Bond-value Books

Customers prefer to deal with companies whose employees demonstrate empathy, tact, humor, and eager helpfulness. To offer that kind of superior service, your employees need to willingly work with their emotions. Scripted politeness is not enough; your customers crave your employees' genuine emotional involvement, tempered by a sense of professional etiquette. This requires that your employees must perform emotional work. But how can you ensure that your employees put their hearts into this effort?

The authors suggest that you should not only ensure that your employees have the requisite people skills through careful hiring and training, but you should also foster a working environment that is conducive to performing the necessary emotional work. And they explain how.

Notable among the authors' advice is that while complaints may seem annoying, they should in many cases be considered attempts by your customers to continue doing business with your firm. Customers who do not care enough to complain will simply leave and may spread bad word-of-mouth instead. So rather than setting complaint reduction targets or brushing aside complaints, you should encourage customers to voice their concerns, and train your employees to handle complaints effectively. For example, since your customers are likely to feel emotional to some degree when making complaints, your employees should be trained to respond first with emotional words that express empathy, before handling the practical details of the complaint. Moreover, your employees should be taught to assume responsibility for educating your customers sufficiently to ensure that they are able to derive full satisfaction from the products and services you offer.

Personal interactions are what put a human face on your business. They are crucial in building the emotional bonds you want to cultivate among your customers, in order to retain their long-term loyalty. This is undeniable. Yet so many firms still squander their opportunities to build loyalty through superior customer service. One can only assume that their managers have not yet read this book.

Paul Francis Musgrave, author of Indispensable Marketing Strategies - How to Outwit Your Competition, Attract and Retain Customers, and Multiply Your Profits - Marketing Strategy Secrets for Profitable Small Business Management

Perfect, this book is a perfect tool for all the managers in a mid positions, it helps to understand emotion and their value in a business. Should be read not only by the customer service people, but also by the all rests

Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul go a step beyond most consultants (those who write business books to drum up customers). Instead, they offer a wealth of scholarly research and sources in their in-depth, colorfully written book, which successfully tackles the enormous role that emotions play in business and customer behavior. They explain and document it, and provide practical applications. We at getAbstract recommend this important book to all business people, whether they offer a product or a service, from CEOs through every level of staff.

Reading "Emotional value" has been an excellent experience and an eye opener in many ways. The book pinpoints and explores one of the key criteria of working competitively in the "experience economy" - having a workforce that is skilled in emotional competencies.

I particularly enjoyed the debate "emotional labour" vs. "emotional competence". It is a real live debate in many service organizations with management trying to control the customer experience by stipulating that service-providers should be able to smile pleasantly (i.e. grin and bear) through all customer encounters. And yet grin & bear by the rulebook is often not what the customer wants, but rather genuine empathy and emotional competence on behalf of the service provider. It takes much more than "grin and bear" and "the customer is always right" rhetoric to satisfy today's eclectic customer.

"Emotional Value" has reminded me of personal examples where service providers have competently turned my dissatisfaction, anger or frustration into a positive feeling of gratitude. And in doing so they have won me over as a loyal customer. However creating loyal customers by adding emotional value cannot be left to chance. Here the book proves to be a gold mine of practical applications and exercises that can be used to develop emotional awareness and competencies throughout the organization.

Thus the book is a valuable blend of inspiring concepts and very practical techniques. I have recommended the book to several friends and colleagues.

Since Howard Gardner first popularized the idea of multiple intelligences, thinkers and authors have been noticing that there is a vast difference in the "emotional intelligence" that people have for noticing others and responding appropriately to them. Daniel Goleman wrote a wonderful book developing that theme. He argues that emotional intelligence can be learned. In Emotional Value, Janelle Barlow and Dianna Maul take that one step further and identify what needs to be learned and how it should be learned.

Their point is simple and profound. "Both staff and customers tend to stay with organizations that enable them to experience positive, meaningful, and personally important feelings, even if the organizations cannot always provide everything they want or solve all their problems." Few will disagree. The conclusion builds on the work of Jeffrey Pfeffer in The Human Equation.

