My daughter received this book as a gift in 1977 when we lived in Louisiana and it has become a tradition to read it every Christmas (even though we left the South long ago). The characters are easy to relate to because we know the originals - and these are so clever. Just brush up on your accent before reading aloud.

This book I used in a Christmas theme when I student taught 3rd grade. They absolutley loved it. Not only was it funny but very very well written and entertaining. In fact, when I came back to visit them a week after I left, they made me read it again. Good spinoff of The Night Before Christmas.

This book is a real gem, both for a twist on the usual Christmas story (the paw prints of 8 tiny gators) as well as the regional aspect. It is a hoot to read out loud, to yourself and others!

I read this book (in conjunction with other texts) for a graduate section of a Social Policies class, and was impressed with the ease both authors transformed the abstract and dry into something exciting and inspiring.

No, social policy is not the most glamorous field for college students to enter, and unarguably the American system's shrinkage is going to pose severe problems in the next couple of years, but emotional and moral rewards of doing what is right make this venture worth it. Alternately, the authors balance this view with pragmatic political approaches that equip the reader with introductory strategies to hold off or even staunch further erosion of American social policy.

The book by itself is enjoyable, but advanced classes should use the American Welfare State as a supplementary text for historical background.

I took an undergraduate social policy course last semester and we used the Karger/Stoesz text. They do an excellent job at presenting such a broad subject matter in this introductory book. In addition, the authors make an earnest effort to accurately discuss both sides (conservative and liberal) of the social issues covered.

As a student I eagerly read the text each week, having found it both informative and engaging. Most of the chapters were enlightening, especially the ones that dealt with problems and issues that receive poor media coverage and therefore are not popular topics in today's political elections. For example, Chapter 5, Poverty in America, shined light on this oft-overlooked problem.

I highly recommend "American Social Welfare Policy: A Pluralist Perspective" to anyone looking for a great book that delivers a solid, high-level introduction to America's social policies.

I've been reading Karger and Stoesz for years. This is a good, relevant edition to understanding social welfare policy. However, the 4th edition leaves out the historical perspectives; readers will want to refer to earlier editions or supplemental sources for historical content.

I found this historical genealogy of the Jacob Fyock family a great resource as well as great reading for enjoyment. Howard Fyock has brought the Fyock ancestors alive by telling his personal stories about many of the Fyock ancestors. He has collected many pictures of his ancestors to help answer the question..."I wonder what my ancestors looked like." I am glad that he did not list just names and dates. Even if you are not related in anyway to the Fyock line, you will enjoy reading about the lives of the Fyock people. You will not be sorry you purchased this book.

Drs.Karger and Levine have written a "complete" Internet quide for all human services professionals and the general public. Starting from ground level this book presents a full picture of the Internet. "The Internet and Technology for the Human Services" provides a rich and vast source of ethical and practical information as well as an excellent list of human service related Internet sites.It provides the basic how to skills and background needed to start and use this transformative technology we call the web.

The Last Hawk takes place roughly at the same time as the action of Catherine Asaro's first novel, Primary Inversion, but on a completely isolated planet. The connection to her other Skolian novels is that the protagonist, Kelric, is a member of the Ruby Dynasty, ruling family of the Skolian empire. He crash-lands on an isolated, restricted, planet, Coba, and becomes a pawn in an extended power struggle.

The novel is really concerned with the social and political setup on this planet. The society of this planet is female dominated, and a powerful male like Kelric is a threat, both to the societal structure, and to the political independence: this last because if he is found by the Skolians, the restricted label is likely to vanish, and Coba will be absorbed into the Empire.

There are other key aspects to the social structure: Coba is dominated by a number of Houses, each with a female head. The planet has replaced war with a game called Quis. Each House has some first rate Quis players: the Head of the house, and members of her household, especially including her "husbands" (or "akasi"s). Information is transmitted by Quis playing, and very good players can influence "public opinion" by innovative playing. I found this concept fascinating, though in the end quite unconvincing. An important aspect of this is that a Calani (male Quis player) from one household is very valuable to another household, because of his "inside knowledge", as it were, and a certain flexibility he seems to gain from being exposed to different styles of Quis. Thus these Calani become, essentially, prize commodities, tradable for money or political favors.

