Currency Risk Management: A Handbook for Financial Managers, Brokers, and Their Consultants

Book Description

With the advent of the World Trade Organization and NAFTA, foreign exchange now impacts the corporate world as never before. Hedging currency risk--usually through the Interbank network--is now a routine treasury function. However, mid-sized companies are often shut out of the Interbank market because of the cost and minimum size requirements. Currency Risk Management shows how to capture this business. The author writes in an easy-to-read style and demonstrates the finer points of foreign exchange and various exchange regimes recognized by the IMF. The reader will learn why exchange rates are a matter of government restrictions and controls as well as market price discovery.

Customer Reviews:

perfect.......2000-09-05

It is useful for the investment analysts.

Currency Risk Management A Handbook for Financial Managers, Brokers, and Their Consultants

Average customer rating:

Currency Risk Management A Handbook for Financial Managers, Brokers, and Their Consultants
Shoup Gary
Manufacturer: Glenlake , AMACOM
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UDZO94

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Used to Design Many Corporate Universities

Corporate Universities

Jeanne Meister hits the mark with Corporate Universities

Corporate Universities: Lessons in Building a World-Class Work Force, Revised Edition
Jeanne C. Meister
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Corporate University Handbook: Designing, Managing, and Growing a Successful Program

The Corporate University Workbook: Launching the 21st Century Learning Organization

What CEOs Expect From Corporate Training: Building Workplace Learning and Performance Initiatives That Advance

Ten Steps To Creating A Corporate University

Running Training Like a Business: Delivering Unmistakable Value

ASIN: 0786307870

Book Description

With more than 10,000 copies sold in its previous edition, Corporate Universities is a welcome update with an entirely new chapter on how to launch a corporate university and the 10 building blocks for running and revitalizing a corporate university. Highlighting the best practices in corporate education and training, this revised edition contains cases and examples of innovative programs from over 30 American companies and reveals the results of author Jeanne Meister's survey report, ``Corporate University Future Directions.'' Key findings in the survey include: Reliance on technology for learning; Business/higher education alliances on the rise; Curriculum focus on building ``Core Workplace Skills''; Interest growth in career development centers; Emergence of a chief learning officer.

Customer Reviews:

Used to Design Many Corporate Universities.......2005-05-31

This is the revised and updated edition of Jeanne Meister's classic 1994 work. Countless corporate universities (CUs) are now designed based on Meister's guidance. This is "must" reading if you plan to start or improve your own corporate university.

Meister emphasizes the strategic importance of the corporate university and its role as the "umbrella" for all organizational learning activities.

Meister gives very detailed guidance on how to design the CU, implement best practices, forge partnerships, and build a world-class work force.

I highly recommend it.

Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Learning"

Corporate Universities.......2000-06-20

I found this book quite helpful to me in setting up a corporate university within my company. Meister's book was a great resource to see how the large companies have set up their universities. The general guidelines of "how to do it", gave me some insight as to how to go about setting one up for my company. Visiting the web sites of some of the 50 companies referenced, was also very helpful. A good resource/reference book.

Jeanne Meister hits the mark with Corporate Universities.......1999-01-19

Jeanne Meister's book on corporate universities is a review of the key success factors and motives in developing a high level corporate training organization. The majority of the information in the book is taken from Fortune 500 companies who are developing their own 'umbrella' learning organizations. The information was gathered through questionnaires, consulting, and trade shows held by Corporate University X-change, a company who publishing one of the leading industry magazines. The trend for corporate universities seems to be driven by two main factors:

1. Upper-management's need to build a flexible learning organization. A good example of this trend is illustrated in a Shell Oil study on changes in the firms appearing on the Fortune 500 list . This study showed that one-third of the companies listed on the Fortune 500 list in 1970 had vanished by 1983. In fact, the study estimated that the lifetime of the largest industrial firm was less than half the average lifetime of a person in an industrial society. The bright spot of this study was that those who survived 75 years or longer made a point of continually experimenting and exploring new businesses and creating new sources of growth.

