Associations Books

Unlike too many other books on the subject, Englert's book is readable, hitting the right balance between assuming the reader's background knowledge and explaining the roots of the school of thought.

Knew the author as a lad swinging through the "Little Everglades" at Stinson Beach and am not surprised he has come up with such a scholarly work.

While I have not actually read THIS book by Wally, I have read his Bryn Mawr commentary on Cicero's "Pro Caelio" and his version of "The Republic --" oh, I mean C.D.C. Reeve's version (wink, wink). Wally is my adviser at lovely Reed College in Portland, OR, and he has helped me a lot in my development as a human being and a student.

Again, I haven't read this book exactly, but his writing style is very fluid and easy to follow; his sense of humor shows through in his writing. So buy this book. You won't regret it

Wally Englert is the greatest writer of all time. He has personally seen to it that the first line of "The Iliad" was recited by over 300 people. This may seem like a small task to you, but did you know "The Iliad" is recited in Ancient Greek? This is an impressive task. Big Wally Englert is also the nicest man I know. He is a friend to bicyclists everywhere, and always wears his bicycle helmet. He pretty much wrote the English version of "The Republic." Classicists everywhere are lining up to copy off of him -- imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Come on, read this book! It'll make you feel good!

Essential Ultimate is written by 2 of the best coaches in the Junior scene. It is targeted at beginner and intermediate coaches of high school and college/university clubs, yet is very applicable to most senior clubs.

I compared Essential Ultimate to Parinella and Zazslow's "Ultimate Techniques and Tactics" as they have a similar audience, and you may know that text.

Essential Ultimate:
- has a better format as a teaching resource (examples of drills with diagrams, trouble shooting tips, as opposed to large chunks of prose, though it could improve even more)
- includes a better introduction for those new to ultimate: 10 simple rules, the field dimensions, and notes on self-refereeing
- has more on non-ultimate coaching elements such as warm ups, cool downs, the mental game and starting a team.

The difference between the 2 texts is encapsulated by the section on throwing. Baccarini and Booth talk about the key mechanics and how to coach them: correct grip (photos shown), wrist snap and follow through, troubleshooting tips for backhand, forehand and the hammer, how to throw in the wind, and a simple drill for teaching beginners to throw. In comparison, Parinella and Zazslow start with 4 principles of throwing that assume decent throwing skills, then discuss handling tactics, how to break the mark and more.

Essential Ultimate is aimed at coaches, while Ultimate Techniques and Tactics is aimed at experienced players (who probably lead and are player-coaches on their team).

My only significant gripe with Essential Ultimate is that it still has a bit of the flaw that Ultimate Techniques and Tactics had: parts of the book are large slabs of text. It is mostly a reference book, but at times tries to be more of an essay.

The text can explain some good general philosophies that may open you to new ideas, such as "Rather than just react, defenders should pre-act... so that an offensive player's explosive movement is preempted by an equally explosive anticipatory action on the part of the defender."

Unfortunately there are a number of self-evident observations that are unlikely to impact on how a coach coaches, if they have played more than a little ultimate, e.g. on man-on-man defense "What you hope will result is that covered receivers are scattered and clogging the passing lanes and thrower's choices are limited throwing into coverage, punting a Hail Mary pass downfield, or being stalled... And no-one ever wants to be stalled". Or the details on how a disc doesn't fly like a ball in the first paragraph. Truisms like these are clear once you have played even a little ultimate, where they are better learnt, and they feel superfluous to the book.

In comparison, pretty much all the diagrams, drill explanations, breakout boxes with tips, and troubleshooting lists are gold. They are very clear and very applicable. If a coach has a need for a certain type or drill, or issues with teaching a specific skill, they can easily refer to these tools. I've played at numerous World Championships, and coached for 8 years, and found quite a few concepts and drills I am now keen to use.

My wishes for the second edition are:
- communicate some ideas and tools through tables, case studies or acronyms as well, with more concise text.
- examples of session plans and season plans
- an index of the drills for quick reference

Lastly the sections on fitness, psychology and starting a program are brilliant. Any quality coach should consider these aspects and they give a good basic coverage of how they apply to an ultimate team. An experienced ultimate player who is a coach, will learn the most from these 3 chapters. A coach or teacher coming in from another sport will likely learn more from the rich chapters on ultimate specific skills.

Essential Ultimate has set the bar for all coaching resources in Ultimate.

