggestions I had overlooked when I created my resume. WoW, what great customer service. This book certainly deserves a "Five Stars" plus rating. I'm certain I will catch the attention of the federal agencies where I want to work.

If you want to work for Uncle then you must have this book. After toiling for over a year trying to work for Uncle and getting nowhere, I bought this book. I spent a day revamping my resume as it describes and have been knee deep in responses ever since. If you want your resume to be in the right format to get you in the door then buy this book. If you want to continue hawking on the street or playing a fiddle for change then by all means do not buy this book.

I purchased this book after numerous failed attempts at being considered for various govt positions.
Literally after giving my resume a govt makeover with the suggestions from the book I've been considered for a total of four positions since purchasing the book last month.
I consider this a huge success only because I at least know my responses to the KSA questions are strong,
I highly recommed this book - definetly worth it!

I purchased this book based on the numerous reviews exclaiming its excellence. As a first note, the photo representation showing a CD that provides actual examples of resumes and KSAs is highly deceiving. There is no CD with this book. On the final page of the book, you will find directions on how to buy this for an additional fee at the authors website. No doubt the author has experience and expertise in the convuluted federal application process. From biographical information that is available it appears that she was a key player in creating it and then she went on to build a business that capitalizes off of the confusion created in the process. The inforation in this book is good and reliable; however, the same information is available for free on the internet from a variety of sources. I was sadly disappointed with this book and the other Troutman book Military to Federal Career Guide that I also purchased. The CD is included with the second book mentioned. I has 52 files in total; but, these provide very few examples because the same resume is repeatedly used to show examples of different resume builder formats (e.g paper resume, USA Jobs resume, and Resumix)and each example is given in a word document format and PDF so immediately the number of eamples is decreased from 52 to 26. As such, the CD amounts to 13 resume examples and one that provides separate KSAs. The best value that comes from this book is a profitable marketing tool for the author's website and other, quite pricey writing and coaching services. Before buying this book, I would recommend that you check with your local library or bookstore to see if they have a copy so you can review the content and decide how useful it might be in relation to your knowledge of the federal job market.

This book was very engaging. It gave a great feel for the rewards and challenges of the entrepreneurial lifestyle. It also provided useful practical information on such things as billing.

During my 2002 summer quest to relax and spend more time with family, I've rediscovered my passion for reading. (Real books. Made of paper. No LCD screen attached. What a novel idea...)

Spare Room Tycoon was one of the first books I picked up.

Simply put, I just can't say enough great things about this book.

While many people praise similar books on the subject of entrepreneurial independence, Spare Room Tycoon is by far a more thoughtful, honest, true-to-yourself account of what it is to be a solo entrepreneur or to run a MicroEnterprise.

If you're a Free Agent or have entrepreneurial aspirations of any kind, you *have* to read this book.

Excellent book! I could not put it down. I read the whole thing - not because I had the time - but because it was so darn interesting and true that I could not stop reading. Not only is James Chan a great speaker, (I heard him at a breakfast meeting), he is a great writer too. My story is so similar to those of the "tycoons" in this book it's eerie. The 70 lessons are right on target, and I have made copies of them and put them by my desk.

Having been self employed for about 10 years, I felt that James Chan accurately depicted the highs and lows of self-empoyment - and working from your home.

While reading the first few chapters, I felt inspired and validated. There are many books and inspirational speakers who romanticise and glorify "striking it on your own" to pursue the American Dream. Chan balances this notion with pragmatic examples of the challenges one experiences not only in the day to day routine of being self-employed, but also in the life-cycle of an independent professional. The array of examples that Chan cites through his subjects give interesting insight into how other independent professionals in different industries operate.

The book can scare away a person who is "dreaming" about being their own boss. Conversely, this book can inspire the person who has commitment and passion to follow their destiny. Chan challenges societal's pressure of thinking that one must be making "meg-bucks" to be considered "successful". Chan raises up those who dare to think differently from the commonly held definitions of "success".

Spare Room Tycoon is a refreshing book for the realist who needs just a gentle push to blaze their own trail towards personal fulfillment through entrepreneurship.

It should be mentioned up front that although the title leads you to believe that it's a book about working from your home, it's far more about being a "Tycoon" (a master of your own fate) than it is about working from a "Spare Room".

When I transitioned my career from freelance writer to publishing a newsletter, I prepared myself by reading a number of books that I considered appropriate to the subject. Spare Room Tycoon was the best of them. James Chan tackles some of the thorniest issues of self-employment, including self-confidence and realistic pricing of your services. I found the section on how to price your services extremely valuable.

The entire book is full of insights like this. James Chan's tone throughout the book is of having met an interesting new acquaintance and choosing the spend the weekend together getting to know one another.

After reading the book, you'll have a much more realistic view of how well you're likely to do as a "Spare Room Tycoon". I highly recommend this book.

The book is so much better than the movie. It gives you a much truer sense of what the women went through. Which is to be expected, of course, but I was surprised at the changes in the movie.

