Strategy

This is a must add to your leadership library! If you like authors such as Donald T. Phillips-"Lincoln On Leadership" or Axelrod- "Elizabeth I CEO" then you will enjoy this book. The big plus is that it is about a contemporary woman leader. The author adds how you can take some of the leadership qualities of Eleanor and apply it to your own life situations. She gives examples from the lives of women in your community and mine who are working to make a difference each day. This book speaks to the vision of one woman who helped to make a difference in lives of women today. Things that we take for granted were hard fought for ideals championed by this woman. It is hard to put this book down once you get started and will apply to each woman who works to make the diffence in the lives of the family, the community and the world. Read It! You'll enjoy it!

At 46, I found the book both affirming and inspiring. Ms. Gerber shows, through the life of the great ER, how painful life experiences can enhance both self awareness and empathy, and even more amazingly, how suffering a betrayal can be liberating. Her discussion on the special leadership skills developed through motherhood make clear the public interest in cultivating women leaders. The book is both a very accesible, good read and an effective step-by-step leadership guide.

After reading about Colin Powel's style, Bush's War and Guiliani's book on Leadership, it was a nice break to read about one of history's greatest first ladies--Eleanor Roosevelt. It also served as a checkpoint for myself to have a peek at the early 20th century and the beginnings of the UN in light of recent events. This book was written by Robin Gerber who is a senior scholar at the Academy of Leadership which is part of the University of Maryland. Not only a biography of Eleanor, it's also a how-to on leadership and includes side information about how other women implement Eleanor's style in their lives today.
Key Takeaways:
Give Voice to Your Leadership--ER did not start out a brilliant and inspiring public speaker, she had to practice at it. She eventually managed to be an effective communicator through both speech and her writing in columns. She held press conferences at the White House for women reporters only--she identified an audience she could reach and began speaking to them.
Embrace Risk--despite many folks including herself being unsure of her and her role, at Truman's request ER took on a role within the formation of the UN and went on to be a leading proponant of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. She took this on shortly after the death of FDR--a time when she could have retired. Instead she started on a second life.
Never Stop Learning--this keeps coming up in the lives of leaders--they have an interest in the world and learning about it. ER traveled extensively in the latter part of her life and took a good deal of interest in learning about the world and the various cultures enhabiting it. She traveled throughout the middle east and India. She also used her columns, and speeches as a tool to educate others.

I found this non-fiction book to be as captivating a read - and frankly, much better written - than many of the fictional legal thrillers and courtroom dramas filling the bookstore shelves these days. Add to that the fact that this book offers great insight into our criminal justice system and the import role of the criminal defense attorney in it, and you have a book that is, in my opinion, a must-read.

All that being said, I think that perhaps what impressed me most about this book is what is not in it - celebrity name dropping. Black is clearly set apart from some of his colleagues in the high profile defense lawyer set by his choices of cases to include in this book. Having represented a number of "household names" in cases which received considerable media attention, Black writes in his book about none of them, choosing instead cases in which he represented people outside of the public eye and who came from a variety of walks of life. He should be commended for this and his book is rendered all the more impactful by the lack of the "tabloid" element.

For anyone who is interested in the way criminal trials really work -- not the Ally McBeal version, or the O.J. "Dream Team" version -- this is a great book. As a public defender I can tell you that Mr. Black's book is the real deal -- although he practices at a level that most of us can only aspire to. Mr. Black, like most great trial lawyers, is an excellent story-teller. The prose is simple, direct and entertaining. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

For those interested in reading the four to three vote Florida Supreme Court opinions regarding two more death sentenced persons whose innocence is an authentic issue, please go to www.flcourts.org, then go to "Opinions and Rules", then chose the correct year and scroll down to the following two cases:

Roy Swafford: April 18, 2002 Case No. 92.173

Peter Ventura: May 24, 2001 Case No. 93.839

These two cases are findable under "Court Orders: Case Disposition Orders" and "Briefs in Other Cases" sections of the "Press Page":

Roy Swafford: March 26, 2004 Case Nos. 03.931 and 03.1153

Great book of pictures of Mirage, Visions, 5th Edition, Weatherlight & Portal. Helps alot with viewing the cards for collecting.

