Strategy

This book taught me one thing I didn't know (finite differences -a lot less strain on me to find formulas and equations) and gave me challenging problems.

I borrowed this resource from another teacher during my student teaching as a math teacher. Now I am in my first year teaching full time and looking to buy my own copy--I don't know what to do without it! It is a great resource for problems for many age and ability levels. The problems are interesting, use a variety of well-established strategies, and make problem solving fun! A great book.

Six years ago I actually took Problem Solving from Ken Johnson, one of the authors, at Sierra College. Problem solving became a whole new and exciting recreation from then on. I would have to credit that miracle to the class's amazing teacher and the book he wrote. I have had hundreds of teachers in my life, and am a teacher myself, yet I have never met any teacher that was as gifted as Ken Johnson. His talent is clearly evident in his written work as well. (PS, how many people would it take to give this book 396 thumbs up?)

Mr. Silver, in his book "Raising Kids in an Age of Terror," confronts
issues
that are new to parents in the 21st Century. He has written a very
informative book on weapons of mass destruction and their consequences,
and
gives us an excellent insight to the political, social and religious
preludes to why we are now engaged in attempting to preserve our way of
life. I would highly recommend this book to all families.

Ray Derby...

Being somewhat secluded as a 'normal' U.S. citizen (at least hat's what I realize now), I needed to get a better background on why terrorism exists (and why they dislike the U.S. so much), the reality of the threat, and what I could consider doing if I want to take steps for my family. This book answered those key questions for me and gave me many additional resources that I can further explore on my own. The book does not take political sides - it just present the facts and the reality. The book also offers positive life-oriented advice that is always good to follow - with or without this threat of terrorism - but the advice hits home more because of the threat.

I've always taught my children that knowledge conquers fear.
if your child is afraid of spiders,
help him find out all about them, so he'll know which are harmless
and which are not. Knowledge helps children develop reasonable
fears that will guide, rather than paralyze them. This same
rule applies to understanding terrorists. We need to know all
we can about the terrorists in order to prepare ourselves for
the war and the possibility of terrorism.

As you are well aware, perpetrators of terrorism do not think like us. In
order to anticipate their actions, we need to understand them
from the inside out, the way an FBI profiler understands the
mental landscape of a sociopath.

We are fortunate that one concerned father took this to
task and turned his desire to protect his children and provide
answers to their fears into a valuable resource. In "Raising
Kids in an Age of Terror," author C. Brian Silver reveals how
terrorists think, why they hate us and how we can protect
ourselves from terrorism, while turning fears into knowledge.

In a clear and balanced way, Mr. Silver investigates why
we find ourselves in this conflict, the ways in which our country
has contributed to it, how vigilance can thwart future attacks
and how to live with the threat of terrorism. Although these
subjects provide food for adult minds, the underlying premise
of the book is how to relieve adult anxiety through understanding
and preparation, so the parent can help children cope with
the fear of living under the constant threat of terrorism. Silver devotes
an entire chapter to this subject.

In "Raising Kids in an Age of Terror," Silver does more than
investigate the problem and how it was created, he offers
solutions as to what we, as individuals and as a country, can
do to help resolve the situation. At the end of the book, there
is an appendix that offers a disaster planning guide, a checklist
and the supplies that you will need in case of a terrorist attack.

If you or your kids have been plagued by uncertainty or
anxiety since the terrorism of 9/11 or if you don't fully understand the
conflict, I urge you to read this book. You'll come away with
a perspective on terrorism that will allay your fears, help
your children cope with theirs and prepare you and your
family for the uncertainties ahead.

Willie Pietersen's Reinventing Strategy contains the basics of strategy, i.e., how to win, how to align the organization behind the chosen strategies, how to be sure that superior insights drive the strategic process. If that alone were his contribution, this book would be a significant contribution to the strategy literature.

But Pietersen goes much further than that. He shows us how, exactly, to develop these strategies, how he himself developed such strategies and what he learned about leadership in the process.

This book is about strategy, implementation and one man's journey as a leader and life-long learner. The result is an immensely human business book. The singular voice of the author comes through with clarity and humility. I know of no other business book that combines theory and practice with such a strongly personal view. Pietersen talks about the value of developing a leadership credo in his book. This book is, in essence, his own credo from a lifetime of leading and learning.

I am VP at a large consumer products company in Ohio and I found this book very insightful in the areas of creating strategy and leadership. I read a lot of business books and most are very slight in what they have to offer -- a few thoughts, old stories or worn out sayings. However, "Reinventing Strategy" is a real how-to-book and goes through running a successful business step-by-step. This book will definitely help my division be more profitable! In fact, I would love to go and take one of Prof. Pietersen's courses at Columbia University.

