Fund-of-funds Books

This book is worth reading!

James Owen's book is outstanding. He provides an excellent history of hedge funds, starting with A.W. Jones' concept of conservative investment principles that focus on wealth preservation, yet can result in outstanding long term success. The book gives a very good overview of the types of hedge funds and does a particularly good job of contrasting hedge funds from mutual funds and other relative performance vehicles. Ownen is also the author of my favorite "investment" book: Cowboy Ethics, What Wall Street Can Learn from the Code of the West.

I bought 10 books on hedge fund investing and this book is the premier resource for anyone who is new to hedge funds or who wants to improve his/her financial eduation and have a better grasp of investing strategies beyond 'buy and hold'. People who are considering or just moving into alternative investments should start with this book because it is clear, highly readable, and contains specific suggestions and lists of resources. The latter are invaluable to non-professionals who want a knowledge base for evaluating advice on what to do with their money and some idea of how to perform due diligence with regard to hedge fund investing. That is the target audience for this book and the author more than succeeds in meeting its needs. It is an excellent foundation for more complex treatments that are usually not as well written.

Experienced professionals would do well to read this book and note the clarity of its style and how it leaves the average reader with a sense of greater financial empowerment despite the complexity of its subject and material. Would that all financial writers (and advisors) could be as clear and engaging as Mr. Owen is in this book!

Author has good writing style and the book is laid out well. It is a quick and easy read. Contains good tips on where to get more info on hedge funds and how to perform some basic due diligence. Great for people who are thinking about investing in hedge funds and who don't have finance background. Books does fall short on explaining the risks inherent in many hedge fund strategies.

Neil Chelo, CFA

Way too superficial for the institutional investors... Although probably a nice start for privates it does not provide any indepth insight into the strategies employed by hedge fund managers or the risks involved.... For the professional investor I would recommend "Absolute Returns" from Ineichen, which covers the entire spectrum, from indepth analysis of the strategies employed to an extensive overview of market risk factors....

Many fundraising books overlook the psychological aspects of "giving" and "receiving." Bassoff's work helpfully reinforces the conviction that a nonprofit must itself "give" and contribute in order to receive "gifts" and contributions. The writing style was enjoyable, with content to match.

Reviewed by William E. Cooper for Reader Views (2/07)

Have you been involved in a campaign or a cause, and have stalled while trying to raise money, or have failed to raise what it will take to succeed? Have you and your team struggled for ideas on how to get the capital necessary to move forward? Have you made more phone calls and knocked on more doors than you care to remember, and still didn't meet your goal? If that's the case, then add this book to your repertoire of strategies and plans. It is a must-have. When you've read the book, you'll know what to do and how to do it. You'll know where to go and when to go there. You'll know who to talk to and what to say.

Michael Bassoff and Steve Chandler individually have outstanding experience, education, and abilities in terms of establishing relationships and fundraising. Combined, they are an unbeatable team. They are a first actually - they joined forces to create a strategy that really works. Their approach has people asking you how much money you need rather than you asking them. It significantly reduces those "out of your comfort zone" problems you encounter when asking for donations.

I have an entire career in public service, having served nearly 30 years in law enforcement, and retired as a Chief of Police. As an administrator it was my responsibility to prepare the department's annual budget request - essentially ask for new dollars every year. Having read this book, I wish I'd had it as I stood before the City Council every year. Now, however, I am in the initial stages of campaigning for elected office in the county where I live. Now, I do have their book, and I do have a new strategy for raising the necessary dollars to succeed. I want to say thank you to these fine authors for "RelationShift: Revolutionary Fundraising." They've written a clear and easy to understand book, one that every person involved in any cause needs to get and read. I hope these fine men collaborate on other works. If they do, I'll be reading them. Well done.

It's got to be the best book yet written on fundraising. The SHIFT they're talking about is the SHIFT that changes a life of scraping and struggling into a virtual heaven of support. Beneath the simplicity and drama of this book is the most sophisticated relationship science I've ever seen outlined, with plenty of specific examples to back it up. A true precision structure for the ultimate networking skill.

Bassoff and Chandler outline twenty dangerous myths that make up the belief systems of most fundraisers today. The book calls for a shift to a relationship building focus to replace the "scientific" approaches featured in the old fund raising books.

For over thirty years I have been associated with non-profit organizations, church and para church ministries in professional and lay capacities. I have read books, and articles, and spent hours in board and committee meetings. After reading "Relation Shift" I am taking a new look at giving and receiving and am ready to make the relation shift in fund raising.

The book is refreshing, enlightening, and highly motivating. Each chapter is filled with stories, examples, and illustrations for building relationships with your donors. The authors provide twenty positive reality shift statements and seven steps on the rope ladder to success to help you make the change, to break free of the twenty traditional, self defeating myths of fund raising.

I was especially challenged by the reality shift suggested in lieu of myth number ten.

Myth: "You don't have enough staff to raise the money your organization needs."

Reality Shift: "The number of people you have is not as big a priority as the depth of the relationships you yourself create."

Steve Chandler known for his books and seminars on relationship selling is one of America's most resourceful and successful fundraisers. Co-author, Michael Bassoff, nationally known in the field of health science development, as president of the TGen Foundation has been responsible for raising millions of dollars in gifts for research. These men are well qualified to write this revolutionary fundraising paradigm shift.

