For anyone involved in business this book gives very practical advice on not only the methodology for pricing new products but also changing the strategy of one's existing pricing policy.

Look for a sustainable competitive advantage, maximise contribution margin, concentrate on value and profitability and then market share will follow are some of the key philosophies contained in the text. Concerning the value of this book, it is worth the price alone just for the chapter on costings and formula for calculating what level of sales a company can afford to lose/must gain after a price increase/decrease in order to break even.

A common complaint about business books is that they are all OK in theeory but contain little in the way of explanations of how to implement - this book however offers not only theory and case study examples but also practical instructions on what needs to be done to improve pricing strategy. Overall very, very impressive and a must read for anyone involved in finance, sales or marketing functions. As someone has already said these guys really know their stuff and it works!!

Written with great clarity, "The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing" is a phenomenal book. It begins with an explanation of strategic pricing, and proceeds to cover competition in the market place, segmentation of buyers, pricing and the marketing mix for industrial and consumer goods, as well as the psychology of pricing. Also covered are models for determining price sensitivity, implications of sales staff price setting and negotiation, and finally, legal aspects of pricing.

After reading this book, you will understand the pitfalls of pursuing market share at all costs and common mistakes businesses and sales people make when setting or negotiating price. You will view your current pricing structure and strategy in a new light, and be able to spot the weak spots. You'll have a better picture of how to attract the right buyers, those that can be served profitably.

The book indirectly touches on topics covered in Co-opetition, and Thinking Strategically, as well as elements of the Theory of Constraints (see Eli Goldratt's "The Goal" and "It's Not Luck" or "Management Dilemmas" by Eli Schragenheim)

I can't recommend this book highly enough. As for the other reader who states:

"After reading this book, I was able to talk circles around the $20,000 "marketing consultant" we were considering."

believe it, it's that valuable!

If you sell ANY product or ANY service and your competition reads this book before you do, watch out! You absolutely MUST get and read this book. It's LOADED with solid, meaty real world techniques that can really help you. You will probably find this book a real eye opener. It will help you make wise pricing decisions and show you unexpected ways to save your business from what could otherwise be failure. Don't let the price tag keep you from getting this book. It's worth many times its modest price. Get it, read it, and profit from it.

What makes The First Circle such a great book (the best I've read by Solzhenitsyn) is how he reduces a political system and economic ideology to individual choices. It was a system built upon greed, jealousy, selfish pragmatism and fear, the vanity of Stalin, the petty rivalry between commanding officers, the desperate connivance of a prisoner who will turn against his fellow man in order to better his own lot. In other words, humanity.

The consequences were also human: the loss of the prime years of a man's life, a life without the love of a woman, a father worrying about the fate of his young daughter thousands of miles away. Solzhenitsyn does a masterful job of rendering the real world behind philosophy and ideology, the world the USSR lost sight of when they placed ends before means.

In the end, what is perhaps most frightening is that the face of evil is so banal.

No other book will summarize so brilliantly the absurdity of a system in which the quest for the common good was just a trap for the independence and free will of each person. All the events during the novel take place in just one week. Nevertheless during that brief period the author manages to convey the dark existence for millions of citizens of the USSR during the whole Stalinst period, so the overall impression is that the novel drags on for years and years.

The narration of the story takes place in several different fronts which seem to connect at the end, but that never happens. Each character goes on with his life, and the reader is left to wonder what happened. Oddly enough this is part of the beauty of this novel and makes a lot of sense because Solzhenitzyn will stress until the end the lack of right for any person or system to deny a person of its individuality and abrogate for itself the power to guide other's destiny. Threfore, how could he do the same to the members of its novel? So he refuses to place a final point to their development.

To put it more briefly, just read it is a great book.

I was first introdced to Solzhenitsyn's works when I was a freshman in high school, far too many years ago in a little town. The book was the Volume 1 of The Gulag Archipelago. It was really an eye-opener for me in so many ways, given that it was the first "really serious" book that I'd read.

I believe that Solzhenitsyn is the best writer of the 20th century, or at least he's the top writer I've read so far (and I've read a lot of books). Maybe that's influenced by my early exposure, but I don't think so; I find his works just as compelling now as I did then.

The First Circle is one of his most "accessible" works (that is, you can just jump in and start reading) and probably one of his best. A very compelling story; his portraits of the various vile creatures of the Soviet government have been shown to be quite accurate, and the way the various plots intertwine and are resolved is wonderful.

The First Circle gives great insight into a culture totally foreign to most US citizens, as the book's a mixture of spy novel, guide to life in a Gulag camp, and brief introduction to Soviet society of the 1950s. A depressing place to be sure, but fascinating. Well worth reading.