There are many important consequences to that observation. First, it costs a lot of money to get customers. It's much more profitable to keep the ones you have than to get new ones (see The Loyalty Effect). Second, if you can deal with the same customers and employees, the results usually are better. Third, with lower staff turnover, costs of hiring and training are lower . . . and operating costs are lower, too. Fourth, bonding can be created among customers and employees that will allow them to derive more value from being involved with the company. Fifth, these improvements are critical in many industries. Most people shift from one supplier to another because dissatisfaction with service, not price or produce offerings. (See The Customer-Driven Company). Sixth, in this stock-market-driven economy, the economic advantages will translate into a higher stock price which can be used to add more and lower-cost resources for the company.

Basically, improving emotional value can be the start of creating a virtuous cycle of self-reinforcing improvement for an enterprise.

I would be remiss if I did not point out that those who emphasize the importance of values and corporate culture are dealing with some facets of emotional value. What is brilliant about this work is that it transcends this earlier excellent work to take it to a higher plane. You can have great values and a wonderful corporate culture, and still have an emotionally damaging work environment for many of your people and customers.

The authors identify five key elements for making this virtuous cycle a reality:

(1) Build an Emotion-Friendly Service Culture

(2) Choose to Develop Emotional Competence

(3) Maximize Customer Experience (see The Experience Economy -- "positive, emotional, and memorable impact") and Empathy

(4) View Complaints as Emotional Opportunities

(5) Use Emotional Communications to Increase Customer Loyalty

As you can tell from my references to many other works, this book builds on excellent studies done by others. Yet, the synthesis here is new and improved. Essentially the book is "a call for civility, empathy, and authenticity in dealing with customers." That goes well beyond the familiar concept of "The customer is always right." That concept usually is applied to mean that the employee who works with the customer must be downtrodden and suffer. Burnout is a major problem among frontline service employees, as a result.

Ms. Barlow and Ms. Maul see beyond that current stalemate. They realize that the interaction between company and customer can be uplifting for both. Mother Teresa drew great pleasure from helping poor people die with dignity. Doing our work with civility, empathy, and authenticity can add a similar sense of worth to our labors, as well as providing a wonderful, emotionally-rewarding experience for customers.

I especially liked the call to action: "It is the service providers' responsibility to manage the emotions in service exhanges." How many CEOs, executives, and managers are thinking about that? Wow! Before you leave that point, consider that 80 percent of all U.S. jobs are expected to soon be service jobs.

The appendices and notes are unusually good in this book. Be sure to take time to review them.

The primary weakness of the book is that the sections that allow you to assess where your company or organization is today could be more detailed and specific.

When you have finished the book, take some time to imagine the ideal emotional exchanges that could be occurring in your business and organization every day. Then start to design them and teach others how to make them easy, authentic, memorable, and enjoyable to provide. Have a ball!

As a fan of Tom Clancy books, including his great Red Storm Rising, I wasn't aware until I read the back cover of Red Phoenix that Larry Bond was a co-author on that book. Red Phoenix is very much in the vein of Red Storm, with the first half of the book "setting the stage" before the real action kicks in. And Larry Bond does action very well - it will be difficult to put the book down once the North Koreans have commenced their artillery barrage on the US/ROK outposts along the DMZ!

I was living in South Korea at the time I first read this book in 2002. Even though at times the geopolitical situation is dated (USSR, East Germany etc...), the tensions between North and South Koreas are still very much real at the time I read this book. This made the situation much more "real" for me.

Red Phoenix is a great military thriller which I regularly re-read. Highly recommended to all those who enjoy military fiction.

A truly outstanding fictional military novel! Larry Bond has proven himself a master of this genre of novels. He's obviously in the same class as Tom Clancy.

This is by far Larry Bond's best work, barring his collaboration with Clancy on Red Storm Rising. The two should be featured together in a 'better together' offer. The only delimna would be deciding which to read first.

This is a war fiction classic that I rate even with Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red October" and "Red Storm Rising." Larry Bond brings to life a real war scenario. We know from the Gulf War he was a visionary when he wrote "Red Phoenix."

This is my third book by this author and he continues to amaze me with his exceptional writing skills. This novel paints a terrifying scenario about a Second Korean War.

A tunnel under the DMZ is discovered with a vast stockpile of weapons and ammunition - a NK mole stirs up trouble and causes riots is Saigon - the government overreacts and there is blood flowing in the streets - a president-wannabe seizes this opportunity to falsify a report that triggers economic sanctions - after a coup attempt most of the SK officers are thrown in jail and then . . .

