Sales Books

The "American Cars of the 1950's" book I ordered was delivered on time and in exactly the same condition as advertised.

I can't stress how much I value the reviews on Amazon, which is why I write them. Here's a case in point: I wanted to send my 14 year old nephew something fun while he was away this Summer, and I knew he loved cars. By relying on the reviews, I chose this book and he loved it.
I may not always agree with other reviewers, but their insights and opinions help me make better choices. What really amazes me is that Amazon will print the negative ones.

Lots of great vintage art from ads and brochures. Well designed, easy to navigate. It's a beautiful little book but i just wish it were larger since it is only about 5 inches tall.

5 JUNE 2008.
IF I HAD SEEN THIS BOOK FIRST HAND WITH THE LITHOGRAPH ILLUSTRATIONS, FROM MANUFACTUREERS SALES BROSHURES, VICE REAL PICTURES, I WOULD NOT HAVE ACQUIRED IT.

This book is well-produced in a very easy-to-read format. If you're looking for in-depth details you won't find them. But if you want a picture of life in the 1950s this book is for you. Each brand of car is presented alphabetically by name and then year-by-year. The color, quality of paper and the printing process are all first-rate. You'll also learn about the independent makes that didn't survive the decade like Hudson, Packard and Willys. I recall visiting our local Ford dealer in the 1950s as a small boy and collecting the brochures for each model. I would study them for hours. You could not help but be impressed with with each company's self-promotion on how good their make of car was. This book condenses the highlights of all of those old brochures and helps convey the message of how great the '50s truly were.

Following Robert Solomon's 54 rules will turn your staff members into better account executives. Perhaps think of this list as making up a course on how to teach people to become better service representatives and build effective client relationships. Although some of the rules may seem arbitrary and redundant, others have plenty of merit. The rules suggest that account reps improve by becoming better informed about clients' sales, communications and customer goals; learning how to recommend the best media to accomplish clients' strategies; doing homework to gain insight into clients' industries and discovering new ways for clients to build their businesses. The rules go on to advise on precise skills, such as outlining successful client creative briefs. This short book suffers from its forced structure, but getAbstract says those who want to build their account rep skills will find it a handy checklist for helping clients in marketing, public relations, sales promotion, special events or advertising.

I bought a number of copies of the first edition of this book and gave them away to co-workers in the account services business. I looked everywhere for more copies and welcomed the new edition. Well done, Robert! This book is a must for ad agency service people and anyone else who deals with clients.

Of all the book on advertising I've read, this is by far my top pick. It's an easy read and extremely insightful. I started my career as an advertising recruiter and this book helped inspire me to make my move into an agency. The chapters are very well laid out, interspersed with humorous anecdotes and personal examples.

I would recommend this book to anyone remotely connected to the advertising industry and even those who are not, as its advice transcends the advertising world. For the aspiring advertising professional it will provide a comprehensive introduction to the business side of advertising and I believe even the most seasoned advertising executive would find this a delight to read.

I know I will continue to reference this book throughout the rest of my career. Don't forget to check out the reading list which includes both classics of advertising literature as well as the latest influential books!

I found this book to be very, very useful (and funny)! A quick and valuable read.

It provides a philosophy of client service, and real-life examples, both of which are necessary and useful. (The real-life examples especially help the principles in the book come to life.) I have never found another book on how to service an advertising client -- this fills a big void. And because of its price, it is an excellent value.

Great book, highly recommend it. I had my copy "borrowed" by several people already!

(I also thought this book applies to client service in many other industries, not just advertising ...)

Hi, my name is Alana Renfro and I am a graphic and web designer for interactive and advertising agencies. The 2003 edition of The Art of Client Service was the first one that I read when I first joined the agency world... and I loved it! Many of the ideas are common sense, but it is written in an engaging, informative and most importantly- memorable- style.

Coming from the Creative side, it is helpful to understand the Accounts point-of-view, best practices and useful to implement them into your own daily practices. Many of the suggestions and rules laid out in this book are easily implemented into your life, especially if you are a one-stop shop or solopreneur!

The 2008 edition I now own and it is even better! There are new chapters, an updated bibliography for you fellow avid readers, and even more practical service examples. I highly recommend this book- get the 2008 edition, study it, implement it and become known for your phenomenal understanding of clients, creatives and accounts... and laugh a little bit, too.

