There are few books that I think truly deserve recognition as being in the ranks of the immortal "best sellers", but THIS is one of the very best. If you're new to sales, if you're an old pro... this book has something for every person who picks it up. I was stunned at the simplicity of the ideas, mainly because they wield SO much power! You cannot go wrong and would do yourself a tremendous favor by ordering this book NOW!!

Joe Gandolfo is an amazing motivator in that he illustrates the things that are necessary to succeed in sales, not just smoke and mirrors. He gives real-life examples of success and how to achieve it because he's done it all himself.

I found this book extremely helpful and a joy to read. I have used it as a resource for a Rachmaninoff class that i am creating and also for my own pleasure. It spans through Rachmaninoff's life, going in-depth to look at glimpses of Rachmaninoff's life with family, and then meticulously explores his music career.It looks into what inspired him, his meetings with other famous composers, his performances, and includes many letters about his personal life that he wrote to his family and friends. Overall, an excellent look into the life of a composer about whom we do not know much.

This book is very thouroughly written, drawing on resources of Rachmaninoff's relatives, letters that Rachmaninoff himself wrote, and of personal interactions. It gives a glimpse into Rachmaninoff's private life, which very little is known about, and shows Rachmaninoff for the true musical genius that he is.

I may be biased on saying this book is the greatest book ever written (next to the Bible), partly because I pesonally know the author, and one of the main characters he used,"Serge", is actually my older brother, real nickname "Sarge", also, my entire family is mentioned on page 7, (I'm Tony). Anyway, the places mentioned in the book are real existing places in my hometown, and life at that time couldn't be more accurate. This book keeps you on the edge of your seat, and it is fun to read, but you may want to keep it away from younger children as it contains bad language, it is mainly for adult readers, but overall an excellent book

This book was a quick, intense read. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of when I was fifteen. If you liked The Body (which they made the movie Stand By Me from) then you'll like this one. I highly recommend it.

The author skillfully manages to make learning relatively advanced statistics easy through stories, examples and anecdotes. Where the skills comes in is the wide range of complex topics that are introduced and clearly explained. To a highly technical reader this may come across as either condescending. However, the fact is that all of the important details and techniques are covered in great detail, and are wrapped in friendly prose. This ensures that hard-to-learn concepts need not be hard to learn, nor the learning process intimidating.

What I like is the systematic coverage of key concepts and knowledge areas, each of which builds upon the preceding topic. The book starts with compelling business reasons for embarking on a 6-Sigma initiative, and what 6-Sigma entails. It them introduces an approach for reducing cycle time and improving quality in a 2- and 4-step process. After establishing that framework, the book shows how to sustain the improvements using key indicators for process stability and capability, and how to effectively employ statistical process controls to proactively track them.

The foregoing alone would make this an excellent introductory book on 5-Sigma, but the author goes on to tackle advanced topics such as design of experiments, quality function deployment and benchmarking. These are certainly integral components of a complete 6-Sigma initiative, but I didn't expect to find them covered in an introductory book. I also liked the complete coverage of basic TQM tools and techniques at the end of the book.

If you need to either learn the fundamentals of 6-Sigma or train a non-technical workforce this is an ideal book. If you are going to teach or facilitate a 6-Sigma workshop you'll also want the author's "Six Sigma Instructor Guide" (ISBN 1884180140), which provides a syllabus and learning objectives that use this book as the student text.

It's so refreshing to review a six sigma publication that doesn't pretend to be "rocket science", I particularly enjoyed the extremely simple application of the six sigma methodology and the de- mystifying of the six sigma methodology that tends to be extremely mystified in the majority of six sigma publications. This publication would be an excellent addition to any internal training initiative endeavouring to educate and inform employees of the intentions of this quality tool in a non intelectual way that allows for the integration of more complex mathematical methods of data collection, the clear way that the selection and use of control charts were presented was even understood by my colleauges who admit to being affraid of math. All in all this publication is a practical handbook for breaking the uninitiated into the six sigma philosophy.

This is great, complete how-to, book on Jujitsu. It is just as simple as that. Every page reveals something new.

If you are looking for a most effective means of self-defense that is easy to learn with maximum of effectiveness look no farther. Wally Jay, who is now 80+ years old has developed a martial arts system that combines Judo, JuJitsu and Aikido along with the usage of pressure points. I utlize this system to teach men and women self-defense, especially when I have a one seminar presentation. However though it is simple to teach, Grand Master Wally Jay's methods are some of the most advanced you will find anywhere. The book along with the video should be in everyones library who is a student of the martial arts or who wants to learn a system that is dependent upon skill not strength. I am ranked in four martial arts, Aikido, Karate, Judo and JuJitsu and hold the rank of Sandan in Judo and JuJitsu. John L. Herr United States Martial Arts Association

Running a wildlife safari company in Yellowstone, the wolves that we view have become a major attraction. I have learnt so much from this book that it is now a requirement for all my guides to read it from front to back, so they are totally educated on wolves. Rick McIntyre's A Society of Wolves captures everything you want to learn about wolves, including their behavior, pack structure, and how similar they are to us. This book is a must if you are interested in wolves, wildlife and Yellowstone.

