Andre Norton seems to be turning an old leaf with this one, I get the feeling that it could have been a far more substantial novel than it was, if it had been say a trilogy, with a more involved plot and sub-plots, it could have been Very good. As it is however most of the characters never have the time to start to be people; they're brought in for a scene, and then they vanish into the woodwork again in the rush to get the main plot finished as rapidly as possible. It's a distinct contrast to some of her (Andre Norton's) older books in which minor parts seem to drag on indefinitely. I suspect that this may be the result of an author trying to find a happy middle ground, but she seems to have written this one like a middle-of-the-line folk song, when she should be producing a symphony. If she keeps at it long enough to refine her skill, and makes enough money to be able to ignore her publishers demands for volume and deadlines, she could easily come to rival Eddings in his prime.

English is not my native language, and the first chapters were very hard for me to get through as I found I didn't understand many of the words. But as I advanced through the book reading became easier and I found myself emerged in the story. Truth is, I couldn't stop reading until I finished it :)
Reading this book really was worth my time and improved my reading skills :) I would recommend reading this book in English because translations usually bite.

If you want some quick, inexpensive info on strategy to help you on a project or schoolwork, or just for professional interest, this is great.

It takes seconds to download and you can print and read on the bus!

This 2000 Harvard Business Review article, by Harvard Business School professor Robert Kaplan and David Norton, founder and president of the Balanced Scorecard Collaborative ... and ex-president of Nolan, Norton & Co., is an extension to their 1996-book 'The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action' and their 1992-, 1993-, and 1996-articles. The balanced scorecard made it possible for managers to express and measure operational performance.

In this article, the authors discuss the use of strategy maps to explain your strategy to all people in your organization. The authors use balanced scorecard strategy maps to show how an organization can convert its assets into desired outcomes: "... the template shows how employees, need certain knowledge, skills, and systems (learning and growth perspective) to innovate and build the right strategic capabilities and efficiencies (internal process perspective) so that they can deliver specific value to the market (customer perspective), which will lead to higher shareholder value (financial perspective)." According to the authors it is best to build these strategy maps from the top down, and then charting the routes that will lead to the desired outcomes. This should make the likelihood of a successful implementation of strategy possible. The authors use Mobil's (integrated U.S. refiner-marketer) strategy map as an example.

I was pleasantly surprised by this fourth article, since I did not enjoy their second and third articles. The difference between this article and the previous two is the introduction of the balanced scorecard strategy map. This map is a great visual template which is useful to all companies and explains the cause-and-effect relationships between the various perspectives. The advantage of this map is that it is understandable to people who were not involved in the strategic planning process - normally, the employees in the firing line. The article is written in simple US-English.

A good, brief novel for readers who like texture and ominous mood better than plot. Chapters are alternately in the voice of a voyeur (observant by definition), and a slow witted handyman (maddeningly blind to reality until the end) who is exploited by a malevolent third character. Overt and covert sexual exploitation dominates relationships here.

The Hide, told from two different, but equally disturbed viewpoints, chronicles the small lives of the twin narrators, Simon and Josh. Simon, who lives on a palatial estate with his sister and the shell-shocked housekeeper, Marion, has secretly dug tunnels beneath the grounds. These tunnels-- his hide-- are both for hiding himself from a confusing and vicious world, and to take voyeuristic peeks at his surroundings-- especially the woman in the next house who has a penchant for housework in flimsy garments.

Josh enters the household as a gardener when Simon's sister, Audry, decides in her unilateral way that the estate needs upkeep. Josh finds himself both disturbed by these odd hermits on the enormous estate and slowly attracted to Marion. Simon, for his part, is appalled and terrified of Josh-- a stranger, and worse, a gardener who has access to the grounds and may discover his hide, to say nothing of seeing Simon sneaking in and out of all his secret spots in the overgrown hedges.

The book is entirely engrossing, yet disturbing and sad. Everyone in the book seems broken in some way, limping through life in an unaware, self-piteous sort of rut where nothing ever happens. They are reflexive-things happen TO them, they are not capable, it seems, of exerting any force in their worlds. Simon is obsessed with his tunnels and spying, and in the process of spending so much time alone and underground, has no clear idea how to deal with other adults. Because of this, he does some startlingly childish pranks that he promptly regrets. He is perpetually tongue-tied and overanalytical of every social situation, almost always saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, all the while longing to escape to his secret subterranean realm.

Josh is a meek, lost, confused little Cockney who only seems to have a will of his own-- small and fragile as it may be-- when he is not hanging about with his best friend Mortimer. Mortimer, who is older and much more assured, can bend Josh to his will as easily as wrapping picture-hanger wire around his finger. Josh seems to know this and often vows NOT to tell Mortimer EVERYTHING that happens on the estate-- to keep some secrets to himself or save them for later-- only to have it easily prized out of him within moments of meeting Mortimer.

Throw this gaggle of sad, wizened-soul creatures together in one large, overgrown estate, toss in the oh-too-human drive for companionship and sex, mix together (the contents will separate at first), and let stand until a rickety triangle between Marion, Josh and Audrey forms and you have the basic recipe for this astonishing book.

