I recently read this book for a graduate-level Group Work course. It's one of the few texts I could not put down while reading! The authors' passion for groupwork and their dedication to those helped by such therapy shine through on every single page. Besides sharing general considerations for those initiating groups, they also offer ideas for specific activities and action techniques. Their "Kaleidoscope" categorization activity has been immensely helpful as I brainstorm for new group activities. This is a *fabulous* text.

Hal Clement was one of the first "hard science" writers to enter the science fiction field, and has reamined productive over many decades. This volume contains three of his long-out-of-print stories that fans have had trouble finding for many years. If you're not a fan but you like hard-science science fiction, coupled with good writing and a "solve the puzzle" style that keeps you thinking throughout the book, give this a try. The stories may seem amazingly old (the book title tells how he wrote them after all), but they are hardly out of date. Based on human nature (perhaps a bit idealized) and fundamental physics & chemistry, they are just as gripping a read today as they were in the 1950's when they were written.

The Essential Hal Clement 2 offers seventeen of Clement's shortscience fiction, from stories about the outer edges of Earth'satmosphere to deep space exploration, and demonstrate the range of a writer perhaps best known for his alien invasion story 'Needle'. This demonstrates an even wider range to his talents and makes for an excellent collection especially recommended for prior fans of Clement's novels.

Are you concerned about the amount of damage to your hedges, your roses, your flowers, your trees and other plants? Have you automatically reached for your organic or chemical pesticides, herbacides, fertilizers, and anything else to use to salvage what is left of your plants? Do you advise others on their problems with plants? In solving these problems, does your solution address the root cause or merely the symptoms? In seven chapters of 185 pages, the authors take the reader from the question "What are soils made from?" to a thorough discussion of "soil contamination and erosion." The topic of each chapter and sub-chapter is presented in question form: "How does water act in the soil?" "What is soil acidity?" and the questions are answered: "Instinctively we all know what is meant when we say something is acidic--we automatically think about lemon juice or vinegar..."
The authors use a substantial number of charts, graphs, drawings, and black and white pictures to achieve their stated purpose: "Every attempt has been made to assume no previous scientific knowledge, to insure new concepts are explained simply, often using examples of everyday items, and anything considered too detailed for the average undergradate course has been ruthlessly cut from the text."
Relying on my recollection of various undergraduate college survey or introduction courses to biology, botony, chemistry, and my experiences of growing roses, flowers, shrubs and vegetables, I gained a basic understanding of the science of soils, and the impact errors in soil management have on plants. Too many times I have attempted to treat the symptoms of sick plants and not the root causes: "Chapter 6: How can we optimize the physical condition of the soil for plant growth?" "What can we do to remediage a polluted site?"

When the authors conclude their presentation on page 185, we are presented five pages of other references including numerous internet web pages more than seven pages of index. The cost of the book is a lot, and in my opinion, worth every cent!

Kuczewski and Pinkus have carefully collected and developed cases that span the variety of issues faced by health care professionals, patients and families, ethicists, chaplains, policy makers and philosophers. The case study presentation frees readers from strict adherence to one way of analyzing the issues--inviting those from diverse philosophical schools to work together on the dilemmas we all face. It's hard to believe that no one has produced such a valuable resource in the past. This book should be on your shelf--except that you'll use it so much, it'll never get there.

Palestinians, Armenians, Albanians, Tamils, Chechens-around the world, ethnic groups fight to forge their own nation states. What is the secret of success? In this excellent book, Dr Mark Suzman, one of the few to have predicted the fall of the Afrikaner regime in South Africa, reveals the ingredients of successful ethnic nationalism.

The book rests on three case studies-Afrikaner nationalism, Irish nationalism, and Zionism. All three share a number of features. First, all were formerly under British rule. Second, all grew from a pre-existing ethnic culture based on language and religion-and a sense of discrimination coupled with a history of violent struggles against other ethnic groups. Third, all three had a significant literate class that could formulate the ideology of the nationalist movement-and strengthen the symbols and trappings of nationalism. Perhaps the most extraordinary example of this is the deliberate resurrection of Hebrew from an ancient religious language read by scholars and rabbis to a flourishing modern language spoken by millions. Fourth, all three movements were able to gather popular support through the promise of patronage and wealth once power had been seized. And finally, all were highly organised, having erected a parallel state apparatus that could be swiftly transformed into the real thing.

