Principles of Cost Accounting: Questions and Answers

Book Description

Offering a radical prescription for the contemporary organization that places the HR practitioner at the forefront of change.

Customer Reviews:

Cancelled order.......2007-09-20

I cancelled the order, but the seller was nice to return my payment, and the overall experience with the seller was good. But regardless, its a good book to read as it gives a lot of predictions into the future trends in HR and OD and how a good HR person should work around them.

Quick shipping.......2002-01-27

The book was shipped more faster than I expected. Thanks for your effort.

Quick shipping.......2002-01-27

The book was shipped more faster than I expected. Thanks for your effort.

Key HR Leadership Roles for the Future.......2001-03-19

"What does the future hold for the HR function and for HR practitioners? Many studies have been undertaken to answer this question. However, three of them stand out as being the must comprehensive: (1) the 1995-1996 Hman Resource Planning Society State-of-the-Art Study (R.Eichinger & D.Ulrich); (2) the Penn State Executive Programs Management Skills Assessment-Human Resources, which was conducted between 1985 and 1997 (A.Vicere & R.Prescott); (3) A 21st-Century Vision of Strategic Human Resource Management (W.Rothwell, S.Schechter & S.McLane). A review of tese studies shows that the HR field is on the verge of moving beyond its recently acquired responsibilities for performance consulting and business partnering to assume strategic leadership" (p.26).

In this context, W.J.Rothwell, P.K.Prescott, and M.W.Taylor review these studies as following:

I- 1995-1996 HR Planning Society State-of-the-Art Study.

1. Seven most essential skills for HR executives today:

* Business savvy and acumen

* Leading organizational change initiatives using personal power and indirect influence skills

* Deep and working knowledge of the basic HR technologies

* Global strategic thinking and planning skills

* Change management technology

* Analytical, conceptual, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills

* Financial analysis and costing skills

2. Seven most essential skills for HR executives in the future:

* Master global operating skills

* Business and financial savvy

* Strategic, visioning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills

* Using information technology

* Deep HR technology savvy

* Change management skills

* Organizational effectiveness

II- Penn State Executive Program Mnagement Skills Assesment-Human Resources (1997)

1. Six general roles of the new HR leaders: Partner, problem solver, model manager, oracle, conduit, and change agent.

2. Most important competencies of the HR leader:

* Is committed to the success of the organization

* Acts consistently in a manner that instills trust

* Is an effective listner

* Exhibits high standards of performance

* Can manage conflict effectively

* Works effectively with other managers outside the HR function

* Recruits and selects high-quality professionals

* Communicates effectively both orally and in writing

* Understands the overall corporate mission

* Develops HR plans that are clearly linked to the mission and strategy of business units

III- A 21st-Century Vision of Strategic Human Resource Management (1995-1996): The results of the study indicate differences between the most important present and future competencies required for success by HR leaders (see pp.29-30, and Appendix 1).

Within this general framework, they write that "taken together, these three studies provide compelling evidence that HR practitioners of the future must demonstrate exemplary leadership skills if they are to be successful. For HR practitioners, it is no longer enough to be a compliance-oriented practitioner, a supportive, or even a performance consultant. Exemplary HR practitioners of the future will be leaders who are capable of demonstrating a new value-added component to their organizations by managing and developing knowledge capital. By comparing the studies (just summarized above), we can see that six key roles for HR leaders have emerged: change agent, HR strategist, business strategist, HR functional aligner, partner to general managers, and problem solver and consultant."

Highly recommended.

Crucial career heads-up for HR practitioners!.......1999-03-11

Following an initial, probing discussion of the history and present problems plaguing human resource management, the authors present a vision of a new HR function. They carry these ideas forward in terms of six trends: the advance of technology; globalization; cost containment; increasing speed in market change; the increasing importance of knowledge capital; and the overall pace and scope of change. They discuss how to apply insights about these trends to shaping and leading the HR function, specifically in terms of action plans and the requisite leadership competencies to implement these plans. The book contains work sheets for guiding professionals in action planning. Importantly, the results of research underlying the book are included. A worthy contribution to the human resource management field and something of a career heads-up for HR practitioners.