2. Technologies that more effectively facilitate the collection and management of key information on the organizations intellectual capital.

I was impressed by the names and company references that this book contains. It appears as if the author has established relationships with these companies and makes the information seem more credible because it appears to be first hand and can be backed up by contacting the individual or company.

Book Description

How often are patients seriously injured through faulty medical care? And what proportion of these people receive compensation for their injuries and suffering? This is the first book that tries to answer these questions in a careful, scholarly way. Among its important findings is that at most one in ten patients injured through medical negligence receives compensation through the malpractice system.

The focus of public attention has been on the rising cost to physicians of malpractice insurance. Although Patricia Danzon analyzes this question thoroughly, her view is much broader, encompassing the malpractice system itself--the legal process, the liability insurance markets, and the feedback to health care. As an economist, she is concerned with the efficiency or cost-effectiveness of the system from the point of view of its three social purposes: deterrence of medical negligence, compensation of injured patients, and the spreading of risk. To provide evidence of the operation of the system in practice, to distinguish fact from allegation, and to evaluate proposals for reform, she has undertaken a detailed empirical analysis of malpractice claims and insurance markets. It is a major contribution to our understanding of how the system works in practice and how it might be improved.

Book Description

Marcelo Gleiser refutes the notion that science and spirituality are irreconcilable. In The Dancing Universe, he traces mystical, philosophical, and scientific ideas about the cosmos through the past twenty-five centuries, from the ancient creation myths of numerous cultures to contemporary theories about an ever-expanding universe. He also explores the lives and ideas of history's greatest scientists, including Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein. By exploring how scientists have unlocked the secrets of gravity, matter, time, and space, Gleiser offers fresh perspective on the debate between science and faith.

Customer Reviews:

universe's romance.......2006-09-20

Would you like to know more about the thoughts of Humankind on the origins of the Universe? So that's the book. You don't need to have a major on Physics or Philosophy to follow mr. Gleiser's recount. On the contrary, this book aims to make itself knowledgeable by anyone. All it requires is your curiosity and sense of marvel. Must read! Mr. Gleiser is a "story teller" in the sense that he knows how to make himself understandable and most of all how to bring back the notion that Physics is basically a study of nature, where we belong and not a black board full of equations.

Cosmology: The Next Generation.......2005-12-05

I had the good fortune to meet Dr. Gleiser when he recently interviewed my father, Dr. Ralph A. Alpher--the last of his generation involved in the development of the Big Bang Theory--which today most Astrophysicists and Cosmologists accept as an empirically founded version of Genesis--at least the Genesis of 15 or so million years ago.

My father's dissertation advisor was a great popularizer of science and physics, the late George Gamow. As I was a youngster when Gamow was alive, I should have demanded to meet him!!! Ah, but what do children of great men really know?

Well, in the tradition of Gamow, and with great affection for his writings and admiration for Dr. Ralph A. Alpher's work, I find that Dr. Gleiser has taken up the torch of science popularizing in a major way. This book will live up to the non-technical reader's hopes!!! Gleiser has mastered his subject and presents it in a both serious and entertaining way. And today, there is so much bunk to separate from what is reasonable to believe!!!

From the earliest creation ideas to the greatest mysteries of today, you will enjoy Dr. Gleiser's work. There are other writers regarding modern cosmology for the masses (Dr. Steven Weinberg's "The First Three Minutes" and Rober Jastrow's "God and the Astronomers" come immediately to mind. However, Dr. Gleiser's scope is so much broader and majestic--you will not regret having his work in your library.

