contrarian Books

Mark has achieved a first - a compelling, real and usable view of public relations measurement and the communications planning implications that can result from its applications. Being someone who has been dedicated to public relations measurement for eight years, I have read any and everything on the topic, and Mark's book is by far the best. Mark's book stands out because of the real world examples he illustrates - while Mark understands the theory behind public relations measurement, he shows it in action. There is no other text where this is done as well, and there are few who have the ability to so effectively demonstrate the real world business applications of public relations measurement.

As a long-time PR professional and M.A. graduate in mass communication, I've read a number of publications highlighting best practices. Mark Weiner's book, Unleashing the Power of PR: A Contrarian's Guide to Marketing and Communication (J-B International Association of Business Communicators), is by far one of the industry's most powerfully informative.

Public relations professionals tend to be measurement agnostic -- an unfortunate occurrence for practitioners who answer to P&L-savvy organizational leaders. Weiner's book addresses this issue, detailing practical analysis techniques that both improve the impact of communication programs, and reliably measure the effects of those programs.

For example, Chapter 1 details research, initiated by AT&T, which measured the interaction and effect of public relations within the marketing mix. The study revealed a surprising finding: public relations generated as many new customers as mass-market advertising -- at a fraction of the cost. Further, positive news about AT&T enhanced the effects of other marketing mix components. Such findings offer practitioners a powerful argument when competing for finite budgeting dollars.

In summary, I highly recommend this book for practitioners committed to powerful PR. For communication professionals, the book is a literary workhorse.

I have been in marketing communications and public relations for years, and shortly will have a doctoral degree in public relations, and I have to say, I have never read a more concise and valuable book for public relations. There are things in this book that years in public relations did not teach me, and every public relations professional, whether executive or new practitioner, should read this book.

Too many practitioners get into public relations and think it's about writing press releases, getting media coverage, and planning publicity. In this book, Mark Weiner goes beyond the alleged "secrets" of good PR to provide the kind of holistic strategic perspective of public relations that most organizations overlook. And yet, his information is extremely practical and accessible to even the most neophyte practitioner.

Mark Weiner is one of the most talented and intelligent public relations executives in the world, and this book is testament to his simple genius.

This is the only professional business book I have used in my university teaching...and it's the first book I recommend for anyone interested in succeeding in public relations.

Mark Weiner's book is a "must read" for PR, marketing and any communications professional working today. It's chock full of great examples as well as great advice. Mark's research background gives him a unique vantage point -- one we can all learn from. And, his experiences represent real life, not an academic approach. I highly recommend it and keep it on my desk as a resource.

Mark Weiner brings a refreshing and much needed viewpoint to the public relations field with his in-depth book about the need to measure results and the value it creates. He provides the public relations professional with insights to help place him or her directly on the playing field as a strategic business advisor to corporate leadership. Mr. Weiner shows how PR professionals can be "change agents" by identifying mutually agreed upon objectives, measuring the results of PR efforts to accomplish those objectives and then making recommendations to improve overall corporate performance.

As Mr. Weiner points out, proving value can be a great challenge, but he shares several steps to make it a relatively simple undertaking. PR professionals will benefit from Mr. Weiner's perspective on how PR measurement demonstrates proof of performance and can result in bigger budgets to work with, earned respect for the profession and opportunities for personal advancement.

This book is a valuable resource as Mr. Weiner provides cost-effective tips on measurement strategies based on three types of "PR-ROI" which should create an "aha" moment for many PR professionals. In addition to covering the unintentional and intentional mistakes that can occur during the measurement process, Mr. Weiner has a wealth of information for the PR professional who wants to become a strategic thinker and have a place at the corporate decision making table.

Those words pop off the back cover to entice prospective readers to open the book. Combine that phrase with the subtitle about contrarian ways to improve leadership effectiveness and you begin to gain an idea of what this book is like. Frankly, I wasn't sure if I'd get a laugh a page or serious stuff. Turns out I got both!

Rinke, an experienced executive leader, management consultant, professional speaker, and author presents alternatives to the old saws that populate so many leadership books. Listen to some of the chapter headings: Knowledge is Not Power. Don't Manage People. Don't Be Proud. Don't Have People Work for You. Don't Focus on the Bottom Line. Don't Satisfy Customers. Are you getting the idea that you might be in for an interesting ride?

