Books: REVIEWS Free

The purpose of this book is to explore whether or not the ongoing Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan will halt the ‘nuclear renaissance’ that the author, emeritus professor of technology policy at The Open University, believes started at the beginning of this century.

A proportion of what is presented in this book will be familiar to readers as the events at Fukushima have been and continue to be well publicised. However, the author has brought together a great deal of additional information and commentary on these events which make this concise book very appealing.

No prior knowledge of nuclear power is required by the reader as an appendix provides a very good brief introduction to the subject, including the impacts on health from radiation.

The Financial Times guides are a well-established series that explain principles in sufficient detail to give a basic overview of the topic. This book by Ann Francke, chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), is in the same mould.

The book adopts the syllabus and model used by CMI for the chartered manager qualification. Anyone pursuing this standard would be well advised to follow it.

Arguably the book has a much greater emphasis upon marketing than any other topic and gives insufficient attention to some important processes, in particular project and programme management, to be the all-purpose reference that it aims to be. However, that is not to belittle the contents: it is likely to prove a useful guide to many aspiring and established managers.

This well-organised and easy-to-read book describes how the venues and infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games were successfully procured and commercially managed.

The UK Olympic Delivery Authority adopted an integrated approach to the selection, engagement and management of suppliers to deliver a programme of work, known as ‘purchase and supplier engineering’ (PSE).

This book describes the PSE approach from start to finish, including the 13-stage procurement process used, and provides a useful summary of dos and don'ts at the end of each chapter. Anyone, whether public, regulated or private sector, involved in the delivery of a programme of work will benefit from reading the sound advice it contains.

The recent Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) ethics survey highlighted a growing awareness of the need to understand project ethical challenges, and this book and its accompanying website at http://www.projectethics.is aims to address that need.

The Iceland-based authors provide an overview of the four theories of ethics – virtue, utility, duty and rights – and address how individuals, stakeholders and society should approach ethical challenges within projects.

Case studies of common business situations are presented through the book, each with a number of questions to help readers draw their own conclusions regarding ethical professional behaviour. The book concludes with a presentation of a project ethics tool, which provides a framework for the ethical appraisal of project options.

This excellent illustrated book provides comprehensive explanation of the world's 14 principal soil types. A chapter is dedicated to each, covering prerequisites; distinctive characteristics; ecology and distribution in the world; genesis, dynamics and age; and paths for agronomic approach.

A ‘progressive descent of weathering fronts' model is used to give a logical and well-organised view of the differentiation of soils and to link their main characteristics. The soil nomenclature is based on the two most common classifications: soil taxonomy and world reference base.

I highly recommended this book for anyone interested in understanding more about soil types.