Chances are you feel you've read books like this before. WHAT makes an idea work? WHO in an organization makes it work? WHY are idea practitioners not always rewarded or recognized? IS your organization stifling the flow of ideas or motivating ANYONE to come up with them?

Yet, veering around interviews with 100 or so actual idea practitioners, this offering from Davenport et al has a very specific thematic intent and does a fabulous job of it. Below are some thoughts that form the spine of this brilliant work --

(1) It is usually the same people who advance new business approaches at organizations. It's a whole class of people who have never been exalted to the status of high-profile business gurus (Porter, Tom Peters, Drucker, Hammer etc) despite being the ones to _actualize_ the ambitious ponderings of the Porters and Druckers of our world.

(2) And no, rarities like Jack Welch may be more of an exception than the rule. Most idea practitioners are not on a fast track to the corner office. Most of them believe that they could probably have done better within the company if they had instead focused their careers on power and responsibility.

(3) Yet, many of these people can't help themselves. They tend to gravitate to the jobs that have more intellectual content.

(4) It is the contribution of these folk that gives companies competitive edges in times of an economic slump or industry stagnation/maturation, or even an elevated "perceived" business performance resulting in improved shareholder value and morale.

(5) None of the above is conveyed in the form of fluffy business wisdom tripe. A smattering of examples from around the world support all the authors' theses -- failing K-Mart versus the expanding Walmart, the nearly bygone Westinghouse versus GE, Cemex in Mexico, Holcim in Switzerland etc.

(6) Finally, amidst the profiles of the idea practitioners the authors attempt to offer a framework to evaluate and execute ideas. As for evaluation, they recommend running the idea through the litmus of the CLASSIC THREE of strategy (Efficiency, Effectiveness and Innovation). This does not come off as altogether fresh although the suggested framework is useful. As for execution, we are left more or less with the interviews and the thoughts therein.

Overall, I'd say this is an engrossing book and the actual success stories are inspiring (perhaps a decent springboard for ideas too). The organization of the content could have been a little bit better but you don't have to be a true believer in the power of management ideas to appreciate the value of this book in our management thinking driven times.

An important, interesting read.

Davenport and Prusak explore a great concept ... idea practitioners that take management ideas and make them work for companies. Anyone that is always trying to take the best management thinking and make it work in their company will find that this book resonates.

The book explores the concept of idea practitioners, management gurus, marketing ideas internally and adapting them to your organization. It makes the case that behind the market hype of new ideas there are some good management practices that you should be considering for your organization. And that you need to find and nurture the people in your organization that drive adoption of these ideas. It's worth reading this one with The Witch Doctors: Making Sense of the Management Gurus by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge.

While the concept is explored in depth, the book doesn't really provide much in the way of take-aways, ideas that you can put in practice. Great concept but only a good book.

For anyone who has felt overwhelmed by the barrage of business and management ideas and movements, and at times even skeptical of their individual and cumulative claims, and that is most of us, this is the perfect book. Davenport and Prusak are veterans of the last two decades of management revolutions-they have been in the game long enough to look back at some of the ideas with which they have been associated with critical detachment, and to make some novel and deep sociological observations about how ideas get made, marketed, used, abused, and superceded. However, they are less interested in a blanket judgment on the idea trade than in taking a closer look and identifying what works and who is doing the working. According to D & P, none of the ideas pushed over the past couple of decades is entirely new, and none is without merit. However, none of the ideas is, or ever was, the best solution for each company in every set of circumstances. So much depends on the particular company's situation, and so much of a company's success depends on those inside the corporation-the "idea practitioners"-who select, advocate, refine, and implement the otherwise general and abstract ideas of management gurus. D & P (& W) have done a great service in refocusing attention and credit from the brand names to the practitioners, without, of course, slighting the great contributions of gurus, like themselves, to the agility and productivity of modern enterprise.