This is a tremendous book laying out a systematic approach for better customer service. Predicated on the idea that customers want your product to "just work" and that they DON'T want a "relationship" with you, it challenges many of the customer service practices in most companies. The authors lay out a process with a number of steps:
- Challenge demand for service don't just cope with it. Act smarter so that the amount of support your customers need goes down
- Eliminate "dumb" contacts and stupid repeated contacts through better processes and information
- Create engaging self-service so people can help themselves
- Be Proactive, don't wait for trouble
- Make it easy to contact you, not difficult
- Fix ownership of problems so that you can fix them, not just blame on them on the customer service group
- Listen to your customers and learn from what they tell you
- Delight your customers when they do need help
The authors lay out a cure for the remote, impersonal organization where no-one in management ever talks to real customers. Any organization that has customer service "issues" could benefit from this book.
I would also recommend Chocolates on the Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience for more on customer service and Smart Enough Systems: How to Deliver Competitive Advantage by Automating Hidden Decisions (my own book) for more on how to build the kind of systems you need.

This isn't your typical customer service book nor one that is full of theories. The discussions stimulate ideas and teach how you can improve or enhance your own service and support offerings. Most of the companies referenced in the book are identified, making it even more relatable.

The book is loaded with tools and techniques that can be used in your own business, no matter how small or large. Everything is clearly stated, organized so each chapter effectively ties to the next and is easily understood. The authors made the stories enjoyable to read and filled the book with realistic, do-able ideas. The diagrams, charts, figures, examples, step by step directions, statistics and more, make this book a useful tool and well worth the investment. The benefit from applying even a few of the ideas in this book will be realized by having highly satisfied customers.

Bill and David nailed this one - it is a superb, well-written book. Written from real world experiences with realistic and reasonable solutions for delivering great service and support makes this book an excellent value. Every call center and help desk professional, as well those who work in any form of customer relations, should have a copy of this book. This book offers a roadmap to follow to realize the best service possible.

I think reviewer "SamFan" misses a key point: eliminate the NEED for customer service by doing things right to begin with.
Not only cheaper for the corp, but more satisfying to the customer.

If you believe, as I do, that earning the trust of your customers is the most direct route to long-term success for a business, then this is the book for you. This is probably the single best "how to" book on earning customer trust that I've ever read - and I have read most of them, and written several of them myself, with my co-author and business partner Martha Rogers (our latest and greatest: Rules to Break and Laws to FollowRules to Break and Laws to Follow: How Your Business Can Beat the Crisis of Short-Termism (Microsoft Executive Leadership Series)).

So congratulations to Bill Price and David Jaffe for such a sweeping, carefully delineated guidebook for business people just trying to do the right thing for customers. Jaffe is a customer experience consultant operating out of Australia, and Price is the ex-VP of Global Customer Service for Amazon, which says a lot about their perspective, because Amazon (as everyone reading this review should know) is one of the world's true icons of great customer service. In the game of business, in other words, Price is not just a good coach, but a veteran player with a winning record.

Price and Jaffe concentrate primarily on how best to operate call centers, interactive voice response (IVR) units, Web sites, and other mechanisms for facilitating interactions with customers. The guiding principle for all customer interactions should be to reassure customers, empower them, and serve them well. The final objective, of course, is to ensure that customers find it as easy as possible to buy from you. But, as the authors persuasively demonstrate, no one is going to buy from you if they don't trust you and have confidence in your service. And customers will only develop that trust if they judge that their interactions with you were efficient and customer-oriented.

Now I judge the merit of a business book in terms of how many comments I've underlined or highlighted, and how many page corners I've turned down during the course of reading it. By these criteria, The Best Service is No Service earns five stars from me.

For instance, I LOVE the "bad examples" that permeate the book. They're so much fun to read, and it's such a gas just chuckling at how stupid so many businesses can be in real life. The bank that automatically routes calls from its best customers to sales associates, forcing them to sit through new product pitches before they have access to the simplest IVR tasks like transferring money, for instance, while "ordinary" customers get to breeze through the IVR and do what they want quickly and efficiently (p. 71), or the IT company that, in an amateurish effort to be totally honest with customers, offered them (kid you not) 30,000 phone numbers to choose from worldwide (p. 134).

