It is all in this book. If you are responsible for marketing professional services, this book brings 100 years of experience. It will make you a super star. It has the data, the method, the plan. It's up to you to implement it, but it's one that is easy to do...and it works.

For those interested in managing and organizing a professional service firm, this book provides all the tools for success. Maister has delivered a book that captures the essence of managing a business based on the expertise of its people. It should be a must read for any person engaged in selling services. This is one book that will withstand time.

I've read a lot of books on leadership, management and selling - this is one of a select few that I find myself referring back to frequently since I first read it 5 years ago. I just logged on to buy a new copy - I've loaned out my old one again and forget who has it. The chapters on selling professional services are particularly strong, because Maister recommends dignified, professional approaches to client development. I personally practice ideas like 'marketing from the inside' and it's helped me help a lot of people - and make a lot of money in the process.

This is certainly the best book I have ever read in my life! This is Jordan Cray's best book. It provides a great deal of suspense and this is the first book that I actually wouldn't let go of. Anybody who loves the internet will love this book! If you haven't read it, GET IT!

Firestorm, The Best Book I've ever read and believe me I've read alot of books. I recomend this book to any 9 year olds and up. I just started Gemini7 so far its really good too. I hope you will try some of the other books too. Alex C.

Well, I read this book when I was in 4th grade, that was like 4 years ago! But, this book was so cool, It took me one night to read it! I read it all nite, even at the dinner table....Any kid or adult that likes the internet, mysteries, and suspense should definetly go by this book!! Also, Pantera is the coolest band ever...To all kids. go buy the CD called "Reinventing the steel" plus, I am 14, not 12....I had to put 12 cause that is the oldest age on the form

Reading this book was a delight! I am a C++ developer but stil the plain language used here made me understand things that are hidden between the lines of Inside COM of Dale Rogerson.

On the negative side, I think the author is devoting too much to OLE embedding a linking. I don't know how many people are interseted in this...

I think this is the FIRST book to be read for someone who starts with COM, OLE and ActiveX. From here, you have to go to Inside COM and-if time permitted and you are a very curious person- to Inside OLE.

I found this a useful book. I've been working with OLE for about a year now and what this book does is tie together the disparate pieces of the technology from the top down, explaining the technology conceptually and also letting the reader in on some of the quirkier aspects of COM. For instance, as a C++ developer, I often wondered about the why behind IDispatch. IDispatch becomes much more reasonable when you see it, as Chappell points out, from the viewpoint of a VB programmer. The one criticism of the book I have is that I don't think it lives up to the claim subtitled on its cover - "A guide for developers and managers." While this is a good book for developers (including project leads), it's still too technically detailed for most managers. Still all in all . . . a good read. Very recommended.

If you are interested in COM this is a must read. Clear, easy to follow, accurate explanation of the concepts. If you are interested in code look at Don Box "Essential COM" book, but read this one first.

David Halbestam's monumental book, the children, is a hymn of praise to a remarkable group of young people who did much, perhaps most, of the heavy lifting of the civil rights movement. But it is also the story of how one man, James Lawson, influenced a movement and changed a nation. There are many heroes portrayed in Halberstam's book, but perhaps the one indispensable person in the success of the civil rights movement was not Martin Luther King, Jr., but James Lawson. This is not to diminish or belittle the contributions of King, for what more can a man give than his life. But even Halberstam doesn't seem to recognize that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 might never have come about had it not been for the remarkable acheivement of James Lawson in attracting and training the first group of young, tremendously dedicated non-violent protesters in Nashville in 1959 and 1960. This is one of the most inspirational books I have ever read, and while, as several of the reviewers have already noted, the book could have done with some paring of redundancies, if you want a story filled with heroes and heroines, with light overcoming darkness and the good guys winning, this is your book. It should be required reading for every young person in America. James Lawson, jailbird, "draft dodger" and the ultimate "outside agitator," has lived a life of consequence and significance that most of us can only dream about. The remarkable thing is that he found other young people who wished to live lives equally challenging. Human beings, if they are lucky, are given only a few rare opprotunities in their lives to make a real and great impact on their world. Lawson, Nash, LaFayette, Bevel, Powell, Brown, Johnson and the wonderous John Lewis among many others, seized their opportunity, and made life better for not only millions of Black folk held hostage to racism and ignorance, but for millions of their white oppressors as well. The great tragedy is that as the Movement entered its period of greatest success, it was, like the Russian Revolution, seized by some of the most radical elements in what had been the fringes of the movement. And we lost Martin Luther King, Jr., the most effective voice of the nation's conscience.

