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Average customer rating:
- Marketing 101, 201, & 301 for Professional Services
- Gerry Riskin (co-author Herding Cats and Beyond Knowing
- Required reading for my marketing leaders
- Aquila and Marcus Deliver Practice Advice for Success
- Focus on Application
|
Client at the Core: Marketing and Managing Today's Professional Services Firm
August Aquila , and Bruce W. Marcus
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
- Marketplace Masters: How Professional Service Firms Compete to Win
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- The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services
- Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships, Second Edition: Leadership in Professional Services
- Marketing the Professional Services Firm: Applying the Principles and the Science of Marketing to the Professions
ASIN: 0471453137 |
Book Description
"Clients At The Core is an essential blueprint to helping us all take the next steps. The authors, battle scarred by the evolution of professional firm management and marketing from then to now, have captured the changing needs of the firms in this turbulent new economic era. This is a well-written book that uses plain language to convey practical, well thought-out ideas."
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Patrick J. McKenna, a leading international consultant to professional service firms
"The authors have captured the changing role of professional services marketing and firm management. There is valuable insight [in this] down-to-earth guide to competing successfully in the new environment."
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David Maister, author and consultant
"The book is a masterpiece! Aquila and Marcus have produced the essential guide for managing a professional services firm. They've marshaled their considerable real-life experiences and far-reaching vision into a veritable operating manual for the successful firm."
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Rick Telberg, Editor at Large, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
"At its heart, this book is the running shoe for legal and accounting professionals who want to put the client first. Following the evolution of the industry over the past twenty-five years, this must-have for every professional services firm is the key to leading in the turbulent and highly competitive waters ahead."
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Richard S. Levick, Esq., President, Levick Strategic Communications, LLC coauthor, Stop the Presses: The Litigation PR Desk Reference
"Client selection and retention is one of the critical success factors for a professional services firm, and Aquila and Marcus do a masterful job at educating us on the necessary ingredients of each. The chapters on firm governance and paying for performance are thought provoking and certainly challenging to the conventional wisdom. If you want a better understanding of marketing and leading a professional firm in these turbulent times, this book is essential."
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Ronald J. Baker, author, Professional's Guide to Value Pricing and The Firm of the Future
"Client at the Core is a commonsense approach to keeping your professional services firm relevant in the twenty-first century's client-driven economy. Aquila and Marcus have hit a home run with their insightful analysis and poignant prose."
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Jeffrey S. Pawlow, Managing Shareholder, The Growth Partnership, Inc.
Download Description
"August Aquila and Bruce Marcus reward readers of Client at the Core with an imaginative map for the perilous journey through the twists and turns of marketing and managing today's professional services firm. It is creative and thorough."
-Gerry Riskin, Partner, Edge International
"The authors have captured the changing role of professional services marketing and firm management. There is valuable insight [in this] down-to-earth guide to competing successfully in the new environment."
-David Maister, author and consultant
"The book is a masterpiece! Aquila and Marcus have produced the essential guide for managing a professional services firm. They've marshaled their considerable real-life experiences and far-reaching vision into a veritable operating manual for the successful firm."
-Rick Telberg, Editor at Large, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
"At its heart, this book is the running shoe for legal and accounting professionals who want to put the client first. Following the evolution of the industry over the past twenty-five years, this must-have for every professional services firm is the key to leading in the turbulent and highly competitive waters ahead."
-Richard S. Levick, Esq., President, Levick Strategic Communications, LLC
coauthor, Stop the Presses: The Litigation PR Desk Reference
"Client selection and retention is one of the critical success factors for a professional services firm, and Aquila and Marcus do a masterful job at educating us on the necessary ingredients of each. The chapters on firm governance and paying for performance are thought provoking and certainly challenging to the conventional wisdom. If you want a better understanding of marketing and leading a professional firm in these turbulent times, this book is essential."
-Ronald J. Baker, author, Professional's Guide to Value Pricing and The Firm of the Future
"Client at the Core is a commonsense approach to keeping your professional services firm relevant in the twenty-first century's client-driven economy. Aquila and Marcus have hit a home run with their insightful analysis and poignant prose."
-Jeffrey S. Pawlow, Managing Shareholder, The Growth Partnership, Inc.
Customer Reviews:
Marketing 101, 201, & 301 for Professional Services.......2005-08-31
This book should burnish the authors' already high reputations for having cogent, jargon-free, and street-smart things to say about what it's really like to try to market professional services. An unusual blend of (clear and lucidly stated) theory about marketing, and real-world insights into obstacles clients can throw up--not to mention the high barrier of internal resistance that "professionals" instinctively erect when asked to be marketers--this should be your starting point if you're facing the complexities of marketing in this environment.
Think that "marketing is just common sense?" Think again; it's both a discipline and an art. Aquila and Marcus will guide your hand at both.
Gerry Riskin (co-author Herding Cats and Beyond Knowing.......2005-06-12
August Aquila and Bruce Marcus reward readers of Client at the Core with an imaginative map for the perilous journey through the twists and turns of marketing and managing today's professional services firm. It is creative and thorough.
Required reading for my marketing leaders.......2004-09-25
August Aquila and Bruce Marcus have written a clear and comprehensive view of what every accounting or law marketer needs to know about this new, unprecedented professional services environment. Their book not only explains the new environment, but it's also a rich primer of practical "how-to" advice on all the marketing tools available to the professional services marketer. Strategy is fine, but I find that few books get down to the step-by-step implementation tactics involved in winning new business like this book does - that's one of its best points of differentiation. After reading it, I bought copies for every one of my regional, industry, service line and national marketing leaders.