This book should be required reading for every non-profit officer, director, and staff member. "Relation Shift" is a proven approach for building new relationships that lead to having all the money you will need for your cause.

This wonderful book was underlined and highlighted so many times I couldn't read it anymore.....I had to start fresh and buy a new one. Of all the books on fund raising I've ever read, including MegaGifts, this book is the one that really shows you how to do it, and how to change yourself and your whole approach so that you can attract major gifts. When I gave this book out at a staff retreat, my people had read it by the second day and wanted to devote the third and final day to just this book. Our major gifts now account for more than 2/3 of our revenue, and our days are spent building relationships instead of fund raising. Our annual goal was passed in six months after that retreat! This book returns the joy to fund raising because it teaches you how to communicate with donors and donor prospects in a way that both parties enjoy and look forward to.

Quite a bit of emphasis on how fundraising works in the UK versus the US. Has some good suggestions that are relevant in the US. Very conversational tone and quite inspiring for a fundraising book. How relevant this is to the content of the CFRE exam, I don't know.

[NB: Get the 2002 revised edition] We should all listen to Ken Burnett and what he has to say. He has listened hard for years: to donors; people stricken with and striving against hardship; professionals in the office and the people working boots-on-ground, and he knows whereof he speaks. The subject of Relationship Fundraising: A Donor Based Approach to the Business of Raising Money is fundraising, but its ideas are applicable to corporate governance, public relations, customer satisfaction, social work, politics, parenting, marketing... It is a guide to more effectively relating to and understanding our place in a Humane world. It is both "how-to" and "why we should" - clearly illustrating, in a refreshingly personal style, the good idea it is to consider the perspective of our clients: the Contributors who give so much to our lives.
Rather than duplicate the other reviews that list the chapter details of this work, I simply want to encourage you to go ahead, risk the purchase of this and Ken's "The ZEN of Fundraising"The Zen of Fundraising: 89 Timeless Ideas to Strengthen and Develop Your Donor Relationships. If you have a heart and a brain, you will benefit significantly. And as you practice living with Ken's thoughts as a companion, the World will be a better place.
Yes, he's that good.
GregRobin Smith.

I found this book to be honest about fundraising, motivating and with great ideas and experience to further the business of fundraising

Considered a hit in the 1990s with Europeans, the audience for which this book was written. That was when Europeans knew little about true philanthropy and nothing about major donor relations. They were mostly wedded to direct mail and low-end funders. The author was a significant force in lower-end donor direct mail fundraising. Thus, little was ever of true significance for US and Canadian professionals. Considering the total absence of discussion of the phenomenal advances made with online communications linked to CRMs and participatory online membership activities for nonprofits, which are developing real relationships between nonprofits and their constituents, I doubt the value of this rather quaintly old fashioned book.

I thought this was a wonderful book. It includes 14 chapters and a glossary. Although I'm not sure the glossary added to the book. I don't view the book to be a complete treatise on nonprofit fundraising, but the author says he did not expect it to be. There is no coverage of special events, grant proposals, volunteers, or local fundraising activities. What this book talks about, and does it well, is nonprofits and their development arms need to approach donors with mutual consideration, thoughtfulness, and appreciation.

The world has gotten competitive. And nonprofit fundraising exists in an environment where technology and aggressive marketing tactics are the norm in how to do business. This book points out that technology and aggressive marketing have the potential to undermine the trust and confidence that are so important to effective fundraising. Fundraisers who understand that fundraising is about "building relationships" will not be obsessed with fundraising techniques and formulas. Instead, they will merely practice the art of fundraising that is all about building relationships.

This book was first written in the early 1990s and made a substantial contribution to the UK fundraising community's library of tomes on how to practice fundraising. It presents a basic approach to fundraising that is time tested and works. Now, in the 21st century, the author has updated his book by incorporating his answers to questions he has received about the first edition, and by adding some new thoughts he has on the subject. The material covered in this book is important; everyone involved in fundraising for nonprofits should understand what is covered in this book and take that understanding with them when they do their work as fundraisers.

I would have liked the book better if there had been one more chapter included. The author is critical of technology and aggressive marketing tactics. But he doesn't provide his view as to how technology and marketing tactics should be used specifically. I think the book would benefit with a chapter that would cover some of these specifics. In my humble opinion, technology and marketing tactics are still very important and critical to fundraising success. It's just how they can be used so donors are trusting of nonprofits that could have been better explained.

This book was an easy read. Each chapter is followed by a summary called "action points." And I liked this feature. I also liked very much the summary of the book provided at page xxii of the book's Preface. At the end of the book is a lengthy bibliography. Many good books are included in that list, and the reader will probably want to search some of them out for further reading. 5 stars!

This book was interesting. It was very good at describing the differences between Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter Discover. These two companies merged and with the merger, like many before it, the combination did not make a successful chemistry. They had two heir apparent leaders to choose to become CEO. This books talks about wrong choice of CEO Phil Purcell for this new merged company. I enjoyed this book as it described the family-like atmosphere on the Morgan Stanley side and how when "outside" leadership determined to lead, and Phil Purcell stacked the board with his connections and "yes" people and the whole atmosphere changed for the worse. The book covers the long time retired Morgan Stanley leaders (G8) toppling this board and CEO, to put back the better choice of John Mack for Morgan Stanley. It was a very exciting book to read all the way to the end.

