First, I want to say that I have NOT read this book; I have some comments based on its table of contents. I teach research methods in education, and have served on over a hundred dissertation committees in education and other fields (including several dissertations in psychology), and I would not use or recommend this book primarily because of its extremely limited treatment of qualitative research. Despite the book cover's claim that the book deals with "the entire range of research methodologies in psychology", the coverage of qualitative methods appears to be limited to one chapter on naturalistic and case-study methods. (A second chapter which deals with field research in fact seems to focus on quasi-experimental and single-subject designs, which are not qualitative.) The rest of the book is heavily quantitative/experimental in its approach (there are three chapters on experimental design alone). It seems revealing that although there are sections on the limitations of naturalistic and case study research and correlational and differential research, there is no explicit section on the limitations of experimental research. There is also no discussion of one of the most common qualitative approaches used in psychology--the qualitative interview study, which is different from a "case study". (For more on this approach, I recommend "Learning from Strangers: The Art and Method of Qualitative Interview Studies", by the psychologist Robert Weiss.)

If you are a student in a very quantitatively-oriented psychology department, this may be a useful book for you. However, at a time when many research methods books are devoting much more space to qualitative methods, Graziano and Raulin's book seems a bit anachronistic. Several highly regarded research methods textbooks that are more even-handed in their coverage are David Krathwohl, Methods of Educational and Social Science Research: An Integrated Approach (second edition, 1998), and Colin Robson, Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers (1993; second edition forthcoming). There is also an enormous literature on qualitative methods specifically; simply search this site under "qualitative research".

As a Ph.D. student that is about to start my dissertation I found this book extremely helpful in wading through the various research and analysis methods. Filled with examples (although principally focused on Psychology), the book has helped me plan my dissertation. A great reference book and in my opinion a must have for those who are about to start their dissertation.

I decided to adopt this text for my course as it is comprehensive, up-to-date, and includes a wealth of supplementary materials that are web-based, as well as available on the accompanying CD. Recommended highly for undergrad AND graduate students.

a collection of poetry from as far back to phillis wheatley to today, so if you a fan of black poets from older day, you can find some of their works in this collection

The Vintage Book of African American Poetry, edited by Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton, is reminiscent of a somewhat earlier anthology EVERY SHUT EYE AIN'T ASLEEP (also edited by Mr Harper and Mr Walton). The poems in the Vintage Book span three centuries, from Jupitor Hammon and Phillis Wheatley, to Carl Phillips and Reginald Shepherd; the 20th century, as one might expect, is most generously and gloriously represented. This reviewer has always prized the work of Countee Cullen and of Robert Hayden; and is grateful to make the acquaintance of Sterling A. Brown and Gwendolyn Bennett (her poem "To A Dark Girl," written early in the last cnetury, is an irreducible greatness); Langston Hughes is shown to advantage in the selection of his work, many of the chosen poems being new to this reader. It shames us that hithertofore we had not been familiar with the work of Boston-born William Stanley Braithwaite. Claude McKay and Jean Toomer appear in these pages, McKay's finely wrought sonnets being familiar from other anthologies. New to us, and a gift for which the reader is grateful, is Margaret Walker's "October Journey," of Keatsian loveliness.

Stylistic diversity exists here, and surfaces in a salient fashion as we reach the middle of the twentieth century: Gwendolyn Brooks (both formal and colloquial); Bob Kaufman (can we cavil at the omission of his fine eulogistic poem "Afterwards, They Shall Dance"?); Etheridge Knight (whose diamond-like haiku enliven our sense of the possibilities of the form); and the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, whose "Bounty" is indeed a marvel. Raymond Patterson's baldly unsubtle imitation of Wallace Stevens ("Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Blackman") strikes this reader as a culpable generosity of inclusion on the part of the anthologists.

