Organizations Books

I loved this book. I think the author Karl Thelen, showed a lot of points that most people do not think about everyday. Schools have changed, and Karl was not afraid to point out the reasons and faults.

As I was reading, I thought a lot about what I see with my children currently attending school, and the relevation was a scary one. As far as the "teacher types" I was able to identify the types with teachers I have come across. I was in school 15+ years ago, and the way that education has changed is a discrace to the public education system. Karl pointed a lot of the aspects out. And I firmly believe someone needs to take a long hard look at the teachers, administraters, and all other aspects of the public education system, a change needs made.

I bought thios book to read due to problems with my step-daughters education (she has a learning disability due to premature birth) and what could be done. After reading this book I feel very confident that I am armed with the knowledge to better deal with the persons involved to get done what I feel needs to be done.

On a personal note about Karl, who is a teacher himself, he is great. I am attending college classes and Karl is my professor. He is very interactive in class, responding to our questions and offering tips and suggestions to help. Karl is the type of teacher that every styudent needs to succeed in education. Honestly Karl's imput in his class, keeps me positive and pushing on, even through my other class where my teacher is not as present!! Execllent book Karl, I am grateful I had the opportunity to read the book, as well as the chance to learn from you!

I flipped through my teachers book and he brought up a number of concerns in education. I thought it was very interesting to see my favorite teachers input on education today.
I applaud him for this book. And Mr.Thelen you are a great teacher and I hope that soon things will change in our educational system and there will be more Mr.Thelen's out there because I know I want my kids to attend a school with the greatest teachers.

This book, written by an author who has impressive credentials, is a well-written work, exposing many problems in education today. The book, a quick and entertaining read, is thorough to the point of offering viable solutions.

If more parents, educators, administrators, and legislators read this book and took its content to heart, the United States would not be a "Nation of Idiots" creating a "World of Idiots."

I look forward to the next book...

CAM, NOT a resident of a Nation of Idiots

What does the Bible really say about how our world came into existence? "The New Answers Book 2: Over 30 Questions on Creation/Evolution and the Bible" is a look at evolution and the science argued by some to invalidate the Bible. A Christian perspective that's well argued and intelligent, it seeks to answer questions such as the true age of the world, the great flood, Ancient Egypt, the growing status of secular ideas in our culture, and more. "The New Answers Book 2" is a must for any Christian who wants to be informed as they argue for their beliefs.

I have never had a bad experience from ordering books. This book was exactly as described in the condition described, and sent in a timely manner.I would not hesitate to order again from you. Thank you very much.

Being a Creationist, I am always looking for additional knowledge. This book continues where the #1 book left off. It is more technical and requires a bit more basic knowledge. So the #1 book is recommended to be read first.

The New Deal explores the breaking of the structural ties that modern employees have with employer. It strives to explain the employee's basis for his association with his managers. A good read..no doubt.

Cappelli's main idea -- that HRM is changing because the external marketplace is being brought into the firm -- really gets to the essence of changes in the employment relationship. Once you've read the first two chapters, you'll never think about HRM the same way again. However, I wish Cappelli had explored the complexity of labor markets and practices more deeply -- we really have a multi-model HRM now, rather than the "new deal" he outlines, and probably always will because of differences in product and labor markets and industries.

Cappelli provides an understanding of the changes in the social and psychological contracts between employees and their employers in todays world. I feel as if blinders have been removed from my eyes and that I now have the tools to understand the changing work environment and labor market of the new economy.

A must read for those in large companies that have existed longer than 40 years (or are over 40 years old themselves).

For for those who believe they have security and entitlement based upon their "knowledge of the company"... Here's a News Flash " Organizational man is dead ..."

Thanks Professor for the heads up !

This book is an excellent account of real life as an assistant principal, mainly on the secondary level. As a HS teacher in an urban school district all of the accounts in this book are, (in my opinion) true and factual experiences. In my few years as a teacher I have witnessed and experienced, many of the everyday challenges these administrators face. The book pulls no punches and gives it to you "raw"! If you wanna know what the job really entails you will pick this up. Excellent read, great resouce.

