This book provides a general conceptual approach to its topic along with specific examples of how survey techniques are used. It would be useful to executives with a desire to understand a little more about the field. Unfortunately, it is not particularly helpful in terms of actually doing the techniques it presents. Perhaps more importantly, it doesn't cover the particular pitfalls/limitations you need to be aware of when trying to interpret data presentations.

Mr. Hayes presents several good ideas in this very readable text. Although this book is most useful now in Age of the Malcolm Balderidge Award, I offer Kudos to Mr. Hayes on his lack of faddish management lingo.

The author introduces the idea of customer surveys, gives solid ideas on the backbone of a survey, summarizes what actions lead to a survey, discusses the basis of survey design, and touches on the math needed to analyize survey results.

Excellent beginner's guide.

If you're a mystery fan but looking for a change of pace from the standard big-city LA/NY fare, you may want to give "Prairie Gothic", by J.M. Hayes, a try. The story takes place over a 24-hour span in rural Buffalo Springs, Kansas. The body of an infant has been discovered at the local nursing home, setting the stage for some darkly humorous crime fiction that if not exactly a page-turner is at least unique. Hayes' laconic and droll style fits neatly with the prairie and small towns of which he writes. The main characters - part Cheyenne Harvey Edward Maddox, or more popularly "Mad Dog" and his half brother, the County Sheriff English, or of course "Englishman" - plow through a 100-year blizzard as the mystery unravels.

This is nothing if not a quirky novel - a unique change of pace that will stay lodged in your memory longer than the average crime story. One gets the feeling that Hayes really enjoys his writing, and as a Kansas native, he certainly seems to know of the people and places around which the tale is spun. If you're in the mood for some off-beat fiction on a lazy summer afternoon, "Prairie Gothic" is worth the time.

Mad Dog, a half Cheyenne self-appointed shaman is only following the wishes of his recently deceased fellow Native American to give him an authentic burial. That's when someone starts taking shots at him. In the meantime, his brother, Sheriff (Englishman) English is called to a nursing home with a report of a kidnapped baby. While a blizzard rages, Englishman needs to find his brother, discover how the baby was killed, and head off an increasingly crazy group of locals.

Author J. M. Hayes delivers an often funny story that mixes reality and fantasy seamlessly. Mad Dog may really have shaman powers--or maybe he is just disturbed. Dorothy from the nursing home swears by her ruby sneakers--and calls Mad Dog 'the wizard.' Dorothy may know what happened to the body, and even where the baby came from, but does she also know more. Because there are deep secrets in this rural Kansas towns--secrets that go back to nazi Germany and before.

I suspect that Hayes had a good time writing this book. I certainly had a good time reading it.

This book is a children's story, and it's only an okay one. Certainly, considering that it's out of print, there's no real reason to try to track a copy down, as it would probably only appeal to "nerds," anyway. The book centers around one kid's attempt to win the state science contest, how he tries several different things that fail, and realizes how to turn a failure into a winning entry. It's not badly written, and it's even kind of clever in some places, but overall, there's no point in trying to obtain it.

This book was written in 1962 and shows it age. Otherwise it's a good book. It deals with a boy working on a science project, but things never work out just right. I read it as a child and liked it and just read it again to encourage my 3rd grader to read it. It is funny and explains the scientific method as well as a children's novel can. For 6th graders or older I would recommend the Mad Scientists Club books--much better but for older kids becasue they have more advanced science.

"Wired" is sort of a krackerjack name to begin with, so I didn't think it'd be too darn hard to make a parody of the pop magazine. It's a good book, but, then again, it has it's flaws like a new computer has error messages. It's not as good as Martha Stuart's Better Than You at Entertaining, but it'll do if you are a technofreak, like myself..

Some of this book is indeed funny -- but I have to admitthat Wired itself is often more full of (unintentional)howlers than _Rewired_. If you consider yourself a member of the digerati, you will probably want to have a copy of this book on your living room java-table anyway... or just go out and get the next issue of Wired and laugh just as much.

In this book Lloyd Robinson writes, "What the whites had done to the Negroes was bad enough, but Radical Reconstruction in the South was just as severe a misuse of power." (23) The equation here is: slavery, vs. allowing blacks to vote, a state which lasted a grand total of 15 years before resumption of southern home rule after 1876 led to black disenfranchisement until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The assumption that slavery and Reconstruction were equally repugnant is perhaps enough to undermine this book. Certainly there are few books where Pres. Andrew Johnson comes out quite so well (read Johnson's speeches which Robinson complains made people think he was "rash and foolish"...)

