Building Business Spreadsheets with Excel

Book Description

This text teaches readers how to build business spreadsheets like a pro. Problem-based learning is used to build students' skills as they complete real-life problems. In addition they learn Excel's best features for working accurately and efficiently, how to find and solve common errors, give spreadsheets a professional look, solve printing problems and structure spreadsheets to answer business's common "what-if" questions.

Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals

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goes somewhat beyond introductory Excel
WAY too Basic for Most
Hardly a Guide for any Professional in Finance

Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel: A Guide for Business Professionals
K. Scott Proctor
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471661031

Book Description

A comprehensive guide to building financial models
Building Financial Models with Microsoft Excel + CD-ROM provides beginning or intermediate level computer users with step-by-step instructions on building financial models using Microsoft Excel-the most popular spreadsheet program available. The accompanying CD-ROM contains Excel worksheets that track the course of the book and allow readers to build their own financial models. This comprehensive resource also covers important topics such as the concept of valuation, the concept of sensitivity analysis, the concepts of contribution margin and financial ratios and the basics of building and using a Capitalization Table.
K. Scott Proctor, CFA, is the Director of Investor Analytics at SNL Financial, a financial information provider.

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Customer Reviews:

goes somewhat beyond introductory Excel.......2007-03-18

The book has some merit to a reader new to Excel, and who wants something a bit more indepth than the Idiots or Dummy's books on Excel. Proctor gives examples that do more with the spreadsheets, and you get to appreciate what Excel can provide.

But, as other reviewers have cogently pointed out, the book really is not for business professionals, despite what the title says. An accountant or businessperson should already have more background on financial modelling with spreadsheets that the level provided here.

WAY too Basic for Most.......2007-03-14

This work lacks substance for anyone remotely likely to have to do any real financial analysis. The examples are too simplistic to be of much practical value. If you have virtually no training or experience in Excel or accounting or finance then this book might be worth borrowing from a library to get you up to speed. If you have more than a week of experience in this area then it will sit on the shelf.

Hardly a Guide for any Professional in Finance.......2006-09-27

Chances are that if you are even thinking about financial modeling you have at least a basic understanding of excel and accounting. If that is the case, this book will prove to be almost completely useless. The modeling examples used within the book are so simplistic that if you have had half a semester in an accounting class you will have a more indepth understanding than what the book provides. Financial valuation is almost non existant as is sensitivity analysis, with each getting a short token chapter. The use of excel is at such a beginner level that I feel as if I did more indepth work with excel attempting to figure out my student loan payments. I have read the book from front to back and feel as if it has provided me with no useful manner in which to conduct any sort of modeling other than in an imaginary world where companies only sell one product, have almost no expenses, collect all their recievables within the next pay period and other such ludicrious assumptions. In addition there are several errors in the examples provided in the book. These made me chuckle since anyone who could catch them would not need the book and anyone who actually needs the book for its rudimentary "guidance" would be left bewildered and confused as to why they got the answers wrong.

Book Description

David Holmgren brings into sharper focus the powerful and still evolving Permaculture concept he pioneered with Bill Mollison in the 1970s. It draws together and integrates 25 years of thinking and teaching to reveal a whole new way of understanding and action behind a simple set of design principles. The 12 design principles are each represented by a positive action statement, an icon and a traditional proverb or two that captures the essence of each principle.

Holmgren draws a correlation between every aspect of how we organize our lives, communities and landscapes and our ability to creatively adapt to the ecological realities that shape human destiny. For students and teachers of Permaculture this book provides something more fundamental and distilled than Mollison's encyclopedic Designers Manual. For the general reader it provides refreshing perspectives on a range of environmental issues and shows how permaculture is much more than just a system of gardening. For anyone seriously interested in understanding the foundations of sustainable design and culture, this book is essential reading. Although a book of ideas, the big picture is repeatedly grounded by reference to Holmgren's own place, Melliodora, and other practical examples.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book on permaculture principles.......2007-09-18

I read this book and could see how this thinking about use and re-use, planning and observing will help not just my garden but my life. Really useful examples of each principle and in depth discussion of what they mean, how they can be applied in lots of cases.

