Bottom-Line Call Center Management: Creating a Culture of Accountability and Excellent Customer Service (Improving Human Performance)

Bottom-Line Call Center Management: Creating a Culture of Accountability and Excellent Customer Service (Improving Human Performance)
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A hands-on guide to customer running customer call centers

Bottom-Line Call Center Management: Creating a Culture of Accountability and Excellent Customer Service (Improving Human Performance)
David L. Butler
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0750676841

Book Description

'Bottom-Line Call Center Management breaks new ground by addressing key skills and techniques in assessing and implementing effective management practices to maximize the human and capital resources at the call center manager's disposal. Drawing on the author's unique data sets and years of research experience in the industry, 'Bottom-Line Call Center Management' helps call center managers evaluate their current status, implement cost-effective changes, and measure results of their changes to ensure a culture of accountability within the call center at all levels increasing the bottom line.

The processes include an evaluation of current customer service representatives, defining, delimiting and assessing the labor shed of the center, and exploring the customer service representative's unique skills and leveraging those skills into a unique and dynamic work environment. Likewise, the process also determines the learning skills and competencies necessary to meet and exceed the basic requirements for all call centers. Furthermore, each step has a pre, in-process, and post evaluation to ensure projects are progressing according to plan. Lastly, all evaluations are measured against the bottom line through a return on investment (ROI) model.

The framework for this book uses the culture of call centers, defined and lived through the customer service representatives, as the lens to view all processes, measurements, accountability and return on investment. This framework is critical since there has been much emphasis on technology-as-a-solution which treats the employees as a hindrance instead of the enablers of positive change. Likewise, customer service representatives eventually act as strong determinants of success with the call center and thus the bottom line.

*The only book to focus on accountability in call center management within a framework of progressive management and HR practices
*Draws on the author's unique data sets about best practices in call center management
*Step-by-step processes to assess, implement, and measure the ROI of effective management practices, with pre-, in-process, and post-evaluation built in

Customer Reviews:

A hands-on guide to customer running customer call centers.......2004-05-20

Until recently, customer call centers were very much back-end operations, out of site and out of the minds of corporate chiefs. That was before several recent high-profile fiascos in the US, UK and Australia, where badly-run call centers destroyed in a few months the customer goodwill that had been expensively built up over years.

It doesn't have to be that way. David Butler shows how call centers can be a bottom-line asset to companies, not just a money sink. It cites, for example, the case of a highly cost-effective center in the south-west United States with an annual employee turnover of under 3% and (if I guess the real identity of the company correctly) many happy repeat customers, including myself.

David Butler owns a call center management company and is a recognized expert on the subject. "Bottom-Line Call Center Management" contains detailed information on where best to locate new call centers, how to evaluate and implement new call center technology, how to calculate the value of a call center in dollar terms, and how to create an environment that will attract and retain a loyal and productive staff.

For those of us on the customer side of the business, Dr Butler stresses the need to ensure that representatives are familiar with the products they support or sell. Call center representatives, just like all customer-facing staff, need to understand how customers use the company products and services. If representatives can't articulate product knowledge and understand customer concerns, they really are just a "cost center" and, as the author repeatedly warns, are in danger of having their jobs eliminated or sent abroad. That represents a disaster to their communities and a financial loss to the companies that employed them.

Book Description

'Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence' shows managers and students the importance of empowerment as part of human resource strategy. It provides a critical perspective of this established vital management technique, identifying factors that will lead to a win: win situation for all concerned.

When successfully incorporated as part of HR strategy, empowerment can:
* enable organizations to gain commercial and competitive advantage
* become more flexible
* improve employee commitment
* use the skills of individual employees to best advantage and enhance personal capabilities.

'Empowerment: HR strategies for service excellence' uses case studies from companies such as McDonalds, TGI Fridays and Harvester Restaurants to build a picture of empowerment of service employees in context, illustrating how different forms of empowerment are employed and different working arrangements are practiced.

A well-established and proven management technique
Empowerment as a vital part of HR Strategy
International industry case studies

Book Description

Cannabis has been cultivated for 10,000 years. In recent times, marijuana has undergone more genetic experimentation and cross-breeding than during the previous 10,000 years. This remarkable hybrid development was accomplished by thousand of individuals new to any kind of farming. Marijuana Botany offers accurate information about all aspects of cultivation. It explains how quality is affected by climate and environment; identification and desirability of female plants; consideration for cultivating sinsemilla; THC production and peak potency; producing desirable plants year after year.

