At 704 pages, it's no POCKET consultant
935046
At 704 pages, it is NOT a pocket consultant -- except maybe for the very geekiest...
64037
BUYER BEWARE. I bought this book for my son, a young man, recently out on his own for the first time. I hoped I was buying a quick and easy read full of sage, street-wise wisdom and responsible approaches to dealing with confrontation. What I got was 336 pages of the authors saying the same thing over and over: "Sometimes you really do need to fight yet most of the time it's the wrong thing to do." Okay. Good enough, but this book has two forwards, a preface, acknowledgements, and an introduction. It has a conclusion, an afterword, notes, glossary, bibliography, index, about the authors PLUS five, count 'em, five appendices. This is not a LITTLE Black Book of Anything! Yes, the information is well written--in a college text book sort of way. Yes, there are some action packed stories--each one followed by grave warnings of impending doom should readers fall under the sway of the Dark Side. But there is NO WAY that any invincible, testosterone fueled, 20-something young man is going to wade through this tome. I couldn't get through it, and I have a library of this stuff! Too thick. Too slow. Too long. Too boring. For a genuinely LITTLE book on real-world self defense and the judicious use of deadly force, buy your son Massad Ayoob's "IN THE GRAVEST EXTREME: The Role of the Firearm in Personal Protection." Ayoob's book is powerful, realistic and only 130 pages long. Just the sort of thing a young man needs.
2430546
This hefty tome weighing in at more than 850 pages is aimed squarely at the SharePoint power user.  It is not an administrators aid and will not give you best practices or show you how to install and setup the system.  It basically assumes that you already have a working SharePoint 2013 environment.  It's really an end users manual, so if you think the "Inside Out" title would include everything you need to know about SharePoint 2013, you need to look elsewhere (actually multiple books as an all inclusive book would really be impracticable).

So in saying that, if you are an end user/power user how good is this book and what all does it cover?

The book is split into 22 chapters covering everything from basics of SharePoint structure and terms to setting up BDC connections, excel services and more. Depending on your IT department and your level of access in SharePoint, this book covers virtually everything you will need to know to create useful and powerful SharePoint sites.

It's a fairly easy read for a technical book and you can use it as a reference to look back on certain subjects if you need reminding.  There seems to be a mash of some chapters covering topics already covered in other chapters whilst in other places it refers you to a certain chapter for further information (this is probably just due to the book being written by multiple authors).

Although the title of the book is inside out, it keeps things to a fairly high level and doesn't really delve that deeply into each subject, but there is more than enough information for an end user to get them up and running.

If you have used a previous version of SharePoint (e.g. SharePoint 2010) then a lot of the information contained in this book you will already know and as such I'm not too sure how much value this book will be.  The book does contain information that only SharePoint 2013 has (e.g. FAST search now being built directly into the product) and it does point out the differences between SharePoint Foundation and the full SharePoint Server so would be useful to either.

I do wish that some chapters went into more detail than it does but if you are an end user/power user being tasked to create a departmental SharePoint site, document store etc. then this book should give you enough information to get your job done quickly and easily.

Overall a good overview of SharePoint 2013 and its capabilities and enough to get users up and running with their SharePoint 2013 sites.

Edit: I've upped my rating to 4 star considering this is actually a good book for its target audience.
927461
Like all books  on a software package these days, this one was just under 1000 pages, roughly 925 of which I will never need to look at in my life.  All of them should offer a condensed version aimed at those who just want to use the package, as opposed to those who want to make it their lifelong career.
1441048
Although the book is published in 2011, updates are available from Ricksteves.com.  I'll only be there for four days, so at 435 pages, probably more than I needed.
930850
Disclaimers:  I don't know the authors;  I do not have any financial stake in the book;  I did buy it from Amazon.  That's one of the problems--the high price.  For $84.72, I am expecting something new in presentation, content or organization.  This book did not deliver to me.  I am not sure who it would be useful to.  At 386 pages it is too long for executives.  On the other hand the material is too basic to be read by a security professional who is presenting to executives.  It appears that both authors, while having distinguished careers, have not had much experience establishing security programs in the private sector.  If you are looking for a book of this type, I can recommend  "Enterprise Security for the Executive", by Jennifer Bayuk.
4693509
Okay in that is provides some pragmatic insight into planning. But, where's the "one page" summarized? He talks about a lot of one pages one could actually call sticky notes - but putting them together? Not so much.
10488
My biggest disappointment w/this journal is that it only has pages for 70 books, because of how it's laid out, using 142 pages to do this.  I'm not happy that the title can't be peeled off.