Vital Contribution, see also Priority One, Other Books Below.......2007-08-24

This is for me a very important book, one of a handful that joins the Ecological Economics volumes crafted by Herman Daly and others, and also the Natural Capitalism endeavors of Paul Hawkin, Anthony Lovins. The author excels at rendering logical, sequential, and integrated concepts, all of which lead us to the inevitable conclusion--as the author intends--that human intellect, social networks, an appreciation for diversity as the foundation for cross-fertilization, and the enormous potential of the five billion poor--all suggest that a non-technological renaissance may be upon us, and that the bottom-up action of many minds could yet destroy the still-prevailing industrial, top-down control, centralizing of wealth through violence, and externalization of "true cost" to the unwitting public that no longer understands history or that the prevailing shadowy coalitions of bankers, corporate chieftains, private armies, spies, criminals, and terrorists.

My greatest surprise came at the very end, where the author provides a post-9/11 epilogue, and says: "There is abundant evidence that September 11 was an outcome of these shadowy coalitions, which link global energy corporations, US foreign policy, the global "intelligence community," Islamic fundamentalists, arms dealers, and illegal drug trade. Discussion of this bizarre symbiosis [elsewhere he puns on `Bush Laden'] remains beyond the pale of mainstream media....and is the best example of the paralysis of public discourse due to an absence of language to comprehend top-down thinking and bottom-up action as a new mode of power [sustainable community-oriented end-user driven values and behavior and investments].

Every page of this book offers up useful insights and compelling arguments for stopping the current immolation of the Earth and going back to 1491 and the holistic integration of systems ecology, landscape geography, ethno-biology, and cybernetics, along with the co-integration of ecological, cultural, economic, and political. Later in the book the author mentions the importance of integrating religion and science.

He is quite clear, quoting Stuart Hill, that first values must be defined, and only then can sustainable design begin. I have a note on holistic methods that use culture to integrate and promulgate psycho-social knowledge and wisdom with bio-ecological sustainable design.

The author provides a sharp critique of education today as reductionist, fragmented, rote, and disconnected from experience. In this vein, let me note that a World Bank official told me on the 21st of August that the CIA analysts that come to the World Bank in search of knowledge are "too young, lack knowledge, and have a propensity to put forward hypotheses (e.g. about Darfur and the region) that are frightening in their ignorance." On a positive note, while I have always been the #1 Amazon reviewer for non-fiction, I only entered into the top 100 and then the top 50 over-all, when Dick Cheney succeeded in frightening a significant portion of the population back into reading non-fiction. I consider it my sacred duty to be a human version of the Cliff Notes for all serious readers concerned about the future of the Republic.

The author specifies that the general public (that is to say, the 90% of us that have not looted the commonwealth but rather been subtly enslaved) is back to 1978 in terms of quality of life and sufficiency of income. All our hard word has enriched a few and left the Republic with bridges that collapse for lack of sustained investment in the public interest.

The author slams "just enough, just in time" logistics as unsustainable madness, and throughout the book, with both text and illustrations, shows how we must balance between "slow, steady, small" and "fast, random, big."

I liked the references to the role of the landscape as a means of storing energy, water, nutrients, and carbon. The author stresses the importance of understanding entropy (example from other work: water can be desalinated, but the energy cost, in the absence of renewable energy, is unaffordable over time). The author quotes Natural Capital many times, and I regard this book as a perfect complement to that strategic work--this is the operational, tactical, and technical counterpart. See also Priority One.

The author provides both maxims and principles in this book.

The maxims:
1. All observations are relative
2. Top-down thinking, bottom-up action
3. The landscape is the textbook
4. Failure is useful so long as we learn
5. Elegant solutions are simple, even invisible
6. Make the smallest intervention necessary
7. Avoid too much of a good thing
8. The problem is the solution
9. Recognize and break out of design cul-de-sacs

Permaculture design principles:
1. Observe and Interact
2. Catch and Store Energy
3. Obtain a Yield
4. Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback
5. Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services
6. Produce No Waste
7. Design from Patterns to Details
8. Integrate Rather than Segregate
9. Use Small and Slow Solutions
10. Use and Value Diversity
11. Uses Edges and Value the Marginal
12. Creatively Use and Respond to Change

The author tells us that self-reliance is a form of consumer boycott and also a form of political action.

In addition to sustainable design, the author believes that maintenance engineering has a bright future.

He points out that recycling uses much more energy than re-use.

He notes that the failure of the elites to self-regulate their greed is a recurring problem (violent comprehensive revolutions are often set off when a precipitating outrage follows a long precondition of concentrated wealth and externalized waste).

