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| Read What Others Are Saying |
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| Displaying 1 to 10 (of 372 reviews) |
Result Pages: 1 |
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![Dottie Flowers and the Skinner Gang [book]](images/9781591463627-small.jpg "Dottie Flowers and the Skinner Gang [book]") |
Vincenzo the smooth-talking Italian, Enrique the swash-buckling Spaniard, Harley the gleaming Davidson. When Dottie Flowers, winner of a casino jackpot and witness to murder, runs afoul of the notorious Skinner Gang, all three come to her rescue.
Only one is who he seems.
In the quiet of country horse stables, the wineries along Niagara’s peninsula, the shaded streets of Oakville or the luxury condos of Toronto. Who can tell where Dottie, a flower child of the sixties now in her sixties, and her speed-loving, white water-rafting friend Mabel Stattergood, will dig up trouble next?
Zip up your leather jacket and strap on your helmet. Dottie Flowers and the Skinner Gang is a light-hearted caper with an endless list of shady suspects. Even Dottie is unsure who to trust, including the police.
Kidnapping, jewelry heists, forgery, fast cars, mistaken identity, snoopy neighbours, jealous wives, poisoned cats, murder and a lovesick Englishman. Dottie Flowers and the Skinner Gang has it all in one easy, fun-filled read that will breeze you through any summer weekend...
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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![The History of Project Management [book]](images/9781554890965-small.jpg "The History of Project Management [book]") |
I was already a fan of Mark Kozak-Holland long before I got this book. His project management evaluation of the Great Escape and his IT lessons from the Titanic had already marked him as an author to watch, and that's before I read his insights into the management style and practices of Winston Churchill. Now comes THE HISTORY OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT, and I'm overpowered by the strength and intelligence of this mammoth enterprise.
THE HISTORY OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT's title is slightly misleading: it's less of a history of project management as a discipline (although that's certainly covered), and more of a history of the management of projects, with emphasis on the projects. Kozak-Holland shows how PMBOK®-centric concepts like the nine knowledge areas of project management have been implemented through the years in actual work. From the Great Pyramid at Giza to the Parthenon, from the Hagia Sophia to Angkor Wat, Kozak-Holland moves seamlessly between West and East, covering important projects in virtually every civilization and time period. We see Christopher Columbus as project manager rather than in the more common light of explorer. We see project manager vs. owner and customer in the building of Versailles. As the Industrial Revolution takes hold, we see the birth of modern management practices in the Eiffel Tower and the Transcontinental Railroad.
The book stops with the first half of the 20th Century, but that's okay. We know what project management looks like from the invention of PERT and CPM forward. What we seldom think about as project management practitioners is how much came before us, and how much we owe to the knowledge and techniques of those pioneers of project management. This is a book I expect to read more than once, and it's a book everyone interested in project management ought to own.
- Michael S. Dobson, PMP, is the author of seven books on project management, including CREATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT (McGraw-Hill) and the best-selling PRACTICAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT (SkillPath)...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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I first met Mark several years ago when I attended a presentation on "Avoiding Project Disaster: Titanic Lessons", followed by a session a few years later on the "Project Lessons from the Great Escape". Impressed at that time by his attention to detail and captivating writing and speaking style, I was honored to be asked to be a reviewer his newest endeavor, "The History of project Management."
In examining the TOC I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of this undertaking, and then reading the content, it is very clear that once again Mark quickly captures his audience and leads them on an incredible journey through history.
The project management role is made apparent from the very beginning, as shown in the mapping of each project to the 9 knowledge areas, and then discussed in relation to the 5 process groups (Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing.)
The importance of lessons learned and historical information, confirms that project managers have existed for thousands of years and have learned from their predecessors (and their own) mistakes and successes. How could the Great Wall of China or the Egyptian pyramids be built without a plan to be executed?
Like me, you certainly will be captivated by this book and the style in which it is written...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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“A book on the History of Project Management is long overdue especially one that looks at the history from a modern Project Management perspective.”
