I finishing my PhD in Cognitive Psychology, and I am new to the field of training. My purpose in reading training books is to discover whether or not I would like to pursue being a trainer, or at the very least use the information to help me in my current field. So, you can take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I know that ASTD is the big professional association for trainers, so I was surprised and disappointed in the limited usefulness of a book sponsored by them.

Other books present design and delivery in a more thorough manner. You can skim this book in a few minutes and get the key points. Whether this is entirely due to the lack of substantive content or due to the book's format is debatable, but I am thinking more the former than the latter.

The key points that are useful are not adequately backed up by sufficient supporting detail or research. I don't think the "Delivery" part should necessarily be backed up by research, but the "Design" part surely should. I would like to know why the techniques they suggest should work and how cognitive processes relate to those techniques. But my thinking that this is important may be more due to my own background, rather than a real flaw of the book. However, even if that is true, I have found other books that do give sufficient supporting detail and/or research.

The other books I recommend instead of this one are:
- Beyond the Podium by Rossett
- Developing Training Courses by Hassell-Corbiell
- Web-Based Training by Horton
- Multimedia for Learning: Methods and Development by Alessi and Trollip
- Building Expertise by Clark

A quick reference for all things related to Training Design & delivery. However, the coverage is surprisingly deep and some of the chapters are all you'll ever need to know about the topic.

Whether you want an overall picture of Training Design & Delivery or a beginner on his/her first steps and even when you become an expert, you'll find yourself referring to this book again and again.

The Handbook is divided into three section;
1) Instructor Based - Covers such topics as instructional systems design, using technology and games during training and evaluating training programs.
2) Design & delivery of Technology Based Training - If you want a more comprehensive coverage of e-learning, then you should refer to the newly published 'Handbook of e-learning.' However, this section remains quite valuable since it covers some of the other media.
3) Design & delivery of Self Directed Training - If they will learn on their own, then these are all the resources and tools you will need.

This Handbook, together with the 'ASTD Handbook of Training & Development' are essential reference for all Training & Development professionals. I predict that they will also be joined by the 'ATSD Handbook of e-learning' quite soon!

Anybody who enjoyed Matthew Lewis' 'The Monk' will appreciate George Lippard's "You ain't seen nothin' yet" style. The plot revolves around an American version of England's famous 'Hellfire Club' located in Philadelphia's Southwark region (Historians differ on rather or not 'Monk Hall' actually existed. Some claim that such a club did exist from the late 1700's until the 1820's. Other claim that the club sprang from Lippard's very fertile imagination) and features such goodies as white slavery, trap doors, and wanton booze & oyster abuse (now you know why the Republicans picked Philly for their convention). This is one wild read. Lippard once attempted to produce it as a play, but angry protesters threatened to burn down the theater. 'The Monks of Monks Hall' was America's first, real best seller. Read, no doubt, by people who kept uttering "Immoral...shocking...filth..." as they eagerly turned each page. Pick up this piece of history now.

This is a long, sprawling, peculiar novel, but one that I always enjoy going back to. I forget, every time I reread it, how wonderful and strange an adventure it is! Lippard is a minor figure in American letters, inspired by early American masters such as Charles Brockden Brown and popular French novelists such as Eugen Sue. The Quaker City is certainly a flawed work, but it is only more human, engaging and approachable because of this fact. Lippard was no master of plot structure or narrative technique; in fact, he wasn't much of a craftsman at all, regarding the nuances and fine textures of language. However, he was a writer gifted with a dizzingly original, and sometimes grotesque, imagination. The Quaker City is the kind of book that you can't pot down, although part of you sometimes wants to. His tale of the intrigues and iniquities lurking beaneath the surface of Victorian Philadelphia will shock and amaze. I especially recommend this novel for fans of Caleb Carr, Egdar Allan Poe, and Robertson Davies.

George Hall's series of aerial photobooks continues with Air Guard. Discussing the Air National Guard in the 1980s (when the book was written), the book offers a backward glimpse to the days of a larger military confronting the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, the book does a great job at depcting how the weekend warriors of the sky do their job, and is deservingly respectful to those who defended us in the days of Cold War worries.

I liked this book because of the overall history, of the Goodyear Blimps. It has many details about the operation and construction of the blimps, however, a little dated, it does tell of the day-to -day operations, and has colorful photographs, geared mainly for pre-teen, teenagers

Dr. Miller has, by and large, pulled in readings from "everyday" places--popular magazines, newspapers, &c. Because of this, the Prentice Hall Reader has a fresh, current feel. Organized by "modes" of writing with supporting how-to essays and a glossary.

