Services Books

An outrageously good book! George Allen offers us a look into the notoriously secretive world of intellence analysts. What is stunning is that just as I suspected, there was no "failure" on the part of the Intelligence Community in Vietnam. The CIA predicted,prior to US involvement, that we could not stop the spread of Communism in Vietnam. As far back as the Indochina War, intelligence analysts, like George Allen, had observed the French struggle against a Viet Minh insurgency that was determined, well-supplied, and well-led. The almost endless supply of weapons flowing in from China (and Russia?) meant that the Viet Mihn could outlast us. All this was communicated to the higher ups including "the best and the brightest". But Hubris (sound familiar?) got in the way. Good intelligence was ignored. Rosy, upbeat reports were printed by Washington to coverup a fiasco. Career obsessed generals placed too much confidence in technology and forgot about man's Darwinian capacity to adapt and thus survive. Reading this book was like reading a memoir on the Iraq War. Let's hope Iraq is not another Vietnam. However, I'm haunted by Hegel's famous line: "History shows us that people don't learn anything from History."

'There's none so blind as those who won't see,' is a proverb that has proven itself over and over in life. And in the area of critical military intelligence it is a deadly proverb. It's an excellent choice of a title for this book on the intelligence failure in Vietnam.

The problem essentially comes when the estimates of the intelligence analysts conflict with the opinions of the leadership making the decisions. And the 'problem' in this case costs the lives of soldiers.

This book is basically a personal history of the author's travels, studies, and analysis of what was going on in Vietnam. He discusses the reports he made and how the powers in charge refused to believe the evidence he had collected through first hand observation during visits to Vietnam.

In his concluding chapter he says that President Roosevelt had the best understanding and recommendations for the future by supporting self-determination rather than assisting the French in re-establishing their empire. Oh what a difference that would have made.

Fascinating reading, especially in view of the current situation in Iraq.

This is an exceptional book, absolutely required reading for the history of the Vietnam War since 1950 but also for the foreign policy decisionmaking process in general. A classic! Reinforces those who thought the war a tragic waste of human lives and resources--who opposed the war.

This is altogether an extraordinary book by an extraordinary author. It is nothing less than the history of the evolution of U.S. policy towards Vietnam from the end of WWII to the conquest of South Vietnam by the Vietnamese Communists as observed by a professional intelligence analyst. The insights this book provides are not just on U.S. involvement in Vietnam (and by extension Laos and Cambodia), but on how U.S. National Security Policy toward South East Asia was formulated over a twenty year period. The comments about the value of a systematic process of formulating national security policy by integrating military, intelligence, and policy considerations are alone worth the price of the book.

If this were all the book did it would be a remarkable achievement. But George W. Allen does considerably more than this. Allen was from the beginning of his long career (some fifty years total) first and foremost a working intelligence analyst. As such he focused on Vietnam for some 18 years and developed in that time the increasingly rare quality of detailed knowledge of his target. Reading this book should provide any attentive reader with an excellent understanding of how the process of intelligence analysis actually works when executed by a real professional.

Although a personal account, Allen's book has an authentic feel to it. This reviewer found much of his account hauntingly familiar although we never met or worked together. Certainly his inability on several occasions to perform truly all source analysis due to ill-conceived compartmentalization is quite familiar. The same is true for his encounters with senior military leaders and civilian policy makers who considered any intelligence that did support their views almost a personal affront.

The Washington D.C. area is fairly awash with former `intelligence officers' claiming to be intelligence or counter-terrorism `experts' based on often rather dubious experiences in the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). It is refreshing then when a real intelligence professional is actually willing to share his thoughts with general public. Towards the end of this book, Allen, identifies himself as a "professional intelligence analyst" which he truly was. The U.S. could use a lot more like him.

