Enterprise Books

I'm a big fan of poetry. I only like poems that are of older tone and are written like an adult wrote it. Some poetry out there looks like a child wrote it and has no value at all other than to the one who wrote it. These amazing poems are written beautifully and a joy to read because they have beautiful pictures they make in the readers head as they read them. I read a lot of poetry by poets that died years ago. You know the drill, Keats, Mallory etc...Those were writers not unlike many in this book.

This book has a collection of writers so good if you didn't know they were from this time you would think you were reading something from a master's pen. Brilliant work and well worth the wait. I have bought a few for stocking stuffers and I'm sure those who get them will be pleasantly surprised.

Happy in Boston

I'm not used to saying much about books. I want to say it was money well spent. I'm pleased with this book and have recommnded it to my friends and co-workers.

A collection of poetry that will be treasured for years to come.
I'm elated to have discoverd it. Thank you Cliff for turning me on to this treasure.

Gail Winston N.Y City

I'm here to say that I ordered the book A Chorus of Voices from seeing it on an on line author biography. A friend showed it to me. It took a while to get to my address but when it did I have to say, it's splendid. Each writer contained within this book had something special to offer the reader. If you like classic poetry, and free verse you will enjoy this anthology of works form some of the most talented writers in this world. They come from all over the world as a matter of fact. It's necessary read for anyone that enjoys quality writing with the literary minded reader in mind.

Sincerely,
Steve H.

I just got my copy through the mail. I'm a poetry nut. I'm always looking for the best I can get my hands on. What I really enjoy doing is looking for new talent on the scene. Well, if ever there were talented writers it's the collection in this book Chorus Of Voices.

It has a delightful mix of poetry from many amazing new writers. Their careers are off to a major start with this beautifully written book. I'm going to order more for Christmas presents. Mt friends and I belong to a poetry society and this will be a big hit!

Satisfied customer,

Claira N. Los Angeles Poetry Society

Cisco Network Design Solutions For SmallMedium Businesses zeros in on critical solutions for networking professionals who are deploying computer networks within a small or mediumsized business. It addresses core networking issues, including security, customer relations management (CRM), wireless LANs, unified communications, IP telephony, and more. For networking professionals, Cisco Network Design Solutions for SmallMedium Businesses is a onestop reference and design guide for the effective implementation of networking solutions that enhance the bottom line. Cisco Network Design Solutions For SmallMedium Businesses is separated into two parts the first part explores the network design process, surveys the SMB landscape, and identifies the network requirements from the edge to the core for an effective solution implementation. The second part identifies multiple security solutions, Cisco's integration with popular CRM solutions, design models for ICS 7750 deployment in the context of an IP Telephony solution, Wireless LAN solutions, and Cisco's Unity and IP/TV solutions.

This book gives sound advice for developing an effective business focused network solution. I especially like the chapters on security, which are practical and concise, offering an effective path for making sense of the all to complex security situation that we find ourselves confronted with in these times. The author puts security issues and threats in an easy-to-understand framework along with examples that help the reader make the connection to their business. Each threat is followed up with a set of solutions that the designer (and the CEO) can use to assess the security interventions that best balance risks and costs for their own business. The creation of a security policy is stressed. A follow-on chapter delves into the details of how the security policy gets translated into the Cisco environment. This book takes the rare but much needed view that network design should be driven from requirements and policy first and design and implementation second. Although the title slots the book in the realm of Cisco network design for small to medium businesses it should be of interest to a wider audience. I count myself fortunate to have crossed paths with this practical and useful book. Hats off to Mr. Rybaczyk for a job well done!

Every sentence in this excellently written book is packed with concentrated advice for small-to-medium sized enterprises. The content is absolutely up-to-date in how it relates to the real world. I particularly valued the Security Overview chapter, which helped me, with its Security Policy template, to meet the new Sarbanes-Oxley requirements for financial data security. Essential reading for every SMB enterprise!

Do you manage an accounting department? This book is for you. Are you in sales, marketing, manufacturing, advertising? This book is for you. Are you a senior or mid-level manager in a small to medium sized business? If you are, this book is for you. If you are a network engineer who is considering a move into management this book is for you. If you are a network manager, this book will give you excellent insights into the use of various technologies in your business. If you are a school administrator or technology coordinator in a school district of any size this book is for you. If you are a Cisco 'guru', this book will fill in any gap that you may have regarding newer Cisco technologies and how they might be integrated within your organization.

This book isn't a standard technology book with detailed explanations regarding for instance; how to enter into 'config' mode or how to configure a vlan on a wireless device. This book is about serious issues that all Small to Medium businesses face as they try to bring their organizations to the next level.

It is almost impossible to do justice to this book without writing 100 page review...but I will do my best to point out some salient points that I believe provide the philosophical guidance that underlies what is written.

