Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Book reviews for "Eiby,_George" sorted by average review score:

Critical Images: The Canonization of Don Quixote Through Illustrated Editions of the Eighteenth Century
Published in Hardcover by McGill-Queens University Press (1999)
Author: Rachel Schmidt
Amazon base price: $65.00
Used price: $3.85
Collectible price: $35.00
Buy one from zShops for: $3.84
Average review score:

Stimulating and invaluable to those interested in adventure.
The Frigid Mistress stimulated my interest to learn more about the most isolated continent on the planet. Dr. Doumani candidly delves into the lives of men who could not resist the challenge to explore and unravel the mysteries of this unknown world. He gives an enlightening account of human behavior under the most stressful conditions of isolation. The scientists, civilians and military personnel interacted in the most primitive living conditions. Then experienced loliness and a claustrophobic atmosphere during the dark winter months with no contact with the civilized world and the way of life they left behind.

Dr. Doumani captures the readers attention and interest by giving us vivid insights into the personalitites of these explorers. I highly recommend this well written book. It would be invaluable to anyone interested in Antarctica.

A Compelling Account of the Human Side of Scientific Pursuit
The Frigid Mistress is very well written, factually educational, and throroughly enjoyable. Dr. Doumani, a geologist of world repute and a veteran of several Antarctic expeditions, uses plain but powerful language to make the reader feel part of this remote and desolate corner of the world, so much so that I shivered as I read the book. Equally important, the visits to Antarctica delivered proof of many scientific facts which hitherto had been largely theories. For example, it was long suspected that the Southern Hemisphere continents had once been one large continent including Antarctica, and then, over geologic time, they broke up and drifted apart. Now there can be no doubt; it is a fact. This and many other discoveries described by Dr. Doumani provide scientific validations, and always in a fascinating way. For enjoyment, entertainment, and being eduated in the process, this licid, highly recommended reading deserves five stars--or more.

A Forbidden, Wondrous Continent
Every so often an author creates a book that propels one through time into a place where we can measure how far we have come and how arduous was the journey. Dr. Doumani has created such a work. Antarctica is a place as foreign to me as the moon or outer space, yet through skillful narrative with wholly human contacts and foibles, this geologist has given us all a vivid texture of a forbidden, wondrous continent. A place that I doubt I shall ever experience first hand but one which I feel has come to life through this book's fascinating story of early exploration. It is scientific without being burdensome, compelling without being pretentious, delightful and funny yet captivating in mystery and danger. Why do we want to have such a book by our side? As Dr. Doumani states: "One conquest was not enough. It never is. It is...a response to a challenge, a decisive test of man's endurance" which will always bind and attract us as long as our curiousity and love of life continue.


Whoredom: God's Unfaithful Wife in Biblical Theology (New Studies in Biblical Theology)
Published in Paperback by Intervarsity Press (1901)
Author: Raymond C., Jr. Ortlund
Amazon base price: $18.00
Used price: $9.70
Buy one from zShops for: $9.65
Average review score:

Excellent and Desperately Needed!
As social phobia is finally being recognized by the public and professionals alike as a serious condition, affecting nearly 20 million in the US alone, so is avoidant paruresis - one painful, disabling, and embarrassing manifestation of it. As one who suffered from both for years, I can tell you this book provides you with everything you need to know to overcome this form of performance anxiety.

Starting with what "bashful bladder syndrome" is, it takes the reader through its causes, different treatment approaches, what to expect from the medical community, and how to gain support from family, intimates, and friends. It has one chapter on the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act to mandatory drug testing and another on the evolution of the bathroom and its effect on avoidant paruresis which makes for fascinating reading.

This breakthrough book gives hope to people worldwide who live restricted lives because of this debilitating human affliction. It is essential reading for medical and mental health professionals, sufferers, and their family and friends!

Wish I Could Give it 6 Stars
Raise a gallon jug of Spring Water and toast the best (and only?) book on Shy Bladder Syndrome to ever hit the shelves!!!

If you ever thought that you were alone and that no one else in the world suffered from a shy bladder - or paruresis, this book is for you. After living with this problem since junior high, I was amazed at how much information this book book contained on how to finally get your life back to normal.

