Product Description
What the Dying Teach Us: Lessons on Living is a spiritual approach to health care that teaches the reader about values, hope, and faith through actual experiences of terminally ill persons. This unique approach to health care teaches the living how to deal with grief and the bereavement process through faith and prayer. Priests, pastors, chaplains, and psychotherapists will learn how to treat parishioners or patients with the values the dying leave behind, allowing part of their deceased loved one’s beliefs and teachings to guide them through the grieving process. In the end, you will also become aware of your spiritual self while helping others heal and renew their soul.

While What the Dying Teach Us concentrates on the values you can learn from the terminally ill, the author includes his own views on:

• how our tears manifest the depth into which our relationship with a deceased loved one travels
• how dimensions of reality lead us to appreciate the present
• experiencing events in life without judgment or comparison
• the role faith may play in health care as a healer of the terminally ill
• how the strength of prayer can drastically change lives
  
  What the Dying Teach Us celebrates the spirit loved ones leave behind and teaches you how to surrender into an eternal relationship with them. Furthermore, because of this experience, you will be able to find a new and deeper realization of your own existence. What the Dying Teach Us will help you spiritually connect with yourself as well as with deceased loved ones that continue to live on through faith.

Customer Reviews (6)

A Must Read book for anyone!
Sam knows how to write a great book.Not just about what it sounds like, death and dying.He has lots of great stories and personal experiences that lift you up and definitely get you thinking in a good way!Get it, you won't be disappointed!And if you do know someone who has family that are approaching the hospice stage, buy them a copy or share your own.
I plan to read it again slower this time, a definite keeper!!!

probably not for the agnostic
i am interested in insight into life and the experience of dying.partly because i have a heart condition and had open-heart surgery two years ago.i was intrigued by the title of this book and wanted to learn from the experiences of others in the hospice experience.i think i will just volunteer instead.i don't mean to offend anyone with this review, but i wish the Reverend had gone into more detail of the interactions with those in hospice.for me the book offers too much of himself and not enough of their experiences beyond what seem to be brief visits that he has with them.i would be more interested i think in the stories of full-time hospice caregivers.for me i had a problem with the spiritual messages that the Reverend saw in everything.i find those experiences highly subjective and would have preferred merely human stories to the inferences of the eternal and spiritual that the Reverend saw in everything.i guess i should have read the reviews more clearly and exercised more caution before picking this up to read.dying isn't necessarily a religious experience, although i'm sure that this statement will not compute for many who are religious.dying is however a very human experience that we will all share and it is important for us to be in the moments that we have with each other, especially in these necessarily final moments.peace be with you.

Getting to the heart of hospice care!
From an experienced hospice minister comes a revelation of the heart of the Hospice mission. This book conveys the inner experience of hospice care, death and dying and questions about the meaning of life, death and the Spirit. Read along and get back in touch with what is really going on during the most intimate moments of the dying process as well as lifeitself.

Truely a Spiritually Inspired Writing
At the time I discovered Sam Olivers Book, I was enrolled in a chaplaincy program at a local hospital.I believed the content would be most helpful in my own ministry.Little did I realize that this book would be my ownsource of comfort, strength and guidance only a few short months later whenI was thrown into an unwanted, unexpected divorce.

I have discovered thatthe pain of a divorce can be almost as devastating as the death of a lovedone.This book served as a guide through that darkness.The comfort andspiritual direction I derived has contributed greatly in my healing processand the continuation of my ministry.

Thank you Sam Oliver for yourcontribution to my life.

"Walking the Walk"
.

This book should be on the bookshelf in every Hospice office, every Chaplain's office and in every minister's library regardless of denomination. I heartily recommend it for anyone who works with Hospice,with hospital patients, with the elderly, or with bereavedpersons.

Reverend Sam Oliver's book is not a book by a preacher forpreachers.It is a book written by an exceptional man who humbly shareshis walk with those who are dying, as well as the lessons of life that hehas gleaned from his relationships with those persons.

I have read manybooks on Hospice care, death & dying, and bereavement in the past twoyears.Many of them are excellent books from which I've learned much. However, I cannot remember one that caused so many light bulbs to explodewithin my soul.From page to page I found myself saying, "Aha!"as the light bulbs of cognition and recognition flashed.

In a 12-monthperiod of time, our only son died of a cerebral hemorrhage, my father diedof cancer and my mother-in-law died of cancer.Our son's death was twoyears ago, my mother-in-law's death just a year ago.

In that 12-monthperiod of time, I wish that the ministers who surrounded us had SamOliver's wisdom and warmth.While our son was in the ER, the hospitalchaplain came into the waiting room, introduced himself and then said,"Let's hold hands and have a prayer."He was going by thebook..by rote. He didn't know what else to do.

In Sam Oliver's book, onelearns that there is nothing "routine" about death, dying, andbereavement. It is his ability to walk with the dying and listen to whothey are, where they are, what they need, that sets Sam apart from manyother chaplains.

As a chapter leader for The Compassionate Friends(support group for bereaved parents, siblings & grandparents), I haveheard many of our bereaved parents say, "We always thought our pastorwas great, until our son/daughter died.He doesn't have a clue."Whydoesn't he have a clue?Because unlike Sam Oliver, he hasn't taken thetime to listen to what people are saying when they are scared, when theyare angry, when they are in pain.

Instead of buying yourpastor/minister/chaplain a tin of cookies for the holiday season, purchasethis book for him/her.It will not only prepare him/her for an active rolein a community of need, but it will also help him/her to better understandhow much his or her own life can be enhanced via the lessons of life thatare taught by the masters of this life: those who die well. ... Read more

Product Description

The Iraq War has cost innumerable lives, caused vast material destruction, and inflicted suffering on millions of people. Iraq at a Distance: What Anthropology Can Teach Us About the War focuses on the plight of the Iraqi people, caught since 2003 in the carnage between U.S. and British troops on one side and, on the other, Iraqi insurgents, militias, and foreign al Qaeda operatives.