But the real heart of the book, and its true benefit for the reader, is its numerous checklists of things to do and not to do when operating an interaction center. At page 155, for example, the authors talk about providing the right choices for customers at every point, including (among other things):

* At the web site, phone numbers on every page, "talk to someone" or "chat" buttons, and "contact us" buttons that make it easy to send emails, stating how quickly they will be replied to
* For phone IVR menus or trees, Web site alternatives clearly mentioned, options to leave a number for call back, ability to hit 0 at any point to reach an operator
* Emails that go out with a phone number provided, along with links to the pages on the site that actually help to explain the issue
* Branch operations that have phones for calling the contact center directly, self-service desks for information, and Web PCs for direct self-service online

Or consider his list of simple usability criteria (p. 91):

* Short menus on IVRs, just to make selection easy
* Consistency across IVRs and Web sites, allowing customers to know where things are and make their selections more easily
* Correct uses of silence on IVRs and white space on Web sites, so customers don't always feel crowded or rushed
* Multiple support levels for the user, meaning that IVRs, for instance, should kick into a more detailed level when the user has a problem, and Web sites should be designed to help users recover from mistakes or problems
* Standard navigation features, meaning ability to repeat IVR menus at any point or drop bread crumbs during your Web search.

There really wasn't much I didn't like about this book. I wish they had been able to name more of the companies they singled out as examples (most of the bad examples don't actually name the companies involved). And I suppose in some places the authors could have got to their point faster. They're not the most economical writers, in their use of words. But these are very minor drawbacks, as I still found myself drawn in to the ongoing story they tell, and the very smart and succinct lessons they convey.

The fact is that interacting with masses of customers, individually, is a complicated and difficult business service that most companies have only begun wrestling with in the last decade or so, because the Worldwide Web has finally forced them to. There are a handful of businesses that did a sterling job - prior to the Web's arrival - of using their call centers to inspire confidence and trust in their customers (USAA, for example, cited at p. 139). But for the vast majority of companies, prior to the rise of the Web, call centers were mostly treated as just one more cost of doing business.

"Customer interaction," in other words, is now one of the dominant forms of "service" offered by most companies, but it is still a brand new discipline for most business people, with lots of unknown complications and unappreciated benefits. So if you want to better understand the implications of managing the customer experience when it comes to your own company and your own customers, then this book by Price and Jaffe is far and away the best, most comprehensive and practical education you can buy today.

I loved this book. It is well organized and written. It starts out with a diagram that represents a picture of how the best customer service is no (or little) customer service. And then it uses eight chapters of text to explain why the best service is no (or little) service. Each chapter ends with a good summary of what was covered in the chapter. And after each chapter summary there is a list of survey questions that help the reader apply what they have read to their real-world situation. Very well done!

The book also includes wonderful appendix material: a Best Service Survey, a glossary and a blibliography. All in all, this book redefines traditional notions of what a small business needs to do to be successful. By reading this book you will be reminded that good customer service is critical to the success of small business. However, there is no need (nor is it ideal) to over supply customer service. Too much customer service can negatively impact on a company's profit margin because of the extra cost of payroll expense needed. And too much customer service can also be an opportunity to hurt customer relations (and relationships) rather than improve them.

The ultimate message included in this book is that small business will be most successful if they only provide customer service that is essential to doing business. Too much is not good and too little is likewise not good. Just keep the customers happy while keeping yourself happy and your business will be successful. 5 stars!

PS. The author has provided Search Inside material to Amazon that includes the Table of Contents for this book. I think the chapter titles explain a lot of what is covered in this book. Read those chapter titles along with my review to get the most out of it.

This book is a must read for everyone who wants to understand Love and Life! Fantastic book!

Leo Buscaglia never received the recognition he deserved for being an inspiration without being overly religious or dogmatic. His humor and insight are realistic and applicable to all humanity. This book simply defines what we all hope to achieve but often fail at, unconditional love. A funny, inspirational and thought-provoking book.

Dr. Buscaglia has accomplished something here that is a miracle in itself. To be able to describe love and compassion so clearly and in such a readable way is an amazing achievement. When he walked with us, he always said that he would not tolerate "follow the guru". He knew, at this great time of awakening, that we must become aware of the divine within us. And he has helped us so much, as students of compassion, with this wonderful contribution. It is filled with treasures that will enrich your life. Thank you Leo!

"Staying in love requires far more of us. To satisfy the senses may be the major challenge for some, but it is actually the easiest part. The mind and spirit require continual attention and stimulation as well. It is not until we assume responsibility for the enhancement of the total self that love will survive."