We find merit in the poems of Audre Lorde and Lucille Clifton; Sonia Sanchez's piece urging nuclear disarmament does not affect us positively, on either a political or an esthetic level, a slack garrulity that is too long-winded to be a slogan and too formless to be a poem. Jay Wright, Michael S. Harper, Al Young and Toi Derricotte (almost exactly contemporaneous) fashion lyrics of beauty, ingenuity, toughmindedness and considerable appeal. We value Marilyn Nelson's poem (charmingly sardonic) called "Emily Dickinson's Defunct." Yusef Komunyakaa, Thylias Moss, and Rita Dove -- justly renowned poets -- are in the Vintage Book (Komunyakaa a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1994, Dove a recent U. S. poet laureate). Nathaniel Mackey's poems display an unparalled intelligence and ability to renovate and renew the language; his work should be more widely known. Elizabeth Alexander cages wrath within formality in "The Venus Hottentot", and is quite effective in her sequence of poems about Muhammad Ali. And finally, an autumnophile reviewer must congratulate Anthony Walton on the achievement of his lyric "The Summer Was Too Long"; great poetic force is also to be found in his poems on Thelonious Sphere Monk and Emmett Till.

In short, this is a splendid anthology, recommended to all. There are lapses into the ineffectual stridency of sloganeering; nonetheless, we venture to say that the reader will be nourished and fortified by the majority of the poems in the Vintage Book of African American Poetry. These are lyrics of immitigable beauty, of consummate artistry, of serious esthetic accomplishment.

An excellcent collect of African American Poetry. Never really been interested in poetry, but after reading this book can't wait to read more poetry any kind of poetry.

Indeed, "Chicken Soup's" Jack Canfield has a promotional blurb on this book's front cover. Fans of his work & the "Teen Power" series might be delighted by this volume. I guess I'm not w/in that target audience. This volume is essentially an anthology w/ many "cutesy" mini-essays on various sub-aspects of learning about leadership. But I can't see it appealing to too many student leaders beyond those in Jr. High.

Brilliant book for students in High School, it is an ideal workbook for teachers like me who want to give kids leadership skills. What I like best is it brought together the best of the speakers we have had in our schools -- The Kids Were Blown Away!

If you are looking for a collection of ceremonial moments, this book is not for you! I was looking for ceremonial type rituals that I could do in order to encourage and empower myself. What I did find was an adequate explanation about brain waves and how to get to the "Alpha" state. Once in the Alpha state, the author has the person repeat affirming things to herself, such as "I AM God's beautiful love energy," or "I AM an optimistic and positive thinker." I was hoping to go a little deeper here. Meditation is great, and I use it all the time. But this book didn't live up to its title.

After reading this book and following the guidelines laid out within, I was able to realize that you only need yourself to be really happy. Dr. Zaffuto shares his experiences and life's knowledge with his readers in a way that is both spell-binding and educational. The style in which it is written allows the reader to almost experience the alpha state WITH the author. One of the most personal, insightful books I have had the pleasure to read.

I purchased this book to gain more information about Italian culture and history in general and to plan a trip to Italy as well. The "Idiots" guide is properly titled since its information in trite and common and I found the book to be pretty useless. Many other books on the subject are much better.

I just returned from a fabulous trip to Italy, and I found this book to be an invaluable aid. It truly helped me get a richer and more insightful appreciation of Italian culture and history. Congrats to the authors for a superlative job. Their work was instructive, detailed and entertaining.

Gabrielle Euvino's guides to Italian language and history provide clear, consise information imbued with intelligence, warmth and humor. She has an inherent love of the culture and strong sensitivity for the neophyte student who seeks information. A desire to learn is all that's required of anyone looking to Euvino's books for understanding Italian and Italy. Expect to be charmed and entertained by the unexpected, as well as provided an education.

The one word that characterizes all the books of the Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy? BORING!!!!!!!!!! The book moves too slowly and is simply too inconsistant. Luke Skywalker runs off to become a hermit at Darth Vader's old retreat rejecting his Academy, his family and pretty everything else. Only a mysterious woman who is able to enter his stronghold induces Luke to leave with promises about his lost mother. Leia is shown much more as the Chief of State, an idea that did have merit, while Han Solo is shown more as the family man. The problem is, is that the story moves so slowly. The characterizations are weak: Princess Leia, the people's leader refuses to learn the names of her bodyguards preferring to ignore their existance. That is totally contrary to Princess Leia, Han Solo is done all right but that is because he really has nothing to do. Luke is done terribly. The Black Fleet crisis marks the epitome of stupid Jedi power Luke. It took Zahn coming back into the fold to save the expanded universe after the Black Fleet Debacle. The Lando adventure has possibilities but it too drops by the wayside due to just too much non-sensical writing. Perhaps this story should have been a one or two book set not a trilogy, at time it feels like the auther was just trying to fill space. In any event, this book needed some major editing and marked a dark period of Star Wars literature that not even the Jedi Academy Trilogy (horrible as it was)reached.