The volume is a bold attempt by six distinguished anthropologists to study a war zone too dangerous for fieldwork. They break new ground by using their ethnographic imagination as a research tool to analyze the Iraq War through insightful comparisons with previous and current armed conflicts in Cambodia, Israel, Palestine, Northern Ireland, Afghanistan, and Argentina. This innovative approach extends the book's relevance beyond a critical understanding of the devastating war in Iraq. More and more parts of the world of long-standing ethnographic interest are becoming off-limits to researchers because of the war on terror. This book serves as a model for the study of other inaccessible regions, and it shows that the impossibility of conducting ethnographic fieldwork does not condemn anthropologists to silence.

Essays analyze the good-versus-evil framework of the war on terror, the deterioration of women's rights in Iraq under fundamentalist coercion, the ethnic-religious partitioning of Baghdad through the building of security walls, the excessive use of force against Iraqi civilians by U.S. counterinsurgency units, and the loss of popular support for U.S. and British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan after the brutal regimes of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein had been toppled.

Customer Reviews (3)

Excellent tool for psychotherapists
As a psychotherapist working with children, teens, and adults, I found this book to be a valuable tool, particularly in working with trauma victims.The stories are well written, easy to understand, and teach valuable lessons.Well worth the cost.

Hypnotherapy
A wonderful book to use with adults and children.Very adaptable to suit individual circumstances.Nancy Davis is to be applauded.

Effective Resource for PTSD in Children
I first used Therapeutic Stories by Nancy Davis while working as an elementary counselor in Iowa City.I found the stories to be an excellent technique for discussing sensitive topics with traumatized children.One of the stories, The House and the Hurricane, allowed me to communicate witha severely withdrawn child.The story helped her to express the emotionalpain and fear of being with others.From this story we were able to moveto a concrete plan for building social supports at school.Many otherstories are equally valuable.I urge any therapist who deals withtraumatized children to check out this resource.With over five hundredpages it is like many books combined into one program. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Shut Up and Let the Lady Teach
I needed the book for a report in college, my last class before
internship!
My class was a summer term.The book came in a timely manner.
Thanks!

Incredible book!
This is an incredible book on a reporter's year as a teacher in an inner city school.Ms. Sachar provides a needed and welcome inside perspective on many of the controversial issues in education.
Teachers cannot use the same techniques that are used in industry:software engineers don't deal with programs which don't WANT to run, and lumbermills don't have to convince their lumber to WANT to be cut.Nor does the lumbermill have to deal with the trees' parents.One tree is just like another:line it up and cut it.Yet, teachers work with students who are all different, and whose intrinsic motivation is crucial to the teacher's success in changing them.
Emily Sachar deeply explores the issues of racial tensions and preferences among the staff and students, social promotion, the problems of eliminating ineffective administrators and teachers, needless paperwork, unreasonable expectations, inadequate facilities and funding, the despair and wonder of teaching, and more.
These are woven through the personal and moving narrative of her year-long odyssey as a new teacher.
This is a superb book, which I highly recommend.

you've got to be kidding me
I started reading the book and initially enjoyed it.However, Sachar quickly displays her ignorance, racism and how incredibly self-involved she is.She claims that before she started teaching she read up on teaching subjects - yet when she gets in the classroom she is surprised at how inept she is and chooses not to apply any techniques (discipline, etc.).She also claims to be an education reporter, which left me wondering how she knew absolutely nothing about what she was getting into.
If I had been a teacher with her, I wouldn't have trusted her either.She wasn't a teacher. She was merely a reporter writing a book.I searched for some kind of sign that she had contributed some of the profits from the book to the school. but no.
So at the end of the day, she was just an ignorant, oblivious, opportunistic woman who truly made a difference in people's lives - a negative one. Don't read it - it will just frustrate you.

A Real Teacher
Emily Sachar identifies herself as a journalist, but she is a born teacher, in contrast to Jonathan Kozol, who taught for two years, then left to be a reporter.He understood nothing at all about teaching, but Emily has the instincts of the true mentor. She notices the poor physical surroundings, but she knows that the real obstacles to learning in this school are otherwise.Her obstinacy and love for her pupils make all the difference.If only teachers colleges taught the love of learning and the truth that all children can learn if taught according to their needs, we would have more Emily Sachars, and our schools would be as good as the schools before World War II, when there were only dedicated teachers.With the low salaries of that time, teachers had to make sacrifices to follow their calling, and it was a real calling.I am glad that salaries are enough today to support a family, so that a married man is not eliminated, but there are far too many young people who see teaching as merely a job where there are perks; e.g. short hours (they lock the door at three o'clock and go out to their little sports cars); long vacations with the money for European jaunts; and tenure after three years.What is wrong with education is the calibre of teachers graduated from teachers colleges.Who knows?Perhaps we need more journalists in the profession.