Customer Reviews:

Old but still good.......2003-12-23

This is a good book about the marijuana plant itself but is a bit dated. Still if you want to learn more about breeding and plant physiognomy then this is a good choice.

Excellent text on arranging a breeding environment.......2003-09-28

If you have read some other reviews posted for this book then it would seem as if this researcher was talking out his ass but if you bother to actually read the book at all then you will realize that the information provided may or may not be intended for either your level of education as far as cannabis goes or for the specific agenda behind your reasons for growing cannabis.
No it is not a book for the first hand grower, and No this book will not tell you specifically what you need to know for how to grow some "killer bud" but if you want basically a manual for how to develop a purposeful breeding growing regimine and the best way to establish a sterile environment and efficient pollen collection and cultivation techniques then this is the book upon which it wouldn't hurt to start your reading collection.
This book was written in the eighties as has yet to be updated but it is useful and informative. The research however outdated is still competant and unbiased and anytime that you have definative data you should try to learn from it. The stated research spans nearly half a century of labratory and field study from doctors, scientists, horticulurists, and regular old smokey joe from down the street, as a person who has spent a number of years in the research and breeding fields I appreciated the fact that someone else had done the grunt work.
As a person who done some research, here is one thing which I can tell you that is probably the single most important thing anyone can tell you, do your homework!, if growing cannabis is something that you want to do with success then wouldn't you want to find the best way to do it with as little effort and waste as possible the best way that you can do this is READ, books, magazines, college research papers, jotted notes, articles on the internet and do your own kind of gruntwork, talk to competant people who have grown and produced, but most of all don't make any hardcore decisions about who's word you are going to follow and don't take it all to heart.
There is all kind of hype out there and books that have been written by noted celebrity types and documented so called "authorities" on the subject for your sake don't decide to go with anyone specific person's material the more broad based your knowledge the better chance you have of starting the perfect crop.
Probably the single most important piece of information I gleamed from this book is how the plant reacts to environment, chemical, and altitudinal changes, this kind of detailed information is exactly what should be contained in a botany book, and in my humble opinion R.C. Clarke has done a tremendous job of putting this information together.

Clarkeýs Marijuana Botany Review + What You Really Want!.......2003-09-24

The best place to start with this review is to tell you that you do not want this book if you are new to growing. This is not where you want to be going. Getting this book is a mistake which many new growers have made. So you have been warned!! There are other books that cover cannabis cultivation much more accurately like "The Cannabis Grow Bible" by Greg Green which I very highly recommend or "Indoor Marijuana Horticulture" by Jorge Cervantes a reasonably good grow guide. I find Ed Rosenthal's books a little wrong at times and Mel Franks work is far too old to be practical these days. So if you are looking for cultivation information go in that direction first but if you want some cannabis botany science and breeding information then carry on with this review.

The book is divided into four sections. The Sinsemilla Life Cycle of Cannabis, the Propagation of Cannabis, Genetics and Breeding of Cannabis, and finally Maturation and Harvesting of Cannabis.

The first section is very short and deals with the basic cycle of the cannabis plant from seed to the end of its life to the give the reader the basics of how the plant grows - however the botanical features of all the different strains in existence do vary from Clarke's basic descriptions, but at least his references are explained in extreme detail along with plant morphology. It is an important introduction chapter for what the rest of the book has to offer.

The second section is about the different ways that cannabis can be continued either by seeds or cloning and so this chapters covers both cloning and pollination but it is mostly concerned with pollen and manual pollination techniques. The seed selection part of this chapter is redundant and not really advised as a selection criteria for selecting seeds. There is only one way to know what a new hybrid seed can produce and that is to grow it out. The cloning section covers rooting and hormones, both important parts of the cloning technique for those who want to replicate their mother plant over and over again. The final part of this chapter deals with grafting, which is more of an experiment you can do but it is not used by cannabis cultivators. The chapter finishes with pruning, to help improve your yields.

