This book is an excellent guide to selecting the appropriate
career pathway that applies only to the individual concerned about his or her future endeavors in life. The work provides real life examples to illustrate how people have correctly adjusted their careers utilizing the principles put forth by
Hansons and Associates. This career reference is very readable
and may well create a lifetime of fulfillment for a great many persons.

This very clear and well-written book provides a very clear explanation of how to employ the enormously powerful SIMA technique. As a manager responsible for employee development in a large information systems organization, I made powerful use of the SIMA methodology. Through its use, we were able to fill positions based not only on "skill match," but perhaps more importantly, on "motivation match." It was a win/win for both the employees and the company: Employees gained insight into where their passions lay and were assigned to areas where their energies could be tapped, and the company got big productivity gains from their truly motivated employees.

My hat's off to Ms.Hanson for writing this book. I think too often Americans, especially, feel frustrated because they're not using their full potential, so the author is clearing tapping into a need here. I found the questions well thought out and well laid out - they were useful and certainly got me thinking. The use of a wide left margin made the text inviting and easy to read.

This book provides valuable insites to a much overlooked area. I highly recommend it to everyone.

When I first read "Plain Speaking" over fifteen years ago, I immediately thought that it was one of the best and most entertaining political books I'd ever read. And if I had to rate "Plain Speaking" on the sheer delight you get from reading it, I'd easily give it six stars instead of five. Unfortunately, recent research by historians at the Truman library has revealed that at least some of Truman's statements in "Plain Speaking" were never spoken by Mr. Truman, but were entirely the products of Merle Miller's imagination. As a result, while "Plain Speaking" is still a wonderful read if you've got a few free hours, it is no longer taken as serious "history" by researchers and historians. "Plain Speaking" isn't really a history of Truman, instead it is an "oral biography" of the man, presumably spoken in Truman's own words. Merle Miller, a veteran journalist, visited the ex-President in 1962 and did a series of interviews with him. His hope was that he could sell these interviews to a TV network. But since no network ever bought the rights, in 1973 Miller simply printed the interviews and turned them into this bestselling book. Miller clearly admired Truman, and as a result his questions are often partisan and/or favorable - Miller is certainly no Sam Donaldson or Connie Chung when it comes to doing "tough" interviews! In one question Miller asks Truman "Are they {the Republicans} just stupid?", and Truman gives a typically partisan response. Even so, many of Truman's replies to Miller's questions are delightfully blunt and laugh-out-loud funny: "I didn't fire General MacArthur because he was a dumb son-of-a-*****, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals...", etc. It's hard not to admire Truman and find him to be a refreshing change from the modern politician who calculates every word and lies constantly. But it is difficult to forgive Miller for simply "making up" many of Truman's quotes from his imagination, and Truman himself wrote a rather pitiful letter to Miller complaining about Miller's "inaccuracies" in quoting him. The fact that Miller ignored Truman's complaints and went ahead with this book's publication - and then presented himself as one of Truman's greatest admirers - leads me to give "Plain Speaking" no more than three stars. I suspect that Truman himself would be appalled by how Miller passed this book off as an accurate portrait of what he said in the interviews. "Plain Speaking" is a great read, but as accurate history it is sadly lacking, and the reader should always keep this in mind.

A compilation of interviews with President Truman originally intended for a television series, _Plain Speaking_ offers some interesting insights into the mind of Harry S Truman. I'm not sure this is necessarily a good thing, as Truman was a man of strong convictions who had little patience for those with opposing views, based on his own words.

That doesn't hurt the book, however, as presumably the reader is looking to learn more about what drove Truman. But Merle Miller's severe case of hero-worship of the President does tend to get grating, as it would appear, based on this book, that Miller believes the country would have been better off to elect Truman President-for-Life, because he apparently could do no wrong, and Miller wants to be sure the reader understands this. Miller's hagiography aside, however, the book's primary focus remains on Truman's words, and those are well worth reading.