I have read a number of books on the US involvement in Vietnam, some of them quite good. This is the best, the ONE book you should read if you're limited to one book. Other recommended books are _To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Forty-Seven Americans and Southeast Asians_ by Al Santoli, and _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth.
With first-hand knowledge -- not just reading from second-hand sources or going through one general's papers -- George Allen describes what happened in Vietnam from before Dien Bien Phu through the fall of Saigon. He has detailed information on the US side, and informed accounts of what the North Vietnamese strategy was. He introduces us to the personalities and events so important to the way Vietnam happened, all in a very engaging and readable style.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the listing of the many times the US took action without a full examination of the complete situation. Allen writes, "In foreign affairs and national security matters, there is no substitute for thorough, conscientious, and objective analysis of all the factors bearing on a decision, of alternative courses of action, and of a weighing of the consequences -- domestic as well as foreign -- of all the options available." This was rarely done in Vietnam. Among the hasty decisions the US made were to consider the northern Vietnamese as part of a monolithic Communist threat, to aid the French in maintaining their empire, to take over the French role in Vietnam, to give the green light to the Diem coup, to not realize the problems the lack of post-Diem leadership would create, to not encourage South Vietnam to develop an effective political message and a stable appealing government, to appear to favor Thieu as a candidate (by proclaiming neutrality), by failing to build an effective intelligence system in south Vietnam, by US in-country personnel repeatedly lying to their superiors by exaggerating US success and minimizing enemy strength (thus depriving themselves of the needed resources to meet the real threat), by the false "light at the end of the tunnel" PR campaign (setting the government up for an even bigger fall when Tet '68 came), by giving South Vietnam false assurances of our post-withdrawal support, etc. etc.
These just touch the surface. Allen explains how even minor decisions like insisting ARVN units included artillery support, and not replacing ONE incompetent colonel, possibly had very significant bad effects. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Vietnam, recent American history, or politics. It should be required reading for US policy-makers.
Hopefully someday we'll have someone the caliber of George Allen tell the true story of 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq.

I've been doing research on nursing home models that are nurturing and affordable, and - as a real estate developer - also financially feasible for the owner/operator. This book is an excellent summary of many of the current ideas in a very readable format. It is a valuable resource for anyone interested in nursing homes - for people you care about and from a business perspective.

Anyone who works with our elders and is looking to begin (or continue) their journey towards person directed care needs to read this book! I found it very easy to read, yet full of good, useful and inspiring information. I am sure I will be rabbit ear-ing this book to death!!

I couldn't put down "Old Age in a New Age" until I finished! Beth Baker has written the best book I have read yet (for the ordinary reader who is not part of the medical, nursing institution). This difficult and challenging subject we call "long term care" is hard to understand with its many complexities. I have been reading many books over a period of time and I am amazed at the clarity with which Baker shows the problems even while weaving together the human stories. She keeps the reader engaged and gives us hope. An exceptional writer and journalist, she has provided a book that is easy to read about a difficult and complex subject. But a subject that cannot be ignored even if we want to. The probability is increasing that a nursing home will be the last home for us or our loved ones. We ignore the statistics, hoping, praying we never will reside in a nursing home. In the best sense of the word Baker's book will challenge, it can't help but do that--and hopefully get us to be part of the change we want and need--and for the sake of all future "nursing home residents" we should be grateful to Baker for providing such a signficant book. I think Baker's book can be a tool for change in the nursing home near you. Buy it, read it and pass it on to others so we don't find ourselves one day in a dreadful nursing home. I am going to buy this book in bulk and give it to as many people as I can get to read it...That's how significant a read I think it is!
(Rev. Dr.) Judith O'Neill

Movements occur when people push government and institutions out of the way of progress. "Old Age in a New Age" documents a movement that is currently gathering steam across the nation without marches, protests or boycotts.
It gives me a incredible amount of hope that the bleak future of long term care I envisioned is no longer certain after all.
This book is the product of a few dreamers who act, and make real change happen dispite crusty skepticism and entrenched misunderstanding of what "care" means. Heros walk among us, changing the whole world for thousands of nursing home residents.
It will take a long time for me to digest the implications of this important book.

Notwithstanding my low tolerance for any movement that uses the word "transformative" I still found the book an amazing read.

The book is a readable mix of anecdotal and hard data, knowledgeably presented with compassion and humor. Baker is respectful of the residents and the professionals who care for them, without becoming sentimental or preachy. None of which would persuade me this movement has any real chance of actually transforming the hospital model of nursing homes, especially given my experience with how large systems manage to subvert even the best intended and most well-conceived attempts at reform.

What saves the whole thing, for me anyway, is the realization that Baker is addressing my self-involved generation with a message keyed to our own enlightened self-interest. Unless I want to end up as a drooling urine-soaked "slumper" parked in a wheelchair in some dim hallway near the nurse's station, I better get cracking. Perhaps I'm reading too much beneath her overt cheerfulness about the many successfully transformed homes she discovered. But she managed to scare and encourage me at the same time.

I put the book down with a profound respect for those professionals, residents, and families who are inventing something to replace the broken model. Thanks to this book, I find myself feeling hopeful that our generation will not only insist that we do better, but also that there is a model out there of what that better picture can be.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone who has ever visited a friend or family member in a nursing home, everyone who has ever had to help make such decisions for loved ones, and everyone determined to make their own final years self-reliant, stimulating, and worth living.