The third section is really what this book is all about - the genetics of cannabis, and it can be confusing at the best of times because it dives right into it without much of a helper at the start, so be warned you will need something else to help you make head or tale of this section but I will come to that in a moment. After introducing us to the world of filial generations (F1, F2 ...) , heterozygous and homozygous, Clarke quickly turns to Polyploidy. Now this is a manmade condition which is inflicted on the cannabis plant to alter its chromosome number. The author believes this may increase potency but recent evaluation of Polyploidy cannabis and genetics have proven otherwise, but you will find this interesting all the same. The author then comes to meat of the book - breeding. Now this is 50/50 presentation. There is a whack load of breeding information that is extremely helpful and a ton of stuff that is very specialized towards strains that most of us will never see or work with because no one sells them anymore. You will also find references to the botanical aspects of the plant and how these traits can be mixed and fixed by breeding. Interesting and useful and this is probably the most important part of the book and the most often referred to by breeders.

The forth part of the book is about harvest times and how to judge them. The author also covers Cannabinoid Biosynthesis, but a lot of this has since changed since he wrote about it. Useful though, and you will reference it if you are interested in cannabinoids - but there are better books on cannabinoids out there. The book finishes by covering curing techniques and storage.

Now listen closely because this is exactly what I recommend you to do if you are interested in breeding cannabis. Do not get this book first. First of all you should take a look at "The Cannabible" by Jason King. It also contains an introduction by Clarke and will give you a look at the different cannabis strain, but forget the breeding section in that book because it has inaccuracies and is not the best. Your next move is a good grow book. Now you would do well to buy several but if you can only afford one get "The Cannabis Grow Bible" by Greg Green. Forget the garbage PDF that you might find on the internet of that book. It is old (2001) and is missing a lot. Get the 2003 paperback edition which is vastly superior and very different. "The Cannabis Grow Bible" has an excellent Chapter on Breeding and is an absolute `must have' for anybody interested in breeding. That chapter alone is sometimes more useful than this whole book from Clarke. Once you have that book and chapter you will be in a much better position to use this book from Clarke. I can guarantee you that now. Forget about the breeding chapter in "Marijuana Indoor Horticulture" by Jorge Cervantes. Its bunk. The author of that book claims that clones loose their genetic integrity with every generation. That is nonsense and voids that whole chapter of his book. If you are looking for a good book on cannabinoids then get "Marijuana Chemistry: Genetics, Processing & Potency" by Michael Starks. Okay this is the best I can do for you. Do get this book though. Just follow the path above and you will achieve your breeding goals. Good Luck.

A Masters Thesis, Not a "How To Grow Really Strong Pot" book.......2003-08-16

First of all, if we stick to the facts, Robert Clarke wrote this text as his master's thesis to earn his graduate degree in botany from UC Berkeley, not so that a bunch of dopers could grow stronger weed. With that in mind, think about the subject material; this book was written for scientists and botanists with MSc and PhD level accreditations in botany, not Phineas, Freewheeling Franklin, or Fat Freddie and his cat...

I think that most reviews of this book are negative because they do not understand the nature of this work. In all actuality, it is a very important piece of work that quite thoroughly details genetic breeding of a particular species of plant, and that just so happens to be marijuana...

If you want a very good "how to grow kick-butt weed" book, pick up a copy of, "Indoor Marijuana Horticulture" by Jorge Cervantes; its better suited to the layperson who wants to try growing at home. Another book I found helpful for consulting was "Marijuana Grower's Insiders Guide" by Mel Frank...

Read the FULL TITLE of the book!.......2003-01-12

Marijuana Botany: An Advanced Study In the Propagation & Breeding of Distinctive Cannabis

ADVANCED. This is NOT the book to read if you have never grown or have no knowledge of basic concepts of growing marijuana. This is not a BASIC 'How-To' book. It says ADVANCED and it means just that! This is a study in ADVANCED MJ techniques and information of selective genetic manipulation and breeding. If you want an 'I just need to know how to grow herb.' book, DON'T BUY THIS ONE.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on October 1, 1999. The length of the article is 581 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: SACRIFICING THE FOREST: Environmental and Social Struggles in Chiapas.(Review) (book review)
Author: Taylor Young
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1999
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 89 Issue: 4 Page: 611

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Amazon.com

The "national" in "national pastime" is a relative term in Yale literature professor and former semi-pro catcher Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria's meticulous examination of baseball in the land of his birth. A respected scholar, Echevarria is also a fan, and he manages to weave both objectivity and appreciation throughout a carefully researched and multi-layered narrative that draws from numerous first-person reminiscences. If Echevarria's prose is dry at times, it manages to cover plenty of interesting territory as he threads the game through the fabric of Cuban history, culture, and lore.