Aquila and Marcus Deliver Practice Advice for Success.......2004-09-07
In "Client at the Core: Marketing and Managing Today's Professional Services Firm," (Wiley, 2004) August J. Aquila, based in Minnetonka, Minn., and Bruce W. Marcus, in Easton, Conn., a pair of veteran consultants, combine their considerable experience, skill and insight into a veritable strategic planning operator's manual for today's consulting firm.
From the outset, they acknowledge "the professional world doesn't need another book on how to write a press release or write a brochure or run a seminar."
Instead, they provide a new perspective on the crucial subject of how to keep firms relevant to the needs of the marketplace -- mainly, creating clients and building a marketing culture.
They don't get tied up in ideas like "vision," or "mission."
Instead they talk about the new realities of the 21st Century and professions in turmoil: dot-coms gone bust, a stock market meltdown, and a rash of frauds, defalcations, misuse of corporate funds; and then a reformist reaction, still unfolding, that the authors term "a helter-skelter regulatory rush that was at least as punitive as it was appropriate. It would seem that the regulatory garment was cut to fit all, when all don't wear the same size."
"The time is past when just the presence of the professional was its own comfort factor. It's long been believed that the concept of the professional was so exalted, and so trusting, that people accepted advice unquestioningly. No more. The scandals of 2002 and 2003 seem to have bred a diminished - if unwarranted -- respect for professionals," they say.
"Traditionally, professional services have been a seller's market," according to Aquila and Marcus. But now the tables are turned. "It is now a buyer's market."
For today's professionals, here are six lessons you can take to the bank according to the authors:
1. Clients are more sophisticated. They no longer accept advice without questioning, challenging, demanding more reasoning and detail.
2. Because of the complexity of business today, clients demand that their professionals know more about the client's business and industry than ever before.
3. Professional services always function best when trust is at the heart of the relationship, but the corporate scandals of recent years have eroded that trust. That trust must now be regenerated. And the workings of trust are more important in the new economy than in the old.
4. Once the narrow structures of a profession were sufficient to serve clients. But clients now demand a broader spectrum of capabilities. The more broadly educated and well-rounded professional is the one with the greater advantage in meeting the needs of today's client. Clients demand that accountants know more than the basic skills of accounting.
5. Competition is now a fact of life. Clients know they have a choice.
Clients know the difference between marketing promises and professional services delivery. Today's client demands more real service and solutions -- not just a warm personal relationship.
To Aquila and Marcus, the new paradigm of professional services requires a new demand for partnership with the client and new participatory skills.
As they say: It's a buyers' market. Get used to it.
(...)
Focus on Application.......2004-08-22
"Meaty and rich with texture. The authors understand the application of marketing concepts to the CPA profession at a very deep level, and communicate clearly and concisely."
"Every page was another 'Yes!' when reading about the application of marketing principles to the CPA world. The authors nailed it."
Average customer rating:
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August Sander: People of the 20th Century (7 Volume Set)
Susanne Lange , and Gabriele Conrath-Scholl
Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810963981 |
Book Description
Revered as a father of modern photography, August Sander (1876- 1964) so refined the art of portraiture that his moving images of his fellow countrymen have been heralded both as an important sociological document and a photographic masterpiece. But those images make up only a portion of this deluxe seven-volume set, which will stand as the definitive collection of Sander's considerable achievement.
The books include some 150 never-before-seen images and essays by leading experts on the German photographer's work. Praising Sander's "vision . . . his knowledge, and his immense photographic talent," the writer Alfred Döblin said: "Those who know how to look will learn from his clear and powerful photographs, and will discover more about themselves and more about others."
Average customer rating:
- Hot and good!
- Very Hot book for cool nights
- Hot and sexy
- Its Erotica, not Romance!
- Emotionally dark and deep, I loved it!!
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Men of August: Marly's Choice (Book 1)
Lora Leigh
Manufacturer: Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc
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Binding: Paperback
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- Tempting the Beast: Feline Breeds 1
- The Man Within: Feline Breeds 2
ASIN: 1843606143 |
Book Description
Marly's love for Cade has spanned her teenage years, and survived strong and intact into womanhood. Her fantasies and daydreams have sustained her, but she's no longer content with merely imagining the touch of his hands, the taste of his kiss. It's time to seduce the tough, sexy cowboy. She's heard the rumors for years, the tales of his sexual preferences. She's prepared herself to accept his desires. Prepared her body for his touch. But she wasn't prepared for the choice to come... Cade's dark desires, his sexual excesses are based in the past. In a time when pain, shame, and blood stains his very soul. He carries a secret shared only with his brothers. A secret that has scarred the bond, the ability to be a brother or to accept the love of the men he was raised with. He knows the only way to prove his loyalty, his love for those brothers and Marly will be the key. She has a choice. She can surrender to Cade's needs, his soul deep desires, or she can walk away. A choice only Marly can make. A choice that will change her life forever.
Customer Reviews:
Hot and good!.......2007-06-21
Not only does this excellent erotic book have great sex, it's also got a great story! I fell in love with the characters and really started to care what happended to them--esp. between te sheets!! This is my first book with this particular author, but it won't by my last, that's for sure!! I highly recommend this one, as well as recomending Erotica - My Dirty Thirties: Male/Female/Male.
Enjoy this one!! It won't disappoint!!!
Very Hot book for cool nights.......2007-05-27
Marly have been love with Cade August since the day that her mom left at the August's ranch. But Cade along with his brothers Brock and Sam share a dark secret. A secret from there childhood that if found out by Marly could drive her away. But another dark for force is the ranch, a force that might leave to Marly's death.
"Marly's Choice" was the first book that I have read by Lora Leigh and it was Hot! Cade is a pure, sexy, male who love sex in any form. And Marly is woman willing to try anything to be with the man she loves. Can't wait to read the other books in this series.