It is impossible to say anything about David Halberstam's books without first saying how influential his journalism has been to an entire generation of journalists in the United States and overseas. When I was a young news clerk at The New York Times a long time ago, I read Halberstam's masterly "The Best and The Brightest," and I wrote him a note applauding his detailed research, the flow of his narrative, and the sheer sweep of his story. To my surprise, he responded promptly; it is a note that I still treasure -- just as I treasure every book he has written since. "The Children" shows Halberstam at the peak of his writing ability. He recreates the human environment of the frenetic years of the civil rights struggles, telling the extraordinary stories of some of heralded and unheralded players in a manner that is both gripping and provocative. The reader shouldn't be daunted by the length of this book (800 pages) because there isn't a single section that flags. "The Children" is certain to become a landmark book. It deepens our understanding of a traumatic period in American history, and illustrates vividly that ultimately all social forces and causes are shaped by individual men and women -- in this case people who battled racism and the ever-present antagonism of foes determined not to yield ground. "The Children" dramatizes the triumph of goodness; it is definitely a triumph of a genre that might be called histojournalism. It is a superb book by a towering writer of great sensitivity and skill.

David Halberstam, as always, tells the whole story of events in history of which too little is known. He brilliantly details the lives and experiences of the front-line soldiers in the civil rights movement--the men and women (actually boys and girls...hence the name of the book) who had the courage to risk their lives to attain well-deserved and historically denied rights. Prior to this work, historians focused on King and his associates. I prefer the perspective and approach of Halberstam.

The reader becomes engrossed in the lives of the people. Halberstam lets us in on their organization, their disagreements, affairs, loves, families, fears, hopes, failures and successes. Most amazingly, he contrasts the children's reaction to racism with that of their parents. The younger generation's frontal assault on the segregationist strongholds is truly amazing. The stories of the freedom riders is engrossing.

Not Halberstam's best book (that would be the Fifties) but pretty darn close.

Miss Spider's Tea Party: The Counting Book, is a favorite of my 10 month old. I have been reading it to her since she was 6 months old. It is by far her favorite among all of her board books. She is captivated by the vivid art work and loves the rhythm of the story. I was so pleased with it that I bought it for my 2 year old niece. It has become her favorite. The board book stands up to wear and tear. I highly recommend this book all the way around!

I purchased this book a year ago for my then 18 month old niece and it is her favorite book. The illustrations are vivid and the characters jump off the pages.At two and a half, she's learned to count as well as identify colors. It is a well worn and loved book. Not only does she love it but I love reading it to her as well. I will continue to gift other toddlers with this gem!!DA Lancaster,Pa

My son is only four months old, however, this book, with all of the wonderful illustrations and colors, encourages him to look from side-to-side. He smiles and seems to delight with the flow of words, as well as the illustrations. This is the ONLY book that he looks at with such interest. I hope that the other "Miss Spider" books are converted to the same type of board book soon. I believe that it is never too early to introduce a child to loving character that they may grow with.

If all you know about the Hulk is what you saw on TV - on any of the cartoons or on the old Bill Bixby show - forget everything and start over here. Peter David, who reinvented the Hulk for Marvel Comics prior to writing this book, crafts a heartwrenching story about a man cursed to see his own worst angel in the mirror every day, the owman who loves him, and the evil that may lurk within both his mind and his DNA.

If you've read PAD's Trek novels, try this. It's even better than those, as he takes a character he has made his own and makes him incredible. And after this, you'll never thing of the Hulk and Lou Ferrigno in the same sentence again.