Book Description

Provides a comprehensive introduction to the subject, including:

Rubber elasticity
Viscoelasticity
Anisotropic mechanical behaviour
Yield and fracture

Also discusses the molecular and structural interpretations of the mechanical behaviour of solid polymers, emphasising the physical approach. Following on from the highly successful Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers, 2nd edition, it introduces the subject at a less specialised level and comes complete with worked examples, mathematical appendices, extensive references and comprehensive index.

Download Description

Provides a comprehensive introduction to the mechanical behaviour of solid polymers. Extensively revised and updated throughout, the second edition now includes new material on mechanical relaxations and anisotropy, composites modelling, non-linear viscoelasticity, yield behaviour and fracture of tough polymers. The accessible approach of the book has been retained with each chapter designed to be self contained and the theory and applications of the subject carefully introduced where appropriate. The latest developments in the field are included alongside worked examples, mathematical appendices and an extensive reference. Fully revised and updated throughout to include all the latest developments in the field Worked examples at the end of the chapter An invaluable resource for students of materials science, chemistry, physics or engineering studying polymer science

Customer Reviews:

Review of An Introduction to the Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers.......2007-01-05

It wasn't great, but it was a required book for the class I took, so I suppose it was everything I needed. That's about all I can say. I actually barely read anything in the class.

A reader.......2000-03-27

This book is a good introduction to understanding the mechanical properties of solid polymers from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint. It is suitable for university students with some knowledge of the physical properties of polymers but advanced enough to be used in a graduate course. This is book is a much more manageable version of a previous book by I.M. Ward, "Mechanical Properties of Solid Polymers". It has been useful as basic reference and provides further references should more details be desired. Highly recommended addition to any persons collection of polymer science and engineering books. The only drawback is the cost. It is a bit disappointing to see the price almost double in less than 3 years.

Average customer rating:

Enjoyable first-person story in dark a NYC crawling with zombies and vampires

Vampires vs. Zombies--well done

A disappointment

dark, gritty, and mean

The New Noir meets NYC Vampires

Already Dead: A Novel
Charlie Huston
Manufacturer: Del Rey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Hard-Boiled | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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No Dominion: A Novel

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Rain Dogs

ASIN: 034547824X
Release Date: 2005-12-27

Book Description

Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt.

There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word.

From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City.

Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.

Customer Reviews:

Enjoyable first-person story in dark a NYC crawling with zombies and vampires.......2007-08-15

"But I did get sloppy last night, and someone is gunna swing for it. So I'll fry a little to keep them happy and to keep myself alive. Because I don't want to die. Except, oh yeah, I'm already dead."

An interesting blend of gritty suspense, first-person detective thriller, and action in the context of a dark New York City (NYC) riddled with zombies, vampires and their socio-political hierarchies, Charlie Huston mixes a tangy cocktail punch in the form of ALREADY DEAD. There's a love mixed in as well, but true to guy fiction, it's a bit tragic and certainly not the primary focus of this novel. I liked the noir feel of ALREADY DEAD, I liked the fast-paced action, I enjoyed the dark NYC settings, I even liked the politics amongst the vampire (or "Vampyre") clans. The wry, sardonic humor our main character Joe Pitt exudes prompted some laughs. Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt reminded me of Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs, but I liked Kovacs better. Charlie Huston's ALREADY DEAD hums with an impassioned detachment - if I can call it that - that stems from its main character Joe Pitt, and the book contains plenty of violence and explicit language. All of it builds the dark and gritty scene in an unsympathetic New York City nightlife crawling with vampyres, zombies and other creepy creatures you don't want to meet in a dark alley.

A cool, fun book overall, I still found the final pieces of the mystery puzzle a bit lacking, a bit anti-climactic. Although I liked the anti-hero persona of Joe Pitt, I thought the book had him in a reactionary role throughout. From beginning to end, Joe Pitt is always reacting to the circumstances others have set in motion, never really dictating any of his own. I suppose that's part of what makes this book a mystery/suspense, but it'd be nice to see Joe setting something up for once. Even at the end when he retains Horde's teeth and ultimately evades the Coalition and Predo, I thought he lucked out rather than eliciting an outcome of his own making.