Paragraphs like this and many others make this book very worthwhile.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

This is a very beautiful book; and very easy to read. Each page is like a short story that defines love, and makes the reader drunk with joy, if you will.

One of my favorite messages in this book reads, "Even when no one else seems to recognize how truly remarkable we are, we always have ourselves, the one inexhaustible resource for positive reinforcement, the one person who will always proudly wave our personal flag."

This is a wonderful message to use as an affirmation, because as one says these words, out loud, with closed eyes, 3 times per day, for 21 days (enough time to form new habits), you see, feel and hear more of your connection to the human race.

And it is in this new place, one is able to transcend the self and focus upon the needs of others around us, while we fulfill our own needs.

It is also the best way to follow the path that you are here to travel.

A gifted, stylish writer with something new and original to say. Even though the time (1973) and place (Marin County California) and subject (family of a deceased late Beat/early hippie writer) are far removed from my own experience, Jones has the gift of taking you there, spinning you around, getting you interested in the characters and leaving you delighted and enlightened.

As I could relate with the age, time and place of the main character's life, I took a ride on the depth given to her by Jones. What a trip! I'm still sitting at the table with them over cioppino wishing everyone would come home again. Well, things surely change as California's Over reveals. I'll have to accept this and jump into another ferment of this writer's cast of characters.

This is not Jones' best, but it's definitely his most ambitious. He's trying to mark out territory as an important writer here, bidding to be a Big Gun. Commentary on society, etc. People in the throes of crucial emotions in their lives, etc. He's more at ease with the metaphysical, as in "Particles and Luck." "Particles and Luck" is a truly beautiful little book. A classic. However, I must say, the looser structure in "Californias Over" (the wandering over three decades in several characters' lives, the multiple point-of view, the flash-forwards to warn reader of future developments) all allow a new complexity here. And Jones' poetry is present. I just happen to prefer the tighter structure. His earlier books are more like DeLillo -- seem to have been directly influenced by DeLillo -- whereas this is more touchie-feelie.

Louis B. Jones's California's Over is much more than a satire of the West Coast's Sixties legacy, though like all good satire it does have a deeply realized base of moral bedrock to put the clearly-observed human excesses and deviations in perspective, and like all good satire it is very funny without being cruel. But the book's real strength and beauty is in its tenderness, the sweet music of human peculiarity lucidly seen, and in its evocations of the loveliness of the sirens' songs that have drawn its characters toward their particular, poignant ruin on their particular rocks of reality. And the novel, like all of Jones's work, is ultimately a song of praise for the embattled decency, for the redemptive power in the feeble human longing for the simple human truth, for the humble beauty of the real, in the face of everything the world can bring of tragedy and temptation. Jones's language is astonishing, rich and lush and ever-inventive, a kind of sustained poetry. By all means check out his other novels--Ordinary Money, and Particles and Luck, which are also terrific. A beautiful writer, with hopefully a long and productive career ahead of him--a joy to read.

I read this in hardcover, and it's amazing. Jones is the only fiction writer I know of now who is truly driven to poetry, that is necessary poetry, not vague lyricism. Every line matters. I live in Saint Louis, MO, and Jones is here at a university to be a visiting writer and just gave a reading of his newest work, about Alaska in 1970, and it heads off in a totally different direction. There's no one writng today with his sincerity and poetry.

This is a book I know Drew Carey would enjoy since he speaks highly of his hometown! If you are a resident or perhaps planning to visit Cleveland then this book will introduce you to the city's past and present. Great pictures as well. Nice tribute to this great city!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down. Mr. Grabowksi's choice of subject matter made the book interesting, and the "now" photography is beautiful. How lovely were Superior and Euclid Avenues in the past; modern structures today, in my opinion, pale against the architecture of the old mansions... I enjoyed the glimpse of seeing how people dressed and where they shopped. When is the last time you've been in a "dry goods" store? With a spot on the street to tether your horse? This is a must-have piece of history for Clevelanders and history buffs alike.

This is a wonderful gift for anyone from the Cleveland area as it goes into so many fascinating developments of the region over time.

John J. Grabowski is synonymous with chronicling the history of Cleveland as co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History and writing other books on various aspects of the city.

Working on this project with Diane Ewart Grabowski has yielded a unique view of the city through its architecture from the dawning of the 20th Century to the beginning of the 21st Century.