This is the only book I have ever bought, then read, then only minutes after putting the book down, picked it up and read it - AGAIN! I've read it three times now, and have to say that it is the best Hulk story out there. And this from a guy who has almost 300 issues of the comic series, including the entire Peter David run. Thank you Mr. David.

Now THIS is what I'm talking about. Finally a novel worthy of its main character. You can tell that Peter David knows his stuff, and *GASP!!!* actually CARES about his characters instead of just writing about them. I was actually shocked by how much turmoil that the main characters (Bruce Bnner/Hulk, Betty Banner, Doc Samson)went through in this book, OUTSIDE of normal comic continuity. This is quite literally a "page turner" as the sotry is just, literally, all over the place. My only complaint is that the end conclusion feels abrupt and rushed. Maybe Mr. David was on a deadline, or maybe he just couldn't come up with a worthy enough conclusion to his fantastic story. Who knows, but it won't diminish the impact of what happened before. It's a shame that Mr. David didn't write another Hulk novel, as the Hulk novels are actually some of the better ones. Oh well, definately check this out!

Recently, I have come across one of the books that I had a whille back and I was really excited to read it. The book is called Motel of the Mysteries and is written by David MacAulay.

In this book the story starts in the present where the whole intire Northern American Continent is covered with an avalance of junk mail. Instantly killing everyone, there is not much known about the 'Yanks' from then on. That is untill the year 4022 where an amateur archeologist finds himself at the entrance of an ancient 'Usa' burial site.

This book is interesting to read because the reader is left to wonder how much do the 'experts' of today really understand about the ancient civilizations. It is a very cute book and isn't that hard to read so a young reader could enjoy it as well as an older one. Overall I think Motel of the Mysteries is a funny book and should be read by anyone interested in history and humor.

- Cole

Motel of the Mysteries is an about-face for David Macaulay, whose previous books educated readers about fascinating architectural achievements. Motel is a totally different story-line. What remains the same are his illustrations - pen and ink demonstrations of meticulous obsession. Works like Cathedral and Pyramid display the intricacies of history's architectural marvels in astonishing detail. The cover of Cathedral alone is a spectacle. Motel achieves the same level of elaborateness but throws in a monkey wrench with an outrageous story of our civilization's abrupt demise and its discovery thousands of years later.
The illustrations add a witty visual flair to the laugh-out-loud storyline. The language, intended for upper elementary to adult ages, will probably leave younger readers confused, because the humor is above them, and often too advanced. This can make the story funnier in some places, such as an ice bucket being dubbed the Internal Component Enclosure.
The book is as fictional as books can get. The story takes place in 4022 and only in Motel of the Mysteries could a woman possibly believe a toilet seat is a ceremonial headdress worn by the ancient people of Usa.
In the distant future, America has been dead and gone for thousands of years, and historians and paleontologists search frantically for remnants of the ancient civilization Usa (get it?). Howard Carson, an amateur at best, and associate Harriet Burton discover a 'burial tomb' of the Usa people. What they really discovered was a late 1900s motel. No suspense, nothing that really defines a story, just the hilarious commentary of stumbling upon this motel.
The "Treasures" section explains in full detail the ceremonial items used in Usa burials. The wacky, absolutely outrageous functions given to each item (such as the toilet seat passed off as a headdress) keep the reader glued until the last page.
Macaulay's style is totally unique. Not only is he far more amusing than most authors, he uses his illustrations to weave his knowledge of architecture into the story. The entire book is something of a spoof on historians today. Maybe the pharoahs of Egypt were really just street peddlers!

Motel of the Mysteries is simply one of the funniest books I have ever seen. And "seen" is the word, as the joy is in the illustrations. A parody of archaeologists' tendency to declare what we "know" about past civilizations based on their artifacts, the book presents the unearthing of a nondescript motel two thousand years after the sudden collapse of Western civilization. The fun is in the labeling of the various elements discovered: a showercap becomes a ceremonial death cap, a dinner tray an offering to the gods, a toilet seat a piece of sacred religious neckwear. Macaulay makes his point and has fun doing it. I pick up this book again and again whenever I'm in the mood for an intelligent chuckle.

