No comments about Take the Stairs: Leadership Lessons Learned From a Lifetime of Service with Auto- Owners Insurance Company.

No comments about Tax Facts Series Field Guide to Financial Planning 2008 (Tax Facts).

1 comments about Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation 5th Edition(Textbook Only).

1. This product came faster than originally predicted, which was a pleasant surprise. I am very happy with the quality of this book as well. Thanks

2 comments about Feel Smart About: Managing and Investing Your Money in Your 20s.

1. This is the best and most lucid investment guide I have read in many years. Wish I had read it when I was in my 20's. Now I'll have to catch up.



2. A must read for anyone looking for a clear guide to planning for retirement. The author's command of the underlying subject matter is evident, yet he is able to get to the main points succinctly. I will recommend this book to many friends and relatives.

2 comments about 2008 Thumbnail Media Planner.

1. Awesome! Thanks Ron. Just in time. I'm looking forward to buying other things from your store. I appreciate it. We just landed a major national media account with stores in 15 media markets, and for a small agency, data costs are just sky high. This is great.
   
   Margaret, Media Planning/Buying Service



2. I create full web marketing plans for my clients who want to break into the Internet via the web with a focus on search marketing and call-to-action oriented content. This little book takes note of several emerging Internet-based marketing trends.
   
   With insights and latest data on the full range of media, including TV, radio, internet (incl. rich media), outdoor and much more, plus Top 100 Markets, at-a-glance section organization, and a helpful glossary, this pocket-sized reference is a quick, lightweight companion on the way to the office, cab or flight. Take it to the hotel and review before the big client meeting. There are tons of ways to make the most of this handy tool. I've seen how it can make the difference when quick numbers and insights are what's needed to sketch out a media buying plan.

5 comments about The Unemotional Investor: Simple System for Beating the Market (Motley Fool Books).

1. The hard informational content of this book could be presented on a single sheet of 8-1/2 x 11 inch paper. Then again, I'd be delighted to pay [money] for it if it showed me how to pick stocks with a 40% annual return. I don't know about you but I have hard time remaining unemotional when promised a 40% return!

   Of course, the real question is: does it work? Well, I haven't risked any of my money trying it out. (Do you think I'm nuts?) But even the author admits his theory is based on only 10 years of data. Whoa! I'll be getting off the bus right here, thanks...

   (For what it's worth, the author seems like a nice guy who really believes in his baby, so I take no joy in one-starring his book. I hope he gets his 40%.)




2. If you have any of the Motley Fools investment books, then this book is a waste of time and money. Robert Sheard, a former Motley fool employee, basically just takes the Motley Fools investment systems and puts a new cover on it, and sells it as a new book. He even re-uses the same jokes. Don't waste your money.



3. If you're like me and don't have time to pore over the Wall Street Journal every morning or stay online 10 hours a day watching the stock trends, this book is for you. It gives a simple, easy to follow, and "unemotional" system for picking top performing stocks. If the market is doing well, you will too. If it isn't, he describes when to get out. I made money with this system at a time when many of my friends were losing money on their stock "hunches."



4. I had to skip the first few chapters 'cause he kept talking about his personal life and blah blah. I finally get through that and it starts off w/ Kindergarten level investing. I read through a few more chapters and then I had to let it go. Not for me but not necessarily a bad book.



5. This book takes as it's premise that you can beat the market. Efficient Market proponents will find it hilarious.

   This book is worth it's purchase price for a detailed analysis of variations on the Dogs of the Dow strategy.

   The section on growth investing is to the best of my knowledge complete hogwash, data mining at it's worst. But the DOD part I think provides some reasonable investment ideas.

No comments about Small Business in Paradise: Working for Yourself in a Place You Love.

No comments about Tax Accounting in Mergers and Acquisitions, 2008.

2 comments about Stock Market Primer.

1. Generally, the book is very simple for the beginner, yet very illustrative and complete: the perfect combination for a starter. It is great in helping the reader understand the mechanics of trading stocks. It is also great in illustrating the fundamentals of security analysis. The latter parts, however, highlight the writer's own philosophy in stock investing, and does not cover other equally successful strategies.




2. This is a no-nonsense guide to stock terminologies and concepts. Everything from reading the newspaper quotes, to analyzing companies to options and regular equities is covered. There are also detailed discussions of the author's personal picks and why they succeeded (or didn't, in a few cases). The book also makes it easy to understand the whole process that is going on behind the scenes, which is interesting.

   Highly recommended if you are just trying to learn about the stock market. One accidental strength of this book is that it's very old (many of the examples are from the 50s or 60s) and so it manages to get across the concepts without resorting to all the tech-stock hype that you get with modern information. This book really emphasizes the fundamentals which is great for a beginner.

2 comments about The New Project Management: Tools for an Age of Rapid Change, Complexity, and Other Business Realities (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series) (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series).

1. This second edition is a minor update to the original that was published in 1994. When the first edition was published business process reengineering was in vogue. Today we're still doing reengineering, but it goes by the moniker of "organizational change management". A rose by any other name; however, this book remains one of the only project management texts that stays focused on reengineering and organizational change projects while including traditional project planning, scheduling and control techniques.

   What makes this book unique is the way the author tackles organizational politics head on, and the sage advice given to deal with it. These comprise the main theme of Part I's first three chapters, which address the business environment, how to bring order out of chaos and engaging change. The final two chapters in Part I cover risk management and customer satisfaction - two main critical success factors for any project, but are especially important in organizational change projects.

   Part II starts with a chapter that is boldly titled "Acquiring Political Skills and Building Influence" and segues into another topic that most PM books sidestep: "Building Teams with Borrowed Resources". If you've ever attempted employing matrix management or virtual teams you'll appreciate the advice given in this chapter. The author also gives an excellent discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of self directed teams, which may be ideal in theory, but are not easy to achieve in practice. Chapter 8 in this part is a well written piece on project selection techniques, which reflects the author's approach that is better documented in a book that he coauthored titled "The Project Office".

   The remainder of the book is focused on traditional PM techniques, including estimating, outsourcing considerations, earned value (now part of the PMI PMBOK), and project metrics.

   If you are involved in organizational change projects this book is the best resource because of the way it combines organizational change management with traditional PM techniques.




2. This book is a very good guide to the secondary issues of project management. The author goes into detail on topics such as managing complexity, extending projects to include operations and support, building teams with borrowed resources, resource estimation and a variety of other topics. The topics are valid, the writing is clear, but the writing style is very verbose. On the one hand, the topics are relevant only for project management professionals, but the writing style is for beginning project managers. This is a good book to read after to get your PMP certification.