Will the sea battles with the Russians escalade into WWIII? And what about the Chinese? How far are they willing to go? You get to see this realistic techno-thriller from all points of view.

This author knows how to transport you into the middle of a raging battle. You are there. You see it. You feel it. The smoke from the explosions - artillery dropping all around - bullets whistling by - bloody bodies in the dirt beside you - the stench of death.

Author al-Qaeda Strikes Again

'A Stolen Season' has been followed by two stand-alone novels. It appears that Steve Hamilton has put Alex McKnight to bed. This is a good thing in that this novel leaves him at a standstill in his life and little should be going on in Paradise from now on. How often can a man who lives in the UP of Michigan and rents cabins for a living continue to run into smugglers and drug traffickers without being killed? How many more times can this guy be beaten up without dying? Let's bring some realism to his life.

One of the things that make books like this interesting (and very readable) is that the main hero lives a life that brings him (or her) into danger at some point. Over the last two novels, Hamilton has begun to stretch the credulity of the reader on this point. Anything past this will be in the realm of fantasy. Recently, we've had Vinnie's brother killed and he and Alex go into the north woods to find the men who did it. There he meets Natalie whose partner is killed (much in a way that parallels the death of Alex's partner). Then Natalie is killed by the same men who beat Vinnie to a pulp and do a good job on Alex too.

So it's time to put Alex McKnight to rest before he ends up RIP.

Zeb Kantrowitz

After reading Steve Hamilton's disappointing novel Ice Run, I was encouraged to read Stolen Season. Stolen Season is a return to form, which has many of the strengths of Hamilton's previous Alex McKnight novels.

Readers will enjoy many aspects of Stolen Season. Hamilton does a great job of evoking Michigan's Upper Peninsula; it takes talent to describe a geographical setting so well that the reader feels as though he or she "knows" that place. Hamilton has also created a nice cast of characters. After reading many of the McKnight novels, I realized that I now care about Alex and the other recurring characters; for the most part, they are realistic and complex.

Readers who want more than simple escapism, may find parts of Stolen Season to be lacking. Hamilton has never excelled at creating realistic plots. Readers have to ignore the fact that very little of what occurs in the McKnight books could actually happen. One point made in each book is that Alex just wants to manage a few cabins in the woods; he does NOT want to be a private investigator or a police officer. In every book, however, events drag Alex into the middle of some sort of incredible criminal conspiracy. Though not as unrealistic as Ice Run, Stolen Season simply isn't believable.

Hamilton's fans will not be disappointed with Stolen Season. Given the plot twists in Stolen Season, it will be interesting to see where he takes his characters in the future.

I have read every Steve Hamilton novel since A Cold Day in Paradise. I wish I could recommend one over the others, but in all honesty I love them all! My suggestion is to start with A Cold Day in Paradise and continue through the series. You won't be sorry, except for the fact that you may not get much else done since Steve's mysteries are hard to put down!

Very good murder mystery. All books by Steve Hamilton have been wonderful. I introduced my book club to this author and they have requested my other books by this same author.

Terrific structure in "A Stolen Season." The start was slow, interesting and fairly simple. For awhile, I was worried when Alex McKnight escaped from a very dangerous situation and just lucked out, escaping from a sure death by not doing anything. I thought the plot was having a little trouble getting off the ground. From that point forward, it's off to the races. The ending is neat. It ends in a way that is consistent with the build-up, including the aforementioned escape. The fog and the weather created a wonderfully evocative backdrop and Hamilton populates the landscape with a series of sharply drawn characters. My recommendation is don't give up if you find the beginning a bit slow. You won't be sorry. Inspirational image: "Pain so real it makes its own fog."

I found this to be the best of the series that I have read so far. I still have the two most recently published to read. Thankfully Mcknight has stopped being so morose as he was in previous books. His self pity and whining gets a little old after a few books.

Like all of Hamiltons books, the mystery isn't solved until the last few chapters and then we get some totally new info popping up that clears everything up. In this case it was the fire that killed some kids many years before. This was info unknown for the entire book. Mcknight of course didn't look for the common thread because he was too busy driving back and forth from remote Ontario to MI and getting bailed out of jail.

But that's Mcknights character. He ain't the brightest sleuth out there as we know from past books.

In all I recommend this one.