Ron Taylor PMP, Principal of the Ron Taylor Group and author of "Leadership: Stories, Lessons and Uncommon Sense," and Past President of the Washington D.C. Chapter of the Project Management Institute...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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![LIVE Ringer [book]](images/9781591463276-small.jpg "LIVE Ringer [book]") |
Fitzgerald is a master at creating a narrative that keeps you riveted to characters that are right out of daily life. What seems random never is and things add up in ways you could never have guessed. Life is full of surprises and so is this book. Great Read...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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What a masterfully woven tale of murder, mystery, and intrigue. Ms. Fitzgerald grabbed me in the gut with a tightly clenched fist from the moment the whistle blew and the horses bolted out of the starting gate, and didn't let up until the tense and gripping climax. In fact, she just kept squeezing tighter and tighter until I was almost tied in knots. You're going to need to go to the store and purchase a whole barrel full of midnight oil before you start this page-turner--or page-burner, I should say. The protagonist, Allie Grainger, and her intense dire predicament were very real, and kept me in her head, gritting my teeth, and on the edge of my seat until I could hardly stand it. I believe that, when I finally inspect my copy again in the light of day, I will likely find scorch marks on the pages. A must-have must-read for every avid mystery or thriller reader, and a stunning accomplishment for any writer. I'm definitely looking forward to and will be on the lookout for anything this masterful storyteller has to share with the literary world. Kudos and bravo, Ms. Fitzgerald!..
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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![Plant Project Engineering Guidebook [book]](images/9781554890996-small.jpg "Plant Project Engineering Guidebook [book]") |
When many of us leave college and begin our career as an engineer, we know many equations and theories. Unfortunately, these theories and equations do little to assist us in our day-to-day activities. Hence, we struggle for our first two or three years to learn what we actually need to know about our profession. Morley Selver’s book “Plant Project Engineering Guidebook” was designed and written to help us in our quest for knowledge in the work of an engineer – to aid us when we need it the most!
Morley’s book covers all those items that college did not - but yet are needed to survive as an engineer. The book covers procurement, project management, design control, and commissioning. It covers in depth procurement to include Statements of work, Terms and Conditions and the overall contracting process. As for project management, the book covers scopes, budgets, and project authorization. In design control, it covers files, drawings, and certification. Lastly, in commissioning, the book covers commissioning procedures for mechanical, electrical, and Instrumentation & Control projects.
These are critical knowledge areas and engineer needs to know upon leaving college. Therefore, I highly recommend this book to all new mechanical, electrical, electronic, and Instrumentation & Control engineers. You won’t be disappointed!
Dr. John J. Byrne, PMP
Author of Polaris: Lessons in Risk Management..
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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![Walking Isn't Everything [book]](images/9781591460000-small.jpg "Walking Isn't Everything [book]") |
An Ordinary Life with Polio
Jean Denecke’s account of her encounter with polio and her subsequent life dealing with permanent disabilities emphasizes the ordinariness of her experiences. As she puts it, “except for my physical condition, I feel that I lead a perfectly normal life” (p. 16). Denecke wrote the book in the mid-1950s, approximately eight years after contracting polio in 1946 when she was twenty-nine. Denecke died in 1969 and the memoir is edited by her daughter Kris Gruenawald and nephew Keith Story. The editors do not explain the extent of their editing, but the text appears to be the one Denecke wrote in the early 1950s. She submitted it to several publishers, but she did not made the suggested revisions and it remained unpublished.
Denecke begins her memoir by recounting the onset of polio and her trip to the hospital Once in the hospital, she found it increasingly difficult to breathe and was eventually placed in an iron lung. Unlike many polio narratives that emphasize the fear and anxiety about iron lungs, Denecke seems not to have had a powerful psychological response to being placed in the device. Her straightforward account of the time spent in the iron lung and in the hospital lacks the drama of many polio narratives. Her time of difficulty came later. As she began to recover, she acknowledged her fears about the future, and admitted that at her lowest point psychologically she wanted to commit suicide. Denecke had even decided that she would accomplish the deed using rat poison that she would have her husband bring to the hospital. Although the psychological problems apparently persisted even after Denecke returned home, she provides few details about her feelings, or about how she resolved them and decided to get on with her life. She does credit a chiropractor, who came to her home to provide massage and therapy, with helping her overcome the psychological issues.