After his crash, Kelric is rescued by a team from the leading allied house to the "ruling" house. Kelric, damaged and also unable to tolerate some of the local chemistry, barely survives. Soon, however, he has "married" the head of Dahl house (the house which found him), and he has met the heir apparent to the ruling House. Despite his emotional ties, he eventually tries to escape, and accidentally kills someone, as a result ending up in prison. However, he has two important things on his side: he is a natural genius at Quis (helped somewhat by his Skolian biomechanical enhancements); and he is very sexy, and the powerful women of the Houses tend to fall in love with him. The story follows him through a variety of Houses as the disruptions his presence causes begin to threaten the structure of Coban society.

This is an interesting novel, with much to recommend it, and very readable. I had problems with couple of things: the ultimate improbability of Quis is one, including the improbably sudden scientific advances supposedly resulting from Kelric transmitting ideas from Skolian culture to the Cobans via Quis. Also, a couple of villains who were almost too bad (though Asaro really tries hard to make them plausible and close to sympathetic), and I had a certain difficulty in staying emotionally involved with Kelric's many romances and quasi-romances. Kelric's amazing Quis ability was a bit of a cliche (though to be fair, Asaro provides at least some justification for it, in the form of his bio-mechanical enhancements), and the actions of some of the characters at times seemed to be designed to advance the plot rather than to arise from their own characteristics. The female-dominated society was quite well handled, I thought. Sometimes Asaro was too clearly engaging in allegory though, having the Coban women, generally good people, casually treat their men in blatantly sexist ways: all this seemed obviously a reversal of male sexism in our society: a fairly effective device for the most part, but a bit too pat and obvious in places. The novel's structure, in six parts corresponding to the six Houses of which Kelric becomes a member, allows Asaro to explore Coban society from many angles: some of the Houses are traditional, some modern, some strong, some weak: so we get a fairly varied look at the planet and society. That said, I didn't get a strong sense of a "complete" planet: rather, the society seemed to consist of smallish, isolated, enclaves.

When I originally finished this book, I thought "Fast, fun, read. Some nice ideas. Not quite successful." But it has improved in memory. Even if I found the basic idea of Quis unbelievable, it is a clever idea, and moreover one which works very well thematically. Also, I believe some of my original mild disappointment was due to the failure of the novel to conform to typical Romance plot expectations. But on reflection, this is a strength, and not a weakness. I feel sure, too, that this novel plants a charge waiting to be detonated later in the Skolian series, whenever Coba confronts the Universe at large.

The Last Hawk is about the brother of the main character in Primary Inversion and The Radiant Seas. He crash lands on a planet that has a matriarchal society in which a few men are treasured, the men who can play a game that determines the course of the future. Kelric is a natural at this game. He is a pawn traded from kingdom to kingdom, from queen to queen, as his influence as a player grows.

The book contains an interesting examination of male/female roles by making males subserviant to women. The game is also fascinating. It seems to be based on quantum physics, but I don't know enough about that area to be sure.

The book is good SF. It was also a great read. I picked it up thinking I wouldn't like it (after I'd read some of the reviews below) and couldn't put it down.

I think that there's a difference between great literature and great reading. I give books that I enjoy more stars than books I should enjoy but don't, so Proust (boring) gets 1 star and The Last Hawk (thrilling) gets 5. By the way, the SF I've liked includes Endymion, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, The Forever War, Rendezvous with Rama, The Left Hand of Darkness, Babel-17, The Man in the High Castle...

The last Hawk is the first book (and only so far)that I have read by Catherine Asaro. I had no idea what to expect, but I LOVED it. It had just the right mix of science fiction, fantasy, adventure, and romance. It covers a broad range of genres and the plot kept me reading. I couldn't put it down! This is definitely not the last book by Asaro that I will read. I hope that future books continue the tale of the planet Coba and its inhabitants and also what happened to Kelric. I definitely recommend this book!