Maybe I'm becoming too PC, but having listened to this book, I found the idea that McKnight was better at surviving in the woods then his friend Vinny who is a full blooded Ojibwe (and professional guide) to be just a little hard to swallow. At a couple of points in the story when they are lost up in the Canadian wilderness, Vinny is about to give up the ghost but Alex keeps pluggin' along. Boy, I wouldn't want to be stuck on a hunting trip with Vinny if things went wrong.

Also, at times when Vinny is speaking, he's like a cross between Mr.Miyagi and the Great Manitu (give me a break). Specific to the tape, all the Indians speak with this spacey (East) indian guru voice, like they are filling in for Deprak Chopra. All the Indians immediately take a backseat to anything that McKnight says, like whatever he says is the most intelligent thing going.

Anyway to the story, it's actually very engaging, except that 'da too guys from Detroit' sound like they stepped out of a "Sopranos" episode. Know whatimean you jamocke. The Canadians must all be drinking water with something in it because they are as mellow as a bunch of 1960s anti-war demonstrators, ey.

Lastly, did anybody NOT guess that at sometime in the story, Alex would find a way to soften Natalie's heart (key the violins and cellos) so that she would see him in a 'better light' (tear, tear,tear!). Ugh. If you are going to find him a love interest, just do it, don't get all "Wisteria Lane" about it. Ok, I'm done. Hopefully the next book (gee do ya think Natalie will be in it) will be better.

I've read all of Steve Hamilton's books right when they've been published and I've loved them all. I'm now re-reading them, and just finished "Blood is the Sky" for the second time. I love Hamilton's relaxed, easy-reading style and I think Alex is a great protagonist. I also love the northern Michigan setting of his series; although I've never been to the UP, I live in Maine and have spent a large part of my life in northern Ontario (where most of this book is set), so I can relate to his descriptions of life in the North. I do have two quibbles with this book. First, a couple times Hamilton has Alex saying road signs mention someplace is X number of miles away--in Canada, road signs are in kilometers, not miles. Second, there are lots of references to "Canadian" beer, such as when Alex gets a cold "Canadian" or asks a bartender for a Molson. In the first instance, does Hamilton mean a generic cold Canadian beer, or does he mean a Molson Canadian (a specific brand, and the best-selling beer in Canada), and in the second, you don't go into a drinking establishment in Canada and ask for a Molson; you ask for an Ex or a Canadian or another specific Molson product. As I said, these are quibbles. Steve Hamilton is a great author!

My wife kept raving on how good the books were. She was up to four read and kept talking about them. I finished another novel and decided it was time. What a interesting story. Especially living in Michigan all my life I found so much research had been done on all of Michigan and Canada also. We in Michigan always have a close relationship with Canada. Many of us have one side of the family from Canada as the auto industry had once brought them here. The book certainly was interesting and the plot gave you great cause to wonder almost to the last pages. I would recommend it highly.

In this Alex McKnight mystery, Hamilton pairs Alex and Vinnie LeBlanc to search for Vinnie's missing brother in the forests of Northern Ontario. Tom, Vinnie's brother, led a hunting expedition for four Detroit businessmen and then disappeared. Together Alex and Vinnie must find out what happened to him and why. This is Hamilton's best McKnight adventure since A Cold Day in Paradise. Alex's dogged nature shines through, as he remains fiercely loyal to Vinnie and is willing to sacrifice everything for the truth. Get ready for a great outdoors expedition in Canada. Hamilton is an excellent writer, and there's nothing better than reading an Alex McKnight mystery. It is my favorite mystery series.

This book gave me much to think about how I relate to my adult sisters. The stories of the siblings told by the siblings are well-written by Susan Scarf Merrell. I look forward to her next book.

This book was written by a journalist who interviewed all the siblings of several families. The descriptions of the people that she met were well-drawn. The author also outlined some of the concepts that have been put forth by psychologists studying sibling relationships and character development. These were interesting, and went beyond the most usual system of birth order characterization.

My intent in reading this book was to gain some insight on some pernicious troubles that persevere in my relationships with my own siblings. This book didn't seem very helpful in that light. A few of the relationships had some undercurrents, or outright problems, but there wasn't a lot of narrative about solving the problems. The problematic relationships seemed to be glossed over by the subjects themselves, so that there wasn't even any material that gave me a chance to see problems similar to my own from the other perspective.

Wonderful story. You will fall in love with the characters. Good service too.

Thrilling, but could have been a lot better if ...