The Cook's Family
By: Laurence Yep
Reviewed by: C.Donado
Period: 6
This book is about a girl named Robin and how her family has problems. Robin is really sick of it and when she gets to be in a fantasy life she really starts to enjoy it. Robin and her grandmother were at a restaurant one day when the waiter came up to them and said that they were just the right people to pretend to be the cook's family. Robin and her grandmother start to like being around Wolf, the cook, that they go visit him every week. Robin's family is still having family problems and her parents fight all the time. Finally, Robin starts to do something about the problems.
I liked this book because it has a good way of describing a fantasy life. Robin meets Wolf for the first time and she performs for him. Wolf applauded. "She seems to float," he said to the waiter. Robin gets really good food but can't eat it because ballet. Robin feels like a bad daughter and tries to get better at it. Finally she finds out that she was a great pretend daughter.
I also liked this book because it talks about how to overcome family problems. Robin's parents have been fighting since her mom started to work at their family company with her brothers, Robin's uncles. Robin and her brother get really sick of it and her brother hates that their parent's are always fighting. "Be brave for me," Robin said. "It will go away soon." Later their parents figure a way out of all the fighting.
My favorite part of this book was the ending. Robin wakes up in the morning and decides to take the first step in repairing her family. So Robin makes pancakes, coffee, and gets the newspaper. Her dad comes to breakfast followed by her mom then her brother, and Robin hears the news that her parent's are going to take consoling. Robin calls her grandmother to tell her that her mom was not going to the store that day and finds out that her grandmother had a date. So in the end, all went well.

I love ballet and I love anything to do with Asia, so obviously I loved this book. It was awesome and I highly recommend it, Lawrence Yep is a great author.

This book is about a girl and her grandmother who get whisked into a drunk cook's life. When Robin and her grandmother unexpectedly get pulled into a restaurant by a waiter they are persuaded to be (act)a cook's wife and daughter. Wolf (the cook)however is not fooled by this act but willingly follows along. While a family war is raging among Robin's mother and father Robin finds another family in the cook and his friends. She feels that she is not "chinese" enough to please the cook and struggles to be more chinese. The flow of this book ranks among Yep's best work. Each part of the story swirls with the next to create a touching multicultural novel about two groups of people trying to fit in with one another.This book is a sequel to Ribbons. The ending of this book is strong, touching and even sad but this adds to the exqusite story spun by Laurence Yep.

An impressive pictorial tome--for sure. "Texas" by Laurence Parent is an impressive pictograph of the Lone Star State. Parent is an acclaimed and accomplished photographer whose lenses have found some rather enchanting shots. With an impressive--and dramatic--essay by Elmer Kelton, the book is more than just "coffee table" subject matter. This volume shows National Geographic and Architectural Digest quality reproduction of its photos. A real treat. Thematically, however, Parent doesn't seem to have a real pattern for his photos, rather they appear as they strike his fancy. But no matter. Each picture is worth far more than a thousand words! (Billyjhobbs@tyler.net)

Hiking Texas is *the* guide to Texas backpacking and hiking trails, bar none. The guide is short on pictures (get Parent's Official Guide to Texas State Parks for a more photo-rich book), but long on the history, character, geology and wildlife of some of Texas' best-loved trails, as well as some of its lesser-known ones.

Parent is a accomplished writer, conservationist, hiker and photographer, and he brings all talents to bear on his works. If you want to get the most from your Texas hikes, this is the book that should be in your pack!

This book is a visual stunner, published by a graphics company that took pains to get the colors right. Whether he's pointing his lens at wildlife or city life, buildings or byways, Parent turns an artists eye on the places in Texans' hearts.

RE: RECORDED BOOKS AUDIO VERSION. Among the quirky Key West characters are a reluctant & reflective Mafia Don, his pal "retired" heavy Bert the Shirt, a ditzy gun-moll with a heart of gold, a neurotic Jewish newspaper editor and the Shirt's aging chihuahua, Don Giovanni. They're all artfully blended in a stew of humor and suspense where its hard to tell the white hats from the black. Well worth a read.
One question: why am I the first friggin' guy to, whaddayacallit, review, this book, Knowwhaddamean?

A retired capo di tutti capi decides to leave the world his memoir before it's too late and hires a yellow sheet editor who thinks his life would be redeemed if he writes a book.