Using archival photographs from back then and through commissioned works now, the focus is on the downtown area and some residential neighborhoods. There is text that accompanies the various photographs that adds valuable insight on the city.

What makes the book especially interesting is a person can literally "map out" a walking tour of the portions of the city chronicled to get an even better appreciation on how some areas have had remarkable change, while others have roughly remained the same.

While the book should be of particular interest to northeast Ohio residents and schools, Cleveland Then and Now is a history of the visions of developers & political leaders and - most importantly - the people who made the structures teem with activity during work hours and in the neighborhoods with family & friends.

I've been in Cleveland now for about 10 years, having moved here permanently to be with my wife. I'm always learning new things about this interesting and often vexing area. Even though I don't especially like living in the Cleveland/NE Ohio area today (this area has been hit hard economically, and it shows), this book has enabled me to learn much more about the glory, grit, and history of this interesting American city, in words and pictures. Cleveland proper was once the 5th largest American city, and the grandiosity and urban landscape and feel has been captured perfectly with the many turn of the century black & white classic photos of the downtown area, or 'Millionaires Row', just to name 2 geographical areas cited in this book! The 'side by side' juxtaposition of many of the classic 'then' pictures to the 'now' pictures, with many structures and/or buildings still standing, is eerily fascinating to say the least. If you live in NE Ohio, or go there often, this book is a MUST. You won't be able to put it down, and you will be mesmerized by Cleveland's humble industrial beginnings that helped mold NE Ohio into what it has become today! Also, looking at all the photos of people that existed 100 years ago makes you feel your own mortality as well. What is considered 'modern' today will be 'classic' or 'retro' tomorrow!

I am in charge of training a group of 12 sales people in our company; some are brand new and some are seasoned sales professionals. All 12 of this sales force are reading The Complete Guide to Successful Selling and I'm hearing back some tremendous results. After reading even the first chapter several trainees told me they have increased their ability to talk to customers and also in knowing the exact right issues to be addressed with customers or clients.

And there are great tools on handing the more tricky customers. Our sales force is now doing better at taking these and even building these into stronger long-term relationships. And, best of all, the principles are very simple to learn to use and remember.

I would recommend this book to anyone involved in sales or a sales-related activity.

I really love this book on selling -- and I have read many, by a variety of authors -- because it is:

1. Easy and fun to read.
2. Very professional in it's layout.
3. It has advice on how to study and assists to learning the material.
4. It has breakthrough after breakthrough on selling which are simply not covered elsewhere.
5. It's contents and ideas that are immediately applicable

It is at the top of my list of books on sales and selling. A rare find that is worth it's weight in gold.

This book gives the key points to know and use in selling anything! It is easy to understand yet powerful in its application. Since reading and using the data in the book, I have had my highest month of sales. It has helped me see where I have sales strength and where I need to be stronger.
This book is perfect for people just starting out in sales or the "old hands" who wish to improve their game.

I had heard about this book and got a copy as soon as it came out. I've been using these techniques for awhile now and the results have been pretty spectacular. In a few hours per month I sell enough business to keep my business consulting firm booming. I've recommended The Complete Guide to Successful Selling to clients for their salespeople and that has also resulted in excellent results for both the new guy and the veterans. This is not the same old stuff you see in all the sales books rehashed. It is new and vital technology that gives the honest salesperson a real advantage. I highly recommend it.

The Complete Guide to Successful Selling does factually provide a salesperson what they need to know to take a prospect from first contact all the way through to a completed sale with all parties happy with the outcome.

You won't find gimmicks in this book, but you will find a vast number of proven, workable tools that a salesperson at any level can use.

Get yourself a copy. It will not disappoint.

This is a great book for understanding all aspects of creating a Direct Marketing company or a direct marketing program within your company. The basics and then some are in this book. Well written in that it kept my attention from new ideas and way it was written.

If you want to read only one book on the catalog business, make sure you pick this one.

I've read more than 5 books in English and German on the catalog subject and Schmid's book is in a class of its own.

It promises to cover the entire catalog process, including strategic planning, merchandising, creative, marketing (circulation), fulfillment, testing, and measuring response and ROI. And it delivers on the promise to an extend that I've never seen before. I spend this summer in Cannes, France, and enjoyed Schmid's book in the hot sun. Just couldn't put it aside...