An outsider's inside view of a run-down public school
Education is a topic well-worn by cheerleaders, dingbats, and generally bad writers. Sachar's book is something of an exception, probably because she identifies herself principally as a journalist, and not as a teacher. This perspective gives her the flexibility to be critical of the schoolsystem in ways a career teacher can not be. Sacharwas a reporter forNewsday who took a one-year leave to teach in a run-down school inBrooklyn. Her account of her first and only year as a teacher is a frank,eyes-open account of life in the belly of America's educationalbureaucracy. While Sachar is at her root a believer in public education(shewas on the education beat at Newsday), her position as a reporter gives herthe emotional distance lacking in much of the gooey, feel-good,if-only-we-got-the-respect-we-deserve genre of education"reporting". In particular, she is able to candidly acknowledgethe failings of the schools that are the schools own fault, and to describethe siege mentality and internecine bickering that help to cripple thesystem. She is able to describe racial tension among the faculty as well asthe students, the mentality of time-serving and apathy that pervades publicservice, the emotional isolation of the teacher's life, and the many waysin which educators let their own preconceptions cripple themselves. Whileshe does detail a chronic lack of resources, and the unfairness with whichthey are allocated, she avoids sinking into the kind of self-pitying toneof many defenders of public schooling. Recommended, if you are interestedin education issues. ... Read more

Product Description
Was Socrates black? How about Cleopatra? Was Greece colonized by Egypt? As absurd as these claims seem to be, they, and other "truths"are being taught today to college students across the country.

Not Out of Africa is the first book to debunk these claims made by the Afrocentric movement. Dispensing with political correctness in favor of historical accuracy, professor Mary Lefkowitz presents afascinating and scholarly look at each of these myths, meticulously dismantling them and explaining why they have propagated despite an overwhelming lack of real evidence. At the same time, she sounds a ringing clarion call that warns us all about the social and intellectualdangers inherent in suspending academic standards to indulge a political agenda.

Amazon.com Review
Wellesley classics professor Mary Lefkowitz takes aim at the basicclaims of leading proponents of Afro-centrism, in this expansion of her NewRepublic article exposing flaws in the argument that black Africans wereresponsible for the great civilizations of Egypt and Greece that broughtpraise from historians and criticism from Afrocentrists. Lefkowitz arguesthat the Greeks' African heritage touted by Senegalese scholar Cheikh AntaDiop is based upon a single dubious source and that Egyptians neverconsidered themselves black Africans, in fact, that they consciouslydisassociated themselves from blacks. She argues that the legacy of these twocultures remains so rich even foes of European civilization want to claimthat legacy for themselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (157)

If its possible i'd rate half a star
It is no shock to see that many like this book. Racism will never die, not while uneducated, unwilling to progress human inhabit the world. This book as many other people have mentioned has no proof, as much as the fans like to think just because it is a "scholarly" person writing that it is factual, it is not. White people and brainwashed minorities have been trying to debunk anything not from the elites for yrs. If you chose to waste your money on this then so be it, but, if you are someone looking to change things for the better, to make this world a livable one for all your brothers and sisters, then do everyone a favor, do the author a favor and do not purchase this book.

Lefkowitz and her misuse of the ADL - Donations/Support gone Astray
Applying the Socratic Method we all should be asking ourselves a series of questions as to why Dr. Lefkowitz focused on Dr. Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan.

Why didn't she focus on Cheikh Anta Diop or Theophile Obenga the scholars who are pillars of Afrocentrism?
(They are liguist, philosophers, historians and Egyptologist with multiple degrees and extremely documented works).

The reason may be because Dr. Yosef A. A. ben-Jochannan made a scholarly mistake as to when the Alexandrian Library was built and Aristotle's time of study, which is easily debatable and that can and was disproved by Lefkowitz.Lefkowitz received her Ph.d from Harvard in Classical Studies, where in which she would have been required to study the Greek language.That being the case why didn't she refer to the works of Greeks themselves?Why doesn't she know, or acknowledge that the following Greek thikers studied in Egypt: Thales of Miletus, Solon of Athens, Pythagoras of Samos, Xenophanes of Colophon, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Pherecydes of Syros, Empedocles of Acragas, Democritus of Abdera, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle?

Dr. Lefkowitz should have been aware of the numerous writings by Greeks written on themselves or by their disciples.It is imperative that we as seekers of truth shout out truth and shed light on lies.

Sources:
Aristotle talks about his time in Egypt (Meteorology 352 b 20), Aristotle talks about Egyptians being the most ancient of people (Meteorology, I 14 352 b)

Phythagoras (Just read the Pythagoras Library)

Socrates (Plato, Phaedrus, 274 c-d)

Plato talks about Egypt in 42% of his work (Gorgias, Meno, Euthyphro, Phaedo, Republic, Phaedrus, Timaeus, Critias, Laws, and Philebus)

We have to search for truth ourselves we can't leave it in the hands of people like Dr. Lefkowitz because not all people are qualified even though they have Ph.d's. If we look at her previous books we see her passion and course of study truly are (which may not be well researched also): The Victory Ode : An Introduction (1976), Heroines and Hysterics (1981), The Lives of the Greek Poets (1981), Women's Life in Greece and Rome (1982) editor, with Maureen Fant, Women in Greek Myth (1986), First-person Fictions : Pindar's Poetic "I" (1991).


Martin v. Lefkowitz Libel Case

1. Lefkowitz won Round One on a motion to dismiss.

2. Martin won Round Two. Mass Court of Appeal overturned lower court -- reinstated case.

3. Lefkowitz won Round Three on a motion for summary judgment.

"Lefkowitz admitted that the offending words she wrote about Martin were untrue" but contended, successfully, that because Martin is a "public figure", as that term is understood in America's libel laws, he has to prove not merely negligence on her part in not writing the truth, but also that she was motivated by malice.

She claimed that Martin did not prove malice.

4.Martin has appealed.

Blah Blah Blah
[...]
Many people in America suffer from psychological fragility. Read the article above to see what Southern Europeanswere accomplishing approximately 1500 to 2000 years before both Egypt and Greece rose to prominence.