If you are currently collecting or playing Magic cards, I suggest buying this book if you dont have it NOW! It is filled w/ information, fully illustrated cards, interesting facts, playing tips, etc. Also, buy the Magic Encyclopedia Volume 1.

though i dont have this book my friends say its an excellent book and I've seen it for my self and it is definatly a must buy

Your strategic planning must incorporate the people who work for you, says author Edward L. Gubman in a book that gets high marks for its easy, bullet-point organization, but scores in the middle of the curve in terms of originality. Grubman preaches that you must create a strategic alliance between your company’s mission and competencies and the people who work there. Then, he describes how to motivate and involve people, and finally how to assess their performance. He uses research examples and starts each chapter with a bullet-point summary of key information. The book includes questions to ask yourself, and many useful charts and summary lists. However, the theoretical discussion of how to engage and reward employees seems oddly dry and analytical for a how-to guide on how to motivate and excite people. The areas of job matching, motivation, and assessment have been covered in many other books, but we... recommend Gubman’s authoritative approach to these topics.

A well thought through book written by a consultant with a vast amount of varied experience. The illustrative brief case studies were most helpful in understanding the thoughts, concepts, ideas and strategies. In a global economy where talent is an increasingly scarce resource, HR practitioners will find the book a very valuable resource to craft, adapt, adjust or align their practices to be more organisation and employee friendly. Mr Gubman strategic perspective of people in terms of organisational development and growth of people is indeed a very commendable effort and very insightful. The "Creating the Talent Solution" at the end of each chapter should provoke readers to critically look at their own organisation with a fresh perspective. It will help you draw a better road map in your talent search!

THE TALENT SOLUTION is the first book to lead the best companies into the new millenium. Gubman explains how the merger and acquisition strategy of the 80's; and the cost cutting (generally people) tactics of the 90's now needs another change.

Both older strategies need to align a company's talent with the development of their people, and what they love to do, with their eagerness to serve shareholders and increase the value of their investment. What a simple idea! But most senior executives aren't prepared to address the harder job of developing talent...as incomprehensible as it seems, who's going to tackle this necessary task?

Some companies are already in the race that aknowlede today's shortage of talent. Most are not. When we look back on the first years of the coming decade, it will likely be known as the decade of Organizational Effectiveness...in which the companies that attained extraordinary results...accomplished their goals by focusing their talent.

THE TALENT SOLUTION is a must read for any manager, and all CEO's. I would very much like Gubman's team to work with any company I plan to invest in and I hope that his book becomes widely read, but most importantly, I hope managers will have the insight to implement his ideas.

Very detailed source for information on mergers, acquisitions and buyouts. The question and answer format is a great way to identify the information that you need. This book really is a handbook; I wouldn't encourage reading it cover to cover, but to use it as more of a reference book. The footnotes at the end of each chapter are useful to finding more in depth information, and the book gives a generous number of websites which you can consult.

After scanning several books on the subject, this one looked like the most useful and usable of the batch. The Art of M&A provides solid, detailed and precise information for people in companies making acquisitions. It is a good introduction to the topic and long term resource for specifics.

This is a fantastic reference tome for anyone involved with M&A. As a private equity Associate, I have found this book to be invaluable on multiple levels as both a reference guide for securities law, as well as for procedural issues such as sample formats for term sheets, DD check lists, etc.

Also, while it is a dense read, I think this would be invaluable for people just entering either Investment Banking or Private Equity to read as an introduction to the rules, regulations and procedures surrounding mergers/acquisitions.

Apparently, the authors also wrote a book "Secrets of King and Pawn Endings". Now, by their own assertion, King and Pawn endings are the sine qua non of endgame expertise. So having said, you would expect the authors to offer an adequate number of such critical endings in the larger work "Fundamental Chess Endings", here under review. At least, if you are considering buying this book with the same purpose and expectation as I had when ordering it you will; and certainly the advertising seems to promise it. Alas friends, you're in for a disappointment: because the material on this topic is altogether inadequate to create an understanding of "the king and pawn foundations of endgame play". You will either have to locate a copy of Averbakh's work on King and Pawn Endings or pay Mr. Mueller and co-author more money for the material in THEIR king and pawn book, if you wish to study these positions. So, the question I would ask you is: if you pay thirty dollars for a purportedly exhaustive reference work on the end game, and then find yourself immediately looking for supplements, is it worth the money the authors ask for it? I am not at this point prepared to evaluate the other segments of the book, as I found Averbakh, and am working on that. However, on the basis of what I feel is a rip off, I cannot offer it any more than three stars.

With quickplay finishes requiring most chess games to be finished in one sitting, having proper knowledge of the endgame is even more important. Adjournments for extensive analysis are thus abolished, requiring the player to have this crucial endgame knowledge at his (or her) fingertips. This book will help you attain that goal.