There are 20 pages w/room to write 3 per page of books you want to read.  Addresses (??) area in the back, books lent, books I want to buy, recent Nobel/Pulitzer Prize winners, sources of my books, and other silly, to my mind, sections, that could be better used to...um, write down the books I've read.

I would not recommend this for a gift, or buy it again. I must look for something less fussy.
2776278
Sorry for being negative however when 22 pages are product photos and only 7 pages have a paragraph or less of writing, $0.99 is too much for this 'picture' book of Amazon products.  No real information and it takes less than a couple minutes to read from cover to cover.
1317571
When you're on a two-week trip out of town and plan to be waiting in line and sitting in planes for hours upon hours, a 700-page fantasy novel by an unbelievably long-winded author is just what the doctor ordered.
3072835
This is a franchise book. Tom Clancys name is on the front cover in bigger print than the authors, and the book has all the hallmarks of a Tom Clancy thriller: a large cast, pages and pages of techno talk about warfare, weaponry, etc., and pages and pages of book for that matter, 742 of them in this case. Reading a Tom Clancy thriller in hard cover rather than e-book format, like I do, your arms get a work out holding it. Ive never gotten a thrill out of Clancys bloated thrillers and still dont. Theres not much nuance to them. The characters are cookie cutter figures and the plots mundane. I read fast but never faster than is needed to appreciate what I am reading: Im not a Speed Reader, I slow down to appreciate details and any small stylistic graces the book Im reading may exhibit. That noted, it takes me barely two hours to read a seven-hundred-page novel by Clancy, as it did this bloated monstrosity. Theres so much filler in them.

Clancy died in 2013. Its franchise time now. Mark Greaney should be a good choice for this series. His Gray Man series is good a lot of technical stuff but fast moving with plots that interest and characters who, if not full fleshed, at least aren't paper doll cutouts. This is the fourth Tom Clancy novel to be written independently by Greaney. Before that, he collaborated with Clancy, who seemed in his latter years to run a writers factory, on the last three credited to Clancys name. Unfortunately, Greaney seems to have lost his writerly smarts for this assignment, perhaps because the format is so constrained.

True Faith and Allegiance features Clancys hero, Jack Ryan, who is now president of the United States. His son, Jack, Jr., who is following in his fathers footsteps, first a CIA analyst and now full blown agent working for The Campus, a small but important offthe-books intelligence organization  populated with former military and intelligence types. As is typical for a Clancy thriller, there is a four-page listing of Principal Characters in the front of the book: with this many involved, you cant tell the players without a scorecard. An unknown entity is leaking confidential information about US agents: what they're involved in; their real names, addresses and pastimes; where youll find them if you want to pick them up or attack them. It starts with two security breaches  a US sub captain is attacked and an undercover agent arrested and imprisoned in Iranbut escalates. Behind it is an even greater threat: jihadists are leveraging the information to force president Ryan to declare war on Iran. Hes resisting the pressure but he needs information and results now. Seven hundred pages on, several good guys and even more bad guys are shot up or dead, and America is saved from war for the nonce.

