I don't understand why this book and this author's other book, The Grunts, are not more highly acclaimed. I've read a fair number of books about Vietnam and, in my opinion, these are two of the very best. Anderson's writing style is straightforward and highly engaging. He knows how to tell a true story in a very interesting way. He also has a sharp wit. I wish he had written more books - about Vietnam or anything. I hated to finish this book because it's so good.

I'd recommend reading this book first, as it covers the author's first 6 months of duty "in the rear with the beer", and then reading "The Grunts" which covers his next duty in a field combat role. The two combined will give a wonderfully written perspective on the Vietnam war from a highly literate Marine officer. You can learn a lot and be well entertained in the process.

Dr. Charles Arn presents a step-by-step approach at deciding if, how, when and why to start a new church service. Anyone in church leadership would benefit at the orderly approach and abundance of helpful information presented. May be a liitle dry to those not interested in the area of church growth.

For any church considering, or that should be considering, adding a second (or third) service, this is an invaluable tool. Arn's focus is not on duplicating an existing service, but on designing a new service, one different from the present service, intended to reach a clearly defined target group.

In my chuch consulting work, as I help churches identify and remove barriers to growth, I almost always give this book to churches that are at the point of needing to add a second service. I recommend that they form a Worship Options Task Force that will then use this book as a road map for their work: defining who it is they want to reach with their new service, then making appropriate decisions about time, place, style of music, etc., based on who their target group is. This book can lead such a planning group step by step through this process. It can also help the group with the critical decision of when to add the new service as well as how to gain congregational support for the new service.

Arn estimates that half of all congregations are good candidates for adding a second service. From my work, my observation is that that percentage is on the high side. A church may meet the numerical criteria Arn outlines, yet not be ready to add a second service; there are sometimes other other needs or barriers to growth that need to be addressed before the new service issue is addressed. But even though I might not apply this book's recommendations to 50% of all churches, for those churches where a second (or third) service is needed, this book is a wonderful and practical tool.

What a FUN idea! This book would make a great jumping off point for a grammar school poetry unit (April is National Poetry Month!), with its short and funny poems and its clever pet perspectives. I wish Amazon did one of those "see inside" things for this book, because the cover doesn't even do it justice (altough it IS what drew me to it on the shelf) -- inside: timeless photos of un-model-looking kids and cool animals, and a crisp layout that reflects and enhances the lightness and joy of the poems.

A fresh and beautiful take on children and their pets, Pet's Best Friend pairs Rita Haft's extraordinary photographs with kid-friendly and original poems uttered from the pet's point-of-view. Children will delight in reading the poems or having them read aloud, as they study the amazing photographs of unusual pets and "real" children who love them. Adults and the children who love them will treasure this.

The novel chronicles the injustices that surround Maggie, who is quiet and doesn't fight back. A chilling look at poor, urban life in the late 1800's, it is also a tale critical of society's judgmentality and questioning of morality. A more complex novel than it seems on first look, it is wonderful to take apart and examine the relationship between Maggie and Pete, Maggie and her mother, and Maggie and Jimmie.

When I discovered this book, I was already writing a story cycle of my own, The Acorn Stories. Winesburg, Ohio became a strong influence on that book, and also led me to write New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio. In Sherwood Anderson's acclaimed story cycle, a small town finds itself entering the twentieth century with loneliness and confusion. The same industrialism that Anderson would explore so well in his novel Poor White also asserts itself constantly here, turning a beautiful landscape into a sometimes desecrated one.

The young reporter George Willard appears in most of the stories, providing a connection for people who feel they lack connection and a voice for people who feel they lack a voice. Though many readers consider this book a bleak and disjointed novel, I consider it a collection of stories that interrelate in surprising, often brilliant ways. As for the bleak part, please also look at the many moments of comfort, the many sparks of inspiration.

I eventually lost track of how many times I read Winesburg, Ohio. I just know I'll read it again.

