Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Bowen,_John" sorted by average review score:

Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism
Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall College Div (May, 1900)
Authors: Philip Kotler, John Bowen, and James C. Makens
Amazon base price: $81.35
Used price: $7.75
Buy one from zShops for: $9.99
Average review score:

wow!
The layout and format of this book was very easy to follow!

Great for Marketing Beginners
Kotler's Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism helps marketing beginners and people that are getting into the hospitality business. It demonstrates basic knowledge that can be applied to the business, great tool for working!

Excellent for students worldwide
As a lecturer in South Africa I found the inclusion of so many examples from MacDonalds and other international franchises useful to explain the examples to the class. As usual anything the Kotler writes is easy to put across to my students entering the hospitality industry. Well done!


Flying the Beech Bonanza
Published in Hardcover by SkyRoad Projects (15 December, 1997)
Authors: John Eckalbar and Paul Bowen
Amazon base price: $38.50
Average review score:

A must for every Bonanza pilot
I just got a copy from Sporty's. I devoured it as soon as I started looking through it.I will be recomending it to my friends who fly the Bonanza. I expect I will re-read it again and again. It also will come in very handy towards making some placards for various speeds and manuvers.

Very clear & concise exploration/explanation of performance
This text goes directly to aircraft performance without digression. Clear and easy to read yet well documented. I have looked for a book like this for some time and am very happy to have found it. If you liked Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators (ISBN 1-56027-140-x) but thought it too long and too general you will treasure this book.

This is an ideal complement / study guide to the aircraft manufacturer's Pilot Operating Handbook.

An excellent book covering practical tips
John Ecklebar is an outstanding Bonanza instructor, and this book offers some of his insights. John is one of the American Bonanza Society's instructors for the Bonanza Pilot Proficiency Program. Highly recommended.


Credibility Marketing
Published in Paperback by Dearborn Trade Publishing (15 January, 2002)
Author: Larry Chambers
Amazon base price: $13.27
List price: $18.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $13.17
Buy one from zShops for: $12.46
Average review score:

A very smart guide to building your own brand
Larry Chambers does a great job of explaining why you need to position yourself as an expert in your industry, and how doing so will allow you to reap tremendous dividends in your career. The book contains chapters on getting yourself on TV, writing articles for magazines/newspapers, teaching college courses on topics that will help to build your business, etc. A must read for self-employed consultants and others interested in turning themselves into a powerful brand.


Miniature Merchant Ships: A Guide to Warline Ship Modelling in 1/1200 Scale
Published in Hardcover by Brasseys, Inc. (March, 1997)
Author: John Langford Bowen
Amazon base price: $39.95
Used price: $30.00
Buy one from zShops for: $31.96
Average review score:

Modeler's insight
For advanced modelers, this book details the construction of 1/1200 scale ship models. Items covered include tools, choice of materials, construction techniques and detailing. While the numerous plans are mostly merchant ships, two warships (HMS Hood) and a destroyer have been included for naval enthusiasts.

Well worth the effort, this book will launch you on the basics of building of your 1/1200 scale fleet. You need only the time, tools, material and the patience.


Other Dickens: Pickwick to Chuzzlewit
Published in Hardcover by Oxford University Press (December, 1999)
Author: John Bowen
Amazon base price: $80.00
Used price: $35.00
Average review score:

Best of Times, Best of Books
Early Dickens has alays been my favorite, and John Bowen's book is an excellent companion to those wildly energetic first novels. The exciting and thought provoking chapter on Oliver Twist alone is worth the price of the book and will send you back to re-read the novel with a greater appreciation of Dickens' genius.


The Prudent Investor's Guide to Beating the Market
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Trade (August, 1996)
Authors: John Bowen, Carl Reinhardt, Larry Chambers, and Reinhardt Werba Bowen Advisory Services
Amazon base price: $22.35
Used price: $7.36
Buy one from zShops for: $21.95
Average review score:

Good book that based on academic research, not latest fads
If you're looking for clever tricks to get rich quick, forget this book. It's focus is on the steady accumulation and growth of capital, the approach with by far the highest success rate. Actually, if you think you can outpick the market, you really owe it yourself to read this first. It's a heck of a lot cheaper than being wrong about investment decisions.

For me, reading this was an eye openning experience. The book is solidly based on academic research, and essentially proves that attempts to time the markets and pick the perfect stock are largely futile. In essence, research shows that for every person who timed the market perfectly ten times in a row, someone else timed exactly wrong ten times in a row. The only difference between the two is that the second guy didn't get anybody to come to his seminars.

Good explanations, and a clear presentation of the economics of investing. Combine this with practical advice on building a portfolio for the long haul. Great stuff.