As a player-coach for several years, I was very impressed by the supplemental information provided in this book. The text has helped me articulate the mechanics involved in fundamental ultimate techniques such as throwing, catching, etc. as well as supplying important information about defensive and offensive strategy.

I heartily recommend Jim Parinella's book as well, and have found it particularly useful for my own individual development. However, in terms of coaching and teaching your team and the players on it, I think this is the best ultimate book on the market today.
-Ben
PS
In my opinion, the three most useful sections: throwing, offensive strategy, and fitness for ultimate players.

"Wow" was my first reaction when Essential Ultimate arrived in the mail. With the rapid growth of juniors, high school, college, and club ultimate, finally, there is a textbook to teach skills correctly. For those who learn through pictures, this book rocks.

--Erik Sebesta
The Ultimate Showcase Series (USS)

Whether you are an experienced coach or an aspiring ultimate player this book will help you improve every facet of you game. I had the pleasure of meeting Michael at a coaching clinic and I must say he is the cream of the crop in terms of coaching. This book covers everything from core fitness, learning ultimate and some tips to even help the advanced players. As a fairly new coach myself I really enjoyed the way different drills and skills are explained this book. It has become my Ultimate Bible very quickly.

An Evolutionary Architecture can be considered, together perhaps with Nicholas Negroponte's Architecture Machine books, as one of the most important and inspiring references on the use of computation in architecture and design.

John Frazer describes in his book groundbreaking work carried during more than twenty years in diverse academic institutions, especially as the head of Unit 11 at the Architectural Association, and in collaboration with diverse architects and students.

Building on the foundations laid by Cybernetician Gordon Pask during the sixties, the work explained in the book takes to its furthest, most fascinating consequences the possibility of an autogenic, self-organising, evolutionary architecture. Through its pages, and with the examples of wonderful devices, Frazer questions fundamental architectural concepts such as those of design, intention and purpose.

This book should be indispensable to anyone interested in the creative use of computation in design. Besides becoming paradigmatic in the relation of self-organisation, emergence and other essential concepts to architecture, it essentially addresses the latent possibilities of the computer as a generative, creative engine of design.

Prof Frazer has generated significant results by treating Architecture as a form of artificial life and encapsulated his results in An Evolutionary Architecture. He has developed a strategy for thinking in Design, in its broader sense, opening the way to the development of a more successful method of coding information and generation of form than convention has previously allowed.

The book draws on the results of the Author's own work and that of Diploma Unit 11 at the Architectural Association. Result: powerful writing, magnetic images. This 'research unit' has bred the initial starting seeds of thought to lead to a new model for strategy in Designing.

This most appealing aspect of this book is that it provides a radical way of thinking about Design with challenging ideas. A book that can be dipped into with different strands of thought combination coming out each time, providing new directions to work through using this Model.

An Evolutionary architecture is a truly visionary book on architecture in a world with computers and with humans who conscientiously investigate and reflect not only on their own thinking and designing strategies but also on the history and principles of natural design.

Developing physical and virtual designs and custom-designed physical and virtual design tools, Frazer integrates and applies everything from evolutionary and developmental biology, computer science, mechanical engineering and electronic engineering to challenging 3D thinking into an evolutionary paradigm that promotes a fresh and fascinating view on architectural and interdisciplinary design.

The book is fantastic in terms of its innovative and truly inspiring qualities, its very competent writing as well as in terms of the visuals it contains. An Evolutionary Architecture was first published in 1995 and it discusses design work that has started in the 1960s. Nevertheless, the design approaches, tools and products shown are years, if not decades ahead of today's design thinking and methodologies. Many works shown are done by Frazer's students and demonstrate the innovative potential not only of his thinking but also of his teaching.

The book is a must-have for every creative person, for everyone interested in architecture and/or computers and most definitively for educators in these fields. It is very sad that it is out of print and I strongly suggest everyone who comes across it second hand not to hesitate buying it.

John Frazer's book is a ground-breaking work that has fundamentally influenced many of today's progressive architectural theorteicians and practicioners. Frazer advocates a fundamentally different approach to architectural and design computation, shifting from one of conventional, unidiriectional CAD representation to a creative dialogue with the computer. Designs are no longer finite solutions but rather are seen as outcomes of iterative rule-based systems, to produce adaptive solutions which are continuously evolving. Frazer's book beautifully weaves a compelling treatise of tangible user interfaces, generative design and evolutionary systems to produce a work of surprising simplicity in its narrative but with a powerful impact at multiple levels of theory and future practice.