Hot and sexy .......2007-05-24
I could not put it down. A great read from beginning to the end.
Its Erotica, not Romance!.......2006-11-25
Lora Leigh is a well known writer of women's erotica, which is just a nice way of saying female porn. So if you plan on reading this book for romance or a detailed storyline -- then don't. But if you are looking for plenty of well-written, hot sex -- than buy the series!
Unlike many other 'erotica' writers, Lora Leigh's writing is actually interesting and the sex scenes are some of the best I've ever read.
As you go through the other reviews and read how some people considered the storyline 'lacking' and the reason behind the threesomes stupid, keep in mind this is not a romance -- its erotica!!!! You should be reading it for the sex and not the validity of the storyline. Who cares why they need threesomes!! I'm just glad they do!!
Emotionally dark and deep, I loved it!!.......2006-08-08
I was a little weary at first with all of the mixed reveiws, but I went ahead and got the book anyway, and I'm glad I did. I completely enjoyed the book. I loved the fact that the August men were not perfect; I liked their tortured past. It gave the book so much more depth and feeling. My heart went out for them, and at the same time, I wanted to kick them. Cade loved his brothers the only way he knew how, and this book shows you how he does it, and how he loves Marly at the same time. Marly is a strong character. She know what she wants, and that is Cade. She knows everything she will get along with Cade and still she loves him. She has loved him always, since she was a girl, she will do anything to capture his heart. Cade also has always loved Marly, and has been fighting it beacuse he feels like it is wrong since he helped raised her, even though there is no blood relation. But he finally realizes he can't stop his strong feelings for Marly and that he must have her; which means he must also share her with his brothers. On top of this, there is also someone trying to harm Marly and the August men, someone out for revenge. This book is a must read. I can't wait to read Brock's story.
Average customer rating:
- Avoid this book like the plague!
- Globalization and need to know International Law
- Best help for international business law practitioners
|
International Business Law, Fourth Edition
Ray A. August
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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- International Taxation in a Nutshell, (Nutshell)
- Multinational Business Finance (11th Edition) (The Addison-Wesley Series in Finance)
- International Management: Text and Cases
- Global Marketing: Foreign Entry, Local Marketing, and Global Management (McGraw-Hill/Irwin Series in Marketing)
- Multinational Finance
ASIN: 0131014102 |
Book Description
Emphasizing practical application and theory of international business law, this book shows how firms doing business between the more than 185 countries of the world are governed and regulated. This book provides full coverage of all the main topics dealing with international business law including foreign investment, financing, banking, environmental regulation, multinational enterprises, sales, service, labor, transportation, intellectual property, and taxation. For practicing international lawyers book who need a complete, easy-to-use, and up-to-date reference.
Customer Reviews:
Avoid this book like the plague!.......2007-01-30
I am currently taking a class that uses this textbook and I am ready to throw this thing into a woodchipper.
It might be okay if each chapter wasn't constantly being interrupted by the case files, but, no, the readability of this book is completely shot because multi-page case files cut right into a chapter section, making it nearly impossible to keep track of what section I'm reading. I hate, hate, HATE this book because of those case files. The case files should have been put at the end of the chapter material!!!
Oh, and a little color would be nice. A book couldn't be more boring than this one.
Its one redeeming value is that it will save you a fortune in prescription sleep aids. Start reading it and you'll be asleep before your head hits the desk.
Globalization and need to know International Law.......2001-08-25
This book is essentially important for every business person dealing in international arena and every student seeking careers in multinational businesses. The author covers almost all aspects of governing laws related to international trade. My personal statement would be that this book is not to just read but to use it in everyday's practices as a desk reference.
Best help for international business law practitioners.......2001-08-08
This is the best book I've ever read about international business law. It is a very good guide to all issues concerning international law since the choice of a applicable law for a contract passing through contract contents, labor and taxes international legislation, ethics and finishing with the very new cyber law. This is a book to be read for specialists in both international law and international business, but also for practitioners of international trade. We have adodpted this book in our course of International Business Law at Universidad del Istmo in Guatemala. The best book I have consulted in the field.
Average customer rating:
- Maybe the third but not the best
- can't get better than lora leigh
- That's not sexy!!! That's creepy!!!
- Lora Leigh Fan
- Erotic story at its best
|
Men of August: Heather's Gift (Book 3)
Lora Leigh
Manufacturer: Ellora's Cave
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Adult Fiction
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- Bound Hearts: Submission & Seduction (Books 2 and 3)
- The Twelve Quickies of Christmas Vol 1
- The Man Within: Feline Breeds 2
ASIN: 1419950487 |
Customer Reviews:
Maybe the third but not the best.......2007-06-03
Heather James job is to protect Sam August. Sam doesn't want Heather to protect him, he just wants her. The danger is closing in the August brother's and Heather is finding herself caught in the crossfire. "Men of August: Heather's Gift" is the third and final book in the series by Lora Leigh and while I did enjoy this book it just wasn't as good as the first two book. Overall while the series was good Heather's gift could have been better.
can't get better than lora leigh.......2006-11-04
oh my God! this book is soooo good as is the entire Men of August series from Lora Leigh. This book is the third book in the series and continues the story from the first two. i love the fact that these books actually have a good story line to them and not just sex, sex, sex (although there is plenty of that and boy is it HOT!!!). You really feel for the characters and can't wait to learn more about them and i love the mystery concept that is threaded through the whole series and culminates in Heathers Gift. If I had to pick only one author to read it would be Lora Leigh. Her books are excellently written and real spellbinders.
