Long before Ralph Nader and Common Cause became successful public advocates, Florence Mahoney worked for decades behind the scenes in Washington to shape federal policy on children's health issues and medical research. Her influence extended from the years just after World War II to the last years of the 20th century, through Democratic and Republican administrations alike, and her legacy today includes the United States National Institutes of Health. While raising two sons, she developed the intimate dinner party to a fine art of political influence, always fighting for federal assistance aimed at curing and preventing disease among children and adults alike. A fascinating biography of a woman who deserves to be known much better than she is.

Noble Conspirator: Florence S. Mahoney And The Rise Of The National Institutes Of Health is the compelling biography of a singularly remarkable woman and her decades of unpaid advocacy for governmental biomedical research. Her legacy that is with us to this day is the National Institutes of Health, or NIH. Noble Conspirator is filled with anecdotes, courage, and the growth of the fledgling NIH into a gigantic complex with an annual budget of $16 billion in the new millennium. Noble Conspirators is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of medical research in America, political success stories of nonprofit lobbying, or biographies of women who helped to shape American society into what it is today. Ms. Florence Mahoney is truly a heroine to remember.

We love to sit and watch the moths bees and butterflys come to our bushes (we actually have 7). With this book we have been able to identify the moths and butterflies.

This introductory field guide is much, much better than the old Little Golden Guide" that beginning Lepidoptrists (butterfly lovers) have relied on in the past. I wish I had had the new First Guide version a kid! It shows accurate color drawings of the most common species, along with the food plants and, in some cases, the other life stages such as larvae and pupae.

I especially like the fact that it includes so many moths -- not just the showy ones like Cecropias and Lunas that beginners dream about but seldom find -- but some of the little gray and brown ones, too, such as might show up any evening around your yard light. Plus, I finally found out that a grayish day-flying moth with a metallic-blue body that I see around here all the tiime is callled a "Southern Ctenucha."

As a Master Gardener volunteer, I currently recommend this to 4H-ers (and adults, too) who are just getting started in entomology. It's easy to use, and the light pocket size makes it nice for children to carry on field trips. Buy it along with "First Guide to Caterpillars" in the same series (which I have also reviewed here on Amazon).

This book was recommended as a textbook for a 4th year course in real estate development and it reads like one. It is well organized and covers this broad subject with detailed, practical information in a systematic way.

Most of all I enjoyed the two real life case study storys (of the development of an office building and a high-rise apartment) that weave through the chapters. These were very candidly told by the developers themselves and give the real picture of the trials and tribulations of large project real estate development.

Numerous listings of information sources, web sites, and bibliographies at the end of each section makes this book a 'keeper' reference text.

This book so clearly articulates the pivotal role of the triad of market, marketability and feasibility studies in the field of real estate development. While the book does not attempt to be all encompassing, the text is dense with financial and other risk analysis distilled from the experience of the authors and contributors.

Although at times it felt like the shudder of taking an ice cold shower, I finished the book feeling refreshed and invigorated to tackle the challenges and opportunities of the risk-reward tradeoff in the development business.

Last fall I took a class from Dr. Bruland. She is one of the greatest instructors I have ever had. Her openness, intelligence and ability to communicate led me to figure out what I believe in many areas that I had either ignored or (worse) in which I had accepted the thoughts of others as my own. It was only after completing her course that I decided to pick up one Dr. Bruland's books: "Regathering."

"Regathering" has challenged my ideas every bit as much as Dr. Bruland's class. Once more, I am struck by her honesty and openness. Once more, I have been given the opportunity to figure out exactly what I believe.

"Regathering" is a book full of testimonies. Christians from varying backgrounds discuss what they think Christ's prayer for unity among believers means not only for their lives, but also for life within their traditions.

Several of the participants chose to remain anonymous; some give their names and backgrounds. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants all weigh in with their thoughts, fears, experiences, and dreams.

I myself came skeptically to this book. All too often, "ecumenism" has struck me as something that Churches which no longer function do to pass the time--an excuse for one more committee and some self-important busy-work. The testimonies in this book, along with the insightful commentary by Dr. Bruland have partially convinced me otherwise.

I still feel a lot of Ecumenism is misguided. Yet "Regathering" itself is a strong witness to the growth that can happen when different kinds of Christians sit down and discuss the things that bind, as well as divide them.

I give "Regathering" my highest recommendation.

Last fall I took a class from Dr. Bruland. She is one of the greatest instructors I have ever had. Her openness, intelligence and ability to communicate led me to figure out what I believe in many areas that I had either ignored or (worse) in which I had accepted the thoughts of others as my own. It was only after completing her course that I decided to pick up one Dr. Bruland's books: "Regathering."