As the Pallet of Narmer unmistakably shows, Egypt appeared as a unified power after several hundred years of tribal warfare along the Nile. In other words, the glory of Egypt was the result of savagery, not some divinely inspired civilizational impulse . I can easily imagine Narmer, perhaps wearing a pair of canvas slippers and brimming with bravado, cleaving some rival's head with a heavy, stone mace, and then absconding with his victim's latest innovation in footwear. The point is that we could just as easily pin the charge of theft on the ancient Egyptians. For example, the wheel was not native to Egypt, yet they "stole" it from the Hyksos,improved it and used it during the reign of Ramses II to extend their empire far beyond its traditional borders. Thus, before you take credit for the "genius" of other individuals, you should first consider that they were vicious and ambitious colonizers who "stole" from others just as the Greeks "stole" from them later. Many of the imperial inclinations we despise so much today sustained Egypt for millennia.
So, in order to advance beyond the dangerous stupidities of the past, we must avoid the self-serving tendency to reinterpret the complexity of ancient history through the lens of contemporary experiences and the resulting paranoias and biases.

What's undeniably true is that virtually all people alive today are descended from peasants. This is a simple historical fact, and to believe that you're not descended froma peasant is silly and laughable. Just accept the fact that your molecules are no more "royal" than mine or some other person's.

Really?
The author systematically wages war on Afrocentrism all the while promoting Eurocentrism using the very same techniques she accuses her opponents of. Listening to hypocrisy is hard, sitting and reading through it is worse.

Our Common African Genesis, 2nd Edition
Our Common African Genesis traces the origins of modern humans and early civilization through genetics, linguistics, archeology, history, and the Books of Moses.Despite the predominance of the ancient Africans, they are persistently slandered in the Old Testament and, in turn, dismissed from modern history.
In the finger pointing the Hebrews contrived to rationalize the Exodus and Conquest, the sins of the world were dumped on Egyptians and Canaanites making them the most maligned race in history.Desecration of Our Common African Genesis continued unbelievably into the 20th century, historians deluding Egyptians were Caucasians, ranting that Africans developed no civilization, till 1996, the dementia complete, babbling their history obscure, their Aegean influence NOT Out of Africa.This literary genocide swept an entire race of people from history, the pen a continuation of Joshua's swift sword, psychopathic denial of the Hamitic gene flow in Genesis 10.
This Pious Fraud, aggressively marketed by Christianity and Academia, brainwashed us with sick beliefs about race, religion, and history, indeed, of ourselves and each other.The fictional Mediterranean Caucasians, really Ethiopians, the genetic sons of Ham and Cush, developed civilization long before Caucasians and Semites.Tales of the glorious Mediterranean Caucasians ironically are the most Afrocentric history in existence, quite opposite the authors' intent.The people that the Hebrews, Greeks, and others called Ethiopians are the same Dark Whites Toynbee said spawned ten civilizations.
The verdict may not be unanimous but the evidence is overwhelming that Africans begat the human race and Ethiopians begat Western Civilization, the Hebrews (Semites) and Greeks (Caucasians) very late `pretenders to the throne'.Indeed, it took four tries to get Western Civilization off the ground, with three intervening Dark Ages, all four grafted onto Ethiopian rootstock including the long taproot of the hybrid Judaic, Christian, Islam, and Hindu mythologies, yes, even schooling the Levites, Brahmans, Alexander, young Jesus, and Paul in the Ethiops celestial mythos and ritual.
Only by ignoring and/or suppressing the evidence, deriding the ancient Ethiopians, even denying their birthplace, can Lefkowitz and her predecessors and her reviewers make a case.Then our `White Throne' atop the `Great Chain of Being' was secured, nothing less than God's favorites, Evolution's crowning mutation, far superior to that other "ethnic group whose history has largely remained obscure".Case closed.
This is not mistaken or defective research.Fraud doesn't even adequately describe this crime.This is `literary genocide', eradicating an entire race of people from our history books, a deception of immense proportions, that began in the Old Testament, then took a new turn around 1800 under the pseudoscience of `phrenology', the bogus study of skull shapes, and its accomplice, the decrepit `ethnology', the study of `race'.Even though these pseudosciences were discredited by anthropologists and neurologists by the turn of the 20th century, their corruption spread into history books.It is this hoax that replaced `Ethiopian' with `Mediterranean Caucasian' that was so appealing to Western historians that it became canon.
Dr. Lefkowitz, I charge you with `abandonment of scholarship', `literary genocide', and `fraud'. Add your predecessors' and reviewers' documented testimony and we also have `conspiracy'.You didn't act alone.This is not simply a question of historical right or wrong or the shades of gray in between.The issue is `intent', the difference between `defective research' and `fraud'. Our Common African Genesis, 2nd Ed. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

from the Yale University Press
After the vast destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans faces a rare chance to rebuild, with an unprecedented opportunity to plan what gets built. As the city's director of planning from 1992 until 2000, Kristina Ford is uniquely placed to use these opportunities as a springboard for an eye-opening discussion of the intransigent problems and promising possibilities facing city planners across the nation and beyond.

In The Trouble with City Planning, Ford argues that almost no part of our usual understanding of the phrase "city planning" is accurate: not our conception of the plan itself, nor our sense of what city planners do or who plans are made for or how planners determine what citizens want. Most important, our conventional understanding does not tell us how a plan affects what gets built in any city in America.

Ford advances several planning innovations that, if adopted, could be crucial for restoring New Orleans, but also transformative wherever citizens are troubled by the results of their city's plan. This keenly intelligent book is destined to become a classic for planners and citizens alike.

