OUT OF THE PAST
The Floating Eagle was the only home Ramsey Carmichael Delacroix had ever known, and with her marriage in ruins she wanted her young son to know the peace of mind she had found there as a child. But things had changed in the years she'd been away from the Idaho ranch. Somebody was determined to destroy everything she loved - and that somebody looked more and more like game warden Brad Chillicott.

The high-and-might Carmichaels had always thought they were above the law, and it was up to Brad to let them know that times had changed. And it was also upto him to protect the only woman he had ever loved - whether she liked it or not.

You might be curious about what the title of this book refers to. It¡¯s rather simpler than you might guess. In a common vocabulary in business, it refers to the ¡®radical innovation¡¯. Then, you might infer that the 3rd generation R&D should be the incremental innovation. Yep. You¡¯re right. But those conventional terms don¡¯t fit completely into what authors argues. There is sufficient reason to coin such neologisms. The argument of this book goes like this. Traditional market research tends to deal with explicit knowledge. Focus group, survey, structured interview, all tackle what is pre-definable or expressible in word. But could such approaches spot the next generation product? authors question. No. customers can¡¯t put into words their gut feeling needs. They could spot it only when it appears on the market. The real breakthrough in product development, more often than not, comes in unexpected way. Thus, authors pose the question, ¡®How we should manage the uncertainty?¡¯ Put in other way, ¡®how we should manage the innovation?¡¯ R&D or product development must include incremental innovation. But in this turbulent environment, it¡¯s not enough. To be the leader in the market, not follower, one should ride ahead the tide. Then the question of R&D should be the radical innovation. Break with the identifiable trend. Then what product should be devised? All R&D begins with the product concept. But now the concept should be based on what customer¡¯s gut feeling or their tacit needs. Don¡¯t make what customer wants today. Make what they want tomorrow. At this point, you might retort: ¡®Yep. You¡¯re right. But it¡¯s easier to be told than to be done. How I could do so?¡¯ Here comes the knowledge management. Customers¡¯ tacit needs tend to be buried in noise of day-to-day information flow. There are numerous reasons for such filtering out. But all in all, to be sensitive to that kind of info, the authors maintain, is to manage the organization innovative. Knowing is not doing. Doing needs the capability to do. Then innovation requires the capability building. But it¡¯s not that simple to build up. It must face resistance inside the firm itself. Radical innovation tends to be the capability-destroying one. so developing innovative product usually comes with organizational innovation.
Above is the problem authors pose to us. I think the better title of the book is ¡®Strategic management of innovation¡¯. This book is not about the specificity of R&D, but about how to manage the firm innovative. Overall tenet of the book is so close to Nonaka & Takeuchi¡¯s ¡®The Knowledge-Creating Company¡¯. But this book is written not for academic researcher but for managers in the field. Points are made in graphic way with various case studies by authors. Nonetheless, it lacks the depth of Nonaka & Takeuchi¡¯s book. I recommend to read this book with Nonaka & Takeuchi¡¯s.

The book starts out with theoretical constucts and eventually uses examples to show their relevance. I found the authors' style of writing rather awkward. The organization of the material also makes the book somewhat difficult to follow. However, the well researched material presented is worth buying the book.

Authors Miller and Morris have nailed the impending transformation of R&D from its historical, product-centric past to its emerging knowledge-centric future. In addition, their focus on 'discontinuous' and 'fusion' innovation promises to lead the way for industry, in general, whose R&D functions typically produce less than one new product innovation per decade and whose new products, when they are produced, tend to fail in under four years. The authors' explicit embrace of knowledge management is also welcome, as the value of most companies now tends to rest more on the weight of their intellectual assets than on so-called 'hard' assets. Finally, this book's focus on distributed, enterprise-wide innovation signals the tearing down of R&D's overly centralized and compartmentalized profile in most firms, and offers strong support for the view that innovation should be structured as a distributed, whole-firm social process, not an administrative one. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in R&D, innovation, knowledge management, intellectual capital, organizational learning, and sustainable innovation.

The Ultimate Marilyn is a biography which is filled with information. It has facts, myths, and theories. However, it is also boring to read. Unlike most Marilyn biographies which I have read, it is not set up like a story. It merely has short blurbs on each aspect of her life.

This is such a good book. I had a report on Marilyn Monroe and this helped out so much! This had pictures which were beautiful pictures. Some things that were in this book were family, friends, husbands, lovers, teachers, mentors, rivals, enemies, agents, publicists, studio heads, producers, directors, writers, photographers, costume designers, gossip, scandals, innuendo, intrigues, threats, rumors, conspiracy theories, murder or suicide, books, biographies, movies, stage plays, songs, imitators, impersonators, worshippers, detractors, fan clubs, web sites, and much more!

The book market is flooded with Monroe works, as everyone knows. However, there are several "must have" volumes, and Ernest Cunningham's work is definitely on that list. The book provides the reader with a wealth of information, divided into easily understood sections which, in turn, will lead the reader to virtually every book ever printed dealing with this screen goddess. Cunningham's research is both broad and impeccable, not duplicated anywhere else on the market. His writing is clean and clear with a tongue-in-cheek touch that is entertaining while also being informative. This book is truly "essential" for any Monroe fan or collector and would also be of high interest for the less devoted who simly want to know a bit more about the "why" and "how" of the Monroe legend.

Did anyone actually read this book before they published it? The plot seems solid: Malinche Adams travels to Alaska to investigate the death of the brother she'd never known. She turns to the man who found the body, Brian Kennedy, and of course, they soon find their lives in danger, with no one to turn to but each other. The execution could have used some work, however. How many times could Malinche and Brian repeat the same arguments over and over? Brian doesn't want to get involved with Malinche, because he "knows what rich girls like her were like." 200 pages of that argument grew old real fast. And if Malinche bemoaned how she never fit in just one more time... I really have to wonder if anyone edited this book, because the repetition that goes on to drag the book out of 250 pages is ridiculous. I couldn't believe one glaring example: On page 61, Malinche says to someone about her brother, "You must have known him very well." The man replies, "As well as anyone, I guess." On page 62--THE VERY NEXT PAGE!--Malinche asks the exact same man, "Did you know him well?" The man answers, (surprise, surprise) "As well as anyone, I guess." Don't you think, if we're shelling out hard-earned money for a book, the author and editor could at least attempt to make it look well-written? There are a few positive points: there are some good action sequences where the heroes have to get themselves out of a jam with sheer resourcefulness, and the revelation of the killer (and motivation) was pretty good. Cunningham also fills the book with a lot of interesting details. She obviously did her research. Too bad she didn't spend some of that time honing her writing on this one.

Can there be such a rating as a 4 minus.
I enjoyed the story and I liked the characters of Brian Kennedy [loved the cover - need more blondes] and Malinche Adams.

I was holding my breath when they found themselves on the ice floe but tell me, do they have to have sex to fall in love when they express fear of commitment?? I don't understand this.

Villian was almost powerful enough and I was glad to find out the reasons behind Dimitre's death but eventually I was left with a feeling of incompleteness?? disatisfaction? something left out?

Ah well, I am glad I read the story anyway. Form your own opinion as that is the only true test of a story.

This book is another one of her great novels. I recomend it to anyone who enjoys romances. It shows great creativity and captures the heart of the reader. Her indepth descriptions are superb.