Product Description

"I can't be...just a person,

I can't be helpless like that...."

-- Buffy, "Helpless"

At eighteen, each Slayer must face a terrifying trial: the Tento di Cruciamentum. This time-honored, albeit cruel, rite of passage forces each Watcher to drain the Slayer of all her physical powers and then send her to vanquish a powerful vampire using only her wits. When Buffy Summers underwent her Cruciamentum, she managed to defeat Kralik, a vampire who had been committed to a sanitarium as a human for torturing and murdering more than a dozen young women before he was turned. However, not all Slayers have been so cunning.

Tales of the Slayer, Vol. 4 chronicles the Cruciamentum of eight earlier Slayers. From Prohibition Chicago to beatnik New York City, from the sideshows of a traveling carnival to a small Irish farm, from the fifteenth century to the twentieth, the Cruciamentum has tested the prowess of Slayers throughout history. Each of them has had to fight: for her job, for the lives of those she loved, and for her own existence.... ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Just Like the others a 5 star review
I love the Tales of The Slayer books they are great this one is no different.

Interesting stories, doesn't quite track with Buffy series
I've collected all four of the Tales volumes now and once again found some interesting stories to read. This time around all 8 stories are set around the Cruciamentum which all slayers are put through on reaching 18.
I found that these writers (some of whom also wrote for the series) each had their own style and usually didn't tell their Cruciamentum stories anything like what we saw Buffy go through in the TV version, in some the girl's parents even knew she was a slayer. I haven't read the whole book yet but found, as before, stories running through the centuries- from Nikki in 1973 back to Esperanza in 1481. I didn't care for the beatnik story but thought the Spanish Inquisition story was interesting. I kind of liked Survivors and Sideshow Slayer. Jane Espenson's "Two teenage girls at the Mall" was one of the more interesting stories, and told mostly from the viewpoint of the vampire girl.

Tales of the Cruciamentum
The eight tales in this book deal with slayers facing the cruel test called The Cruciamentum, in which a slayer is deliberately weakened and, on her 18th birthday, must face a vampire alone, using only her wits.Most of the stories take place in 20th centuryNorth America, 2 in New York, 1 in Chicago just before the onset of Prohibition, 1 in rural Pennsylvania, 1 in a small town in Nebraska, and 1 in Nova Scotia.The other two are set in 1876 Ireland and 1981 Seville, during the Spanish Inquisition, which I found to be the most interesting of the lot.The Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada makes an appearance in this one.

The stories have an interesting variety, considering that the subject of all of them is the same.One girl is a pacifist, not wanting to be the Slayer any more.Another is a carnival performer.Two are Jewish and, for that reason, are probably less than beloved of the Watcher's Council.

I found the story Survivors to be quite sad, as Dot's Watcher, who left to fight in World War I, has descended into melancholia and perhaps madness.Dot virtually becomes his caretaker as he lapses into delusion.Two Teenage Girls at the Mall, told by a 16 year old newly made female vampire, is also very sad, making the reader wish that somehow there could be a positive resolution for both the Slayer and Julie, the vampire.

The first story, It's All About the Mission, deals with Nikki Wood, who is pregnant with her son Robin, who will become the principal of Sunnydale High School one day.We all know that she will eventually be killed by Spike, so the focus of the story is how she survives rather than if she will survive.

In the story Undeadsville, the Slayer Zoe Kuryakin refers to her cousin Illya, who is studying in Russia.Could he become one of the Men from U.N.C.L.E., portrayed by David McCallum?It wouldn't surprise me if it was meant to be a reference to the popular television show of the 60's!

In an earlier volume in this series, reference was made to "the doxy Darla."She is mentioned again as a friend of hers says,
"Has ever a Slayer met her end in such a delightfully slapstick manner?I shall have to tell Darla about this when next we meet.She's bound to find the tale uproarious."That was quite clever.It's rather surprising that we see so little of the vampires from the Order of Aurelius--Darla, Angelus, Drusilla, and William the Bloody--in these stories.Quentin Travers does make an appearance, and he was every bit as unpleasant then as he is in the present time.

These are interesting stories, fun and quick to read.I recommend them.