I really liked this one. I thought the plot was better developed than the others I have read in this serise (Books 2&3). It was amazing really, the plot kept thickening and thickening until I thought she would never be able to pull it out but she did manage remarkably. Only the fate of Jennifer's family was left out. I enjoyed the main love interests in this one as well. I do tend to go in for tortured lovers but they were really a solid pair. I thought that the superstions of Cornwall made a nice background to the story and were a pleasent change from her usual settings. This book also answerd some questions I had after a previous book. All-in-all a good read but I would definitely recomend reading it in order in the Serise.

Civilian photographer George Hall takes you on a guided tour of USN Fighter Weapons School (AKA "Top Gun"), the Navy's post-grad school for fighter pilots. In Top Gun, the top pilots from fighter squadrons thruought the fleet come, not to compete against each other as depicted in the movie, but to learn from each other and to bring their new found expertise back to their units. Rather than flying against each other (they do plenty of that while at sea) they spar against "agressor units" trained adversary pilots steeped in pseudo-communist bombast and flying old but mrderously agile and hard-to-spot jets like the A-4 Skywhak and the F-5 Tiger II. (The F-16N, though slated to equip agressor units hadn't begun to enter service by the time the book was published.) Victory against these agressors, despite the age of their aircraft, is impossible - at the outset. But Top Gun is also about education, and the agressors work their charges well, until the tide of battle begins to turn, and the students begin besting their teachers.

More than just a picture book about Top Gun, Hall tells the story of air combat in general - tracing its roots in the flimsy planes and low-tech tactics of WWI to the failure of our all-missile interceptors in the Vietnam war, and the return of modern fighter pilots to the simple section and dogfight tactics of WWII. Hall's pictures compliment the story - when telling of the F-14's disadvantes in terms of its mammoth size, he cuts to a shot of the plane flanked by much smaller Skyhawks, showing how the F-14's tailplane is wider than the Skyhawk's entire wingspan. Describing the simplicity of the F-5 Tiger, the author shows a picture of its control panel, an austere set-up which looks barely sophisticated enough to fly a twin-engine Beech, let alone a mach-2 fighter. When mentioning just how old the agressors' planes are (the Skyhawk was already old when flying missions in Vietnam) he shows one of the venerable jets surrounded by its support team and looking less like an operational jet than an entrant at a Warbirds show. Though not military trained - and making no bones about it - Hall goes a long way to putting the reader into the pilot's seat (actually the observer's seat, in Hall's case, but the g-forces are at least as powerful there). The digital sophistication of the F-18 is ably contrasted with the brutish resistance of such earlier jets as the Phantom. He also consistently underscores Top Gun's philosophy - never get caught with your guard down. (In the low-level exercises, F-14 drivers can expect to meet such threats as helicopter gunships and close-support planes like the A-10, machines with no chance against a mach-2 fighter, unless able to trick its pilot into fighting according to their rules). Through it all, he tosses out some great stories of air combat. I bought this book back in 1987, when the movie and its hype was till fresh, and read it cover-to-cover countless times. Today, the navy has changed - new planes and men; desert storm; political correctness; women flying combat aircraft; Top Gun has moved to remote Yuma, AZ from its probably more popular home in Miramar near San Diego; the MiG-29 and its generation of Russian jets was just becoming well known; the cold-war was still going on; and the Phantom - the plane that arguably started it all - is now a memory almost completely gone from Navy inventories. Yet Hall's book is still fresh today, both as a time capsule for what has changed, and a reminder for how much remains the same in the world of air combat.

I find meteorology one of the more boring sciences, however, this made it less boring. At first I thought: How much is there to the weather? I though not much. Boy was I wrong! This helped me realize the complexities of the weather and has made it more interesting to me. I recommend this.

Silas Marner is a very interesting book. It is filled with excitement and suspense. I liked the book very much, but as a freshman in high school, it was very hard for me to read. George Eliot uses a lot of dialect along with some Old English words in her lovable tale. Eliot tells the story of a lonely weaver. After getting betrayed by friends in his old town of Lantern Yard, Silas moves to the town of Raveloe searching for a new life. His delusions keep him from getting accepted into the Raveloe community. After losing his faith in God and having his money stolen he gets a very special gift from someone he doesn't know, a little baby girl with golden hair. After that things work out for Silas and Eppie. George Eliot tells her classic novel in great detail with a lot of adjectives and metaphors. She has made a great novel that while a challenge is good for everybody. Silas Marner is really easy to comprehend because it is so realistic. I live in a small town and it reminds me of Raveloe. Sometimes I imagine that I am in Silas Marner's place and all my friends are the villagers. I think about what I would do if I was in Marner's place. Eliot also created a great plot for this book. This classic is great because it teaches people about life. It teaches people not to be selfish and to be kind to people no matter how good you think you are. Eliot has made a great book that would be great to read as a family.