That's not sexy!!! That's creepy!!!.......2006-09-08
think about the premise, it's not only creepy, it's just wrong. The August brothers were sexually abused and victimized as young men and now the only way they can feel complete love from a woman is together. I know, I know it's total backwoods Jerry Springer crap!!! I really don't like books like this. Ones that have a racier theme or kink and wrap it up with a bow and call it "fufilling" or "complete love". Where I come from having a threesome or foursome with your brothers is just disturbed!!! And the women in story just buy into this warped way of thinking. I don't know about other ladies but if a guy I was dating suggested this; there would be a me shaped hole in the door, and burnt rubber in the driveway!!
Lora Leigh Fan.......2006-06-08
I just wanted to say I really enjoyed this series as I have all her books so far. My problem is now I walk around looking for these beautiful looking men (laughing). Oh well moving on to my next series. GREAT READ
Erotic story at its best.......2006-05-02
This august brother series is the best ever, you wont be disapointed dont let anyone tell you otherwise this author is the best in erotic stories.
Average customer rating:
- Challenging and thought-provoking
- O Oprah
- Quite a challenge for the average reader
- Not for me.
- The Deep South and American Writing At Its Best
|
A Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying/The Sound and the Fury/Light in August (Oprah's Book Club)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Faulkner, William
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- Absalom, Absalom!
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ASIN: 0307275329
Release Date: 2005-06-03 |
Book Description
The 2005 Summer Selection is available in an exclusive three volume boxed edition that includes a special reader’s guide with an introduction by Oprah Winfrey.
Titles include:
As I Lay Dying
This novel is the harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Told in turns by each of the family members–including Addie herself–the novel ranges in mood from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Originally published in 1930.
The Sound and the Fury
First published in 1929, Faulkner created his “heart’s darling,” the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers–the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason.
Light in August
Light in August, a novel about hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, who is plagued by visions of Confederate horsemen; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, mysterious drifter consumed by his mixed ancestry. Originally published in 1932.
Take a seat in Oprah’s Classroom and sign up for Faulkner 101 on www.oprah.com/bookclub.
Customer Reviews:
Challenging and thought-provoking.......2007-01-05
These novels are not to be read for sheer pleasure, but rather for the challenge and the depth. They are not easy to read, though *Light in August* is the easiest of the three. The prose is so difficult at times that I needed to reread again and again. I had to stop and take numerous breaks because my brain got twisted around.
I strongly suggest getting research materials from a university librray if at all possible to help navigate the stories. In the end, the depth of these novels is profound and extremely rewarding. It was only after I finished them (and read a lot of extra research articles) that I truly appreciated them. These novels are definitely amazing and a great account of southern life in the early part of the 20th century (and after the civil war), and I admire Faulkner more than I ever thought I could.
If you thought James Joyce was complex, try Faulkner!
O Oprah.......2006-08-27
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
I respect what he did, but I read about 15% of this one before I got bored. I don't agree with Oprah that he's difficult. I knew exactly where he was coming from and where he wanted to go. Many relevant themes and he was a damn fine wordsmith. But it's old news to this jaded old redneck. I don't know why. I realize I just dismissed an author who deserved his Pulitzers and his Nobel Prize, in a single short paragraph, but please hold back on the hate mail.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
Ditto. You hate me, don't you?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LIGHT IN AUTUMN by William Faulkner
Ditto. Hoo boy, now you want me dead.
Quite a challenge for the average reader.......2006-07-25
Quite a challenge for the average reader.
I want to say something like, "you owe it to yourself to read these books."... and perhaps you do. I, however, don't get it. I read the insert by Opera, and all the scholars, I read As I Lay Dying, like I was supposed to, and I simply don't get the allure of Faulkner.
So reader beware. It is a challenge to read Faulkner, not because his ideas are so very profound, but because his writing style leaves me unable to care for any of his characters in any meaningful way. The dialogue is far too folksy, and though I fully realize what he is doing (presenting to us the depth of the human experience by showing us the trials and tribulations of poor folk who are just trying to make a living) I found I had no time to plod through anything more than the first 100 pages.
I realize mine is just one opinion, but think before you buy. In the reader's guide that accompanies the books, Opera suggests that you are not really a reader unless you have read Faulkner. Please take that with a grain of salt and give yourself a break... Faulkner just might not be for you.
Not for me........2006-02-22
I tried, really I did, to read these books. They were very difficult to understand. I even did an online discussion with "experts" to try to figure out what was going on, but it just didn't happen. I read "As I Lay Dying" entirely & the story behind the story told by the "experts" was okay, but did not make the read worth the time. The 2nd book, I couldn't get past the first few chapters & by the third book, I had given up. Definitely not my style.
The Deep South and American Writing At Its Best.......2005-11-08
I love reading novels, and I hate reading bad novels. Why not read the best? Sure, throw-away thrillers and mysteries are fun but my time is valuable and I prefer reading the best of the best, and Faulkner is at the top of the short list.
This story of love and tragedy, courage and tradition in the Deep South (in 1928) is one of the most moving stories I've ever read. This is great literature!
Faulkner's accounts of children playing in a creek, of lovers torn by tradition and family, of racism and routine cruelty is brilliant. His cadence is perfect, his images hauntingly clear. This is not easy reading, and many students learn to hate Faulkner with a passion! His long sentences, his disjointed dialogue and juxtaposition of time and place require the reader's attention, but it is worth the effort.
Do yourself a huge favor. Buy and read this great American story. It's not "easy" but the best things in life rarely are. And one more suggestion: do not get it at the public library! Buy it. You'll want to savor it, and my guess is you'll want to re-read again and again. This is a book you should definitely own and cherish.