In Chapter 7 Customer Relationship Management Solutions (CRM), Peter writes the following, "Any effective CRM solutions offers an SMB the opportunity to provide excellent customer service 100% of the time or, at least, close to it. In the information age, it means that no matter which employee is interacting with a customer, he or she has access to the relevant information to meet the customer's needs effectively, in a timely manner, and without confusion." He then proceeds to write that whether one is taking an order, a reservation, offering info about a new service or product, "a CRM solution should facilitate the interaction and the decision-making process on the part of the SMB's employees."

Talk about a crash-course MBA. His chapter on CRM and Chapter 10 Front and Back Office Integration Solutions reads like a mini-mba and should be helpful to anyone in management. The rest of the book provides inciteful information on various technologies and how they can be considered within the context of Customer Relationship Management Solution, increasing a company's competitiveness and increasing the bottom line.

For instance, in the section on VPNs, Peter provides a level of technical insight that is usually missing from technical how-to books. In addition, he provides the business-management insight that is always missing from how-to books. The issues that he writes about are critically important for not only network managers to understand, but for business managers to understand also. Any techie who reads this book will clearly be more valuable to an organization. Many techies only understand the 'prompt' they see on a router or switch. If a 'techie' wants to be well-respected within an organization, they need to have a deeper level of managerial insight that goes beyond the 'prompt'. This book will provide that and may well lead to a higher-level position within a company.

For instance, a VPN isn't just encrypted traffic running through the Internet. In the VPN section, Peter writes about design considerations, network topoligies and workforce distribution, cost savings, and vpns as enhancements to the existing communications infrastructure, reliability, resiliance, and scalability, and much, much more.

I consider myself fairly knowledgable on routing, wireless, security...vpns, firewalls, (not intrusion detection). I know a fair amount about VoIP in WANs. This book provided me with a great deal of understanding as to the equipment and issues with using VoIP in lans. I knew next to nothing about Unified Communications Solutions but now understand how it fits overall within the organization, and understand critical issues from both the technical and the human-managerial side. I have gained many important insights into areas that I understand technically...but not from the smb-management side.

Peter writes in such a manner that it is easy to understand where and how the technologies that he writes about, will help small to medium business processes and provide a higher lever of Customer Relationship Management.

This was a challenging book to write, but Peter has succeeded in doing the impossible. He has successfully integrated both technical and managerial issues into a cohesive book that any business and even school district will benefit from.

This book is a winner! Read it today!

Cisco Network Design Solutions for Small-Medium Businesses (Peter Rybacyk, 2005) outlines the networking needs of SMB's across the whole "yellow pages" of vertical markets. When dealing with a topic this extensive, an author has to make choices between depth and breadth. While the book does not delve too deeply into configuration or deployment use cases, it does manage to touch on pretty much every solution Cisco offers the SMB market. It's a comprehensive resource for a partner or reseller to help design an SMB network. By covering the SMB market in such detail, the book actually winds up touching on most of the major solutions (including enterprise) in networking today.

For the small business owner, its probably a bit steep on the technical detail for a first-step resource, but if you are already networking savvy or have able to dig a little deeper to get more vital information, you'll find this book quite useful. It's worth noting that there isn't any mention of the Linksys offerings; thus, it appears that this book is aimed at the "larger than the smallest" SMB market; it certainly is not applicable to small office/home office (SOHO).

Throughout the book the author puts forth a poignant and true-ringing analogy about the direction of networking vis a vis its apparent commoditization. Networking appears to be en route, however quickly and completely, to a kind of utility basis, wherein we will come to see it as increasingly plug and play, and perhaps as reliable, as electrical and plumbing systems. Although it is questionable whether networking can ever attain such a status, especially inasmuch as the applications get more complex with IPT, wireless, and storage, the trend in that direction is apparent (and welcome!).

The first part of the book covers the network design process and the profiles on different small and medium-sized businesses. It takes into consideration the key requirements of an SMB network: high performance, scalability, and "built within budget." This section includes an interesting overview of the networking infrastructure, including cable plant and storage requirements. There is a very useful checklist of design document components including requirements, cost/benefit analysis, implementation details, and so forth.

The second, and larger, part of the book details specific network solutions. These include security, remote access, IP telephony, wireless, partner collaboration, customer care, and front/back office collaboration. The security topic is divided into two chapters, the first dealing with the impact of the wide variety of security breaches (such as DDoS, man-in-the-middle attacks, zombies, worms, etc.). The other security chapter covers details on VPNs (in terms of the encryption technologies, appliances such as concentrators to manage them, and management advantages), firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and security functionality in the Cisco IOS. After detailing the requirements for VPNs (authentication, encryption, flexibility, scalability), a variety of VPN topologies (hub and spoke versus full mesh) and technologies (IPSec, SSL, and GRE) are discussed. It then covers advanced topics such as Dynamic Multipoint VPNs (DMVPN). Firewall technologies and capabilities such as DMZ creation, NAT, static packet filtering, and stateful inspection are discussed in detail.