Please read what Grandmaster Lubosh Kavalek had to say (November 25, 2002 Washington Post chess column)

"An endgame book does not often win a prestigious award, but "Fundamental Chess Endings" by Karsten Muller and Frank Lamprecht and issued by Gambit Publications in London, could not have been overlooked by the judges of the British Chess Federation's 2002 Book of the Year Award. The clearly written volume honored by the BCF was conceived as a textbook, divided into 12 chapters with exercises. It has been meticulously checked by computer programs, correcting mistakes and some myths of the past. I wish the book had been around in the '60s, '70s or '80s when players could have learned endgames by adjourning them and consulting such a manual."

This book will certainly make a huge impact in your play. It is absolutely great to be able to trade pieces in the midlegame when you know that the ensuing endgame is won for you and your opponent does the same because he does not see this! It is also very valuable to know certain theoretically drawn positions in order to avoid them when you have the edge, or seek them when you don't.

This book has all that plus a LOT more, you will find every "commonly" reached endgame and a clear explanation (with plenty of variations) on the right way to play it. You should study this book no matter what your level of play is ad you will get a clear edge against your opponents that have not done so!

This book seems to be very complete and the author highly qualified in war technology, strategy, logistics... For that one is easily convinced by almost all his affirmations but one: it's about the tanks: he says them are impressive war machines, but you must don't trust very much on his power: these steel monsters have demonstrated to be very vulnerable and his use are best when infantry have destroyed the main opposition, against residual resistence ¿¿??. Dunnigan trusts much more in war aircraft. I confess these paragraphs are astonishing for me after the Panzer campaigns, and today, in Middle East. As it were one must expect that also there this book must be read and serve for the ceasefire for once.

Background

1.'How To Make War' is as the title suggests is aimed to be 'a comprehensive guide to modern warfare for the post cold war era'. This, the third in the series of 'How To Make War' books written by the author James Dunnigan is a comprehensively revised edition published in 1995. The author has gone on to gain much acclaim through his later titles including the well-known 'How Not to Make War'.

2.After the end of the Cold War, the world has seen major upheavals in the politico-military arena. The emergence of the United States as the only superpower and recent events such as the Gulf War in 1991, have changed the threat perceptions of most countries and as a consequence military policies. This has invariably lead to a rethink in warfare methods and techniques, in addition to the continued advancement in terms of warfare technology. Dunnigan has written this revised edition of 'How To Make War' with special emphasis to the above changes in the post Cold War scenario.

The Book

3.The author begins by acquainting the reader with the universal 'principles of war'. The book is structured into four major sections, the first three being the obvious air, land and sea theatres. More importantly however, is Dunnigan's emphasis on the human factor involved in war, which has a section by itself devoted to it in Part Four of the book. In addition there are four other sections dealing with special weapons, numerical warfare, and transportation logistics. The final section is a summary and statistics of the weapons and armed forces of the time. The sections are interspersed with as many as 48 different charts and tables displaying a vast array of data, which help the reader in assimilating the text. The sections on Ground Combat, Air Operations and Naval Operations introduce and discuss the composition, roles, conditions, developments and future trends of their respective components. This helps the reader to understand and comprehend the facts presented subsequently.

4.In the part dealing with ground combat, the author has brought out the changing role of the infantry with the advance in technology. At the same time he clearly brings out it's indispensability with respect to occupation of enemy territory, which continues to be the final determinant of victory. Dunnigan also charts out the material developments in ground battle methods, by providing details of the armory of the major players of today. The tremendous development in artillery weapons is well documented and interesting, while the factual account of the same is fairly precise and informative. This section also has a chapter devoted to the increasing role of the paramilitary forces and reserves.

5.In the section on Air Operations, the author tries to substantiate his theory that the air force is primarily an information gathering service whose warfare role evolved to destroy the enemy air forces. He does dwell on it's emerging importance in softening of enemy targets for the infantry, while contending that this role is being taken up by air support divisions of the latter. He also elaborates at length on the air force's "simple missions" but complex "means". A separate discussion on Air Defence in the following chapter contains a wealth of information and statistics.

6.In the section dealing with the Navy, the author stresses the importance of control of commercial shipping lanes through naval might. The importance of technology upgrades for the US despite the indisputable superiority of its forces is dealt with at length. Submarine warfare and naval air operations are also discussed separately in different chapters.