The nine chapters contained in this book are well written in easy to understand language that is a must read for anyone that suffers from paruresis. Starting with a brief overview of how the mind and bladder work (or don't work), this book leads you down a carefully laid path that shows how to regain control of your life.

Filled with true stories and first hand accounts from real life paruretic's, this book puts a very human face on something that is usually shrouded in secrecy and shame. If nothing else, simply reading this book will make anyone living with paruresis feel human again -- and not so alone. Thousands of people will read these stories only to be amazed at how similar their situation is to those in the book.

The best part, however, is that this book offers a successful plan to overcome paruresis that has been tested and successfully used in workshops around the world. After using the methods in this book, I've seen a dramatic improvement in my ability to use public restrooms with success.

If you're reading this review, you probably need this book or know someone that could benefit greatly from its priceless advice. Get this book...get it now...get on with life!

Looks like a plan !!!

Groundbreaking!
Wow! This is a groundbreaking book as it is the first comprehensive examination of Paruresis. Kudos to the authors for having the courage to bring Shy Bladder Syndrome out of the water closet! Dr. Soifer and his colleagues have taken a subject that has been taboo and largely ignored by medical professionals and have given it the serious treatment that it deserves.

This book excels in presenting Paruresis from both a clinical and very personal perspective. The book provides a keen insight into the embarrassment and suffering that this disorder can cause as well as the ultimate liberation that comes from following the treatment options discussed. For those who suffer from shy bladder syndrome, this book is an absolute must read. You life will be changed forever by implementing a few of the simple but effective options suggested in the book.

The book is well researched (with 7 pages of references) and clearly reflects the authors' interest and passion in explaining Paruresis and offering practical options which will help everyone who suffers from Shy Bladder Syndrome. You may be embarrassed about Paruresis but don't be embarrassed to buy this book!


Quartered Safe Out Here: A Recollection of the War in Burma
Published in Paperback by HarperCollins (paper) (1994)
Author: George MacDonald Fraser
Amazon base price: $16.95
Used price: $21.01
Buy one from zShops for: $11.98
Average review score:

Is THIS What We Were Fighting For?
A superb narrative of the "forgotten" war in Burma in WWII that allows Fraser to comment on not only the war itself and those close to him in combat but a biting commentary on revisionist historians and their efforts to look backwards at events from today's politically correct perspective.The tale itself is a loosely jointed account of short, vicious actions in the chaos that surrounded the last days of the Japanese Empire in Southeast Asia and the Commonwealth's role in ending it. Images of both the tedium and confusion of men subject to the vague "plans" of headquarters as well as vivid discriptions of close combat against a tenacious enemy make this both an historically interesting "read" as well as a informative glimpse of Fraser's generation who went off to the four corners of the globe to "make the world safe for democracy". Did they truly risk their lives for the society we live in today

Sobering, relevant, and important
Fraser's is one of the finest war memoirs I've ever read, and for so many reasons. He has a gift for illustrating the life of the combat soldier in ways that are at once terrifying, hilarious, and sometimes just plain bizarre. His discovery in the field that he had a gift for brewing tea is unforgettable, as is his account of falling down a well in the middle of a battle, his comrades cracking jokes about it as the chaos and noise of battle rages all around them. Among the most remarkable things about Fraser's book are his comparisons between the official histories of what happened with what he actually experienced; the official history of one engagement, for example, records only that a tank was destroyed and so many men killed or wounded on each side, but Fraser describes what that burning tank SMELLED like and how it attracted the attention of Japanese soldiers throughout the night. These are the things we rarely get from ordinary histories of battles and wars. His book does not reduce the soldiers to a list of statistics. One learns to care about them or loathe them almost as much as Fraser did.

The final few chapters are particularly sobering. Anyone who questions the necessity of the atomic bomb attacks on Japan would do well to read this book (and E.B. Sledge's "With the Old Breed"). We owe so much to the men and women who fought and served in this war, and we have failed them in so many ways. Our world of psychological gibberish and moral ineptitude is not what they fought for. Fraser's book has many important and enduring lessons for all of us, but particularly for those of us born in the postwar boom. Highly, highly recommended!