Much of the memoir describes her four-month stay at the polio rehabilitation facility at Warm Springs, Georgia. She credits the resort-like social atmosphere with helping to restore her desire and determination to live a good life. Equally important, the therapists, brace- and appliance-makers, and wheelchair specialists provided her with the ability to sit up, to use a wheelchair, and to use her hands with the aid of specially constructed slings. Among other things, the experience at Warm Springs helped her to come to terms with the reality that she would never walk again, and to be grateful for the things she could do.
In the account of her life at home, both before and after her return from Warm Springs, Denecke stresses the ways in which she and her family, especially her husband and her daughter, found ways to create something approaching a normal life. Although she acknowledges challenges and difficulties, the emphasis is always on what worked. Part of her purpose in writing the book was to show other polio survivors what it is possible to achieve with hard work, a willing family and friends, and some imagination. The difficulty of finding good, reliable help ranked high among the challenges Denecke and her family faced. Here and there in the narrative Denecke suggests some of the continuing psychological issues that she and the family faced, but at no time does she reveal much about their nature or how they were addressed. She credits Harry, her husband, with making it possible for her to live at home and be an effective wife and mother, but we get little sense of their relationship or of the burdens that Harry assumed when his wife contracted polio. The narrative ends with a short account of setting up an in-home business. Denecke established a baby-sitting registry in 1954 and ran it successfully and profitably until her death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1969. The book also includes an appendix with graphs on the occurrence of polio in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s, the twentieth anniversary program brochure of Warm Springs, and a brief biography of Jean Denecke by her daughter.
Denecke’s Walking Isn’t Everything clearly belongs to what Amy Fairchild has called the first wave of polio narratives. These narratives, written in the forties and fifties, take a generally upbeat approach to the experience of polio and of living with a permanent disability. Even when they acknowledge difficulties, as Denecke does, these first-wave authors tend to stress overcoming them and living a relatively normal life under the circumstances. Fairchild also notes that these narratives are typically reticent about psychological issues for both survivor and family, about sexuality, and about relations between husband and wife or parents and children [1] Published in 2010, but written in the mid-1950s, Denecke’s book is a good example of a 1950s polio memoir. Denecke’s emphasis on the ordinariness of her extraordinary situation is a good reminder of a time when many polio survivors focused primarily on what they could do and on taking up once again the life interrupted by disease and disability.
Note
[1]. Amy L. Fairchild, “The Polio Narratives: Dialogues with FDR,” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 75 (2001): 491-492.
Citation: Daniel J. Wilson. Review of Denecke, Jean, Walking Isn't Everything. H-Disability, H-Net Reviews. August, 2010...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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![The Hornbrook Prophecy [book]](images/9781591463429-small.jpg "The Hornbrook Prophecy [book]") |
The Hornbrook Prophecy by Robert Wickes is definitely one novel that should be added to the reading list for all high school civics classes. It is also a very timely novel, considering what is currently going on in our great country. The realism of the plot is almost beyond words. Wickes has taken the events of the last several years and created what very well may turn out to be a very prophetic novel. What with certain politicians suggesting that an armed response may be in order depending on the outcome of the 2010 elections, it is not much of a stretch that the country could degrade into chaos. I highly recommend this book for everyone, regardless of your level of involvement in the political process. I give this book 5 stars...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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This book deals with power hungry politicians and how one lone Senator tried to speak out against what he saw happening. The President wanted to be a god and looked up to by everyone. He liked his job and getting paid for not really doing all that much, until he decided to bankrupt the country. Henly Hornbrook saw what was happening and tried to get his fellow Congressmen to listen to the voice of reason and vote against the President's bill. They did not listen and the country was thrown into chaos.
I was not sure that when I started reading this book that I would like it. By the time I finished, I loved it. The whole story line is so believable in today's society that it's kind of scary. All through the book I was rooting for Senator Hornbrook and his people. Now, I can imagine what would happen if our country ever does go bankrupt, it was laid out very well in this story. I would definitely read another book by Mr. Wickes because he kept me engrossed through the entire book. There are characters that you can't help but cheer on and there are others that you just can't like. That's what makes an interesting read. I would highly recommend this book and hope that after it's read the reader will enjoy it as much as I did...
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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