Exploring the cruel and stupid ritual of the Cruciamentum
The authors who contributed original short stories to "Tales of the Slayer, Volume 4" are constrained by having to write about the Tento di Cruciamentum.This is the rite of passage first introduced in Season Three of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the episode "Helpless" (written by David Fury), that is administered to Slayers when they reach their 18th birthday.Drained of her powers by her Watcher, the Slayer is forced to vanquish a vampire using only her wits.Buffy defeated Kralik, her vampire foe, but because Giles defied the authority of the Watcher's Council to aid Buffy he is fired by Quentin Rravers for violating the test rules (and because he has a father's love for his Slayer).What was important in terms of the third season story arc was the Giles was fired, to be replaced, in a manner of speaking, by the bumbling Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, but in this collection of stories we have to deal with the legacy of the Cruciamentum.

If you want you can skip this paragraph to get to the review of the stories, because I am going to start ranting now about how the Cruciamentum is a stupid idea.First, how did the Watcher's Council come up with this stupid idea?They would have to either stumble upon the drugs that strip the Slayer of her powers or they went looking for it, and in that latter case the question becomes why they felt this was necessary.We still do not know the story of the true origin of the Cruciamentum, but my best guess would be that the arrogant men of the Watcher's Council had a Slayer or too that they would rather see dead than have to deal with (probably because of issues of class, ethnicity, and/or race).Second, why would they think this stupid idea was a good thing to put Slayer's through?I do not see how it could be an improvement on the previous status quo.You can quote Nietzsche all you want, and someone in this collection does, but a traumatic experience is more likely to make you really ticked off rather than stronger.Besides, if a Watcher has not been teaching a Slayer to use their brains as well as their brawn, then I do not see why the Slayer has to play the ultimate price.So like Riker being able to hear Troi's thoughts on the pilot for "STNG," the Cruciamentum is something that needed to be forgotten and not embraced.However, that is too late now, so we turn to reviewing the stories in "Tales of the Slayer, Volume 4":

"It's All About the Mission" by Nancy Holder, set in the Harlem of 1973, is the one story that covers familiar ground as the Slayer turning 18 is Nikki Wood, who would eventually be killed by Spike, but not before she gave birth to the man who would be the last principal of Sunnydale High School.Nikki's Watcher, Bernard Crowley, knows exactly how idiotic the whole ritual is, and while Holder tries to deal with this in the story's resolution, the fact that it involves another familiar character from the Buffy mythos actually undercuts her point.Still, this story does a nice job of dealing with a pregnant Slayer, which is something I have long been curious about.4 Stakes.

"Undeadsville" by Michael Reaves takes place in New York City as well, but back in 1952 when the Slayer is a beatnik named Zoe who says things like "Sorry, Daddy-O, but you're dust" as she stakes a vamp.Zoe's Watcher, Ian Sykes, is so affronted by her lifestyle that he conspires with a vampire named Faust to see that the Slayer does not survive her test.Certainly an interesting idea, but Reaves comes up with some other twists as well.4-and-a-half Stakes.

"Alone" by Scott Allie is set outside Ulster in 1876 and that means we have to endure the prejudice of the predominantly English Watchers Council for having an Irish Slayer in Catherine Callan.To make it even more fun, she pretends to be married to her Watcher, Mr. Spelling.This is just one of several things that Catherine's father is not happy about.Unfortunately, this is one of the briefest stories in the collection and does not really take advantage of the interesting aspects of the situation.3 Stakes.

"Sideshow Slayer" by Greg Cox gets bonus points because Millicent "Millie" Rose Gresham is from the Zenith City of Duluth, Minnesota, even if the story finds her in a carnival side show in Parkesburg, Pennsylvania in 1911.The idea of a traveling Slayer is certainly worth pursuing and being in a carny is an interesting cover.Cox also comes up with an interesting place for the powerless slayer to confront her vampire.4 Stakes.

"Survivors" by Kristine Kathryn Rusch in set in Chicago in 1919, where Dorothy "Dot" Singers date with the ritual becomes secondary to her concern for her Watcher, Reginald Hill, who suffers from shell shock after having abandoned his Potential to go to war and make the world safe for democracy.There is also a concern that the vampires have their own agenda working against the interest of the Watchers Council, but it is the interplay between Watcher and Slayer that matters most in this one.4-and-a-half Stakes.

"Back to the Garden" by Robert Joseph Levy offers a pacifist Slayer in Beryl MacKenzie, who joins a commune in Nova Scotia in 1969 on the eve of her coming into her power.So we have the irony of her Cruciamentum being her initiation into Slayerhood.So Levy's story has the virtue of having two interesting ideas that unfortunately work against each other in this case.4 Stakes.