There's some memorable soliloquies and humorous lines in this novel. That in and of itself made the reading experience very worthwhile.

"Death has truly and finally arrived.

Good.

I have failed. Failed as a child; failed as a man; failed as a revolutionary; failed as a lover; failed as a goodguy. My only success in life has been as a pawn. [Screw] it, I never asked to be any of those things. And my life was over by rights long ago. I've just been waiting to catch up to it. Then my heart explodes, beating a manic rhythm, and a I realize my life is not over.

Hell."

The Story, possible SPOILERS.

We pick up the story as rogue vampyre Joe Pitt eliminates some "shamblers" (zombies) which pose a threat to the underground Vampyre hierarchy by drawing undue attention. 6-foot-3 Joe Pitt looks 28, but he was was turned into a Vampyre some 30 years ago, and initiated into the vampyre clan the Society in New York City by his then-friend, Terry Bird. In Terry's clan the Society, Joe serves as the Society's de facto Enforcer, meting out the Society's justice and punishment. He leaves the Society though to live as a rogue vampyre, no longer wanting to play someone else's thug enforcer. Joe is very cynical and often times unapologetic over his brutal actions and prosaic immorality.

Joe settles into a life of a rogue vampyre after he leaves the Society. Sometimes he's hired for jobs by the Society, other times, he's hired for jobs by the biggest vampyre clan, the Coalition. The Coalition hires Joe to eliminate some zombies as the book begins, zombies he cuts down on Society's turf. After eliminating the zombies, Joe realizes he still needs to find and kill the carrier who is at large. Predo from the Coalition threatens agonizing death (sunlight) if Joe doesn't clean up the mess from the zombies Joe killed, a mess in which Joe leaves an innocent witness alive and the zombie corpses in plain sight.

It's Joe's soft spot for trying-to-do-the-right-thing which lands him into some trouble, and Predo from the Coalition exploits these good-guy tendencies, and stages events which ultimately position Joe between a rock and hard place. Predo further confounds Joe's problems as he obliges Joe to help the most wealthy family in NYC (and the closest thing NYC has to an aristocracy) find their missing 14 year-old girl, Amanda Horde. Dale Horde (CEO and founder of Horde Bio Tech) and his wife Marilee are seemingly at odds with each other and with Joe. Meanwhile, Terry and the Society are on Joe's case for all the unwanted events on their turf. The most powerful and also the most surreptitious Vampyre clan the Enclave also seems to have adopted Joe against his wishes.

Between trying to balance the different vampyre clans (Society, the Coalition, the Enclave), finding the zombie carrier, finding the Horde girl, Joe also struggles to maintain a semblance of normalcy with his HIV-positive girlfriend Evie. He loves Evie and Evie loves him but of course she knows nothing of what he really is; that is, his vampyre life.

Welcome to Charlie Huston's ALREADY DEAD, where the [everything] hits the fan, and Joe Pitt must solve some riddles and cope to survive with everyone breathing down his neck. Except, of course, he's already dead.

The action is good, and I was glad the end refrained from a Matrix-esque finale. However, I was disappointed by the reactionary elements in the storytelling and the various pieces of the mystery puzzle itself seemed empty once we learn everything. Still, there's some good kick-butt writing here, fast pacing, plenty of action and of course, a hard-nosed gritty first-person characterization to sate anyone's appetite.

Vampires vs. Zombies--well done.......2007-07-21

Death would be easier for vampire-detective Joe Pitt if he'd join up with one of the vampire organizations that rule New York. The Coalition owns the center of Manhatten and they've got plenty of money and access to blood. Further south, though, where Pitt lives, The Society has resources that could help him. (Pitt definitely doesn't want to join up with the crazy vampires of The Enclave--vampires who insist on starving themselves of blood in a weird hope that they'll thus overcome the 'Vyrus' that turned them into vampires. Being independent, a rogue, has some advantages, though. Pitt manages to work for multiple groups and keeps himself supplied that way.

When Pitt runs into a group of zombies, he realizes something has been added to the equation. Zombies aren't unknown, but they don't tend to run in groups. Somewhere, there's a vombie master, and the Coalition instructs Pitt to terminate him at once. Then there's the beautiful woman looking for her daughter. Could the girl have simply run away to enjoy the goth scene, or is there more going on? When Pitt's emergency blood stash vanishes, and rumors of a wraith start to circulate, he finds himself in a world of trouble--with none of the vampire organizations ready to help.