As a practising architect involved in professional and academic research, this book has helped me on numerous occasions both in approaching practical problems as well as serving as a catalyst in more didactic and experimental settings. The book draws from a wide range of disciplines, including architecture, design, industrial and electronic engineering, computer science, mathematics, biology, economics and fine art. As such, this book is not only a cornerstone of contemporary architectural thinking, but of equal importance in the wider field of creative technology and advanced research for practicioners and scholars alike.

While most books on logistics and Supply Chain focus on the manufacturing and suppliers' side of the chain, this one takes you to the complete opposite, where the real value is, the CUSTOMER.
The book provides a thorough analysis of the 4 different models of delivery used by online retailers. The greatness of this book resides in the fact that it describes both the most successful online retailers' practices (Amazon, Freshdirect...) AND the biggest failures (Webvan) so we can learn from their mistakes.

Extending the Supply Chain is an excellent resource for the individual interested in establishing or perfecting a business that involves home delivery. The authors clearly identify the challenges relate to each type of customer. The research is thorough and comprehensive. The book is well laid out and easy to read. It is a great reference book!

Excellent!  For any company delivering goods directly to consumers' homes, this book is a must read!  Of particular interest to me were the following quotes: ..."The second major change that must be facilitated to make last mile supply chains truly soar is greater efficiency and standardization of home delivery."  ..."The primary challenge is delivering to a customer who is not home."  ..."Most, if not all, of the major third-party delivery companies are testing methods for unattended deliveries involving some type of controlled access smartbox."   ..."It is our belief that some type of larger, access-controlled box that is available to a wide variety of home delivery companies is an important hurdle for growing last mile deliveries."

This book provides great insight from "industry leaders" on how to promise and deliver product sold through the Internet. Many of the early adopters of Internet based sales systems failed to consider the difficulties of integrating a new system into their existing strategy. Extending the Supply Chain provides great examples of both failures and successes in industry, as well as, outline a framework that will help companies better position themselves to use the Internet as a competitve advantage. This book is a must read for all individuals that wish to take the last mile and use the Intenet to build a strong, viable sales channel.

As a newly diagnosed diabetic I found this book to be the easiest to understand and most informative one I read. Everything was clearly written and I felt all pertinent topics were discussed.

"A Field Guide To Type 2 Diabetes provides a fine resource covering
everything from initial diagnosis to common complications." -- Midwest Book Review

"Written very clearly, though without illustrations, this is a straightforward, unemotional, comprehensive guide for both those newly diagnosed and those who have had diabetes for many years."
-- Massachusetts General Hospital, Treadwell Library, Oct. 2004

Book Review for Voice of the Diabetic
Vol. 19, #4, Fall Edition
by Ruth Mencl, MN RN CDE
Diabetes Program Manager
Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, MO

August 2nd, 2004


American Diabetes Association. A Field Guide to Type 2 Diabetes: The Essential Resource from the Diabetes Experts

This book delivers as advertised. The format is similar to a travel guide, which makes it easy to find the destination (or topic) of choice and go directly to it. Tables and charts allow for a quick reference to facts about laboratory tests or medications. The addition of a personal touch, such as comments from actual patients on topics taken from the ADA web site, give it a unique focus as compared to other diabetes fact books.

The Field Guide pays special attention to everyday issues that people with diabetes face, such as finding medical services or dealing with a doctor who is not very interested in diabetes. These are issues that it might take several years for a patient to address, especially if they don't attend diabetes classes or support groups. This is a comprehensive resource, written by well-known diabetes experts, which serves as a good beginner's guide to the nuts and bolts of diabetes.

This was a great book to see the signs of trouble at work and whether you should fight once fired. Especially in present times, when company loyalty is gone people need this.

I read this book in 1999 (previous edition) and while I've not read the latest edition, this book provides as much information as possible - an attempt in bridging the gap between what you should know and "employment law". This book is no guarantee that in fighting back you will win - but it does tell you what you should know when getting canned. Far too few people truly understand their rights under employment law and big business knows it and the workforce populus in general is frequently taken advantage of because of it. If you live in an "at will" state - as an employee you have very few ways to fight back.