There really ought to be a place where you can rate these trilogies as a unit. Trying to write reviews as if they were independent volumes doesn't make a lot of sense.

The 'Black Fleet' trilogy takes a long time to take off in volume 1, seems to develop some promise and momentum in volume 2, and it isn't until you finish volume 3 that you really realize how much of a waste of time it was to read it. The first volume takes some time getting three plots moving. The main plot is the war between the New Republic and the evil and aggressive Yevetha, who are planning to take over their star cluster (and then the universe) with the help of some Imperial ships they captured a few years back. This gets going really slowly, as Leia spends most of the book getting utterly duped by the evil Yevethan viceroy who engages her in long and pointless "negotiations" in which he apparently does nothing but talk about how badly his people were mistreated by the Empire. The war has hardly even started at the end of volume 1. Leia spends much of the trilogy fighting off evil politicians who want to depose her from the presidency, but I have to say that she doesn't have any great claim to the job from the skills she exhibits.

Meanwhile, Luke starts off deciding to be a hermit like Obi-wan and Yoda before him, but is quickly derailed by a mysterious and irritating woman named Akatha who promises that he can find out some information about his mother if he hares off across the galaxy to who knows where with her and listens to pious lectures about how bad it is that Jedi kill people. Luke is somewhat of a disappointment here, since he seems to be a strange mixture of 3 parts mature Jedi sage and 7 parts Luke the Kid from Episode IV. Obi-wan wouldn't have been as naive as Luke here on his worst day.

And in plot number 3, Lando, Lobot, C3PO and R2D2 go off to help investigate a mysterious Flying-Dutchman type ship. Also, Chewie goes off to his homeworld to help his son get through a coming-of-age ritual, but he isn't seen again until volume 2 when it will be necessary for him to return to help out Han. This is not giving away a secret, since there is a lot of discussion of Chewie's life-debt to Han, so you just know he is going to have a chance to pay it off.

Like I say, it's slow going, but the writing is competent and you may be willing to trust the author in the hope that he will bring these plots together in some interesting way down the road. Well, it is my sad duty to tell you that this hope is in vain. One of the subplots ends up having ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with everything else. The war will not get resolved in an interesting way, and the bottom line is that you will end up feeling disappointed. Or at least I did.

The writing might merit 3 stars for volume 1, 4 stars for volume 2, and 2 stars for volume 3, but if it winds up on a 2-star note it's a 2-star trilogy in my book.

I've read several Star Wars novels. Some of them are quite good (Zahn's original Thrawn trilogy), and some of them make me wonder how they ever found their way to print (Anderson's Jedi Academy trilogy).

But nothing in the entire Star Wars line up has impressed me the way Michael P. Kube-McDowell's "Before The Storm" does. The book is exceptional. I could not put it down. It is not only THE best Star Wars book I've read, it's one of THE best novels I've ever read.

The book holds its own against the best works by Tom Clancy.

I'm not kidding.

Gone are the silly situations that Star Wars is sometimes known for (Ewoks beating a Legion of the Emperor's best troops; Jar-Jar taking out several attackers because his foot stuck in the wires of a downed droid).

What you get instead are the more "adult", serious types of situations, like the attack on the Death Star or the battle against the giant Walkers on the ice planet of Hoth.

The story is a very believeable look at the "empire building" the New Republic is engaged in 12 years after the events of "Return of the Jedi".

If you like the political intrigue evident in "The Phantom Menace", you get much more of it in this book. I like what Kube-McDowell did with Leia--she's not infallible.

You also get some gruesome, realistic action, that takes you to a Star Wars universe that is more akin that of "Babylon 5" or "Aliens" than the sometimes too childish "Star Wars" flicks and books.