Kristina Ford is one of America's best known urban planners and writers on planning. In the immediate aftermath of Katrina, Ford's thoughtful assessments--heard on CNN, the BBC, and National Public Radio--became the first public voice of reason to mediate the great storm's human and civic consequences. Her highly regarded study, Planning Small Town America, is used as a text in many graduate urban planning programs. She lives in New Orleans.
"A thoughtful, engaging, and cautionary account of the interaction of professional planners, politicians, developers, and citizens in contemporary American cities. The message that planning can and must do better with respect to daily decision making, as well as big and recalcitrant but now urgent problems, and that informed citizens are crucial to this, is timely and important."--Alan Plattus, Yale University

"Kristina Ford makes sense out of the misguided planning efforts that have bedevilled post-Katrina New Orleans, and provides valuable suggestions for how our cities should be planned in the future--more democratically and more effectively."--Witold Rybczynski, author of Last Harvest. ... Read more

Product Description
The true story of Pamela Smart, the school teacher who gave lessons in love and murder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Not So Smart
True crime aficianados will remember the case of Pamela Smart. Smart was 22 years old, college educated, and professionally employed when she began a sexual relationship with a naive 16 year old student at the school where she worked. She then proceded, for reasons that are not entirely clear to the author, to manipulate the student, Billy Flynn, along with his friends to murder her husband, threatening that if he did not do so, she would be unable to continue seeing him. The crime was so ill conceived - the commissioning of 4 teenage high school boys, one of whom is porking the commissioner, apparently with some strange expectation that no one would learn about the affair or the identities of the killers - as to be ridiculous. The book follows typical true crime format concluding with the arrests and trial.

In TEACH ME TO KILL, Stephen Sawicki has written an excellent book. Sawicki's writing and research are excellent. The style is reportorial. There is no filler, no repetition, and the only trial or police investigation material is interesting and necessary. There is considerable background information on the principal players and some excellent scene setting in the detailed description of the poor Seabrook, NH, neighborhood where the boys lived. The book moves rapidly and is an easy and very enjoyable read.
And the cover is hot.

I highly recommend TEACH ME TO KILL to lovers of the genre.

Pamela Smart,you make me sick!
This woman is an evil,selfish, cunning nasty piece of work. You should be able to feel safe in the knowledge that your child is working on a project with school teacher.NOT THIS ONE!Not only does this woman inher twenties seduce a boy of sixteen but she plays mind games with him.Shetells him that her husband beats her and that she must have him out of herlife and she talks her young pupil/lover into killing him with a couple ofhis friends. This young boy (Billy),is so in love with his 'olderwoman'that he doesn't want to lose her and in desperation,he shoots Pamelashusband. She never plays the grieving widow and in fact seems to revelin the limelight that comes her way.She is so sure of herself that shecan't help her runaway mouth which is eventually her downfall. I hopeshe gets what she deserves in jail,I never want to see her freed fromprison. I feel so much for the victim,Greg and his family who have tolive their lives knowing that their daughter in law is responsible for thedeath of their son. Pamela Smart makes me sick! ... Read more

Product Description
Cultural studies embodies the studies of media, post-modernism and feminism, and analyzes the trends and meanings of culture. This work takes a chronological look at the subject, charting the leading thinkers and publications. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An informed and informative breath of fresh air
To those who have cut their teeth on the ubiquitous Graeme Turner text Teach Yourself Cultural Studies will seem like a breath of fresh air, and is a timely addition to the Cultural Studies canon.The author's confidentand innovative approach, coupled with a novel mode of categorisation, makesfor a celebration of the maverickimage that the discipline currentlyenjoys within the academy.

Mr. Brooker writes with authority anddelivers a lucid exposition on his chosen subject.However, I feel thatthere are times when the concepts and language are rather esoteric for thelevel at which the text is aimed - for instance, what beginner orfirst-level student will know what an amor fati is?Having said that,there are many complex theories requiring simplification and it istestament to Mr. Brooker `s analytical ability that he is able to distildown from an obvious higher knowledge in order to render these accessible.

He manages to demystify through both incisive and insightfulinterpretations of some of the more arcane theorists, such as Foucault andBourdieu, at the same time retaining a `funky' contemporary approach.Atall times he is in control of the polemic, leaving the reader free tointerpret as s/he sees fit.On a practical level, this process isfacilitated by related end-of-chapter reading lists as well as appendicescontaining further reading and useful website addresses.

It is refreshingto see that, although he acknowledges some of the (by now) hoary oldchestnuts of Cultural Studies, such as the Nationwide study and the Jackiephenomenon, he does not dwell there too long but, rather, finds originalexamples that define his own position within the subject area.That hemanages to be both iconoclastic and deferential at the same timedemonstrates a unique empathy for popular culture in general, and apersonal desire to continue the learning journey.

I, personally, wouldlike to have seen some of the more contentious and contemporary theorists,such as Baudrillard and cyber-feminist Sadie Plant, included within thetext but, as the author freely admits, selection is unavoidably subjective. On which note, the book could possibly have done without the sycophanticinterview and rather self-indulgent anecdotes towards the end but, Isuppose, some students may find new wisdom there.

Aside from thesereservations, this is both an informed and informative treatment of whatthe author acknowledges to be a continuously evolving, almost organic, areaof study, dealing as it does essentially with ephemera.He is, therefore,extremely courageous to attempt it.Overall, the success of the text liesin Mr. Brooker's ability to bring a progressive approach to a disciplinethat is itself constantly progressing, as well as recognising the need toaccommodate shifting paradigms.As a result, this reader did more than`only connect' and now considers herself a Cult Studs consort. ... Read more

Product Description

Truly fun for all ages, this unique coloring book subversively and playfully examines the female gender stereotypes that pervade daily life. A diverse group of pictures reinforce positive gender roles throughout the book and show that girls are thinkers, creators, fighters, and healers. Some of the characters who show the new face of the feminine include Rapunzel, who now has power tools and Miss Muffet, who tells the spider off and considers a career as an arachnologist. Deconstructing the homogeneity of gender expression has never been so colorful.