Religion and science tracking the same objectives.......2002-09-14

Starting with ancient myths, going across the history of philosophical/physical science to our present day, Marcelo Gleiser demonstrates how there is a common language and purpose uniting human thought. There is no sense in maintaining a bi-polarity, a separation between spiritual and scientific inquiries. The quest for the Absolute Reality transcends the distinction between religion and science and each one serves as inspiration for the other. This becomes evident in the arena of the origins of the universe where there is a link between ancient myths and modern cosmology. Mysticism has been a source of inspiration for many scientists and the concept of a "cold, materialist" scientist is totally out of context.
Marcelo Gleiser dedicates an extensive chapter on the Greeks, continues his journey into neo-Platonism during the Middle Ages, Copernican revolution, Galileo, Newton, all the way to present optics, thermodynamics, relativity and quantum mechanics. The closer he moves into contemporary science the more technical his language becomes, but overall it is quite an accessible reading which does not require substantial background in major scientific developments.
For the author the beauty of science is that it brings us closer to nature; it would be a benefit to each and everyone if science were to be taught with a less emphasis on its cold, rational, "operative" objective. Gleiser also explains how we are slaves to our rational mechanisms (language fails to fully explain the quantum phenomena), how our finite brain attempts to reach the infinite and trascend our bipolar reality.
Marcelo Gleiser draws a parallel between myths of creation and cosmological models for the origins of the universe, classifying them into temporal myths with the corresponding theories of the Big-bang or Lemaitre primordial atom, and "atemporal" myths and the corresponding models proposed by Bondi, Gold and Hoyle, or the "Phoenix Universe." He makes use of an informal narrative, with an outspoken enthusiasm, removing the aura circumscribing physics and physicits. In the process he sacrifices technicality for the benefit of a wider scope of readers.

Provocative and subtle: Gleiser Explores Man's Journey.......2001-07-17

As a young boy with many questions about not just myself, but my life, my background and my place in the universe, I yearned for specific, yet simplistic answers. Although it was quite impossible to answer these questions-as of our current time-I found the detailed, scientific, humorous approach to answering these questions in "The Dancing Universe" to be satisfying at the time. As a sixteen year old, reflecting upon this book's true message, I often realize how much it has taught me. Gleiser does not explain life, rather, he intends to guide the readers to their own "answers." In an age where we often overlook our journey through such an emmense universe, it is satisfying to know that someone, Gleiser, intends to help those who wish to understand and explore their past, present and future. First, introducing the early beliefs concerning creation, Gleiser leads us past religion and leads us into the vast pool of astronomical studies. Although the book slows during this portion, it is nonetheless interesting. Gleiser becomes not just a teacher, but a friend, attempting to explain the mind boggling laws and theorys fabricated by the well known scientists throughout the ages. The novel is definately worth while. It allows those yearning for answers to be pointed in the right direction. And as man embarks on a journey towards their final destination, Gleiser clarifies the purpose of this journey, and why and what makes this journey called life possible.

Gleiser makes a normally dull subject dance with new life........2000-09-12

I picked up this book on a whim, seeking to learn more about creation myths and the relation between science and religion. An English major who typically favors literary fiction, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found within its pages: a very compelling narrative about past and present views of the universe and the people who contributed to our understanding of it - all in a language that even the most physics-phobic reader can understand and appreciate. Gleiser is an eloquent and entertaining writer whose writing style does much to support his arguments that science and reason are not necessarily devoid of emotion and spirituality. His obvious enthusiasm for the knowledge he imparts is infectious and although other works may be better at explaning the mechanics of the universe (e.g. Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time), anyone who has ever suffered through the unwieldy textbook jargon of an introductory physics course can appreciate the way which he makes this book not only educational, but *readable.* By weaving together information about how the universe works and the people who made those discoveries, Gleiser's book reads less like a scientific explanation of the universe and more like a story populated with fantastic figures and propelled by amazing discoveries. An excellent, well-written book on a subject the author manages to make fascinating to even this scientifically-numb reader, I find myself intrigued by the subject and eager to learn more.

Book Description

Ghis accessible book covers group theory, which is a key area of chemistry at undergraduate level. The basic concepts of group theory are introduced, with separate sections on molecular symmetry, the mathematics of group theory and the application of group theory in chemistry. The level of the book is appropriate both for chemistry students who have and who don't have a mathematical background - reflecting the wider range of knowledge and experience of modern chemistry undergraduates. The "workbook" style of the book, where students write their answers to problems and compare them to model answers, helps the student to gain confidence in using group theory in chemistry. Clear, simple diagrams are provided throughout the book, and its attractive workbook format makes this an essential supplementary text for undergraduate chemistry students. Postgraduate chemists and undergraduate students of biochemistry and environmental sciences will also find this book useful.

