Services Books

I cannot thank the author enough! After letting my RT license slip away I had to re-examin to get it back and 18yrs after graduating from x-ray school I used this book along with the other review book that goes with it, and I passed the ARRT test with a higher grade than my first time taking it! Thank you, thank you!

We used this book in our last semester of school. As I read through it, I realized the questions in the book were questions on our tests of the previous 1 1/2 years. These questions are so close to questions on the registry. If I were looking for a good, solid study guide, this would be the one I'd own. Can't go wrong with this one.

This book is perfect for ARRT test prep. Make sure you get the book with the internet access. With the internet, you get to do all the practice tests you need to prepare for the ARRT boards. There are quite a few questions in the book and internet that are verbatim.

I haven't taken the registry exam yet, but for those looking for a good book to review, I recommend this one. I haven't made it through the whole book yet, but there are a lot of questions with such detailed explainations for every section. The questions are difficult, but I have been told by numerous people that these questions are harder than that of the actual ARRT exam. There are questions designated to each section, way more than what the real test will be, but the end of the book contains 2 practice tests combining all of the sections. VERY HELPFUL!

With this book comes free access to an online testing web site. This online, create-your-own exam feature is what got me through the registry test. It allows you to select any number of questions (there are more than 1,400!), from any of the 5 main categories (and the myriad sub-categories), those you've already seen or not seen, or to use only the ones you've previously gotten wrong. And you can use the web site as many times as you need to during your allotted access time (details with the book.) The author was very responsive to my questions when I needed clarification, and there's a link right on the web site making it easy to ask.

Unlike other test-prep resources I've seen, the questions are equal to or HARDER than those on the registry exam! The service tracks your averages in each of the five categories, and reports results for an individual exam upon completion as well as your cumulative average. You can interrupt taking an exam and resume it at another time. And, speaking of time, your test results also include how long it took you to complete your custom-made exam, as well as the average number of seconds per question. The registry exam is timed, so knowing your time in advance can help you focus where you need to.

I could go on, but you've got the picture by now: I can't say enough about the positive contribution this resource made to my success!

excellent product, to get me started. I appreciate having it as a permanent fixture in my arsenal of references.

I received this book 2 day shipping as requested. I have had it for about a month now. It is easy to ready and goes well with the Kaplan course. Most importantly I am sure I will get a lot of use out of it as a reference. Great book!!

I received this product in a timely manner and in excellant condition. I have been very pleased with the sevice from Amazon and vendors.

this is a great essentials book for anyone interested in legal nurse consulting. i have read through some of it and will surely be using it even more as i am launching my new business. i got a used copy and it came to me in great shape!

This book is a great at home teaching tool on how to become knowledgeable in the field of LNC and how to start your business.

As a nursing student I loved this book. It gave a great perspective on some areas of nursing that nursing students may not be exposed to during clinicals. Toward the end of the book it did get into nursing/hospital politics and policy, which slowed things down. I wish that the author had ended with something better and more inspiring.

It's often said that in today's society we have no heroes. If you read this book, you will soon learn otherwise.

I really liked the aspects of this books that dealt with the three nurses performing their jobs in their perspective fields. That was great- but all the talk about nursing jobs getting cut really gets boring after a while. So much so I've been dreading reading the last chapter. Great book, just has some boring parts.

A must read for all those working IN or WITH the profession of nursing. Gordon discusses how the changes in our health care system have affected both the nurses role and quality patient care issues. The essential need for collaboration of all health care personnel is woven throughout the content. I required this book for a senior nursing course I just taught at Wayne State University in Detroit and the students were most impressed with the book and its approach to nursing, medicine and health care. A must read for nurses, physicians, hospital administration, potential students and the general public. Afterall, we are all potential patients and we should be aware of what is happening to the largest population of health care providers, the nurses!

The most under rated people in our society are nurses,this is an introduction to the ever present caregivers in healthcare today.The most varied role and most significant in all aspects of health care is the nurse.This was a wonderful read for all of those who may ever be the receiver of any aspect of their care from nurses in our country, basically everyone,a must have.For those considering the profession as a career,and the family members who would like an overview of "all in a days work", this will invoke serious thought.Yes, I am a nurse and for me to recommend a book written on nursing....kudos to all involved in the creation.

Lifeboat Sailors by Dennis Noble, a retired Coast Guard Senior Chief, is reading life as it is in the Coast Guard's world of Search and Rescue. I was stationed in Port Angeles for over 10 years and visited the Small boat Stations he talks about. As an Enlisted man with over 15 years, I have many friends at those stations and Dr. Noble tells it like it is. Of course this book was written pre-911 but still with all the growth for the Coast Guard and larger focus on Homeland Security, the Small Boat stations have had little change or given any more assets, but definitely have more patrol requirements. Dr. Noble's ideas and problems still remain. Search and Rescue has again taken back seat, this time to Homeland Security instead of Law Enforcement of the 80's. His prologue and epilogue tell the story of the tragic events of February 12 of 1997, when the 44 foot Motor Life Boat 44363 rolled and lost 3 of its four person crew. Dr. Noble happened to be a Station Quillayute River that night and provides us a first hand account of the events. It is a sobering tale surrounding his plight of the Lifeboat sailors in this excellent book. A must for Coasties new and old.