Customer Reviews (1)

A great book for its intended market
This is a smart, thoughtful, and fun book for girls aged 4 -8. I bought it for my niece and she loved it. Hopefully girls of her generation will grow up without experiencing the misogyny of previous generations. A book like this will help to ensure that. For girls older than 8 I recommend Dolltopia by Abby Denson. It takes the concept to the next level, and it's just as smart, thoughtful, and fun! ... Read more

Product Description
A general introduction to the study of the human race. It discusses the development and variety of a wide cross-section of social groups, identifying the common factors of homo sapiens. It also observes evolving trends, such as the break-up of many societies through globalization. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A pedestrian survey
Don't get me wrong:trying to sum up all that is anthropology these days is a daunting task, particularly when one attempts to do so for a general audience.But while Chris Hann's effort admirably encompasses the domains of economics, labor, politics, power, symbolism, kinship, and religion, it too often falls short of the mark.

A typical section from this book could be outlined thusly:

1) "Kinship" (or "economics" or "labor" or what have you) used to be defined in a certain way, but2) Today we can't really define it with any precision, which leads us to speculate that 3) The concept might not even exist for any practical purposes; nonetheless, 4) Anthropologists of one school of thought feel it should be defined in one way, while 5) Anthropologists of another school of thought feel it should be defined in another way; and 6) Perhaps both schools are correct to some extent; and finally 7) Here's an example from my research in Poland to illustrate.

This format is fine for the first few chapters but it doesn't hold up well throughout the book.I also found Hann's prose oddly opaque, even though the author (keeping his general audience in mind) avoids technical language and difficult social science jargon.

"Teach Yourself Social Anthropology" could be useful to you if you're trying to bone up on the field, but I hope that somewhere out there the general introduction has gotten more skillful treatment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sad, but true
I really felt that I learned a lot from this book. It is important that those considering a tenure track job/career read this as others have mentioned. I think it's even more important that administrators read it.

I had a slightly better experience, with lots of support from both colleagues and family so I'm more optimistic about my chances for tenure. Either way, it is important that we understand how it was for women even 10 years ago before they could stop the tenure clock to have children. No wonder so few women are full professors now. It's sad. The main lesson I took from this is that w/o a good support network and a husband/partner who significantly helps out, tenure is unlikely. Also, it's unlikely if anyone gets sick or has any disability. It is sad that this is the reality, but important that we know this.

Powerful, poignant and engrossing
I bought this book at the suggestion of Ms. Mentor (a.k.a. Emily Toth) who touted it in one of her wise and witty columns in "The Chronicle of Higher Education".As usual, Ms. Mentor provided "Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia".

Graduate students thinking about making careers as professors should read this book carefully, especially if they have or would like to have children. Each author in the edited volume describes her valiant attempt to have a family life and an academic job at the same time.It's not a pretty picture.The narratives are personal and powerful.Several are horror stories about the inhumane treatment of new professors who are also new mothers.

Although this book is most relevant as a cautionary tale for women entering academia, it is also a "must read" for anyone interested in the history of feminism.The memoirs of some of the senior female academics, pioneers in their fields, reveal awesome courage.This is the printed mentor that I've seen other books purport to be.

My one concern is that the book's bleak honesty may discourage some graduate students, or create the impression that it is better to wait until after tenure to start a family.I'm a clinical psychologist whose specialty is counseling doctoral students and junior faculty, and I don't condone waiting until after the tenure review to begin living.The average path from grad student to tenured associate prof now takes more than 17 years (gulp).Putting essential goals on hold for that long shrivels the ovaries.If you want both the baby and the job, go for it!

An essential read for all in the academy
Highly relevant, stimulating reading recommended for anyone (and everyone) involved in higher education.The Family Track articulates many unspoken concerns of American academicsthrough autobiographical pieces,interviews, and critical essays.From eldercare to parental leave,commuter marriages to children with special needs, the topics are aspertinent as they are undiscussed among faculties.Challenging andengaging, with practical strategies for developing family-friendlycampuses. ... Read more

Product Description
This book has been written for students training to teach music in the secondary school. It aims to develop open and reflective practitioners who will engage critically in the cycle of planning and acting in the music classroom. It also encourages student teachers to develop their own philosophy of music so that they can rationalize their own work and the place of music in the curriculum. One of the main premises of the book is that music needs to be taught musically.

The book is organized into four sections:

DT The philosophy of teaching and learning in music
DT The statutory curriculum and examination courses
DT The practice of teaching and learning in music
DT Wider issues beyond the classroom

In each section, the authors include tasks, activities and reflections to help student teachers to integrate the theory and practice of music education. ... Read more

Product Description
Affirms the power of writing to memorialize loss and work through grief. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A Love Story
Dying to love is the most tragic, heartbreaking story about the strength of a couple faced with cancer and the will to live. Barbara is a strong woman who fears death and fights to leave behind lessons of love because she wants to leave the world knowing her family will be ok, especially her husband. The tragedy is how much she lived and loved life. It is the most intimate love story I have ever known. The love her husband has for her is the love we all want for ourselves. I have never known a greater love story.

Rose Lisboa

A Moving Story
In Dying to Teach, Jeff Berman presents a story that will touch anyone who has gone through a serious illness with a beloved family member. He is honest about his emotions and I found it quite moving. There is a section of photos in the center that made Barbara a real person - not a character in a book. It is also important reading for anyone trying to write meaningfully about personal experiences, as well as for teachers of writing. For the sake of full disclosure, I must admit that my daughter was a student of Professor Berman's, and I have heard him speak on this topic.