A great review of the history and culture of Morgan Stanley and how a merger with Dean Witter nearly destroyed the company. The history speaks for itself so the author focuses on the merger. As blue blooded as a firm can be, Morgan Stanley finds itself being run by the Chairman of Dean Witter, a retail brokerage operation. The manager, Purcell, doesn't even live in NY but rather commutes from Chicago. But, what can you do when he has stuffed the board with his friends?

Unfortunately, firms such as Morgan Stanley do not own massive producing assets. Their assets are their culture and the employees who walk in and out of the door each day. The culture quickly disintegrates and top level employees start walking out the door to not return. But who will lead the coup? Former managers step back into the mix with first a private campaign but then a very public campaign generating bad press in soap opera like drama.

Ultimately, this drama plays out and order is restored. But an interesting loss to the firm who has reappeared is Vikram Pandit, the current President of Citicorp. He is considered so talented that Citi paid a massive amount of money to buy his fund and roll him in to Citi. With the current credit crisis it's still early to tell if this has been a good hire but with his CFO leaving today in a power struggle it's not looking great.

Overall, a very good, detailed financial book.

This book is an entertaining read that provides a good recap of Morgan Stanley's history up until the Dean Witter merger. The book then goes in great depth of the cultural effects of the merger and details all the events post-merger very well.

This is a very concise historical review of a merger that involves two cultures that tried to combine choosing the wrong an inexperienced leader to make it work, Fortunately, the more astute retired individuals came to the rescue and in time the combination should work. Only time will tell.

Well written, and engrossing.
Very clear presentation of the issues involved and makes a convincing case that "the mutineers" were right, and Purcell had to be removed as CEO.

Dave Fry writes about the essential approaches of global macro long/short and aggressive growth strategies in constructing and building your personal hedge fund using ETFs -- one that can take advantage of both bullish and bearish conditions in today's market environment.

Good section on the resources and tools for the novice trader who wants to become more active and market-street savvy.

Chapter 10's discussion on the use of both technical and fundamental approaches, as well as trend following, to achieve the alpha that most investors seek is particularly relevant. Anything exposed to a market has a behavior because of the human element driving the market entity, and TA facilitates in understanding that behavior. Ignoring it is careless.

I highly recommend this book.

Further, his annotated charts and commentary on his Dave's Daily ETF Blog is extremely valuable. I've been following it now for the last two years and he has been right on the money.

His blog is a must read.

I have been a subscriber to Mr. Fry's ETF Digest newsletter for the past 4 years. His insight and commentary have been extremely helpful in guiding me, along with his subscribers, on how to maneuver thru this volatile market minefield. One needs to be nimble and open and those who wish to protect their long-term purchasing power cannot afford to park funds exclusively in CDs and money markets anymore.

Mr. Fry's book provides its readers an education and understanding of the world of ETFs. Highly recommended. Those who understand volatility, market breadth data, and other related subjects and who can combine that information with a fundamental + technical approach have a much greater chance of success than those who ignore market sentiment.

[Regrettably, the lowest mark given by one reviewer is entirely undeserved and marred by an elitist viewpoint. A disservice at best.]

The author's book and blog must be read in tandem. Principal protection must become the primary focus in order to preserve capital to fight another day.

I am an avid fan of Mr. Fry's amusing Dave's Daily Blogs especially his excellent technical chart analyses. True to his style, this book is easy-to-read (conversational), easy-to-understand yet has a wide range of learning tools so that the reader develops practical skills that may be used immediately.

Chapter 13's Tool and Resources is an entire chapter in finding technical resources and market information links you can use to get started.

Highly recommended. This is a good choice of book.

It has useful nuggets of information for the novice investor as well as some concepts that I believe every professional investor/financial advisor should be aware of in this volatile one world market. The author offers short-term or long-term approaches and methodologies to using ETFs in the construction of your own portfolio. Very helpful and he presented it in a straightforward manner that was easy to read and understand. Not one of those authors that "talks down" to the reader and tries to impress you with their self-inflated and more often these days, highly-conflicted opinions.

Definitely worth a spot on the shelf if you are inclined to read investment books!

As a private investor and manager for several family offices in the US and overseas, I became a subscriber to Mr. Fry's ETF Digest newsletter back in 1993 by default because initially, even though exchange traded funds were starting to gain popularity as trading vehicles, certainly the brokerage community wasn't ready for ETFs --even till this day. Our financial advisors were earning high commission rates then, and preferred to sell single stocks to their clients instead of something that offered broad diversification in one trade.

That was the start of my ETF education.

Mr. Fry's newsletter and blog have since provided me with the tools and knowledge to be well-positioned to take advantage of trading opportunities presented by today's volatile fast-moving market conditions. Quite simply, a big time bear market is something to be dealt with and not run away from.

His book is a recommended read. I have purchased several, kept one for myself and gave the the rest as gifts to my "Johnnie-come-lately" colleagues who are just now discovering the world of etfs.

The book goes into the history and the mechanics of buying and selling these funds and the different types of ETF portfolio construction strategies and allocations given your experience level and trading style. Even with a good grasp on fundamental trends, there is a lot of technically-based trading in ETF's which he explains in several chapters that's easy to understand and follow. The author shares a lot of his personal market experience with Wall Street especially having created and managed several of his own hedge funds back in the 1980's. Of practical interest to me is the topic of leveraged and unleveraged issues and its issuing providers since these are a regular allocation segment in our current portfolio holdings. The decision is whether to go long, short or levered in one direction or another.