It should be noted that Robinson's basic contention -- Democrat Samuel Tilden was robbed of the Presidency in the 1876 election -- is probably right, though there was lots of foul play on both sides. The book is well written and it is, as the jacket copy points out, useful to remember that all the mess we associate with 2000 has happened before and arguably for higher stakes. If one can ignore Robinson's biases there is a useful narrative here.

Lloyd Robinson first wrote this book in the 1960s and interest was renewed after the 2000 election. As a history buff, I found this book to be surprisingly well-written and informative. I say "surprisingly" because I kind of expected a book that would get bogged down in minutia and academia. However, this book gives an excellent portrayal of the country in 1876, especially in the South where the white Democrats were trying to reclaim power from the Republicans and the former slaves who were beholden to the Republicans. Although Mr. Robinson clearly felt the election was stolen and Tilden should been president, he also points out irregularities in the south, especially in the disputed states of South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida whereby blacks were not allowed to vote and how this contributed to Tilden's victory in the popular vote in these states.

If you are a history buff and enjoy reading about politics of previous eras this is a book worth reading.

This one of the better books on Aspen's history. Yet it misses the mark by excluding Aspen's most famous son, Bloody Bridles. This character came to Aspen in 1881 and was the father-in-law of B. Clark Wheeler, the father of Aspen.

Governor Davis H. Waite; a.k.a. Bloody Bridles was the most controversial public official in Colorado and of his era. To not include his diverse and exciting history within the text of this book, is a crime !!! More details to come in my novel. Frank S. Waite - Great-grandson of Bloody Bridles

TODAY MOST FREQUENT VISITORS AND RESIDENTS OF ASPEN KNOW THE NAME JEROME B. WHEELER, i.e. THE JEROME HOTEL, AND THE WHEELER-STODDARD MUSEUM.

THIS BOOK SEEMS TO FOLLOW THE HERD OF THOSE THAT THINK JEROME IS THE HERO OR FATHER OF ASPEN.

B.CLARK WHEELER IS THE FOUNDER OF ASPEN. THERE IS NO RELATION BETWEEN THE TWO WHEELERS, YET TODAY JEROME TAKES ALL THE CREDIT TODAY IN ASPENS HISTORY. B. CLARK WHEELER BUILT THE ROAD TO ASPEN AND PLOTTED AND NAMED THE SITE, ASPEN. 1880.

B. CLARK WHEELERS FATHER-IN-LAW, WAS SOON TO BE GOVERNOR DAVIS H. WAITE; a.k.a. BLOODY BRIDLES. THE HISTORY OF WAITE AND WHEELER TOGETHER IN ASPEN IS MISSING CONTENT AND DETAILS.

JEROME WHEELER WAS A RICH INVESTOR WHO HAD A HOME BUILT IN ASPEN, BUT HIS WIFE REFUSED TO MOVE IN IT. AFTER THE DE-MONITIZATION OF SILVER IN 1893, B.CLARK WHEELER HUNG ON IN ASPEN FOR MANY YEARS, WHILE JEROME B. WHEELER DESERTED ASPEN LIKE A RAT ON A SINKING SHIP.

IF YOU VISIT THE JEROME WHEELER-STODDARD MUSEUM, ! YOU WILL BE TOLD THAT JEROME IS A HERO. YES THE MAN DID CONTRIBUTE AND INVEST IN THE INFRASTRUCT URE OF ASPEN, BUT A HERO ??? PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH............WHEELER AND WAITE, NOW THAT'S SOMETHING WORTH WRITING ABOUT, REAL HEROES.

I bought this book because both of my children loved reading another book by the same author called, "This is the Bear". In comparison to this is the bear, this book is not as good. The illustrations are in full color and well done as in the other book, but the story is not as cute. Young children adore the gentle text and will soon be reciting the story along with you. This book will appeal greatly to toddlers and preschool children. It makes a wonderful quick read before bedtime.

My four year old just loves this book. We borrowed it from the library, and she wants me to read it again and again. She also likes to "read" it by herself, i,e look at the pictures and re-tell the story. The pictures are cute, the writing is simple, and the story holds her attention. A perfect book for 3-5 yr olds who like teddybears.