Amazon.com

The Cooperative Gene is about sex and how sex enabled complex life to arise. Mark Ridley, a researcher and author of many works including the textbook Evolution, contends that simple life is "easy." Simple life like bacteria evolved as soon as conditions on Earth permitted. But complex life--walking, flying, swimming, squawking organisms with differentiated tissues--was a huge step forward. It took billions of years for complex life (and sex) to appear.

More than anything, organisms want to pass on their genes. Sex seems to defy natural selection in its ability to convince organisms to pass on only half their genes. Natural selection will favor "selfish" genes, ones that can beat the odds and get passed on. But if this happened all the time, complex life could not exist. So how does it? Enter what Ridley describes as "Mendel's demon," a system in which genes are passed on in a random fashion. Most important, the demon prevents selfish genes from sabotaging that randomness.

Although Gene isn't a technical book, its ideas are complicated. Ridley's style is methodical, broken by the occasional dryly humorous aside. Evolutionary biologists and other assorted PhDs will no doubt be entertained. Popular-science buffs may find it slow going, but they will be rewarded by a thorough understanding of the topic.

In his last two chapters, Ridley leaps further afield, exploring the influence of technology on human evolution and speculating how future science could change us. He also examines the idea of supercomplex organisms, beings that would tower over humans in complexity to the same degree that humans tower over bacteria. It's pure speculation but compelling nonetheless, worthy of its own book. --J. B. Peck

Book Description

Why isn't all life pond-scum? Why are there multimillion-celled, long-lived monsters like us, built from tens of thousands of cooperating genes? Mark Ridley presents a new explanation of how complex large life forms like ourselves came to exist, showing that the answer to the greatest mystery of evolution for modern science is not the selfish gene; it is the cooperative gene.

In this thought-provoking book, Ridley breaks down how two major biological hurdles had to be overcome in order to allow living complexity to evolve: the proliferation of genes and gene-selfishness. Because complex life has more genes than simple life, the increase in gene numbers poses a particular problem for complex beings. The more genes, the more chance for copying error; it is far easier to make a mistake copying the Bible than it is copying an advertising slogan. To add to the difficulty, Darwin's concept of natural selection encourages genes that look out for themselves, selfish genes that could easily evolve to sabotage the development of complex life forms. By retracing the history of life on our planet -- from the initial wobbly, replicating molecules, through microbes, worms, and flies, and on to humans -- Ridley reveals how life evolved as a series of steps to manage error and to coerce genes to cooperate within each body. Like a benign and unseen hand -- what Ridley calls "Mendel's Demon" -- the combination of these strategies enacts Austrian monk Gregor Mendel's fundamental laws of inheritance. This demon offers startling new perspectives on issues from curing AIDS, the origins of sex and gender, and cloning, to the genetics of angels. Indeed, if we are ever to understand the biology of other planets, we will need more than Darwin; we will need to understand how Mendel's Demon made the cooperative gene into the fundamental element of life.

What does the cooperative gene tell us about our future? With genetic technology burgeoning around the world, we must ask whether life will evolve to be even more complex than we already are. Human beings, Ridley concludes, may be near the limit of the possible, at least for earthly genetic mechanisms. But in the future, new genetic and reproductive biosystems could allow our descendants to increase their gene numbers and therefore their complexity. This process, he speculates, could lead to the evolution of life forms far stranger and more interesting than anything humanly discovered or imagined so far.

Written with uncommon energy, force, and clarity, The Cooperative Gene is essential reading for anyone wishing to see behind the headlines of our genetic age. It is an eye-opening invitation to the biotech adventure humanity has already embarked upon.