Cancer Ward is often overshadowed by its predecessor, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, and its successor, the immense memoir, The Gulag Archipelago. While the worldly impact of those two works is perhaps greater, the aesthetic power of Cancer Ward is stronger than both of those works. The story is poignant and powerful, reaching out and probing deeply into the essential questions that are never answered by not only Soviet society, but western culture as a whole. The religious message that emerges is stunning and unique, recalling the works of Dostoyevsky. Overall, this is an excellent book, and any reader who enjoyed One Day or Gulag will be blown away by this work.

Having read a good bit of Solzhenitsyn's books, I can safely say that this is the pinnacle of his work. It simultaneously examines how people cope with the loss of freedom (to the Soviet state and the cancer ward), with the death that surrounds them, and with their own mortality. Through the whole work, too, through death and triumph over disease, runs Solzhenitsyn's recurring theme of the survival and growth of the human spirit under terrible conditions, seen as the main character and those around him realize former errors and deficiencies of character and seek to redeem themselves by doing good for others. I would highly recommend this book to all readers of Solzhenitsyn and, really, anyone.

Having just finished reading it for the third time, I believe that Cancer Ward is a very fine novel, rich at many levels: in its depiction of Soviet provincial society in 1955, a poor society just emerging from Stalinism; in its portrayal of many separate characters (doctors, nurses, patients, hospital workers) in that society, many of whose lives have been permanently damaged by the terror and the GULAG, but in different ways; and, as I know from personal experience, in its depiction of the isolated world of the cancer patient, from which the rest of society is seen dimly, as though through dirty glass. In spite of all medical progress, the basics of this world have not changed much in 50 years: the core treatments are still surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, and the side effects both long and short term can still be brutal.

The ending of the book will disappoint those who want a happy ending, or just an ending with all the loose ends tied up. In real life, though, loose ends usually stay loose. My thought is that Solzhenitshyn intended the reader to understand that for the characters and the society who are so damaged by the past there can be no happy endings; the best they can hope for is to continue from day to day, grasping at whatever happiness briefly comes their way.

The story of how David Wilkerson came to found Teen Challenge should be a must read for anyone who follows Jesus Christ. The Cross and the Switchblade describes how Wilkerson put feet on his faith that took him from rural Pennsylvania to the streets of New York City. It's the story of how a pastor followed the leading of the Holy Spirit and reached out to minister to people with whom the churches would not associate.

Wilkerson describes in his book how essential it is to meet the unloved where they are, rather than waiting for them to show up in church all dressed up and ready to worship within the ranks of the clean and respectable. He also rightly emphasizes the importance of follow up, how one can't just expect to go out and distribute tracts or preach from street corners without also developing real, loving relationships with people and ministering to their needs, both spiritually and physically.

Now that Teen Challenge International has grown to over 200 centers around the world, it is interesting to note that the struggle in recovery ministry continues to be much the same: It's extremely difficult to get people to reach out in love to those who have never been loved, and it's nearly impossible to get church members to venture outside their doors to love their neighbors as they love themselves.

I praise God for Rev. Wilkerson and the way that he listened to God and ventured out in faith. I thank him for sharing the story of his work.

A powerful book that will send God-bumps down your spine! Even if you are not a fan of David Wilkerson's later writings, this book is truly a God send. Read this book if you want to learn of the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others.

What a tremendous message this book has to give. Miracles happen right in the worst parts of New York, away from the glamourous bits, right in the middle of the hard, the tough, the smelly and the nasty - and it actually keeps on happening.

These days, so much has changed. A local pentecostal preacher once told me that he went to Leeds one Saturday; that he was so disgusted by the beggars, and used to see the same ones all the time, how awful that they should always be there; and once he got real close up to one, who was (from what he told me) probably very weak, maybe even dying, lying on the ground, got about six inches away from their ear, and shouted at the top of his voice, "GET A JOB!!!"