Wireless LANs (WLAN) are tackled next, and the book provides excellent product descriptions of access points, wireless routers and bridges, switching requirements, site survey issues, the different standards, and the security implementation. There are several unique security issues related to wireless networking; examples include rogue access points and eavesdropping. There are many authentication and encryption technologies available for WLANs, partly because this a new area and partly because the original WEP encryption proved to be fairly easy to hack. The performance and topology considerations of WLANs also get a little bit dense because of the many ways that wireless signals can be interrupted. Thus, a serious discussion on WLAN technology needs to cover such topics as radio frequencies, relevant standards (802.11 a/b/g), transmit power, and antenna types. The Cisco Aironet family of access points is discussed in detail.

The CRM chapter deals with the relevant Cisco products (e.g., IPCC) to customer care. This is a relatively nebulous area because it is really so business dependent that it's hard to find a one-size-fits-all solution. But the Cisco Contact Center product description gives a very good idea of the current state of the solution.

The IP Telephony chapter covers the Cisco Call Manager (CCM) Express and other CCM IPT solutions, including deployment options. It first discusses the lower-level technical details such as echo, delay and jitter, and then goes on to discuss IPT standards and protocols, and relevant products such as gateways, gatekeepers, PBXs, and IP phones. Then integrated IPT solutions are discussed along with integrated call manager deployments. Finally it covers integration issues such as dial plans and integration with legacy PBXes. Issues related to unified messaging (e.g., getting your voice messages via email, and vice versa) are discussed in the following chapter, followed by front office/back office integration (detailing applications such as order processing and inventory management).

Overall, this well written and smartly illustrated book hits the mark and rates 5 stars out of 5.

Two women, a mother and daughter, are separated by dire circumstances and misunderstanding. Hilda is nineteen when she gets pregnant in 1942, and there's no way she can keep the baby. Rather than go through official channels, she entrusts her infant - not even knowing if it's a boy or girl - to a soldier friend of her brother Martin. The soldier and his wife are never heard from again. Hilda must go on with her life, but she can never forget that child whose memory haunts her.

Frannie Brewster, who we immediately discover is Hilda's long-lost child, has grown to maturity in a hardscrabble existence with an alcoholic adoptive father and a very unhappy adoptive mother. Her solution is to flee by first going to college, then joining the Women's Army Corps. Frannie has long dealt with the world by deflecting everything with humor. One time a friend was mentioning how another gal's mother had made her a lesbian, and Frannie quipped, "Hey, Margo, maybe if you buy her the material, she'll make you one, too" (p. 80). Regardless of the scrapes she gets in, the problems that arise, the people who cause her trouble, Frannie makes a joke of it. Women are drawn to her because of her ready wit, but she uses her humor to hold people at a distance. Nobody ever gets close enough to stick. Not for too long anyway. The journey Frannie takes to find love and her roots is by turns hilarious and engrossing.

After years of running for Frannie, and decades of grief for Hilda, both women long to discover where they came from to try to find what they lost. Hilda's journey, even with her partner's support, doesn't seem fruitful. Frannie's investigation into the past is frustrating. But neither woman gives up. In the process of searching for their roots, will they find each other? Even more important, will they find themselves?

While sections of this book were quite serious and dramatic, overall this book was also a hoot to read. In Chapter Twelve, when Frannie arrives at Fort Sill for basic military training, she's confronted by a drill sergeant who lines up all the women and says, "There's miles and miles of penis on this Army base, and you aren't going to get even a single inch of it" (p. 134). Little does the drill sergeant know that men are just about the furthest thing from Frannie's mind! The drill sergeant "didn't talk, she roared, and that was one of her more feminine qualities" (p. 134). I could go on and on quoting the funny lines in this book. Vollbrecht's writing style and sly humor kept me chuckling throughout.

From the time of World War II and the Korean Conflict, through Vietnam and up into the 1980s, this book covers the life of a remarkable woman. Frannie is so alive, she's someone you'd want to know, and her problems are so human that I couldn't put the book down. When the story ended, I wanted to know what would happen to her and how the rest of her life would go. I give this book my highest recommendation. ~Lori L. Lake, Midwest Book Review

If Jane Vollbrecht were a baseball player, her batting average would be close to 1000. Close Enough is another home run for her readers.

Close Enough is a family saga that begins in 1942 and continues into the mid-1980s, and it covers a lot of ground during those four decades. Readers move from locations in Pennsylvania to Alabama, from the states in the middle of the country to the southeast, and then to Asia and Europe. The geographic distance pales when compared with the emotional distance traveled, explored, and examined by the main characters.

The first few chapters are chock full of characters. By the time the book finishes, over a hundred people are mentioned. It may seem like a daunting task at first to process all the names, but the major characters soon sort themselves out while the rest fade into the background, and readers are left with only the key players, whose lives are intricately connected. First, we meet Hilda Stenkiewicz and learn of her painful decision to give up her illegitimate newborn child. This event sets the whole story in motion. Hilda never loses hope that someday she'll be able to find her child again. In the meantime, she discovers love in an unlikely place, not too far from her original home.