An excellent book that exposes the truth about learning instutions that advertise themselves those who "put the highest priority on teaching". Honored But Invisible shows how Community Colleges really place little regard in the quality of instruction and instead, place the greatest emphasis on increasing enrollment. The lowering of standards in order to achieve this goal is not a concern. Affirmative action also is given too much priority in the hiring processes. The sad thing is, that once these instructors are hired, it takes only 4 years to receive tenure, (unlike a 4-year university where it takes 7 years)and then it is almost impossible to get rid of them.

I teach client-server computing, Visual Basic and logic and critical thinking at DeVry part-time. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is an excellent book on teaching in schools who proclaim themselves as "teaching institutions" but which in actuality deliver a range of teaching quality, from very good to almost unspeakably bad.

Many teachers at community colleges, rightfully concerned about their students' employment prospects, confuse understanding with support of a hegemonic ideological program. That is: in computer training at the community college level, it is a "bad" student who questions the use of all computation to make a profit (rather than, say, conform to health and safety laws.) Grubb and Ellis recognize that understanding is critical understanding and they raise questions, for example about uncritical support of the Internet, that need to be raised at community colleges.

Because of this, some readers may decide that Grubb et al. are "left wing" with an "ideological program." Well, perhaps they are. Many community colleges overemphasize the ideological program of business and produce people who lack needed technical training, but compensate for this by an uncritical support for the corporation.

This may be, in turn, healthy for people who are entering community college so alienated from business that they can't get to work on time or dress appropriately. Their anger at real injuries done to them may have produced their dysfunctional behavior, and if it takes reading USA Today to correct this, fine. But at this point the quality of technical and general education suffers because of overemphasis on "employability", and when students are presented with ideas for their own sake, they tune out, saying "this will not help me get a job."

Grubb and Ellis seem not to see the anti-intellectualism that is rampant at community colleges. You cannot ask a former welfare Mom, working three jobs, to read a book for its own sake (but you can point out that reading is a way to spend time on public transit.) But too many instructors (who themselves have low self-esteem because they wind up at two year institutions) give up at this point and try, with limited success, to ally themselves with the students. Computer instructors, for example, refer to areas of computer science of which they are not informed as "not important" in cases where they do not know whether the area is important.

It is better, and Grubb and Ellis recommend doing this, to willingly adopt the role of "professor." Students don't want an ally they want a mentor, and students at "good" schools have this. The risk is that the instructor who "adopts a pose" of respect for intellect will be isolated, not so much by students, but by fellow instructors who have given up on their students.

Grubb and Ellis recommend collective solutions to this problem and alliance building. This reduces the isolation of the teacher who finds herself teaching (to use one example) remedial reading in a computer class.

I recommend this book to any teacher at a community or career-oriented school as a way of bettering his or her teaching style.

In the early chapters Boyle paints an idyllic picture of aprimeval forest paradise with sparse native population that livedmainly off the land and needed to engage in limited amount of agriculture. The arrival of the Europeans spelled immediate eruption of violence. Not that there was none among the native tribes.... Boyle continues with a twenty page historical sketch of the HV during the 400 years and the Valley's ecology was affected. After these two chapters he proceeds to describe each stretch of the Hudson starting with the Adirondack region along with the beauty and problems each area. At this point it becomes apparent that Boyle's main interest is fish because of good half of the book is devoted to angling and description of fish. This is somewhat puzzling in this edition in view of the preface that he wrote in 1979, ten years after the first publication of the book that (he) does not "eat any waterfowls taken from the Hudson River south of Hudson Falls because of likely contamination by PCB's or other chemicals." That part is explained in the Epilogue, 1968-1978. The amount of attention devoted to fishing and the warning in the end makes the book seem irrelevant or else a historical curiosity. In addition to the fishing lore which is at times interesting and informative--there are pages devoted to a single species, sturgeon, for example, including a recipe for making caviar, or bass, there is wrangling with industrial polluters, Con Edison, governments, State, Federal, Local who are always in cohoots with those they were to watch. There is the Storm King Mountain fiasco though the first edition of the book came out before that blew over.

Boyle's The Hudson River gives the amazing story of the Hudson River. Just about every species of animal life (fish, insects, and birds) from the rivers' origin to its mouth are disgussed. The Storm King plant and ConEd struggle surfaces. A chapter is devoted to a local fisherman who knows more about the river than anyone else. It is too bad that this classic is out of print, for I suggest that any ecologist at heart should own a copy. (My copy was "borrowed" from my teacher, and shall return home come the end of school.) Even if you do not live in New York State, or have no plans to ever go there, this book is an ecologist's dream. Not to put any other rivers down, but the Hudson River has the most incredible history around. If you can actually find this now-rare book I strongly urge you to buy it.

