I don't usually go out of my way to rip business books (preferring instead to simply disrecommend them to everyone I know) but as a struggling business owner who used to be a customer service professional, I would hate to let this book go unremarked-upon. It reads as if it were written by a cranky consumer who wants to get even with every retail business who done him wrong. If you believe that The Customer Is Always Right is the unofficial Eleventh Commandment, you may like this book. But I have a few nits to pick.

First. I don't doubt that many of the "50 Powerful Ideas" would do much to enhance your company's image in the eyes of your customers. The question is: At what cost?

At no point in this book is cost EVER addressed. It simply doesn't seem to have entered the author's mind. Sure, in an ideal world where the small business owner doesn't have to keep a tight rein on expenses, keeping customers would be simple. Just give them Free Stuff, as Dr. Timm recommends.

Second. Anyone who has ever worked retail, either in a supervisory or front-line position, knows that there are customers who cannot be satisfied, do not have a legitimate complaint and are hoping you will give them Free Stuff to make them go away. They don't seem to exist in Dr. Timm's universe, however. I found this omission to be very puzzling.

Third. Dr. Timm quotes "generally accepted facts" about customer service in the preface. I guess that's to avoid having to give references to actual studies. I would counter Dr. Timm's generally accepted facts by pointing out that 86% of all statistics are made up.

To sum up, if you want to take advice from a Ph.D. who has written nearly 40 books and countless articles on customer service and communication, this may be the book for you. If you want hard-headed practical advice from people who've been in the trenches, you'd be better off contacting your local SCORE chapter.

I'm the author of "Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity), and "Cracking Creativity (The Secrets of Creative Genius) and, generally, read most businesss books that hit the market. This is a terrific book. Buy it and learn.

I have read this book and studied under Dr. Timm. His matter-of-fact writing style helps to communicate his ideas in a simple, understandable, and effective manner. This book is a great addition to any customer service library

This book consists mostly of extremely lengthy excerpts from trial testimony as recorded by the husband and wife authors, who attended the McMartin trials.

The book does not follow the standard true crime formula and takes some diligence to read. There are hardly any breaks in the text or chapters in the trafitional sense, so stopping in a convenient place can be difficult.

The authors do a good job in showing how the overzealousness of the L.A. County D.A's office lead to the abuses suffered by the defendant's in the McMartin case.

However, at times the authors go off on what seem like paranoid tangents as they rail against what they perceive as the ritual child abuse industry.

If you saw the HBO movie about this case, the book is an interesting companion and goes into more detail.

With all the publicity surrounding the McMartin preschool trial, now over a decade removed, one would suppose that the definitive book on the subject-and this is certainly the definitive book, and a good one at that-would be a best seller, but it didn't happen. Why? Because the public wanted a villain, somebody to hate, and what they got were some innocent people wrongly accused. With that kind of result the public lost interest. The Jon Benet Ramsey case sold a lot better because the public had clear targets for its hate, John and Patsy Ramsey. Here, Ray Buckey was to be the designated fall guy with his creepy glasses and his nerdish style, but he wouldn't fall because he was clearly innocent of the sensational charges against him. So the public was stuck with no clear villain on whom to vent. The real villains, as graphically revealed in this book, were the press, the prosecutors and the social workers, especially Kee MacFarlane, who indoctrinated the children into describing perverted events that never took place.

This was written from the trenches on a daily basis when the overwhelming tide of public opinion was that of a lynch mob desperate to hang Buckey and his family from the nearest tree. The Eberles built a strong case in blaming the media for poisoning the public's understanding of the case, partially through incompetent reporters, and partially through a media lust to sensationalize. Part of what's interesting about this book is how it presages the O.J. trial, especially in the incompetence seen in the district attorney's office. Ira Reiner was D.A. at the time with Garcetti as a critical underling. It is scandalous that they would find the need to use a paid felonious informant to bolster their case against Buckey. He was a five-time loser, no less, who previously had falsely testified for the prosecution in exchange for favorable treatment. Also stupid was the prosecution's use of an incompetent and prejudicial child abuse "expert," Dr. Gordon, who said that he possessed "the largest collection of photographs of children's anuses in the state of California." [p. 106] The authors estimate that 97.5 percent of the people in L.A. thought Buckey was guilty. The sad truth is what he was really guilty of was being a young man who liked to work with preschool children. Now THAT ain't natural was what a large number of people thought. I hope we're getting over that prejudice because what our children need are role models and guides from both sexes.