Willie Pietersen has managed to pull together what's really important to achieve breakthrough performance. He's done this by telling clearly and convincingly the lessons learned from his years as a chief executive, but explained them from his new role as a Professor of the Practice of Management at the Columbia Business School. I've had the personal pleasure of watching Pietersen in action with business leaders from around the world who have participated in Columbia's Executive Education programs. The overriding comment from these executives is "this guy makes sense and has shown we how to face up to the challenges to my business' survival." Reinventing Strategy: Using Strategic Learning to Create and Sustain Breakthrough Performance is the next best thing to the live program.

If you want to move from Strategy theory to action and have your business survive in the process, read this book.
William M. Klepper, Ph.D.
Academic Director, Executive Education
Columbia Business School

As a 35-year career elementary teacher, I was surprised how often I turned to this book for help and advice. I did have the extra advantage of receiving training from the author herself. But the book, standing alone, is so clear and concise, with classroom anecdotes and other examples to make its points, that it is an invaluable resource for new and career teachers both. I recommend it to both new teachers and their administrators, as a blueprint for success in the difficult area of classroom management and student discipline.

I have been a presenter for Classroom Management using Pat Belvel's materials for the past five years. Previously we had used a manual with mostly the overheads of the content. The wonderful aspect of this book is that it provides insights and adecdotes to which we can all relate. In this way, teachers can understand the strategies without extensive workshops. Although workshops with follow-up coaching is ideal. I recommend this book to new teachers as well as experienced. Within the workshop series, I have had new teachers comment about how they had never really thought about all of what goes into managing a classroom. Experienced teachers have expressed gratitude in reminding them of what works!

I am the co-author of this wonderful work and just want everyone to know that the paperback is exactly the same as the hardback, has an interesting, appealing cover design and costs much less.....This book is designed for veteran teachers and beginning teachers....Enjoy

This book covers investment techniques used by the Rich & Famous. "The Rich & Famous Money Book" is inspiring, motivating and educational.

Good book for anyone who wants to maximize their investment returns.

Reading how the celebs build their wealth is exciting and motivating. Sort of like a "Think and Grow Rich" for personal finance, Chatsky actually interviewed her subjects.

Dennis Rodman was inspiring - what a great comeback story.

If your goal is to build and hang on to wealth, this bookis a must read.

Personal finance expert Jean Chatzky managed to cajole several money-savvy celebrities into revealing their investment strategies. Finding out how people as diverse as Matt Lauer, Charles Schwab, and Ivana Trump build their nest eggs is illuminating -- and fun. And their experiences make for an easy-reading guide to investing. Jean's section on "rebounders" like Dennis Rodman, who lost a bundle and came back far wiser for it, will be valuable for anyone trying to climb out of debt.

I should give this book 5 full stars as it really is one of the best endgame book available. At our local chess club the Masters give lectures on Thursday nights. During their endgame series of lectures I was able to find every example they used in this book. The master's lecture concept was that rather than building up an opening repetiore, the beginning player would do better to build up an ending repetiore. By studying the endgame you learn how to attack and you learn the purpose of the middle game. And, since the end game occurs when you're usually in time trouble, the ability to play the endgame like a machine while your opponent must calculate every move is a great advantage.

However, I do have a few small gripes about this book.
1. I have found perhaps half a dozen endgames where I've come up with alternative lines where a win is not forced. Chernev does give variations on how to win many variations, but there are times when it appears that the opponent is not playing the best possible line.

2. Endgames often center around a theme or technique. Chernev gives you several endgames which demonstrate a technique, but he never specifically says "This position contains these key points which will lead us to use this particular technique". It is left up to the reader to figure out what the actual techniques used in the examples are. More importantly, it's left up to the reader to determine what factors require which techniques.

3. Occasionaly a term is used without explaination. For example: "1. K-B6 and the white king is said to have the opposition". But what is "opposition?" It is not explained. As in point #2 this is left for the reader to figure out. (By the way, there is an excellent description of Opposition in Jeremy Silman's book "How To Reassess Your Chess")

However, even with these faults, this is still one of the best endgame books available. Study the pawn endings until you can do them in your sleep, and then study the Rook endings. Then follow up with the rest of the book. This is the book you use to build up your "endgame repetiore".

This book is another great Chernev classic, at the affordable Dover price.

You are basically given a winning position and then Chernev outlines how to win with the position.

--It starts off with the basic endings, and then gets more complex as the book continues. I would recommend setting up the board and practicing these endings with your chess buddy. Your endings will improve tremendously.

Though it does have the ditraction of being written in descriptive notation (i.e. P-K4), this is compensated by the instruction given wonderful endgames, particularly for beginners. With sections on pawns and combined piece play, this is a wonderful beginning or compendium towards the study of the endgame.

I was pleasantly surprised with ' The Practice of Network Security: Deployment Strategies for Production Environments'. The book is a very good technical overview of the details of network security.

While it is technical in nature, it is not so technical as to turn off the average reader. This is a good resource for a manager that needs to understand a security technology, but who does not want to get bogged down in the technical minutia.