Mr. Fry continues to educate his subscribers and book readers successfully without the BIAS and double-speak that you find with so many other investment book authors and financial bloggers out there.

Finally, there is no substitute for becoming a knowledgeable investor and ultimately a profitable one given the government manipulation of the markets because in the end, no one is going to save you.

In The Cyclist, Berberian connected love, sex, food, poetry and terrorism. An intriguing combination, kind of like an awkward diamond--maybe a little off-putting at first, but easier to look at over time.

With Das Kapital, Berberian's second book, possibly (but maybe not, considering the publishing industry nowadays--I only question this because the work is nowhere near as tight as the first book), Berberian takes the lyrical writing of The Cyclist down a notch (or three) and instead of presenting the collision of the personal and political, Berberian attacks the economic and fatalist. The intellectual bend here is even more apparent with the occasional footnotes that, for the most part, explain what seems to make sense by itself in the text (or presumes a reader's unwillingness to look things up), and of course the presentation of Wayne, a trader in failure and market crashes rather than gains. Making out well in the ruin of a tree-cutting firm, he entwines himself into the life of the Corsican, who is also entangled with Alix, a Mersailles resident who also happens to be an email correspondent (and cyberlover) of Wayne's.

In his depiction, Berberian presents Wayne as a hardcore trader who is also a hardcore reader and culturalist, echoing far too closely to DeLillo works like Cosmopolis and Americana, maybe even a hint of Falling Man, but Berberian is nowhere near prepared to take a DeLillo plunge and explore the intricacies and counterproductive pulls of the subject matter and its metaphors, but Berberian is instead limited to the superficial play of capitalism and Marxism, love and passion, etc. My earlier suggestion that this may not be Berberian's second work, but maybe an earlier work picked up with the success of The Cyclist is a mere assumption, but overall the writing here didn't seem as tight as in the debut novel. Berberian obviously wants to be a writer of importance, addressing some of the issues of today, but he does so with little sense of the past or the history of a culture--rather, Berberian wants to play with what we have, which is an admirable trait, but begs too much comparison to DeLillo to really make this work stand wisely on its own.

If and when Berberian's next book comes out, I will no doubt snatch it up and give it a thorough read, for he has good stuff going on in here, but this book doesn't seem to come together by the end to make all of my efforts to read this so necessary.

The title of the novel is a direct play on the Marx/Engels non-fiction analysis on capitalism and its critical applications in society and on the laboring man. Berberian, who has written for the NY & LA Times, as well as for The Financial Times, knows his way around global markets and hedge fund traders, which he exploits to the fullest here. The action takes place from Manhattan's Wall Street to Marseille's mean streets, revolving around three main players: trader Wayne, architecture student Alix, and the mysterious Corsican. Global economies, terrorism and e-mail connects the three players, cocooned in a literary style that is at once cold and calculating while managing to also be very lyrical and haunting. It reminded me of a book from the capitalistic 80s that was never written (something that McInerney or Ellis would have written if they weren't so solipsistic) and had tones of narrative structure and tenseness that Alex Garland achieved in the wonderful "The Tesseract." Ultimately, all of the pieces don't quite come together in the way the author intends, and I was left a little hollower when I finished than when I began... but the writing is tremendous, the juxtaposition between poetic language and stock-trading terminology a near-to-masterful feat. I was never really invested in the characters, yet I followed the author's lead regardless, and let the stellar writing carry me through to the story's conclusion.

You should read this book if only for its uncanny alignment with the seemingly unpredictable, frenzied behavior of the financial markets in the past two weeks. Not even the VIX index could foreshadow as accurately as this novel did. How I wish Wayne (or Berberian) would manage my portfolio!

If Viken Berberian had not been such a fine novelist he could easily be a food critic, an architect, a market analyst, an art impresario, a POET ... Aware of most of my contemporaries (me included) suffering of the attention deficit disorder I tried to make the list as short as possible but others might find more applications for this multifaceted artist who at each turn reveals yet another dimension to the story that has an uninhibited flowing quality and whose expertise in the depicted diverse fields is that of marked vastness. It is a novel of manifold intricacies; the obvious ones are: shedding new light on Marx's masterpiece as well as on one of the phenomena of flourishing at Wall Street, along with `ecstasies' promised and fulfilled by French love angulations commingled with the wafting aroma of delicacies, structural details of architectural wonders until a fateful slip sends hearts crumbling (mine too). It would not have been true Berberian if human multiplicity, the rules and games, our feeble balance with the nature, the evil and the divine were not contextual constituents to be gleaned. The world is known to shudder and move on but readers will be awestruck. A brilliant following to his debut THE CYCLIST.

When will the comparisons stop? Das Kapital bears no comparison to Coelho or for that matter to DeLillo as the Los Angeles Times asserts, nor to Palachniuk (the San Francisco Chronicle.) Berberian's writing does not owe a debt to anyone. Yet for all its originality, the Corsican eco-terrorist remains somewhat sketchy. I came away wanting to know more about him, and Berberian is as parsimonious as ever with his words, so that you have to think about the silences between them, which gives the Corsican a mysterious, larger than life quality, as if he is living and breathing outside the pages of the book.