This book is clearly written and user friendly. Biafore gives links to information sources, making it easy for the reader to get more information on each of the hacks. These links alone are worth the price of the book.

I've been trading for over twenty years, including a period as a floor trader on the Chicago Board of Trade. Even with that experience there are tips and tricks in this book I found useful to the point where I employ them daily. To be complete as a reviewer I will say there is a lot of pretty basic stuff from my point of view, but still well worth reviewing since some of it I had forgotten.

Well written, easy reading, well organized

Online Investing Hacks is an excellent introduction to the world of investment. Though the title does contain the word 'Online', I would say that the general information the book provides on investing is not limited to the online realm.

Overall, I was very happy with the book, and found it incredibly useful. Though I do have several investments (401K, some stock, mutual funds etc) I would hardly consider myself an authority on the subject. This book provided very detailed explanations and tips on various forms of investment, from CD's to Index funds, and everything in between. While the experienced investor might not glean much from reading this book, anyone just getting started will find it an excellent reference, and resource.

The format of the book is similar to the other books in the 100 * Hacks series published by O'Reilly. There are exactly 100 hacks, or topics, which are spread across 9 chapters. Each one is an individual entity and can be read and understood without reliance on any of the other hacks.

One minor annoyance I had with the book is that it is geared toward those of you who, for some reason or another, run Microsoft's Windows OS, or have access to Microsoft Excel. Luckily, of the Excel examples that I played with, Open Office's Calc program handled them with minimal tweaking.

I can easily recommend this book to anyone who wants to invest, but is unsure of what to invest in, or needs some tips on making the most of preexisting investments. Those of you who enjoy research and building your own stats and graphs will also find parts of this book rather intriguing, as it covers data acquisition and manipulation with Excel in great detail. It will make an excellent addition to my reference shelf, and I have a feeling it will be well thumbed through in a very short time.

It seems like everyone is involved in investing in some form or another. While I always felt like I should be investing too, it was never clear to me how to begin this process. After all, it's my money. How can I be sure I'm investing in something that will provide some sort of reasonable return? This book is an excellent resource in answering some of those questions and putting the new investor on the right track.

This book is written in the same format as the other "hacks" series by O'Reilly. This format is very easy to read, and the format makes it very easy to find answers. Rather then having to read the book from cover to cover, the reader can pick out topics they are dealing with, read the answer, and move on. Since many of the people interesting in a book of this nature will likely have little time, the book's format works to its advantage.

The book begins with some basic introduction to the stock market and tips for selecting appropriate stocks or mutual funds. The whole middle section of the book deals with data analysis. The author discusses how to understand a company's balance sheet (e.g. what that P/E ratio means), how to spot companies in financial trouble, how to pick a good stock, and even how to trade. There is also a good discussion on minimizing the effect of taxes on your little return on investment.

The author even goes further and gets into a discussion on financial planning. In addition to discussing debt reduction, the author also talks about IRA plans and different strategies for saving for your child's education expenses. I think my favorite part of this book was the discussion on different education savings plans. The author discusses the ins and outs (as well as tax consequences) of each of the plans, and provides some examples illustrating the fact that it's better to start saving earlier than later.

This is an excellent book, not just for its investing advice, but also for its sound financial planning. This is a great book for anyone who is interested in increasing their wealth, saving for a rainy day, or simply saving for future financial goals.

Online Investing Hacks by Bonnie Biafore (O'Reilly) is one of those books that can pay for itself in short order, as well as over and over.

Chapter list: Screening Investments; Hacking Excel for Financial Analysis; Collecting Financial Data; Analyzing Company Fundamentals; Technical Analysis; Executing Trades; Investing in Mutual Funds; Managing Your Portfolio; Financial Planning; Index

I worked at Enron from 1998 through 2001, and spent plenty of time during that dot.com era following my stock portfolio. I watched my Enron stock value go from incredible value to a point where it cost more to sell the stock than it was worth. I won a few bets (face it, that's what they were) on a few dot.coms and lost many more. What could have been an incredible nest egg, isn't. This book would have been a lifesaver if I had read and paid attention to it a few years ago. Biafore shows you how you can analyze and invest wisely using a variety of tools available to everyone.