The book is peppered with courtroom asides from an unidentified lawyer. Here's one of the most pertinent from page 105, a exchange between a friend of the Buckeys and the lawyer:

"They're putting on witnesses who they know are lying. They concealed exonerating evidence. Don't we have enough criminal conduct by the prosecutors to put them behind bars?"

"It doesn't work that way," the lawyer laughed. "The law is just for the little people. When we break the rules we go to jail. When they break the rules they go to lunch. And maybe get a promotion if they do it right."

"But what about the law?" the woman gasped. "What about the Constitution?"

"I'm afraid that's just one of those nice, comforting fantasies like the tooth fairy. There are only two classes of people. Those who hold power and those who do not. And in any dispute the guys who hold power will decide which way it's going to go. And if there's any problem the rules go out the window. I hope you understand that this is not about child abuse, just as McCarthyism was not about Communists." Amen.

I LOVE THIS NOVEL!

The reason I think this novel is so great is because I completely agree with the author's view that it was the McMartins that were abused not the children. This family was wrongly accused of child molestation by a mentally disturbed woman. They had everything they owned in the world taken from them. They were thrown jail for years without bail. Yet this family kept their heads up high and they never gave up.

I also liked the author's up beat writting style and their bitter irony. They never talked down to the reader. Also they always kept an open mind as far as ideas that were different from their own beliefs.. That is probably what kept the reader reading.

BUCKEY RULES!

If you are looking for a totally different version of the biblical story of moses, you found it. PARENTS....... READ IT FIRST ! MAYBE ANCIENT IS BETTER ?

The sixth and last of Paul McCusker's Passages series. This time, it is three young kids who enter Marus. Immediately split apart, Michelle finds herself in the palace of the Palatian king, and due to her eyes (eyes of different colors mean a messenger from the Unseen One) she is made an advisor to the King.

Danny and Wayne find themselves in the company of a ragtag rebel of the kingdom named Fendar, who is returned from exile to crusade for the Marusians' freedom.

Somehow, this book seems longer than the other five, but no less fun to read. An excellent re-telling of the story of Moses from the Old Testament. The book brings the story to life for young and old, and is a good buy for anyone. Once again, these books touch the "other worlds" lobe of the brain that makes us relish stories like Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and of course, Fendar's Legacy.

There is something about these books that want to make you read on... They are very powerfull books full of the Unseen One (god), and uplift christianity. I Have the series, and can't stop reading the books. They are wonderfull. They teach the bible in ways that are easy for kids to understand, and up-lift their faith. I recomend this book to kids, teenagers, and adults.

Good book, however there are some mistakes when instructions are given to make talisman.Size of the plexiglas can not be 21/2"x21/2 if you follow instructions to carbon copy from page 85. You will find that the size of plexyglas needs to be biger than that. Check before you start.

I didn't find this book to great when it came to the listing of amulets and related information. On the other hand, its step by step interactions for their material creation is very much worth it. If you combine this book with one on solid amulet creation (in a spiritual sense) then your set.

I thought that the book was very tasteful, but since I am not one for long discriptions, I will just say this: Buy it, it will grow on you, it is for anyone who has some free time and wants something to do...

I found this book to be very frightening and disturbing. Personally, I never knew how demented the human mind could be until I read this book. If you wish to be able to sleep at night, do not, I repeat, do not, read this book.

This book takes books to a whole new level. It isn't written like a conventional book...but who needs conventionalism? It is not a book for the faint hearted, but is horrendously addictive and makes you want to read more books from the owner of this tormented mind.

In my opinion...pure genius.

A terrifying rollercoaster read. It switches from absurdism to civil war reportage in the space of a sentence. It looks like a book, it's printed like a book, but it reads like something completely different. You might not like it, but you won't forget it.

This book was a huge dissapointment for me. I was expecting an in depth account of the person of Paul and what I got was completely different. Basically, Pollock just summarized the book of Acts and used some of Paul's epistles. The scope of the Paul's life was extremmely limited because Pollock did venture to use and extra-biblical sources.
To get a good summary of this book, read the New Testament.