"The Rule of Silence" by Kara Dalkey takes us back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition in Seville, Spain in 1481, so you know this is not going to be a good thing.This is especially true since the Slayer, Esperanza de la Vega, has not only been reading about demons, which makes her a witch, but is a Marrano, which makes her a heretic.The lesson here will obviously be that human beings can be the greatest monsters of all.4-and-a-half Stakes.

"Two Teenage Girls at the Mall" by Jane Espenson is my favorite of the eight stories.Set in Keller, Nebraska in 1983, it is told from the perspective of Julie Lemmer, a sixteen year old who has just been turned into a vampire.Starved by her sire, she is tossed into the Westgrand Mall, where she eventually discovers that there is another teenage girl locked in that night.We know that the other girl has to be the Slayer, but the twist is that Julie knows here.Those who enjoyed Espenson's sense of humor in her "BtVS" scripts will enjoy the climax of this one.Five stakes.

I have to admit that I was someone disappointed that none of these stories ended with the Slayer coming out and slaughtering the haughty members of the Watchers Council that assemble for their cruel rite of passage.Beyond that, I certainly anticipated more tales in which the Slayer does not survive.What did not surprise me is that my lack of respect for the Watcher's Council continues to decline as a result of reading these stories, all of which continues to make Rupert Giles look as phenomenal as a Watcher and his charge proved to be as a Slayer.If there is a thematic motif to the next volume in this series, it will be interesting to see what the editors choose to explore, because there are certainly other aspects of the Slayer mythos worth exploring besides the idiocy of the Cruciamentum. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (11)

Nancy doing her thing!
This is a really good read at night. Nancy has written some really good books in her time, this one included. She is also a Carolina girl at heart!

OK READ
This book was ok but it could have been better. the stories were too short each story was only about 2 to 3 pages long so you get very little info.
on the places and ghost. This book was easy to put down and pick up again the next day it just did not keep me wanting to read like other books.

Not all that
I bought this book, because some one had told me a story about a house I was looking for was in it. Even though that person was mistaken, I was still up for a good ghost story. (ALWAYS!!)

My problem with the book is that it didn't seem to have an identity. After one story, there is a disclaimer saying it was fiction. Ok, that's really not a problem, however, it should be labeled as a book that it is fiction. That lead me to think, are the other stories fiction as well?

Additionally, some of the stories contained people who were not clearly identified. We don't know who they were. They were clearly guests of, employees at or patrons of a building but we don't know their background, relationship to the author or how they know each other. If the stories were true, where is the credibility factor?

Some of the places contained in the book are spectacular- and I have visited them in the past. Some of the stories are nice, a couple are just creepy. However, for me being a hard core believer in the paranormal, this book could use a little tightening and definition.

EXCELLENT ghost book!
This book is among my very large collection of ghost books. It is way up there as one of my favorites.

I think that this is a very intriguing book.

Nancy Roberts has written MANY books on ghosts and hauntings- and all of her books seem to be very well researched.

In this book- some of the haunted places mentioned are:


The Lizzie Borden House (Fall River, Massachusetts)

Del Coronado Hotel (Coronado, CA)

Whaley House (Museum)- San Diego

The Winchester Mansion- San Jose, CA

The Governor's Haunted Mansion- Woodburn, Dover, Delaware)

Ashton Villa (Galveston, TX)

The Pirate's House (Savannah, Georgia)- now a restaurant

Lucas Tavern- (Montgomery, Alabama)

Loudoun House- (Philadelphia)

Carnton Plantation- (Franklin, TN)

The Gaffos House- (Portsmouth, VA)

The Myrtles- (St. Francisville, LA)

Hotel Ione- (Ione, CA)

The Alexander-Phillips House)- Springfield, Massachusetts)

Inn By The Sea- (Cape Elizabeth, Maine)


There are many more haunted places not listed here that are in the book.

Each haunted location comes with a great black and white photograph - which is GREAT. I want to know what each haunted location looks like. This book has that great quality (which unfortunately many ghost books lack).

Also, all of the haunted locations in this book are documented and well-known haunted places.

FIVE STARS!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

(...)