The book is well organized and well written. It presents real life stories, issues, and feelings of first-year assistant principals. The book presents the stories and quotes within a research context and utilizes triangulation of data sources for a more solid "research" basis. It is an excellent book for a real look inside the administrative offices of assistant principals.

The neat thing about this book is that it has tons of quotes from 1st year assistant principals. It is very easy for school administrators to mock or make fun of authors who have never been where we are; however, this book is nothing like that. The authors give the landscape and REAL AP's fill in the paint. Excellent book.

This is the kind of book that makes you say 'I wish I had read this before....' The book is very practical and very helpful for young pastors and/or pastors-to-be (semianry students). I wish I had read this before I became pastor of my first church. I bought copies to give to young pastors in our area. Small places have great value in the maturing and development of young pastors!

The authors of this book say that while in some ways seminary trained them for pastoring small-town churches, in other ways it did not. Why not? Because their seminaries assumed a suburban model of doing church. Those models, when transplanted to the small-town environment, just don't work.

The authors both gave into the temptation to treat the small-town church as a smaller version of the suburban church before figuring out that the small-town church isn't just a miniature version of the suburban church. It has its own characteristics and will thrive only when it focuses on being itself, on doing what it does best--intimacy and involvement.

I like the way the authors learned to approach pastoring in the small town as cross-cultural ministry, realizing they had to become students of the local culture, just as missionaries to other countries do. An eye-opener for me was the challenge of pastoring in the "rurban" community, a traditional farm community that is now becoming a bedroom community for commuting professionals. How can a church reach out to include these professionals while also remaining relevant to the farm community? It's a challenge, but a doable challenge. This book also has a good chapter on how to lead the decision-making process in the small-town church. (It's a lot different from in the larger church.) There's plenty of practical wisdom in this one to make it worth a read. As a church consultant, whenever I do a consultation with a small-town church, I almost always give the pastor a copy of this one.

If you are a pastor of a big or small church you must read this book. Very sound biblicaly.

This book was fantastic. Our organization really needed to make upgrades to our board but did not know where to begin. This book gave us excellent ideas to the many questions we had plus many excellent ideas that we did not even think of. I highly recommend this book to every organization with a board to utilize as a tool.

Excellent book for all board members, including paid staff. Everything you need to know is in there. Many practical ideas.

I really liked this book a lot. It includes sound theory and is practical. And it was an easy read. It has 80 chapters broken into 7 sections as follows:

1. Basic board functions (1-12)
2. Board structure (13-22)
3. Selection and development of board members (23-36)
4. Board and committee meetings (37-46
5. The board's role as a fiduciary (47-58)
6. Board-staff relations (59-70)
7. Organizational change (71-80)

Each "chapter" ended with suggested action steps. And I found them to be very informative. It was very well written, but I thought there were too many chapters. I felt kind of like I was reading an online blog.

This is a VERY practical guide or handbook for board members and executives of nonprofit organizations. It is totally consistent with how things at well-run nonprofits work and/or should work. If you are responsible for running a nonprofit organization and and want to know how to do things the right way, then get a copy of this book and take advantage of what it has to offer. It will definitely prove to be helpful unless you are already an expert on the subject matter. 5 stars!

This is an excellent edited book on the non-profit sector. It is one of the few sociological treatments on the subject As a sociologist it has the full set of critical perspectives I have been searching for.

This volume is meant primarily to be a textbook for master's or Ph.D. level students. Nonprofit theory and cutting edge research is covered by the known academics in the field. The reference section is superb, leading one to further articles to explore an area in more depth. Yet the practioner will also find this book helpful in many ways, trends in funding and volunteering, up-to-date research brought to the practioner's world, etc. Even if you are not a student, if you work in the nonprofit sector you will find this book to be extraordinarily helpful.

Handbooks tend to be daunting reading. So you can imagine my surprise when, after reading it through the first time, I found myself wanting to read it through again! This is a very rich book that will be useful to a wide range of readers from experts to beginners in nonprofit sector research.