"Regathering" has challenged my ideas every bit as much as Dr. Bruland's class. Once more, I am struck by her honesty and openness. Once more, I have been given the opportunity to figure out exactly what I believe.

"Regathering" is a book full of testimonies. Christians from varying backgrounds discuss what they think Christ's prayer for unity among believers means not only for their lives, but also for life within their traditions.

Several of the participants chose to remain anonymous; some give their names and backgrounds. Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants all weigh in with their thoughts, fears, experiences, and dreams.

I myself came skeptically to this book. All too often, "ecumenism" has struck me as something that Churches which no longer function do to pass the time--an excuse for one more committee and some self-important busy-work. The testimonies in this book, along with the insightful commentary by Dr. Bruland have partially convinced me otherwise.

I still feel a lot of Ecumenism is misguided. Yet "Regathering" itself is a strong witness to the growth that can happen when different kinds of Christians sit down and discuss the things that bind, as well as divide them.

I give "Regathering" my highest recommendation.

The 21 articles in Relationship Marketing for Competitive Advantage are wide-ranging, covering manufacturing and services, business and consumer database marketing, and retail. All in all, they represent some of the best writing on relationship marketing including seminal works by marketing experts from around the world such as Theodore Levitt, Leonard Berry, David Maister and Christian Grönroos.

The fundamental principle upon which relationship marketing is founded is that the greater the level of customer satisfaction with the relationship with the supplier-not just the product or service-then the greater the likelihood that the customer will stay with the supplier. Retaining customers is important, as there is strong evidence to suggest that customer retention is directly related to profitability. It appears that the longer the customer stays with a supplier, the higher the likelihood that they will place a greater amount of business with the supplier, even to the extent of single sourcing. Further, there is a likelihood that these retained customers will cost less to service and that they will be less likely to be motivated solely by price.

At the heart of relationship marketing is the integration, company-wide, of hitherto separate customer service and total quality initiatives with the mainstream of marketing strategy. Conventionally, customer service and quality have been managed separately from marketing. In the relationship marketing paradigm, they are intertwined and managed as one. The rationale behind this is that it is upon service and quality that relationships are built.

Edited by academics from the Cranfield School of Management, the articles in this book are supplemented with summaries and commentaries, highlighting a broad scope of issues such as customer retention, employee satisfaction, supplier relations and the management of service quality. These issues are brought together to provide an integrated approach to the development of a relationship marketing strategy. This book of linked readings has been designed to reinforce themes first developed in Relationship Marketing by Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1991) and provides a solid basis for the further development of relationship marketing as a discipline and as a practical orientation.

The articles in Relationship Marketing for Competitive Advantage are wide-ranging, covering manufacturing and services, business and consumer database marketing, and retail. They represent some of the best writing on the subject by experts from around the world.

Edited by academics from the Cranfield School of Management, these articles are supplemented with summaries and commentaries, highlighting a broad scope of issues such as customer retention, employee satisfaction, supplier relations and the management of service quality. These issues are brought together to provide an integrated approach to the development of a relationship marketing strategy. They have been designed to reinforce themes first developed in Relationship Marketing by Christopher, Payne and Ballantyne (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford).

The bible on proper planning. I wish more planners would read it. I am an average citizen who wanted to learn more about smarter land use plans and this book really has great ideas. It is expensive, but well worth the price. Shows how poor our current clear-cutting practices are compared to the beauty of an open space subdivision design. Buy this-you will really learn a lot!

This is a great book, the best ever written, I am sure, on the very important topic of helping maintain, and sometimes create livable communities in rural areas. The only handicap for owning the book is the rather huge price, $ 86.00, and not discounted by Amazon. We would like to have all our county planning commission members have a copy of the book, but can't afford to do so.

Sadhana Guidelines is a "Must have" book for anyone who wants to practice Kundalini Yoga. If you haven't tried Kundalini yoga, you're in for a treat. It goes beyond the postures (asanas) of Hatha Yoga. Sadhana (which means "personal spiritual practice")Guidelines supplies in-depth descriptions and explanations of the mudras, the mantras, and excellent sets of exercises (kriyas) clearly described and illustrated so you know what to do, how to do it, and how long to do it. (It's an ideal manual, making an excellent companion to KUNDALINI YOGA: The Flow of Eternal Power which explains the philosophy of Kundalini Yoga.)