If you're an Excel user, you'll find it an invaluable tool for analysis. She'll show you how you can use it to create financial charts (#13), calculate compound annual rates of growth (#26), and use rational values to buy and sell wisely (#36). #39 - Spot Hanky Panky with Cash Flow Analysis (using Enron as an example) would have literally saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars had I known about it. Even if you don't care about the investing tips, the hack on downloading data via Excel web queries (#7) was something I didn't know how to do (or that you could even do it!). The book has a little something for everyone.

As with all Hacks titles, you probably won't be interested in every single item. Some may not be applicable to your situation or may be too complex for what you care to handle. But all it would take is one hack to work out and change your investing for this book to pay huge dividends. If you do your own investing, you owe it to yourself to get this book.

When you think of organic foods, do you mentally picture aging hippies in co-ops, small roadside stands, and stores with counter-cultural values? That image was probably valid until the 1980's, but has rapidly been displaced since.

Organic foods sales grew at 20 percent per year during the 1990s, attracting the attention of the food business. In the process, organic went mainstream and became an accepted niche market at grocery chains and even big-box retailers such as WalMart and Target. The author's real question is whether this represents "progress" or "problem" for fans of simpler lifestyles and all things organic.

The documented answer is some of both. Fromartz is a highly accomplished business journalist who takes a (mostly) unsentimental look at the business of marketing organic foods. Interviewing small and large merchants plus the `man on the street,' Fromartz discovers that organic is profitable and growing, yet at the same time poses a risk to traditional fans who are unlikely to shop at big boxes for the food they know and love. While the mainstream consumer `discovers' organic, the core organic customer may be wondering if she can trust anyone, anywhere, any more. This dilemma, the author notes, resembles putting up "a neon sign for an organic Twinkie."

After an entertaining and excellent investigative look at the business of organic, Fromartz holds out hope that both kinds of organic - mass market and small market - may find ways to thrive. For the core customer, related values like humane treatment of animals, fair market pricing, and sustainable agriculture may become more relevant indicators of value than the simple phrase `organic.' These savvy shoppers may continue to trust the small, unique brands and identities of traditional organic suppliers.

Meanwhile a certain amount of industrialization, mass-market methods and persuasive advertising messages can be expected to boost sales of anything termed `organic' in the aisles of a mega-retailer near you, where the organic business is currently booming.

Whether you like your organic "all natural" or with "always low prices," you'll be likely to find it readily available. Which type you choose will say a lot about your personal values and expectations.

Armchair Interviews say: The good news, from the author's point of view, is that at least you'll get to choose! In a free market, our choices define our future opportunities.

I have been very ambivalent about the organic culture and wanted to understand more about the origins of the organic movement, its significance, and the trends I observe it to be following.

Samuel Fromartz's account of the organic industry (as I have come to see it) was a solid introduction that I will have to probably reread to fully take in. Peppered with facts, figures, vignettes, anecdotes, and opinions, it is clearly the writing of the converted, rather than a deliberately skeptical examination. Nonetheless there is room for reflection and critical analysis - I flagged dozens of pages that gave me points to ponder and further examine. The book touches on related topics like local agriculture without straying too far from the topic at hand.

My one criticism, after moving on to other books about food agriculture, is that this book, when it was dealing with facts and figures, seemed get weighed down, but at the same time, seemed to leave identifiable voids of information. How a book could be both occasionally tedious, and occasionally too light, I'm not entirely sure.

"Organic Inc" by Samuel Fromartz offers a good introduction to the natural food movement. Written primarily for a popular audience, the book combines research with short histories, case studies and profiles of prominent personalities and companies that have shaped the industry. Although the author's frequent interjections about his own personal experiences and infatuations with organics becomes somewhat annoying, overall the book succeeds in granting insight into the organic movement, its foundational ideals and the possibilities for the future.

Mr. Fromartz provides a brief history of organic farming as an alternative to a deeply flawed agro-industrial production system. We learn that organic methods were developed for ideologically diverse reasons but tends to produce nutritionally superior foods when compared with conventional farming practices. Although yields are usually smaller, the author discusses how organic strawberry farms in California are an example of how organics can outperform when allowing for decreases in energy and fertilizer input.

Mr. Fromartz profiles some of the small organic farmers whose deference to health, environment and community were shaped by the 1960s counterculture. A small but vital network of farmers, distributors and retailers supported a fledgling movement that defined itself by remaining outside the conventional food system. The author describes how such farmers often devised creative marketing strategies by catering to specialty restaurants or selling their produce directly to the public at farmer's markets. As health and safety concerns about pesticides and rBGH growth hormones caught the public's attention, organic farming has become more widespread, emerging as an increasingly important survival strategy for more and more beleagured family farmers.