His 11 pages long spreadsheet model in appendix includes everything for a new catalog start-up feasibility study ... and provides insight for the budgeting process to more experienced catalogers. [Why doesn't he provide a downloadable version in Excel on his homepage?]

The only competitor to this book is probably Katie Muldoon's 1995-publication, which is out of print (her home page says that a new book on the strategic aspects of catalogs is forthcoming).

One weakness that all books on cataloging have so far is their unserious treatment of the Internet. Schmid's book is from 2000 and it shows. It doesn't contain solid work on dynamic publishing, which is exploding via the Internet these years. It's not that Schmid doesn't accept that the Internet will be a phenomenal factor, but in this area so much of the catalog processes have been digitized since 2000. Thus, on this promise it doesn't deliver.

I still recommend this book as the best source so far to understanding all the catalog processes and hints to improving the bottom-line.

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

This is such a great book for a company that is starting a Catalog business or thinking about it. It covers all aspects of the Catalog business and gives you a checklist of all the necessary tasks to launching a successful catalog. Great book...

Virtually every company that makes things has to ahve a catalog. It's the thing that tells your customers what you do and gives them the detailed information that they need to make a decision.

Catalogs began with the mail order industry where the technology grew to measure sales return per square inch of paper. Over time, the professionals learned what worked and what didn't. Then when everything was working pretty well, the Internet came along and changed all the rules. All of a sudden space was endless, no more big checks to the printers. Communications was essentially free, no more big checks to the post office. The rules changed because the option to thumb through the catalog was no longer there. Instead sophisticated search and discover techniques needed to be worked out.

Jack Schmid has been in the catalog business, both print and electronic for many years. In this book he passes along dozens, if not hundreds of points. The book covers quite a lot of ground. Much of the book is on the functions that have to be performed whether the catalog is printed, electronic or both. This includs things like product selection, fullfillment, customer service and finance. There is a goodly amount of material on the printed version of the catalog, as these are still required by most companies. There are several points interspersed throughout the book and finally chapters on things like database marketing, the Internet, and more.

This is one of the most all inclusive books available on catalog marketing and includes just about everything there is to know.

A wonderful overview of the catalog world with plenty of real-world examples including: ROI calculations, promotions, customer segmentation.....
Worth its wieght in gold!

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention

The only book on the subject availible, and long overdue. Elaine DePrince writes from the heart, with a sharp eye for contradictions. Though it is a personal story of pain and loss, anyone who reads it can not come away without a sense of outrage. It is a story that should have been writen ten years ago about a forgotten group forced into the battle against HIV?AIDS unarmed and unprepared, but continues to fight back to the last man and woman if necessary. Every health care worker, doctor, and politician should read this, and if it doesn't scare them silly, they are not paying attention.

This book serves well as both the intimate story of a family whose lives have been profoundly altered by AIDS, and an expose of the events that allowed this deadly disease to invade them.

While the average American probably believes, as I did until recently, that the infection of thousands of hemophiliacs with the AIDS virus was an unavoidable tragedy, DePrince uncovers the awful truth that for many, if not most, hemophiliacs, infection with AIDS and the deadly hepatitis C virus was not only avoidable, but that the government and hemophilia profiteers (like Bayer "The Aspirin People") chose not to act to produce a safer product in favor of bigger profits.

DePrince also reminds us that the tragedy experienced by the hemophilia community isn't an isolated incident. Many millions of Americans are exposed to blood products each year, sometimes unknowingly, which means anyone at anytime could find themselves facing infection with HIV, HCV, or perhaps some unknown virus making its way into the blood supply today. Blood safety is an important issue to everyone - not just those who rely on blood products regularly. DePrince also advocates for the passage of the Ricky Ray Hemophilia Relief Fund Act which provides compassionate payments to victims of this disaster along with important improvements to blood safety.

Read this book as if your life depended on it.

Dr Robert Ballard will forever remain the man who found the Titanic. In so doing, he became the world's most famous ocean explorer who found the world's most famous ship.

It is not for me to inform readers of the story of the Titanic. Almost everyone grew up knowing something about that ship - even if the finer points of information they thought they knew were inaccurate.

Having then achieved the outstanding feat of finding this elusive shipwreck, Bob Ballard has put together the most complete - and yet again "outstanding," tale of search, discovery and finally success, coupled with an accurate portrayal of the life and death of the ship itself. All the facts and historic photographs are there - and, speaking as a professional shipwreck historian, he really has done the most thorough job of work here.