1. Some elements would have received more thought. Take the "boundary" for example. As was mentioned in a review before the "boundary" makes little sense the way it is presented. The differences between the two worlds separated only about 20 years ago are not reasonable. The "boundary" should have been there for a few hundred years at least to make sense in the context of the story. Another example, the space of the world the story takes place seems to bee stupidly small. It makes you fell like you can travel from one corner of the world to the other in a matter of days.

2. The "speed" of the story would have been more constant. What I mean is that sometimes the story "rushes" trough the events making your head spin around when a lot of significant things happen very fast, while others times the story just "camps" making you want to skip a few pages. Not a good writing technique. The same with details. Sometimes the author exposes every tiny detail as if he wants everyone to get a very detailed picture of what is happening while other times he reveals very few details leting the reader's imagination to complete the picture. Decide! it should be either the first or the second approach.

3. The story takes places in an fantasy world inspired mostly from medieval Europe (like most fantasy novels). However (some of )the characters way of thinking (psychology?) seams to belong in our modern western culture. Emphases of modern (politically correct)themes like pedophilia, rape or equality between sexes are unnatural to the story "medieval" atmosphere as are some of the characters dilemmas.

4. Last, as in too many fantasy stories the characters (both good and bad) are sometimes ludicrously overconfident. Their success is based too much on good luck. I think it wouldn't hurt to make them more realistic.

i thought the book was great. Plenty of action and complex and dynamic characters.

Terry creates a terrific world, full of fresh ideas and surprises. It's an easy read and has just the right pace. It is also very quirky, there are some very strange creatures. A little brutal in parts so not for the squeamish. Characterisation is also very good, you will love these characters. The nice thing is there are so many books to keep you entertained. I highly recommend this series. Definitely one of the better authors.

David Burrows
Author of The Prophecy of the Kings

The action opens with unassuming woodland guide Richard Cypher trying to dig up a few clues as to the means and motive of his father's recent death. While in the process, he spots four men menacing a woman (Kahlan), goes to her aid, and unleashes the chain of events that have taken us seven eight-hundred-plus-page books and counting to unravel. Make no mistake, when you crack the cover on the first Sword of Truth novel, you're committing yourself to a whole lot of reading.

Unlike the TV series "The legend of the seeker," there is not a lot of action, but rather a lot of feelings described between the main characters, Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander, the wizard, Richard Cypher the Seeker, and Kahlan Amnell, the mother confessor.

It is a long story of good vs evil, where these three are on the good side and Darken Rahl is on the evil side.

Goodkind doesn't skimp on the character development, has an excellent eye for description and detail, and presents it all in such a way that, when you've finished the first book, you wonder how it is you managed to get through eight hundred twenty pages quite as fast as you did.

I loved the book and since I loved treading I truly enjoyed it. It was great to have explained every detail of the magic of the Midlands--unlike the TV series where all they do is stage fights and show the main character's six pack abdomen (something I missed from the book,)

Don't start the book unless you are a true reader, for you are likely to get hooked on the series and will be doing a lot of reading for a long time.

This submarine yarn in Bond's best effort in a very long time. I've read everything he's written, but I think he does his best job yet of integrating all the specifics of the technology, the excitement of the action and the fleshing out the characters. While there isn't a great deal of action in the front half of the book, Bond's characterizations and interesting descriptions of what could have been mundane submarine life kept the book moving. I loved this book for the first nine-tenths, but will admit the end was very ineffective. It was so out of character with the rest of the book, it seems unfinished, like Bond was way past deadline and the editor was saying it had to be finished today. The rest of the book more than offsets that minor peccadillo, however, and I heartily recommend this book.

This military procedural starts out slow, perhaps because it is too concerned with "procedure." We spend nearly a hundred pages before Jerry Mitchell, a newly assigned junior officer, actually puts to sea on the submarine Memphis, and far too much of it is concerned with bureaucracy and paperwork. Yes, some of it figures into the character development - Mitchell must fight for acceptance as he struggles to learn the ropes and cram for qualifying exams - but it was more than I wanted to know.

Bond's ear for dialogue seems wooden at times and his characters a bit two-dimensional - Mitchell the young striver, Captain Hardy the martinet, Foster as an embittered chief petty officer resenting the young Mitchell, Dr. Joanna Patterson as the heavy-handed environmentalist and feminist sent aboard by the White House to run a dubiously conceived mission drenched in politics. As the sub gets into its voyage, though, the novel picks up steam and the dialogue and characterization issues recede.