Mr. Fromartz traces the rise in popularity of pre-packaged salads and refrigerated soy milk to discuss how mass market success has created divisions within the organic community. The development of large-scale organic enterprises has intensified competition and shut down smaller, less efficient producers. Regulation has become a contentious issue, with small farmers seeking to hold large farmers accountable to maintaining high standards. As supermarkets such as Safeway and Wal-Mart have begun to add organic sections to their stores, issues of local production, fair wages and sustainability are heightened. Yet, the author is upbeat in his assessment that small farmers can continue to find their niche by satisfying the needs of the more sophisticated organic consumer.

I recommend this highly readable and informative book to everyone.

I enjoyed this book. It was a great introduction to the organic world.

Can big agribusiness and local organic farming co-exist and thrive? Samuel Fromartz' new book, Organic, Inc., is a fascinating journey through American agricultural movements, starting around the turn of the century, when farming was still a small-town venture and tracing its development into agribusinesses whose products are now found on most American tables - and the movement into locally grown, organic foods, which represents not so much a return to the past as a return to wholeness and healthy living.

The problem seems to be that the organic movement itself is being challenged by the very agribusinesses it once eschewed. There are really few ways to farm sustainably (which will in most cases mean organically and without genetically modified foods or chemicals) AND use the systems that have come to mean "factory farms" - livestock confined for their entire lifetimes in areas so small they cannot turn around or lie down (chickens, for instance, and pigs), never mind see the sunshine or walk around and enjoy fresh air, eating what they would eat if humans were not around.

Agrisystems, as they exist today, are basically unhealthy - and unsustainable. But they are profitable, and make it easy for "food" (if you want to call it that) to arrive at your table packaged neatly and processed to death. Rare are the children being raised today who knows what "food" looks like in its natural state. Do they know what a carrot or beet looks like, while it's growing in the ground? Do they know that the hamburger they eat comes from a being that has a face and makes sounds, and may (depending on your viewpoint) be sentient?

Being removed from the source and sight and smells and knowledge of how your food comes to you - how it was grown, and what has happened to it all along the way - makes for some dangerous possibilities. We cannot know (or control very well, despite so-called legal safeguards meant to protect us) where our food has been, before it reaches our table, unless we have grown it ourselves (which is not easy or possible for most people) or have bought it from someone in our community whose farming practices we know - and could actually go there and see.

Fromartz comes from a reporting background, and knows how to dig out factoids that will leave you breathless for the sheer scope of what has happened to our food and our food production systems. It should leave you with both concern and hope, at the end.

Organic, Inc. Is not exactly the "story of food" but it truly is the tale of two different visions for how food is produced and made available to consumers. One (local biodynamic farming) is sustainable; the other (multinational, corporate agribusiness) is not.

Fromartz carefully traces how we got where we are, without suggesting where we will go in the future. However, his bias for a sustainable natural foods future is clear - and it's one I share. If you care about what you eat, how it got here, and whether you will be able to find more like it tomorrow, you should read this book, think about what it means, and DO something about what you believe is the best course of action for a world where what we eat determines how healthy we and our future generations will be.

Yours for extraordinary dining -- for everyone,

Nancy Boyd
www.find-great-organic-gourmet-foods.com

This book is very good for the physical therapist or orthopedist. Full of good references and great overview of many special tests.

This book is really a great book. It is very detailed and even a lay person like me can understand it. Every condition you can think of is in it. From skin conditions to MCL ruptures. The book is very explanatory and I really like it. I reference it a lot. It comes in handy for home use too, not only professionally.

I thought this was an excellent exam book. I preferred Hoppenfeld's book, though there is less info. Of all the ones I've read, the best is still Pocket Guide to Musculoskeletal Diagnosis. I think Magee's is better for a reference. Pocket Guide to MSK Dx is better for daily use.

I bought this textbook together with Ferri's Clinical advisor with great enthusiasm. Though this book has fewer contributors, it offers enormous amount of information on physical assessment. Other than the reference pages at the end of each chapter, you cannot spot a single page that does not have a drawing, a photograph, charts, tables, or tips. You cannot resist but feel great appreciation to the hard work invested in this masterpiece.

In the era of Internet, when many folks opted to stay away from books, this book's style offers very competitive alternative to electronic media. The only drawback is its blurred black and white photos. Although the author attempted to compensate for such deficit by many informative drawings, yet better quality photos help contemporary readers to stay focused longer during reading.