Finally, he has put together the most (and I deliberately use that word again) "outstanding" collection of artwork created by Ken Marschall. I may be wrong, but it seems to me nobody had heard of this artist until the first editions of this book appeared - now he is a household name amongst those in the know.

From thousands of photographic images taken far below the surface, Bob Ballard created montage after montage of the various sections and profiles of the wreck (i.e. big photographs made up of thousands of little photographs) so that Mr Marschall was able to provide us with paintings which look like single colour photographs of this and that section which go together to make up the entire wreck.

I congratulate Dr Ballard on an excellent and professional job of work. Altogether, the most outstanding book for which 5 stars are not enough.

NM

Dr Robert Ballard will forever remain the man who found the Titanic. In so doing, he became the world's most famous ocean explorer who found the world's most famous ship.

It is not for me to inform readers of the story of the Titanic. Almost everyone grew up knowing something about that ship - even if the finer points of information they thought they knew were inaccurate.

Having then achieved the outstanding feat of finding this elusive shipwreck, Bob Ballard has put together the most complete - and yet again "outstanding," tale of search, discovery and finally success, coupled with an accurate portrayal of the life and death of the ship itself. All the facts and historic photographs are there - and, speaking as a professional shipwreck historian, he really has done the most thorough job of work here.

Finally, he has put together the most (and I deliberately use that word again) "outstanding" collection of artwork created by Ken Marschall. I may be wrong, but it seems to me nobody had heard of this artist until the first editions of this book appeared - now he is a household name amongst those in the know.

From thousands of photographic images taken far below the surface, Bob Ballard created montage after montage of the various sections and profiles of the wreck (i.e. big photographs made up of thousands of little photographs) so that Mr Marschall was able to provide us with paintings which look like single colour photographs of this and that section which go together to make up the entire wreck.

I congratulate Dr Ballard on an excellent and professional job of work. Altogether, the most outstanding book for which 5 stars are not enough.

NM

This is a sensational book.I have read this one quite a bit.
I love the bit where they find the boiler on the bottom of the ocean.
It talks about the trials they went through trying to find the elusive Titanic.Nobody had seen that ship since it sunk in 1912.
I have always loved reading about that ship,something about the whole story has fascinated me.
I think the era it all happened in,as well as the beauty of the ship itself.It certainly had a mystique of its own.
To look at the pictures of the ship how it has deteriorated over time is very ghostly.To see objects such as dolls heads and boots realy shows you the tragedy that once happened on a very cold night.
The stupidity to push the ship full speed through an iceberg field maked the mind boggle.Playing dice with all those lives,and to top it all off the lack of life boats on board.
Dr.Robert D. Ballard became a legend himself after the discovery of the most famous ship to ever hit the waves.

This is a sensational book.I have read this one quite a bit.
I love the bit where they find the boiler on the bottom of the ocean.
It talks about the trials they went through trying to find the elusive Titanic.Nobody had seen that ship since it sunk in 1912.
I have always loved reading about that ship,something about the whole story has fascinated me.
I think the era it all happened in,as well as the beauty of the ship itself.It certainly had a mystique of its own.
To look at the pictures of the ship how it has deteriorated over time is very ghostly.To see objects such as dolls heads and boots realy shows you the tragedy that once happened on a very cold night.
The stupidity to push the ship full speed through an iceberg field maked the mind boggle.Playing dice with all those lives,and to top it all off the lack of life boats on board.
Dr.Robert D. Ballard became a legend himself after the discovery of the most famous ship to ever hit the waves.

Ballard's book takes us from his early days at Woods Hole, where he dreamed of finding Titanic, to the discovery in '85, and finally to the 1986 expedition, that examined the wreck thoroughly. It is written well, and illustrated beautifully, with pictures of the wreck site set alongside ones showing the ship in 1912.

Ballard's honesty in writing this book is striking. He makes no attempt to portray himself as a great hero, finding Titanic like an oceanic cowboy, but rather lays out his strengths and weaknesses for others to judge. He is clearly proud of his accomplishment, yet regrets some of his actions, if only for the meaning others might take from it. Few authors have ever been so modest.

I was also pleased that the book dealt with the sinking itself as much as it did. The bulk deals with the discovery of course, but the last chapter sheds light on Titanic mysteries based on the wreckage. One never feels the chilly, star lit night of 1912 to be very far away.