Couldn't even finish, it was so silly
At least the author's impressed with herself--she quotes herself in her preface.Badly written, barely edited, this book smells of "vanity press".Sorry I wasted my money on it. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a chronologically organized anthology of short stories analysing the genre from two points of reference: the story as an art form, and the story as an event in cultural change. A broad array of super selections is combined with an excellent survey of the development of the genre, an introduction to fiction techniques, biographical, and critical material. The selections include samples of the genre in its various stages of development, from pre-story forms (myth, legend, parable, allegory, fable) to conventional stories, and on the experimental and avante-garde forms. Short introductions precede the work of all writers, combining biographical information with a critical assessment of their role in the development of the short story. Almost 40 per cent of the material from the previous edition is new or reorganized, and the introduction is rewritten to make itself more accessible to the 'average' student. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents a comprehensive business-oriented approach to teaching assembly language programming on IBM and IBM-compatible computers, geared towards freshman and sophomores majoring in data processing or computer science. Rich in student aids including self-evaluation quizzes, chapter objectives, exercises, and chapter summaries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Great at getting to the point.
It wastes no words - it gets to the point and delivers the depth of knowledge that I would expect from a book of this price, although it does have lots of details.This is a great book - Its' only drawback is it needs a little bit simpler coverage as to the whys and how's.If you don't mind SUPER Details this book - WILL - teach you how to program in Assembler.

not perfect, but very helpful
So it doesn't have MVCL or CLCL! The beginner doesn't need those instructions right away. I would recommend this text as a good one for the beginning student....if you want more detail,there are plenty of booksavailable. I didn'tknow ANY assembler, and this was the only text I usedto learn it...and I'm doing just fine. You can learn more difficultinstructions from theIBM principles of operations manual.

Out of date and very simplistic
I concur with the other reviewer of this publication.I had to use this text to attempt to teach Assembler, I was mortified.This text is so out of date that it is almost inapplicable today.The instruction reference isfor IBM's System 360.DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK.

Excellent for my needs...to further understand internals
This is an excellent book with good examples for a entry/junior level assembler programmer.The approach is unique in that the focus is on the instructions at the basic level.Each level is progressively expanded. Being a Cobol programmer, the book broadened my understanding of computerinternals.I also have the Stern Cobol manual which is excellent andproductivity oriented.

Beginners Level, 20 years out of date
Few, if any, are learning 370 Assembler Language today; those looking for a book on the topic are primarily interested in a reference with substantive examples. This is a very basic manual that does not include instructions that have been around for close to two decades: e.g. CLCL, MVCL. It is misleading for the publisher to indicate it was updated in 1986 when little more than the title was changed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A fantastic ghost book!
Growing up in North Carolina I used to check out this book all the time in my school library,I used to check out this book all the time.20 years later I re-discovered it after so many years and still find it to be an interesting book,there all kinds of interesting books on ghoss of North Carolina.I would also recommend checking out 'Haunted Asheville' it's a nice up to date on the city's dark history.

Great Book
Read this book constantly when I was younger in our school library.Greatbook, very interesting ... Read more

Product Description
Galvanized by the political events of the Vietnam War, Nancy Spero dedicated herself for five years to creating a group of gouache paintings on paper, entitled The War Series. In these works, Spero not only expressed her rage at the violence and oppression of the war, but also introduced many of the images and themes that would continue to find their place in her work, and anticipated the post-modern aesthetic of fracture, dissonance, and collage. This volume is the first to analyze The War Series in depth, and its publication could not, unfortunately, be more timely.

Essays by Leon Golub and Robert Storr.

Hardcover, 8.25 x 10.5 in./64 pgs / 34 color and 9 b & w. ... Read more

Product Description
In this timely new edition of their respected book, Schneider, Kropf, and Kisor introduce readers to the many facets of working with the elderly. Gerontological Social Work provides medical and psychological data about the elderly, and outlines methods for effective practice with aged clients. Each chapter is written by a faculty member who has expertise in that particular area of focus. ... Read more

Product Description
Based on the best-selling, COBOL text by Robert and Nancy Stern.
* Increased coverage of ILE COBOL and subfiles. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Programming in COBOL for college
I purchased this book as for a college course I am taking for my Computer Information Systems degree. It was exactly what I needed, aside from some typos, it is a good book, and does the job.

Very good basic COBOL book
I first learned COBOL on an HP-3000 about 12-13 years ago.Unfortunately, I didn't use COBOL again until a few months ago, so my COBOL skills were rusty indeed when I found the need to create COBOL programs on the AS/400 I use at work.PROGRAMMING IN COBOL/400 was exactly the refresher I needed.