The sins of the father will curse seven generation (similar to Native American concept of making consensual decisions that are known to be relevant seven generations into the future--what Stewart Brand calls the Clock of the Long Now.

The author emphasizes that the world's poor represent a vast pool of human resources and capabilities as well as (CKP's point) a four trillion dollar marketplace.

Other helpful books in this domain:
Priority One: Together We Can Beat Global Warming
The Clock of the Long Now: Time and Responsibility
Ecological Economics: Principles And Applications
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution
The Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution and the Industrial System
Voltaire's Bastards: The Dictatorship of Reason in the West
Diet for a Small Planet
Faith-Based Diplomacy: Trumping Realpolitik
The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (Wharton School Publishing Paperbacks)

more abstract.......2005-07-05

it's not the nuts and bolts of how to do permaculture, it's the abstract basic reasoning that guides your thoughts when you come across something new.

BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY.......2004-01-29

That the world we now live in is unsustainable goes without saying. Our skyrocketing population puts enormous pressure on the productive and absorptive capacities of the land, outstripping the natural carrying capacity of the planet by some twenty percent (see Radical Simplicity, by Jim Merkel). In effect, we are stealing away the life of the planet and the life of future generations. As ever more fisheries collapse, forests shrink, rangelands deteriorate, soils erode, species vanish, temperatures rise, rivers run dry, water tables fall, ozone depletion expands and polar ice caps melt across the globe, the single most important question humanity has faced resonates ever louder: How can we live sustainably?

Amid the cacophony of scholarly and political debate surrounding this issue, the hushed emergence of permaculture has by and large gone unnoticed. Defined as the use of systems thinking and design principles to consciously design "landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs," the permaculture concept is nothing less than the science of sustainability. And since the joint publication of Permaculture One: A Perennial Agricultural System for Human Settlements (now out of print) by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-seventies, permaculture has become a veritable movement - a legitimate answer to the environmental and agricultural crises which plague humanity. Unfortunately, for the past twenty-five years, those who wished to learn more about permaculture were limited to joining expensive seminars and workshops, thereby ensuring marginal public exposure. All of this has changed, though, with the publication of this book. Holmgren provides us with a no-nonsense guide to permaculture, accessible to laypersons and scholars alike.

If you are interested in moving away from consumer dependency and becoming a responsible productive person, this book is for you. The skills and ideas imparted here are not only necessary for those who seek to create a healthful, sustainable way of life, they are empowering. In my opinion, permaculture is the best tool we have with which to begin creating a viable, perhaps more-than-merely-sustainable future.

To get an idea of what permaculture actually looks like on the ground, check out Ecovillage Living, by Hildur Jackson and Karen Svensson, and visit the Crystal Waters Permaculture Village website.

A remarkable resource.

j.w.k.

Rekindled my interest in Permaculture.......2003-09-16

This book has rekindled my interest in Permaculture.

The author, David Holmgren, is the co-creator, with Bill Mollison of the
term "permaculture", and the co-author of the original permaculture
book, _Permaculture One_. Now, some 25 years after that seminal
book, Holmgren has written a timely and comprehensive synthesis that
brings permaculture principles together in an exiting new way.

The book highlights our place at a unique moment in history: at the peak
of the global oil production curve; at the beginning of the end of cheap
fossil energy. This is, for me, the book's most compelling motif: it
positions permaculture as a strategy for a future of inevitable "energy
descent". Although Holmgren hints that this energy descent may take any
number of horrific pathways, he appears to have chosen the term
"descent" as a hopeful alternative to collapse, crash, or dieoff.

Holmgren insightfully points out that is not just our reserves of fossil
fuel that we've been burning through. Since the Reagan/Thatcher years,
he claims, global capitalism has been on a frenzy of job cutting and
"just-in-time" inventory reduction. This amounts to a destruction of
the embedded intelligence and a severe draw-down of the capital stocks
of our institutions: a severe loss of embedded energy. Furthermore, he
worries that due to privatization and short-term bottom-line thinking,
maintenance on our built-environment and physical infrastructure has been

neglected: another huge loss of embedded energy.