The island's romance with baseball has remarkable parallels and interconnections with America's embrace of the game. Ballplayers from the United States loved to barnstorm during the off-season in wide-open Havana, the Dodgers used to train there, the Cuban League--alums include Brooks Robinson, Tommy Lasorda, Don Hoak, and Don Zimmer--was a major force in the vibrant spread of baseball through the Caribbean, and, not surprisingly, several Major and Negro League standouts--Martin Dihigo, Bert Campaneris, Mike Cuellar, Luis Tiant, Minnie Minoso, Camilo Pascual, Tony Oliva, and, more recently, the Hernandez brothers--were stars in their homeland first. But there are also stunning and powerful differences, as stunning and powerful as the differences between the two countries since Castro's rise to power.

Castro's own obsession with the game plays prominently, though Echevarria is quick to strike out the myth that Fidel himself was once a prospect. "Let it be known here," he emphasizes, "that Fidel Castro was never scouted by any major-league team, and is not known to have enjoyed the kind of success in baseball that would have brought a scout's attention to him." He had to settle for the world's attention instead. --Jeff Silverman

Book Description

From the first amateur leagues of the 1860s to the exploits of Livan and Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez, here is the definitive history of baseball in Cuba. Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria expertly traces the arc of the game, intertwining its heroes and their stories with the politics, music, dance, and literature of the Cuban people. What emerges is more than a story of balls and strikes, but a richly detailed history of Cuba told from the unique cultural perch of the baseball diamond. Filling a void created by Cuba's rejection of bullfighting and Spanish hegemony, baseball quickly became a crucial stitch in the complex social fabric of the island. By the early 1940s Cuba had become major conduit in spreading the game throughout Latin America, and a proving ground for some of the greatest talent in all of baseball, where white major leaguers and Negro League players from the U.S. all competed on the same fields with the cream of Latin talent. Indeed, readers will be introduced to several black ballplayers of Afro-Cuban descent who played in the Major Leagues before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier once and for all. Often dramatic, and always culturally resonant, Gonzalez Echevarria's narrative expertly lays open the paradox of fierce Cuban independence from the U.S. with Cuba's love for our national pastime. It shows how Fidel Castro cannily associated himself with the sport for patriotic p.r.--and reveals that his supposed baseball talent is purely mythical. Based on extensive primary research and a wealth of interviews, the colorful, often dramatic anecdotes and stories in this distinguished book comprise the most comprehensive history of Cuban baseball yet published and ultimately adds a vital lost chapter to the history of baseball in the U.S.

Customer Reviews:

The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball.......2007-04-12

Although the book offers a TON of information on the history of baseball in Cuba, there is definitely way too much reading and not enough pictures! I would have liked to see pictures along with the reading.

Best book on Cuban baseball!.......2003-05-02

I loved this book! From the very beginning Gonzalez Echavarria had me smelling the air in a Cuban baseball satdium and feeling the tension in the crowd as the pitchers winds up.

But what this book truly delivers, is a history lesson to those who think they know Cuban baseball, which has often been "presented" through American eyes (such as PBS specials or even through Ken Burns' documentary on Baseball).

Cubans not only exported baseball through Latin America, but because of the paradox of the intense Cuban racism at the amateur level and integrated leagues at the professional level, many young black Cuban players found fame and fortune in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico and other places (including the Negro Leagues in the US), while many US professional Negro Leagues got to play alogside white US teammates in professional Cuban teams. Even the virulent Ty Cobb!

It also tells the stories of Cuban legends - such as Adolfo Luque - who played in the US Major Leagues in the 20's through the 60's - both as pitcher and manager in a time when white Cubans were allowed to play US professional baseball while their talented black countrymen couldn't.

This is a must read - from a Cuban perspective - for fans of baseball - not just Cuban baseball!