Average customer rating:
- Solid Literary Gold
- classic
- Elegant History Recounting
- THEY GAVE A WAR, AND EVERYBODY CAME.
- That men will let themselves be killed where they stand, that is a well-known thing...
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The Guns of August
Barbara W. Tuchman
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
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ASIN: 0345476093
Release Date: 2004-08-03 |
Book Description
"More dramtatic than fiction...THE GUNS OF AUGUST is a magnificent narrative--beautifully organized, elegantly phrased, skillfully paced and sustained....The product of painstaking and sophisticated research."
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Historian and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Barbara Tuchman has brought to life again the people and events that led up to Worl War I. With attention to fascinating detail, and an intense knowledge of her subject and its characters, Ms. Tuchman reveals, for the first time, just how the war started, why, and why it could have been stopped but wasn't. A classic historical survey of a time and a people we all need to know more about, THE GUNS OF AUGUST will not be forgotten.
Customer Reviews:
Solid Literary Gold.......2007-05-29
I first encountered the book when I was in the sixth grade. Most of it was beyond me at the time, but the opening chapter and the its opening paragraphs were a hook that I have never forgotten. The chapter on the Royal Navy's pursuit of the German ships "Goeben" and "Breslau" through the Mediterranean is pretty darn good as well. I write history as part of my job working for the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and I read and reread this book often in the hope that I can absorb some of Barbara Tuchman's style.
There is more to this book, than it simply being an impressively-written book. Tuchman offers her readers a broad and well-developed survey of the opening days of World War I. It is part political, part diplomatic, part military and part naval history. Her argument that pre-existing military plans drove events and prevented diplomacy from defusing the crisis was not as original in 1962 as one might think, but she does what few other historians of this conflict does, she integrates diplomacy with strategic issues and those with operational concerns. There is even a little tactical level stuff that is quite compelling.
Another rare characteristic of this book is that balance she gives to all the major players: British, French, German, and Russian. The Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Turk Empires get less attention, but no one is perfect. To this end, she uses French and German-language source material and used Russian and Turkish sources in translation. Most historians of this war writing in English--be they American, Canadian, Australian, New Zealander or British--tend to focus on the experiences of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) the military detachment sent over to France in the early days of the war. Tuchman is an exception. Tuchman sees that the French Army was a major player and devotes considerable attention to the French perspective and does see the rationale for Plan XVII, which the French Army attempted to use to retake lost provinces. Her study is balanced and thorough. If you buy this book, you won't be disappointed.
classic.......2007-05-05
A detailed account of WWI. The analysis of the origins and opening days of the Great War are interesting and well written. Deserving of its status as a classic.
Elegant History Recounting.......2007-04-27
'The Guns of August" is a perfect example that history is about people . It recounts how the motives,policies,and personal beliefs and animosities of people precipitated the war. It is elegantly written and makes compelling reading.
THEY GAVE A WAR, AND EVERYBODY CAME........2007-03-13
Ninety seven percent of the world's population went to defcon 5!
8 million Russian troops died.
20 million troops killed world-wide.
40 million deaths by disease.
100+ million wounded.
The best book about World War One ever written.
An up-close viewpoint of the first month of Europe's worst knot-mare.
The frustration of the high command as they realized that one wrong turn put a million troops on the WRONG side of Paris. Curses, foiled again!
Taxi drivers save France! Who woulda thunk it?
Combat IS being short of everything but enemy.
"I really liked being in the royal army, until eight million technologicly advanced, well-equipted, highly-trained, deeply-motivated, most-experienced Huns came over the horizon."
"1) They sent me on recon patrol.
2) I came back from recon patrol.
3) They asked me what is saw on recon patrol.
4) I said 'More enemy than you can shake a stick at'.
5) They gave me two sticks and sent me on combat patrol."
Must reading for all military and politicians.
If you like this book try "Six Crisis".
If you like this book try "Profiles in Courage".
If you like this book try "The Prince".
That men will let themselves be killed where they stand, that is a well-known thing..........2007-03-01
The premise behind The Guns of August is that ultimately, the war became extremely dependent upon what happened within the first month of its initiation. As you can tell from the title of the novel, most of it takes place within August. The book takes the reader on a rather unfamiliar stroll through events such as the siege of Liege and the destruction of Louvain; the residual presence of Herr von Schiefflin's ultimate doctrine's on war and how to win are discussed throughout; the exalted if somewhat ephemeral presence of those such as French General Joffre, the cowardly and complacent Sir John French of the BEF, and such supporting characters of the likes of von Moltke, von Kluck and von Francois with many more deserving of such mention are all introduced.
It's only upon reading a book of this nature that can one truly grasp how involved and confusing wartime really does become (outside of actually being in one that is) and it is a trait that I think can never truly be grasped in the movies and games which more than anything else seem to be just looking for a setting with which to animate violence anyway. The book is enormous in volume and does not flow like some other books, despite only being of some 400+ pages. It is incredibly well sourced as well for Tuchman lists a good portion of the works which she referenced and also has notes stating which she would recommend to those interested in further study. There are also photographs of some of the key individuals who would have an impact upon the initial war which I found gave each of the persons a personality as you would continue to read.
Mrs. Tuchman writes with a specific theme of 'non-existent self-opinion' which means that while she writes with all the facts and occurrences that were present in the historical situation, she does not promote her own ideologies within the novel in hopes of trying to sway the reader's opinion. Basically, the reader is allowed to think about what happened and why it happened based on just the facts. You may think that this would lead to a rather boresome novel what with no subjective thought-base being supported throughout, but this just isn't the case.
As a final word, I would say that anyone who wishes to introduce themselves (for that is all this book will do) to the first of the World Wars this is by far the best book with which do to so. For a more unornamented look at the war in its entirety I would say that this is not the book you're interested in and it would be best to look at a good university source. Anyone else looking for just a good nonfiction read, well....