There is something immediate and prescient in Berberian's writing (I read the book during august's high market volatility when the S&P plunged, then bounced back.) For all its ironic and psuedo-scientific references, the triumph of the book is that it somehow stays very human, and Wayne and Alix stay with you, with just a few strokes. The book is not about 'fate' as one reader suggested; it's more about the impact of the improbable told in the manic-hyperbolic voice of our times. A great read, an almost black swan.

Mrs. Thatcher's memoirs of her decade-plus as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom are a very illuminating look at the 1980s, which were perhaps the most critical decade for Britain - and the rest of the Western world - since the Second World War. This is a massive, 800-plus page tome. But if you're interested in recent British history, or in the 1980s or the late Cold War, this book will reward your time and effort. Mrs. Thatcher may have been controversial - loved by many and hated by nearly as many - but one thing you can't accuse her of is failure to lead.

All of the important events of her tenure as PM are covered. Some of it is tedious - such as minute details about tax policies, for example. (Though these do, however, illustrate Mrs. Thatcher's impressive ability to understand the complexities of important issues.) But the wonderful thing about this book is that it's organized simultaneously chronologically and topically, which means you can skip over parts you're not interested in and go ahead to something else. (I admit I did this more than once.)

I particularly liked the parts dealing with the Falkland Islands War and those dealing with the Cold War. In the case of the former, I've read several military accounts of the conflict, but Mrs. Thatcher's detailed chronicling of the diplomatic aspects added greatly to my understanding of it. It was amazing how much the US, in the form of Secretary of State Al Haig, meddled in it to try to achieve "compromise," despite the fact that Argentina was clearly the aggressor.

The parts on the last phases of the Cold War were the strongest parts of the book. It's neat to get an insider's account of all the personalities and the diplomatic wrangling. Mrs. Thatcher was the Churchill of her time - she was instrumental in using real leadership skills to help hold together an alliance against aggressive dictatorships. The combination of her leadership with that of Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and Mikhail Gorbachev - the first Soviet leader who seemed to genuinely have good intentions, despite his continuing belief in communism - was a major factor in bringing about the end of the Cold War. I believe that as time goes by, Mrs. Thatcher will only be more vindicated, both for her contributions to the West's Cold War victory, and for starting the process of revitalizing Britain. (A former professor of mine who specialized in modern Britain and was - of course - a dedicated left-winger always gave Mrs. Thatcher a lot of credit for making some tough decisions that had positive long-term effects on the British economy; in fact, my professor even said that the prosperity Britain enjoyed in the `90s probably had more to do with Thatcher than with Blair. Coming from a leftist, that's saying something!)

Yes, this book is biased and one-sided; Mrs. Thatcher, atypically for a European leader, speaks (and writes) in a very straightforward, tell-it-like-it-is, here's-what-I-think-and-why-I'm-right fashion. (She almost seems like an American, with a habit like that!) But remember, these are memoirs. Memoirs, especially by former political leaders, are ALWAYS biased; they're not meant to be objective. Instead, they're meant to be one person's account, one person's case. If you keep that in mind, this is a very good book - huge and dense, perhaps, but worth the effort if the subject matter interests you.

Hillary Clinton has mentioned that she went blond after reading Thatcher's autobiography.
Why did Thatcher go blond?

Thatcher's books don't list blond, bleach or hair in the index.
I wish more books were in digital form.
thanks.

Athena was the ancient Greek Goddess of war, wisdom, and strategy and is a common Jungian archetype. Lady Thatcher was a living breathing embodiment of Athena and well deserved her iron lady nickname. Britain must be doing something right because they had Churchill and Thatcher as Prime Ministers in the same century just three decades apart. Churchill was the bulldog who refused to say uncle to Germany. Thatcher was a conviction politician (an even rarer breed in 2005) ... who gave the defiance to communism. The Downing Street Years are her personal testamony of her courage to bring Britain out of near bankruptcy, her strength to crush the socialist unions, and the stealth to hold to her vision. In a world where too many leaders spend 90 percent of their time worrying what other people think, Thatcher had a steely spine and never bent to win some fluffy popularity contest. The prequel "The Path to Power" is an equally fascinating personal memoir of a life designed out of unbelievable confidence.

Thatcher entered Oxford at 17 on full scholarship despite opposition from her Headmaster. Teenage Maggie challenged the latin exam, crammed three years of study into four months, and aced her scholarship to read analytical chemistry at university. If you want your daughter to manifest her leadership, dsetiny, and persevere according to an inner compass, Margaret Thatcher is one of those mentors whose actions truly are larger than her words.

Having had the privilege to hear Lady Thatcher speak in person during Unviersity, her ability to move the room, only sharpened after her exited 10 Downing Street for the final time. Ronald Reagan and Thatcher's warm friendship sealed the melting of the iron curtain. It took iron to melt iron. Lady Thatcher is one special leadership, intellectually powerful and able to translate and apply her brilliance for enduring political currency. Her legacy is unlike any other female leader in today's climate. Only Senator Clinton might share a similar legacy whilst not quite sharing Thatcher's policies. If Thatcher was two decades younger I would lobby her to cross the pond and take over the leadership of this (Canada) other Commonwealth country. After four decades of socialism ... we need it!