John Pollack does a remarkable job of presenting the life of the great Apostle Paul. I would recommend this work to all who really want to grasp the essence of not only the Apostles life but the time period in which he lived. Pollack gives fantastic details of the first century Graeco-Roman world. His impeccable scholarship and spiritual maturity combine to produce a work that encourages the reader to dig deeper into the sacred text, which is the foundation of the biography. Of special interest to the Bible student is the considerable background information of the Pauline epistles ie, the context of each one in relation to the Apostles life. Anyone who seriously questions the authenticity of the New Testament would glean much credible information from this book. Pollack presents the Apostle as a flesh and blood man transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and hope you will to.

This book gives you an insight into the life of Paul. Its as if it were written as a modern biography, but the Biblical narrative is interwoven with all the latest reseach on the historical background to Paul. It is a must for anyone who wants to preach on Paul. I couldn't put it down

You will find this book very helpful if you are new to Active Server Pages. The book describes very clearly what ASP is, how it works, what it does, etc. This book will also make the beginner comfortable with how to write basic VBscript or similar in order to code their Active Server Pages. Wonderful coverage is given to all the basic ASP objects, their properties, and methods and how to invoke the power of each. This book has some funny prose to it and is not overly in-depth, but it will make a newcomer comfortable with integrating their current html skills, client-side scripting skills, and ASP into useful applications.

This book is not just about ASP. This book contains chapters on just about everything you can put on a website. (dynamic) HTML, client (in vb) and serversidescripting (vb & jscript). Building components, java-applets, database-access. You name it, and it's there. The downside is that this quite expensive book it not detailed enough. The only chapters that are reasonably complete are the ones about Jscript and VBscript. The others will not get you much further than some "hello world"-like application. The other thing that I don't like about the book that it is very Internet Explorer oriented. The chapters on HTML are completely unusable for netscape-browsers, and this is the only book I know that boasts Vb as a client-side scripting language. Add the very irritatng introductions of the chapters and there you have it. Not a book for pro's, but I can imagine it being usefull for people who wish to know a little about a lot of things and are prepared to buy seperate books for the items they are actually interested in.

Excellent guide for developping dynamic, Interactive Web Site. This book goes into relevent details and guides you through the process of development without assuming that you have 20 years of development experience behind you.

I would recommend it for junior developpers

Nagel starts his book with a discussion of how happy he is to write another book on the Adames, specifically on the women. He then proceeds to tear the best of them, Abigail Sr., to shreds. Portraying her as shrewish, domineering, and just distasteful, he paints an inaccuratly biased view of an amazing woman who was far before her time. Although I don't know enough of the other women to critque his evaluations of them, I have read Abigails letters at the Mass Historical society and have read countless books on her during the last six months in relation to an intensive research project. I have seen many different "reads" of Abigail from feminist to domestic to maternal...but none so blatantly anti-Abigail. I suppose the world needs dissent to continue to have interesting discourse, but Nagel quite obviously hates Abigail Adams. If you read his book, please temper it with something like Portia, which is admittedly dry, but will give you a good counterpoint to Nagels criticisms.

Another winner for Nagel. This book is as good as his other two about the Adams family. I still don't find Abigail very likeable. The pressure she put on her children to achieve broke 3 of them and the lone successful child (John Quincy) turned around and did the same with his children. I really enjoyed the writer's descriptions of Louisa. I hope to see a full blown biography of her someday...she deserves it! I gained a true understanding why John Quincy had the personality he did. Abigail was extremely intelligent and ahead of her time. I enjoyed reading of her true partnership with husband John.

Author Nagel has done a wonderful job of bringing the lives of the Adams women to life. The first part of the book concentrates on Abigail Smith, wife of John Adams and her sisters. Their letters describing their daily lives are fascinating. The various daughters of these women are also highlighted. The only daughter of John and Abigail, Abigail (nickednamed Nabby) is a particularly heartbreaking story. Pushed by her mother to marry a "promising" young man, she becomes the abandoned wife of a cruel alcoholic, living in near poverty. Unable to break away because of the strict moral codes of the time, she succombs to cancer, dying in her father's arms. Almost all of the women of the family were tortured by the alcoholism of either their husbands or sons. Louisa Johnson, the wife of John Quincy Adams is also highlighted. Her unhappy marriage to a difficult man is portrayed sympathetically.