But alas for the nationalists of the world-and luckily for the rest of us-there is no magic bullet. As Dr Suzman emphasizes, while these features are necessary constituents of successful ethnic nationalism, they are scarcely sufficient. Factors external to the nationalist movement also matter. For example, if the regime that the nationalists are seeking to overturn or replace is strong-and seen by others in the international community to be legitimate-then the nationalists will have a much harder time winning through. For aspiring ethnic nationalists, gathering the support of the international community will ultimately be at least as important as the internal structure of the movement itself.

I have long admired Dr Suzman in secret; I am thrilled that the publication of this wonderful book allows me to make my admiration public.

I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.

The authors provide an in-depth treatment of three methods for
evaluating software architectures, all of which were developed at the
Software Engineering Institute with involvement by the authors. The
methods examined are:
(1) ATAM (Architecture Tradeoff Analysis
Method)
(2) SAAM (Software Architecture Analysis Method)
(3)
ARID (Active Reviews for Intermediate Designs)

Each of the above
address software evaluations in increasing levels of detail, with the
book's main emphasis on ATAM.

What makes this book so valuable is
the fact that you can learn much about developing software
architectures from the criteria with which they are evaluated. For
example, the discussion on quality attributes is eye-opening because
what architects consider to be well formed quality attributes are
usually too vague to properly evaluate, resulting in ill defined
architectures in the first place. Knowing how to evaluate the
architecture will provide the keys for defining a solid architecture.
More important is the way the authors define the outputs of the
architecture evaluation, which gives the practicing architect a
framework for design that fully meets the evaluation criteria. The
net result is that a defined architecture will unambiguously
communicate the design to the development team, as well as to the QA
team.

I especially like the business oriented approach that
addresses the costs and benefits of evaluation, the three approaches
from which to choose that best meets technical and business goals, and
the case studies that support each of the approaches. Another strong
point about this book is architecture is also evaluated with
production in mind. Too many books only consider architecture from
the development point of view, or in rare cases, from development and
QA points of view. The evaluation techniques in this book extend to
support and maintenance. The authors make selection of the best
technique easy by comparing them in Chapter 9, and provide an approach
to implement evaluations in Chapter 10.

If you're an architect I also recommend augmenting the excellent
material in this book with Design and Use of Software Architectures by
Jan Bosch , which gives an alternate method to ATAM that is more
complete in many respects. Even if you espouse Bosch's approach,
however, the approach and techniques given in Evaluating Software
Architectures: Methods and Case Studies are complementary. I personally
recommend both books and assign equal value to them.

THIS IS A TIPTOP REF FOR THOSE OF US WHO NEED TO PUSH OUR FACT-DRIVEN PROGRAMS THROUGH THE BARRIERS THAT READ: "I'VE MADE UP MY MIND & I'VE GOT MY OWN PRIVATE AGENDA, SO DON'T CONFUSE ME WITH THE FACTS!" THE CHICAGO 'HOMELESS' RESEARCH (EXHIBIT 10) IS A CLASSIC. EMPHASIS IS ON 'SOCIAL' PROGRAMS, BUT EVERY BUSINESS POLICYMAKER SHOULD OWN & READ & RE-READ THIS BOOK AT LEAST ONCE A YEAR.

Spiritual warfare has long been an uncomfortable topic -- and is often approached with the focus on the wrong subject -- on the enemy rather than on God. This book places the focus where it belongs, on the power a believer can experience through quiet and unobtrusive prayer walking, claiming amazing victories as an "attack lamb." Mark Geppert shares some awesome victories from his own experience -- including the fall of communism in the Soviet Union, the amazing spread of Christianity in China, and and outbreak of revival in Nepal, India. Learn practical guidelines for claiming YOUR city for God's kingdom.