I can't help but like Margaret Thatcher, even though much of what she stood for abrades my own values and sense of what is right and wrong. If for nothing else than her iron-hard, Churchillian stance against the IRA in the 1980's---thus in the face of no British pullout from Northern Ireland sparing the Republic in the south from dealing with the fighting in Ulster---she rates all right in my eyes. She rose to power in her own party in a time when even in matriarchal Great Britain women were not supposed to be able to make it to the top. She also orchestrated the defeat of the entrenched if unpopular Labour Party in the 1970's by taking the minds and souls of her countrymen back to more glorious times of Empire. If there is any doubt that so many parallels can be drawn between her and her contemporary US counterpart Ronald Reagan, then consider how expertly she used one-liners and power slogans in her own campaigns and political battles. ("Labour Is Not Working" a popular banner of the late-70's is probably the best and most clever tool her party employed.)

In this memoir of the Downing Street years, Thatcher does only one thing wrong in my view and that's how she drifts too often into self-congratulation. I mean, that's the only way I can say it. Instead of sticking to facts and letting society and history be her jury, she appears perfectly content to do it herself. If "humility is truth" maybe in a way her take on herself is a virtue, I don't know, but to me, it came off as a slight faux pas.

The Prime Minister a reader meets in these topic-by-topic discussions of events germane to her lengthy time in office (she outlasted two US Presidents and nearly a third) is a capable, tough, self-confident personage who was probably the best and most fitting person to lead her nation at that moment.

"The Downing Street Years" is an interesting, informative, enlightening and fascinating account of Margaret Thatcher as the Prime Minister of Great Britain for 11 years. Lady Thatcher was clearly a brilliant politician with a sharp intellect who has left an enduring legacy and indelible mark in British and world politics. Readers can get an insight on how she made certain decisions.

My political views are very different from hers but I greatly admire her achievements for Britain. She had the courage, perseverance and decisiveness to stand up for her beliefs and not just to please some people. Her rise to power in a male dominated society and Conservative Party is nothing short of remarkable. Things to her were in clear black or white, no grey areas, which generated either intense loyalty or deep seated dislike of the lady. She was truly an "Iron Lady".

In her memoirs, the reader will learn how she dealt with various significant events during her tenure in office such as the Falklands War, the USSR, the Miners Strike, and the privatization of nationalized industries, her encounters and opinions on various world leaders as well as how she won three elections (1979, 1983 and 1987). Her close friendship with Ronald Reagan played a significant role in the collapse of the USSR. She also reveals the challenges she often encountered in politics including betrayals and dealing with government officials steeped in bureaucracy.

This is excellent reading for executives and politicians of all political persuasions.

Author Christina Lamb, foreign correspondent for London's Times, was on assignment in Zambia when she stumbled on a rich abandoned house deep in the bush: a house of forty rooms, rose gardens, and even a clock tower. Lamb's discovery of a chest crammed with thousands of letters, and journals, resulted in The Africa House : The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream, an intriguing biographical sketch of English gentleman Stewart Gore Browne and his African dream. THE AFRICA HOUSE first appeared in the UK: this edition updates history to include the next generation of Browne's descendants, who are trying to rescue the decaying wonder of his former estate.

If this had been a novel, publishers would reject it as implausible. It astounds me that I had not heard of Stewart Gore-Brown while growing up in Zambia. He comes across as a fascinating, complex person, whose life story boggles the mind.

Ms Lamb is a pleasure to read. From the very 1st page, I was already in love with Shiwa House and the mysterious Lake of the Royal Crocodiles. Ive never imagined such a magical place could exist!!! Gore Brown's love for Africa, its lands and peoples, is clearly evident, but I found his sometimes patronizing attitude annoying: he despaired that his servants would never appreciate opera like the white man etc. In spite of this, I highly recommend this to everyone ... not just architects and travellers. Some day I must see Shiwa Ngandu for myself!!!

Christina Lamb writes like one possessed, and her latest book takes us deep into the inner life of one of nature's gentlemen, the 20th century adventurer and baronet Sir Stewart Gore Browne, who died in 1967. Gore Browne led an exciting life, yet like the man portrayed in Werner Herzog's film FITZCARRALDO, who tried to bring garnd opera to a little town on the wrong side of a Peruvian mountain, his obsessions are hard to separate from his derangement. In the case of Fitzcarraldo, he attempted to building a Western-style opera house in the jungles of Peru; Gore Browne had similar dreams of building an old fahsioned country manor a la Walter Scott's Waverley novels in the middle of what was then Rhodesia. In both cases everythinghad to be imported for thousands of miles--in Gore-Browne's case that included a wife. And what a wife! It seems that he only married her because he had once been in love with her mother--surely a strange story, and one that you don't hear that much of any more. You'd have to turn to the magnificent Snopes trilogy (by William Faulkner) to find this quasi-incestuous story told so delicately and with such perception.

Christina Lamb did a lot of homework before writing this book, even going to the tumbledown mansion where, as she writes, she would pull a book from the library shelves and it would crumble in her hands (due to Rhodesian humidity and the family's neglect of the old estate). Her descriptions of going to this haunted mansion are almost as romantic as the first pages of REBECCA by Daphne Du Maurier ("Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again") and understanding Gore Browne's character in the light of British romantic novels will help us understand this odd old duffer, a man who championed the cause of black freedom and yet kept a cast of servant as though they were slaves.

The bad thing about the book is Lamb's reliance on cliches and the fact that her writing resembles a Harlequin romance of the 1960s. There is little or no attempt to understand the politics that shaped Gore Browne's career. It is all about the inner man.