Even though thiese women lived almost 200 years ago, their stories are timeless. Unable to contol their own destinies, these women nevertheless contributed greatly to their families and communities.

This book is like many others. Bold claims combined with assumption upon assumption, mixed with pure conjecture and lots of just-so story telling. We've all heard the confident claims about "multitudes" of transitional forms in the fossil record, but what have evolutionary paleontologists been forced to admit? Are there any transitional forms at all?

"... I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them. You suggest that an artist should be used to visualize such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic license, would that not mislead the reader?

I wrote the text of my book four years ago. If I were to write it now, I think the book would be rather different. Gradualism is a concept I believe in, not just because of Darwin's authority, but because my understanding of genetics seems to demand it. Yet Gould and the American Museum people are hard to contradict when they say there are no transitional fossils. As a palaeontologist myself, I am much occupied with the philosophical problems of identifying ancestral forms in the fossil record. You say that I should at least 'show a photo of the fossil from which each type of organism was derived.' I will lay it on the line-there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument." --Personal letter (written 10 April 1979) from Dr. Colin Patterson, Senior Palaeontologist at the British Museum of Natural History in London, to Luther D. Sunderland; as quoted in "Darwin's Enigma" by Luther D. Sunderland, Master Books, San Diego, USA, 1984, p. 89.

"I know that, at least in paleoanthropology, data are still so sparse that theory heavily influences interpretations. Theories have, in the past, clearly reflected our current ideologies instead of the actual data." --Dr. David Pilbeam (Physical Anthropologist, Yale University, USA), "Rearranging our family tree". "Human Nature", June 1978, p. 45.

"The absence of fossil evidence for intermediary stages between major transitions in organic design, indeed our inability, even in our imagination, to construct functional intermediates in many cases, has been a persistent and nagging problem for gradualistic accounts of evolution." --Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Is a new and general theory of evolution emerging?" "Paleobiology", vol. 6 (1), January 1980, p. 127.

"All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt." --Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "The return of hopeful monsters". "Natural History", vol. LXXXVI (6), June-July 1977, p. 24.

"The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. Yet Darwin was so wedded to gradualism that he wagered his entire theory on a denial of this literal record:

"The geological record is extremely imperfect and this fact will to a large extent explain why we do not find interminable varieties, connecting together all the extinct and existing forms of life by the finest graduated steps. He who rejects these views on the nature of the geological record, will rightly reject my whole theory."

Darwin's argument still persists as the favored escape of most paleontologists from the embarrassment of a record that seems to show so little of evolution. In exposing its cultural and methodological roots, I wish in no way to impugn the potential validity of gradualism (for all general views have similar roots). I wish only to point out that it was never 'seen' in the rocks.

Paleontologists have paid an exorbitant price for Darwin's argument. We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study." --Stephen Jay Gould (Professor of Geology and Paleontology, Harvard University), "Evolution's erratic pace". "Natural History", vol. LXXXVI (5), May 1977, p. 14.

So how important is the fossil record to the evolutionist?

In 1960 the point was still being made...

"Although the comparative study of living animals and plants may give very convincing circumstantial evidence, fossils provide the only historical, documentary evidence that life has evolved from simpler to more and more complex forms." --Carl O. Dunbar, Ph.D. (geology) (Professor Emeritus of Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Yale University, and formerly Assistant Editor, "American Journal of Science") in "Historical Geology", John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1960, p. 47.

But more than 20 years later, after concerted creationist exposure of the true nature of the fossil record...

"In any case, no real evolutionist, whether gradualist or punctuationist, uses the fossil record as evidence in favour of the theory of evolution as opposed to special creation." --Mark Ridley (zoologist, Oxford University), "Who doubts evolution?" "New Scientist", vol. 90, 25 June 1981, p. 831.