For years the standard basic yoga manaual for 3HO (Healhy Happy Holy) Organization. Authorized by world reknowned yoga instructor Gurucharan Singh Khalsa it has it all! Yoga postures, yoga sets, breathwork and mudras. An abundance of clear and very detailed instruction. Includes articles on yoga.

This book is wonderful! I highly recommend it.

The Salton Sea Atlas covers the complex issues facing this very special body of water in a clear, yet comprehensive, fashion (use of graphics and illustrations over exhaustive use of text). It's a beautiful book, and the most wide-ranging piece about the Salton Sea that I've been able to find. You will not be disappointed with it.

Buy this book

The Salton Sea Atlas explores issues and information regarding California's largest lake and most valuable environmental resource -- the Salton Sea.

This book is a must for those interested in the Salton Sea, environmental change, water issues in the American Southwest, history, or geography. Its graphical synthesis of complex social, scientific, and geographic information is superb and can be appreciated by all audiences. This is a wonderful publication.

I recommend it wholeheartedly

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.

_State of the World_ is the flagship publication of the Worldwatch Institute. When people want information on massive global trends, they turn to two places -- this book and the United Nations Development Report. In fact, the book was written as a guide for the upcoming UN World Summit in Johannesburg, and is even forwarded by UN Secretary-General, Kofi A. Annan.

Clearly, Kofi and the rest of the UN will have a lot to consider in Johannesburg, as many of the problems that were mentioned in _State of the World 2001_ have only gotten worse in the commercially intense and ecologically devistating -- albeit relatively short -- 365 day interim. If you are looking for the most up-to-date information on glObal food, water, health care, education and environmental trends, this is your book. Perhaps the most finely crafted information tool in our kit.

General Topics Included:

Science breakthroughs, climate change, politics, dysfunctional farming, world hunger (amidst plenty), rural areas, cities, ethical eating, the new chemical economy, metal poisoning, persistent organic pollutants (POPs), environmental democracy and markets, technology changes, glObal industry, development theory, environmental impacts of tourism/sustainable tourism, population, reproduction, healthy families, gender myopia, the relationship between resources and conflict, resource pillage, economic sanctions, international governance, and democratizing glObal governance.

Specific Items of detailed Statistical Consideration:

Infectious diseases, glObal pharmaceutical sales, legislative responses to recycling in the 1990s, greenhouse gas emissions and targets, land distribution and agribusiness lots, glObal chemical output, glObal atmospheric emissions, hotel "greening" success stories, gender disparity, Sierra Leone's Civil War, a progress report of the Rio Convention, small dams commissioned and removed in the U.S (1910-1999), regional deaths from AIDS (1990-2000), glObal average temperatures (1867-2000), glObal carbon emissions (1751-2000), carbon emission in U.S., China and Russia (1990-2000), per capita food production and commodity prices (1961-2000), world fertilizer use (1950-2000), glObal pesticide sales (1950-1999), certified organic and in-conversion land in the EU (1985-2000), toxic intensities of selected U.S. manufacturing sectors for the early 1990s, projected growth in world economy, population, and chemical production (1995-2020), international tourist arrivals (1950-2000) and projections for 2020, world population since A.D. 1 (yes, since year one!), cross-country analysis of contraceptive use and childbearing, official development assistance (1970-2000), foreign debt of developing and former Eastern Bloc nations (1970-2000), and private capital flows to developing countries (1991-2000).

You might also seriously think about subscribing to World Watch magazine. As with this book, it presents glObal environmental issues in the form of highly researched articles, useful for both policymakers and an informed glObal citizenry. Common topics include natural resource use, water and air quality, climate change, and human health issues. At six issues a year for something like twenty dollars, the magazine is a steal.

This is the latest annual edition of the indispensable "State of the World," and it should be at the top of your reading list. No coincidence, it is timed to correspond with the "State of the Union" address. The world we live in today can no longer afford limited nationalistic thinking -- we must learn to think and act globally, and this book is a key part of racing up that learning curve.

The 2002 edition contains 8 chapters, on topics including global warming, population, agriculture, toxic wastes, resource conflicts (such as wars over diamonds in Africa), and global governance. Beginning in August, the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development will be held in Johannesburg, and the lead essay frames an agenda for that meeting.

"The Skeptical Environmentalist," the book that is the current favorite of libertarian anti-environmentalists everywhere, is subtitled "Measuring the Real State of the World," a none too subtle dig at the Worldwatch Institute. Lester Brown and the others at the Institute have been addressing the most important issues facing the world for many years now, and they deserve our respect and our thanks! This is no time to surrender the fight for the future -- what do we want to leave for the generations to come?