This book is broken down into three sections:

Part one is called "The World is a Big Blue Bargaining Table".  Jim Thomas pretty well sums up the purpose of this book in one sentence at the beginning.  He states we are all going to die.  Aside from that everything else is negotiable. 

Part two consists of the 21 rules of negotiating.  He has the 21 rules broken down into three categories - the critical rules, the important but obvious rules, and the nice to do rules.

Part three is called "The Practice of Negotiating". 

At the end of the book he gives us what he calls some "quickies".  These include "What If the Other Side Won't Negotiate?", "How to Negotiate with Doctors", "How to Negotiate with Lawyers", "How to Nnegotiate with Contractors" and "How to Get the Best Deal on a Car".  There are several more "quickies" listed. 

This book is a must read for anyone involved in negotiating.  When you think about it, when are we not involved in some kind of negotiations during our lifetime? - we are always buying something or involved in some project like buying a home, car, etc.  The book is written in a easy to understand manner - not one where you have to look up terms in a reference book to understand what the author is talking about and at the same time the format is interesting.  The purpose of this book is to purposefully and meaningfully improve a person's negotiating skills.  This book is a thorough approach to improving a person's negotiating skills and after reading it the reader will come away with the knowledge and techniques to be able to carry on meaningful negotiations with anyone.  This book is highly recommended.   

REVIEWED BY NANCY EATON

DO NOT REPRINT WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE REVIEWER, NANCY EATON