Stand this in contrast with the Wilkerson man. This guy, realizing that the zonkos and beggars know that they're sinners, possibly scarcely realizing anything else at all, goes and gives them a bed for the night - feeds them - gives them a bath and warm clothes. The tells them that God knows them and has already fixed up a plan for them - that to the God who made the sun and the outer planets, THEY matter - "whosoever will" can come and drink from the waters of life, that they can repent, and be made blameless before the king of kings.

[Life isn't cheap to this man.]

Then the guy fixes up this organisation called "teen challenge", held together by almost no money at all, but lots of prayer, who pulls loads of dropouts and folks who are very nearly dead from all over the place and stands them on the the higher ground...

Man, this book is so good. I know that these days, many of the big churches... (I used to be in Perth, Western Australia) and there was this huge church near to the Casino. The car park was full of BMWs, and all the evidence was that the church was really inwards looking, far too concerned with "signs and wonders" to remember about the plan of Salvation at all. So much for the lost, no place for them. When I went to Yorkshire, I was amazed how the church had similarly split along these lines - those who preached the gospel, the same one as David Wilkerson preached - to the lost sheep - (go and READ this, will you) and those who prayed for (and maybe got) bigger houses, fatter share options, sports cars, foreign holidays, etc. The contrast is huge.

Read this book and find out what the cost of discipleship to Christ really means - how many days and nights of prayer it really takes to move those mountains - and what faith is REALLY about. And the failures, when Sonny does not come back, and all the disappointments when it doesn't seem to go to plan and they're just about to get kicked out of the building...

I was brought up with this book, and as far as I can remember, I have worn out probably six copies. Time I got myself a new one....

Invariably at or near the top of any list of serious titles on poker, this book is the leading work on poker theory. Since virtually every dedicated player has read it, to play without reading it is to put yourself at a disadvantage. Sklansky focuses on the math of poker--how to calculate odds, pot odds, reverse implied pot odds, etc. It's not a fun read; it reminded me of some of the college textbooks I dreaded, but it rewards hard work with a new depth of insight that will make you a smarter, more insightful player. It deserves five stars but I gave it four because it can be so dreary. No colorful stories of how so-and-so went all in with a pair of fours only to [take out a set on the River, etc. Sklansky is so professorial in tone it's hard to imagine him at smoky poker table betting the farm. And in truth, he's more noted as a theoretician than a player. But if you want to play poker for serious stakes, this book is required reading.

If everybody who plays poker were to buy and study this book, I would have a hard time making money at the poker table. I want you fish to remain ignorant of pot odds, effective odds, implied odds, correct bluffing frequency, semi-bluffing, reading cards, and the other topics covered in this book. How am I going to earn money if you know the same things about poker that I do, thanks to Sklansky?

So, skip this book and just plunk yourself down at my table. Oh...and bring lots of cash.

"Every time you play a hand differently than you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; every time you play a hand the same as you would have if you could see all their cards, they lose." [This is an excerpt from what Sklansky humbly termed the fundamental theorem of poker.]

Statements like these will probably leave the average player, new to reading about his or her game, somewhat puzzled, but this is the main value of this book. It gives you a set of terms to describe conditions and actions in a poker game, and then tries to make you think about what you do and why. In the beginning, Sklansky says that this book does not try to answer, "What do you do in this particular situation?," but "What do you consider in this particular situation before determining what to do?"

It uses examples from every form of poker found in a casino, but it does not deal with any one form in particular. For this, a few good choices include the 'Advanced Players' series from Two Plus Two Publishing, and 'Super/System' by 1976-1977 World Series of Poker Champion Doyle Brunson and his collaborators. Sklansky's object is to show that winning poker comes down to correct determination of your odds given cards seen and unseen, the size of the pot in play and the effect of less tangible, psychological factors on the odds set by the first two elements.

It's not the easiest reading, but the language therein will be used by most serious players of the game in discussions away from the table. Get 'Poker for Dummies' by Lou Krieger and Richard Harroch first, as well as a basic text for your favorite game, like 'Winning Low-Limit Hold'Em' by Lee Jones. After a few months of play, open this book to reevaluate your game and what you thought you understood about poker.