Each chapter lightly pokes fun at the common belief, though not as obviously as I expected it would. Readers will be surprised at the strong treatment of leadership skills, illustrated with stories that bring them to life. The lessons are presented in a way that holds interest and teaches practicality.

Laugh? This book includes something unique; I have not seen this done before. In each chapter, just before the summary, there is a brief section titled "Smile." Rinke shares a bit of humor with the reader to keep the book light and to demonstrate that leadership should be fun, not laborious.

If you've spent any time in leadership positions, you'll identify with the proverbial advice...and can probably create your own thinking about what Rinke teaches us. You'll spin a paragraph or two before you wonder where to go next. Rinke will be there to take you further down the path to success.

As a manager of about 30 people, I found this book extremely helpful. Some of the things I new before, but didn't really know how to apply them. This is not just a bunch of theory - it's real world.

This is a great book to jog your thinking and uncake your brain so you don't keep doing what you have been doing.

Rinke's sage advice will cause you to think a bit differently and try a few new tricks that will give you an edge in leading and managing your organization.

I particularly liked chapter 10, Don't Have People Work for You and chapter 13, Trust All the People All the Time. These chapters provide great insights and ideas for leading and managing a diverse workforce with plenty of Generation X and Millenium Group associates.

This is the kind of book that does not require great study or a huge reading investment, but provides great reading enjoyment and a big payoff in sound advice.

Dr. Rinke has used a fun approach to outline the necessary skills to improve leadership skills. By taking the backdoor approach he shows you exactly what to do. The book is full of wisdom, examples, techniques and humor. It should be required reading for any manager or leader.

Wolf has contributed much to the fields of management and leadership over many years; this book adds tremendously to that body of knowledge.

"Don't Oil" is a common sense book that is an easy read, but is chock full of info spread over 20 engaging chapters that can be easily consumed.

A must buy for your library.

I loved this book, but I also love attending this church. Anyone who has attended North Coast Church (where Larry Osborne and Chris Brown are pastors) are familiar with the nuggets contained in these pages. It's like having a year's worth of sermon notes without having to organize all those little yellow sheets.
For those who don't attend North Coast... what are you waiting for! Seriously though, Larry's writing style is like his preaching style: He really makes an effort to meet people where they are at while keeping a firm grasp on letting them know who God is and how His Word reveals who He is. Great stuff.

This book was recommended to me by a speaker who visited our church for a seminar. Dr. David Frisbie spoke here at a single parenting seminar; after one of the sessions a whole conversation broke out about the "emerging church" and what that term meant.

Dr. Frisbie recommended that all of us read "Contrarian's Guide" as a helpful way of seeing spiritual development and spiritual growth with new eyes. Many of us decided to buy the book that day; I went home and ordered it on-line immediately.

Want to know God better? Worn out by trying? Convinced you'll never be one of those "spiritual people" in the world? WOW, this is a great book. I am so glad that someone recommended it to me; now I am also recommending it to you.

How to grow up --- written in an entirely fresh, new way.

Lauren Hodge
Apple Valley, California
I also highly recommend: Raising Great Kids on Your Own: A Guide and Companion for Every Single Parent

This is an excellent book. I highly recommend it. It's best read and studied in a study group with strong Christian Biblical discipline, values and leadership. It makes for provocative discussion and personal growth as Christians today.

This book is just superb. Each chapter challenges some widely taken-for-granted aspect or assumption of contemporary spirituality. Most of the chapters are convincing, and open one's eyes in important ways. Most re-examine some key Bible passage and show us that we have been missing something important in reading it. Other chapters are weaker but still useful.

The key purpose of the book, however, is not to help us understand scripture better, or simply to critique contemporary spirituality, but rather to help us overcome the numerous ways in which religion has become an obstacle to achieving a right relationship with God.

In this respect, Osborne emulates the way in which Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, and he likewise helps us to separate the important from the incidental.

This is a book I will periodically read again. I'm sure I will need to be reminded again and again of these essential truths.