This Christian ethics books offers a perspective on the moral dillemas we face today from a Christian point of view. The book is a concise chapter-by-chapter survey of various contemporary issues, including: abortion; euthanasia; genetic engineering; sexual promiscuity; crime and punishment; drug abuse; the family; pornography; homosexuality; technology issues; environmentalism; the media; and other issues. This book is hard-hitting and is resounding reply to those secularists who ask that Christians sit on sidelines of the political realm. If you like this book you'll probably like Understanding the Times by David Noebel and The Trouble with Democracy by William Gairdner.

I found this book to be singular in tackleing such difficult issues with a Christian perspective. The general idea behind this book is both well needed and a long time coming. However, i felt mislead by the title, as i thought it would contain more of a presective of how Christians SHOULD think about such dilemmas. Also, i found this book to be poorly written at times. The grammar and proofreading was not on a "published book level." Yet, it's attempt to discuss such issues from a Christian perspective were some what redeeming.

This is a wonderful Biblical source for many life issues that are not only a harm to society, but that affect Christians

The astonishing thing about this book -- and a lot of Henry James's writing -- is his insight into the problems of women. This book deals with the problem of independence and freedom. Most of us, let's admit it, love the idea of being swept off our feet by some competent, assertive male. It's a real turn-on. If you don't believe it, check out how many successful professional women secretly read historical romances by the boxload. The problem comes the next morning when he starts to take control, bit by bit, of your entire life. In this book you have Olive, who is not, I think, a lesbian but someone who is very lonely and doesn't trust men and Verena, who likes men just fine, but is, for the moment anyway, under the spell of Olive and her feminist ideology. Are these our only options? Verena Makes her choice, but James notes that the tears she sheds may not, unhappily, be her last.

Henry James's, "The Bostonians," is a simple, but increasingly entertaining love story set in the years soon after the end of the Civil War. Basil Ransom, a true Southern gentleman from Mississippi, has moved North (specifically, to New York City) to try and start a career away from the impoverished South of the Reconstruction days. Shortly after moving North, he pays a visit, at her behest, to the Boston house of his distant cousin, Olive Chancellor. Olive, a stalwart in the women's rights movement of the time, invites Basil to her home in order to offer help and assistance to her Southern cousin, but she also wishes to save him from the flawed ways he certainly must have taken on growing up in the South. Her self-seeking, ulterior motives fail miserably, of course.

It is through Olive that Basil Ransom meets Verena Tarrant, the young woman who has left her lower middle-class family to move in with and be molded by Olive. Verena has a tremendous speaking ability which caught Olive's (and the other women's (womyn's?) movement leaders') attention. But ultimately, Verena also catches Basil's attention... not for her feminist diatribes, but for her beauty and the passion of her speeches. Basil is instantly struck by Verena, and from this point onward the plot focuses as Basil attempts to seek out his love interest who is highly guarded by Olive, Verena's parents, and several others.

The dialogue between Olive and her friends with Basil Ransom, is a constant back and forth that is civil on the surface, but boiling with hostility underneath the social niceties. While Basil is always cool and focused as he tracks the object of his love, Olive Chancellor only becomes more paranoid as she sees that she is gradually losing her young charge... to a Southern Neanderthal. "The Bostonians" meanders through the first couple hundred pages with witty dialogue between the alien Basil and his new peers, but as his focus intensifies, so does the plot. James draws all this circling and stalking into a final, climactic scene that many will be cheering, but one that many modern-day feminists and their sympathizers will be cursing.

James after 1898 was too subtle, too often employing apposition to add layers like coats of paint to each observation. Works like The Ambassadors (1903) rely on the reader's powers of synthesis, which can be in turns exhilarating or frustrating. The Bostonians (1885) is an extremely straightforward, dramatic, cruel, hilarious, political, compassionate love story and one of the best novels by anyone. Olive Chancellor is tragic: with so much love behind her cold, horrified stares. Basil Ransom is magnetic, but an educated idiot savant whose passion and will are nothing other than natural talent. Verena Tarrant has nothing but natural talent--she is an organism that throbs with passion like a finely tuned Geiger counter. Whether the private turmoil of sex and marriage finally draw her from the political sisterhood, and what happens to queer women like Olive, are high-stakes, human questions that James presents with sheer drama and almost unbelievable insight.