Canseco Over Linares or Tony Oliva?.......2000-04-11

In the months that have passed since the publication of RGE's monumental book on Cuban baseball history the nature and value of his work has slowly come more clearly into focus. The dedicated scholar-author is to be praised for his valuable contribution in providing rich detail on the early years of Cuban baseball not found in other English-language sources. But as David Skinner has pointed out in a recent on-target review in the scholarly journal NINE (Canadian Scholars' Press), Professor Gonzalez has throughout engaged in a good deal of mythmaking of his own. While RGE provides many delighful nuggets about early Cuban baseball and Negro league barnstorming on the island, and while he also does service for monolingual baseball enthusiasts by translating into English accounts and statistics from early seasons heretofore found only in Spanish-language books like those of Raul Diez Muro and Angel Torres, Skinner emphasizes rightly that there are many shortcomings in PRIDE OF HAVANA as a comprehensive history of Cuba's national pastime. RGE's heavy anti-Castro's politics causes him to lace the 40s and 50s era "Golden Age" with a thick coat of unwarranted nostalgia (baseball was actually near its death-knell in Cuba at the time), to dismiss the exciting and competitive brand of Cuban League baseball played after the revolution as totally worthless and unworthy of detailed chronicle, and to ignore the crucial fact (which should be central to any comprehensive history of island baseball) that the sport has only been national in its scope in Cuba after 1962 (the professional league which ended in 1961 was restrict to the city of Havana). Skinner's review also underscores other shortcomings: facts of Negro League barnstorming in Cuba are often presented without documentation and sometimes even inaccurtate; abilities and accomplishments of recent defectors and Cuban-born major leaguers are highly exaggerated (especially the claim that one-dimensional slugger Jose Canseco is perhaps the best-ever Cuban born player, rather than Martin Dihigo or Tony Oliva or Luis Tiant Jr.); legitimate island stars like Omar Linares, Jose Ibar and Jose Contreras are taken lightly because "they have not played against major leaguers," and the outright dismissal of the past forty years of Cuban baseball development (about one-third of the time frame covered by the saga of Cuban baseball) undermines any claim for a full-scale comprehensive history of the subject. THE PRIDE OF HAVANA has its many merits. But if one wants to see the true coloration of RGE's approach and discover what is missing in this rather incomplete history of Cuban baseball, an excellent start is David Skinner's perceptive review (NINE, Vol. 8, No. 2, Spring 2000).

Papa Montero Says..........2000-03-06

This book filled many voids for me with regard to the history of Cuban baseball. It is especially good in discussing the heyday of Cuban baseball in the twenties and thirties. Like one of the other reviewers, though, I was dissappointed that the author did not discuss baseball since the revolution in greater detail.

Not a Fan's Book.......1999-12-31

While this book provides an important "scholarly" sociological study of the connections between sport (baseball), art, dance, and politics in Cuba throughout the century (as well as an engaging portrait of the author's own personal relationship with baseball in the 40s and 50s), it is far too dense and plodding in its treatment to engage most baseball fans. Also, while the author is condemnatory in his preface of others who have treated Latin baseball with a disregard for the Spanish language, he himself often mangles Spanish and English names (Gourriel/Gurriel, Ulrick/Ulrich/Ullrich, Willie/Willy Miranda, Aldolfo/Adolfo Luque, Ron/Don Blasingame, Buck O'Neill/O'Neil, Double Duty Radcliffe/Radcliff, Zavala/Zabala, Ramon/Roger Colorao/Colorado, Bustamente/Bustamante, Almendares/Almandares, Wilbur/Wilmur Fields, Franklyn/Franklin Murray, etc.) as well as historical facts (Marrero was 25 (35) in 1946, Prieto returned to Oakland in 1977 (1997), Pumpsie Green was an outfielder (infielder), the second Pan Am games were played in 1930, etc.). This is a solid book and in some places even a wonderful book. But poor editing leaves it short of a scholarly book; and the excessive emphasis on Cuban baseball during the author's own childhood (1940s and 1950s) also leaves the volume considerably short of being a definitive historical treatment of Cuban baseball.

THE PRIDE OF HAVANA A HISTORY OF CUBAN BASEBALL

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THE PRIDE OF HAVANA A HISTORY OF CUBAN BASEBALL
Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKQALY

Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College, Second Edition
Average customer rating:

Great beginning resource

Extremely reassuring, keeps you from getting overwhelmed

Walking you through the process

Must read

Best at Explaining the Admissions Process

Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College, Second Edition
Edward Fiske , and Bruce Hammond
Manufacturer: Sourcebooks, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 140220230X
Release Date: 2004-07-01

Book Description

Find the college that's right for you!

An A-Z of admissions secrets, The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College takes you behind the scenes of the college application process. The expert advice and tips in this book will help you get accepted at the schools of your choice. This clear, accessible guide takes students and their parents step-by-step through the admissions process.

Learn:
--How to choose the right college
--How to get off a waiting list and get accepted
--How to write winning essays
--How to use the Internet in the application process
--How admissions officers really rank applicants
--How to interview successfully
--How to construct a successful application
--How to get the most financial aid
--And much more!