The book brings together all of the top-level security technologies and products needed to secure a corporate infrastructure.

The book covers a lot of ground in its 375 pages and is an excellent starting point for anyone needing a quick and effective introduction to network security.

This book is an excellent reference for anyone involved in the practice of network security. It's comprehensive coverage of a wide array of topics will present any network administrator, architect, or engineer with the information and tools necessary to build a secure, stable environment.

In my capacity as a sales engineer for a major hosting provider, I find myself turning to The Practice of Network Security frequently to validate design assumptions. It is written in terms even a beginner can comprehend, yet its information is invaluable to even the most experienced professional.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest, professional or otherwise, in building robust, secure networks.

I've read many tomes on the subject of security but they never really get into the details of what really matters, they only touch on the very basic ideas, or they are too detailed about one specific topic and fail to present what is in the real world. Finally Mr. Liska has written the text that brings it all together with an excellent marriage of theory and real world practice.

To start, Allan realizes that most network admins are faced with cost-cutting issues and are stuck dealing with management. Allan's dicussions on risk management, cost analysis, and how to "sell" the value of solid network security to the powers that be can be a real eye opener. Make your managers read this stuff. Read it to them yourself.

For the more techincal side, there are very solid in depth discussions on the important stuff like routing, switching, general (and spcific) firewall configuration, comparisons of user authentication approaches, VPN techniques from dial-in access to broadband, an excellent chapter dedicated to Wireless protocols and security, and so much more. Nothing is left out.

This book is a must have for any serious network or system administrator.

As a professor of Christian Education in a Seminary, I found this work from Dr. Hemphill very useful and required my students to read it for my course in Sunday school growth.

I would heartly recommend this book to pastors, Christian Educatin directors, deacons, laymen and other interested persons desiring real Christ-centered church growth.

A thorough and comprehensive look at small group work in the life of the local church. Dr. Hemphill argues that the Sunday School can be the church growth tool of the 21st century. He creatively links the three tasks of the Great Commission to the work of the Sunday School. This strategy has been successfully used by a large number of churches. This is an excellent book for all those who work in the small group ministry of the local church.

I did not read the book either. But I thought since the other guy just liked the title and felt that he should write a review that I would write one without even reading it. I like it.

The title is misleading; this book is NOT only for women. This book contains solid investment advice from someone who's "been there and done it", who has worked her way up from being a secretary to being a vice president and became a millionaire along the way. A lot of men can learn from her.

This is an excellent investment guide for beginning investors.
It teaches how to develop investment intuition and savvy.
There is a practical component in the advice which tells
the buyer/investor to beware (Caveat Emptor). The author cites
important investment vehicles; such as, the "Investor's Business
Daily" which points toward important trends in the market.
The book stresses the need to look at multiple criteria for
investing to include:
o growth stocks and industries
o capitalization
o revenue growth rates
o price/earnings ratios
o the management team
o treatment of employees
o underwriter representation
o financial analyst track records

The work discusses all-important mutual fund fee structures,
the benefits and pitfalls of derivatives and a whole host of
investments too numerous to list here.

Numerous risks are cited including systematic market risk,
inflation, interest rate fluctuations and consumer credit.
The book is well worth the price for a beginning investor.

Thankyou Marlene! This book was JUST what I needed.. I am not a complete dummy to the world of finance, but really needed a good landscape lesson on financial investing. This book was EXCELLENT for the quasi-novice. Provided a great baseline and advice for next step learning. The tone of the book was easy reading & enjoyable.. not too financially intimidating at all. The book covered every inch of investing. Including investing in horses! Not something I would do, but great cocktail conversation. I agree with an earlier reviewer- this book is NOT just for women.

Season of Fire proves to be a well written and well researched book on Confederacy's last effort to do something meaningful by trying to attacked Washington DC. Led by General Jubal Early, the Confederate forces came pretty close to success and the authors were correct in saying that even if the occupation of Union capitol would only be momentary, the political and morale cost would be devastating for the north. While hindsight make this campaign almost a sideshow, the book revealed how close it really was to being a main event.

This book is must reading for anyone interested in Civil War history or who lives in the areas between Monocacy Junction and Washington, D. C. where this action occurred. The book provides a detailed synopsis of the action and is loaded with details of the local history, much of which remains intact for anyone interested in retracing the course of Early's raid.

Mr. Judge does history a great justice by writing the history of the Invasion of Washington from its inception. He covers the early phase from a confederate defeat at Cloyds Mountain in Pulaski County just south of Blacksburg (VA. Tech), takes you to Lynchburg and Early's arrival and the subsequent journey to Washington D.C. Gives the reader the complete field of study of the campaign. Wonderful description of future Baltimore Police Chief Harry Gilmore who was a colorful confederate calavary leader as well as a vivid description of the hidden valley of the Shennodoah, Fort Valley.