Although the first few chapters were primarily a review of good programming practice (use of flowcharts, pseudocode and printer spacing charts), the remainder of the book provided a good, reasonably comprehensive discussion of COBOL programming concepts.

The book is organized in a fairly straight-forward manner, starting with a look at the different divisions of a COBOL program.While I have yet to encounter a book that describes the four divisions and their sub-sections in a way that makes it easy for me to remember what is required, and in what order to place them (I tend to copy old programs, remove everything that is not used in the new program, and rewrite the Data and Procedure Divisions), this book's discussion of these constructs is as good as any, and better than many.The author introduces new concepts when discussing the Procedure Division in an effective manner, starting with the basics and gradually building towards more advanced concepts.The index is, for the most part, comprehensive and useable.The appendices at the end of the book cover topics that may be useful to some programmers, without cluttering the main text of the book with material that most AS/400 programmers do not need because they are probably already familiar with it (such as the AS/400 environment, PDM, etc.).

My gripes are mostly trivial, and should not discourage a potential buyer from purchasing this book.First, the overview of programming concepts probably would have been better in an appendix.This is very basic material, and not necessary for most AS/400 programmers to review.Second, since input and output specifications are such a large part of COBOL programming, copies of a printer spacing chart in the appendix would have been nice.The author shows the use of these spacing charts in several examples, but all have sample data filled in on them.Finally, some of the discussion appears a little dated.As I understand, this book is basically a rewrite, geared specifically towards the AS/400, of a "classic" COBOL text.Unless I am mistaken, the original source for this text was the book I used in high school to learn COBOL in the first place, and it is apparent to the reader that much of the content has been adapted to the AS/400 environment.

Nevertheless, this is a very readable text on AS/400 COBOL, and I would recommend it to an AS/400 programmer--or any other programmer, for that matter, as COBOL is a very standardized language--without hesitation.

Good book.. despite errors
A fine first book for students and those who want a reference book for COBOL/400. There are numerous errors and some info that is meant for ILE COBOL/400 rather than the COBOL/400 (such as usage of the INITIAL PROGRAMIS clause in the ENVIRONMENT DIVISION... ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (19)

Very nice book
It's a very nice book. I like the photographs, the story and the commitment of the writers. I'm from Holland and travel all over the world to "experience" the beauty of trees. This book can be helpful. The only thing I miss is a good map where to find them. !! I now am looking them up myself. But besides that, I wish there would be more books like this about trees all over the world. The only country where they make this kind of comprehensive and nice books is Germany. Keep on USA, I will keep on visiting you to enjoy your trees, landscapes, people and cities.

Remarkable Trees of Virginia
I don't usually spend $35 for a book but I am happy to say it's one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Being from Southwest Virginia and a wildlife enthusiast, my wife and I are thoroughly enjoying the book.

Several of the trees in the book are in our area and we're having fun finding the trees ourselves.

The book is extremely interesting and informative.

I highly recommend it.

Danny and Diana C.
North Tazewell, Va

One of the ways we love VA
I bought this for my husband for his birthday.The trees are as numerous as they are remarkable. After browsing through it, my daughter observed that it made her want to see some of these remarkable beauties and characters in this great state.

Beautiful Book
This was a Christmas gift for my husband who is Forester and very hard to surprise with a gift.He loved it.We decided it would be fun to take many four day weekend trips periodically by sectioning the state off for mini-vacations to try and go see each of these "Remarkable Trees"!!!The best price I found for the book was on Amazon.Thanks!

A Remarkable Book
This book is high quality from all sorts of perspectives. It is a wonderful "coffee table" book, but it would be such a loss for someone to just leave it there and never "leaf" through it. The pictures are remarkable in the way they capture the trees and surrounding environs with beauty and perspective. The narrative information is also well written. It would be a wonderful book for someone, whether or not they are from Virginia. ... Read more

Product Description

With the economic crisis that began in 2008, a long-standing trend toward increased regulation is becoming a flood. The clamor for improved enterprise risk management and the complexity of multinational compliance present executives with a dramatically new array of challenges.

Governance should offer solutions, but it is clear that yesterday’s governance practices aren’t up to the task. In both design and implementation, they are too disconnected and incomplete to fully address our complex compliance and risk management puzzle. Executives get only fragmented views of their true business performance, and inefficiencies drive up costs.