Author Charlie Huston creates a powerful blend of hardboiled detective story and vampire urban fantasy. Pitt is a strong and sympathetic character as he strives to keep his independence, to discover the truth, and to keep the zombie master from converting more innocent people.

Huston's New York is a strange and fascinating place--physically it's the same New York ordinary humans see, but the social overlay of Vampire society lets us see the city through different eyes. Pitt's loner habits and his tendency to slap people around to find the truth definitely bring the best of the old hardboiled detective stories to mind.

A disappointment.......2007-06-20

I rushed to buy Already Dead after reading that it is being turned into a film since books are almost always so much better than their celluloid counterparts and all the reviews I read praised it highly. Unfortunately, it just never grabbed me in the way I was hoping. It was well written, was plenty dark -- just how I like my vampire stories, and the characters were well developed; but for whatever reason the story was somewhat offputting. It all seemed too contrived and convoluted. I just never felt a bond with the characters, and by the end I hardly cared what happened. I was just ready for it to be over so I could move on to the next thing.

dark, gritty, and mean.......2007-06-16

THIS is the contemporary vampire vampire novel I have been waiting for and just didn't know it. While many vampire novels are veering more towards a romantic angle, Huston is bringing the archetype back into a down'n'dirty milieu. What Huston is doing with the undead isn't breathtakingly original - vampire detective, vampirism-as-virus, et al. - but his approach is. Huston comes from a hard boiled crime fiction background, and it makes a difference; the book crackles with a rough energy that is lacking in many of the fantasy/noir hybrids I've read. This is easily one ofthe best and most refreshing vampire novels I have read in years. Freakin' awesome.

The New Noir meets NYC Vampires.......2007-05-13

Noir Writing
adj.
1. Of or relating to the film noir genre.
2. Of or relating to a genre of crime literature featuring tough, cynical characters and bleak settings.
3. Suggestive of danger or violence.

Gentle readers should note that this book contains, in tasteful amounts of course, and integral to the story, violence, blood, gore, paranormal beings, cross dressers, burnt out Hippie Vampire leaders, more violence, and kinky sex. But wait, it gets even better.

Do you know over 4000 thousand Vampyre, attached to various clans like The Society, The Coalition and The Dusters live, work and drink in Manhattan ?
Trying to remain unattached and pick up a payday of a few pints of Blood, Vampyre Joe Pike takes care of " problems " for the Clans. And Joe is not a Really Nice Person. Funny, tough, honorable and a smart mouth, but Not Nice. Not even a little.

If Anne Rice Vampires are your trip, Tri Chic in velvet smoking jackets, sipping 100 year old sherry while babbling their soulful tales just keep going; because if you tool up with a tape recorder next to Joe, anti hero of "Already Dead" he`ll likely break your arms before inviting you out back for a drink or two. On you of course.

The other, more articulate reviewers below have pretty much covered the plot, so all I want to say is this: There is some seriously good writing going on here.

Huston has created a fully formed character in Joe Pike, as you follow him and his friends through the gritty streets of New York, he`ll charm, infuriate, depress and excite you, and make you laugh. Your going to like him and hate him, root for him to win and not care if he gets his fangs kicked in, and that`s just in the first 100 pages....

Besides, you got to like an author whose ultimate threat is staking you out in a New Jersey Mall parking lot to watch the Sun come up. I live in NJ. Believe me....you don`t want that.

Buy this Book and read it.

Average customer rating:

Dead Already
Dwayne Smith , and Michael Shelfer
Manufacturer: Seven Seas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Novels | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 193316428X

Book Description

John Lyon, a wise-cracking, hot shot New York cop has the most amount of kills out of anyone on the force. But one day he takes down the wrong perp, a hulking voodoo serial-killer who is said to be unkillable. The voodoo killer's bereaved mother places a dreaded curse on Lyon. Along with a sexy psychiastrist who thinks he's nuts, Lyon must struggle to survive and figure out how to erase the curse before it's too late.