The Memphis has been tasked to nose around offshore sites where the Soviets dumped radioactive waste, where Patterson hopes to find evidence of worsening environmental disaster the President can use against the Russians at an upcoming summit. They have to sneak into shallow Arctic waters near the Russian island of Novaya Zemlya, using robot subs to investigate the dump sites. Mitchell meanwhile is the officer in charge of the sub's own robot, which has its own role in the mission.

Bond does a good job dramatizing the risks of submarine life, not only in combat, but during routine events which can quickly turn disastrous.

I have to agree with most of the reviews here. This book is an excellent read, and anyone who likes Tom Clancy will really like this book. However, the ending did fizzle. It wasn't bad, but it just didn't sync up with the intensity of the rest of the book. All-in-all, I felt it was well worth reading, and I plan to pick up other Larry Bond books in the future.

A good read but the ending faded to nothing. Looked like Larry wanted to wrap it up quickly. I was disappointed with the ending. THe story went along with a cracking pace but the subplot of why the weapons were there was a bit weak and lacked some punch.

USS Memphis is out of date technology, a war-weary rust bucket submarine that has served its country and is now scheduled to be de-commissioned. But the President, in a bid to collect political points at an upcoming conference with the Soviets, has ordered the Memphis to complete one last covert mission - to sneak into Russian territorial waters, to document an environmental nightmare and to bring home evidence of leaking fuel containers dumped on the floor of the Arctic Ocean by the Russians during the height of the cold war.

Commander Lowell Hardy, a CO whose unpleasant and impossible to please leadership style is rivaled only by Captains Queeg and Bligh, is saddled with a novice weapons officer. This is the very first assignment for Lt Jerry Mitchell, a former naval aviator who made a mid-career switch to submarines after his Hornet fighter crashed with the resulting injuries sidelining him forever from flight status. And to make matters worse, the president has ignored all naval submarine tradition and appointed two civilian scientists, female no less, to lead the mission from on board the submarine.

As if lurking around Russian territorial waters looking to score points and politically embarrass the Soviet government wasn't bad enough ... the mission discovers a secret far more deadly than it ever bargained for and provokes an armed naval response that is much, much more than the aging Memphis is capable of facing. The Russian fleet is determined to sink the Memphis and wipe out all evidence that she was ever there in the first place.

"Dangerous Ground" is a first rate techno-thriller that will have you turning pages just as quickly as you can manage. But as Larry Bond pointed out in the author's note preceding the novel, a techno-thriller ought to be much more than a compilation of technical data which anyone can find with proper research. In the case of "Dangerous Ground", Bond has done a superb job, not only with individual characterization, but also with a compelling description of submariner culture - their attitudes, their loyalties, their black sense of humour, their fears and their bravery.

A thoroughly enjoyable plot driven thriller supported by a wealth of technical and, of equal importance, cultural and character details. Well done, Mr Bond!

Paul Weiss

Klarman's record speaks for itself, shame that this book is out of print.

Greg Gurevich

I was very pleased to receive this book , Klarman is a legend in the investment community ,,, the book was tired,, but most distrubing is that it appears to have been taken from a libiary on the west coast ... not very nice to be selling a stolen item ,,,

Unwilling to purchase a copy for $1200, I read the NYPL's copy in the "cage" at the business library at 35th and Mad.

"Margin of Safety" comes up with some excellent investment ideas. For example, if you find a spinoff at 1/5 of book value which under a reasonable scenario could earn $8 and currently costs $3, you should buy it.

If the S&L industry goes through a colossal shakeout and some S&L's demutualize at 50% of book value, and you are confident of their loan book, buy shares of those companies.

If a company has a multi-hundred million dollar equity market cap but its bonds are trading at 13, buy the bonds and short the equity.

Such investment ideas will make you rich if you capture a few of them. Unfortunately, over the past 16 years literally trillions of dollars have been invested with people who are looking for such opportunities, which outside the pages of this book are called "no brainers."

The book is well written and the mystique makes it perhaps more fun, but for actual investment value you could just as well buy a copy of Ambrose Vollard's memoirs and follow his "investment advice" to buy Cezannes direct from Cezanne, then justify your decision with a rapturous review on Amazon.