Then Close Enough shifts to its major focus to Hilda's child, Frannie Brewster. Readers witness all the triumphs and tragedies she experiences while growing up. You'll share everything from her high school graduation and college years to her army career and her loves lost and loves found. Frannie reaches the age of 42 with plenty of rewarding experiences but still has one nagging, unresolved issue: she never knew the real story of her adoption. What she was told was something her adopted mother considered close enough to the truth.

Dozens of family members, friends, colleagues, and supporters populate the book. Some are important, some merely drift in and out of the plot, much as people do in real life. Vollbrecht has a knack for developing realistic characters no matter how brief their appearance, and she makes her main characters unforgettable. By the time you've lived with Hilda and Elaine and Frannie and Terry, you've cheered their victories, agonized over their heartbreaks, and slipped into the normal mundane in-between-time, sympathizing, empathizing, and knowing them for who they are, but also knowing why their lives aren't quite enough to satisfy them.

Vollbrecht makes you visualize all the important features of each decade as it pertains to Frannie -- the Woman's Army Corps, Women's Rights, Gay Rights, fads and trends in music, radio, television, and the movies. History from World War II through the end of the Vietnam Conflict forms a backdrop for Frannie, but her concerns are focused on the faith, determination, and love of those closest to her, and her desperate need to reach closure in the one area of her life that isn't resolved.

Why did her mother surrender her? Will she ever find the answers after 42 years, four months, and five days of wondering? Or will she have to settle for answers that are merely close enough?

Fortunately, however, you won't have to settle in your search for good reading. Close Enough is as near to real life as it can get and still be fiction.

Close Enough is a novel that spans decades and generations, but it addresses the same issues. What is family? How do the choices we make influence not only our own futures, but those of the people we touch? Never give up on a dream.

In 1942 Hilda Stenkiewicz is forced to give up her illegitimate baby and starts a chain of events that will not conclude until forty-two years later. She gives the child to an Army buddy of her brother and intends to keep track of it, but loses all chance for that when her brother is killed in World War II. Although Hilda meets Elaine Huebner and they build a rich life together, there is always that nagging desire to find the child that she really wanted to keep.

Frannie Brewster always knows that she is adopted, but she thinks she was abandoned by a mother who did not want her. Though her adoptive mother loves her, her father makes her early years torture and all she can think about is getting out of her small Alabama hometown. An outstanding academic record takes her to college and then to a career in the Army. Along the way, Frannie discovers that she is a lesbian in a time when that was still considered a mental illness. She struggles to find love and a way to accommodate it with the career she has chosen and a society that wants to treat her as a criminal if her sexual orientation is disclosed. Meanwhile, her adoptive mother is spiraling out of control as an alcoholic, depriving Frannie of any type of home life to fall back on. As she goes through the years, she searches to find a place where she truly belongs and to fill the emptiness she feels inside.

Eventually, the search is begun for Hilda and Frannie to find each other. The odds of connecting seem insurmountable, but each has a greater fear than that they will never connect. What if they do and cannot accept each other as they are? The loving families that each has found will make all the difference in how this question is answered.

Close Enough is Frannie's story. The reader sees her grow from eighteen to forty-two as she deals with learning about herself, strengths and weaknesses. She searches for love as she searches for identity and, like all true people, she makes mistakes. The particularly interesting part of the book is when it shows how lesbians in the Army dealt with their situation in the years before "don't ask, don't tell." While the romantic story is there with the necessary love scenes, it's secondary to the main story that is rich with details of a woman's struggle to cope with the rather difficult life that fate has dealt her. Vollbrecht proves once again that she can write a story that is lesbian, but with universal appeal. This is well worth reading.

Ms Vollbrecht has done it again. She has taken her newest novel, "Close Enough" out of the realm of just another lesbian story and has woven a story about real people, their joys and their sorrows, their searches for self through the twists and turns of this thing we call life. It is a page turner from the beginning to the end. This reader found herself unable to put it down. The characters are flesh and blood, so much so they become part of the reader's family. Their problems and set-backs demand the reader's full attention, and their happiness is cause for celebration and tears of joy.

Congratulations to this author for a job well done.

Victoria Welsh

START OF BACK COVER TEXT - It's 1942, and nineteen-year-old Hilda Stenkiewicz has a secret: she's given birth to an illegitimate child. Ashamed and overwhelmed, Hilda turns to her older brother, Martin, for help. On his advice, she gives her baby to Martin's Army buddy and his wife, who are strangers to her. Hilda, heartbroken and devastated, leaves her hometown in northern Pennsylvania to start anew. She forges a bond with Elaine Huebner, the landlady at her boarding house, and soon, their friendship blossoms into a much deeper relationship. With Elaine's help, Hilda tries to put her past behind her, but she can never forget the baby she surrendered.

Frannie Brewster knows she's adopted but believes her birth mother abandoned her in an Alabama truck stop. Through gifted in academics and athletics, Frannie struggles with her identity - including her attraction to women at college and in the Women's Army Corps. After a long separation, Frannie is reunited with the lover she thought was lost to her forever. They discover that they share a similar heartache - one that will shape the rest of their days.