This is the best resource for helping students get into the schools of their choice.

Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as Education Editor of The New York Times, during which time he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He wrote the bestselling annual, The Fiske Guide to Colleges, to help them.

Bruce G. Hammond was editor in chief of The Insider's Guide to the Colleges and was managing editor of four editions of The Fiske Guide to Colleges. He is the author of Discounts and Deals at the Nation's 360 Best Colleges and is the school and college expert at Parent Soup, a division of iVillage.com.

Customer Reviews:

Great beginning resource.......2007-09-19

We are just beginning our college search, and based upon prior reviews decided to purchase this book. While I am not sure if I concur with the opinion of the author on how he categorizes certain schools, most of what is written is informative and actually, written in an entertaining way. Many of the other books on the subject are 100s of pages of statistics, in contrast, Fiske provides detailed information and resources in which to expand your search, while making the read entertaining.

For those just beginning the search, this is an invaluable book, cleverly written and informative. I would recommend it as well as other Fiske books on the subject.

Extremely reassuring, keeps you from getting overwhelmed.......2007-01-29

I am finding this book very helpful in my college search. It is written fairly colloquially, which makes it easy to get excited about reading it. It provides "insider info" about college ratings, admissions, and searches, giving you the "big picture" and encouraging students to find a college that is a good match. Before I read it, I was uncertain/confused about "this whole college thing" and got overwhelmed often. The thoroughness of the book is helping me stay calm and feel confident, because it dispels the mystery behind every facet of the college search. I would recommend it to any college-bound student.

Walking you through the process.......2006-09-17

Of all the books read about the admissions process, and believe me I've read them all, the "Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College" is the bench mark. It takes you step by step though the admissions process. It gives insight into how things work, what to look for, it explains finiancial aid packages, and points out the advantages both of small liberal arts colleges and of large universities. But what really separates this book from the others, is that in addition to expaining everything about the college selection process, it helps you to determine what you want in a school. The title sums it up best, it's about choosing the the school that is right for you.

Must read.......2006-04-05

As a parent of a hs junior, I found this book enlightening and wise. It not only outlines the search process but gives great reasons for not being swayed by the hype of "name brand" institutions. I highly recommend this book to parents and students before embarking on the college search process.

Best at Explaining the Admissions Process.......2006-04-03

I'm going to agree with the other reviewers that this is an excellent book that is clearly and intelligently written. It stresses the "fit" of the college and helps both parents and students easily understand the admissions process. It also does a good job with explaining the ins and outs of financial aid. I feel some books like Get Into Any College by Gen and Kelly Tanabe offer advice that I wouldn't recommend and others such as How to Get Into The Top Colleges by Richard Montauk and Krista Klein are guilty of panicking students about the necessity of getting into a prestige school instead of the best fit. I feel the Fiske book helps families relax and feel informed. There is a self-assessment quiz at the beginning that does much to help students figure out what kind of college is best for them.

I have no complaints about this book at all, but if they wanted to improve it, they could expand their section on popular majors and the listings of schools that are strong in those majors. Fiske's other title, The Guide to Colleges, does a fairly good job of detailing each school's best departments, but it would be terrific to have more of that information here as well.

CollegePlanGuy@aol.com
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(free college counseling available to economically disadvantaged students)

The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College : The Complete Guide

Average customer rating:

The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College : The Complete Guide
Edward B. Fiske
Manufacturer: Random House of Canada, Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KPD43K

Book Description

Hikers of San Diego grab your boots and hit the trail! Using clear, concise, and entertaining narrative, 60 Hikes within 60 Miles: San Diego highlights the very best of day hikes within 60 miles of San Diego. San Diego is a beautiful area and, to explore it, this guide is an indispensable resource.

Customer Reviews:

Enrich your San Diego experience with these hikes!.......2007-04-26

The great thing about this book, is it encourages you to explore corners of the county that you had no idea existed. It really enriches your San Diego experience and is a great way to see sights and sounds you've never seen before. We've lived in SD most of our lives and every time we go on one of the '60 Hikes', we find ourselves saying 'We never knew this existed'! So far, we've done 6 of the 60 hikes and like to flip-flop the coastal with the inland ones. I always take a camera as there is always something beautiful to capture...flowers, animals, landscapes. There is also a great 'Notes' section in the back where I write the date and the name/page of the hike that we took and write a short paragraph about our experience.

