Irene Tinker is a feminist pioneer in the field of international development: the research policy center she founded in Washington, D.C., the Equity Policy Center (EPOC), was one of the first to attend to the different needs and concerns of women in international development circles. Her orientation towards improving the lives of women in developing countries is clear in her recent book, Street Foods: Urban Food and Employment in Developing Countries. Street Foods describes a series of studies, sponsored by EPOC, of vendors selling street foods in seven towns and cities in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Bangladesh, Egypt, Senegal, and Nigeria. Tinker starts with a number of questions:

Looking at this entrepreneurial activity through a development lens, I wondered: Do the women and men selling the foods make a good living? Why do women dominate the trade in Nigeria or Thailand, but hardly a woman can be seen selling food in Bangladesh? Why, if street food is so popular, do many governments embark on street cleaning exercises, destroying stalls and confiscating supplies? (p. 3).

Some of her answers are surprising. For example, in some cities, vendors made more money than "middle class" job holders, such as civil servants or teachers. Street foods make a significant contribution to the diets of people in the study countries, particularly to the diets of schoolchildren. In Ziguinchor, Senegal, the average amount of peanuts purchased by children provided nearly two-thirds of their protein requirement. In many countries, it is cheaper to buy street foods than to cook at home, because of the high cost of fuel and the efficiencies associated with cooking in large batches.

In meticulous detail, Tinker describes each of the seven studies in Part I of the book, including a brief economic and political outline of each country, an overview of each city (including maps), and a description of the vendors and the foods they sell. Mouth-watering recipes for two typical foods per country are also included. For each country, Tinker shows how cultural attitudes affect what foods are sold and eaten, by whom, and when. Part II, she turns to development theory and practice, particularly the economics of street foods, nutritional and safety aspects of the food, and implications for research, planning and policy. The robustness of the data allow comparisons across countries of the similarities and differences among street vendors, including demographic and gender variations.

Like other feminist research, the seven studies were not just descriptive, but included an action component as well. The results of the studies showed the significant economic, cultural and nutritional benefits of street foods and have helped to change the policies and practices of muncipal and national governments, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). In many of the study cities, city officials no longer harass or fine the street vendors but provide training instead, modelled on EPOC training programs that provided education about food safety and vendor health.

This book is essential reading for anyone planning research or intervention programs involving urban food practices in developing countries. More generally, it is an exemplar of how research that starts from the realities of people's lives can inform policy and practice to make a difference in those lives.

Designed for business owners and novice entrepreneurs, Robert Gorman's Streetwise: Get Your Business Online offers a clear, cogent, "reader friendly" guide for conceptualizing, designing, and building an effective business website by anyone regardless of whether or not they have any previous familiarity with the internet or computer science -- and in less than 30 days. Gorman takes the reader through the step-by-step process of developing an online business plan; getting listed in popular search engines and directories; choosing the right domain name; making money from on online website, and much, much more. Effective, erudite, practical, easy-to-apply, the time spent reading Streetwise: Get Your Business Online will prove invaluable in avoiding wasted effort, time, money, and energy in creating and operating an effective, competitive, commercially successful website presence.

A comprehensive coverage in important areas in electronic business technologies and their implementation.

The 21 essays that comprise this book cover the full spectrum of software reengineering, with a marked emphasis on computer-aided software engineering and software reuse. This is not a primary resource for hand's on techniques, but is an invaluable collection of papers for software engineering process practitioners who are interested in up-to-date research in software reengineering.

Coverage includes:
Computer-Aided Software Engineering - CASE conceptual models, future directions in CASE repositories, Architecture and Implementation Issues for Upper CASE, and auditing CASE environments.

Reuse - achieving effective software reuse for business systems, enhancing a rigorous reuse process with natural language requirement specifications, Java integrated development environments, and support for reuse-oriented software development.

Data and Data Models - process model for round-trip engineering with relational database, adding alternative access paths to abstract data types and relational data modeling for geographic information systems.

Quality - load-testing of web site applications: analysis and recommendations and a process model for certification of product and process.