An amazing book
This is one of the best personal memoirs of any war. Fraser's experience as a young man fighting in Burma during World War II is recalled in wonderful detail. He manages somehow to bring out all the horrors, oddities, laughter, and comaraderie that characterize many similar military units, and we get to know each member of the small band with all their strengths and failings. Particularly striking is Fraser's occasional use of official historical accounts of the Burmese campaign as preface pieces to his own descriptions; the cold eye of the historian paints a very different picture compared to one who was there, when every shot fired could end in the death of yourself or a comrade. Fraser's introduction alone is a gem, and his brief discussions of the ordinary soldier's view of the Nazi concentration camps and the Hiroshima bombing provide a stark contrast to the moralizing that surround these subjects today. Fraser's book reminds us that at bottom, all wars are characterized by the men who fought in the lowest ranks: men whose efforts make them stand out and who deserve our admiration, thanks and respect.


Pugs in Public
Published in Hardcover by Stewart, Tabori & Chang (1999)
Authors: Kendall Farr, George Bennett, Sarah Montague, and Sharon Montrose
Amazon base price: $11.17
List price: $15.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $11.09
Collectible price: $12.06
Buy one from zShops for: $10.52
Average review score:

CUTE, BUT LACKS REAL INFO
Pugs in Public is full of cute little personal stories about pugs and their people, but is not a reference guide or a useful training tool. The book consists of photos of pugs in costumes at tea parties and the like. Also included is information about pricey pug accessories, my favorite being the $19,000 pug carrier in red crocodile with a sterling dog bowl and a cashmere blanket (if you're interested, contact Asprey & Garrand, NYC). In short, this book is written for wealthy, old women with money to burn on indulging their pugs. If you're looking for real information on the breed, keep looking.

This book made me laugh out loud!
If you love pugs, you will LOVE this book! Kendall Farr does an excellent job describing the history of the pug as well as the character traits that make them so lovable. I found myself laughing out loud a lot.

Entertaining and full of heart!
This is the perfect gift for a Pug owner! If you love dogs, especially Pugs, this is your book. Darling bios on pugs and their owners. Should be titled "Pugs in the City". This is an homage to the breed not a training book or breed standard information. This is pug entertainment.


Old cottage garden flowers
Published in Unknown Binding by World's Work ()
Author: Roger Banks
Amazon base price: $
Used price: $29.95
Collectible price: $31.72
Average review score:

A BOYHOOD ODYSSEY DURING WWII
"Beating the Odds" by George Burnell is the exciting autobiography of a youngster growing up in Nazi-occupied France during WWII. In 369 action packed pages, the author traces his journey from Strasbourg, France in 1939 until the end of WWII in May, 1945. "Beating the Odds" is a real page turner that reads like a novel full of twists and turns. As an adolescent French Jew, George with his family lived in constant fear of discovery by the Nazis and moved frequently to ellude them. Despite these risks, he manages to join his Uncle David, a Dentist, and others in the French Resistance and narrowly escapes with his life. This fascinating memoir gives the reader an interesting and unique perspective on WWII in France and I highly recommend it to you.

A beautifully written memoir
How well I remember World War II, but only from the safety of my childhood in the United States, unlike Dr. Burnell whose youth during the occupation of his beloved France is the subject of this memoir. It provides us with historic data that is particularly relevant as our own country faces another major war. As a Jewish family working with the French Resistance, life for young George life became a series of escapes, moving from city to city to avoid execution. George's beloved step-father died for his heroic efforts, but mother and son managed to survive the ordeal. This easy to read book is written with sensitivity and intelligence during a period fraught with atrocities that one should never forget. I couldn't put the book down.

Living to Tell the Story
"A Boyhood Under Nazi-Occupied France" is a compelling story of a Jewish family in their struggle to keep one step ahead to stay alive.
As a master story teller, Dr. Burnell retained a vivid and close memory of his personal experience, as a youth, surviving the horrors of war.
His mother was a very strong and resourceful women, allowing the family to land on their feet each time they were to forced to move from city to city. The family was tested in every way.
Dr. Burnell's extrodinary book will take some readers to a place
they have never been and others from a place they have never forgotten.


