Great futuristic leadership book for health care. It has a broad base and provides both the context for the many health care changes underway and suggests specific strategies to address them. A lot of creative and effective management techniques are outlined that are practical and challenge the traditional management notions. Well worth the price. I highly recommend it.

Good futuristic text for leaders. Very practical insights and useful to the manager and clinical leader. It can be used by any level of leadership and has real applicability in the current transformation in healthcare. It is rare to find both good insight and usefulness in the same text without a lot of jargon.

I first read this book in high school. "...and we were not ashamed...." hooked me and 27 years later, I too, could proudly state that the secret of being a Marine is that we were not ashamed.

Don't miss this one.

M.R. McCarty LtCol, USMC (Ret)

Gallant gives an exciting and interesting description of Marine training at Parris Island in the early days of WWII including some of the disorganization and uncertainty of those days. His description of the assault on Guadalcanal nicely reflects the naivte of the Marines of that time about island and jungle combat. His narrative also portrays a group of men to whom valourous action was a part of everyday behavior.

If you even look at a bicycle, you'll love this book. If you are, or once were a cycle racer ... even more so. I think you might find yourself in the pages somewhere...

Patrick O'Grady is guerrilla cartooning at its finest. Whether he is poking holes in the traditional whipping posts of cycling (the IOC, Society du Tour de France, USCF, etc...) or the cyclists themselves (Old Guys Who Get Fat In Winter, the Mud Stud), O'Grady is always there to lob a grenade into the midst of the peloton. If you own more than 3 article made of Lycra (provided you were not a member of Whitesnake or Bon Jovi), you must own this book.

Its not your typical review that begins by praising the book's bibliography. But, then again, this isn't your typical book. The authors highlight the books that helped them most during their efforts both to create the metrics program and write the book (some 31 sources) followed by the citation of some 185 more sources listed alphabetically. This is a thoroughly researched work.

Don't confuse thorough with academic or theoretical. Included is a whole chapter on selling your metrics program to management including suggested slides and a clear step-by-step list of points to emphasize. A metrics program is as much about people as it is about software and this books is careful to support ideas on both flanks.

If you are interested in starting a metrics program or are just interested how such programs work this is an excellent place to start. I highly recommend it.

This book, written in 1986, is as applicable today as it was when it was written over 14 years ago. To summarize, this book is a diary of the trials and tribulations of implementing a metrics program at Hewlett-Packard that is packed with practical advice that came from lesson's learned and a great roadmap to implementing a program of process improvement. The book addresses the difficulties and rewards of establishing an effective, viable metrics program. The authors clearly show the business and technical value that rewards the daunting effort, and guides the reader by providing an engaging saga that is easy to read packed with factual information. I was also struck by the excellent use of [the 144] charts that convey meaningful statistical information and portray data in a clear manner. Another nice surprise is the attention paid to metrics and how to effectively interpret and use them after a project transitions to production. Although I first read this book when it was originally published, it took 14 years of experience in the trenches to fully appreciate the message and content embodied within this book. I strongly recommend this book to the beginer and exerienced practitioner alike. If you have previously read this book I urge you to re-read it. Over the years I have learned and re-learned from this slim (288-page) book. I expect to spot additional gems of insight as I re-read it in the future. If you by one book on software metrics and process improvement, this is the one to get!

What impressed me the most about this book is that the author has revealed many of center issues in managing and writing system level requirements. This book is well written, very much fact-based. It varified a lot of my observations, and motivated me a lot in my research work.

This book made me want to work through my lunch break. So when I got home, my food was so delicious.

A REVIEW OF "TAKING THE FEAR OUT OF CHANGING" BY DR. DENNIS O'GRADY

I'm thinking of buying a second copy of this book. Like a favorite pair of tennis shoes, this book doesn't just sit on the shelf, I use it often. I've taken the book to work, copied favorite sections, and loaned it out to friends.

I first read this book five years ago, when my husband and I had identity crises at the same time. We separated, changed careers, and then reunited. Talk about changes! I read many self-help books during that time, but this book was, and continues to be, the most useful.
In essence, "Taking the Fear Out of Changing" has become a mentor that I consult often, to relearn a lesson, to check my progress, and to inspire me to continue changing.

As a psychotherapist in independent practice for more than 20 years, O'Grady is well-qualified to write this book. He has helped couples, families, and businesses, such as AT&T and the U.S. Air Force, with the processes of change. The Dayton-based author is also a professional speaker and columnist.

Most importantly, O'Grady is a comforting and knowledgeable writer. With a refreshingly honest writing style, O'Grady delineates five stages of change: Crises, Hard Work, Tough Decisions, Unexpected Pain, and Joy and Integration. Each chapter presents information, advice, and relevant questions to help the reader navigate the tricky waters of change.