Jeff is the best professor I've ever had
In reading the other review of this book, I was a taken by surprise.As a past student of Jeff Berman, I can honestly say that the other reviewer's concern of students telling Jeff what he wanted to hear for fear of grading is absurd.His point is not to compliment himself, but to show readers how emotions have an important place in the classroom, and in writing, it is difficult and confining when professors expect emotion to be kept out of the classroom.Writing is theraputic."Teachers and students who are not ashamed to be moved to tears, who respond to reading and writing assignments with genuine empathy--are those who are most profoundly affected by education."I can attest to the truth of this statement.All of Jeff Berman's books will teach the readers how to become better writers and more empathic people in every day life.

The Loss of a Beloved
I wanted to like DYING TO TEACH more than I did, for the author, I firmly believe, wants to help others and unveil the compassion lodged within each of us like a beating heart.Unfortunately, the book is far too long and Professor Berman dwells on the tragedy of his wife's death until he comes up with thee idea of using it as a teaching tool, which I thought pretty crass.He says that this is what his wife would have wanted, but I don't know.He quotes copiously from his students' papers."I sought to transport [my students] to a different emotional realm, one that involved nothing less than the contemplation of life and death."

The fifteen students who heard Jeff Berman deliver his eulogy for Barbara might have felt otherwise, but they would have seemed like monsters if they responded in any way other than as they did.When he asked them, "Was it appropriate for me to read the eulogy for my wife in class?" 13 of his 15 students responded vigorously, Yes, Professor, quite appropriate.I feel that this sampling might have been skewed by grade concerns.And also common etiquette and human decency.So then he prints pages from his students' essays, all of them thanking him profusely for allowing them to cry and to feel.I hate to say Bah humbug, but if he cut out half the compliments to himself that his students felt compelled to write, the book would have been a heck of a lot shorter and a heck of a lot more appropriate."Teachers and students who are not ashamed to be moved to tears," he learns, "who respond to reading and writing assignments with genuine empathy--are those who are most profoundly affected by education."Case definitely not proven if you ask me.

And yet I hesitate before slating this book because I do believe some impressionable students and teachers might improve their empathy by reading it.In that way it would be a suitable memorial for the exquisite and charismatic Barbara.As Professor Berman reminds us, Emerson once said that a foolish consistency if the hobgoblin of little minds. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fascinating Look at American folk humor
Great fun, and a fascinating look at urban legend and myth. Copiers gave the joke new life, as bits of popular wisdom spread through offices and then around the country. Not unlike the funny-forwards epidemic on today'seMail networks, this book captures the growth of folk humor in a thoroughlyenjoyable way! Complete with behavioral annotations that peek just belowthe laughter. Highly recommended! ... Read more

Product Description

This completely updated edition tackles all the issues that new teachers find difficult. It builds on the skills and knowledge they will have learned in their initial teacher education or PGCE course and offers a planned process of professional development.

The book is divided into four sections relating to the priorities that teachers will have at different stages in their first year and includes chapters on: managing oneself and one's workload; working as part of a team; developing teaching and learning strategies; challenging behavior in the classroom; assessing, recording, and reporting; values and citizenship education; the school sixth form and the growth of vocational qualifications; and continuing professional development.

Product Description
Written both for the general reader and those embarking on a women's studies course, this book offers an introduction to this increasingly popular area of study with information on sociology, history, literature and politics. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Good to primery readers!
Women's studies is a method that to review and to understand the world through the women's sight, and want to cause change. What is the benefit of reviewing the society from the women's view? At first you must make itclear that women's studies and feminism are quite not the same, even youare not ,you can also make women's studies--of course, it may change yourpolitic position little by little.

The main goal of " Teach yourselfwomen's studies" is to provide a self-study method which is differentfrom college-study for one who is interest in this issue.

Because it isjust a introduction , we keep away from the obscurity and intricatequotations, in case the beginner fear that , and the excises after everychapters will help readers to organize a growth group by themselves, and toreview self experience by this book.

What is the difference from women'sstudies to others?It stress on "Practice", the ask of social lifechanges which all the women's studies concern about is more visible in thisbook.

Recommend it to the reader who want to understand herself more. ... Read more

Product Description
Sams Teach Yourself e-Parenting Today looks at the Internet as a valuable resource for parents and provides creative ways to use the Web to be better parents and raise better children. This book shows parents how to use the Internet to develop critical life skills all children need to learn, such as creativity, problem solving, self-confidence, responsibility, and social skills. You will also find sites to better a parent's knowledge on things like online educational resources for children, parenting sites, and special resources for health issues, special needs children, and family crisis. All of this is done in a friendly manner with lots of hands on examples that parents and children can do together.

This is a test. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Rich resource for exploring on the web
I heartily recommend this book. It gives plenty of tips & tidbits on how time spent with your child on the Internet can be a top-notch experience for you both. Tonight, while exploring sites recommended in thisbook with my 7-year-old daughter Hannah, we came upon a science site with ageography game.We clicked "Easy" and saw a map of the UnitedStates with one state highlighted and 4 clickable possibilities from whichto choose.Hannah called, "I'll get the globe!" hopped up out ofher seat and retrieved the globe.She delightedly located the correctanswer, time after time.I was impressed with how the game on the Internetsparked her interest and, just as author Evelyn Petersen says, inspired thechild to connect with the world around her.Plus, it was a fun time for usboth! What's more, Petersen organizes the book in a way I gratefullyappreciate.Her numerous web site recommendations are listed in the backby chapter for easy reference, a nice touch.This feature alone is wellworth the price of the book. In all, a five star report from this family!