Having just started my medical studies I was looking for a complete dictionary to meet my demand for a comprehensive and "easy-to-use" book to guide my among the vast and sometimes difficult medical language. I found quickly that Stedman's had everything i could ever ask for in a medical dictionary. It's up to date in current research and also has many entries for termonology of old. The book is very comprehensive and detailed and even surpassed my dictionary of organic chemistry when I studied the subject.

What I especially apriciate with this book is it's pedagogical illustrations and a passage with "building-blocks of the medical language" wich has been a great help for me in understanding and memorizing medical terms.

During my studies I have compared my dictionary with many other medical dictonaries and have found that Stedman's remains my first choise by far!

I work for a medical society. Not having any medical training myself, I rely on Stedman's Medical Dictionary to help me edit and proofread text with medical terminology. Without it, I would not be able to do my job.

This dictionary has many helpful features such as a well-illustrated color anatomy section, a large word-finder index, appendices of DRGs,blood groups, lab values, temperature scales, elements, symbols, and more. The inside cover details the many features contained in the definitions. The layout is easy to read. This also contains many illustrations and diagrams. This is an excellent medical reference book.

Mr. Malone's description of Mr. Jefferson is detailed and encompassing. It is well organized and brings the reader in touch with this American Icon and his times. The only failing of this work and its subsequent volumes is that we really only see the best of Mr. Jefferson. His failures, faults and weakeness are dealt with as if they were unimportant or at least only a minor footnote in development of this man. Only in his last volume does Mr. Malone start to deal with the more complex parts of Mr. Jefferson's life. Regardless of this shortcoming this work should be required reading by all students of American History.

Malone, once called "the greatest Jeffersonian of them all", originally conceived this biography in four volumes. By the time he published the last book in 1982, at age 89, it had grown to six volumes. It remains the standard life of Jefferson, an indelible and important portrait of a great man, flaws and all, by a great scholar.

JEFFERSON THE VIRGINIAN begins things with Jefferson's birth into a family of much distinction. His father Peter was a noted surveyor and a man of inordinate physical strength who nevertheless died fairly young (in his fifties). The book covers Jefferon's education at William and Mary (at a time when formal education was not a widespread thing, even among the gentry), his law practice, his beginning the construction of Monticello (which would preoccupy him right up until the time of his death), his terms in the Virginia House of Burgesses (one of which was served after his governorship), his writing of the Declaration of Independence (his initial version, a scathing indictment of King George, had to be toned down by his compatriots), and his controversial governorship (in which he sustained much of the blame for the British army's inroads into the Old Dominion state). It ends with his appointment as an American ambassador to France.

Obviously this is no primer on Jefferson. Malone spares no detail. His prose is fastidious, elegant, and easy to read, although you may find yourself putting the book down from time to time to absorb what you have just read. Overall, Jefferson emerges here as a man naturally scholarly and reclusive, content to build his home, pursue his studies, and tend to his family, who is pushed into action by the obligations of his caste and by his own fervent patriotism.

Malone has been criticised for writing a virtual hagiography of Jefferson, ignoring the "darker" aspects of the man's personality. In other words, unlike Fawn Brodie, Malone did not reduce his subject to some psychological cripple and sex deviate. The charges are balderdash. Malone DOES recognize Jefferson's flaws (e.g., his lack of a sense of humor and his sometimes indecision in taking action). He simply refuses to turn Jefferson into a whipping boy for his own ideological preoccupations.

This is as complete a contemporary biography as we will probably ever get of this great man.

Jefferson: The Virginian by Dumas Malone is a masterful work on Thomas Jefferson's early years, from birth to being appointed as an ambassador to France.

This work is one of the first comprehensive biographies of Jefferson's life. This is the first of six in the complete set. Malone is a distinguished historian so you will read about Jefferson's ancestry, along with Jefferson's youth, education, legal career, his marriage, the construction of Monticello. Not that was enough for one man's life, but we see the writing of the Declaration of Independence and Jefferson's work on the "Notes on Virginia."

We get an insight as to how Jefferson conducted his highly successful legislative career and his governorship. But what we do NOT see is the soul of Jefferson... the man, the human being. We get facts and more facts about a very complex individual and a monumental man. But the richness of the breath of life is left out.

Nonetheless, the book is a very scholarly work, one of the first to complete a comphensive work on a mulitfarious man. I enjoyed reading this volume for its historical importance and significance. This volume lays the ground work on which all of the other volumes set.

This work being well documented is a good start into reading about the life and times of Thomas Jefferson. One fact the comes through loud and clear... Jefferson is a Virginian foremost and always... there is no mistaking that fact.