The consequences of inadequate governance were demonstrated in the economic meltdown of 2008. As the world struggles to recover from that crisis, business is now faced with a confusing array of evolving regulations, the challenge of managing compliance across multinational organizations and a new imperative for risk management that is coordinated across the enterprise. It’s clear that yesterday’s governance practices don’t meet today’s need for centralized controls, integrated compliance and risk management and greater transparency. The need for organizations to change—and change now—is clear.

Under Control captures decades of business governance experience from many of the leading authorities at CA, Inc. This book sets out not only to explain the essential challenges of effective business governance, but to help you build solutions for your organization based on lessons learned at CA from its customers and in its own corporate structure.

From governing the organization’s policies as a whole instead of in silos, to a department by department look at the role and impact of governance, to governing your green initiatives, to the role of the Board of Directors, to the importance of risk management, this book lays out some of the strategies and processes that may help your organization manage its risk and regulatory requirements.

It is clear that the governance standards in the past were inadequate, and that risks have not been properly assessed or understood. This book is a first step in solving this problem so that your organization is prepared and able to respond and thrive in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

Under Control is the first book published in the new CAPress imprint, a joint publishing program between Apress and CA Inc.

“One of the defining factors of the first decade of the 21st century has been the increase of regulation and governance. To explain these trends, and the various best practices for ensuring governance, enterprise IT management solutions provider CA Inc. enlisted more than a dozen subject matter experts from its ranks to contribute content. The resulting book explores the need for broad governance, different areas where governance is important, and various ways for organizations to manage and implement compliance, including IT governance, project portfolio management, information governance and sustainability management. The book, while largely vendor-neutral, draws on CA’s experience creating governance solutions as well as managing its own governance issues.”
—Aaron Smith, Projects@Work

About CA Press:

CA Press is the official publisher of CA retail books. CA Press aims to become the essential resource for IT and business professionals and students. CA Press is a joint publishing venture between Apress LLC and CA Inc., the global IT management software company.

Customer Reviews (1)

Executive essays on governance
A team of 14 executives from CA (formerly Computer Associates) assembled this collection of related essays, each of which can feasibly stand alone as separate white papers, on governance across the enterprise. While other texts have been written on this subject matter in the past, the authors believe that they provide a unique perspective, since CA has directly experienced the consequences of its own inadequate governance in the past.

After introducing the concept of enterprise governance, the authors present discussions on policy management, risk management, portfolio management, risk governance, IT governance, and information governance, as well as their relationships with the regulatory environment, finance, and sustainability. The two appendixes comprise the compliance and risk committee charter of CA, as well as the corporate governance principles of CA.

This reviewer especially appreciated the high-level overview by Jacob Lamm, Executive Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at CA, on the rise of governance and how governance looks today. As Lamm writes, "like many terms in the public eye in recent months, governance is in the eye of the beholder, and definitions can vary from one author to another. But the essence of the definitions is generally the same. Put simply, governance is the culture, policies, procedures and controls that help ensure a company will meet its business goals".

Lamm continues by recognizing that "governance is far from a new concept; corporations have long practiced it. But there has been a change in the level of attention tiven to governance. This increased emphasis has been driven by the needs of the corporation, the stockholders, and regulatory bodies". Lamm then discusses some of the key business drivers for improved corporate governance, and then presents the key goals of good governance, and some of the activities and roles that this might entail.

The diagrams in this text remind this reviewer of those that one might find in many books published by Harvard Business School Press. For example, the diagram on common risk management approaches that Sumner Blount provides illustrates well the four permutations of the manner in which risk can be addressed (accept it, transfer it, mitigate it, or avoid it), and the diagram on likelihood and impact of risk that Rob Zanella provides depicts well the relationship between these two concepts.

In addition, although CA approaches are discussed throughout this text, the references to third-party materials are abundant. For example, Network Frontier's Unified Compliance Framework (UCF), a repository that harmonizes IT controls from over 400 international regulatory requirements, standards, and guidelines, is discussed. Recommended especially to those new to governance or seeking to expand their understanding of how governance is increasingly needed following the economic crisis of 2008, as a consultant this reviewer is looking forward to more business texts that balance the sizable and reputable catalog of technical texts already published by Apress. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dorothy was fasinating
Day is a very interesting person, and her intense lifestyle lights up this book, creating a complex mixture of emotions. ... Read more