The Boys on the Tracks
Published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (1999)
Author: Mara Leveritt
Amazon base price: $18.17
List price: $25.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $10.69
Collectible price: $13.22
Buy one from zShops for: $17.07
Average review score:

Excellent, Informative. Enthralling
A mother's determination to learn the truth about the deaths of her teenage son and his friend, who were hit by a train late at night in Arkansas after being laid side-by-side on the tracks. Local authorities offer absurd explanations and try to brush it off as an accident, but in time it becomes clear that a cover-up is in the works, and that the deaths were possibly related to a large-scale, international drug-smuggling operation of the 1980's, which was condoned and covered up by authorities because of its links to Iran-Contra. Don't let this sound too confusing or far-fetched. Mara Leveritt is a respected reporter with the Arkansas Times, and the entire story is carefully explained and well-documented. This is a must read for anyone interested in American government policies in relation to the drug war, Iran-Contra, and covert activities, or Arkansas state politics in the Clinton era.

Put this book in the hands of every American
This is, in my view, the best full account of the "Train deaths" I have seen yet.

This story and the events surrounding the Mena airport in Arkansas are unknown to most Americans, due to narrow-minded journalists and partisan political hacks on both sides.

This story and the whole story of Mena is very real, and will haunt America for years to come.

It is a true story of a parents worst nightmare. And a nightmare for the nation that few are aware of--our government and system of justice has become corrupt and lawless.

I would deeply recommend this book for anyone who is interested in getting the word out about Mena and the "Train Deaths" and who is interested in helping reclaim our system of justice to prevent it from failing our children again.

Brilliantly written = great insight to Arkansas politics
This book is one that the reader will not want to put down. An excellent overview of the events that occured in this case and the fact that there is little justice in Arkansas when high powered politicians are involved. The average person in this country doesn't believe these things happen, but after you read this book, the evidence is documented and plain to see.

Hopefully, someday these guilty persons will be held accountable for putting a family, a state and country through such a horrible tragedy.

It is time the American people opened their eyes to what is really going on in our country and to stand up against these powerful machines.

Mara did a great deal of research and documented all of her information and wrote a book about what an ordinary family has had to endure for 12 years and no one will listen to them and bring these people that committed and covered up such a cruel deed to justice. The Ives deserve an answer and if anyone knows anything about this event, they should try to put this nightmare to rest.


Chiropractic Pediatrics: A Clinical Handbook
Published in Hardcover by Churchill Livingstone (15 October, 2000)
Authors: Neil J. Davies and Churchill Livingstone
Amazon base price: $72.00
Used price: $7.97
Buy one from zShops for: $13.43
Average review score:

Great Book
I attended the book launch for With Love, With Connie.
The story intrigued me. Now that I have read the novel, I want to compliment George Henaut on his creative talents. I've had the characters and plot floating through my head since I began reading the romantic journey of Robert and Rachel. Of course, the songs of Connie Francis take on new meaning.I can understand why the last chapter was not entitled, "Who's Sorry Now?" The novel does a commendable job of revealing the influence that entertainers have on our lives.It has satire, wit, humour and suspense, and of course, romance.

Connie Again
Viewed biography of Connie Francis on A&E television last night. Very interesting. Listening to her songs drew me back to the book (With Connie With Love) where her music and words run such a parallel current through the theme of love, loss and life. Both Connies life and the books ending speak of the hope and healing of time and the human spirit. Good show.....Good read.

Description of Novel and Author
I note that novel summary and comments about the author are not provided so I'll take this opportunity to provide both.

About the Book:

December 12, 1997 is an extraordinary day in Robert Mascaux's life, involving him in a family funeral, his second wedding and a birthday party for a celebrity.

This romantic novel begins with a flashback to 1959, in Northumbria, a coastal community in Nova Scotia. Robert, a high school student, resides at the Manor, a private nursing home owned by his parents, Bertha and Camille, immigrants from Belgium. Robert's home life is enriched by his 'foster grandparents', the Manor residents. When Robert becomes a member of a Connie Francis fan club, he begins a lengthy correspondence with Rachel Turner, the club's teenage president, who lives on an estate in Flanders Cove, Connecticut, with her reclusive, artistic aunts, fondly called 'the bouquet'.

The reader discovers the enduring power of love through the struggles and triumphs that Robert and Rachel encounter during their friendship, spanning 38 years. The novel depicts the influence that singers can have on their fans and also reveals parallels that can exist between the lives of singers and their admirers. The music of Connie Francis is the thread of continuity for the couple for whom fate, an international border, family responsibilities, and a sinister villain delayed their marriage until December 12, 1997.