"Scientists who go about teaching that evolution is a fact of life are great con-men, and the story they are telling may be the greatest hoax ever. In explaining evolution, we do not have one iota of fact." --Dr. T. N. Tahmisian (Atomic Energy Commission, USA) in "The Fresno Bee", August 20, 1959. As quoted by N.J. Mitchell, "Evolution and the Emperor's New Clothes", Roydon publications, UK, 1983, title page.

Books I also strongly recommend reading are: "Bones of Contention" by Marvin Lubenow, "Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No!" by Duane Gish, "Icons of Evolution" by Jonathan Wells and "Darwin's Black Box" by Michael Behe.

The Adequacy of the Fossil Record is not what I was expecting. The underlying theme deals with the "interplay between the use of quantitative methods, and geological and paleontological intuition". I was thinking that it would be aimed at a general audience. The intended audience, however, is the professional.

The essays deal with a variety of issues; most are very technical. Several involve the statistical means used to estimate things like the completeness of the overall fossil record (or a specific fossil record) and the accuracy of dating species formation and extinction. The underlying statistical methodologies are examined for usefulness and correctness.

Taphonomy is the main subject of a few essays and an interwoven thread throughout most of book. Phosphatization (the second best method of fossilization to amber preservation), for example, is the focus of one essay.

The Adequacy of the Fossil Record will be of much use to professionals and researchers in the field of paleontology. The quantitative methods exemplified and discussed are essential to thorough analysis in this area that is too frequently considered a 'soft science' or a field where personal opinions get in the way of the actual statistical evidence. -- rpcman...

Despite any opinions you have on evolution/creationism, the prior review by "A reader" from June 2, 2001 is completely inappropriate and useless. This person seems bent on spreading their personal agenda. Indeed, I doubt they have even laid eyes upon this book. As one looking for a review of the book, I find it astounding that someone would resort to this tactic to spread their poisonous rhetoric. A book on taphonomy, has no bearing on such a debate.

On a personal note, I find it horribly dishonest to take quotes of these different scientists out of context. Stephen Jay Gould has railed against the Creationist agenda for years, yet you make him seem like a creationist! Furthermore, quoting a personal letter in public without the author's consent is simply disrespectful and dishonorable. Finally, if one would read the primary literature, one would see that there are excellent examples of evolution. They may not show gradualism (although some do), but there are certainly transitional forms.

As I state above, please disregard the prior review as it has no bearing on the book, and is an underhanded attempt to spread a NON-SCIENTIFIC agenda.

I'm a teenager who, by parental force, has read this book. Now, I must admit, some of the things are true... but... there are other books that I have read that sum it up much better. Frist of all, what adolescent wants to talk? I know that as soon as my mother or father says "Why don't we sit down and talk for a while?" I am instantaniousely up in my room with the music turned up. Don't talk to your teens unless you need to, they know how to get around it... trust me.

One would think a teenager would appreciate this book since the author puts the onus of responsibility for communication square on the shoulders of the parents. As he should! He stresses self-understanding, determining communication goals, building a positive perspective, choosing words carefully and the "art of caring communication."

One truly important thing that he points out is "ambivalence on the part of the parent is likely to be interpreted as license by the teenager." He suggests that rigidity is definitely not the alternative, but a clear committment to a system of values. Example is far more effective than preaching. "Do what you say. Teens are quick to spot hypocrisy."

This book is a last minute fix for parents who haven't been working on communication with their children and, frankly, I don't know if it would work or not. Crucial to teen trust and communication is consistent interest from early childhood -- parents who not only instruct but LISTEN from the time the child begins to talk. It takes years and it takes effort...lots of effort.

If you have a teenager and you don't know how to say "no," you're in trouble. Swets does, however, describe techniques to establish that authority. He also calls for improving your listening skills and gives feedback techniques to use when you disagree. You'll find graphs and charts for getting to know your teen -- and yourself -- better.

There's lots of helpful information here but the time to begin to talk to your teenager is long before adolescence!

This book is simply written, but has many thoughtful and somewhat creative ideas on how to stay calm in difficult situations. I think that reading this book might just help parents and guardians who are frustrated and need a little guidance and encouragement. Not all of us came from Ozzie and Harriet households, and learning a few coping skills and hearing some concrete examples on HOW to listen can only help!

I recommend this book to parents and others who are feeling a little stressed and a little unheard by their teenage family members.