The rival clan and FBI come into play, the boss' dumb son arrives from NYC with his likable but confused bimbo to make problems for everyone - starting with himself.

It's jerks vs. decent people and these 2 categories can be found in Mafia and FBI in equal shares. After the spectacular sacrifice the good ones win and the book ends a bit prematurely.

There is a lot of smart observations, quirky characters and the language proves that author really sees the people and places he puts into his text instead of just covering the paper with typed lines.

But still I felt the tinge of disappointment. There was a lot of fuss with having to decide if writing the memoir is such a good idea, with looking for a sympathetic scribe, with FBI and the Mob getting the wind of it. And then... The project is cancelled. Leaving us to think that all that preliminaries were the excuse for introducing us to a bunch of eccentric characters going through their quirky routines with no particular direction and meaning. And then the author just lets the curtain fall when he thinks we've had enough.

Sunburn is a pleasant little affair with minor flaws, quite enjoyable, but it did not linger with me. I hope Laurence Shames was just warming up for something more memorable.

It took a lot of searching in airport bookstores to get the sequel to Florida Straits.

This book might even be better than the last one.

I think this book went out of print because everybody who reads it gives it to his friends to read, and nobody gets to buy their own copy.

Delightful, off-the-wall, light entertainment. Who'd have thought a Prozac overdose could lead to such an amusing story (when I took too much, it left me anxious, wired, and paranoid)? I picked this book up in desperation, looking for some light reading ... and it was perfect--engaging enough to hold my attention, amusing enough for chuckles and the occasional belly laugh (wait 'til the "Vikings" make their appearance), off-beat enough not to be predictable--just what the doctor ordered on vacation! (Silly me, I had brought along an entire trunk full of political philosophy!) Shames' tale is less outrageous than the Hiaasen novels I've read (Sick Puppy and Stormy Weather) and a bit lighter, too. It's not as dark as an Elmore Leonard novel, either. Neither is it total mind fluff--and it's ambiguous enough to avoid a Hollywood Ending. For those suffering from situational depression, it has a not-so-subtle message: "Better chemistry through living." Break out of the life in which you're trapped and the brain chemistry may just sort itself out without the Prozac, St. John's Wort, or $100/hr therapist. Four stars for solid entertainment value. Four stars for whimsy. Four stars for daring to be just weird enough to be interesting. (If you'd like to dialogue about this review, please click on the "about me" link above and drop me an email. Thanks!)

I have currently read Tropical Depression by Laurence Shames.
This book was about a man going through a semi-stage of depression.Murray Zimmelman is going through his second divorce while contemplating suicide.Suddenly he snaps and drives 14 hours non-stop to Key West Florida where he begins a new life.He meets an indian who is fighting for his rights.Murray helps the indian get an island named after his tribe.I would suggest reading this book.

This is a hilarious book with zany characters and situations. I dare anyone to read to the Indian fishing scene without laughing out loud!

(This review refers to Volume One only.) Asimov has collected eight stories in this anthology that were influential in his own writing. Asimov read most of these stories when he was about 12 years old, being fortunate enough to devour most of them from pulp magazines that were sold in his father's candy store. As might be expected with any anthology, some stories are better than others, and some have held up better through the years than others. Yet these pieces are not included for comparison to current stories, but to show what Asimov read as a young person and how the works influenced him. Asimov's mini-autobiography alone is worth the price of the book. After each story, Asimov tells how an idea or a concept from a story led to the formation of one of his own works. A very interesting idea. "The Jameson Satellite" is a forerunner of "I, Robot," and "Submicroscopic" is a small step from "Fantastic Voyage." As mentioned by another reviewer, the reader will have to deal with several prejudices from the time these stories were written (especially racial), but overall this book is a great insight into what makes Asimov Asimov.