Customer Reviews:

Law enforcement in reproduction.......2005-05-10

Mark Ridley has two major themes in this book, the appearance of what he calls complexity, and the role of what he calls gender. I use this awkward repetition of words because what Ridley calls complexity is not what students of complexity call complexity, and what he calls gender is not what linguists call gender. Unfortunately he is not very precise with his definitions in either case. Indeed, in the case of complexity he recognizes his vagueness explicitly: "Complexity is an ill-defined term ... I am as puzzled as anyone by what exactly I mean when I say it." One may hope for something a bit clearer than that, but one will be disappointed. Most of the time what he seems to mean by claiming that humans are complex and bacteria are not is that a human is an organism with numerous kinds of cell, most of which have nuclei, whereas a bacterium is just a single cell with no nucleus. It is reasonable to ask what conditions allowed multi-cellular nucleated organisms to appear, but less reasonable to claim that bacteria are not complex.

The other term that is crucial for the book, but is ill-defined, is gender. Ridley uses it to distinguish sex -- the idea that an individual is the result of mixing the genetic information from two different parents -- from the idea that the two parents are different from one another, coming from two (or more) classes such that the members of the same class cannot breed with one another. Unfortunately he not only neglects to explain in so many words that this is what he means by gender, he also forgets from time to time to maintain the distinction, referring, for example, to "single-sex changing rooms" when he means, in his terms, single-gender changing rooms.

To this point I have concentrated on the more negative aspects of the book, probably excessively, because there is a large amount of interesting discussion in it as well. Ridley has a lot to say about the dangers of conflict between the different genetic components of a multi-cellular organism: conflict between nuclear and mitochondrial genes, between nuclear genes from the two different parents, between the mitochondria from different parents, and so on. He argues that avoiding and defusing potentially disastrous effects of such conflicts explains what would otherwise seem absurdly complicated and wasteful ways of doing things. Most organisms exclude the mitochondria of one parent from entering the egg when it is fertilized, but the few exceptions illustrate what can happen if they are not excluded. In mice, for example, the paternal mitochondria do enter the egg, "like missionaries walking into a cannibal feast", whereupon they are promptly destroyed. Even in humans some paternal mitochondria are able to escape the strip search of the sperm cell when it enters the egg, but they too are destroyed. Yet mitochondria are expensive to produce, and potentially valuable, so why wantonly waste them? Avoiding even more wasteful wars with the maternal mitochondra appears to be the reason.

Ridley explains that most of the apparent complications in reproduction are necessary for effective policing of the system so that it remains fair, to give genes on the two chromosomes in each pair exactly the same chance of getting into the fertilized egg. What is the point, for example, of doubling the total number of chromosomes as the first step in halving the number? Multiplying by two and then dividing by four seems an absurdly complicated way of dividing by two, but it appears to be necessary as a way of preventing cheating. Humans, incidentally, are far more at risk from trisomies like Down's syndrome than animals like rabbits that breed at much younger ages, and the risk increases with the mother's age. Ridley argues that this is related to the fact that a mother's eggs are all made at the time of her own birth, not being used until as much as forty years later. He suggests that this long period gives cheating genes the time to "learn" how to subvert the process of discarding three of the four copies of each chromosome that occurs at fertilization, so as to increase the chance of survival of a chromosome that carries a cheating gene.

The book concludes with a discussion of the future of human breeding, including the question of whether cloning is likely to be feasible (yes, almost certainly) and desirable. All of the reasons why sexual reproduction exists in the first place imply that without it errors in the genome would accumulate in an uncontrolled way and extinction would follow. This would suggest that cloning will almost inevitably produce offspring weaker and less viable than the mothers of whom they are supposedly the clones.

Fascinating Premise; Witty Writing; Vague Explanations.......2004-10-06

I don't know if Mark and Matt Ridley are brothers, but they should be. Each is English, has a doctorate, and writes in an engaging and literate way about evolution. Matt seems more interested in what is called "evolutionary psychology", discussing social issues in the light of our evolved traits. Mark is more the scientist, pursuing the fundamental questions of life. This book is about such a question: why did complex life evolve at all?

At first that might not seem like much of a question. The hard part, after all, is to get "simple" life -- a bacterium. After that, given enough time and the creative power of DNA mutations, complex life is more or less inevitable. Right?