You may not consider Truman a great President or even a great man after reading _Plain Speaking_, but it will be hard not to respect Truman's willingness to say what he thought. Anyone looking to understand Harry Truman should start here, to hear things in his own words.

This was a very good book. This book outlines how a man of very humble beginnings became the President of the United States. One of the more interesting parts was Truman's rise from a machine politician to a national figure. Also,I found amazing some of the historical roads that Truman had a role in traveling. His shaping of the world after World Wat II through the Marshall Plan was very readable. His role with Israel was also very noteable. His firing of General Mcarthur was laid out in great detail. I also liked reading his feelings and opinions about various political figures that we have come to know. Before this book I didn't have an opinion about Truman. After I read this book I became mightily impressed with Harry Truman. An excellent book.

Meyer Levin was a news reporter during the Leopold and Loeb case. He had sailed to Europe before the hearing began, and thus missed out on the opportunity to cover one of the most sensational crimes of the 20th Century. Years later, Levin secured a contract to write a book based on the Leopold/Loeb crime. Levin met with Leopold in prison and they spoke of collaborating on a story. But Leopold did not want to retel the story of his crime. He wanted to concentrate on his life after the crime. Thus no collaboration ever came about.
Levin created his book, focusing on his own psychological intepretation for the crime. He researched for his novel heavily, and uses large chunks of the testimony, as well as letters Nathan wrote Dick, and the ransom note, word for word. However, Compulsion is a work of fiction. Despite the claimes from other reviewers here that Compulsion is a love letter to the killers, Nathan Laopold found the novel revolting. Later, after his parols, he would sue Meyer Levin.
Any student of the Leopold Loeb case should by all means read compulsion. However, keep in mind that it is a work of fiction and should not be the be all and end all of research. There are blazing inacuracies, and the entire thing is captured through one man's opinion- Levin's. Others have differing views and perhaps after further study, so will you.

This book is a novelization of the infamous Loeb & Leopold murder case of 1924. The murder was considered at the time to be the crime of the century (like O.J. Simpson was to us). Why would a pair of rich young geniuses kill a randomly selected child? This is a fascinating psychological study of evil. Levin knew the perpetrators personally, so he was in a strong position to tell this story. And he has a brilliant writer's ability to get inside the head of a human being who has lost his way, morally speaking. The book is old and the story is old, but the tale remains relevant and powerful.

Factoid #1: It was made into a movie, "Compulsion", with Orson Welles. The murder also inspired a play and a Hitchcock movie based upon that play (which pre-date this book), "Rope". And yet a third movie (which I didn't "get"): "Swoon".

Factoid #2: Levin opens the book with this line: "Nothing ever ends, and if we retrace every link in causation, it seems there is nowhere a beginning." That's a succinct, intriguing observation, isn't it?

Factoid #3: This book was written in 1956, long after the crime and trial. Levin decided to tell the tale at that point because Leopold, still in prison, was being considered for parole, and it seemed appropriate for the case to be revisited.

I enjoyed Meyer Levin's sentimental and fictional account of the 1924 Leopold-Loeb murder of Bobby Franks as a fascinating study of abnormal psychology and the judiciary. A former classmate of the killers at the University of Chicago, the author's sympathetic treatment of likely psychopath Leopold ("Judd") may have aided the latter's parole in 1958 (Loeb was killed in prison). Nevertheless, Leopold sued the author over this book. Compulsion is a great novel, but for a starkly realistic view of this brutal crime readers should consult Hal Higdon's superb non-fictional account, Leopold and Loeb: Crime of the Century.

I think that this Biography of Lyndon Johnson is a very interesting book because its the first book that tells you about his life from his own perspective. It describes his life, his political career, his years as Vice President and his years in the White House as President. The book also includes interviews from members of LBJ's family, friends, and members of his cabinet. It also talks about how LBJ and the Joint Chiefs committed US troops to the war in Vietnam and why he chose not to run for reelection. The book discusses LBJ's life after he left the White House in 1969. This is a book that is worth reading if you can get a copy. I really enjoyed reading it.