O'Grady also trusts the reader with his own stories of change crises. He describes his struggle to quit smoking, and his fears when he became a new parent.

In one of my favorite passages, he states, "What to do when faced with the unexpected pain of change? Throw up high a prayer to the God of your faith. Then look toward the horizon of your heartfelt goals and crawl forward."
Not many psychologists would admit or advocate crawling. But isn't that what we do?
O'Grady inspir!es real change because he accepts the honest truth or us, the messy, imperfect, change-reluctant people we are.

You don't just read this book. You participate in it. There are checklists, quizzes, quotes, and tips in this user-friendly book. But what I found the most helpful were affirmations, such as, "Take responsibility for your happiness." I cut out that list and taped it to my desk at work. It took time, but by reading O'Grady's book, I learned that, in my case, the fear of change, was really the fear of anger and the fear of being different.

I can honestly say that this book helped me grow up. It helped me grown into myself, "Taking the Fear Out of Changing" taught me to appreciate who I am, and that appreciation turned, slowly but surely, into confidence. And a confident person can handle change.

-- Kristina Onder

An easy reference book for any topic you may wish to find, due to its format and extensive Table of Contents. Also written so that each chapter stands on its own - a MUST for busy people that struggle to find the time to read. I also enjoyed the interactive nature of the point/counterpoint and quiz at the end of each chapter

My wife and I have personally used this book as an on-going reference during two job changes, the construction of 2 new homes and a 550 mile move. As a matter of fact, we each have our own copy.

When I made the first job change, I gave a copy of this book to each of my reports when I left. They have used and appreciated it.

I highly recommend this book, whether you fear change or enjoy it! Makes a great gift for someone you care about. And it truly keeps on giving!

This is a terrific book, both in style and content. It should be required reading for every Baby Boomer on the planet. This author is a gifted writer who can get to the real heart of the matter without drowning the reader in wordage.

AFTER THE FALL OF VIETNAM: NEW ADVENTURE NOVEL ABOUT A DRAFT DODGER'S JOURNEY THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS

Few of us ever get to go back to the road not taken, but middle-aged draft dodger Frank Walsh does in the new novel Through the Picture Tube, by Patrick Grady. Twenty years after the end of the Viet Nam war, the man who still lives in Canada finds himself depressed and haunted - haunted by the loss of his wife, haunted by the death of his high school friend in a faraway jungle, and haunted by his own regrets. Seeking to find out what happened to his black friend, the only American killed in a village massacre, he begins an odyssey that forces him to come to grips with the moral dilemmas of war. At the same time, he finds new love with a beautiful Vietnamese woman as he unravels the mystery of really happened on that fateful day in a long-forgotten village called Bien Lai. Through the Picture Tube is a revealing study of the war we watched on television and an examination of how our lives are forever changed by the choices we make. Patrick Grady is an American draft dodger who still lives in Canada. His own experiences were chronicled in James Dickerson's book, North To Canada: Men and Women Against the Viet Nam War.

These beautiful, surprising poems moved me very much. It's refreshing to come upon a new book of poetry in which substance is as important as style. I loved this book!

Marriage, both its joys and the sense of isolation it fosters, is a major theme of Jennifer O'Grady's debut collection. In gorgeously crafted poems that are at once meticulous and playful, restrained and deeply moving, O'Grady illuminates the complexities of intimacy through poems that deftly probe her own relationships and those of others (mainly women). The title poem is a haunting meditation on the color white as a metaphor for both losing and finding oneself in marriage ("to be so overwhelmingly full of light/that it spills and spills until nothing remains"); like married partners, white is "definable in terms of the observer or of light:/to take on, to excuse, to change." In "Forgiveness," the poet watches her husband priming a wall after a quarrel ("an urging outward, a pressing toward limits/seen and denied"); the drying paint evokes "the way one thing hardens into another, love into hate/anger into regret," yet "there is always the bit that trickles away/freely, like an unseen tear/thin and soluble as frost." O'Grady also has fresh takes on art. In the masterful poem "Jesus and the Adulteress," ostensibly about the Giotto fragments in Assisi's St. Francis Basilica, a narrative gradually emerges, through juxtapositions of various fragmented voices and texts, that illuminates both the art being watched as well as the relationship between the couple observing it. In these poems, what is not said is often as important as what is; silences reverberate, as do the startling images. These poems linger long after you put down the book. Highly recommended.

ABORTION: YES OR NO? John Grady, M.D. Possibly the most widely read treatise on abortion in the world. Brief, clear, and thorough. Refutes all arguements for abortion. 550,000 sold.

I'm 15 and I've read this book at least 11 times. It has got to be one of the best books I've ever read.