On a hopeful note, Holmgren compares this situation to a forest fire: as
the conflagration of global capitalism burns through its huge pulse of
embedded energy, the time will be ripe for pioneers to take root and
produce a flush of new growth. It is a moment of high potential for
systemic change, and Holmgren's book hopes to provide "Principles and
Pathways" to seed and guide that change.

The subtitle of this book includes the phrase "Beyond Sustainability".
It is a well-established insight of permaculture that sustainability is
not enough: in a world that is already degraded, we need to achieve an
excess yield beyond sustainability that we can feed back into the great
work of restoration. Holmgren's contribution to this area is to point
out is that it is hard to even give meaning to the term "sustainability"
while we are in the midst of a dramatic energy descent with constantly
declining energy availability. We must, of course, aim for a soft
landing and a smooth transition to a sustainable future but our
immediate problem is to safely negotiate the descent itself.

All this is in addition, of course, to Holmgren's wise and fresh take on the more traditional
subject matter of permaculture design. This book is a must-read, equal
in stature to Mollison's _Permaculture: a Practical Guide for a
Sustainable Future_.

Book Description

While the origin of the diffuse interstellar bands in interstellar rather than stellar material was established soon after their discovery early in this century, their precise identification has eluded generations of astronomers. However, advances in optical techniques, laboratory studies of astrophysically relevant materials, and our general understanding of the interstellar medium may be changing that. Current indications are that the carrier is molecular in origin.
The 40 invited reviews in The Diffuse Interstellar Bands bring the reader to the forefront of research, covering observation, theory and laboratory experiments.
Audience: An interdisciplinary work posing a challenge to astronomers, physicists and chemists interested in the visible spectra of large molecules. Also recommended for graduate students entering the field.

Diffuse Interstellar Bands: Physical Conditions That Facilitate the Formation or Preservation of Their Carriers

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Diffuse Interstellar Bands: Physical Conditions That Facilitate the Formation or Preservation of Their Carriers
J.; Galazutdinov, G. A.; Musaev, F. A. Krelowski
Manufacturer: Astropysical Journal
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KF2V84

The diffuse interstellar bands contributed papers (SuDoc NAS 1.55:10144)

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The diffuse interstellar bands contributed papers (SuDoc NAS 1.55:10144)
NASA
Manufacturer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Research Center National Technical Information Service, distributor]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010O2KI

Interstellar extinction anomalies and the diffuse interstellar bands, (Contributions from the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, B.C)

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Interstellar extinction anomalies and the diffuse interstellar bands, (Contributions from the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, B.C)
Gordon Arthur Hunter Walker
Manufacturer: Dept. of Energy, Mines and Resources, Observatories Branch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006CYOR2

Laboratory studies of DIB carriers (SuDoc NAS 1.15:112168)

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Laboratory studies of DIB carriers (SuDoc NAS 1.15:112168)
L. J. Allamandola
Manufacturer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Technical Information Service, distributor
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00010X79K

Book Description

Increasingly, modern medicine relies on so called traditional or ancient medical knowledge. Holistic practices such as adhering to proper diet, observing rules for appropriate behavior, and administering medical preparations are coupled with the latest technology and methods to treat the whole patient. In light of this trend, there is much to be gained from understanding of one of the oldest medical systems still in existence. Tibetan Medicinal Plants provides you a detailed analysis of how Tibetan plants are used in this centuries old system. The book opens with a summary of Tibetan medicine and covers the various habitats in which the plants are found. The main part of this volume encompasses 60 monographs listed by the Tibetan plant name. Each monograph consists of several chapters addressing different topics related either to the Tibetan or the Western approach. Most of the monographs contain a description of the macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of the used plant parts, and anatomical features of 76 plants are provided. Each monograph presents an overview of the known chemical constituents and pharmacological properties of each plant and describes their use in Tibetan medicine. In contrast to other publications on Tibetan medicine, where translations of the Tibetan terms are given in other languages, this book treats the Tibetan word as a technical term, keeps the Tibetan term and explains its meaning, lessening confusion by reducing the number of translations. Traditional Tibetan medicine has been in existence for centuries. Curative practices existed in the prebuddistic era, and the art of healing developed more than 2500 years ago. Tibetan Medicinal Plants provides a comprehensive overview of all plant types, thus making it easier to grasp the Tibetan concept. It gives you a comprehensive look at this centuries old science.