Actually, from the evidence it seems that simple cellular life evolved rather quickly -- within a few hundred million years at most -- after it was possible for any life -- that is, after the planet had cooled down and water was mostly liquid. Yet, after that it may have taken two billion years for the eukaryotic cell to arise. That is such a large part of the total amount of time life has been on the planet that it is very possible that the eukaryotic cell might never evolve at all if the history of life were rerun.

And, according to Mark Ridley complex life -- multicellular life -- only arose because the genetic mechanisms invented by the eukaryotic cell allowed it. Complex life is complex because it has lots of parts, and requires lots of DNA, which must be duplicated from generation to generation. Copying errors turn out to be a limiting factor once you get to billions and billions of "letters" in your genome, even with the various enzymatic mechanisms for checking and correcting DNA copies (invented by bacteria billions of years ago and never improved upon). For bacteria, 99% of their offspring are perfect genetically, since their DNA is short enough that errors are unlikely. For us, we're lucky to get one or two perfect gametes in a hundred. So how in the world can we go on, generation after generation without degrading like a much-xeroxed document?

In a word, sex. This is really the crux and subject of the book: sex, gender, and the peculiarities of meiosis are there to overcome the daunting problem of copying error and allow beings with lots more DNA than a bacterium to quite faithfully reproduce themselves generation after generation. Even without any steamy scenes sex and gender are fascinating, and Ridley's explanation of why we have them (sex and gender are not the same thing) is convincing and entertaining. But I will say no more about that. You will just have to read the book, which I recommend, with some reservations.

I like Mark Ridley's writing. His sentences are graceful and laced with wit and learning. Where he falls down, though, is in the explanations, or justifications, for the material he introduces. The ideas of copying error and how it plays out in different organisms was new to me, as were the arguments justifying sex, gender, and the peculiarities of meiosis. On the way to them there were also various subsidiary conclusions, and in few cases were his explanations terribly coherent. At least part of this book had its genesis in lectures, and it shows. There are small inconsistencies: he refers to the new result of 30,000 genes in a human, for example, and later casually throws in the older presumption of 100,000, no doubt in a section lifted from an earlier talk and never corrected. But more annoyingly, his basic style of argument is what an old math professor of mine called "hand-waving". This is where you talk fast and plausably to skate over difficult points rather than using logic. Lectures to a lay audience tend to be mostly gee-whiz facts, jokes, and hand-waving arguments. Ridley is not that casual here, but still induced a kind of mental whiplash by discussing in excessive detail rather obvious points, and then making a sudden jump across an intellectual chasm to a daring conclusion, then blandly continuing.

In conclusion, I would recommend the book for its very interesting subject matter and breezy style. But I would add that you might find yourself wishing for a bit more rigor. Or not.

Excellent Book - Bizarre title change.......2003-10-03

This is another great and endlessly enjoyable work by Mark Ridley.

Just to eliminate any confusion, I want to reiterate what an earlier reviewer pointed out; the title of this book is "Mendel's Demon: Gene Justice and the Complexity of Life". The American edition of the book was published with an altered title, creating the absurd impression that this book is somehow a challenge to the landmark work "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins. Some misleading reviews printed here reflect that this silliness actualy worked as a marketing tool aimed at simpletons.

Mark Ridley was an undergraduate student of Richard Dawkins at the University of Oxford and is now a colleague of his there. Throughout Dawkins' work (ie. the preface to "The Extended Phenotype") he has lauded Ridley's brilliance, and he did so again in his review of this book.

Anyone who is confused by the name change (a routine by American publishers that plays havoc with citations) ought not to be confused about the book's implied content; it is a fascinating read about fascinating topics, not a "challenge" to something that Mark Ridley hasn't the faintest desire to attack.

Better than Dawkins.......2003-04-27

Read "Selfish Gene"? You have to read this book!

The Cooperative Gene.......2002-11-18

The Cooperative Gene: How Mendel's Demon Explains the Evolution of Complex Beings written by Mark Ridley who is one of today's leading evolutionary thinkers. This is a well-written book that brings to the reader an intellectual treat.