Lead pastor of North Coast Church in northern San Diego County Larry Osborne presents Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God: Spirituality for the Rest of Us, an examination of spirituality and The Big Questions for anyone jaded by or distrustful of the dogma of established religions. Chapters explore such themes as "What does it mean to know God?", "How does spiritual growth happen?" or "What does God want?". Contrarian's Guide to Knowing God does not purport to have all the answers, but makes an extraordinarily strong case for the answers it does provide. "Great relationships don't just happen. They take hard work and significant mid-course corrections to stay healthy over the long haul. A relationship with God is no different. While God never needs to grow, makes a mistake, never misunderstands, and never chooses the selfish route, we do. And whenever we get off course, it usually takes some significant changes on our part to get the relationship back on track." An inspirational testimony of "common-sense" Christian spirituality drawing from real-world wisdom as well as the study of scripture.

When was the last time you read a book that you could not put down? Reading is one of the great pleasures of life. It was a special pleasure to read "I KNOW YOU KNOW I'M OUT HERE! A Contrarian's Call for Respectful Communications" by Marceau O'Neill. I was unable to put the book down until I had read it completely. This book is a gold mine regarding good manners, follow-up rules, and common courtesy, telling them what we want, speaking up and speaking out. The book should be required reading for everyone in the United States.

On page 50, O'Neill notes, "Used prudently, information technology can be a remarkably productive tool, but we must never permit this use of it to replace our humanity." The author has shared her knowledge with all of us in this wonderful book on how we can enhance our interaction with each other to create a better society for all human beings.

A Gentle Reminder...

The book `I Know You Know I'm Out Here' is a must read! Everyone who reads it will benefit from the words of wisdom and gentle reminders contained within its pages. This book reminds you how it should be done to put "civility" back into your daily correspondence and reap the rewards of respect, trust, and dependability. A must read for daily communication especially for students and anyone working in the business world of today.

The author clarifies many simple courtesies we were taught as children by our parents, teachers, elders and siblings. It seems a lot of us have gotten lazy with the simplicities of simple respect or just don't care; too busy and such to be civil. This essay/book will remind us all how one should respond to simple communications, to say the least. It is a must have tool for teachers and students alike to learn or re-learn, in some cases, the basics for our world of communications, simple or complex. This author sums it up simply and can bring many rewards to one that pays attention.

This book has brought to mind those basics of common courtesy and a mind jiggling of long lost communication skills. At first glance you may feel that the author is rebuking you, and as you continue soaking up each page and balancing it to your behavior, you see honest truth in it for us all. The value of such a book is endless and could well be used for primary education. It is well written and has a down to earth professional flare of its own.

This book is full of common sense, and reading it, I am reminded that many people in our daily lives don't have any! The author has touched on not only the good manners that our parents tried to instill, but also expands the manners to include current technology. If this book would be part of middle school and high school curriculum, we might just begin to see a change in our society. My applause to Marceau O'Neill! Well done.

Finally, a book that combines insightful analysis of markets with a unique perspective and often witty insights into the behavior of crowds. I found this book to be a most intelligent guides to the nature of markets. The book provides cogent and clear advice for the individual investor to profit in the markets. I have not read any other investment book that can compare to this one. In time, this book will achieve classic status (rivaling MacKay).

Hi. I am the author of "The Art of Contrarian Trading".

I want to let you know that I have set up a blog at: [...].

to help readers of my book develop their own contrarian trading skills.

On the blog you can watch me apply the contrarian approach to markets in real time. You will see that this book was written by someone who makes investment and trading decisions every day and by someone who practices what he preaches.

On the blog you will learn just what market positions I think the conservative and aggressive contrarian traders that are described in the book would have right now. I'll keep you up to date on the entries I put into my own media diary. After you read my book you will understand why keeping this diary up-to-date is the key to success for a contrarian trader. On the blog I will also identify for you the biggest investment crowds operating in markets today. My book explains why it is so important to avoid getting sucked into the emotional group-think of these investment crowds. This is the key to making sane investment choices and avoiding the bubbles and crashes which so affect the average investor.