Of course, the book is about physical assessment so it stops short of complete orthopedic textbook. Each joint is discussed in terms of its applied anatomy, history taking, examination, and ends by case studies, followed by extensive lists of references. In addition to regional assessments of joints, chapters 14 and 15 discuss the assessment of gait and posture, chapter 16 of the amputee, chapter 17 of emergency sports, and chapter 18 of physical evaluation prior to participation in sport. The eighteen chapters extend over a 1000 large sized pages with two color printing, which make its reading a breathe.

The Fifth Edition of Orthopedic Physical Assessment is an outstanding reference for orthopedic physical therapists. The additional color pictures, illustrates, and upgraded tables within the chapter topics provides the reader a overview of a wealth of information. The regional and diagnose specific functional measurement/assessment tests are helpful for clinical outcome measurement data. Chapter four presents an outstanding overview of TMJ examination for an example. The chapter Appendixes with the reliability, validity, specificity, and sensitivity of special/diagnostic tests are helpful.

I looked forward to seeing the 5th edition and have not been disappointed!

After hearing the Author on the radio, i decided to pick the book up.I found it most enjoyable,Hey maybe i will be a better customer now

we give this book out to our new employees,before they can work for us. It has grear stories,and it is a very good learning tool,for customers and anyone else in this industry

I heard the Author on the radio,i thought the book was great,i enjoyed the stories the best

I enjoyed this book very much. I felt like i could hear the Authors voic

I see myself going through the same things,it was like the Author was writing about me

I first read Rick's book about a year ago. Since then, I have referred to it on several occasions. The information he offers is applicable now and will be just as valuable as the years progress. I highly recommend this book to those who want to see their companies grow based on the customers' needs, wants, and desires.

"Over Promise and Over Deliver" This phrase sounds like a line used by a used car dealer. Don't all businesses try to give big promises just to get your money? How often do they actually live up to these promises? Not very often. So to exceed expectations seems a little unrealistic.

Over Promise and Over Deliver says that this need not be the case. Lots of companies like Google, TiVo, American Girl, and Washington Mutual not only deliver on their big promises but take customer service one step further. Their secrets are actually rather simple, find out what the customer needs and wants then take action.

Nearly all of the examples for companies using TouchPoint guidelines given in this book are large multimillion dollar businesses. Nonetheless, it is really easy to see how the system could be used in a smaller more moderate organization. In fact, I believe that TouchPoint probably works better in smaller situations where the employer and employees are all in daily contact with customers, allowing for more opportunities to understand what the consumer actually needs and wants.

Author Rick Barrera presents a credible, reasonably creative perspective on how your business can distinguish itself in a market that is saturated with advertising. The fastest-growing firms, he says, have learned to generate massive consumer buzz by making bountiful promises about their products and then overdelivering on those promises. Do that, he says, and you'll generate a wealth of free promotion as consumers talk with their friends and refer them to you. Barrera's "TouchPoint" system is a useful way to articulate standard business fundamentals that, properly executed, add up to strong customer satisfaction. Although Barrera uses some very good case studies, a few of them are probably a stretch. For instance, the average manager may not learn many lessons from the Blue Man entertainment group. Overall, however, we find that this book and its accompanying CD-ROM are useful references for executives and managers who are responsible for branding and strategic product positioning.

"Under promise and over deliver." That phrase has been around long enough to become a cliché. Cliché concepts get old, unless someone comes along with a radical change and turns the cliché inside out. Enter Rick Barrera, a well-known marketing guru. People like this stretch our thinking, pushing us out of the envelope and tromping on the box in the meantime. If you listen to their messages, you will have difficulty staying "inside the box."

Barrera does not disappoint. Emphasizing "touch points," the intimate contact with the customer that can win-or lose-the day, he demonstrates how companies can go beyond the ordinary and fulfill the expectations they create in the mind of the consumer.

This book is organized into two sections: Overpromise and Underdeliver. The first section engages the reader in a discussion of brand promises, how they drive company growth, and ways that well-framed brand promises differentiate companies in the marketplace. Barrera's educational writing is well-seasoned with recent real-world examples.

In the opening pages of his book, Barrera introduces the concept of touch points-those special, meaningful moments where the customer comes in contact with the company. Three types of TouchPoints (Barrera's spelling) are presented. "Product TouchPoints occur where customers interact with the product or service a company is selling." "Human TouchPoints occur when the customer directly interacts with an organization's people." "System TouchPoints include all other points of contact between a company and its customers." The author explains each type of interaction and his views about their importance. "All three TouchPoints are vital to an organization's success, though to differing degrees. All three require a substantial and continuing investment of funds and managerial energy if they are to do their job properly..." The TouchPoint concept reminded me of Jan Carlson's work with Scandanavian Airlines years ago. Good lessons bear repeating.