Average customer rating:

Spin to Sell

Read Book Before You Review

Half Empty Rather than Half Full

INTERESTING!

Defending a popular president who is less popular every day!

Truth To Tell: Tell It Early, Tell It All, Tell It Yourself: Notes from My White House Education
Lanny J. Davis
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Political | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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Scandal: How "Gotcha" Politics Is Destroying America

Who Speaks for the President: The White House Press Secretary from Cleveland to Clinton

The Selling of the President

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ASIN: 0743247825

Amazon.com

The title of Lanny Davis's book will catch many readers by surprise. Davis, after all, was a top White House spin doctor in the Clinton administration and a constant presence on television during the flap over the president's "inappropriate relationship" with Monica Lewinsky--a moment when truth seemed in short supply. Yet this is also an interesting memoir of Washington's scandal-mongering culture told by one of its major participants. The bulk of the book focuses on Davis's time on the White House payroll (he actually resigned shortly after Lewinsky hit the headlines, a departure he had previously scheduled). Davis provides an insider's guide to the controversy surrounding Bill Clinton's fundraising practices and other disputes. These anecdote-rich accounts provide a rare glimpse of how Washington really operates. He remains a dyed-in-the-wool loyalist (no Stephanopoulos-like backbiting here), yet is not afraid to criticize White House tactics that failed to serve Clinton's political goals.

The most interesting sections come when Davis distills lessons from the stories and experiences he relates on these pages. A few tips for aspiring spinners: "Acknowledge the obvious," "Trump the opposition's premises," and "Label any criticism as pure politics." At these moments, Davis reveals the motives and strategies that make Washington politics simultaneously fascinating and infuriating. And it's hard to disagree with one of his chief conclusions, no matter what your politics: "All of us in the process--Democrats and Republicans, journalists and lawyers, not to mention a public ready to assume the worst about politicians--have combined to produce rot, horrible rot." --John J. Miller

Book Description

On a November afternoon in 1996, Lanny Davis got a phone call that would change his life. It was from a top aide at the White House, asking him if he was interested in joining the president's senior staff. Within a few short weeks he had signed on as special counsel to the president. Fourteen months later, his tour of duty almost over, he got another phone call, this time from a Washington Post reporter who asked, "Have you ever heard the name Monica Lewinsky?"

In the time between those two phone calls, Davis received an extraordinary political education. As President Bill Clinton's chief spokesman for handling "scandal matters" he had the unenviable job of briefing reporters and answering their pointed questions on the most embarrassing allegations against the president and his aides, from charges of renting out the Lincoln Bedroom, to stories of selling plots in Arlington Cemetery, from irregular campaign fundraising to sexual improprieties. He was the White House's first line of defense against the press corps and the reporters' first point of entry to an increasingly reticent administration. His delicate task was to remain credible to both sides while surviving the inevitable crossfire.

Upon entering the White House, Davis discovered that he was never going to be able to turn bad news into good news, but he could place the bad news in its proper context and work with reporters to present a fuller picture. While some in the White House grew increasingly leery of helping a press corps that they regarded as hostile, Davis moved in the opposite direction, pitching unfavorable stories to reporters and helping them garner the facts to write those stories accurately. Most surprisingly of all, he realized that to do his job properly, he sometimes had to turn himself into a reporter within the White House, interviewing his colleagues and ferreting out information. Along the way, he learned the true lessons of why politicians, lawyers, and reporters so often act at cross-purposes and gained some remarkable and counterintuitive insights into why this need not be the case. Searching out the facts wherever he could find them, even if he had to proceed covertly, Davis discovered that he could simultaneously help the reporters do their jobs and not put the president in legal or political jeopardy.

With refreshing candor, Davis admits his own mistakes and reveals those instances where he dug a deeper hole for himself by denying the obvious and obfuscating the truth. And in a powerful reassessment of the scandal that led to the president's impeachment, Davis suggests that if the White House had been more receptive to these same hard-won lessons, the Monica Lewinsky story might not have come so close to bringing down an otherwise popular president. For as Davis learned above all, you can always make a bad story better by telling it early, telling it all, and telling it yourself.