In the mid-1980s, before the convenience of cell phones and the Internet and with few clues to guide them, Hilda and Frannie go searching for the missing pieces in their respective lives. They draw ever closer to finding one another, but can they get Close Enough? - END OF BACK COVER TEXT

I read a lot and am always excited when I see a new lesbian fiction author introduced to the world. Unfortunately, these new authors often publish only one book. What excites me even more than new names is multiple publications. Such is the case with the talented Jane Vollbrecht, who has published four wonderful books in just over two years.

I continue to be impressed by this talented author whose last two books have each included two successfully intertwined tales. In `Close Enough' the reader is introduced to an interesting cast of characters. The first couple is Hilda Stenkiewicz and Elaine Huebner. Hilda gives birth to an illegitimate child and gives the child to Rooster and Wilma Jean Brewster, her older brother Martin's Army buddy and his wife. After the child's birth, Frannie moves away from her hometown to begin a new life. Unexpectedly, she falls in love with Elaine, the owner of her boarding house.

The Brewsters, unable to have a child of their own, adopt baby Frannie and raise her with love. Of course, Rooster's idea of love is more physical than Wilma Jean knows. After graduating high school with honors, Frannie goes to college and meets Terry. Terry teaches Frannie much more than she'll ever learn in a classroom then dumps her after going to graduate school. Years later after living their own lives, Frannie and Terry find each other again. These two women are looking for pieces of their past as well.

I particularly love Frannie. This gal started with nothing and still found success. Even after being treated inhumanely by her father, being jilted by her lover, and spending years in the proverbial closet in the Army, Frannie has an immense capacity for love and forgiveness. Hilda and Elaine are endearing characters who are victims of their time. They keep their love hidden from public view but are fortunate to have families who are open-minded. Wilma Jean is pathetic and hard to like. She's a weak woman who can't (or won't) think for herself and makes those around her miserable. Of course, this tragic character is a big part of the ribbon that binds this story together.

Vollbrecht gets better with every new book and is stealthily becoming one of my favorite authors. Her characters are vibrant, dimensional and alive. Her stories are original and thought-provoking. Her talent is unquestionable. `Close Enough' is one book that will remain a permanent part of my personal collection. Do yourself a favor and get your own copy today.

Kathryn shares intimate stories of life changing events in a truly inspirational telling. Her personal experiences are woven with scripture and words of encouragement. It was a pleasure to read of her trials and victories, and the joy she has found in "Confessions of a Pastor's Wife". She encourages each of us to be still and listen to God.

Katherine has a delightful way of allowing the readers to see how God can take the hurts in our lives and turn them into blessings! It is a must read to inspire us all to understand that He uses the broken, what a beautiful picture of Grace and Hope!

I loved this book! It was SO easy to read and there were so many things that really spoke to me. I especially loved Mrs. Bonners vulnerability and how REAL she was! I found her book to be very encouraging and recommend it highly.

Kathryn Bonner's confessions become our blessings! This is a must read for anyone at anytime who desires to enrich life with meaning. It's refreshing how Kathryn incorporates God's words into her experiences that are so uniquely human.

This is a refreshing look into a personal life that is very much like our own, with Biblical guides to give inspiration and hope. It is very well written and easy to identify with. Kathryn Bonner has given us a great gift by sharing her life and knowledge of the Bible with us.

This is the fascinating true story of a little boy who through no fault of his own is incarcerated in one of the appalling Irish industrial schools in existence in Ireland until 1970. He suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse and as if this were not enough, he was then taken by the nuns of the industrial school and left to spend years of his precious life in different hospitals where he appears to have been no more than a guinea pig and was left with a permanent disability. Up to this day, no-one within the system has accounted for the brain operations, his eventual disability or any reason why he was in the different hospitals.
The book is very well written and although it describes the horrors inflicted on a small child, the sadistic treatment he received in the hands of the nuns, one can sense a healthy resignation which comes across every page thus making the unbearably sad story a little easier to read.
I found the book an inspiration, an ode to life, for after the total deprivation of affection, protection, a simple toy even, and having had his life taken away from him and practicaly destroyed, he not only survives with sanity but he wins in a superhuman way as he tells with such dignity about the perverse system under which he and so many other children were detained.
It must have been very difficult to relive the horrors whilst writing this very informative book. And for such an effort, I am indebted.

When The God Squad was first published in Ireland in 1988, the Irish public were confronted with the reality of life behind the walls of religious-run orphanages and industrial schools. However, perhaps because it was seen as just one unfortunate boy's story, there was no general sense of outrage directed at the perpetrators or at the system which allowed supposedly 'religious' men and women to ill-treat children entrusted to their care. That had to wait until another expose by the journalist Mary Raftery eight years later.

But Paddy Doyle broke the silence and for that we must all be grateful. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the real Ireland of the recent past. Paddy tells his story eloquently and without self-pity. The God Squad will break your heart. Read it.