Average customer rating:
- Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story
- Fine characterization
- Major but Flawed
- The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with.
- A classic on many levels.
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Light in August (The Corrected Text)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage International/Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Faulkner, William
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ASIN: 0679732268
Release Date: 1991-01-30 |
Book Description
Joe Christmas does not know whether he is black or white. Faulkner makes of Joe's tragedy a powerful indictment of racism; at the same time Joe's life is a study of the divided self and becomes a symbol of 20th century man.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderful writing, sad and fatalistic story.......2007-02-08
This book was my introduction to Faulkner, based on a suggestion by my well-read aunt.
It is certainly possible to recognize the skill of a writer without necessarily finding the story he tells endearing. That was the case here. Faulkner's prose is often like poetry and his use of the language is unquestionably masterful. He shows his talent not so much in the words he uses - the vocabulary is actually quite plain - but rather in the way he combines those words. Simple adjectives are used to create compelling scenes and even more compelling characters.
Faulkner strikes me as the consummate observer. He doesn't moralize, he doesn't become overwrought, he doesn't offer judgement. He simply observes the way things are, not the way we want them to be, and there is a sense that we are being propelled towards not tragegy but simply reality in his writing.
Light in August is ostensibly about Joe Christmas, a headstrong and mysterious drifter in the 1920s deep South, but surprisingly we aren't introduced to him until several chapters into the book. The book chronicles the intersecting people and events that surround Joe Christmas in Faulkner's fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi. However, the author introduces us to so many other non-incidental characters that it is often hard to separate the leading from the supporting cast.
If I had to describe the characters in this book in a single word it would be "trapped." There is an overwhelming sense of stuck-ness we get in observing their lives. One does not necessarily get the impression that they saw themselves as stuck and hopeless - indeed many seemed to exist in frustrating ignorance of reality. But for the outside observer to whom Faulkner tells this story using his rich narrative, it is obvious that to a person, every character in this book is indeed on a treadmill. Slavery may be over, but the people that populate these pages are in very real servitude to themselves and their pasts.
The book is a glimpse at the deep South immediately prior to the depression era. We're presented with a culture that still hasn't quite come to grips with life on the other side of the Civil War and racialism is so deeply ingrained that although slavery is no longer law, the caste system it birthed lives on in the arrogant attitudes of the whites and the subservient squalor of the blacks.
The loyalties and alliances and relationships in this book are complex, as are the characters, and more than once I found myself wanting to slap these characters into sense. Without exception, each was their own worst enemy and managed to almost single-handedly sail their lives into the rocks. Although many were admittedly pointed rock-ward via their upbringing, they had ample opportunities to change course but continued sailing directly for the cliffs.
Although I have not yet read other books by Faulkner, I'm told this is the most approachable of all his writing, reading the most like a traditional novel. There is plenty of tension in the story, as the saga of Christmas and the other characters unfolds dramatically. Consequently, most people will find themselves turning the pages in anticipation of what happens next. Faulkner takes the reader on numerous side journeys, showing how the characters came to be what they are, and those characters often share certain aspects of their history in common, not just their present circumstances.
As the book draws to a close, the treadmill keeps turning with characters trudging futilely into the sunset, still stuck in the same ruts in which the beginning of the story found them. I'll say little more. To do otherwise is to risk spoiling the plot.
I can perhaps describe the overall experience here as bittersweet. The writing sweet, but the tale itself thoroughly bitter.
Fine characterization.......2007-02-07
I enjoyed this book much more than I expected. It explores the questions of race thoroughly without hitting the reader over the head with it. The characters seem real, neither demonic nor angelic. The impact of race is ultimately devastating to Joe Christmas and many of the people around him.
Major but Flawed.......2007-01-20
Faulkner's was a self-indulgent, irresponsible, uneven gift. But at his best, as sometimes in these pages, he is a poet and rhapsodist without equal, and we continue to read him. As a rational thinker he was a nullity; he had no practical insights, no social program, no agendum, no framework that could serve as a starting point toward a solution of the problems he so tellingly describes. This became abundantly clear around the time of his winning the Nobel prize for literature, when he disappointed and exasperated followers who were looking to him for guidance as to a beacon. At least Faulkner had the self-knowledge to know that he did not know, did not in fact even want to know. For knowledge was inimical to his art, not-wanting-to-know a precondition for it. That, and bourbon. The bourbon released his inhibitions and silenced his inner editor (its voice had never been loud), unleashing a torrent of words, much of it bilge but some diamonds too. The result in Light in August is an exasperating novel that contains some thirty scattered pages of the highest poetic value and one potentially great character in the person of Joe Christmas. I say this as a man of 54 who has read the book five times in the course of his life, having been introduced to it in high school. Of course I didn't understand much of it then, but its inimitable style and voluptuous confusion have beckoned me back to it.
One is attracted above all by the descriptions of the simple processes of life in all their earthy particulars, the negro cabins, the town lights, the smells, everything rank and dark and elemental. Except for Joe Christmas and possibly Gail Hightower, the characters are all stereotypes, especially the women. Intellectually, there is little of substance in the novel, its appeal is entirely emotional. There is a clean, bracing no-nonsense description of hypermasculine elements and experiences to which Joe seems to gravitate naturally. For instance, of McEachern's harness strap ("clean, like the shoes, and it smelled like the man smelled: an odor of clean hard virile living leather") and Joe's rapt expression when being beaten by it; of Joe's preference for the clean, hard air of men. Given his latent homosexuality, one feels Joe would have done much better as a votary of the strap. But there was a problem. Biologically he was wired for pussy, and no mistake. Even as a child in the orphanage with the dietician he showed this susceptibility: "On that first day when he discovered the toothpaste in her room he had gone directly there, who had never heard of toothpaste either, as if he already knew that she would possess something of that nature and he would find it." He was still too young to understand what Charley was enjoying, but when he came of age he learned that it too, like the toothpaste, was not always sweet ("periodic filth between two moons suspended"). Unfortunately, Joe had no use for the rest of the package and never learned to like and appreciate women as people. This was the root of his troubles with women and by cutting him off from a source of life helped to seal his doom.