I was stationed at Station Willapa Bay , Washington from 1974 to 1977. The first time out on a 44ft MLB we had 25ft breakers to play with. What a ride. Spent time at the MLB School at Cape Disappoinment. Had the time of my life with the small boats.

Great book. A must read if you what to know about the Coast Guard search and rescue. All of Dennis books are great..........

This book offered a rare and informative insight into the world of US Coast Guard lifeboat stations and the sailors that man them. It gave great first hand insights into the day to day operations of a lifeboat station and a very informative history of the stations from the early days of the lifesaving service to the modern lifeboat station. A great read and a must for anyone in or wanting to be in the US Coast Guard!!!!!!

I was very impressed at this very well written book. Mr. Noble is retired from the Coast Guard and is very knowledgeable about the traditions and history of the finest life saving service in the world.

Mr. Noble is able to show both sides, good and bad, of the Coast Guard small boat stations.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Coast Guard history as well as someone wanting to join the Coast Guard.

Although the book was a nice, easy read, I was involved to the point where I couldn't put it down and wanted to know more about the Coast Guard. These men and women of the small lifeboat stations are true heroes. Thanks to Dennis Noble for telling their history and story. I was inspired so much by the desire to become a part of such an amazing tradition and responsibility that I visited my Coast Guard recruiter to join.

`Night Mother, a 1983 Pulitzer Prize winning play deserves just that! This one act play with simply two characters was unlike something I have read. The play draws on emotional dialogue, an unpleasant subject of suicide and the challenge to convince one not to do it. What is prize winning about the dramatic story is the realistic conversational tones and often painful sounds. It is the exchange of normal everyday dialogue, intermixed with riveting rationalization, pleading, bargaining, and coming to terms with life as it shall be. For the theatrical onstage drama, a clock is visible to the audience that indicates the action takes place in one evening and with no intermission. Time is of the essence.

The drama takes place in the early 80's in a small home, and one main character is Jessie, a 40ish woman with epilepsy, was deserted by her husband, and her son is a teenage criminal whose whereabouts are unknown. The only other character is her mother, whom Jessie lives with and Jessie, somewhat, does caregiving.

In the midst of Jessie carefully and strategically planning her suicide, she is nonchalantly taking care of last minute obligations for her mother, like doing mother's nails. Included in the planning, is a list of instructions so mother can locate everything needed after Jessie's suicide takes place. As mother tries to reason and rationalize and beg, Jessie conducts herself normally, making the preparations and letting nothing interfere. Here, we learn about Jessie, her dead father, why she was deserted, her son, and much more. Then the author transfers the dialogue with brilliancy..... This is wonderful, sad, emotional and powerful.

Movie version with superb acting!
See the movie version with Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft. It is rare that I see a version that equals the book! This is powerful. 'night, Mother.

Another wonderful play about death and dying is by Michael
Cristofer, a Pulitzer Prize Shadow Box: A Drama in Two Acts and the film version directed by Paul Newman The Shadow Box. It examines the 5stages of grieving one goes through as they are dying. These stages are also displayed by the living members, the loved ones. Rizzo

I thoroughly enjoyed this play. I watched the film awhile back, and since I wanted to change choose different films for my Film Appreciation class, I decided to review the play before adding 'Night, Mother to my list. What a powerful play. It sheds light on a very difficult subject. Jesse, the main character, makes the decision to "get off the bus early" after careful thought. She shows that some people contemplate this critical experience probably more carefully than buying a house or a car. Her decision is hardly spontaneous or emotional, nothing that I imagined at all. The power of the read helped me to decide to buy the video later on. I also ended up buying a collection of Marsha Norman's other plays, hoping that I will duplicate the insight gained by reading this play.

Marsha Norman's 1983 Pulitizer Prize-winning 'NIGHT, MOTHER is frequently described as a play "about suicide." Although the play does indeed deal with suicide, this is actually a shallow designation; it is about a lot of things, but most particularly control: who has it, who wants it, and the extent a person will go to obtain it.

The play involves two characters: Thelma, an elderly woman, and Jessie, her middle-aged daughter. They have lived together in an isolated house on a rural road for a number of years. Thelma describes herself as "a plain country woman;" she enjoys life in a fundamental way, not expecting more than she already knows, watching television, knitting, nibbling at sweets, and enjoying regular visits from her son and his family. Jessie, who suffers from epilepsy and is divorced, has become something of a recluse, and her life consists largely of managing her mother's home and thinking on the past. One evening, as the play begins, Jessie informs Thelma that she has decided to kill herself right after she gives Thelma her weekly manicure.