The descriptions and pictures of the English manor house set in Africa were interesting, but what I found fascinating was the complex character of Stewart Gore-Browne. He clearly loved the beauty of the land of Africa and its people, yet he was continually frustrated and angered by both. He treated his workers extremely well, loaned them money, helped with education, yet he also beat them.

Gore-Browne was ahead of his time in understanding that the white man should and could not be the rulers of Africa, that the governments should be run by the native people. He spent much of his life trying to achieve that goal. As others have said, it is a wonder that his name is not well known. Christina Lamb shone light on a story that should be told.

As a mother who has two children that have suffered from teenage depression, this book is a true breath of fresh air. Koplewicz sheds light to the distiction between regular behavior and clinical depression in an entertaining and informative way that I have not experienced after personally researching the topic for five years.

Thank you Dr. Koplewicz.

Koplewics has long been a leading advocate of psychiatric drugs for kids. In a June 17, 1999 story for Salon.com he said, "I actually think we're not medicating kids enough." This book is his attempt to get more kids on mind-altering drugs.

It is simply astonishing how Koplewics ignores the mountains of evidence in his own book that childhood problems have non-biological causes (relationships, life events, cultural factors) and real physical causes (e.g., hormones) and instead pushes pills - without offering a shred of evidence that these kids have bad brains. Of course, in this regard he displays a common trait of psychiatrists - the dismissal of the obvious in favor of the hypothetical and untestable.

Just so no kid misses his or her pharmocological treat, there are the multitude of different types of depression followed by the all encompassing caveat: "none of this is etched in stone." In other words, don't be discouraged if your kid doesn't meet all the criteria. We've got a diagnosis for everyone. (One is reminded of the statement in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV)(xxii): "In DSM-IV, there is not assumption that each category of mental disorder is a completely discrete entity with absolute boundaries dividing it from other mental disorders or from no mental disorder." Imagine a real doctor saying diabetes is not a distinct entity with boundaries dividing it from cancer, an infection or complete health.)

There are the unquestioned and unexamined platitudes: "adolesence is demoralizing almost by definition." Understandable feelings are redefined as "symptoms" of illness. A fear of the future (we're all so confident of the future, aren't we?) becomes "Generalized Anxiety Disorder." Fears of the family well-being (imagine a kid being concerned about that!) become "Separation Anxiety Disorder."

Koplewics writes, "It's the duration of the symptoms that tell if a teenager has crossed the line into depression." Says who? Psychiatrist Nancy Andreasen, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry, has written (Science, vol. 275,14 March 97), "thresholds based upon duration ... are boundaries of convenience ... not boundaries with any inherent biological meaning."

Koplewics attitude towards children is often patronizing. One girl's description of a horrible childhood is described by Koplewics as "the product of the drama of adolescence."

Questionable "facts" and outright untruth abound in the book. According to Koplewics, the newer antidepressants (SSRIs) "have fewer side-effects" and "have always been found to be more effective than placebos." Not so. In his 1999 textbook, The Fundamentals of Clinical Neuropsychiatry, Dr. Michael Alan Taylor writes, "It is a mistake to think that one class of drug is `safer' or has `fewer' side effects .... Taylor specifically cites claims about the SSRIs

A July, 2002 analysis by George Washington University's Thomas Moore of 47 studies used by the FDA in approving six antidepressants found that in over half the studies, the drugs were no better than placebo. The overall slight benefit antidepressants had over placebo were found to be "not meaningful for people in clinical settings."

Koplewics ignores the side-effects of drugs and the withdrawal effects. Failed treatment is excused because, of course, one never recovers from psychiatric "illness." Typical is this statement: "That Jesse [treated with drugs as an adolescent] has depression as an adult is not a surprise."

Ho-hum. Failed treatment is all part of a days work.

*More Than Moody* is an interesting and very readable book that should be very helpful to parents who want to understand the warning signs of depression in their teen or college-age kids. Depression is discouragingly common today among young people, and all too often parents--especially those with with ambitious, successful kids--refuse to admit their child might have a problem. This denial is understandable, but it often has disasterous consequences. Dr. Kopelwicz does a good job of showing that severe depression can strike any young person, often for no apparent reason, and that avoiding the problem is not an option.

This book's major failing is that it grossly oversimplifies the complexity of depression, and makes treating it look much easier than it often is. Dr. Koplewicz seems to believe--almost as an article of faith--that making a depressed teen well is simply a matter of getting them to take their Prozac, or possibly some other SSRI. This was his approach to Jesse, a high achieving college student disabled by persistent depression.

Jesse's case study was extremely interesting--particularly in showing the ways his successful parents dealt with their gifted son's increasingly severe decline. Jesse's story also revealed a number of problems with Dr. Koplewicz treatment philosophy.

Jesse apparently did better when he was on Prozac, but quit taking it repeatedly. Dr. Koplewicz blames the length and severity of Jesse's depressive episodes on his noncompliance, and his failure to see himself as having a diseased brain that needed drugs to function effectively. Koplewicz laments that it took Jesse six years to graduate from Duke because he wouldn't accept reality and take his pills, and takes some pleasure in reporting that at 30 and on Paxil, Jesse understands that he will need to be take his pills for life. At this point Jesse was supporting himself in the computer industry, but was having trouble with his girlfriend because of his difficulty connecting with her emotionally. (Incidently, emotional flatness [and male sexual dysfunction] is a common side effect of SSRI's like Prozac and Paxil, but Koplewicz declines to share this with the reader.)