"The Cooperative Gene" give us clues as to why and how complex life came about. It was by natural selection by ingenious solutions to copying errors and uncooperative genes. The author explains everything in a distinctive style that is very cleve... indeed.

This book is geerd to a person with a scientic background as it delves into biology, biochemistry, and cell biology, but it isn't out of reach of a well read lay person. The author's wit and intelligence comes through and he seems to get the reader involved so you're not lost. I was pleasantly intrigued by the author's historical grounding of this book and the up to date relevance. From the initial wobbly, replicating molecules, through microbes, worms and flies till we get to mankind, the author reveals how life evolved on earth.

Natural selection encouragess genes that look out for themselves, while delfish genes that could easily evolve to sabotage the development of complex life forms. Ther author painstakenly explains the difference between a selfish and a cooperative gene. As well as giving the reader his definition of Gregor Mendel's fundamental laws of inheritance... Mendel's Demon, thus, we find out about the origins of sex, gender, and cloning.

The DNA in a human being is 6600 Million letters long and codes for about thirty thousand genes. In contrast, the DNA of a bacterium is two or three million letters long and codes for two or three thousand genes. You see where coding for a human being can bring on more mistakes. Mendelian inheritance controls how genes are inherited in complex life. It combines sex, reproduction, and the probabilistic rather than certain inheritance of genes.

All in all, this book was rather captivating to me, the narrative wasn't overbearing and it easily readable, but you have to have a scientific origin to get the most out this book.

Customer Reviews:

4th "romance with recipes" is missing something.......2007-05-21

Struggling pastry shop owner Olivia Regan has scraped together her last $12,332 to purchase wealthy hotel heir Daniel Worth at a bachelor auction. Her intention is to have him appear in ads and appeal to females all over Boston. What she doesn't count on is a no-carb bakery opening up shop across the street, complete with an anti-sugar clientele who drive her customers away. Daniel himself is at a crossroads; he doesn't want to enter into the family hotel business. His dreams of writing have so far not been realized until his domineering grandfather disowns him for voicing his desire to make his own way. Inspired by Olivia's drive to succeed, he attempts to woo the perfect job and the perfect woman. But Olivia is standoffish; burned once too many times by a man, the last thing she wants is a fling with Daniel, the tabloid magnet. But a single kiss has her re-thinking that policy.

Jump's fourth "romance with recipes" has a cute premise, and is much better than her last (The Angel Craved Lobster), but the magical storytelling evident in the first two stories (The Bride Wore Chocolate; The Devil Served Tortellini) just isn't as strong in this outing. The romance was also lacking for me; I never felt the attraction between Olivia and Daniel. Jump tosses in a couple plot twists that the reader might not see coming, but overall, this is a three star read.

The ending sucked........2006-09-18

I enjoyed this book. However, I was not blown away and I could put it down, and did on several occasions. It never sucked me in like a great book should. I enjoyed the story, and enjoyed the characters. I bought the book mainly because it takes place in Boston and I'm a sucker for books set in Boston. That being said, here is my opinion of The Bachelor Preferred Pastry.

First, let me say it was well-written. The characters had distinctive voices and were well developed. The Hero (Daniel) and the Heroine (Olivia) had a moderate amount of chemistry, but nothing that was setting the pages on fire. My favorite character had to be Olivia's sister Josie, and I would read a book about her and Jake. The story also moved quickly and everything seemed necessary.

However, Ms. Jump lost me near the end when it was revealed that Olivia didn't do the baking (I had always assumed it was Josie and didn't realize that Olivia was trying to pass herself off as the baker rather than business owner.) and that it was really Josie. I never saw this as a personal revelation because she stuck with running Pastries with Panache at the end because her love was running a business rather than baking? But she was never baking? The whole thing felt to me like someone told the author Olivia needed to experience Personal Growth and this was it.