Thelma does not take Jessie seriously at first; clearly there have been too many scenes between the two for Jessie's statement to have any real meaning for her. But Jessie is serious indeed, and over the course of an hour and a half the play evolves into a battle of wits, Jessie determined to kill herself, Thelma equally determined to prevent her from it. In the process, we learn quite a bit about the family and their lives and the various emotional and factual secrets the women have hidden from each other over the years.

The play is brilliantly constructed, performed in "real time" without any scene changes or intermission; the characters--and the equally vivid people they discuss but whom we never see--are equally well rendered. There are moments are laughter, even more moments of insight, but the play is progressively intense, progressively dark, with all the power of a noose that slowly tightens around your neck. One of the most fearsome bits of theatre of the past thirty years or so, easily the equal of such legendary works as Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This is one of my favorite plays of all time. it's a great discussion on the issue of suicide. There's one line Ive always remebered: When the daughter is trying to justify the idea that she wants to off herslef, and she uses an illustration of someone riding the bus and riding the bus, and they could just stay on and ride it around the block another round, but why bother. It's really well written, and how the mother and dauther get along is interesting.

"'night, Mother" is a tour de force conversation between a mother, Thelma, and her daughter, Jessie, who has just told her that she is going to commit suicide at the end of the night. The play is a taut high-wire act that leaves you spellbound as Thelma tries to convince her daughter not to go through with it and Jessie sternly insists. Thelma and Jessie are extremely dimensional, deep characters with an achingly believable relationship. Through the course of their conversation it becomes apparent that there is a yawning chasm between them despite their seeming closeness, and while Thelma thinks that the two can put it right Jessie doesn't believe it -- or want to try. The fierce, emotional back-and-forth between Mother and daughter keeps you on the edge of your seat. The dialogue is very natural and believable, and the playwright, Marsha Norman, displays an extraordinary acuity for what her characters are feeling and have gone through to reach this point. Norman has crafted a devastating portrait of two women that leaves an enormous impact on the reader. I only finished it two hours ago, but I seriously doubt that "night, Mother" will be leaving my thoughts any time soon. Highly recommended -- but keep the Kleenex on hand, just in case.

We are in the Network Service consulting business where our product is the delivery of services through technical people dealing directly with our customers. We often encounter situations where our engineers do not have the sales knowledge to properly deal with our customers. The issue we have is that our business depends on developing strategic relationships with our customers for us to get the next sale. In the Oh Norman Diary, the authors, Uly Meixner and Eric Mock, discuss the art of sales communication in a manner that's clear and easy to understand. They draw on years of experience in sales training at all organization levels and with varied clients, they are able to identify the "keys" to a successful sales program. The importance of developing a customer focused and oriented approach is very well illustrated with the to-the-point examples that explain the importance of each step as they relate to the sales cycle. Using OH Norman to help train service delivery engineers about sales has been very effective and fun.

This is a really useful volume. Simple, common-sense examples, and punctuated by humor, not another deathly dull how-to book. Full of the kind of sales insights that you might not be practicing, but when seen in print make you exclaim, "Of course!" You want to rush right out and start to utilize 'em.

Definitely a favorable addition to my library.

If you're in sales (and who isn't?!),a seasoned pro or a just starting out, this book will help you develop or polish a more effective approach to selling. The authors outline a step by step approach to engaging your customers--listening to, understanding and serving their needs--not just presenting your products or services. And unlike some treatments of the subject, it is not some "academic treatise" but is written in a clear, engaging and conversational style with plenty of useful examples.

Getting to the next level in sales is often a difficult task, however the sage advice that Norman receives from the various Professional Business People we meet through his Diary entries is simple and straight forward. This book is excellent for helping novice salespeople secure a strong footing through a needs oriented sales approach, as well as reminding and reinforcing strategic selling skills with more senior salespeople. Building strong and lasting sales relationships using the Sales Cycle as outlined in this book is critical to all salespeople in today's difficult selling environment.
A definite read for the Professional Salesperson.