There is also a great section in the front that categorizes the hikes as far as the mileage or the type of hike (Coastal, Steep, Family, for Dogs, for Solitude, etc.) When you feel like doing a hike, it makes it easy to pick one out depending on what you're feeling like that day.

We're really glad we purchased this book and look forward to many more hikes around the diverse San Diego area.

Vague Directions Mar an Otherwise Good Guidebook.......2007-01-22

This guidebook has an excellent selection of hikes and reasonably good background information. The problem area is that the directions to trailheads are vague, and to a certain extent the routefinding on the trails are vague too. I have tried four of the hikes so far, and in two cases have found myself driving around with navigational issues. This stems from (a) the fact that the directions assume that the driver will always be heading directly from downtown San Diego and (b) that there are anyway, some mistakes. The miniature maps that show the trailhead positions are greatly simplified and not to scale, and for some reason there is not a map in the book which shows North at the top of the page. They are all West-up! Why on Earth would anyone do that? If you have a GPS - don't bother trying to use it. There is not enough information to program it.

Having said all that, there are some good trails for the persistent. If Ms McGregor were to consider updating it, I would strongly recommend: (a) better trailhead locator maps; (b) more detailed trail maps; (c) North Up (d) GPS location information (e) some photographs - at least one per trail would be welcome.

The Guide for a Glorious Hike.......2006-10-03

Hi. I am a native San Diegan, and ever since I read about this book in Venture magazine a while back, I've been more interested in exploring the natural beauty of San Diego.

After opening up this book at a local bookstore, I decided to buy it based upon its detailed maps, descriptions, and pictures that I saw while flipping through.

I found this book helpful every step of the way. For planning, a difficulty rating is included for each hike, along with a write-up that not only describes the hike but also the wonderment of what you will see. Once you get into the hike, the maps are very accurate. The landmarks are especially useful, and the author includes a lot of them.

What sets this hiking guide apart are the detailed maps, the mention of many upon many California native plants, and especially the rich imagery.

Here is one of my favorite excerpts: "As you hop from rock to rock, startled crabs scurry sideways into crevices. Schools of fish trapped in pools left by the receding tide swim to safety among fluttery pink and mauve sea plants. Take the time to stoop and get a closer look at what may seem at first just an empty pool. Often, you'll discover the collected water teems with life."

This was from the La Jolla Tide Pools Walk. After going there with my niece and nephew, it has become a fond memory. It is a special treat to have these artful words to read over; they recreate the experiences again and again and remind me how much I want to go back to these hikes.

I was surprised to find a hiking guide that had such a touching theme running through it. With the day to day busyness of the world today, we sometimes forget to take in the beauty of the earth around us. This book reminds us to take time to smell the fresh air, count the caterpillars on the trail, and spend time with our families including Mother Earth.

all this book tells you is that you're on your own........2006-09-14

we were very excited about this book. however, let me share some of our specific experience so far:

the driving map to get to one of the hikes (sunset cliffs park) we took was completely incorrect, and contradicts the map on the facing page. being new to san diego, we could have easily gotten very lost had we not had a road map in the car with us. additionally, one of the hikes we took, the author noted as having a 'clearly marked trail' when in fact, many times we found ourselves at dead ends or barely tip toe-ing along a path literally no more than four inches wide, and at one point, the only clear pass across a canyon was through a baseball field! on the map itself of the hike, there are absolutely no landmarks with which to navigate from, so basically all she says is the general vicinity of a hiking terrain, a couple sentences on what 'treasures' we'll find (more about her descriptions of wildlife and plants below), and an impossible map.

i too was looking forward to reading about native plants and identifying them while we hiked, but the book lacks illustrations or photographs that clearly distinguish the various habitats, animals and plants. she'll mention a plant you may see on a hike, but gives little or no description of it - how to distinguish it from all the other plants?! additionally, the majority of the hikes in the book are closer to the "60 miles" from san diego end of things, meaning there are few places included that are immediately accessible to city-dwellers.

i don't think the author did her research thoroughly given the vast number of hiking terrains in san diego, and although there may be some great hikes in this book, incorrect maps and poor directives make for a lousy hiking book. i would not recommend this guide to anyone.

Awesome!.......2006-08-06

Simply the coolest Hiking book I've seen. Has all the info you need and is very well organized (by distance etc). VERY GOOD VALUE!

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