For example, take a peek at this paragraph describing the reaction to a planetary bombardment:

---- On what had been one of the wide, flat landing pads of Ten South, those who had come out to watch the visitors land were evenly divided between the stunned and the screaming. A man near Plat Mallar went to his knees and vomited. Turning away from the sight, Mallar found a woman clawing madly at her allsuit with such force that she was bleeding profusely from beneath what was left of her nails. The sight galvanized Mallar out of his paralysis, and he began edging his way toward the east edge of the pad. ----

If you want to read something more believable than your average, every day Star Wars book, I suggest this one. If you want the more "fantasy" style of stuff, then you might want to look elsewhere.

I give this book my highest rating and recommend it to anyone interested in reading Star Wars.

It's a new take on a familiar universe.

Kenneth.

I really enjoy the Using Series, and look for them whenever I want to learn more about a certain topic. However, this book is deplorable. It is not made for anyone looking to write their own code, or anyone who actually wants to program. All this book tries to do is show you how to use someone else's code. I do not mean another module, such as the infamous CGI.pm moudle, but rather using another script and "tweaking" it for your needs. It also does not seek to explain the theory behind the code. I was also quite disappointed in how it was organized. The Using Seies are good books, but this one doesn't belong in the family. There are much better books out there that will serve your needs.

I found this book to be hard to read and poorly written. The examples are very difficult to follow because most are only code segments not the full code. This makes it very diffcult to follow. As any experienced programmer will tell you "Nothing helps more than a good example.". This book is highly lacking of good examples. I have several years of experience with programming in several languages, which allowed me to fill the gaps in the examples, how ever a beginning programmer would be lost. In conclusion I do not recommend this book to a programmer of any level.

I found this book to be hard to read and poorly written. The examples are very difficult to follow because most are only code segments not the full code. This makes it very diffcult to follow. As any experienced programmer will tell you "Nothing helps more than a good example.". This book is highly lacking of good examples. I have several years of experience with programming in several languages, which allowed me to fill the gaps in the examples, how ever a beginning programmer would be lost. In conclusion I do not recommend this book to a programmer of any level.

Ignatieff's credibility, particularly in the field of human rights, is forever tarnished by his marked appeasement of Serb ethnic cleansers in Bosnia several years ago. It is only because Bosnia was ignored, and those responsible never held accountable, that their appeasers still publish and get read. I recommend, for those who want some perpective on Ignatieff, to read his works pertaining to the Balkans written during the period 1992-1995.

Ignatieff offers a measured, limited, and explicitly political, i.e., dialogic, nondogmatic, nonmetaphysical, pragmatic, approach to human rights advocacy and questions of international jurisdiction. Excellent, compelling, convincing. I can't say I'm entirely convinced, mind you. One surprise is that I found Appiah's essay--I am a great admirer of Appiah and, in my estimation, his reply to Taylor in _Multiculturalism: The Politics of Recognition_ is among the finest essays ever written--unconvincing, particularly with regards to the question of "rights and majorities." On this, see Jeremy Waldron's _Law and Disagreement_.

As a die hard Redskins fan, I was very sorry to see this excellent concept so badly muffed. The idea behind this book is to cash in on the Washington Post vault, providing great photos and articles combined with new pieces by long-time Skins beat reporters to tie it all together. Sadly, whoever edited and proofread this thing reeeally dropped the ball. Sentences at the bottom of the page are repeated at the top of the next, photographs are mislabeled, pieces of sentences are missing, words are chopped off in the middle. Probably still of some value for the die hard Skins fan, but a real black eye for the Washington Post. If their newspaper were produced as shoddily, Richard Nixon would have finished his second term.

Yes, there are some typos and such in the early chapters but the book isn't as lousy as described in the 2-star review. Most of the problems are hyphen-ated words that are not at the end of a page or line. It is like the typeset was changed but the book was not reproofed.

Still, there is a lot of good information in the book. I think it covers items that Loverro's book (very good as well) ignored or glossed over-- how Gibbs wanted to sign and trade Riggo and how Joe Jacoby ended up sticking around in that first camp. The Times summary makes it sound like Gibbs and Beathard were geniuses building a team. This book shows that they were also lucky geniuses. If you are a Skins fan, you should own this book.

I see there is also a newer edition out with the Synder years (ugh).

This books focus on the fundamental principles that rules information technologies, a really good for advanced computer users