At first, when a colleague recommended this book to me, I thought.."Oh great, another motivational book,...80 percent motivation, 20 percent meat..." I`ve been general manager of a quality plastics manufacturing company for over 20 years. I have been fully involved in all areas of sales and negotiations with our customers, and strive to stay in tune with the most effective techniques and technologies available to assist me and my associates in selling our fine products. I thought I was on top of my game, but after just a few pages, a burning sensation started in my chest as I saw several direct references to the same problems and pitfalls that we have experienced just recently in our dealings with new and old customers alike. After reading "The Oh Norman Diary", I discovered there was one key ingredient in our sales strategy that was not being utilized to it`s fullest potential....the customer.
This priceless work by U. Meixner and E. Mock is simple and striking. It has been quite an eye opener for us, as it helps to break down many of the barriers that we face in our sales process. It has helped us to ask the "Right" questions, and avoid making the wrong assumptions about our customers needs.
We are also able, now, to learn and profit from our past mistakes as never before!
Our customers are responding very favorably to our new methods and mind-set, and my company is already reaping the benefits from the new insight and skills we`ve gained by reading this fine book. I would highly recommend this book to
owners, managers and salespeople. It`s well worth the time.

Karl Krause
Krause Plastics
Tulsa, OK

I was first introduced to this textbook when a friend took a culinary course in college. Though I never took the course myself I found it to be a great resource and eventually bought it myself. While I use this book more as a reference than a cookbook I have had great success with those recipes I have tried (including puff pastry) and find the instructions to be very detailed. While I have not personally scaled any of these recipes down, my friend has with great success.
What I personally love about this book is that it is a great reference to turn to. When I have questions about a method I am unfamiliar with (i.e. boiling lobster) or am interested in background information about something like an herb, kind of cooking equipment, or technique, I find the answers I get here more detailed than any I've found elsewhere in cookbooks or on the internet.
Also, since I am very interested in cuisine and the restaurant business I really enjoy reading about the history of restaurants and the different positions. I think this is a great reference book for anyone who wants to supplement their cookbook collection, particularly if they have an interest in how things are done in a restaurant kitchen and the history of the industry.

While this is essentially a textbook for culinary students, On Cooking is still very accessible. I would reccommend this book to any amateur wanting to learn more about the concepts behind cooking, rather than just reading and following a recipe.

No doubt, any food lover will continue to reference this book time and time again. Worth its weight in gold!

One of the many neat features of studying at Cornell University is that, even if you're not enrolled in its famous School of Hotel Administration, you can attend one of the cooking and wine tasting classes organized especially for non-Hotel School students, and get at least a flavor of the five star culinary instruction provided by the chefs teaching at that school. (That is, you can do so if you're willing to get up an extra hour or two early on the morning of non-Hotel School student enrollment, and if you're lucky enough to beat the crowds or at least slip in as a substitute participant.) In addition to numerous recipes and pieces of valuable advice, information and memories -- particularly of the last night, on which we had to put together a four-course meal, fine dining style, complete with menu, garnishments and perfectly laid table -- Cornell's "cooking class" has enriched my kitchen by two items I have since found it very hard to do without: A professional grade chef's knife, and Sarah Labensky's and Alan Hause's "On Cooking," which we used as our textbook.

Much more than that, however, "On Cooking" is in fact a near-complete reference on everything related to the culinary arts, from the history of cooking to new foods developed in the 20th century, from sanitation and safety to nutritional values, from recipe writing to menu composition, from knifes and other pieces of equipment to edible kitchen staples, from the principles of cooking to various techniques and food presentation -- and of course, on every conceivable kind of food, from coffee, tea, spices and condiments to dairy products, stocks, sauces, soups, red and white meats, charcuterie, fish and shellfish, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, grains, pasta, salads, fruits, sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, canapes, breads, pies, pastries, cookies, cakes, custards, creams and frozen desserts. Along the way, numerous tables, diagrams and pictures illustrate and exemplify the given information, making it easy to digest and memorize. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography and recommendations for further reading, and a detailed glossary of essential culinary terms.

Recipes are chosen to match individual chapters, and provide both a practical application and a more profound understanding of the respective chapters' subject matter. They include everything from American and international classics (assorted muffins, scrambled eggs and eggs benedict, focaccia, club, Reuben and other sandwiches, minestrone, French onion soup, gazpacho, New England clam chowder, Cesar, Roquefort, Thousand Islands and other dressings, various mayonnaises, coleslaw, cobb salad, Asian chicken salad, salade Nicoise, potato salad, Thai noodle salad, spanakopitta, grilled portabella mushrooms, carpaccio, lemon curd, hummus, various salsas, guacamole, pesto, hollandaise, bolognese, barbecue, bordelaise, bearnaise, Madeira, mornay, tartar, bechamel and other sauces, various stocks, broths and consommes, polenta, various kebabs, pilafs and risottos, paella, falafel, quiche lorraine, pizza, cannoli alla siciliana, macaroni and cheese, fettuccine Alfredo, clams casino, gravlax, oysters Rockefeller, fillet of sole bonne femme, matzo balls, duck confit, chorizo, chicken cacciatore, coq au vin, chicken curry, pico de gallo, chicken and veal fricassees, osso buco, chili con carne, Swedish meatballs, assorted burgers, meatloaf, T-bone, pepper and other steaks, cassoulet, chateaubriand, tournedos Rossini, beef Stroganoff, entrecote bordelaise, boeuf bourguignon, Hungarian goulash, ratatouille, baked beans, spaetzle, gnocchi, hush puppies, roesti potatoes, gratin dauphinois, baked potatoes, crepes, applesauce, New York cheesecake, sabayon, frangipane, assorted pies, tarts and tortes, various meringues and sorbets, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, chocolate angel food cake, sponge cake, brownies, ladyfingers, Madeleines, toll house cookies, gingerbread cookies, buche de noel, and spiced cider) to more unusual dishes such as:

Chilled cherry soup
Perfumed shrimp consomme
Beet vinaigrette
Shallot curry oil
Walnut pesto
Nopal cactus salsa
Pink peppercorn beurre blanc
Crayfish butter
Zucchini bread
Potato cheddar cheese bread
Salmon and sea bass terrine with spinach and basil
Salmon croquettes
Grilled red snapper burger with mango ketchup
Tex-Mex turkey sausage
Sauted pork medallions with red pepper and citrus
Marinated loin of venison roasted with mustard
Roast pheasant with cognac and apples
Stuffed wontons with apricot sauce
Wild rice and cranberry stuffing
Goat cheese ravioli in herbed cream sauce
Spicy sweet potato and chestnut gratin
Grits and cheddar souffle
Potato-ginger puree
Cilantro puree
Grilled seckel pear with sherry bacon vinaigrette
Balsamic raspberries
Figs with berries and honey mousse
Kirsch mousse
Pistachio citrus cheesecake
Chocolate flourless cake
English muffin loaves
Oatmeal stout ice cream
Quince jam

At 1100+ pages a veritable brick, despite its size "On Cooking" has become as much a key part of my kitchen as my chef's knife, my tea infusers, and various other pieces of equipment. I don't harbor any intentions of becoming a professional chef (nor any aspirations to even remotely that level of culinary skills), but I love to cook, and this is one of the cookbooks I'd be least likely to part with -- ever.

"Cookery is become an art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen." -- Robert Burton, British author (1621).

Also recommended:
Around the World Cookbook
Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day
Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery)
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World
Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006

One of the many neat features of studying at Cornell University is that, even if you're not enrolled in its famous School of Hotel Administration, you can attend one of the cooking and wine tasting classes organized especially for non-Hotel School students, and get at least a flavor of the five star culinary instruction provided by the chefs teaching at that school. (That is, you can do so if you're willing to get up an extra hour or two early on the morning of non-Hotel School student enrollment, and if you're lucky enough to beat the crowds or at least slip in as a substitute participant.) In addition to numerous recipes and pieces of valuable advice, information and memories - particularly of the last night, on which we had to put together a four-course meal, fine dining style, complete with menu, garnishments and perfectly laid table - Cornell's "cooking class" has enriched my kitchen by two items I have since found it very hard to do without: A professional grade chef's knife, and Sarah Labensky's and Alan Hause's "On Cooking," which we used as our textbook.

Much more than that, however, "On Cooking" is in fact a near-complete reference on everything related to the culinary arts, from the history of cooking to new foods developed in the 20th century, from sanitation and safety to nutritional values, from recipe writing to menu composition, from knifes and other pieces of equipment to edible kitchen staples, from the principles of cooking to various techniques and food presentation - and of course, on every conceivable kind of food, from coffee, tea, spices and condiments to dairy products, stocks, sauces, soups, red and white meats, charcuterie, fish and shellfish, eggs, vegetables, potatoes, grains, pasta, salads, fruits, sandwiches, hors d'oeuvres, canapes, breads, pies, pastries, cookies, cakes, custards, creams and frozen desserts. Along the way, numerous tables, diagrams and pictures illustrate and exemplify the given information, making it easy to digest and memorize. The book concludes with an extensive bibliography and recommendations for further reading, and a detailed glossary of essential culinary terms.