Price aside, this is one of the best value investing books I've read. Of course a lot of the ideas have been put forward before--Klarman is a longtime resident of "Graham and Doddsville". But he does a great job explaining the philosophy and process in clear and simple language, and there are a few gold nuggets scattered throughout that might even be worth the $1000+ price tag. One simple rule he proposes: "If you don't quickly comprehend what a company is doing, then management probably doesn't either". Many investors in 2007 also could have benefited from Klarman's 1991 advice to "shun" financial institutions speculating in junk bonds or "complex mortgage securities". The book is full of these simple yet brilliant observations. Ignore the price, and spend an afternoon at the library with a copy. You'll be glad you did.

First, let me say that I've only actually seen a physical copy of this book once. I did have an opportunity to read it when a stained, paper-clipped pile of 15th or 20th generation photocopied pages comprising the entire book made the rounds at my office.

The content is impressive, somewhat unique and very incisive, however, I think that in the year 2008, with copies of this book selling for $1500+, Margin Of Safety is now only 50% "book" with the remaining 50% being folklore and mythology. Owning a physical copy of MOS has become like a $25,000 wristwatch for value investors. It isn't about telling time... It's about how much you spent and showing the world what you have... and yes, you will find that the "value investors" who spent four figures for a copy of this book will defend their prize purchase to their dying breaths.

That Klarman has never ordered a reprint of this book tells us that he probably regrets having published it in the first place, not because it's a bad book but quite to the contrary, because it's a very good book that outlines much of his game plan; the profitability of which is greater the fewer competitors he has practicing it along with him.

Having finally "proven" everything he wrote in MOS with the Buffett'esque performance of his Baupost Group, I would wager that if he could go back in time and 'unpublish' this book, he probably would.

Still, would I ever pay this kind of money for a copy?
Heck no. Of course, I won't buy a $10,000 wristwatch, either.

SMERSH is back in this intigue packed adventure that has Bond running from Ireland to Hong Kong. However, The Bond girl is ditzy and not as interesting as most of the women he usually shacks up with.

This wasn't a bad Bond book. Actually, it was pretty good. I was pleased to see that it was like "The Most Dangerous Game." I suggest that you read the book, b/c it was a good read. I also liked the char. of Q'ute. *LMAO*

No Deals, Mr.Bond has action and love. The bad guy Kolya Chernov a.k.a. Blackfriar is a mad man you cut out tongues in this story. I can't tell you anymore details but if you buy this book you would never want to put it down.

Less typical of other Bond novels, No Deals deals with the betrayal, infighting, and backstabbing that occurs in all governmental agencies. More intrigue oriented than action packed.

I read Casino Royale awhile ago when I learned that Daniel Craig had been tagged to play Bond. I found the book interesting and altho it was dated a bit, it was entertaining. It was also fascinating in how it shed some light on Bond's personality.
This one was frankly boring from the first part and the female
he picks up just too true to the boring babes of past films including
her name. What really finally finished me off was the hostage scenario.
Bond would need a hostage????
The only thing more ridiculous than that is he not only takes her along, but he picks up her girlfriend?????
HUH???
When that happened I dropped the book back in the library slot, along with three others I had planned to read.
I just hope Bond 22 is not based on something from Gardner.

This is one of the better John Gardner Bond novels. It has a novel plot: Bond not on assignment, but instead the target of a global manhunt. It features some memorable and vicious villains, and a nice amount of plot twists.

Gardner's writing is taut, and we're reminded here that the Bond of the novels may be as suave as the Bond of film, but is considerably more ruthless. He repeats Ian Fleming's classic description of Bond's features as containing a hint of cruelty. Bond's ordeal in this book brings the trait more fully out of him than in other novels.

The first half of the book is particularly good in establishing tension. There are, perhaps, a few plot contrivances, but nothing especially blatant. I've read most of Gardner's Bond novels and would rate this very highly among them.

I HAVE SEEN EVERY JAMES BOND MOVIE THERE IS TO SEE. I HAVE READ EVERY book by John Gardner! His Bond outings keeps the Bond Flag alive! Nail biting suspense! Great storytelling at its best in this great adventure!

The suspense is a mile a minute in this novel that sets Bond against SPECTRE for the last time. It has two women for oo7 to womanize and features him at his most efficient and ruthless. It also has a sexy double cross that makes it even more exciting to read.