MEDICINAL PLANT FOLKLORE AND THE AYURVEDIC SYSTEM OF MEDICINE IN THE INDO-TIBETAN OUTER HIMALAYAS.: An article from: Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science

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MEDICINAL PLANT FOLKLORE AND THE AYURVEDIC SYSTEM OF MEDICINE IN THE INDO-TIBETAN OUTER HIMALAYAS.: An article from: Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science
G. K. Sharma
Manufacturer: Tennessee Academy of Science
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science, published by Tennessee Academy of Science on January 1, 2000. The length of the article is 3132 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: MEDICINAL PLANT FOLKLORE AND THE AYURVEDIC SYSTEM OF MEDICINE IN THE INDO-TIBETAN OUTER HIMALAYAS.
Author: G. K. Sharma
Publication: Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 2000
Publisher: Tennessee Academy of Science
Page: 38

Article Type: Directory

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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A glossary of Tibetan medicinal plants
Mia Molvray
Manufacturer: Library of Tibetan Works & Archives
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007BVD6C

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Tibetan Medicinal Plants
Tsewang J. Tsarong
Manufacturer: Tibetan Medical Publications,India
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Tibetan Medicinal Plants
Christa Kletter
Manufacturer: CRC Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MBQPVK

Book Description

Applying Contemporary Statistical Techniques explains why traditional statistical methods are often inadequate or outdated when applied to modern problems. Wilcox demonstrates how new and more powerful techniques address these problems far more effectively, making these modern robust methods understandable, practical, and easily accessible.

* Assumes no previous training in statistics
* Explains how and why modern statistical methods provide more accurate results than conventional methods
* Covers the latest developments on multiple comparisons
* Includes recent advances in risk-based methods
* Features many illustrations and examples using data from real studies
* Describes and illustrates easy-to-use s-plus functions for applying cutting-edge techniques
* Covers many contemporary ANOVA (analysis of variance) and regression methods not found in other books

Customer Reviews:

Clear, authoritative, easy to understand.......2005-10-20

I am a professor of Linguistics with an interest in applying contemporary statistics to my field. People in my field have rarely heard of many of the modern methods mentioned here, such as bootstrapping, Winsorizing, 20% means trimming, etc. Wilcox does a great job of making this information accessible and convincing the reader of the need for more modern methods of statistics. What I especially like is that these methods are much more practical for applied research than traditional theoretical statistics based on assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variance (which we rarely find in real data!).The best feature of this book, however, is that Wilcox has written scripts for S-PLUS and R so that you can actually APPLY what he recommends in an easy-to-implement way. The text tells you where to find the commands, and then uses them to perform the necessary tests. When I had a problem getting one of the commands to work correctly, I emailed Wilcox and he promptly gave me a revised version of it that worked. I heartily recommend this book to anyone trying to get up to speed on more modern methods of statistics. I think it would be an excellent book for a research methods course in any social science field where 'classic' statistics are regularly done.

And I do note that I have read this actual book! Wilcox does have an entire chapter on nonparametric tests in this book.

Statistics Evolves.......2003-10-31

This book accomplishes something that has been needed for a long time: A critical examination of the shortcomings of many of the statistical methods that have been widely used in psychology, education, and the social sciences, combined with a presentation of more modern and lesser known methods that overcome these shortcomings. It addresses the assumptions made in traditional statistical tests based on normal-curve theory and points out in a clear and convincing way how failure of these assumptions can lead to trouble. The book conveys a marvelous sense of ongoing discovery--that there is progress in statistics, that methods of the past are not always the best, and that newer and better methods are continually evolving. This is a far cry from the message in the overabundance of elementary textbooks used in introductory courses that all too often present statistical methods as if everything is known and finalized.
The introductory chapters of the book describe elementary concepts in statistics "with a difference," by focusing on properties of various methods that are typically ignored or glossed over in textbooks. This prepares the way for understanding of the difficulties to be examined later. The description of the historical origins of familiar methods is admirable.
The main flaw in the book is lack of treatment of nonparametric methods and their relation to the tests based on parametric assumptions. In the past, one of the reactions of applied statisticians and researchers to failure of assumptions has been a switch to nonparametric methods. However, these tests have their own assumptions and problems, and a thoroughgoing treatment of these problems and their relation to the ones mentioned above also is badly needed. Unfortunately, nonparametric tests are mentioned only briefly toward the end of the book. But despite this gap in the argument, I still give the book five stars because its other features are excellent. If run-of-the-mill statistics texts deserve two or three stars, then a five-star scale is not enough: This book deserves nine or ten.
(Edited note: Something went wrong here! I intended this to be a review of "Fundamentals of Modern Statistical Methods: Substantially Improving Power and Accuracy," not "Applying Contemporary Statistical Techniques," which I have not read!)