I have read all of the books written by Kryon and Lee Carroll and have found that this one book summarizes everything I have ever read on the topics of spiritual growth and enlightenment. It is a book I give freely to people who cross my path because I think it offers the purest message on God and the meaning of life on this planet. Kryon goes, step-by-step, through the process we all need to take to find our true sense of Joy on this planet. It is though-provoking, funny, and incredibly uplifting. It shows that everything we do, that everything we experience has value in the eyes of God and the Universe. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is seeking to find their own sense of the Truth.

What starts off as a simple story turns into a labyrinth of truths which I now use in my everyday life. It has helped me look at all life situations differently,and grasp the knowledge I am there to grasp with love and thanks. Continuing on a journey has never been more welcomed! I read this book before any of the other Kryon books and found it to be a perfect place to begin. I recommend it highly!

I found this audio book tape excellent. I have read many new age books and this one is easy and understandable. I said to a friend, this book explains everything you want to say and don't know how to. It is the total sum to my belief in the way and why we are here. It is CLARITY. A must read !

A no-nonsense, no-frills, and fast-paced read. Jane Whitefield is a native American Houdini on a life mission to save others. Her escapes from danger are clever and provide the reader (or listener) a sort of "how to" on avoiding detection, capture and/or death. This is not the usual who-dunnit or action thriller. The native American thread woven through it is fascinating and Jane is a remarkable and unique heroine. There isn't a dull moment. After listening to the audiobook version, I immediatelly went out and bought the first book featuring Jane: "Vanishing Act." It was equally compelling. If there was a negative about "Dance for the Dead," it was the audiobook reader, Lindsay Crouse. Her monotone reading became, well, monotonous. But the author's story overcame her flat recitation.

Jane Whitefield comes to us a fully developed character as only Kate Shugak of the Dana Stabenow has before. The action starts (explodes?) from page 1. I was settled to read a chapter or 2 before bed as is my wont but ended up putting this book down at the back cover just in time to shower for work. I read incessantly and have rarely found a book of this caliber and unlike so many other authors, the series maintains the standard. Looking forward to the new one Jan 2000!!!

I picked up this book because the cover caught my attention. I was looking for mystery, excitement, danger with a native american flavor. I could not believe my luck. I read this book in a couple of days on the train, during lunch and late at night. I loved the lead character Jane Whitefield--she's badd!!! I think Jane Whitefield would make an excellent TV series. This was my first Thomas Perry novel and I plan to read Vanishing Act next. This book is a real treasure.

I had never read any Faulkner until I picked this off my bookshelf while browsing. Out of my wife's american literature classes has come what I feel to be one the best written books I have read in quite some time. The people are tortured, alive and very well described. The races are diagnosed in merciless precision and scrutiny, the unfortunate frustrations that plague them both. (there don't seem to be many other types of people in the stories except a few Indians) But this is art, literature the way it is supposed to be written. The language of Faulkner literally soars off the page with insight, feeling and relevance to the story. These Southern lives are mixed together, bringing forth a mulatto-rainbow mix of wonder and mystery and deep appreciation, a well developed reverence for life, its pain and people, suffering through a walk on the blessed earth. Truly great writing as compassionate as it is accurately reflecting the Southern world, post slave to this century through the eyes of a family smorgasbord of bloodlines and personalites. If you want to enjoy reading and have wondered at times why you are wasting your time on cultured pulp, this book will set you back on the right path.

Please, please do not pass over the other fine stories in GO DOWN, MOSES and go straight to "The Bear." This gem means much more when illuminated by the other parts of the text, and only by reading the entire book can you fully understand the meaning of Ike's repudiation of the McCaslin land. I recently completed a Faulkner course, and of all of his "genius" novels--"As I Lay Dying," "Light in August," "Go Down, Moses," "The Sound and the Fury," and "Absalom! Absalom!"--I believe that this one has the strongest emotional core. Read the whole thing; your experience will be much richer.

It becomes quite clear after reading Go Down Moses why many critics call this William Falkner's most mature book dealing with race. In Go Down Moses, the black characters are not only as well represented as may be possible from a white author, they are believable and easy to relate to. The main character "Uncle Ike", the grandson of an influential plantation owner, comes to represent everyone who struggles with identity in the miserable face of racism. The style of the book itself was confusing for readers and critics when first published, as it makes use of a series of chapters, each with its own title and numbered sections. Faulkner resisted having the book called a collection of short stories and most modern readers should have little problem with its nonsequential chapters and its sometimes, seemingly, unrelated characters. If you have read some Faulkner, especially A Light in August or Absalom, Absalom or if you enjoy authors such as Toni Morrison and Richard Wright you must read this book to get an idea of just how far Faulkner came toward wrestling with race in his time.