Read, know your rights, act and react appropriately, and stand your ground. But remember, losing your job may simply be a matter of economics or politics - good companies will treat you with dignity, bad companies will trash you - and they don't care! Remember these few maxims: 1. Sometimes HR is a four-letter word! 2. Company loyalty does not exist. 3. Plan for your retirement yourself because no one else is going to do it for you. 4. Anyone who is not management doesn't share in the profits but pays for the loss in profits. 5. Management and executives will "always win" - its a sad fact of business life.

The average employee will never see a golden parachute in their lifetime - - again.

I found this book by accident while browsing at Borders. At first I thought it was only for people who had been fired. In fact, it is an invaluable set of tools for figuring out if your job is at risk and for handling any termination process so that you "win" even if losing your job. This author, whoever he is, really understands the physics of the workplace and the psychology of those on both sides of the tabel. It is a book I will re-read several times.

In this day and age, anyone can be fired. The title of this book is a bit misleading in that it suggests that it is focused on getting back at your ex-employer. In fact, though it does a very good job on that subject, it is absolutely essential to read before anything bad happens. Great sections on how to handle the termination interview and how to negotiate severance

It was a delight to read/reread Leinster's material. Much of it was familiar, from years of collecting and reading pulps, but there was some that was new to me and all of it was fun to read.

Murray Leinster was very hot in the world of science fiction -- several decades ago. As the years wore on, he was largely forgotten, except for one story of his, "First Contact." "First Contact" has appeared in numerous "Best of" collections and won a "Retro-Hugo" (a Hugo handed out for work in a year when there were no Hugos, 1946). Now you can have "First Contact" (I'm not the only one who thinks it's the best first contact story ever.) along with 23 other great (some are classic) tales from S.F.'s golden age. You'll be suprised at how well these hold up. Plus this book is a real treat. It's on acid-free paper, and it's a well-bound, solid hardcover.

I read this in less than a week. My 'First Contact' with Murray Leinster floored me. The style of Leinster's writing is provacative; his diction, use of tone tone and image, are as advanced as any literary writer in any field. There isn't one weak story in this book! The stories, though dating as far back as the thirties, hold up as well as any modern work I can think of. Especially interesting is 'Plague on Kryder II,' which describes a disease that affects one's immune system and causes one to get disease after disease. It was almost as if he had heard about AIDS in 1964. I'm so impressed that I went right out and bought every book I could find by Leinster and am in the process of reading them right now. You wont't be disappointed.

These are some of the best sci-fi short stories I have read. Yes, the stories are dated, but the imagination, mystery and wonder are awesome. The Castaway is one of the finest. I recommend Forgotten Planet by Murray Leinster as well, if you can find it. Happy reading!!!

I like this book because it shows you how to deal with problems

This is a great book and is helpfull for beginers and buyers

This book tells you how to buy a horse how to groom a horse, feeding a horse, bridling, saddling and much more

This is a great book and is helpfull for people who want to buy things

Fancy being a math olympian? This book could serve as your very entrance leading to your success. Just read it page after page and you'll not regret buying it, or being bought by some uncles or aunties. After all, Thanksgiving Day's coming. Who wouldn't buy their little ones some meaningful gift?

This book is a great book. This book starts at the beginning (in this case proportions) in very easy format to follow and easy to understand. As they come with practice AMC 10 and 12 problems they will hone your understanding of the material. This book is great for beginners a great companionship for those who have Art of Problem Solving by Richard Ruscyzk.

top marks!

I read this book just two weeks before the American Mathematics Contests this year as a freshman. I had never heard of these contests, but reading this book gave me everything I need to know! With its help, I qualified for the AIME (though missed the USA math olympiad by 1 question!). If you are into math contests, trust me, this will significantly raise your score.

It's a great book, covering everything needed for the higher level AMC competitions.

Freedom's Sword is a hugely impressive and thorough undertaking. At the same time, Jonas' heart and soul clearly shine through. A must read for any student of American history, government, political science or the civil rights movement.

gilbert jonas provides a fascinating first-person look at the events and personalities that shaped an important era in our nation's history. highly recommended.

This book is an exciting account of an often overlooked and very important part of United States Twentieth Century history. It is a scholarly and at the same time passionate telling of the events in the 1920's to 1950's that culminated in the civil rights movement of the 1960's. Excellent footnotes, especially helpful for those who may wish to do further study.

Because of his many years of connections with the NAACP, only Gil Jonas could have written such a thorough history of this important period in the life of the NAACP and the country. The detail is extravagant and very readable. This is a must for anyone interested in civil rights and race relations in the USA.
Murray Frank