I enjoyed this book very much. The morals and lessons it teaches you are very important. It is the story of a lonely man, who because he was falsely accused of stealing and because this cost him all his relationships with people, he secluded himself in his lonely house along with all his gold that he saved up. He never spent his money because he enjoyed its company. His gold was his only companion for several years of his life. Then one day, he was robbed, and he no longer had anything worth living for.
Silas was slowly dying of misery and depression. He had no reason to live. Then one day a little girl walked into his house and into his life. Her mother died, leaving the baby girl as an orphan. So, Silas adopted her and took her into his home. She grew up a poor, hard-working girl who loved her new father Silas and vice-versa. Because of this new daughter of his, Silas changed for the better. He became more caring and devoted to someone else besides himself. He started to go to church again and changed his views on what really was important in life. And one day when his treasure was found and returned to him, he didn't even care for it. He had something even more precious than gold: someone to love and receive love from.

The fact that Amazon has so many editions of Silas Marner available indicates that it is truly a classic if it is still being read more than 150 years after it was written.

It is unfortunate that some high school reviewers (or former high school readers) feel that they had this book "forced" on them. Yes, the English language has changed since the early 19th century, especially for American readers of this British author.

My suggestion would be to listen to "Silas Marner" as an audiobook, perhaps while reading along. I recently finished listening to this fine book narrated by Margaret Hilton, but I couldn't find her rendition among the titles available here. I'm sure there are many fine versions available.

So, give this tale a listen, and let the language flow into your ears. Then you will discover why this tale about a miserly old weaver, who has been wronged by his neighbors more than once, finds redemption and a new life when he adopts the little girl left on his doorstep is truly a classic.

Those people who are offended by the humor in this book: do you even know who the hell George Carlin is? Why on earth would you buy his book, and then complain about angry, profanity-laced, pro-drug, anti-religion humor? It's like buying a gallon of milk when you know you're lactose intolerant. That's who George Carlin is! Why are you surprised?

For those sane people who expect George Carlin humor when buying a George Carlin book, you will find an awful lot to laugh about in Napalm & Silly Putty. Sure, he's got a few old routines in here (not nearly as many as others have suggested), but if, like me, you haven't heard them in 20 years, you'll find them funny all over again. The sections on sports and death are particularly hilarious, and the Short Takes have many gems ("The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept;" "When Ronald Reagan got Alzheimer's Disease, how could they tell?").

It may not be as good as Brain Droppings, but this is still a very funny book by one of the most creative comic minds of the past century. Read it and laugh.

--I have to warn non-Carlin fans (or people that havent heard of him) be warned George offends alot of people, if you are easily offended then dont buy this book, don't even read it! dont borrow a copy, or glance at it in a store if you think you will be offended. If you DONT like George Carlin, dont read this book, dont protest him, In my opinion he is an insanely funny commedian and he has just as much right to write this book as anyone else. We live in a free country, he has the right to free speech! if you dont like George Carlin than leave him alone! Dont read his books, Dont buy his CDS!--

Now the review:

George speaks his peace abought everything from Napalm to Silly Putty (Hence the title) This book is pure Genius!! Combine one of the greatest minds of our time, with the grit grime and dirt of modern society, and the anger and general discomfort of an angry old man and you get George Carlin

His random style is a perfect blend of zany humor with a wit forged of tempered steel.

Here is a sample reading of some of his cleaner one liners-

-You know what's fun? Go to a German resteraunt and insist on using chopsticks

-I recently bought a book of free verse. For twelve dollars

-Sometimes they say the winds are calm. Well, if they're calm, they're not really winds, are they?

If you are a Carlin fan or an open minded person looking for some great humor look into this one

George Carlin is without a doubt one of the best comedians of all time. If you enjoy hearing his comic mayhem on CDs or seeing him live, you'll fall in love with "Napalm & Silly Putty".

Filled with humor, both new and old, this book has just about everything from airplane announcements to expressions that make no sense; from life to death; from organ doners and random thoughts; and a whole lot more! Also, this book contains short takes just like from "Brain Droppings". This book will have you laughing out loud and begging for more.

This book will offend people who dispise others for thinking on their own and voicing their openions, hypochondriacs, and people with no sense of humor. As for the rest of you, buy this book!! It's a must have for any Carlin fan.