BTW, I made a fair amount of money picking stocks before I read this book. I now realize I was just lucky and any stock picking I do now is just a fun hobby. To make money, I follow the book.


The Prudent Investor's Guide to Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game, 2/e
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Trade (18 December, 1998)
Authors: John J. Bowen Jr. and Daniel C. Goldie
Amazon base price: $13.25
Used price: $12.50
Collectible price: $11.75
Buy one from zShops for: $12.49
Average review score:

I was looking for such a book
This book is about Modern Portfolio Theory, but is written for the investor not for the academic. The style is simple and serious, touching every point that should be made. I have resd other books on this topic, and all of them have terrible titles. That is not important. They also consider different degrees of detail, also not important. This one confirms my own common sense. It does not belabor simple points (a la Bogle) but states them clearly with footnotes giving proper credit. I teach a class in "Saving and Investing." Would that I could summarize as well as Bowen and Goldie do. The coverage of foreign and golobal stocks is brief and good. The opinions on bonds are sensible. Believe it or not, these are often neglected topics or are lost in the clutter. I wish the authors would come out with a third edition!


Religions in Practice: An Approach to the Anthropology of Religion
Published in Paperback by Allyn & Bacon (10 November, 1997)
Author: John Richard Bowen
Amazon base price: $42.00
Used price: $5.80
Buy one from zShops for: $16.00
Average review score:

textbook anthropological approach to religion
John Bowen, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, wrote this as a college textbook for anthropology of religion. For this it is excellent. It is also really good for lay readers looking for an introduction to this field. It includes a review of religious studies theories from Hegel and Edward Tylor to Clifford Geertz. It includes examples from many religious traditions commonly studied--Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, Umbanda, Native American traditions, Cargo cults, Japanese New Religions, Quakers, Mormonism, Hinduism; a good breadth indeed.

His chapters are: 1) Elements and Theories of Religion; 2) Doctrine and Practice in Tension; 3) Transitions in Life and Death; 4) Extending Our Powers: "Magic" and Healing; 5) Explaining Misfortune: Witchcraft and Sorcery; 6) Sacrifice Contested; 7) Prohibitions and Boundaries; 8) Objects, Images, and Worship; 9) Sacred Speech and Divine Power; 10) Places and Pilgrims; 11) Religious Authority and Religious Movements; 12) The Place of Religions in Modern Nation-States.

The book is expensive, so unless you find it used or really want it, I wouldn't buy it. But I really wanted it, and wasn't at all disappointed.


Successful Scientific Writing
Published in Hardcover by Cambridge University Press (March, 1996)
Authors: Robert W. Matthews, John M. Bowen, and Janice R. Matthews
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:

well written and worthwhile
it is unfortunate the authors did not review the most recent scientific style and format conventions of the council of biology editors(accepted internationally) that were published in 1994. had they done so, they would not have made a number of the errors that show up scattered about in the text. i use parts of this text , especially the exercises, in a course i teach on scientific writing and have to make the corrections as we go along

Watch what you eat!
Words can hardly express the beauty and cleverness of "Successful Scientific Writing" by Matthews, Bowen and Matthews as a step-by-step guide on how to write scientific reports for publication in English. I am using this book for a course that I teach on scientific writing at the Postgraduate School of Health Sciences at Aarhus University in Denmark, and I find it to be perfect! Before this book was published, there was none that dealt so well and so entertainingly with so many aspects of what it actually takes to prepare a manuscript for publication in a scientific journal. Many young (and old) scientists are good thinkers, but they are often poor writers! Thus, although they may have been able to design and carry out an experiment, they often lack the ability to express what they have done clearly and concisely. This book is for them! The first few chapters provide mainly words of encouragement for getting the writing process underway. There are also remarkable bits of advice, such as the notion of avoiding certan snacks that could derail ones momentum. In my view, the crux of the book appears in chapters 5, 6 and 7 in which extraordinarily lucid and practical instructions and exercises are presented for improving one's ability to write scientifically. There are also tips on how to optimize word-processing so that the manuscript submitted to the editor of a journal is most likely to be accepted for publication. Perhaps some old-timers in Science can do without this book, but they should nevertheless have a copy of it on hand for their students.

A must read for scientists!
This book has greatly improved my writing. It is easy and enjoyable to read and very informative. I highly recommend it for anyone writing a thesis, manuscripts, etc.