Several reviewers have stated that Joe had some negro blood. This is an error and is refuted by the evidence given in the book, although it suits Faulkner (if not Joe) to make Joe out as a possible negro and even to foist him off as one. I think Faulkner's device here, of using the negro as the ultimate symbol of the outcast, is a dreadful mistake, so serious as even to call into question his integrity as an artist and his understanding of his greatest character. Why? Partly because it is too easy, too cheap a shot. It's also overkill, since Joe's alienation has already been powerfully delineated by other, artistic means. But the main, the fatal objection, is that raising the N question does great damage by introducing confusion precisely where the novel demands clarity and restraint -- it entangles Joe's problem of identity with something completely separate and other. This other is a serious communal problem in its own right and certainly should not be abused as a symbol in the way that Faulkner abuses it (neither should the word Christmas). Faulkner is monkeying around with things bigger than himself, things he does not understand, in an attempt to endow his work with a greater significance than he was capable of developing on his own horsepower as a creative writer; this is what I mean when I say he is irresponsible. Joe's problem is in fact his alone. Damaged in childhood and partly cut off from the sources of life, he has to renew and rebuild himself to a degree not necessary to his complacent countrymen, who by virtue of their utter mediocrity are granted automatic membership in small, stultifying, inbred towns like the one in which the action unfolds. Faulkner's punishment is swift and certain -- it is precisely here in the book that he begins to stumble, to overreach for a grand synthesis that isn't there. The performance is increasingly over-the-top until eventually artistic control is lost. He doesn't seem to grasp the limitations of his creations, and the book becomes a stew. Faulkner was nothing if not confused, and here alas the confusion damages the work. Where was that inner editor?
After the murder, a building momentum sweeps the reader on to the end. However, there is no true catharsis and no real tragedy, only an overreaching for a grand synthesis that fails. The reader is struck by the feeling that something has gone wrong, and on going back finds he has been the victim of a swindle. The book closes with that sucker Byron Bunch in tow with his damaged goods in the form of Lena Grove and her bastard infant. Faulkner seems to be saying that in spite of some mistakes, life has returned to its immemorial path. But if this is salvation, one must be glad for Joe that he is safely dead and out of harm's way. Not everyone is cowed by the eternal feminine, and Joe himself would have no trouble giving the Lena Groves of the world what they deserve -- the back of his hand.
So after forty years and five attempts at this book, what of value can I take away? Perhaps some thirty pages of beautiful poetry, and the memory of Joe Christmas. He sought to rebuild and renew himself through the transformative power of hard physical labor and I would like to leave him there, continuing now and forever on the roads he freely chose for himself, that run "through yellow wheat fields waving beneath the fierce yellow days of labor and hard sleep in haystacks beneath the cold mad moon of September, and the brittle stars."
The book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with........2007-01-15
Light in August by William Faulkner is the book for the first time Faulkner reader to start with. The book is very readable. Unlike some Faulkner stories, the story line is easy to follow. His verbosity is not as apparent in this work as in some of his others where lengthy sentences and tangent monologues within the story derail the reader. The plot is more typical than any of his other works. The average reader will appreciate the book and get a hunger to dip into other works by this southern master writer.
Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler
A classic on many levels........2006-10-23
I remember an anecdote from Joseph Blotner's biography of Faulkner. Faulkner and his wife are sitting on the verandah sipping bourbon or whatever in the late afternoon. She says something like "Isn't the light in August like no other" to her laconic husband, absorbed in his literary world. He suddenly stands up and exclaims "That's it!" and disappears for a time.
At first, the thing that was so striking to me upon rereading this book was the feel the author had for nature and the elements, and the way he used words to evoke the actual presence of the place. People in this day and age of information technology tend to be very insulated and protected from the outdoors. The experience of Lena Grove in walking and hitching rides on mule-drawn wagons from Alabama to Mississippi takes us to a different world. The writing is so evocative and interior - it seeks to show the point of view of the characters, who though they may not be very sophisticated, still face conflicts that are timeless and heartrending.
The novel revolves around a kind of ultimate outcast in Joe Christmas and involves four other major characters: Lena Grove, Byron Bunch, Rev. Gail Hightower, and Joanna Burden. Contrary to the wonders of nature and the mysteries of creation and birth, the characters find themselves subject to a strict moral order apart from nature. In particular, we find a rigid system of segregation that separates everything according to race and a Protestant religion that features an inflexible code of ethics. Joe Christmas does not know what his heritage is, whether he has a black lineage or not, and he does not fit on either side. The efforts of his religious-fanatic foster father to beat into him a strict catechism leave him further alienated, as it results in his denying the vitality and importance of the female, as something that weakens his own masculine will, the only thing that he has left to survive.
The story proceeds in a complex fashion. There are flashbacks and stories from the past, and all the events converge to Faulkner's mythical town of Jefferson. Lena Grove and Byron Bunch are relatively simple, earthy characters, but the other two, Hightower and Joanna Burden, are definitely more complex, at least partly owing to the fact that their family heritages contain a lot of conflict with slavery. Hightower, as someone who is haunted by ghosts by the Civil War past, is particularly difficult to understand, and must have reflected a part of Faulkner's own self.