The second section concentrates on meeting and exceeding customer expectations with each of the categories of TouchPoints. Two case studies, Washington Mutual Insurance Company and Lexus, illustrate the concepts before a concluding chapter and close into the index at the back of the book.

The book is filled with advice, examples, and inspiration that will be valuable to anyone in marketing today. Beyond this highly appropriate reader group, I would recommend that corporate executives pay careful attention to the book's messages. The concepts will be valuable to recruiters-corporate, college, and military-as well as to educators in all environments. The lessons conveyed in "Over Promise and Over Deliver" will be valuable to many people for many years. This is a book for our times.

I agree with Barrera that customer service will drive many if not most American businesses from now on. The era of cost-cutting that we went through in the 90s is gone, where profitability was driven by becoming lean and mean. This is actually most of what drove the great bull market of the 90s, at least in the non-tech companies, and it even had an effect there too. After the last bear market, the worst since 1929, U.S. companies are about as lean and mean as they're ever going to get. One of the few ways they can increase market share and profitability is to improve customer service. This book looks at a number of outstanding success stories and analyzes how they were able to beat out the competition to establish their own preferred brands. There is a lot of good advice here for both big and small businesses. Increasing and improving customer service is also one way American businesses can stop the exodus of customer service type jobs to countries like India. Also, as a small businessman who started up or worked in several customer service oriented businesses over his career, I can tell you that if someone likes you, they'll tell 5 people, but if they don't like you, they'll tell more like 15-20 people. You can't afford to have that sort of negative word of mouth advertising if you're going to be a success. Barrera's book has some sage advice on how to avoid the pitfalls and how to do things right when it comes to customer service.

They told me exactly what it would be and it came just the way they said it would. I received it much sooner than I expected.

This textbook is an excellent resource for any medical professional interested in how medications work and their possible adverse effects or effect on patient behavior.

Excellent book! Well-written, very easy to understand. This book covers basic neurology, anatomy, and physiology, thus provides an excellent review! It also explains very well in details how drugs act on the body. Highly recommed to physical therapy students, medicine students, and the other medical discipline students.

I would assume that the majority of people who would buy this book are taking a class in pharmacology. I have had alot of recommended text books that were not worth even taking out of the wrapper, but this book is not one of them. The author's actually spent the time to organize and gather relatively current information and then put a hard cover on it. It's getting harder and harder to get that combination. I gave this a 5 star rating because it really will be a book you will keep and reference after the class is over.

This is an easy-to-read, very concise and to the point text book. Ciccone does a great job of summarizing each disease process, listing the drugs used in their management, and including excellent case studies as they pertain to rehabilitation. Of particular help were the boxes at the end of each chapter which detailed any rehabilitation concerns that should be addressed in treating patients using particular pharmacological intervention. I actually read this book from start to finish and can claim to have read an entire textbook, a first for me.

This was as comprehensive a study as I can imagine possible on how New York City, under the guise of urban renewal, allowed certain poor areas of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan in the 1970's and 1980's to burn down, displacing huge numbers of people, and resulting in the spread of TB, and AIDS throughout New York City, the surrounding areas, and beyond.

Especially of interest in its detailed analysis of how and why New York's poorer neighborhoods were pushed over the cliff of decline thanks not only to the city, but to (who'd have guessed?) the RAND Corporation. "Urban renewal" will never look the same again. geocities.com/singlepayerweb

The significant feature of this magnificent book - the last shape taken by an ongoing series of studies into the results of neo-liberal public policy by Roderick and Deborah Wallace - is that the authors know what they are talking about. Their expertise in statistical studies, developped in a completely different field of study (zoology) is such that, when they first by chance found themselves reading the so-called statistical arguments for expenditure cuts in fire prevention and other services, they KNEW - not as bleeding-heart liberals, but as professional statisticians - that what they were reading was incompetent, pseudoscientific, ideologically motivated nonsense. Since then they have waged, in a string of devastating publications, a truly heroic struggle against the powers of prejudice, governmental meanness and big business-motivated press disinformation. If the the poor stupid general public that reads the newspapers and elects the politicians were ever allowed to know about the Wallaces and their battle for the truth, they would have long since been recognized as among the greatest names alive. Think about it: why did they take it upon themselves to fight this fight? Not, by any means, to advance their career: their career was in another field, and might even have been endangered by their taking controversial stances on public matters. Not for self-interest; and not for a thirst for fame - for they carried on for decades in spite of being completely ignored by the major media. They acted only out of pure civic passion and a sense of right and wrong. Therefore, known or unknown, the Wallaces are genuine living heroes, and their names deserves to ring as nobly as that of old Sir William of that ilk, who also fought for the downtrodden and ignored when there was nobody else to fight for them.