George Henaut:

George R. Henaut has an abiding interest in language - its power and its beauty. His career as an educator provided many opportunities to enhance and share this passion with others. Since 1990 he has written, directed and produced ten dramas for audiences in his native Nova Scotia. His plays and short stories have been influenced not only by life on the Atlantic seaboard, but also by his Christian spirituality and appreciation of traditional family values. All of these influences have culminated in his first novel, With Love, With Connie, which also reveals his enduring appreciation of the music of Connie Francis. His greatest desire is to share this romantic, yet turbulent story of Robert and Rachel with others.


Republic of Debtors : Bankruptcy in the Age of American Independence
Published in Hardcover by Harvard Univ Pr (2003)
Author: Bruce H. Mann
Amazon base price: $20.97
List price: $29.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $9.49
Collectible price: $14.82
Buy one from zShops for: $9.99
Average review score:

Do You Want Your Kid to Be a Robot?
In fact, do you want to be a robot? I talked to a woman who took a whole semester in computer science and came out learning nothing. She told me this. My love affair with Real Math started with this book in a library. I was reading a book which had a bunch of interviews with the most successful programmers in the world. One was Czech and I do not remember his name. But he was asked the following question. "What in your opinion is the biggest mistake that programmers are doing in their educations or their work today?" He answered, "It's simple. They don't know how to solve problems. At our company, we have some simple books that tell you how to do this. The best is Polya's 'How to Solve It'. It has a little diagram in the back that completely runs you through a series of questions on solving math problems. But even in schools, they don't take this approach. Everything is by rote and repetition! You solve a problem and YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU SOLVED! We have a lot of these little books." The late Isaac Asimov wrote a beautiful little book called "The Realm of Algebra". It's out of print. But he explains the entire realm of algebra in something like 150 pages. The best book I've ever seen about math. Math can be fun. Programming can be fun. But only if you ask Polya's questions in the back of this book. "What do I have to do to make this problem complete?" "What is missing from this problem?" "What could I add to make this problem solved?" A two page diagram in the back. And everybody knows that programming is just "crummy mathematics". BUY THE BOOK! BUY THE BOOK! BUY THE BOOK!. 2 pages in the end of this book and at least 50% of your math/programming problems are down the drain. Buy the books for your son if you are a Betty Crocker. Or your daughter. Or they will end up in the "Valley of the Dead". Solving problems in school for years and years and simply not knowing what they did! Good luck. Oh yes. One last thing. BUY THE BOOK!

Indispensable for anyone who solves problems professionally.

How to Solve It is the most significant contribution to heuristic since Descartes' Discourse on Method. The title is accurate enough, but the subtitle is far too modest: the examples are drawn mostly from elementary math, but the method applies to nearly every problem one might encounter. (Microsoft, for instance, used to and may still give this book to all of its new programmers.) Polya divides the problem-solving process into four stages--Understanding the Problem, Devising a Plan, Carrying out the Plan, and Looking Back--and supplies for each stage a series of questions that the solver cycles through until the problem is solved. The questions--what is the unknown? what are the data? what is the condition? is the condition sufficient? redundant? contradictory? could you restate the problem? is there a related problem that has been solved before?--have become classics; as a computer programmer I ask them on the job every day.

The book is short, 250 large-print pages in the paperback. Its style is clear, brilliant and does not lack in humor. Here is Polya's description of the traditional mathematics professor: "He usually appears in public with a lost umbrella in each hand. He prefers to face the blackboard and turn his back on the class. He writes A; he says B; he means C; but it should be D." Behind the humor, though, lurks a serious complaint about mathematical pedagogy. Fifty years ago, when Polya was writing, and today still, mathematics was presented to the student, under the tyranny of Euclid, as a magnificent but frozen edifice, a series of inexorable deductions. Even the student who could follow the deductions was left with no idea how they were arrived at. How to Solve It was the first and best attempt to demystify math, by concentrating on the process, not the result. Polya himself taught mathematics at Stanford for many years, and one can only envy his students. But the next best thing is to read his book.

Important classic
It's delightful to see this book is still in bookstores after 60 years, and I can still remember how much fun it was to read it 30 years ago. I came across it recently in a local bookstore, and after poring over it again, I was inspired to write a little review about it.