Other topics include:
- The Future of Software Development
- Understanding the Role of Use Case in UML
- Extended Spatiotemporal UML: Motivations, Requirements, and Constructs
- A Design Method for Real-Time Object-Oriented Systems Using Communicating Real Time State Machines
- Information Modeling and Method Engineering: A Psychological Perspective
- Component-Based ERP Design in a Distributed Object Environment
- Knowledge and Object-Oriented Approach for Interoperability of Heterogeneous Information Management Systems

As shown by the topics this book does cover a wide range of knowledge areas. Although the collection is not tightly edited, which resulted in each paper reflecting its author's distinctive writing style, each paper in this book goes into a great deal of depth and thoroughly covers the topic. In fact, if only one topic from among the 21 in this collection coincides with your area of interest this book will be a worthwhile investment. For example, although I read each of the papers and found more than a few that were in line with my own professional interests, I felt that the two that addressed quality to be an amply return on my investment in this book.

Of all the books out there on marketing and the Internet, this is the practical one. It's not just tactics, but all of the (quite insightful) observations are backed up with something actionable.

If you want to introduce someone to the field or have an expert learn a bunch of new tricks, use this one.

Having read every book in the Enterprise Computing Series I was expecting something quite different. Where all of the other books in the series follow a People-Process-Technology structure, and are filled with methods and techniques, this departs from that formula and does so in a refreshingly fashion.

The author starts with the history of technology, listing many ancient innovations that are still in use today - plow, compass, and the like. He builds from there in the same manner that James Burke's "Connections" program that aired on The Learning Channel shows how ancient discoveries evolve into modern technologies. In fact, James Burke is cited, as are philosophers, historians, and contemporary technologists and business figures. This makes for interesting reading that is presented in lucid, thought-provoking prose.

Throughout the book the author never loses an opportunity to connect the past with the present. He also stays focused on business issues and reinforces key ideas with case studies and his own analysis. The practical aspects of this book are given in Chapters 3, 8 and 9, wherein advice and methods for managing technological change, developing business strategies and integrating technology are discussed in detail. These more practical chapters balance the 'softer' parts of the book and should satisfy both the hard core types who want methods, and the big picture types who want to see the whole fabric of technology. I usually fall into the former category, but found the book so thought provoking and interesting that my initial disappointment when I first thumbed through this book turned into delight as I read it.

If you want a book that provides quantitative methods, and leads to step-by-step through the process of technology management this is not it. However, after you get your fill of processes, procedures and number crunching you will benefit from the deep thoughts and holistic views that are so well presented here.

If you are running or building multi channel retail and/or customer relationship management systems then buy this book.

It presents a fascinating picture of all that was DOT.COM retail from a recognised expert in the field.

This is a short, but very powerful book. Filled with excellent examples that every business person should know. If you are in business, or own your own business and have wondered about how to make the Internet work for you, this little book will help.

It's amazing to think there aren't other books devoted to this subject - a subject that's at such a primary level of the history of mankind on this planet. The subject, of course, is the world-historical trade and travel routes that are - for the most part - as ancient as formations etched into the earth or the ocean currents. To someone who is confident he or she has a grasp on world history this book will probably come as a surprising revelation. We've all heard of these trade routes here and there, but until you read of them all at once and are hit with their fundamental importance (history can be broken down into routes and cities) you are missing a large piece of the picture. (For one thing - seeing the earth in terms of these natural trade and travel routes gives you a much clearer and poetic picture and understanding of history than picturing the earth with the boundaries of empires and nations [not that this book makes a political statement about man-made 'boundaries'] which volumes of world history will put in your mind.) The book is well-structured with excellent maps and it is well-written. This book gives you the impression that alot of effort went into it, despite the fact that it was published, seemingly, as a coffee-table book. This book should be re-printed and given its long-overdue recognition.

This book is a detailed description of premiums nostly obtained originally from Old-Time Radio shows and comic books. It catalogues each premium by character name (e.g., Captain Midnight, Tom Mix, Jack Armstrong), many with photographs. In addition to monochrome photos, there are also 12 pages of full-color collections of premiums by type (badges, rings, etc.) plus color cover photos of premiums. Author Tumbusch has researched the premiums diligently, which also include early television as well as radio, "premiums" from comic books and those as "prizes" in cereal packages.

In addition to listing values, Tumbusch makes a point of providing background, where possible, on the various premiums. Particularly for the new collector, the book makes it easy to identify some obscure ring or badge found at a flea market or garage sale.

The book is nearly a decade old, so the prices listed shouldn't be taken too seriously, though they might provide an idea of the relative values of premiums.

Even those not collecting such items should find the pictures and writeup of the premiums an interesting and informative perspective on the collectibles of yore.