I assume that you will have seen the Movie first. I would have never heard of this book, without references in the DVD. BUT it is not necessary that you see the movie first. AND if you see the movie after reading the book be prepared for differences. But aside from comparisons, this is a terrific read about the first successful Sexual Harrassment case in the USA. It is set in the North Country made famous by Mr. Zimmerman. In fact some of the scenes and some of the characters are from Hibbing. Hero is one of the many misused words in Americana. But hero could be safely applied to the Lawyers who defended Lois Jenen.

Throughout my college career, I have become more and more aware of America's history in regards to inequality. Class Action brought up one of the most publicized forms of inequality in our nation, which is the inequality between men and women, especially in the workplace. Today, women are still only making $0.74-$0.76 on the dollar that every man makes, but that is only a mild form of the inequality that occurred only 30 years ago.

On March 25, 1975, Lois Jensen begins work at Eveleth Taconite in the mines to earn enough money to support her young son so they both could get off welfare. While the pay was very good, Lois, and other women who worked at the mines, endured sexual harassment that ranged from sexual comments to inappropriate touching and coercion by the male workers. Twelve years later, Lois finally decides that the only way to deal with the sexual harassment is through legal action since none of her bosses in the mines will correct the male workers' behaviors. Unfortunately, Lois only endures more hardship through trying to gain support of the other women at the mines, retain her job, and keep her sanity while being harassed even more. Lois's commitment to "right the wrong" of how the men treated the women at the mines brings up many questions of our society and what is legal that reside within.

Class Action helps us evaluate male privilege in the workforce, laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) and how they were upheld, the immortal power of companies, and the human cost to achieve social change. It is astounding to read the type of harassment that these women endured and to realize that it happened in other parts of the country, and to some extent, still does today. The only things that Lois Jensen truly wanted was knowing that women would not have to live what she did through the company adopting a sexual harassment policy and an apology. She never got the apology, but thankfully, the former occurred on December 30, 1998.

The was a great book if you are interested in Civil Rights history and activism, women's rights, the jural system in relation to gender, and the economics of inequality. While Lois, other women, and the mines settled in 1998, the women essentially lost. After all that had happened, to achieve this precedent for sexual harassment law the women had to sacrifice their lives. This ultimately brings up the issue of how we have to be martyrs to make any social change truly happen.

I grew up on "da range" and I'm familiar with the mines. My hometown is Hoyt Lakes, not very far from Eveleth. My dad and one of my uncles worked at LTV Steel outside of Hoyt Lakes, I think even my brother worked there for a while. I don't remember hearing anything of the trial. Back in 1998 I was 9 years old. I became familiar with it, when they were filming the movie North Country while I was going to the community college in Virginia. I've watched the movie multiple times. Then this summer in one of my English classes we were required to read Class Action. By the time the class finished I hadn't finished the book yet, but that didn't stop me from reading it. This is a really great book, and I've had a hard time putting it down. Its so interesting to learn the facts of the case, and was even more surprised when I recognized some of the last names of the people. I haven't quite finished yet, I have about 60 pages to go. I keep finding myself getting irritated with the rulings of Judge McNulty. This is a very important book, and in my opinion everyone should read it.

Like some other reviewers I came across this book after seeing the movie North Country. The movie though is just good entertainment pulling at the heartstrings and very loosely based on the legal problems of single mother Lois Jenson.

The book, I'm pleased to say, is much more gripping and will keep you turning the pages until the end. I thought it raised various issues like:

*Why did the legal aspects of this case take from 1984 until a settlement in 1998? In 1997 a judgement from the Eighth Circuit court commented on the 'inordinate delay' and that it simply was not possible for the parties to get justice 'when a final outcome is issued more than ten years' after the case was filed and more than fifteen years since Lois started her class action.

*Why did the mineworkers union maintain such a male chauvinist view towards its female members? I always assumed that Minnesota folk, historically populated by hard working European immigrants in a hostile physical environment would have been much more sympathetic to the sexual harassment that went on year after year in the mines. In fact very few males come out of this story with much credibility, from the mine management down to the union, they are really shown to be sexist and ultra conservative when females start to (legally) work in their domain.

*Why did it take so long for the mines main insurance company, who were going to be the ultimate payers of any compensation, to get to grips with the case? When they did get closely involved in 1998 the problems seemed to evaporate and the ladies got their money

The authors write in a simple straightforward style fortunately avoiding flowery generalisations that seem a staple of non-fiction writing. The story unfolds in a logically time frame from March 1975 to the final financial settlement in November 1998. Early on there is an excellent historical overview of the Mesabi Range and the importance of the raw materials lying just under the surface. A nice touch I thought was the frequent explanations of points of law and how these affected the progress of the case.

A couple of points occurred to me as a read the book: I would have liked to see a listing at the start describing the principals, frequently a name popped up and I wondered who the person was having seen a mention maybe a hundred pages earlier. So much of the story describes the mine and other buildings, a simple diagram of the plant layout would have been helpful.

'Class Action' is a powerful narrative about a hostile working environment and the legal system and it reminds of a quote by Thomas Noon Talfourd:
Fill the seats of justice
With good men not so absolute in goodness
As to forget what human frailty is.

BTW. I wanted to see photos of the four heroes of the book, the wonderful Lois Jenson and her legal team Paul Sprenger, Jane Lang and Jean Boler and I found them all through Google Images.