Rick McIntyre does us a great service with this book. It is an excellent compilation of written material and photographs that will prove transformational to anyone interested in wildlife. A moving account of day-to-day life in a wolf pack, it also provides an invaluable history of wolf persecution in this country. He also lists excellent resources to contact to learn more about the fate of the wolf and how to become active in their reintroduction. This book answers the questions "Where did all the wolves go?" and "Why do we need them back?" An important and compelling read.

These essays brim over with authorial skill... They are at turns funny, wise, and introspective. They examine the world with a keen eye for detail. Excellent pieces, really. Quite good.

The essays in Jay Parini's book, Some Necessary Angels, traverse the line between memoir, literary essay, and political essay. Ultimately, Parini proves that the distinctions between these are meaningless; good writing is good writing--if it is memorable, it will not fit within any set of boundaries. Those familiar with Parini's fiction will know that he often works to blur boundaries; what is historically pinpointed becomes less important than the weight and drama of each of his books' moments.

These essays are wonderful to read, to spend time with, in the morning or at night. They provide a certain quietude, and this quality, so precious in today's general loudness, makes them truly remarkable.

In 1916, American poets Witter Bynner and Arthur Davison Ficke had it up to wherever with Imagism, Vorticism, and several other minor isms that they thought had infected the literary world. They set out to concoct an ism to end all isms, and devised "Spectrism," a new school for experimental poetry. To that end, they published "Spectra: New Poems," with an unintelligible preface purporting to explain the name of the new ism. Each of the Spectric poems was pretentiously titled with an opus number, like a piece of classical music.

Witter Bynner wrote as "Emmanuel Morgan." Morgan's persona was full of bacchanalian, bardic blatherskite, a rhyming Whitman. Here is the opening of his "Opus 6:"

If I were only dafter
I might be making hymns
To the liquor of your laughter
And the lacquer of your limbs.

Arthur Davison Ficke wrote as "Anne Knish." The name was meant to be vaguely exotic and Eastern European; apparently not many Americans had heard of knishes in 1916. Knish is the archetypal poetess, sensual and enigmatic, vaguely scandalous. She writes free verse. Here is Opus 118:

If bathing were a virtue, not a lust
I would be dirtiest.

To some, housecleaning is a holy rite.
For myself, houses would be empty
But for the golden motes dancing in sunbeams.

Tax-assessors frequently overlook valuables.
Today they noted my jade.
But my memory of you escaped them.

By now, the basic flaw of the hoax should be obvious. Having endured much worse in the way of poetic experiment between now and 1916, the Spectric poems aren't that bad. In fact, they are rather consistently entertaining, and contain some pretty good lines. They rank among the more memorable work by Bynner and Ficke, and both writers acknowledged as much after the hoax had been exposed.

I first read this book when it came out in 1961. Its great value lies not so much in documenting the amusing history of the hoax, but in reprinting Spectra in its entirety as a lengthy appendix. Yes, the "hoax" poems are parodies, but they're careful ones, and contain some of Ficke's and Bynner's very best work!

"Asparagus grows feathery and tall; The hose lies rotting by the garden wall."

What a couplet! Buy it! Read it! Give it to your teenager as an introduction to modern poetry. Before long he'll be reading Pound.

The ST. JAMES GUIDE TO CRIME & MYSTERY WRITERS is the most useful reference book available now for mystery fans. It also is a very entertaining book. The one limitation is that the quality of the various entries seems to vary somewhat because of the large number of contributors.

This book is a guide to the works of over 650 authors of crime, mystery and thriller fiction. Each entry includes a biography, a complete list of published works in book form and a critical essay. The 1261 page volume was nominated for a MaCavity Award for Best Critical/Biographical Work published in 1996.

cool book for a textbook- buy now!

Never before have so many experts weighed in about the most vital matter of all. If you want to know how we earthlings have fared with our environment, you'll find it all here in the well-researched philosophies and hard scientific facts of a multitude of experts. An extraordinarily optimistic and vital must-have on any scientist's book shelf. Far more of a bargain than it appears, this is like having a (literal) World Book 2000 all in one volume.