Recipes are chosen to match individual chapters, and provide both a practical application and a more profound understanding of the respective chapters' subject matter. They include everything from American and international classics (assorted muffins, scrambled eggs and eggs benedict, focaccia, club, Reuben and other sandwiches, minestrone, French onion soup, gazpacho, New England clam chowder, Cesar, Roquefort, Thousand Islands and other dressings, various mayonnaises, coleslaw, cobb salad, Asian chicken salad, salade Nicoise, potato salad, Thai noodle salad, spanakopitta, grilled portabella mushrooms, carpaccio, lemon curd, hummus, various salsas, guacamole, pesto, hollandaise, bolognese, barbecue, bordelaise, bearnaise, Madeira, mornay, tartar, bechamel and other sauces, various stocks, broths and consommes, polenta, various kebabs, pilafs and risottos, paella, falafel, quiche lorraine, pizza, cannoli alla siciliana, macaroni and cheese, fettuccine Alfredo, clams casino, gravlax, oysters Rockefeller, fillet of sole bonne femme, matzo balls, duck confit, chorizo, chicken cacciatore, coq au vin, chicken curry, pico de gallo, chicken and veal fricassees, osso buco, chili con carne, Swedish meatballs, assorted burgers, meatloaf, T-bone, pepper and other steaks, cassoulet, chateaubriand, tournedos Rossini, beef Stroganoff, entrecote bordelaise, boeuf bourguignon, Hungarian goulash, ratatouille, baked beans, spaetzle, gnocchi, hush puppies, roesti potatoes, gratin dauphinois, baked potatoes, crepes, applesauce, New York cheesecake, sabayon, frangipane, assorted pies, tarts and tortes, various meringues and sorbets, creme brulee, chocolate mousse, chocolate angel food cake, sponge cake, brownies, ladyfingers, Madeleines, toll house cookies, gingerbread cookies, buche de noel, and spiced cider) to more unusual dishes such as:

Chilled cherry soup
Perfumed shrimp consomme
Beet vinaigrette
Shallot curry oil
Walnut pesto
Nopal cactus salsa
Pink peppercorn beurre blanc
Crayfish butter
Zucchini bread
Potato cheddar cheese bread
Salmon and sea bass terrine with spinach and basil
Salmon croquettes
Grilled red snapper burger with mango ketchup
Tex-Mex turkey sausage
Sauted pork medallions with red pepper and citrus
Marinated loin of venison roasted with mustard
Roast pheasant with cognac and apples
Stuffed wontons with apricot sauce
Wild rice and cranberry stuffing
Goat cheese ravioli in herbed cream sauce
Spicy sweet potato and chestnut gratin
Grits and cheddar souffle
Potato-ginger puree
Cilantro puree
Grilled seckel pear with sherry bacon vinaigrette
Balsamic raspberries
Figs with berries and honey mousse
Kirsch mousse
Pistachio citrus cheesecake
Chocolate flourless cake
English muffin loaves
Oatmeal stout ice cream
Quince jam

At 1100+ pages a veritable brick, despite its size "On Cooking" has become as much a key part of my kitchen as my chef's knife, my tea infusers, and various other pieces of equipment. I don't harbor any intentions of becoming a professional chef (nor any aspirations to even remotely that level of culinary skills), but I love to cook, and this is one of the cookbooks I'd be least likely to part with - ever.

"Cookery is become an art, a noble science; cooks are gentlemen." - Robert Burton, British author (1621).

Also recommended:
Around the World Cookbook
Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast and Easy Recipes for Any Day
Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant: Ethnic and Regional Recipes from the Cooks at the Legendary Restaurant (Cookery)
Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian: More Than 650 Meatless Recipes from Around the World
Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006

This is the Basic Skills text book at the Culinary Institute of Las Vegas, and it is GREAT! It breaks down the basics of cooking by food item (poultry, starches, breakfast, etc.), but then each chapter is subdivided into cooking methods (braising, roasting, etc). There are handy tables for cooking times, properties and suggested cooking methods as well. The recipes are tried and true, but they also work extremely well as the foundation for anything you want to create! The beginning of the book gives good information on the history of chefs that have molded modern cuisine as well as kitchen equipment, knives, basic knife skills and seasonings.

Highly reccomended by this die-hard culinry student!I often refer back to this book when looking for alternate recipes in my current classes as this is, by far, the most outstanding book I've purchased for school.

Most current and objective risk assessments indicate that the risk environment faced by the U.S. during the Cold War has drastically changed. The risk of conventional war with peer nation states has been greatly reduced while the risk of asymmetrical war by non-state actors has greatly increased. Further because of the dynamics of the globalization, regional instability, failed states, pandemics, poverty, and immigration all have become serious risks to U.S. National Security. This new risk environment clearly needs a new carefully crafted National Security Strategy based among other things on timely and accurate strategic intelligence.

Which brings us to this altogether remarkable book by Robert David Steele. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the many recent efforts at reform the U.S. Intelligence System remains culturally moribund. Steele offers a rather detailed plan to rebuild this system into an open, flexible, and relevant source of knowledge about the threats and risks faced by the U.S. in the 21st Century. It is necessary not just to read this book, but to think carefully about what Steele is proposing. For example, this reviewer had to really contemplate such strange concepts as a "Global Knowledge Foundation" and "University of the Republic", before fully understanding how such institutions are vitally important to the sort of Intelligence System that Steele is advocating.

Now Steele has written a number of books that offer innovative, if radical, ideas about reforming intelligence, but this is the only one of his books that provides sufficient details to understand how he really would like to transform the U.S. Intelligence System into a system capable of dealing with both military and non-military threats and risks to U.S. security. The opportunities and risks of the phenomenon called "Globalization" are fluid and often elusive. It will take an intelligence system such as the one Steele is advocating to provide the knowledge needed to formulate an effective National security Strategy to deal with both the opportunities and risks.