My book is for the hard-headed investor who wants results, but who also wants to understand why a contrarian approach to markets is the only really effective method for achieving them. Read it and then join me and your fellow contrarians at

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Like a jackrabbit, at first I hopped in and out of the Index, not only delighted with its presence, but checking out some 'hidden history' omitted from my textbooks of yore -- growing-up-Oklahoma. Satiated somewhat, albeit lacking enough on the Tulsa Race Riots (1921) and recent Commission and the state's early Freedmen players, I delved into first and second-hand reports from the Green Corn Rebellion, introduced to me in the fifties by a bullet lodged in the skull of the Bailiff's head in Seminole County Courthouse.Then the hard facts (statistics and boom-bust psychology and oily reality)behind Oklahoma's hapless history of economic distress.
"Alternative Oklahoma" delivers at lots of levels: for the researcher looking for different voices and perspectives on the historical horizon or as Progressive filler for many of the 'black hole' left-overs from childhood, such as profiles of the heroines -- and activists -- and tons of censored material pushed to the back of the stacks by "Boomer, Sooner".

Startling quips and wry observations from a world-weary observer of the human condition. Bob has rescued wit from near extinction and used its power to skewer the absurdities of modern existence. A delightful read on many levels.

As a boy I grew up in a part of Sunderland called Southwick where terraced houses were only a short walk away from shipyards, a coal mine and local telephone factories. As a teenager I moved to a suburb called Penshaw where the skyline was dominated by a replica of a Doric temple and where terraced houses were only a short walk away from a mine spoil heap, the monument to the Lambton Worm and the country home of Lord Lambton himself.

These facts are very pertinent to this superb little book of articles by Matt Ridley. I have always been somewhat sceptical of just taking in what other people tell me and so I have had a terrible tendency of going out and finding out for myself. You cannot help but notice if you live in England how things change so quickly. Our towns expanded, the countryside shrank, the fields are dominated by that disgustingly yellow oil seed rape and the number of butterflies has dramatically falled. Environmentalists tell us that the end is nigh and cite all sorts of scary things to make their case but there is never the concrete proof that any reasonably educated person might wish to see.

Elsewhere on the Amazon boards readers will notice my revieve of the Skeptical Environmentalist. This review has brought me some notoriety and some, ahem shall we say unfriendly correspondance. However the point remains that there is some truth in the rumor that environmental organisations can only be considered successful if they attract funds and the only way they can do this is to scare the general populations sufficiently to attract their notice.

Matt Ridley does a tremendous service in being a qualified scientific journalist who can cut through the scare tactics to put forward a sensible view on some of this stuff and make a common sense criticism which is generally accesssible.

In this wonderful little green book a collection of his published articles in Britain's Telegraph newspaper are collected and wherein he 'debunks' to coin the American terminology a considerable number of what can only be termed environmental myths.

His comments are well written, brief and to the point as journalists points should be and which bring a new sense of information to what is normally considered a serious scientific subject beyond the ken of us lesser mortals.

In his inimitable style he brings an insider's point of view backed up by his own experience of living in Northumberland which must surely rank as one of the most beautiful relatively unspoilt areas of the British Isles.

I heartily commend this book to everyone and in particular to anyone who knows anything about the famous cattle who reside in the Northumbria area.

There is something quite touching about this collection of columns. It could be this: they call to mind a gentler, more whimsical time when civility and community mattered. Guy Friddell is a gentleman, now in his 80s, who for decades has written columns for the Virginian Pilot. With a whismy that seems a special talent of Virginians, he writes about Jackie Kennedy, Memorial day, Christmas, the beauty of nature, and even his own travails, often laced with self mocking humor. To read him is to feel at home, in front of a warm fire, chatting with a man who was -- is -- comfortable with his place in the world. His easy grace will contrast with the meanness that has come to define too much of our culture. This book will offer a needed respite to those wearied by a world too cynical by half.

i looked long and hard to find this book and it was worth the time and effort. it is simply written, as many investment books are not, and it segues into the different areas a value/contrarian is concerned about. most books dwell on a particular aspect of investing-low p/e, value, bankruptcy etc. to the exclusion of the others. this book brings all these areas together and discusses them cohesively in a meaningful manner. the author does much of the leg work: ie. providing a bankruptcy prediction model by a noted professor. to look back at the list of bankrupt companies of the 80's was an eye opener to how lucrative this type of investing could be. an excellent, clear, meaningful book. i recommend it highly!