The most important thing about the book is Polya's little heuristic method for breaking down math problems and guiding you thru the process of solving them. Try to visualize the problem as a whole. Diagram it at first, even if you don't have all the details. Just initially try to get the most important parts of the problem down. Then try to get some sense of the relationship of the parts to the whole. Then tackle each of the component parts. If you get stuck, ask yourself if you could approach it another way, what could be missing, and so on. To this end, the questions at the back of the book are worth their weight in gold.

Polya's little heuristic and methods book is a timeless classic. This and Lancelot Hogben's "Mathematics for the Millions" have done more good for suffering math students than all the the dry textbooks put together that really don't teach you "how to solve it."


Infantry Soldier: Holding the Line at the Battle of the Bulge
Published in Hardcover by Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (2002)
Author: George W. Neill
Amazon base price: $17.47
List price: $24.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $13.87
Buy one from zShops for: $13.87
Average review score:

The Real Story
If there is just one book that you read about the Battle of the Bulge, make sure that is George Neill's book, "Infantry Soldier. Holding the Line at the Battle of the Bulge." It was absolutely eerie for me, a buddy of George's in L Company, 395th Regiment, 99th Division, to have such long-dormant memories so poignantly revived. From the early days of induction from college into the Army, basic training and ASTP in Texas, "assignment" to the 99th Division, to landing in England, France and Germany, George vividly recounts the incredible experiences we college kids went through until we arrived in the little German village of Hoefen, during that terrible winter of 1944. His book is a loving and fitting tribute to all those who suffered there and to our many close friends who gave their lives during the massive assault made in December by troops of the German Wehrmacht. On reading his story, I felt myself reliving those absurd day-to-day experiences, the incredible cold and freezing wetness of that miserable winter and the fantastic haphazardness of war that some of us somehow survived. George is at his best when he describes his own remarkable trials, and he pulls no punches in decrying the irregularities in the supply lines that left us on the front lines without proper clothing and equipment (I, myself, arrived at the front with no rockets for my bazooka and with no snow boots--hence my evacuation because of my avoidable affliction with frozen feet. My own outrage and anger match George's, when I recall having later seen so many well-shod and well-clothed support troops behind the lines).

For anyone who has witnessed the inanities of warfare this book will serve to revive the joys, frustrations, suffering and anger of infantry life in battle. For those who have been spared these unreal experiences this book is a "must" for insuring that such needless, even criminal, waste of life is never forgotten--and, hopefully, never repeated.

The finest book I have ever read about the Second World War
This is a blockbuster! The author goes into stark detail about life on the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge. Mr. Neill tells all about the misery, pain, sorrow and frustrations experienced by the infantry soldiers who built and manned the foxholes beyond the front. He has written these accounts down in stunning detail and helps the reader appreciate and "feel" what it was like to live out in the open in the snow, cold, slush and mud, without adequate winter gear. He couldn't have done better. This book is riveting from beginning to end.

I remember what a Political Science professor told me about a book we had to read for his class. The book, The Theory and Practice of Hell, by Eugen Kogan, was about life in the Dachau concentration camp. He said, "This book should only be read while you're out in the cold, sitting on a concrete slab, with inadequate clothing and starving." The same holds true for Infantry Soldier. Mr. Neill can't do any better in making the reader understand the horrors, dangers and tragedies of war. The reader is propelled into the middle of battle and can actually feel the cold and hunger experienced by these soldiers. We have no idea of what these men went through, even by reading accounts of the war by others.

No other author comes close. Nothing by Shirer, Manchester, Tuchman, Pyle or Eisenhower can hold a candle to this book. Even All Quiet on the Western Front pales in comparison. It is a must read! My hat is off to Mr. Neill! A splendid work!

Good Book, Puts you in the Action
I had to read this book for a course on WWII. Neil does an excellent job of "putting you there" as the cliche goes. The complexities of battle, to the horrid conditions to the mindstate of men about to die are all covered well in this novel. Neill really does a good job of keeping the reader attached to the book, and helps bring to life something that many people have only read about in history text books. I recommend this novel to anyone interested in War in general, and of course in WWII.