This book is not an easy read. Readers need to be pro-active in critically thinking about what Steele presents. This effort will be rewarded with new and original insights on the state of U.S. security. More to the point Steele will provide the reader with a clear and unique understanding of the often arcane world of intelligence.

For over a decade, Steele has been trying to draw attention to the fact that intelligence needs in the post-Cold-War era require different strategy, organization and tactics. This book is a useful summary of his views.

One point of emphasis is "open source" intelligence--the information that is available from sources outside of the secret intelligence community. Steele argues that the institutional secretiveness of the FBI and CIA is a hindrance rather than a help.

Another point of emphasis is language translation. A further point of emphasis is the fact that threats no longer exclusively take the form of powerful nation-states. I wish that the book focused more specifically on Islamic terrorism, since the other potential threats seem more remote at the moment.

Yet another point of emphasis is database integration. Writing this review in the aftermath of the DC sniper investigation, this seems to be an important point. Before the suspects drove to Maryland, they were involved in a murder in Alabama at which one of them left a fingerprint. Had the Alabama police been able to access a national database, they would have been able to identify the murderer and perhaps apprehend him. Instead, the fingerprint was matched only after a dozen more murders and after the suspects themselves told police to connect the dots to Alabama.

Lack of database integration kills.

As a book, it's rather ugly. The pages are obviously printed out by an inkjet printer or something (you can actually see some jaggies in the font), and the index is created by MSWord indexing menu, which has multiple entries of the same item, and the way he indexes whole phrases makes it very hard to look up.

It's contents are extremely repetitive. You'll see the same ideas and examples expressed over and over and over and over again, in almost exact same wording. With proper editing, this book would have become 1/3 the volume that it is. The ideas are interesting, although some part, like his suggenstion that the US government should engage in industrial spying, seems questionable. Also, when he uses the word "Open Source", it's not the open source that the people in the software community is used to, so be careful. But it's a book worth skimming through.

This is a very difficult review for me to write. I want all those in positions where they can have some effect on American Intelligence gathering and analysis to read this book, but the book's organization and construction will ensure that won't happen. Hence the four star rating.

The book (the Oct 2001 edition) looks to be the author's collection of lecture notes or lecture passouts organized in one or two hour presentations. They are full of one-liners and short paragraphs making sweeping statements, and I wanted space below them to write my comments and questions. Perhaps they are indeed lecture passouts that formerly contained those spaces in which listeners could jot notes on the author's detail comments and examples supporting those statements. Without such support, there is simply far too much to be taken on faith for the author's ideas to be accepted or implemented.

A simple example should suffice to make this point: Steele says on page 6: "Today there is insufficient emphasis on defining and meeting the intelligence needs of overt civilian agencies, law enforcement activities, and contingency military forces." OK, what would be sufficient? What are we doing wrong today (examples would be nice), and what agencies are doing such? What emphasis do we currently have, and how can that be morphed into something meeting the author's definition (unstated) of necessary and sufficient emphasis? What are we spending today on activities that must be de-emphasized or eliminated, and how much will it cost to achieve the proper necessary and sufficient emphasis? Without this level of detail, the author's statement is simply a platitude that will be roundly ignored by those agencies and personnel who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

This defect remains throughout the book. Although the author's statements have much merit and his recommendations for organizational structures and missions to achieve necessary and sufficient intelligence for US policy makers and general security are generally well considered and excellent starting points for implementating the necessary changes, the missing detail allows opponents to dismiss his points out of hand as being simplistic, unsupported by evidence, and dangerous.

Nor is the public ready for this book, even after 9-11 and seven years having passed since publication. There has been no political movement towards addressing any of Steele's charges or implementating any of his ideas discernible by the general public or myself -- quite the contrary, the intelligence agencies have become increasingly ossified, bureaucratic and bureaupathic. CIA employees now arrange their work schedules around their children's activities, and providing day care to the CIA's time-serving employees is more important than providing intelligence to the President of the United States. Steele cannot be an effective change agent until he gets his message (this book) out to the public, but it must be in a form that the public can comprehend -- which is not this book.

I agree with the author that turf wars are the primary activity of all intelligence agencies in the US (my words, he just inferred this), and they must be limited as much as possible. It seems impossible that the US possessed better intelligence on enemy and potential enemy activity before the computerization of information data bases than at present, but that is my conclusion. An example of how turf wars destroy is that the world's best data base management system, the multivalued system created by Dick Pick in the US in 1968, is not being used in US federal agencies but has experiences acceptance in Russia. Meanwhile we are saddled with cumbersome systems like Microsoft's SQL Server, IBM's DB2, Oracle and others. The "free" marketplace doesn't always allow the best product to filter through the weeds -- powerful organizations protect their turf at the expense of the general welfare. Other examples would include the Christie suspension system for Soviet tanks and Deming's ideas seized by Japanese industry.