Download Description

In Truth to Tell, Lanny Davis -- premier White House "spinmeister" from 1996-1998 -- shares his secrets for making bad news better. As only an insider could, Davis reveals what went on behind the scenes as the White House managed -- and mismanaged -- every crisis that has erupted since Clinton took office. How did an administration for which the term "spin cycle" was coined allow such a public relations disaster as the Lewinsky affair? By ignoring the rules of successful spin, which demand that you tell as much, not as little, as possible -- and that you tell it early, and tell it yourself. In a style that is irreverent, informative, and refreshingly frank, Davis distills his experience into lessons that can be followed by anyone who needs to manage the impact of negative news, from politicians and executives to corporate communications directors. Once readers have followed Davis into the inner sanctum of White House spin sessions, they will never make the same mistakes as the Clinton lawyers. Because as Lanny Davis teaches us once and for all: You can spin the truth, but you cannot spin a lie.

Customer Reviews:

Spin to Sell.......2003-04-04

Tell the truth, an interesting comment / policy coming from a political spin master. I had no perceptions about this book when picking it, as I had not heard anything about it. In my experience that usually means the book is rather run of the mill and dull. Well it turned out that this book is absolutely nothing like that. I really enjoyed the book. It was well written, snappy and interesting. He walks the reader through his time in the media relation's portion of the White House during the campaign finance issues and right before Monica. He does a great job of explaining what his job entailed and making it very interesting.

One thing that came to me as an extra was the details of the press and the way they work up a story. It makes you look at the new in a different light. The author detailed some of the phases to watch out for when reading a paper, which will make me trust political reporting even less. The points he raises has been one that every arm chair political junky has been yelling at the TV for years. Just tell the truth, it is always going to make it easier in the long run and eliminates the never-ending story about one little bit after another. The book is also rather positive. It is not a kiss and tell with nice bits of gossip. Overall I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the way the Clinton White House dealt with the media.

Read Book Before You Review.......2001-09-08

Some of these reviewers apparently have not read the book. They seem to have filed reviews for the sole purpose of ranting about Bill and Hillary Clinton. In Mr. Davis's account of his meeting with the President regarding Miss Lewinsky, his advise was to tell it all and tell it now whatever the truth is.

The bulk of his book is dedicated to the campaign finance "scandals" where he had to continually contend with other White House counsels who took the tack of not exposing their client to undue risk, often with disastrous results, such as with the White House coffees.

If you are interested in the dynamics between the White House and the press, this is the book for you.

Half Empty Rather than Half Full.......2000-07-15

Lanny Davis takes you inside the spinmeisters den at the White House and tells how the news is made through leaking to the press and how the professionals blunt negative reporting about the President. Overall a quick read, but according to Lanny nothing President Clinton or Al Bore did is incorrect or wrong. Nothing at all; it is all part of the vast right wing conspiracy. I thought the lack of critical analysis shot the wheels off as a commentary, but as a how-to manual on spinning the message this a must have.

INTERESTING!.......2000-02-03

Ever wonder how Clinton gets away with his chronic criminal behavior? How does he control the television media so it won't report the truth about him? This book will tell you. It has a spin, as you can tell by the title, but it still reveals the basics of media control. It does not, however, mention all the liberal reporters who spoke up after being blackmailed by Clinton. Nor does it mention the financial benefits Clinton gave to the three main stations (deregulation) or the promises of power in the new global government.

Defending a popular president who is less popular every day!.......1999-09-10

I gave Lanny two stars because his actions cannot be praised only given our pity. On the other hand, Lanny was forthright in explaining his mistakes of telling and giving out misinformation a tender way of saying lying. An admission of this kind of failure deserves neither recognition or commendation. But I am glad he explained it. The book only reinforced my belief that this is a President with fatal flaws of character and should have never been elected. He accomplished nothing but country club travel, cheating at golf and humiliating his wife, daughter and nation. The book shows that politics makes good people do bad things to cover failure, meanness and embarrassment. I expected more of Lanny and the entire Democratic party by having them call for Clifton's resignation when he was found lying under oath. They did not act except by saying he did not lie, well, here is the result, it will be sometime when I trust and vote for another Democrat. And here is the worse aspect from their actions and this book, I am and always will be a Democrat but no longer in the primaries. I will let them keep picking candidates with failures of nerves and then vote the other side in all general elections. It is like Moses and the Israelites, no one who worships falsehoods can enter the Promise land until that generation is dead and gone. All people who engineered this cover up of deceit to remain in power must leave before gentlemen like me return. I speak for many who read this book. This is the legacy they are leaving and none to proud. All of them need to go away for a long time, just like the book.