A good thriller this turkey is not.
1283965
If you are looking for a book to talk you through a different perspective or give you strategy, don't bother with this book. The pages are approx. 4" x 6" and it's 64 pages. True, they are pretty pages. The illustrations are colorful and the book itself uses sleek paper, not usual "paperback" paper, and it is spiral bound. Pages 21 to 55 are illustrations of special hands. There is roughly 15 (albeit small) pages of "wisdom" if you exclude the table of contents, index, and counting table pages. If you play with the National Mahjong League card, this book will be of no use to you. If you play Chinese mahjong or American mahjong and don't allow "special hands", this book will not help you. I can think of only one place this book might be of help. I play Chinese, Hong Kong, Japanese (Riichi), and Taiwanese mahjong online (for free) at [...]. The Hong Kong style allows special hands. So if I'm so inclined to memorize certain hands in this book, then it is possible I didn't waste my money.
4648806
This is an article not a book, I was expecting a book not 20 pages
2373962
Not a novel, not a book, not a collection of essays, but merely the rewriting of old and new reports and little else. Basically a reporting of stuff.
4737069
The book is 163 pages (without the front matter) in a 6" by 9" format.  That is short for a book that covers such a broad topic.  The chapters are typically 15 pages long.  There are many wonderful finance books around that run 300 or so pages in an 8.5" by 11" format.  You would benefit greatly from reading those resources, but who has time to read something that long?  Your time-strapped finance team would be able to work through a book this short.

The chapters are:
1 Weeds in the Garden
2 First, Be Sure You Know What You Are Looking For
3 How Strong Is Your Batting Order?
4 Are You a Church Without Walls?
5 Are You a Geek? Maybe You Should Be!
6 Are You Producing Financial Statements or Spin Documents?
7 Are You Playing By the Rules?
8 Do You Have Any Idea How Much Money You Make?
9 Can't You Control Your Spending?
10 Do You Know Who Your People Are?
11 Is Anyone Watching Over Your Stuff?
12 Have You Taken Any of This to Heart?

Each chapter starts with a story from outside the finance world to get your attention.  Whether discussing the lack of wind during "Pickett's charge", the strategy of setting a baseball lineup, or blabber mouth Barney Fife not being able to keep quiet, the stories provide a framework to discuss the points in the chapter.  There are plenty of sanitized "war stories" to provide sad illustrations.

Each chapter ends with five questions that focus on specific issues related to the chapter.  You could use the questions in many different ways.  For example, you could use all the questions together as an overall diagnostic to see where you are and then assess where you need to do the most work.  A governing board could ask one or two questions of the finance team at each meeting to gets a general feel for where procedures stand.  You could use the questions as a starting point to drill deep into one area.  In a structured risk assessment, these questions can be the framework for beginning the systematic analysis.  A few examples of the questions:

* "Has your church written a thorough but concise policy, procedures and processes manual?"
* "Does the Church have a strong password protection system?"
* "Is your finance committee presented with a complete set of financial statements including a balance sheet, income statement/budget report and a schedule of restricted funds activity?"
* "Has your church examined its cash receipt processes and determined that from the time of collection to the time of deposit, cash is never, even for just a few minutes, in the custody of one individual?"
* "Are your church's bank reconciliations performed by an individual not involved in the day to day check writing and bookkeeping functions?"

The author speaks from his many years of audit experience working with local churches.  The author's knowledge of local churches and his deep concern for their welfare shows very clearly on every page.  Whether you are a business administrator, Treasurer, or a member of the finance team, you would benefit tremendously from this short book.

This reviewer also has many years of audit experience with the same type organizations as the author, but at unrelated CPA firms.  I endorse everything he says.
2082158
I did not returned the book because there is no other title that covers FCP X 10.1, but I do not think that is commercially correct to sell a book of 500 pages without table of contents or index.
1797946
To be fair I had a book report due for a real estate course, and I was already burried in other finals and work. So I chose this book specifically for its length as I knew I could read it and knock out the report in a few hours.

If your situation is similar, its great. But if you're actually expecting to gain something from this book, don't waste your time.

The book is 30 some odd pages comprised of a 1 page title page for each chapter and a page of text per chapter. So yes this book is roughly 15 pages long. It covers some ideas for personal growth and guides you to essentially think outside the box. Don't limit yourself. So it covers a what, but doesn't really say anything about a how.

The feel is more like a brochure where they're trying to bait you into a bigger program and don't detail the how cause they want more money before they give the secrets away. Think sleazy time share or infomercial