Beginners will benefit from the comprehensive nature of the collection. The broad coverage will serve as a fine map to guide those who are looking for paths to follow into nonprofit sector practice and research. Like an MRI scan, the depth of each chapter will serve as a map of the ever expanding theoretical and practical knowledge base of the contemporary nonprofit sector.



Readers who have some nonprofit sector experience will find themselves turning again and again to the chapters related to their area of research and practice. The experience of re-reading some of the chapters three and four times each allowed me to appreciate the depth of scholarship embedded in the theories and empirical evidence presented on each page. This is the kind of book you'll want to keep nearby, because something of value will be there to meet you at each read.



Experts in the field are going to find a lot here to their liking as well. The scope of the subject matter covers research from so many disciplines that, no matter what your interests are, you'll find something here that relates to your particular field of research. The volume also presents scholars with many well documented glimpses into the state of the art research on the full gamut of nonprofit sector issues.



The creation of a handbook that is broad in scope, deep in research detail, and useful to both beginners and scholars is something to be celebrated by all those involved in the nonprofit sector. Congratulations to those who worked on this project. You have pulled off a most difficult of tasks for the second time.

This is an excellent book for those starting or leading an existing a non-profit organization. The focus is on how and why to do things. The decision tree provided is helpful for profit and non-profit organizations, in that the focus of decisions relates to the organizations mission and how all parties play a vital role. He further assists the reader in defining the various leaders responsibility on service to the community. The transition in non-profit management is understanding how to maximize mission effectiveness with organization efficiency. When there is understanding of the organizations role in the community, we have the ability to measure success.

Peter Brinkerhoff is one of today's most important writers on nonprofit management. Bringing with him over thirty-years experience in leading and developing nonprofit organizations, Brinkerhoff's book, Nonprofit Stewardship: A Better Way to Lead Your Mission-Based Organization is an essential book for all nonprofit executives, staff members and boards.

Brinkerhoff starts off by reminding us that having the privilege of being involved in nonprofit service requires a bigger view than just our own particular motivations. Indeed, being a nonprofit organization puts you at the heart of a larger community (be that local, national or international) and that defining your role within that larger context is vital to building a strong and successful organization.

As a funder, I applaud this concept. In today's tight money economy, it is becoming difficult to fund every important community organization. The key to the survival of these programs lies in collaborative partnerships, sharing services and maximizing resources. Brinkerhoff reminds us to make sure that our mission-based organization carries with it both those activities that appeal to the heart and those that make great business sense. He has developed nine characteristics that stewardship-based organizations strive for. Each of these should be a part of any good new board packet or, indeed, new employee manual.

Beyond that, Brinkerhoff's book is more than just philosophy. It contains common-sense tools that boards (and staff) can use to evaluate their organization and implement more effective ways of planning, tracking finance, taking risks and managing critical projects. His personal observations and both witty and entertaining and thought-provoking. And, again as a funder, his section on the stewardship role of foundations ought to be engrained in each of our grantmaking decisions.

Brinkerhoff even has a section that allows you to take a Personal Stewardship Self-Assessment to see how you measure up. Many know that the success of any good nonprofit organization lies in its leadership. If defining "stewardship" as "maximizing your organization's mission-effectiveness" makes sense; then how vital is it to examine your own leadership potential and find ways to grow as both a leader and a manager.

Nonprofit Stewardship is more than a book, its really a tool box, with a hammer, a saw, a drill, a screwdriver and even a couple of nails. We read the book together (leadership team and board of directors). It was fun. It helped us to focus on what is really important in our work and why we do what we do. Every member of our leadership team from our Chief Financial Officer to our Development Officer and HR Director found chapters relevant to their work. The Board saw it as an opportunity to better align values and direction with the leadership of the organization. We still use it and the chapter exercises. When someone wants to make an important point with me (I'm the CEO) they will often quote from the book. We were redesigning our Customer Satisfaction System. The Director of Quality and Compliance wanted more "negative" feedback. The rest of the team was amazed. She quoted page 118 "When you measure, particularly when you ask people for their opinion and ideas on how to improve, tell your staff and board this: Praise feeds the ego. Criticism feeds improvement". Buy the book, you'll surely find something in your organization that needs improvement and your customers will be happier that you did.