Healthy for Life: The Scientific Breakthrough Program for Looking, Feeling, and Staying Healthy Without Deprivation
Published in Paperback by Plume (1996)
Authors: Rachael F. Heller, Dr. Rachael F. Heller, Dr. Richard F. Heller, and Richard Ferdinand Heller
Amazon base price: $11.17
List price: $15.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $16.00
Buy one from zShops for: $19.14
Average review score:

A Good Read!
This revealing book covers a highly charged and controversial period of American investment history. George P. Baker and George David Smith study the emergence of the investment house Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts (KKR), and follow it during the decade KKR ruled the world of leveraged buyouts. The authors begin with the early days when the partners worked together at Bear Stearns. They track the men as they build their own firm and create their own success. In clear, straightforward language, the book presents KKR's intentions and the economics of leveraged buyouts (LBOs). It discusses KKR's role in structuring and managing the deals. We [...] recommend this book as a must read for anyone interested in LBOs or the history of KKR. Executives at all levels will find the KKR saga interesting and useful.

More than simply a story about KKR...
Baker and Smith have accomplished two objectives in their short book. On the surface, they have expertly captured the key elements in the development of KKR as the frontrunner of the LBO firm. However, on a deeper level, they have also captured many of the elements that managers and entrepreneurs should consider when running or starting a firm. In this regard, the Preface and Chapter Five are worth the price of admission. For anyone interested in the evolution and history of modern American finance, read this book.

Detailed Treatment of early KKR-led LBO Financing
This is an outstanding academic treatment of the investments made by KKR, all of which were some kind of leveraged buy-out. The authors focus their attention on the transactions themselves, not the way they were viewed by society or on the people that put them together - in this regard the book is a rare gem. It treats the period up to 1990 in some depth, with some very interesting case studies that show pretty good financial detail with outstanding qualitative descriptions of the transactions that were put together. As you walk through the various case studies, you are able to sit alongside with the KKR team and watch as the LBO goes from an unusual financial instrument to a mainstream product that is widely accepted in the marketplace. While growing acceptance of financial products is an established facet of Wall Street, to follow this evolution through the work of a single firm really is quite interesting. The manner in which the complexity, leverage and size of the transactions grow is laid out in plain English, making this a fascinating read.

Only Chapter 5 "KKR as an Institutional Form" focused on the firm itself, and even this treatment was not nearly as obsequious as many other financial books (most notably "Goldman Sachs: the Culture of Success" by Endlich). Mr. Baker and Mr. Smith take a very level-headed approach and document the growth of the firm in a straight-forward manner, although they do inject a good deal of 'positivity' to their view, i.e. the revolutionary introduction of Monday Morning Meeting's at KKR in the 1990's (this is commonplace at most banks).

I particularly enjoyed the second chapter "Recasting the Role of Debt" which talks about some of the earlier transactions that KKR did in some depth. The description of their LBO of Houdaille is very much worth reading, if only for the fact that traditional 'Old Economy' companies are again garnering such interest. Indeed, that is a very noteworthy aspect of the whole book, KKR focused on established companies with real cash flows. The one transaction which involved real growth financing was a near bust. This is very different than all of the financial maneuvering that has gone on over the past two years, and it is interesting to compare the sustainability of the two efforts (the many years of KKR's existence surely triumphs over venture capital's recent 15 minutes of fame). Chapter 4 on "When Risk Becomes Real" talks about some of the failed KKR transactions, EFB Trucking and Eaton Leonard in some detail. The reaction of KKR to these hiccups is very impressive, and while it is told with the same 'positivity' of the authors as mentioned above, the authors still do a good job of telling the story in an objective manner. The efforts of the partners to maintaining KKR's reputation in the marketplace is nothing short of heroic, and while there was a clear financial incentive over the short term it is clear that the longer term reputation of the company also played a clear role in motivating their actions.

It really is rare to get a book as good as this with detailed financial information (even if it is more than 10 years old) and a mostly unbiased view of the Company. Where the authors are biased, it is easy to pick up and interpret. This is very much an academic treatment of the firm, with some detail as to what the rest of the market was doing, but not a whole lot. There are just the right number of graphs, which is very nice. I would think anybody working in finance would enjoy this book, although given the depth in which it describes the transactions, it might not be the most leisurely read. This is an outstanding book.


Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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