This collection of early, pulp-style scifi works is a great joy. Asimov's introduction to the stories is exceedingly interesting and helpful. The stories sometimes show flaws or problems in their writing and in their attitudes (while several stories are forward-looking, most show the racism and misogyny common to that time), most of the stories are entertaining and all of them are interesting from a historical perspective. Check it out if you can get your hands on it, it's a great find. I really got a kick out of several pieces, which run the gamut from more reasonable 'conquered man, driven underground, strikes back at his evil alien oppressors' to the completely ludicrous story about the planets of our solar system hatching into giant space chickens. (That last story is meant to be taken seriously, by the way.) A veritable laundry-list of great, long out-of-print authors and some wonderful writing from the early days of popular science fiction.

This book contains the good old stories from the 1930's. There is nothing great here, but it is till worth reading. You can see the evolution of the Science Fiction field by reading the stories in this book.

I liked this book and feel I could build a small house after reading it. The information is perfect for someone interested in Habitat for Humanity: you'll instantly be an asset to any building project. The side vignettes give nice background on Habitat's mission and the experiences of volunteer workers. I was also drawn to the common sense building approach throughout: we simplify our lives and save lots of money by building "decent, affordable" homes.

Each page is packed with photos and sidebars. This makes for visual interest, but more diagrams or sketches would have been useful as well. The essential book, which covers the building techniques of this book plus others (such as plumbing, heating, and electrical) remains Nash's Do-It-Yourself Housebuilding.

This book really teaches without confusing. Its an enjoyable book and I've learned tons about the basic steps and concepts of home building from the ground up.

Written by Larry Haun with the assistance of Vincent Laurence and Tim Snyder, How To Build A House is a solid, practical, "user friendly" guide to the basics of building a serviceable home. Individual chapters address everything from obtaining building permits to design and planning, foundations, insulation, and much more. Color photographs, sound advice, tips, tricks, techniques and straightforward instructions fill this highly recommended reference for prospective homebuilders and remodelers everywhere.

The authors provide clear and sufficient explanation for the most common multivariate statistical techniques. Well written and easy to follow.

As someone who has tried to teach multivariate statistics to non-statistician graduate students for the past 5 years, I have found this to be a very valuable and clearly-written text. As advertised and as the previous reviewer noted, the text is largely free of complex statistical equations and instead has clear descriptions of each type of test as well as common applications of that test. It is a perfect introduction for students who are intimidated by numbers and equations yet need to know about multivariate statistics for their graduate studies.

The book has several weaknesses that I found require supplementing with other texts. For one, there is no tie-in with major computerized statistical applications like SPSS and SAS nor are there example exercises for students to run and interpret statistical tests for themselves. I have found such exercises to be invaluable in teaching the meaning and uses of multivariate tests. There also should have been a discussion of general issues that cut across the different multivariate tests such as data cleaning, data transformation, the role of correlation matrices and the like and so on. For coverage of these issues, I have found it helpful to use chapters from Tabachnik and Fidel's Using Multivariate Statistics text. Finally, a number of tests, such as survival analysis are not covered in this text, though a second volume by the same authors does cover survival analysis as well as other techniques and should be considered as a companion volume as well.

In sum, this is an excellent and unusually clearly written text that is ideal for non-statistician graduate students in the social sciences. More in-depth analysis of important issues related to multivariate statistics and classroom exercises using statistical computer applications requires augmenting this text with additional readings.

"Reading and Understanding Multivariate Statistics" achieves exactly what its title implies. Geared toward non-statisticians in behavioral and social science fields, this book provides clear and reasonably simple explanations of some of the most common multivariate analyses. Each chapter focuses on a different analysis and presents its conceptual underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and basic procedures with a minimum of equations and many concrete examples. It does not teach you how to perform the analyses but does provide references for those who wish to get more detailed information. As a research scientist who doesn't always remember everything I learned in graduate statistics class, I find this book an invaluable aid keeping up with the current literature in my field and in making the most of statistical consultations. This book is ideal for anyone whose job requires them to be a "consumer" of research; for researchers who wish to further their understanding of data analysis; and as a companion text for graduate statistics classes.