I know this book is not out of print because I ordered it and read it in one day. Any intelligent reader knows that the mark of a good writer is the ability to write masterful, engaging narrative, and Paddy Doyle tells the story of his young life honestly and directly. It is this straightforward essential truthfulness which will keep your attention from page 1 through the epilogue. Of particular import in this literary journey is the challenge to see that the beauty of life is not there because of or in spite of what one survives, but because the human spirit, so brilliantly demonstrated in the Irish spirit of Paddy Doyle, is a fire that cannot be damped down. It's also a fine example of what happens when the church and state relationship gets too cozy; something we Yanks take for granted won't happen. Point and click your way to owning this book, it *is* available!

Excellent and a very good read. I have read a few books about Ireland's Industrial Schools and saw the movie "The Magdeline (sp?)Sisters." All are helpful in understanding what the children Of Ireland's Industrial Schools went thru. Although Paddy only wrote about his experiences in "The God Squad," I feel great love and compassion and sadness for these children as well as a sense of great strength coming from them as adults to have the courage to tell their tales. God Bless every one of them and hope that they can find a sense of release and closure from the pain by letting the rest of the world know their stories.

"The God Squad" by: Paddy Doyle is an extremely well written book that took me through the whole range of human emotion. I laughed, cryed, was angry and happy as the author led me through his life from 4 1/2 years old through the epilogue. It is a book that I could not cast aside to finish later.....the 236 pages were rapidly devoured in a few hours. I recommend it very highly to everyone. The education, alone, is very well worth the price that one would pay for ANY book!....No wonder that it was a best seller in the United Kingdom. It will hit the USA in a big storm too!

Of all the survival/preparedness books I have read, this one is in the top three for completeness and depth of information. It is packed solid with useful information. If you go to standeyo dot com , you should get about the best price for the book. The book is very thorough and seems to be a polished version of the first version of this title. A well indexed, well organized 500+ page wealth of information.... I feel I got my monies worth.

This terrific volume has been updated in 2008 - wish Amazon was aware of this!

If you thought you learned about survival in the Boy Scouts, be prepared for an eye opener. I happened upon this book in an unlikely location, and am very glad I did. From preparation to terrorist attacks, to dysfuctioning electrical grids, to downright cold weather, this book has something for everyone who wants to be prepared for the unexpected.

I cannot and will not divulge all of the "secret" coded information in this volume, but when you see all that is included, you will consider the purchase price cheap by all accounts.

My 2nd edition is dated 2005, One can only hope that this book is updated, say, every 18 months or so. I'll buy each--and prior to seeing it, thought I was fairly well informed. Well, this book will save you much time gathering information!!!

Emergency situations arise every day and, quite often, we are not prepared for them. From earthquakes to terrorist attacks, tornadoes to blizzards, we all could use some guidance in how to be prepared. You may recall laughing at your neighbors when in December of 1999 they went out and bought a generator in preparation for Y2K, or you may have been one of those mindful folks who emptied the shelves of home improvement depots of their generators. Whichever the case may be, there are things you could be doing to be prepared for any kind of threat, hyped up or not.

My great grandmother always had a basement stocked with canned goods. She lived through the depression and never forgot what it felt like to have empty cupboards. My grandmother always made sure her heating oil tank was topped off in November in preparation for the winter. We all know folks who seem to be prepared for anything that comes their way and we also know people who always seem to have to rush out to the grocery store when a storm is predicted.

Holly Drennan Deyo reminds us of all of the possible emergencies we might encounter, from flood warnings to nuclear war. She gives a guide for every situation and what you can do for yourself, your family and even your pets to stay safe. A lot of research has gone into this guide and Holly shares it all with us. Here you will find lists of items to pack in emergency kits of all kinds, tips on purifying water, heating your shelter, and building underground supply cellars. There are lists of how long you can store emergency supplies and when they expire, lists of handyman items that should be stored for use, lists of how to decipher codes on packaged foods and so much more.

Deyo has not left a single situation out of her guide to being prepared for disasters of all sorts. This is truly the modern person's resource for being prepared, whether we think the neighbors will laugh at us or not. If perchance you have a household member who is resistant to stocking up on food, water and supplies and storing them away, this book might just be the tool to sway them into thinking twice.

The text is introduced in a friendly, straightforward voice. The book is a must have for every mindful family. My only problem with it is the occasional suggestion that the Bible be in the emergency tool kit. Religion shouldn't be involved with this practical guide to survival, as it is purely a personal choice. Mention of prayer and dedication to her god only detracts from the guide that should be intended for folks of every religion. However it is a minor thing when compared to the abundance of good advice within the pages of the book.

Review by Heather Froeschl of BookReview.com.

This book was well researched and covers a lot of things most of us never think about from day to day. With increasing threats of food, power and water shortages from terrorist attacks inside the continental US, and with increasingly bad weather from an almost permanent El Nino status in the Pacific Ocean, this book is essential information for enduring the changes in our way of life.