In short, the book's content is excellent but so many things must be taken on faith due to its organization and presentation that it almost neutralizes itself. It ends up being a handbook of ideas for the intelligence professional -- precisely the individual who will not implement any (or very few) or the ideas in the book. Steele would have done better to take his own advice and provide intelligence to the general population that "remain(s) desperately ignorant of history and culture (and what is happening in the intelligence community" (page 273).)

Nevertheless, BUY, READ & STUDY THIS BOOK.

By the way, the bibliography alone is worth the price of the book.

And lastly, it will take a powerful US President to force through any of this book's recommendations on the American intelligence community. His support will have to come from an informed populace to overcome the opposition certain to come from current organizations. It may be possible, or it may be too late. If this book does as well in the next four years as it has in the last eight, then it was too late.

Robert Steele is the one man crusade for the importance of open source intel. This and his more recent New Intelligence tell and show why open source intel is the most useful means of understanding the world around us and at the same time maintaining our personal liberties. To him each citizen should be running their own open source collection in in the areas of their personal interest. Read both of these books. Buy both of these books. Then go to the OSS convention in Washington. You'll quickly see how muth the professionals think of him.

If you are a consultant, as I am, you owe it to yourself to read Pain Killer Marketing, It will give you insights about what we as consultants should all be doing to improve our brands and our own marketing! Read this book for its content, but also read it as a great example of how to market consulting services. No matter what kind of consultants we are, our job requires understanding client pains, and in many cases, helping clients understand what is keeping their customers up at night.

Pain Killer Marketing did more to make me want to consider hiring the authors than write a glowing review of the book. If you are looking for something "new" that no one else has written about, or if you are looking for in-depth how-to's, you really won't find those here. (You won't, for instance, be able to grasp the subtleties of QFD or become an expert interviewer.)

But make no mistake: this book emphasizes the right things! It is full of useful stories that illustrate the authors' perspectives and illustrate why understanding the customer's pain is so important. I also found it valuable because it got me thinking about QFD again, an approach that doesn't get used very often in the industries where I tend to work.

But again, what made this book most interesting to me is that it is a superb example of what every one of us who is a consultant should consider doing for ourselves - i.e., writing and refining what we believe and what we have learned, giving some of our knowledge away to prove our merit and because in some situations it's just the right thing to do, and packaging what we know for mass distribution and marketing purposes.

I saw Chris Stiehl speak recently and was interested to see if the book could deliver as well as he did. The book did not let me down. It includes great real world examples for finding the pain. I especially enjoyed Part Two. We're working to implement the ideas with our clients now.

As a Career Consultant, I was delighted to discover that Pain Killer Marketing is a great resource even for the executive in transition who is seeking a better way to differentiate themselves in the job market. This book provides easy to follow direction on how to determine the pain a company is experiencing and then gives constructive ways in which we can position ourselves as the antidote to relieve the pain. This book is a great resource for helping someone in job search create their killer elevator speech!

"Painkiller Marketing" provides a useful framework to clearly identify
problems such that the solutions are obvious. The book is pleasant to
read and the methods are simple to implement. We found we were already
doing some of the things they suggest, but our reasoning was unnecessarily convoluted. In short, I recommend the book because applying their methods has already proven useful for our small company.

Pain Killer marketing excels in focusing on the core of business success- customers. It develops a logical, practical approach to understanding customers and delivering goods and services they will value. Teh appendix gave excellent examples. The section on the rules for developing good internal metrics for tracking and predicting success was also quite useful. I bought the book and gave it to several of our key leaders!

This is an excellent book for all critical care nurses. It is succinct and comprehensive at the same time. It explains things easily and lets you know what you need to know regarding issues such as DKA, etc. It even has a section on different drug calculations when hanging a drip (ie dobutamine), etc. A must have reference for every critical care nurse!

What can I say? The other reviewers have said it all. Anything that I wrote would be simply reiterating what has already been said. This book is thorough, concise, easy to read and reference, and covers all the body systems pertinent to critical care interventions. It should be considered a mandatory addition to any serious critical care nurse's library.

The purchase was a gift to my daughter. I know she has not had time to put it to good use but from what I understand the book is a great reference for anyone in the medical field. She was quite pleased to have received.

This is THE BEST ICU QUICK reference around !!!!!
It is concise, simple language, and very light weight so availablity makes it MOST user friendly. It is updated often so info is very current in all systems. I have worked in ICU for 20 years and THIS is the book my coworkers and I use the most for quick reference.

All my nurse friends just love this book as reference. Thanks