7.The author has laid great emphasis on the human factors of war. He has dealt elaborately on the psychological, professional, motivational and leadership aspects of this major constituent of warfare. One cannot dispute his contention that "when it comes to fighting, warfare is not waged by numbers, but through the courage, determination, skill, and leadership of individuals. As a part of this section the author has included a brief discussion of the peacetime role and pressures on the armed forces.

8.The discussion on special weapons includes interesting details on electronic warfare and the opening up of space as the new dimension in warfare. The dangers of biological and chemical weapons and the tendency of Third World countries giving in to this low cost option is clearly brought out. The author also raises relevant questions about the viability of Nuclear Weapons and their relation to the conventional options. Dunnigan also raises important issues of economics and the logistics of war. The reader is given a concise picture of the quantum of mobilisaton of supplies and the related costs.

Comments

9.The book as a whole provides a fairly comprehensive picture of the world's weapons and armed forces. It also attempts to give an insight into the tactics employed. The information provided is interesting and educative without going into specifications of armaments and weapon systems. The author's credibility is enhanced by the fact that warfare developments and results of wars, have conformed to his predictions in earlier books. This book should not however be in any way mistaken for a book of reference akin to Jane's. It is more of an educative tool in the hands of a young officer who wishes to improve his understanding and comprehension of the various aspects of warfare.

10.At the same time the reader may be cautioned that the author's viewpoint is primarily based on information and intelligence derived from a majority of US sources. Some of the theories enunciated and assessments are based totally on US perceptions. Additionally the concepts enunciated in 1995, may require some revision in the fast changing world scenario. The length of the book and its text format (622 pages of fine print) does tend deter the prospective reader. However, the book provides the discerning reader (the service officer and the layman alike), an opportunity to expand his horizons, by enabling a fairly in depth insight into all the important aspects of warfare while increasing his knowledge on weapons and systems. 'How To Make War,' undoubtedly needs to be included in any Naval officers 'should read' list.

Many of us have seen the reports of military operations on CNN and we get a healthy dose of military oriented documentaries on some cable channels but for most of us the world of the military is an unknown realm. Even books that suppose to tell us the who, what, where, when, why, and most important how of military operations are often written using incomprehensible terminology. The fine work produced by this author clearly explains these terminologies and many of the inner workings of the military but does so without talking down to the reader. The traditional venues of combat air, land, and sea are discussed in detail but the book also includes specialized areas such as electronic warfare and space based activities. This book is a must for any aspiring arcmchair General or Admiral.

"Hunger Hill" starts by showing how the "book solution" fails to deal with a guerilla warfare, just as it did in Viet-Nam. The second half of the book deals with a return to sound basics, and the discarding of much of the foolishness fostered upon us by Field Manuals. I took many valuable lessons from this book to apply when I go to JRTC, or, God forbid, when we fight for real.

Bolger's techniques eleminate many ways we make the enemy's job easier, and make us far more effective in killing them. His well-defined focus on interacting with the local populace is reminiscent of Mao (remember, Mao won).

The book's most valuable lesson is the thinking process and analysis Bolger applies to the problems he encounters, and the way he evaluates his tools, techniques, and doctrine, keeping and modifying some, casting away others, and adopting new ideas where necessary. This book is required reading for all officers in my light infantry battalion. I see why.

The Battle for Hunger Hill should force the US Army Infantry School as well as the gurus at Ft Leavenworth to seriously consider re-writing current doctrine for light infantry units (especially with regard to Low Intensity Conflict and OOTW). The 1-327 Infantry proves again and again throughout the text that the "cookbook solution" (i.e. doctrine applied as dogma) is often the surest way to ensure one's own defeat. Rather, HOW to think instead of WHAT to think is the surest way to secure victory.

Any soldier or leader concerned with mission accomplishment and force protection through the artistic application of Maneuver Warfare (Auftragstaktik) simply MUST read this book. It is highly entertaining as well as informative. Indeed, any commander whose unit is scheduled for a rotation to JRTC should require every officer and NCO to read this book no later than twelve months out (thirty-six months out for RC units). You may go without it...but only at your own peril.

I am SSG Eric Bitzer I was there during this battle I was the Point Man for Bco 1/327inf when we hit the opfor the problem is not army doctrine but was in a decision that was made by the company commander of Bco 1/327 inf to stay on the objective after taking it instead of moving off the objective that all light units do. If we would have moved off the objective this battle would have been a total success. Remember that this book is from a Battialion commanders veiw not from a soldier that fought the battle Col. Bolger makes some great points and was also a great commander but the fault is not his it was with one of his company commanders.