The title of my book is The Case of the Firecrackers by Laurence Yep.
Lily, her great-aunt Tiger Lil, her brother Chris, Chris's girlfriend Evie, and "Grandpa Eng" are enjoying a nice dinner when, suddenly, the phone rings. Lily, Evie, Chris, and Tiger Lil are on their way to meet handsome teen heartthrob, Clark Tom!
While visiting Clark, he asks the group if they wouldn't mind playing a small role in his next Chinatown movie. Of course, they all oblige and are quickly dressed and whisked away to the set. Norm, the director of the movie, had hired a gang member to play the murderer of Clark Tom. While the scene was rolling, the gang member got ready to shoot blanks. Bang! Instead of shooting blanks, he shot real bullets! Tempers began to flare, fuses ignited as the gang member is arrested and hauled away for the attempted murder of Clark Tom. But Tiger Lil doesn't think he's the one who exchanged the blanks for the real bullets. Auntie Tiger Lil and her crew follow a trail of firecrackers, gangs, bad food, and gambling to dead ends. How will they ever find the real culprit?
Overall, I give this book a 3 out of 5. The book uses great words and a climax that never seems to end. There is a similar book called Maude, but that story was about a witch trying to put a spell on a little girl. It related to The Case of the Firecrackers because they both used firecrackers, spells, and mysterious people in the plot to add suspense. Once you start to read this book, I guarantee you won't be able to put it down! Happy reading!

This novel takes place in Chinatown. It could have happened now, but I don't know when it really did take place. There is this really big TV Star in Chinatown shooting a scene for his show, "East Meets West." In this scene, Clark will act like a mobster is shooting him. The mobster is actually just shooting blanks though. But, somehow they got switched with real bullets. Now everyone around is in danger because the mobster can't tell that he is shooting real bullets. Then, when he does figure it out, no one is hurt but the police are investigating and he might get taken off to jail for something he really didn't mean to do.
I thought this book was really exciting and good. It has just the right amount of excitement to make you read on. I had a hard time to put it down in some parts. It was a well-written book. I think it was well written because it was about other cultures and how they can do the same things that we do even if they are 10,000 miles away, and they speak a different language or something like that. This book was kind of like the Hardy Boys because it is so exciting and well written.

In the Chinatown Mysteries series anyone is a suspect. Laurenece Yep makes sure that no one knows who committed the crime until you finish the book. Lily Lew and her aunt Tiger Lil the movie star run into another mystery which includes firecrackers, some danger and a whole lot of dead ends. Time is running out! If you liked the Encyclopedia Brown books when you were younger you will like this series.

The Diviners and The Stone Angel are both better books from this prolific writer, but if I could, I'd give it 4 1/2, as it is better than most of the books rated at four stars.

Laurence has created an emotionally compelling story and a memorable protagonist, Stacey MacAindra.

This book is the third in a collection of five that take place in Laurence's fictional prairie city, "Manawaka". It was written in 1969, but it doesn't seem at all dated. Stacey is a mother of four and a wife and it feels as if she could be the woman who lives down the street that you've been meaning to get to know better. She is ordinary, yet unique in her own right and made fascinating by Laurence's observations and revelations.

The book examines Stacey when she having an identity crisis, and she reviews her life and her choices with the insight and wisdom only hindsight and true reflection can bring. It is an intelligent book that leaves the reader with a new sense of strength because we've shared and learned in Stacey's journey through the lessons her life has taught her.

Laurence recognizes the plight of married women, raising children and seeking passion. cleverly, the author weaves the story of Stacey as she tries desperately to communicate with her withdrawn husband. Relying on self-talk, and stumbling into an affair, she finally comes to realize that the ordinary life is filled with possibilities.

I read this book for an independent study, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. Margaret Laurence always does an incredible job of creating characters that are very real, and that teach her readers to be empathetic toward other human beings. Stacey MacAindra is no exception. She is an accurate portrayal of an ordinary Canadian woman, wife and mother. Her story draws attention to many of the inner conflicts and challenges that ordinary people face every day that we often ignore or don't notice. The Fire-Dwellers is a very real story, and Margaret Laurence is right on in her description of the emotions and thoughts of Stacey and everyone in Canada who is like Stacey.