Book Description

When Hazel Brannon, newly graduated from the journalism school of the University of Alabama, said she wanted to "brighten her corner," her friends were hardly prepared for the denouement. Who would have expected that this "proper Southern young lady," as publisher of The Lexington Advertiser and three other weekly newspapers in darkest Mississippi, was to gradually renounce her racist views once she saw at first hand how the blacks were being mistreated? She called, in editorials and in her column, Through Hazel Eyes, for integrated schools, churches, libraries, public transportation and work places. She also demanded for blacks the right to vote, hold public office, serve as jurors and even to intermarry, an act which she had once branded as "a sin." For such apostasies, the editor, now Hazel Brannon Smith, was shunned by most of her former friends, harassed by lawsuits and subjected to smear attacks by the Ku Klux Klan, the white Citizens' Councils and the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. A boycott was launched against her by the white power structure, a rival newspaper was established, one of her newspaper offices was dynamited, another torched by arsonists and a cross was burned on her lawn, Despite receiving economic aid from prominent journalists throughout the country to help keep her newspapers afloat, garnering the plaudits of important personages nationwide, winning a Pulitzer Prize and virtually every other prestigious journalistic award for her hard-hitting editorials, Mrs. Smith was always to be a prophet without honor among fellow whites in her own county. Maverick Among the Magnolias is the true, thrilling and touching story of a feisty, yet feminine, woman who not only witnessed and chronicled the civil rights struggles in her adopted Mississippi "through Hazel eyes," but, as Roy Steinfort of the First Amendment Center, Reston, Virginia, commented, "left a rich legend of courage for her journalistic survivors. Because of Smith's courage and contribution, Mississippi has changed for the better over the years. ... How many editors today ... would be willing to pay the price she did?"

Book Description

A literary dreamscape in which the landscapes of childhood, homelands, bodies, lovers, and desires succumb to whimsy, revision, and denial. With wild grace, Chin bounds through actual events and imagined outcomes-in a place where killing snakes, stern discipline, family pets, and childhood vacations share equal time with unrequited love, the mournful specters of ex-lovers, imagined passions, and the enigmatic power of a good kiss-reconciling what is lost, taken away, denied, outgrown, left behind, survived, remembered, and reclaimed.

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Author Appearances in San Francisco and New York

Justin Chin is the author of Mongrel: Essays, Diatribes and Pranks and Bite Hard. His writings have appeared in American Poetry: The Next Generation, The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, and Chick for a Day. He has created eight full-length solo performance works and several shorter works that have been presented nationally and abroad. Born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore, he currently lives in San Francisco.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Read.......2003-05-22

What can I say? I found this book from a review in the British Gay Times. A glowing review which called the authour 'a real writer'. They were right.

Beautiful, Non-Traditional Book left me wanting.......2002-06-20

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I feel about this book. It does contain some of the most beautiful images I've ever read; yet the over-all sensation I am left with is disappointment. That, however, may have been the point, as the author uses some wonderful imagery when talking about loss, emptiness, love, family. The book is really not so much a novel as an observation of various incidents in the author's life (fictional or real, I'm not quite sure). It is in these "snippets" that the author is at his best: drawing incredible detail into small events and eliciting a sigh, a memory, or an "I know that feeling" reaction from the reader. But when viewed as a whole, the book appears to have no direction. When I closed the cover, I wondered what I was supposed to take away from this mish-mash of writings other than melancholy. Now, the author is a performance artist and at times passages of this book can take on the pretentiousness I despise in most performance arts pieces. (The section "26 Acts" falls into this category for me.) Luckily, those moments are rare. All-in-all, I would love to read a more traditional novel -- not necessarily A to Z plot, but closer to that -- because I think this man has a wonderful way with words.

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