This is a good introduction to data warehousing for business process owners, project managers and service delivery and support professionals. Like all books in the Enterprise Computing series this one follows the people-process-technology pattern, with a focus on business value.

The authors start by showing how data warehouses fit into the context of IT architecture, and how this relates to fulfilling business needs. This is followed by a clearly presented section on concepts that will be easily understood by non-technical readers, especially business process owner who are exploring the benefits and advantages of data warehousing.

Scope and complexity of designing, implementing and deploying a data warehouse are discussed in detail in Section II, starting with some excellent material for developing a business case and determining the cost/benefit ratio of a data warehouse initiative. Information in this section is also useful for planning a data warehouse project because it provides low-level details on roles and responsibilities. A key point here is the way the project is structured with both technical and business resources. I like this approach because it involves all of the major stakeholders and IT customers from the beginning instead of the more common practice of waiting until the last minute to involve the business. This approach will go a long way towards making a data warehouse project a success and ensuring that the business gets what it really needs instead of what IT thinks the business needs.

The technology section of this book is an excellent description of data structures, meta data and topics that need to be understood in view of the large difference between a data warehouse and an online transaction processing system. I learned a lot from this section and appreciated the way the information was clearly presented. I also liked the fact that the authors included a section on production and maintenance. Other books stop short of this important milestone in a development life cycle, which leaves a lot of unaccounted for issues. This section completes the total picture of a data warehousing initiative and sets realistic expectations for the true costs, resources and effort required to implement and maintain a data warehouse throughout its entire life cycle.

This is a nicely done book that is accessible to both technical and non-technical readers, and is one of the best resources with which to get up-to-speed on data warehousing without getting bogged down with too many technical details.

Dispite the 300+ pages, I was able to finish this book in a day. It provides clear and concise information on how to manage a data warehousing project, caveats & pitfalls, and differences between DW technologies & strategies. The first half of the book focuses on step-by-step DW project management and methodology. The second half focuses on technologies and concepts. However, I felt that the second half of the book was not as strong as the first (probably because technology changes constantly). If you want a book that gives you a step-by-step task list that can be easily transferred to a MS Project plan, then this is the book you want!

Data Warehousing covers a lot of territory, but does not go into depth. If you know this in advance it sets your expectations that this book is more of an educational tool for managers than a "how-to" for data architects and DBAs. I recommend The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit by Ralph Kimball for those who are seeking an in-depth technical treatment of the subject.

This book will give you a solid foundation of the basics, expose the issues and provide a high-level process for planning and implementing a data warehouse. It is divided into sections, the first three covering people, process and technology.

Section One starts with an overview enterprise IT architectures, how data warehousing fits into the scheme of things, and associated business and technical perspectives. I like the way the authors emphasize business perspectives, which is a consistent thread throughout the book. They use a framework called "InfoMotion", which covers all of the requirements, but (to me) is too wrapped-up in "consultant-speak". For example, they litter this section with nonsense such as "InfoMotion = Information/Data * motion. While it makes perfect sense from a conceptual viewpoint, there is no way to compute it, so why express it as a formula? Parenthetically, data is easy to quantify; measuring information is difficult, but can be done. The motion part of the equation is plain silliness because there is no basis given for measurement. But I am nitpicking here.

You are next introduced to data warehouse concepts. This gives a foundation that is complete and covers all key elements, such as reports, definitions of data warehouse and data mart and operational data stores. I thought this was an excellent introduction. Also included is a brief piece on cost/benefit and return on investment. It was short and hit all of the key points, but would have fit better in the prior discussion of the business perspective.

The next section addresses the people part of a data warehousing project, begining with the project sponsor. Answers to some incisive questions are given in this part, such as "how will the data warehouse affect decision-making processes?", "how will it improve financial, marketing and operations processes?" and similar business-focused questions. These draw your attention to the real reasons for data warehousing. This section moves naturally into project management considerations, and exposes some common problems like defining project scope, underestimating time and project overhead or factoring the operational support issues after the data warehouse is rolled out and in production. One of the best parts of this section is how the authors counter common problems and risks with advice on how to eliminate or mitigate them. I liked the approach to measuring results, which gives some sound key performance indications that you can use to baseline some total cost of ownership drivers after the data warehouse is in production. This section continues with roles and responsibilities of the project team. The authors have crafted a sound team structure that consists of business and technical representatives who are overseen by a steering committee. This is an excellent approach. I thought the inclusion of users from various business domains was one of the key strengths, because these people know the data's value to the business a lot better than the technical side of the team. On the other hand, I thought it was naive of the authors to state that this group would be required 80% of the time during the project. While I fully agree with this estimate, it is nearly impossible in practice. I wish the authors would have shared how they sold the business side on making an 80% commitment of their best and brightest.

As this section moves into the actual project there are some things I loved about their approach: breaking the project into four parallel tracks and the proposed rollout strategy. These give you a good understanding of the scope and magnitude of a typical data warehouse project.