The Wallaces document the effects of the reduction in fire service and planned strinkage of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, I would have liked to see statistics included in how many fire deaths (civilian and firefighter), major injuries, families left homeless, etc. Another not to be missed book is Report from Engine 82: written in a totally different style, but brimming with empathy for the inhabitants of the area, it's the memoir of a fireman who fought fires in the South Bronx during this era.

This book gives a thorough analysis on how public policies were the catalysts for the socioeconomic destruction of low-income communities of color in New York City. Necessary reading for those who still do not realize that activism and organizing are important vehicles through which marginalized communities keep in check the forces that seek to further fragment and disenfranchise them.

I am not finding this one very great. Its everything I already know. I suppose if this was one of the first books you were reading then maybe it would be a good read, but I'm finding it boring and dry. This will be going up for sale!

I bought this book as a gift for a friend of mine who is 37 and is trying to get pregnant. She found it very informative and helpful and thanked me profusely for giving it to her. I was in her position about 20 years ago and wish I'd had a similar resource to consult.

I really recommend this book to all women thinking about getting pregnant a bit later in life, you don't have to wait to 35. I had my daughter at age 33 two years ago and found it the most challenging thing I've ever done! I've just recommended the book to two friends going through the same thing. There are hundreds of pregnancy books but in this there's lots of really useful information about antenatal testing and how to choose a birth plan that I would have liked to have had before Maddy was born, and the authors talk to you in a very positive way. I give it five stars.JAYNE(and RICHARD)

I am a 39-year-old single woman with a 5-year-old son, and I desperately want another child in my life. Unlike so many books that focus on couples, and/or first-time moms, this book covers many, many scenarios (including my own) thoroughly, professionally, and with wonderful sensitivity.
The practical information is complete and accessible. It addresses most if not all of the potential complications and outcomes of an AMA pregnancy, while short vignettes about other women's experiences interspersed throughout the volume keep the reading very easy and interesting.

The world of motherhood, most especially in developed countries, has undergone profound changes in the latter half of the 20th century. For the first time in history, many women elected to delay starting a family until they completed their education, had secured their professional path, found the right partner and/or had the financial means to nurture and educate a child. Many of us including myself know women who waited until after thirty or later to have their first baby and possibly some who continued having children into their forties. My mother was thirty-four when I was born and thirty-six when she gave birth to my younger brother. My maternal grandmother who lived in rural Texas continued having children until well into her forties and a first cousin remarried in her late thirties and found herself a mother at the age of thirty-seven and later, at thirty-nine.

In addition to massive social changes that have stopped, at least in some quarters, the finger-pointing at women who postponed motherhood until they were ready, advancements in the world of gynecology have made profound changes for women who were previously infertile. There are now myriad options including in vitro fertilization and egg implantation that allow women to give birth in their fifties and sixties and I'm sure a seventy-year-old mom may be just a few years away!

The doctors, Michele C. Moore, M.D. and Caroline M. de Costa, M.D., have added a fascinating new book to their "Mid Life, New Life" series. "Pregnancy and Parenting after Thirty-Five" is a must have for any mature woman considering giving birth or adopting an infant, a non-judgmental, beautifully written work by two medical professionals who have experienced late pregnancies themselves. Dr. Moore gave birth to her son at thirty-five while Dr. de Costa, after having already having five children, found herself changing the diapers of two very healthy and vibrant children in her early forties.

Pregnancy and Parenting after Thirty-Five looks at every aspect of mature parenting including available testing for the health of the mother, options for assistance with conception, adoption and a major concern for mature mothers-to-be, screening for chromosomal abnormalities. They also look at multiple births, a common occurrence with the increased use of fertility drugs to assist in motherhood. The book is written in clear but concise language that breaks down complicated medical procedures and statistical information into advice that any layman and most importantly, laywoman, can both comprehend and use. Doctors Moore and de Costa also give multiple scenarios based on their own case histories and personal experiences as mature moms. This book is a must-have for anyone contemplating parenting an infant after thirty-five whether through birth or adoption and will be just as useful for expectant fathers as it is for hopeful mothers.

Francesca Miller