This is one of the worst textbooks I've ever bought. At least it's complete at over 1000 pages. The example problems, the heart of a text on engineering, leave MUCH to be desired. More than once the authors have decided to reveal new, and consequently unexplained concepts in the first problems at the chapter's end. That coupled with the fact that the instructor's solution manual contains few actual solutions is unforgivable. Repeatedly I've been forced to guess or assume reasons for the existance of certain calculations. Rarely do the authors explain their reasoning for doing certain things and if they do explain something it's not easily understandable from the text. I wouldn't recommend this text to anyone! If you're thinking about getting this book as a desk reference don't waste your money!

The correct title for this book is "Reinforced Concrete Design" not "Reinforced Cornet Design".

I am not sure what a reinforced "cornet" is?

This book has excellent examples for thoroughly designing reinforced concrete structural members. It references directly to the ACI code.

As a resident, I frequently prepared journal clubs, where we have to carefully discuss and scrutinize studies. I gained some introduction from "Appleton and Lange's Review of Epidemiology and Biostatistics for the USMLE". But preparing for journal clubs was quite different. There are many of statistical and epidemiological terminology in each article, some I am familiar with, but others are confusing and new. In this very helpful "dictionary" I was able to find more than 95% of the terms with brief definition and good short explanation that successfully allowed me to soundly evaluate the studies and prepare an impressive brief, neat handouts. The great thing about this dictionary was its well organization and ease to find what you are looking for. My friends frequently borrowed when they have to prepare their journal clubs, and found it really helpful.
It is a dictionary; i.e., arranged alphabetically sequencing the terms, and if a term has more than one name, they mention them all, before the explanation.
I highly recommended to every resident, as it will not only will help during residency, but also surely during real life and practice, especially a with hundreds of "trials, studies" appears in medical journal daily.
I gave it four not five stars, because few explanation were rather short, despite informative, and lack of illustration and pictures, which may require you to use a regular textbook in Epidemiology, this happened maybe almost 1 from every 10 terms.

One of the major problems with studying the field of epidemiology is the inconsistency of terminology that is used. This is because the field is relatively young, is actively evolving and has developed from multiple other disciplines including the social sciences as well as the medical sciences and statistics. As a result, it can be both confusing and frustrating for the student. This dictionary is the "bible" of terminology for the fireld, in part because there is no other. This should be an absolute requirement for the shelf of every student in the field of epidemiology. Even experienced epidemiologists are encouraged to have a copy for reference purposes. The only caution is that a new edition is due out soon. It can only be better than the first edition. Get it.

This book doesn't really seem to deal with Early the general as much as it does Early the leader of the Lee cult after the war. Skip ahead to the last few chapters.

For those well familiar with the Civil war, this is a great biography of Early in that it concentrates on Early the person and the General while assuming that you have the basic facts down on the Civil War. The author does not spend too much time on minute detail on troop movements that has been covered many times before but provides in-depth insight to "Old Jube" and his actions. A tough and controversial fighter, until reading this book I didn't know that the former Commonwealth Attorney and life long bachelor from Franklin County sired four children refusing to marry his companion because she was beneath his station. Great historical highlights such as Early's controversial role on Lee's left at Gettysburg, his great assignment defending Fredericksburg against great odds while Lee takes the rest of the army to Chancellorsville, his zealous and dictatorial grip on the Lost cause syndrome, and his public branding of the ill equipped Longstreet (not a lawyer and politically naive) as the cause of Lee's defeat at Gettysburg. Wonderful that it highlights the second battle of Fredericksburg and how the Federals found out the heights were lightly defended. In addition, the author makes an excellent case that when defending the valley after Jackson, Ewell did as well as Jackson until Grant sent Sheridan and a 40,000 man army to defeat him. The author notes that aside from poor use of his calvary and his negative tongue-lashing, Lee's "bad, old man" was a tough fighter and a major player in the Army of Northern Virginia.

I find that Andersons best work has been put into this book, and if you decide to purchase any of his books, this is the one to get. It has a great introduction and kept me glued to it until the last moments