This wonderful book welcomes in its readers as surely as, for the several years it describes, the hawk watchers of Central Park welcomed in anyone who passed by, shared a pair of binoculars, and got instantly hooked on the amazing scene of a family of hawks growing on the ledge of a Gold Coast apartment building in Manhattan. Ms. Winn's precise, quick-reading prose will convert any reader to a greater, renewed, or first appreciation for wildlife in Central Park in particular, but, even more, for what nature will have going on anywhere. There are several stories here, all fascinating: the cycle of bird life in and migration through the Park; Pale Male and his families; and those humans, so normal in their individual quirkiness, who take up his cause through the years. Ms. Winn's particular and not easy skill is to let all these stories move themselves, and therefore sweep the reader along with all the quiet excitements, joy, and sadnesses they convey. A book to buy and keep always.

I've known Central Park all my life and yet I discovered a whole hidden life in the Park through this book.

"Red Tails in Love" is a complete delight!

Ms Winn presents the story of red-tailed hawks that appeared in New York City and their unlikely selection of a posh condo building to locate their nest. She does a tremendous job of weaving birds, birders, and others who played key parts in putting this story together. This is not a book just for serious birdwatchers; I keep an eye on my birdfeeders, but have no great interest in doing more than watching. The book does address the adaptability of wildlife to urban areas (nesting in skyscapers, dining on pigeons and rats) with the availability of parkland nearby. Red-Tails in Love is quite readable, with brief encounters with the likes of Woody Allen, Mary Tyler Moore, and an astronomer key in the vital process of reading bird bands from afar. The book would be an excellent choice for anyone who wants a good read, nonfiction, with an element of suspence and lots of humor.

Thomas Lion's autobiographical book, "I was an Unsolved Mystery," immediately drops the reader into the unfamiliar, underground world of a fugitive. We watch Lion as he naively steps into this all-consuming existence. We see the mind-work and quick thinking essential for him to keep a wife, contact with family, money, and most vital, freedom. We witness his surface façades and chronic inner-battles with the decisions he makes in hopes of keeping his life whole. We are forced to question the War on Drugs and the laws surrounding this cause.

Lion's life on-the-run is narrated openly and honestly. The book begins with an intensity that is maintained throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend this story and am looking forward to reading Lion's other book, "Chelan."

T.Lion has his second hit book this year.Chelan was fabulous and now Unsolved. When will this government figure out the "wharehousing" of peaceful citizens in the name of marijuana is a very bad joke !!! Draconian sentencing for "herb" people should END ! Lion's unrelenting fight for freedom and fairness can finally be heard. Please take a special note how our government rewards violent criminals to get "their" man. Unsolved could be the new bible of the underground. A GREAT true story!

There is something that attracts most of us about a true story. This story is better than most. Both romantic, and dark, Lions takes you through an almost unbelievable journey that keeps your eyes glued to the pages. I was shocked at the way he escaped the hand of the law, and how the law finally tracked him down. This is a must read book!

Syngress has hit a homerun with this 70-214 study guide and DVD combination. This book covers every aspect of this exam in very good detail and then offers you even more useful information that will go a long way towards keeping your network secure. The 2 hour DVD is an nice addition that hammers home some of the most important subjects. As well, the depth of the practice questions is superb...this is a rare thing anymore with study guides. This book is a sure fire winner that will help you to pass this exam...it sure did for me!!

This is not the hardest Windows 2000 exam, but it's not the easiest either. My on the job experience and this book was all I needed to pass. Lots of good info above and beyond the exam as well, so I'll probably keep it on the shelf for a refernce book. DVD is cool...quick review that you can use if you're brain is fried from reading and studying. Overall, this one is the real deal.

Over the past 5 years usually I have already taken the certification test before reviewing the material, this way I can determine if the material would in fact help you pass the exam. For this book I decided to try it from the other way, use the book to see if I could pass the exam and this book did just that.

Having little experience with security in a Windows 2000 network environment I used this book as the primary source of material to study for the exam. I spent 2 solid weeks reading and practicing the labs, as well as watching the DVD videos. I passed the exam first on the first try on February 28th.

The book covers all objectives and I found the material to be right on the money with the exam questions I got. I also found that some of the material went beyond the actual exam which is certainly a bonus.

There were exercises with utilities like MBSA, URLScan, HFNetChk and QChain, which explain how to use the utility and when to use the utility. One thing I did find is the new version of MBSA has HFNetChk built in, so you may have to be flexible with the exercises. This can be fixed in the next edition.

Overall the material was very complete; there is also a web connection to Syngress where you can get a free web based exam. So if you are looking for a book that can help this one should work.