Average customer rating:
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Fences
August Wilson
Manufacturer: Plume
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ASIN: 0452264014 |
Customer Reviews:
Fences.......2007-06-01
The play by August Wilson is about a family life filled with happiness, sad and selfish moments. I chose the book named Fences because this book let me learn a lot on how relationships change between married couples and parents to sons. In the play, a man name Troy Maxson is the household of the family. He wants his son to play basketball in the college and he puts lot of hope on him, but one day he changes his mind about the dream. He thinks his son will not able to go to college; they always have fought on something. Troy always talks to his friend On Friday night. He wants to let people know he is the leader and can do anything he want. One time he has done something that makes his family hate him so mach because he destroy the family. Do you want to know what happen? Go to find out more and you can discuss with me. No one cares about him any more even his best friend. My family always had argument on something that cause us to get bad temper, no one in the house was happy about what was going on. People see each other everyday, but then their relationship will change, either good or bad, depending on how you see the situation. I always hear arguments in my house that makes me feel sad; I don't know what to do. The only thing I do is pretend nothing happen. Troy and his son have argues on something, then they change to not talk anymore and his son never come to see him anymore. So different people have different feeling on their emotion.
Summer Reading Goodness.......2007-04-13
Interesting play. Good for a summer-reading assignment. I enjoyed the plot but it did end up being a bit depressing.
Used Books.......2006-11-04
This book was okay. the pages were yellowing and some lines were highlighted, but it was as expected.
THE HOOD THING.......2005-11-09
This was the hoodest book i ever read i never seen nothing like this before.
A Masterpiece.......2005-09-27
I have read many modern plays in my life, but only very few depict real people as we have seen them and known them, in the past, from the past, and to the future. What made me so connected with this play was how it related to my own experiences with my mother, and also of how my boyfriend had to deal with about the same issues from his own father. My boyfriend is white, and I am black, and we both related to this play as if it were making a snap shot of both our lives during our childhood. But no matter what racial background, many people can relate to the trials and tribulations that one may encounter with their parents. Many people may relate to the fact that sometimes parent and child don't mix. Many may relate to the hardships of trying to be what one's parents never were or never gave, or trying to prevent themselves from ever being like their parents. As mundane as the story may be, this is a story that is very real and true to life. And more than anything, you really do FEEL the characters, the emotions, and have great commiseration for them. I will probably read this play for years to come. Highly Recommended! 10/5 STARS
Average customer rating:
- Rings True To Someone Who Was There...
- A Classic Account of a Forgotten Battle...
- Two stories under one cover.
- An Informative fast paced read
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Saving the Breakout: The 30th Division's Heroic Stand at Mortain, August 7-12, 1944
Alwyn Featherston
Manufacturer: Presidio Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0891414908
Release Date: 1993-06-01 |
Book Description
From its very first page, the American infantryman is the hero of this magnificent account of men at war.
Customer Reviews:
Rings True To Someone Who Was There..........2005-12-22
My father landed on Utah Beach in the second wave on June 7, 1944 (D-Day +1). His unit was attached temporarily to the 28th Division, as reinforcements. Later they rejoined their real unit, the 1st Platoon, 2d Battalion, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division.
After having defended Hill 314 for four days, out of ammunition and food, my father and three comrades were captured by German SS forces at Mortain on August 11, 1944. He spent the next 11 months in a German POW camp.
Yes, I'm proud of his service. However, I recounted all of this to establish his authority to comment on this book.
A man of few words, he shared that accounts of the aspects of the battle of which he had first-hand knowledge were very accurate. This book enabled my father to finally understand the full scope and nature of the battle, and reinforced for him (and his wife and five children) how amazing it is that he survived the experience.
We continue to pass this book from one family member to the next. We have all found the book to be an excellent read.
A Classic Account of a Forgotten Battle..........2003-02-08
What a superb book. Featherston, a journalist by trade, made himself into a first rate military historian with this, his first published work. He even outdoes the mighty Stephen Ambrose here. His focus is the 30th Infantry Division's lone stand at Mortain, as it bore the brunt of the German last great Panzer assault in France.
Much has been written about Mortain, how the Germans threw away their last bit of armored strength in this hopeless, Hitler ordered counterattack (Operation 'Luttich', the German word for Liege, a city in Belgium) and its subsequent repulse. Far too much credit has been given the Allied air forces in this battle and not enough to the infantrymen who faced the onslaught on the ground.
That fact was, that despite air support, the Old Hickory Division met the Germans head on, and this was some of the best German military units, the Waffen SS in addition to other Panzer divisions, and it beat them cold.
Featherston, interviews the veterans and they tell their story with pride, as I think they should. They took on the best Hitler had, and stopped the vaunted German Panzer force dead in its tracks.
This is a must have for any ETO fan.
Two stories under one cover........2000-06-13
Great book. I personally liked to read divisional histories, and this is in my top five. The writer takes you throught he divisions pre war history, European deployemnt, and combat history. The reader gets two stoies here, one is a history of a Army National Guard unit going to war, and the other is the Battle of Moritain, a pivital conflict in the conquest of France. I read it in a weekend, you will find it hard to put down as well.
An Informative fast paced read.......2000-05-08
As a current member of the 30th Mechanized Brigade I found this book to be an extremely interesting look into the roots and history of a forgotten Division. The author provided a great deal of insight into this critical battle through the personal experiences and recollections of the actual soldiers who fought against some of the best German troops at that time. This book was very informative and details a battle that very few people had heard of, which is a shame considering what these everyday soldiers accomplished under such exteme conditions. I would highly recommend.
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