Peter Brinckerhoff's books are not a fast read. Every page is packed with thoughts and ideas. I find myself reading a paragraph and sitting for ten minutes absorbing the implications for the nonprofits I work with. If you are a nonprofit professional or a board member or volunteer, this is a "must read." No one has time or money to waste and everyone wants to do a good job. This book will help you do just that.
Carol Weisman, MSW, CSP

I have this book displayed on my shelf right next to my Northwestern yearbooks because it is prepared in a simlar format. This book methodically and beautifully details the history of Northwestern University through illustrations, historic photographs, and memorable accounts that will keep you interested from start to finish. I particularly appreciated the aerial maps of the campus that appear at the beginning of each chapter. This shows the layout of the campus for the time period covered by the chapter, and truly shows the progress that has been made over the years.

My only complaint is that there were not more pictures of the building of the landfill section of campus. This, to me, is the most fascinating part of Northwestern's history and is now one of the most beautiful parts of campus. In summary, I would like to have seen a few more 'old vs new' photographs. The way it is, there are just enough to tempt the palette. So, it is only natural that, after reading this book, you will be thirsty for more. I hope a next edition will be written to answer that call.

As it is, this is a well-executed account of a terrific university. Happy birthday NU! And thank you, Mr. Pridmore, for this wonderful gift.

Having lived near Northwestern all my life, I thought I knew the history. However, 'little did I know!' This is an extremely well done book, the pictures are priceless as are the narratives. A must have for history buffs and university supporters.

I have very fond memories of the time I myself spent at NU, and this book never ceases to bring them back to mind! This sesquicentennial tribute does it all -- from detailing the history of the school as well as of longstanding Wildcat traditions (i.e., Waa-Mu, Mee-Ow, painting The Rock) to showcasing some of the Evanston campus' most "photogenic" spots. This is definitely a must-have for any NU-loving alum.

I know Juanita Doyon through the Assement Reform Network. I boycotted my state standerdized TAKS test. Juanita Doyon in her book "Not With Our Kids You Don't" gives a unique and witty portrayal of what is happening to schools across the country with a fresh and interesting perspective. Through the eyes of a mother on the front lines of education reform she shows her opinon on the maddness associated with standerdized testing. This book had me laughing and rolling over on the floor. I finally felt as though I'm not the only one out there who thinks these tests are doing more harm than good. Juanita does a good job of presenting her arguements against high-stakes testing and does a good job of using "common-sense" something, we Texans don't see much of when it comes to our state politics- especially concerning our public schools. Although, I recieved a free copy of this book after reading it I gave it to my mom who supported me through-out my boycott expierience for I felt it was a must for any mother with a child in a public school. She too enjoyed it and the book gave her more insight into why I made the decision to boycott. All in all if you have a child in public than read this book- trust me when No Child Left Behind gets in full gear your going to have wished you had!
You go Juanita your speaking for all of us!

It seems as though 'Not With Our Kids You Don't' was written just for me. I laughed out loud and my husband rolled his eyes and nodded in agreement when I read him this home-hitting excerpt ... "When I say I'm a 'full-time activist,' I actually mean I'm obsessed. My family is extremely understanding; my husband hardly ever throws a fit about the cluttered house or the lack of a decent meal." (Pg. 48) I am one of the lucky ones -early on in my foray into activism, I received an email of welcome from Juanita Doyon (a.k.a. the Button Lady; the Room Mother of the Resistance Movement). She's the one that broke the news to me -- "Oh you've got it bad" she wrote with a "giggle, giggle" thrown in for good humor. Now I use Juanita's book as a special gift to break the news to new activists I meet along the resistance trail - on the inside cover I write "Welcome to the obsession." Behind every successful education activist there is a lot of friendship, great advice, and good natured ribbing -- this indispensable book is a great way to spead it around.

In this delightful, easy to read book, Juanita Doyon tells why she has made it her personal agenda to make sure no child is really left behind. With passion, focus, and humor she gives us lessons on how to become actively involved in education by relating her own experiences as a parent in schools. Doyon's book should be used as a manual for PTA's and PTO's nationwide, both for her cookie recipes and her wisdom.