What a SUCK-FEST! This is the worst book I've read in a long time. The (unlucky) 13 authors seem only slightly concerned with plot continuity, and the result is like a novel with every third page torn out. Characters come and go, and come back again for no apparent reason, other than to satisfy the authors' self-indulgent egos. In particular, the chapters by Elmore Leonard and Vicki Hendricks were appallingly bad. Hendricks ignores all the preceeding chapters and suddenly changes the eponymous manatee from an aquatic pinhead into some amalgam of Lassie and the Hardy Boys. In a later chapter Carl Hiaasen openly mocks this sudden swerve in character. (Tip: avoid books where one co-author ridicules another co-author's writing) Elmore Leonard contributes a time capsule that might have been hip 25 years ago, with a black character refering to someone as a "cat", and in the very next sentence actually using the phase "shuck and jive". I am very happy I checked this book out of the library, instead of squandering 22.95 on this train wreck of a book

OK, thirteen of Miami's favorite writers are sitting around a campfire (this isn't a joke). Dave Barry kicks off a story involving a couple hit men, a manatee, a 102-year-old woman and a box containing the head of Fidel Castro, and passes it to the writer to the left. The next eleven writers circle the story around the campfire in an attempt to blend this motley cast of characters (and heads) into the literary equivalent of a refreshing Miami Beach smoothee.

Throwing in monkey wrenches, stranger characters and even more heads-in-boxes in the process, they mostly succeed in creating a wholly unbelievable, extremely offbeat and wildly entertaining mystery. Poor Carl Hiassen (of Striptease fame) is challenged with tying up all the loose ends without playing the Demi Moore card, and succeeds in delivering an ending as strange as a manatee is large.

Above all an interesting experiment, Naked Came the Manatee is also an entertaining quick read.

Booger is the answer to the walls talking. Suspend belief and enter the world of a manatee that thinks, feels and reasons like us. He becomes involved in a mystery not as a victim, but as a participant in important events. The concept of a manatee detective aiding the likes of Brit Montero in solving the case of the Castro heads is only exceeded by the writing of this by the many different writers, from Dave Barry to Carl Hiaasen. No mystery should be this much fun

Here is a perfect example of wasted time. An over paid over opinionated author with little or no clue to what THEY wrote. Asking US to believe words they have twisted. This is the typical, "I'll wave my hands in the air and hope to be seen."style of defiance that went out in the 60's.Why would one expect to have others believe,what they have written is true,when THEY say what has been written before them is fraudulent?.It is an opinon that has little effect on life as we know it.Always let your conscience be your guide.

"Free thinker?" Try non-thinker. I must laugh whenever I read someone state as an absolute truth that there is no absolute truth. The contradiction is self evident, but they're not in the Bible. I've read much better efforts than this piece. Usually on the back of the door on a bathroom stall...

This book is good for beginners. It does provide some adequate criticisms of christianity, but, at times, is too emotional. As a scientist, I am logical and must be emotionless, and prefer books that are the same. Mrs. Hayes does know what she is talking about, and writes with just a touch of sarcasm. Perhaps the last chapter should have been the first chapter. This is not a scholarly book for serious study, but for light reading.

While Drew Heywood is an excellent author - this book will not be one to wind up in his Hall of Fame. This book was chock full of inaccurate statements, misleading comments, and poorly thought out statements. Using this to study from, or even using it as a reference would be a mistake. I found it very tough to read, and most of the time found it downright frustrating. I would, however, recommend it for target practice. The book becomes much more valuable (not to mention, lighter) after substantial portions of it are removed with a large calibre hand gun. Surprisingly, the readability doesn't suffer in the least. Seriously though, this book is terrible and the back of a cereal box would make a better study guide.

I read the whole thing with the help of some wine. I actually let a friend of mine read the book, but more as a practical joke. Well, my friend didn't think it was too funny. We both found it to be a waste of our time.

We did, however, find some value in the book at the target range. He took his 45 and I took out my 40 and we used the book as a sight in target. (I'll see if I can get him to write a review as well) This was the first and only time we have ever done anything like this. I teach the Microsoft curriculum and have found some other joy in passing the book around the room and telling the students that I would not recommend using it in the real world or to study for certification exams. You should see their expressions when they open the bullet torn pages and see pieces fall out.

Please don't get me wrong here. I love books and would never recommend that anyone do this with any other book. But, if you stumble across this one - go for it!

By the way - Drew Heywood did, in fact, write the best book I ever read on TCP/IP.

One reader complained that there is "nly two pages for groups."So what! All you need to know for the exam is what groups do what. For more detailed info on groups, use the Microsoft Windows NT Network Administration Training book, or, O'Reilly's Windows NT in a Nutshell.

I very highly recommend this book for not only exam preparation purposes, but as an extensive, well-written reference point. Worth every penny.