The Prudent I nvestor's Guide to Beating Wall Street at Its Own Game
Published in Hardcover by McGraw-Hill Trade (30 June, 1998)
Authors: Daniel C. Goldie and John J., Jr. Bowen
Amazon base price: $17.47
List price: $24.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $1.67
Collectible price: $13.00
Buy one from zShops for: $7.75
Average review score:

Confused arguments paper over a sales pitch
I think the author's focus on asset class mutual funds useful, but that's only half the story. If you spend your time reading this, you won't learn anything about taking care of assets. All you learn is the standard Wall Street diatribe:

1. No one can predict the market (except for Wall Street Professionals)
2. The biggest mistake you can make is taking your money out of stocks and bonds once they are deposited (except to pay your advisor).
3. Don't trust your instincts, trust your Wall Street professional's instincts.

At the end of the book, probably hoping they have convinced their reader of his utter ignorance regarding money management, they kindly offer a chapter on finding your 'financial advisor', closing with their own email mailing addresses.

Guess what you are supposed to do.

The book is full of odd contradictions.

1. It's title proudly claims to be about 'beating' Wall Street, but the conclusion extols reliance on a 'financial advisor'.

2. For the first 3 chapters, the authors claim to accept 'random walk' theories, and points out the inability of top ranked fund managers to maintain their ranking as proof of the randomness of the market. For the remainder of the book, we are constantly advised only a professional can distinguish a long term positive rate of return. In other words, it's not a random walk. The guy's picking your asset class funds can suddenly defeat the random walk.

3. There is a chapter on defining your financial goals, but when determining your 'investment time frame', the authors advise using your life expectancy. Let me explain this to you. They advise putting your money in a Wall Street fund and updating your will. You should never plan on 'cashing out' and enjoying your rewards. That's pretty safe investment advice, if the client is alive, the money should stay put and the plan is still on track, even if it is down 70%. If he's dead, he won't sue over the bad advice.

4. In chapter 6 and 7, they advise ignoring tax implications. Chapter 8 is on investing with taxes in mind.

5. In the intro, the authors promise to show you how to do the math yourself. At the end of the book, there is just a bunch of formulas that refer to other formulas with values left undefined. I guess they figured no one was going to follow the math, and if they would, they were not their type of client, anyway.

The Best Investment Primer
Goldie and Bowen have put into laymen's terms what most Wall St. professionals and money managers do not know-- that no one can time markets, sectors, or pick individual (mispriced) securities with any consistency.The authors articulate a core investment approach that effectively makes all other investment strategies look like speculation. We all have heard that diversification is your friend but few,(even the most sophisticated advisors) understand the meaning of true global diversification,i.e.constructing a portfolio of asset classes which do not move in tandem(some zig when the others zag) in order to reduce the volatility or standard deviation of the portfolio and hence increase its compound return. As a result one can have a portfolio which includes some relatively risky asset classes but in the aggregate is more conservative. How many of us today wish we had taken this advice and included reits,short fixed income and international small cap value into our mix? As the authors point out, who knows what asset classes will be in favor tomorrow. However, if we follow this approach,we will capture their returns and a bit extra for reasons which they spell out.Goldie and Bowen clearly show the benefits of maintaining your target asset class weightings and the need to periodically rebalance when one class gets out of line.Just as compelling are the chapters that explain which asset classes pay you for the risk you take (eg. small cap vs. large cap and value vs. growth) and which ones do not (such as longer maturity fixed income). In my opinion this is the best primer for those who are interested in long term investing. The authors give us an understanding of the tools necessary to construct a core portfolio. Clearly we would all be better served to follow this advice with our investment capital and understand that stock picking, buying the hot fund, or timing the market (in other words what 99% of the world mistakenly views as investing) is really speculation. While these principles are timeless, given the returns of just two asset classes,the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ these past few years, this book should now reach a more responsive audience.

The Best Investment Strategy Book you will read.
I have spent about two years researching financial strategies by getting input from top tier professional advisors, perusing web sites, and reading books. Of all the information I've gotten, this book provides the most concise and effective approach to how to allocate your investment funds.

What you will learn through this book (backed by academic research primarily by the University of Chicago):

1) An overview of modern portfolio theory, which states that there is an optimal risk/reward curve that allows you to determine the appropriate mix between stocks and bonds for any given expected level of return or tolerance for risk.

2) Regardless of your tolerance for risk or desire for reward, the only thing that changes is the overall % allocation between stocks and bonds. When any investor looks at stocks, they should have the same makeup of stocks in their porfolio (international, large cap value, small cap, etc.). The difference between more and less agressive investors is that the stock composition will be a bigger piece of their pie.

3) Statistical analysis that gives strong proof that index funds ... beat mutual funds handily over the long run by several percentage points.

This book has provided me with the best framework for investing. It's a little redundant (as most informational books are), but well worth the read. I've purchased many copies of it and given them to friends and family.


Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.