On that same note, Daniel was astoundingly one dimensional and I could never warm up to him like I should have. For 3/4 of the book, all Daniel talked about was how he was so spoiled with his wealth and lack of job. I liked how he had to go out and try to make on his own, and WANTED to make it on his own. I also liked how he admired Olivia for these same traits. However, about 50 pages til the end, it is suddenly revealed that Daniel was adopted and his butler, was his father. AND HE WAS OKAY WITH THIS.

It was like, oh, how nice I'm the son of the butler. That whole part ruined the book for me and felt very, very, tacked on and I'm not sure what it had to do with anything. If it had to be a part of the storyline, it could have been brought up near the begining and have been the catalyst for Daniel going out into the world to make it on his own; to come to terms with his new identity. But I'm not writing the book, so there you go.

Another Great Book by Shirley Jump!!.......2006-02-28

As usual Shirley Jump came through with another great book! Easy to get into, hard to put down-I don't think any serious contemporary romance reader will be disappointed. I wasn't!!

They just get better and better!.......2006-02-12

What an awesome read!! I have read all of Shirley's books and they just keep getting better and better! I would have to say that this is my favorite so far. I loved the female main character, Olivia, and how she comes to really learn about her true self. The twist with the male main character, Daniel, near the end, was a huge surprise - but one that added a great turn of events. The story is a fun and fast read, filled with great recipes and lots of fun romance between Olivia and Daniel! Highly recommend!

Average customer rating:

The People's Bachelor
Austin Bukenya
Manufacturer: Mallory International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Comic | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1856571009

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Bachelors Are People, Too
Frederic Nelson
Manufacturer: Public Affairs Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B0007ECD8G

Average customer rating:

Britain's Top 100 Eligible Bachelors
N. Wyn Ellis
Manufacturer: Blake Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Help! Company's Coming (For brides,bachelors and busy people)

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Help! Company's Coming (For brides,bachelors and busy people)

Manufacturer: Moran Printing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

Showers | Weddings | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0941162044

Product Description

Cooking with a flair delightfully uncomplicated This book is the answer to an often desperate attempt by a young person to prepare a pleasing meal whether it is for sel for family or some unexpected company A collection of easy to follow recipes of old favorite dishes and many new nutritious ideas

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Most wanted list: New Mexico bachelors
Betty Gorman
Manufacturer: Gorman-Noble Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006Y7MW4

The 2004-14 job outlook for people who don't have a bachelor's degree: if you want a job right after high school, projections show many openings will be ... article from: Occupational Outlook Quarterly

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The 2004-14 job outlook for people who don't have a bachelor's degree: if you want a job right after high school, projections show many openings will be ... article from: Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Olivia Crosby , and Roger Moncarz
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Occupational Outlook Quarterly, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2006. The length of the article is 6817 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The 2004-14 job outlook for people who don't have a bachelor's degree: if you want a job right after high school, projections show many openings will be available. But if you want a job with above-average earnings, you'll probably need some training before you join the workforce.(Job outlook by education, 2004-14)
Author: Olivia Crosby
Publication: Occupational Outlook Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Page: 28(14)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Job outlook for people who don't have a bachelor's degree.: An article from: Occupational Outlook Quarterly

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Job outlook for people who don't have a bachelor's degree.: An article from: Occupational Outlook Quarterly
Roger Moncarz , and Olivia Crosby
Manufacturer: U.S. Government Printing Office
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000ALRZP2
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Occupational Outlook Quarterly, published by U.S. Government Printing Office on December 22, 2004. The length of the article is 7090 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Job outlook for people who don't have a bachelor's degree.
Author: Roger Moncarz
Publication: Occupational Outlook Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 22, 2004
Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office
Volume: 48 Issue: 4 Page: 3(11)

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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BACHELORS ARE PEOPLE, TOO
Frederic Nelson
Manufacturer: Public Affairs Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M0L3U4

The meaning of marriage: A manual for parents, teachers, young people (over 18), and husbands and wives; also for spinsters and bachelors, widows and widowers,

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The meaning of marriage: A manual for parents, teachers, young people (over 18), and husbands and wives; also for spinsters and bachelors, widows and widowers,
Gustav Spiller
Manufacturer: Watts & Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008BV9K6

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