Investments by Frank Reilly. This college level text is a wonderful source of information for beginning investors as well as seasoned Registered Representatives. The material is presented in a fashion that is easily understood with several examples and stories to illustrate the theories and practices of all investments. Not only does this book cover the traditional topics of Equity and Debt investments it also covers the ins and outs of futures, commodities, derivatives, currency and precious metals. The first chapters lead off with an indepth explanation of the markets for each investment and how investments get to market. The techinical discussion of bringing an issue to market and the financing of corporate america is very helpful and enlightening. 13 years after graduating with a degree in Finance I still refer to this excellent work by Frank Reilly for everyday information.

It is a text book vs a simple reading book, however the author has done an excellent job of presenting the concepts in simple to understand format. With well writtem text and informative graphs the concepts easy to understand. Covers all types in investments instruments from stocks, bonds, options, futures and portfolio construction.

A novel, that would today be considered sappy (and even laughable), The Man of Feeling reminds us of the quinesstential purpose of all human beings, to help one another. The main character, Mr. Harley, is more then willing to share his wealth with everyone who asks. His benevolence (to the point of his own bankruptcy) gains him the reputation as Mr. Generosity. In the end, he dies because his heart cannot contain his happiness. As an uplifting change of pace, I recommend this book to all those who have lost faith in humanity. But, if your looking for an action packed thriller, try another book.:)

This novel provides so many of the pleasures of reading a book from another era and another sensibility. Within 115 pages there are no fewer than 49 separate episodes of weeping, where exchanging tears produces further exchanges, usually monetary -- as with the narrative of the mad woman in Bedlam, whose story moves Harley so much that he leaves a large sum of money with the keeper of the madhouse. Do not read this expecting a modern novel; but do read it -- and read it not only expecting pleasure, but also expecting to be taught more about the late eighteenth century psychology than you've ever been taught before.

A collection of essays assembled by type and style of writing.
The book instruvts how to write common essay types by presenting the reader with a few examples of each kind. The cool part is the commentary by the authors of some of the essays as to what they were thinking when they wrote them and how they went about the writing process.

Good use for an Intro to Writing college level class.

Norton Readers have long been a staple of university literature and composition courses, which is no doubt the original purpose of this volume (hence the extended title, "Short Essays for Composition"). If you don't let this deter you, you will be rewarded with a collection of some of the best of American essays with a plus. This is not only a collection of well written essays spanning early and modern nonfiction, but you have the bonus of modern prose stylists such as Annie Dillard and Barry Lopez talking about the pieces that are included: how they get ideas, how they craft their work, why they write in nonfiction. A satisfying and interesting collection, well worth reading and passing along to others. Great for teachers and students interested in learning about nonfiction as well, as nonfiction as a genre is the organizing schema of this volume.

The novel is a change of pace for readers more familiar with the author's recent science fiction, but Isaac Asimov also wrote mysteries. The setting is 1837. Persis Rooke finds herself shipwrecked and stranded on a Florida key, rescued by a wrecker/salvager of the time period. A contested inheritance, a hostile business rivalry between her savior and another sea captain, and a resident ghost all add to the plot. Life is full of surprises, and Persis encounters her share. Overall, it is a good, well written story. The author does use some archaic terms from the time period. The novel is suitable for students at high school level.

The Opal-Eyed Fan is one of my favorite Norton books, though it isn't overly endowed with substance, or is even really fantasy. It's romantic suspense, tinged with a bit of the supernatural. And while it might not be particularly intellectually stimulating, it serves a very necessary function as brain candy.

It's set in the Florida Keys, quite awhile back when wreckers-- and pirates-- still roamed the waters. Persis Rooke, accompanying her uncle on a mysterious quest involving an old family scandal and a forgotten will, is shipwrecked on Lost Lady Key. Lost Lady Key is the home of her rescuer, the wrecker Crewe Leverett, his sister Lydia, the remnants of an ancient island race, and (as implied in its name) a ghost. Persis is increasingly drawn into the intrigues of the island's inhabitants. What are Lydia and her handsome beau, pirate Ralph Grillon, planning? What does Ralph Grillon want from Persis? And what is the significance of the strange false fan that keeps turning up in Persis' possession?

Perhaps a little conventional, but still great fun. It has its high points; the take on wreckers, who are often represented unfavorably, is particularly interesting. Recommended for all who like swashbuckling, pirates, adventure, and a nice dash of romance. If this heady mixture sounds appealing, it's worth the effort to find a copy (although it will be necessary to ignore the dreadfully dated cover). For another great swashbuckler, also try Andre Norton and Rosemary Edghill's recent The Shadow of Albion.

Ailanna

I'm a programmer and I had do some VBA programming in Access so I thought that I'd buy a book to learn what the difference between VB and VBA is... This book didn't help. But I suppose it would be good for somebody that knows Access but doesn't know how to program.

I think its first part ( I mean chapters 1,2,3 ) is not good for someone who is beginning using Access! Perhaps it was better to start this book with some additional chapters about introducing Databases . The second problem is that you should be familiar with VB programming , to understand this book materials! I think this book is a very good guide but before reading ,you should study some elementary Access 2000 books ,like teach yourself Access 2000 in 24 ours. by the way this book is a nice guide for programmers (like me)who want to start using Access 2000 , and have good background in database programming.