Section 4 covers technology, and gets a little too technical for a business user in some places, but is just right for an IT manager who is not a DBA or data architect. I liked the discussion of metadata, why normalization is not appropriate for data warehousing, and the treatment of fact and dimension tables.

The final section discusses maintenance requirements once the data warehouse is in production. This prepares you for the realities of managing these systems. I wish the authors would have addressed some of the workload and scheduling issues that are a part of the territory - refreshing the warehouse is going to require a fine balancing act that is going to affect maintenance windows, other production jobs and a plethora of other production headaches if not planned for in advance.

Overall this is a good book for the audience I cited above. I strongly recommend anyone considering a data warehouse to also read Improving Data Warehouse and Business Information Quality by Larry P. English.

Excellent book that explains all the steps necessary to implement successful warehouse project. It approaches it from organizational point of view as oppossed to technical. It will complement many technical warehousing books out there.

A serious textbook about Data warehouse real world issues.

It provides material not covered by other textbook, the laterial about meta data in particular.

A must read

It only took one day to digest this slice of gourmet goodness, concocted with writerly mastery, fun plotting and interesting characters--and some laugh-out-loud moments. I hate to make comparisons, but it reminded me a bit of Carl Hiaasen (with Hawaii substituting for Florida, of course). The madcap characters, crazy plot-twists, matter-of-fact debauchery and jaw-dropping madness equals FUN. Also, without pedantics, the writer manages to sneak in a bit of info about how the tourist trade has affected authentic Hawaiian culture.

I first heard Mark Haskell Smith mentioned on NPR's book recommendations segment. His other books (Moist and Salty) are definitely going on my "to-read" list.

Mark Haskell Smith is like Elmore Leonard on speed, only funnier. Both "Moist" and "Delicious" are immensively creative, hysterical (in the comic sense) romps. I can't wait for his next one.

My husband and I both loved this book. Couldn't put it down. His other book, Moist is a good read too. Mark Haskell Smith is an excellent story teller with quite a wild imagination. Fun stuff!

This book was really fine. Which real person was the inspiration for the character Joseph? I want to eat at the restaurant where he is now working. I couldn't put this book down.

This odd exhilarating book is as well-paced and plotted as a P.G. Wodehouse novel but it is studded with incidents and bizarre moments that are as disgusting as a book by William Burroughs.

And it's all set in Hawaii of all places so you get bizarre insights into that culture. If you liked Moist, you will like Delicious. The author is a screenwriter who was hired to make a postmodernist version of Hawaii 5-0 but although that season was cancelled this book gives an indication of the author's viewpoint and why such a bizarre series could never have made it to television except on the furthest out cable channel.

Hit men, prostitutes, sleazebags, opportunistic Hawaiians, Spam, sushi, cooking. I read it in one sitting and felt like I had taken two hits of Ecstacy. Wonderful, dangerous book.

Destination: The Caribbean is one of those rare how-to-books which actually tells you something. It is the best sourcebook I know of which explains EXACTLY how to find employment in the Caribbean without being taken for a ride.

The best compendium of hard, factual information I've seen in any single book on employment in the Caribbean.

My desk is cluttered with books and pamphlets on the Caribbean. Of the hundreds NONE have addressed the issue of employment. If you are serious about working in the Caribbean, Destination: The Caribbean is a true gold mine!

This is without a doubt, the most complete book I have ever purchased concerning employment in the Caribbean region! Everything I have been looking for and even information I didn't know I needed to be looking for.

Destination: The Caribbean was written with the reader in mind. It not only provides the information I am looking for but it also provides related information which virtually eliminates any research on my part. an absolute must!

I bought this book for a friend who lost her 18 year old daughter. It turns out the author wrote this after losing his daughter! God is awesome! My friend said it really comforted her and helped her with her grieving. Highly recommend for anyone that has lost a loved one.

This book is a very good for the one who is caught in the middle of a loss -one that may last a lifetime. The writings are short, which makes it easier for that person to read when nothing else makes sense. The author shares her heart, which will make it easier for you to share yours.

This devotion deals with the raw pain that comes with loss, be that of a loved one or of a dream that is cherished with all one's heart. The author understands the real heartache that comes with great loss and never criticizes readers for having the full spectrum of emotions. This book helps readers to understand grief and how to acknowledge it, address it, and then begin to move forward. It truly is a blessing.

Whether your grief is new and raw or lingering and unresolved, this book can be a powerful tool for healing. If you grieve the loss of a loved one through death or other life-altering circumstances, this devotional offers gentle guidance and companionship. Now that I have read the entire book, and gone through quite a few Kleenex on the way, the writing is beautiful, too. Everything is stated just perfectly, sensibly, sensitively, lovingly. I appreciate the authors openness, honesty and courage in writing it. The book is a beautiful gift that I'm sure will touch peoples lives and heal their souls.

I have purchased several books to give to friends who are either grieving a loved one or any other kind of loss. I found that this is very comforting and encouraging without each devotion being long and overbearing. During the grieving process, I did not feel like reading pages but short encouraging devotions like these are ideal!