Koplewicz doesn't seem to realize that for an adolescent attempting to find his or her own identity, taking a drug that alters personality could cause a frightening confusion over who he or she really was. By effectively forcing Jesse to take Prozac (under threat of hospitalization or expulsion), Koplewicz turned a simple treatment option into a terrifying assault on an immature young man's still-uncertain sense of self. A wiser psychiatrist would have ensured that Jesse had regular psychotherapy to help him with his developmental issues, and would have emphasized that medication was a tool for relieving symptoms, and that if Jesse had problems with one drug, they could try another, or see how therapy alone would work. Koplewicz's overconfidence in the SSRI's and denial of their side effects repeatedly turns his interventions with teenagers into power struggles, in which he becomes [in his young patients' minds] a hostile force determined to brand them defective and drug them into obedience.

Koplewicz simply doesn't seem to know much about how teenagers think. If adolescents feel that their feelings and concerns are being taken seriously, and that they have a choice of treatment options, they are much more likely to be compliant. Therapy is pretty much essential for teen depression--not only can it resolve many cases without medication--it can give a teen a way to work out their feelings and conflicts about using medication, making compliance much more likely.

In general, the reader should know that the SSRI's like Prozac do not work for some people and may have intolerable side effects, like feelings of unreality, emotional numbness, and for males, impotence. Many other drugs are available, though, and a good doctor will be aggressive in finding one (or a combination) that is effective and has an acceptable side-effect profile. If your teen is seriously depressed make sure (in addition to therapy) he or she is seeing a doctor who is comfortable prescribing the older antidepressants (TCA's and MAOI's). They remain the most effective antidepressants known, and can be lifesavers for those who don't respond to the modern drugs.

This is a terrific book with tons of great information.
It's not a silly pop psychology book that advocates medicating all teens...

Why are so many people against diagnosing and medicating adolescent depression. Only a parent with a child suffering from depression could understand the horror of watching your teen self-destruct before your eyes and not know what is happening.

The book helped me understand how important diagnosis and medication is for a depressed teen. The book also validates what a parent experiences when you live with an adolescent who has unrecognized, unmediated depression. To withhold treatment and medication for a Depressed teenager would be irresponsible parenting.

This book is a real page turner! I could not put it down. As a teenager I suffered from severe bouts of depression and I wish a book like this was available for my parents to read. Now as a parent of an adolescent who suffers from depression I can empathize with the teenagers, their parents and the stories in this book. More than Moody is not filled with a lot of psycho babble, but rather with easy to read and comprehend stories and situations we can all relate to and the various treatments available. Thank you Dr. Koplewicz for giving my family the thing we've been searching for - Thank you for giving us hope.

I have a huge library of Grant Seeking and Managing books. I purchased this one recently and was amazed...it's the BEST! I have since bought all of Cheryl Carter New and Jame Aaron Quick's Grant books. I now use them for every grant I put together. When I discuss the Grant world with the Non-Profits and Governments I work with I use the material found in their books almost exclusively. If you are new to the Grant world these are the first books you should purchase.

In recently conducted grant workshops for teachers this guide was most helpful.For future workshops-- for educators applying for grants in their field, another title might be more appropriate and targeted to needs of educators. Educators usually have an RFP in hand and this book is helpful to find funding ....which isn't always the educator's focus at that moment.

I am an intermediate grantseeker who hoped to find a book that would assist me in further honing my writing. This book did just that. It is concise yet substantial and provided me with a fresh approach that will be useful for years to come. The language is intelligent (the authors steer clear of trite, 'inspirational' language), clear, and honest. I suggest this book for anyone interested in the grantseeking process.

There are excellent guidelines in this book. If you purchase it, you will be getting good information except for one very important area which appears to be completely overlooked. In today's grant market, you must know how to design good outcome measures. The concepts of goals and objectives come into play here (and are addressed in the book), but the buzz words are "outcome measures". I wish the authors had included a chapter or two on designing outcomes measures for both project oriented grants and for general operating grants (which are by far the harder to design).

The information here is good. It is easy to understand and, from my experience as a full time grant writer, right on the mark. Just know you will have to attend a workshop or find another place to learn about outcome measures.

Grantseeker's Toolkit is a must read for novice as well as experienced grantwriters. Cheryl Carter New and James Aaron Quick have laid out, in easy to follow steps, the complete grantwriting process. They have generously shared their own specific techniques that begins with formulating ideas for fundable projects to the actual writing of grants and ultimately to finding appropriate funders. It is a realistic and throrough approach that teaches readers how to prepare proposals that meet the requirements of funding sources. Grantseeker's Toolkit is divided into parts. Part I covers the designing of fundable projects that includes the development and refining of ideas, grantseeking strategies and designing and organizing the projects. Part II covers finding suitable funders for projects. This section explains federal, state, foundation and corporate funders and their general proposal requirements. Part III includes the development of the final project, explaining how to meet the grantors guidelines and the actual writing of proposals. Part IV takes readers through each step of writing proposals. The procedure teaches readers how to write problem statements, determine the operation of the project, laying out budgets and also shows readers how to prepare the final package for submission. Grantseeker's Toolkit provides an all inclusive method to follow for grant writing and thoroughly prepares readers for completing successful proposals I am certain purchasers of this book will be quite satisfied and will refer to it often when writing future proposals.