The New World of Parenting
What a clever, and important idea to write a book about e-parenting.The Petersens give us enough information and enough resources including important web-sites to find anything we want to know -- from discipline andother parenting issues for parents to stimulating and thought-provokinggames and exercizes for their kids.In addition to the wealth ofinformation given, we are helped to sift through and evaluate choice ofexisting web-sites so we can make responsible and informed choices of ourown and help our kids learn how to choose and evaluate from the array ofinformation available to them on the web as well.

I especially like theway the Petersens relate the child's e-world to his or own real world andhow, for example e-friends, while important, must not replace schoolfriends; e-homework help should not replace the library, a real book, orpersonal parent support.

In short, parenting by internet, while atremendous addition, must not be a substitute for our personal andinterpersonal worlds. The Petersens help us do that. Nice touch.

The New World of Parenting
What a clever, and important idea to write a book about e-parenting.The Petersens give us enough information and enough resources including important web-sites to find anything we want to know -- from discipline andother parenting issues for parents to stimulating and thought-provokinggames and exercizes for their kids.In addition to the wealth ofinformation given, we are helped to sift through and evaluate choice ofexisting web-sites so we can make responsible and informed choices of ourown and help our kids learn how to choose and evaluate from the array ofinformation available to them on the web as well.

I especially like theway the Petersens relate the child's e-world to his or own real world andhow, for example e-friends, while important, must not replace schoolfriends; e-homework help should not replace the library, a real book, orpersonal parent support.

In short, parenting by internet, while atremendous addition, must not be a substitute for our personal andinterpersonal worlds. The Petersens help us do that. Nice touch.

A "must" for every parent of a kid with a computer.
People who write about technology come in two varieties: the technophobes and the technophiles. The t-phobes argue that technology is diminishing the quality of human life. The t-philes assert that technology will bring us anew state-of-the-art paradise on Earth.

The tech-haters includeheavyweight social thinkers such as Neil Postman (The Disappearance OfChildhood and Technopoly); Sven Birkerts (The Gutenberg Elegies); and JaneHealey (Endangered Minds and Failure To Connect).

Among the tech-loverswe should name Harley Hahn (Harley Hahn Teaches The Internet); Esther Dyson(Release 2.1); and two authors who I've just discovered, Evelyn Petersenand her daughter Karin. Their new book, Sams Teach Yourself E-ParentingToday, explains how using computers and the Internet can enhance ourparenting skills.

Petersen and Petersen have set themselves two difficultgoals: to counsel about parenting in general, and to explain how theInternet can help to forge a friendly relationship between parents andkids. In both these areas they have succeeded admirably. Theperson-to-person sections contain parenting advice which is savvy,compassionate, and sensible. The chapters about computers are clear,balanced, and written expertly.

The book contains excellent sectionsabout many issues, some well-publicized and others little-known. How canchildren use the Internet to make friends worldwide? What does every parentneed to know about the various aspects of Internet safety? How can usingcomputers build family togetherness? Which web sites offer the mostpertinent parenting activities and advice? ... I was especially impressedwith Petersen's 40-page Appendix titled 'A Brief Guide To ChildDevelopment.' This section is eminently useful as a gage for helping us tounderstand what is "normal" (and abnormal) for children atvarious ages and stages of growth.

Ready or not, the Internet is here inour schools and homes. Computers are powerful tools, and -- let us notforget -- potentially dangerous ones. Children unsupervised, or childrenwho receive poor computer instruction, will become at best technologicallyilliterate, and at worst harmed by misuse and over-use of these tremendoustools. Fortunately, for kids are who receive the right training, theInternet offers many remarkable benefits. The great virtue of Sams TeachYourself E-Parenting Today is the way it teaches us to use technology well,while reminding us that creating a caring and enjoyable relationship withour children is the most important parenting skill of all.

MichaelPastore, Reviewer

A Great Resource
The multi-generational authors deliver an insightful, obviously exhaustive work, which introduces the concept of e-Parenting with clarity and sensitivity.

For those of us facing the responsibility of raisingchildren in the new millennium, this book is a treasure trove of helpfulguidance.A wonderful combination of information and advice that isconcise and practical while at the same time is on the cutting edge of ourinformation age.

Using technology to enhance the parenting experience,while it would probably give our grandparents a coronary, is as practicaltoday as Castor Oil must have been at the turn of the previous century. There is a misconception that e-Parenting means less hands-on involvementand interaction between parents and children.The authors shatter thismyth by emphasizing that his brave new e-World is one to be shared,embraced and celebrated together.

The wealth of information and resourcesincluded here makes this book an invaluable tool.The care and enthusiasmof the authors makes it a pleasure to experience.It's scary to think ofthe hours the authors must have spent crawling around the Web forworthwhile sites to include and review.Lucky for us they did!It istheir thorough work that makes this book one you'll want to keep handy thenext time you log on.

David Katzner, President, The National ParentingCenter ... Read more

Product Description

How could you be using ICT in your classroom? Are you exploring what ICT can do for learners?
The need for student-teachers and teachers to be technologically aware and competent is vital. This book provides a starting point for exploring the possibilities that ICT offers to schools, teachers and pupils.
The book provides practical tried-and-tested examples and advice and guidance. It covers:

• how to use ICT to support pupils' learning of concepts
• classroom management
• maximizing the achievement of individual pupils
• using ICT to help with common learning problems
• homework and classroom activities
• record keeping and pupil tracking data.

If you need a guide to using ICT across the secondary curriculum, start with this book.