Writing versatile C++ is serious business. Moreover, the added complexity of Win32, MFC and ATL make debugging a challenging task. Simple techniques such as use of TRACE() statements and Watch facilities alleviates minor problems. While there are several authoritative texts on C++ and VC++, the same cannot be said for debugging techniques. This book rounds out the library of serious VC++ developers nicely. It is an absolutely amazing text. It's scholarly yet approachable. Moreover, as someone with an extensive library (including C++ and Win32 etc.), I can attest that there is nonetheless "new" information presented to me that is quite useful. The beginning of the text addresses philosophical issues in helping prevent bugs. The next section gives great guidance in actually using the debug facilities of Visual Studio most thoroughly. The last section covers issues specific to COM and multithreading. This text has a wealth of useful information. There is a good introduction to the Intel instruction set and use of MAP files for postmortem debugging. (I wish there were a text of the same caliber that covers use of and debugging Intel's MMX.) This book will definitely help users (beginner or expert) achieve a higher plane(42).

The vast majority of recommendations are so simple, yet so effective. Even if you only read random sections of this book, it will be of immediate benefit. This book in conjunction with John Robbin's book (Debugging Applications) are invaluable in not just giving you tips on how to find bugs but much more importantly how to code defensively to reduce the chances of bugs occurring in the first place.

As the authors mention in the preface, they are not many original ideas in the book - but it is a good consolation of publicly available information. The book adds value by explaining when to use certain techniques and when to use others e.g. Chapter 5 -Using exceptions vs. return values.

Because the book is specifically geared to C++ programmers there are some fantastic macros. For instance _CoCreateServer which wraps CoCreateInstance but gives detailed error information if anything goes wrong. Chapter 9 - Debugging Memory was particularly useful. Being able to detect leaking memory in ATL components (just like MFC does) was worth the price of the book alone.

My only criticism is the use of the Arial font which makes the book a little getting used to seeing on the printed page.

I wish I had this book before - only discovered it recently. This book pays for itself within your first project. Surgical precision-like debugging. Wealth of information. I hope they are working on a sequel to this book for .Net development.

This is a very good guide in that it goes through details of how to get most golden bannanas and most metals. Yet it has falts. For example, the maps are no good do to the fact that there is no way to tell how to get from one place to another50. Also the other stratagy guide that someone else mentioned is a lot sturdier. I mean even if your as gentel as beep the pages will rip out of this stratagy guide. Finally in order to recieve a metal to let you fight K. Rool you have to beat this old fashion Donkey Kong arcade game twice. Though this guide mentions the game it dosen't explain how to beet level 3 of 4 well enough. Other than that it's a pretty good stratagy guide.

This book is GREAT. It is well organized and the maps are easy to read and very helpful. The maps show where every single banana, banana bunch coin, Banana Fairy, and Battle Arena is. It gives detailed desriptions for each golden banana and blueprint. It also covers the Mystery items and strategies for Kong Battles. One of the best things about this is that it is organized into easy-to-read sections: A 12 page section for each level (except the last), each divided into a title page, which displays the name of the level, the amount of Golden Bananas needed to enter, any Kongs that are rescued in that level, and the way to get to the lobby. The next 10 pages are 2-page sections for each Kong that explain where to find each Golden Banana, banana, and coin for each Kong. The last page shows a complete map of the whole level with locations of the banana fairies and the battle arena.

This is one of two strategy guides I used to play this delightful game. There are strengths and weaknesses in both. This guide is particularly helpful in guiding you step by step through each area to accomplish all of the goals and challenges. It is most helpful because it takes you through each area in an order that is the most efficient and the least confusing.

Initially, you have to acquire each Kong family member by rescuing them in a particular order and this guide takes you through those steps. Once you have acquired all of your characters, it later becomes necessary to use one Kong member before another or in a particular order. This guide gives the order they recommend and the reason why.

Of particular interest to me was the information regarding how to gain a third melon (your life meter in this game). Not being an experienced video gamer, I needed all the help and chances I could get. This information gave me hope that I could get that extra cushion (about a third into the game) so I would not have to keep replaying certain parts over and over again.

The maps were not as clear or helpful as they were in the other guide I used which was "Donkey Kong 64: Prima's Official Strategy Guide". (See my other review on it) For me, having the best of both of these books, greatly enhanced my game experience.