Applying Contemporary Statistical Techniques

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Applying Contemporary Statistical Techniques
Rand R. Wilcox
Manufacturer: Academic Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OH6WDS

Book Description

Mike Jackson and Tara Dixon-Engel, Foreword by Frank Borman. As the title suggests, however, Naked in Da Nang is not an angst ridden account of mortal combat. That the humor is often dark only serves to sharpen its comic edge.

Customer Reviews:

memories relived.......2007-10-17

I too was a forward air controller. The col. relives alot for me. The Ho Chi Ming trail was pure hell. 57mm rounds leave a lasting impression on one who has experienced war. The book deserves 20 stars.

Definitely worth reading.......2006-08-31

This is an entertaining and honest read. I really enjoyed the writing style. This book focusses more on the life of a FAC than the actual flying of the missions. Fans of DaNang Diary and A Lonely Kind of War might be disappointed to find much less in the way of the white knuckle accounts of hostile engagements, but anyone interested in the people who fought the war can't fail but to be impressed with this book.

Great story .......2006-02-23

I initially ordered this book because I didn't think it could live up to its reviews and I was going to give it less than five stars. After reading it, I would give it six stars if that was possible. This is a top drawer example of a really well constructed, well written and well drawn picture of a man and his impressions and experiences in combat. Te story telling is brilliant, a real "page turner." I have read numerous volumes of war stories, many were excellent but none were able to catch and hold me like this one. Mike Jacksin has done a large favor for Vietnam veterans by showing just how normal they really were.

A special book.......2005-11-22

What a special book this is. It traces Mr. Jackson's experiences as a young man growing up in Ohio and follows him into air force training, pilot training and, finally, into combat. It does an excellent job of showing civilians what it is like to train for and experience war. I think it gives a more personal and even funny view of Vietnam than other books I have read of that era. It is also a timely book with solders once again marching off to war. Mike Jackson has my respect and appreciation.

Jackson really got it right.......2005-11-18

The emotions and the attitudes and the laughter, Jackson and his co-writer hit the nail on the head with this book. I read it in one sitting, which is not at all like me. In fact, I began reading it again just to catch everything I missed on the first run through. The writing is flawless and is obviously the product of two very talented and interconnected minds. I don't remember when I enjoyed a book more. I cannot really add much to what the other reviews have said except to present the appreciation and approval of someone who was over there too and had a pretty good time except for all the killing and dying. This greatful Marine sends his thanks to both authors for writing a book that will last and improve with age.

Book Description

Soldier, university professor, lawyer, political candidate, and judge; David Vanek's compelling life story has seen him in many roles, all of which are played out in these memoirs. The child of Jewish-Russian immigrants, Vanek encountered anti-semitism while growing up, but was able to overcome prejudice and rise to prominence. He was educated at the University of Toronto and Osgoode Hall Law School (where he was in a Jewish fraternity with Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster) before serving in the Second World War. When the war was over, he returned to the University of Toronto to teach law, and opened his own practice. In 1963 he ran for Parliament as a member of the Progressive Conservative party. In 1968 Vanek became a provincial court judge, and would preside over cases dealing with robbery, drugs, assault, gambling, pollution, and embezzlement, as well as the rights of citizens vs. the rights of police. His most high-profile case was that of Susan Nelles, a nurse at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children who was charged with the murders of four babies at the hospital. Vanek went on to become the president of the Provincial Court Judges Association, and was active in campaigning for changes in how the courts treat young offenders.

Customer Reviews:

Fulfillment - An excellent overview.......2000-01-28

This book provides a look at one one person's formative years in Toronto, growing up in a Jewish home in the 1920's and 1930's. What was it like in Toronto during Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the war years and finally, Mr Vanek's elevation to the criminal court bench in Ontario. The book provides a succinct look at the maturation of Ontario's justice system and finally highlights some of Judge Vanek's most promonent cases, the most famous of which is R v Susan Nelles. The book is clearly written and extremely readable.

Enjoy it, I did!

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