Not out of print. Reprinted in 1991, 1998, and 2000 by Clearfield Company, Inc., by Genealogical Publishing CO., Inc., 1001 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

Good resource if your family line is there. Found some information on Ninian Beall, his father and grandfather. They were weavers in Scotland! A confusing marriage date is listed in the book but no information on my line through Ninian's Rachel.

This book contains no fewer than five of my family lines and was so well researched, I found my own name and the names of my seven brothers and sisters, who were listed in the correct chronological order and with correct dates of birth, with only one very minor mispelling and one name reversal. I was already familiar with ancestral lines about five generations back and was able to determine Ms. Doliante was quite accurate and thorough in all details. The entire book is extremely well documented, citing land grant records, wills, Bible records, census records, birth, death, and marriage records, court records, and personal interviews to back up all lineages. I found photographs of my ancestors, both some that I had seen before and some that I had not seen, as well as photocopies of Bible records and wills. The book is an absolute gold mine of information for anyone whose family surnames are found within its pages. I was just thrilled to find it!

This book is not out of print. You people need to get yourselves updated. There is a new, 1998 version, in two volumes for sale and I can't seem to find a price for it. Please Update Yourselves!! You might make a sale!!!

A collection of tales about "Runyonesque" characters in New Orleans, the author's style is reminiscent of Mark Twain. You might have to look up a few big words (like I did) and at times the laughs get bogged-down in the language. In addition to the title character, you will meet Johnny the Fox Cox, Suicide Simon, Roger the Lodger and Brother Bob Harrington, the self-proclaimed "Chaplain of Bourbon Street." Jacobs was a columnist with the Times-Picayune and knew many of these people, which also makes the book of interest to anyone studying New Orleans history.

"Schaum's easy outline:organic chemistry" is a packbackable book that is affordable for your budget. However, as it is an outline, it only functions as a guideline: briefly contains the very main topics in organic chemistry. My reccomendation is to use this book as a guide only because your organic textbook (whatever it is, mine is Brown and Foote's Organic Chemistry) has more details and good explanations.

Overall, I was pretty satisfied with this book. It contained a lot of general information as well as specific examples. To make the most out of the book, you need a pretty good understanding of organic chemistry to begin with. I used it after reading my own textbook, and then read this book to reemphasize the information. it helped me check my understanding of the material.

This book was NOT FUNNY! For the life of me, I have no idea why people find his 'Cajun' humor amusing. First of all, he uses one of the worst fake Cajun accents around. Second, his 'stories' are actually considered insulting and demeaning to most decent cajun people. This book was totally uncalled for.

If you enjoy laughing at clean jokes that are truly funny and without malice, Justin is as good as Robin Williams (no histrionics though) on a good day, funnier than Dan Ackroyd in his movies.

Mr. Wilson has two talents: cooking with a smile and spicy recipes for making people laugh.

A must see, must read and must get to know person both in print and the media.

Very few of the Schaum's outline series are helpful. This one is no exception. It does nothing to clarify the confusing concepts. All it does is provide more problems. Anyone taking organic chemistry knows that it is hard enough to have time to do all the problems in the assigned textbook let alone do more from this book. Furthermore,the answers to the questions are poorly explained. Save your time and money and check out your school library for other helpful books instead.

What you should remember about the Schaum's series is that all of them, though they may call themselves "outlines," are in fact rather cheap textbooks. They include many more solved problems than your standard textbook, but they are also not as slick or nice to look at.

The organic chemistry outline can be helpful to you, perhaps. The main draw is that each chapter includes a summary of reactions that might be worth it... if, that is, you already know which reactions are more useful than others. The amount of information is great, and this may make it difficult for you to sort out which ones are worth your attention.

The Schaum's outlines are, in my opinion, great for those motivated students who would like to gain some knowledge of the subject. They can also help when you are stuck with a problem, as chances are you will find a solved problem in the book that is at least similar. Whether that is worth the cost is another question.

Schaum's outlines are perfect for what they propose to do -- give the student as much practice as possible. They are experience tools, not teaching tools. The secret to doing well in genchem/orgchem is to practice, practice practice. The more problems you do, the better you will become. Concepts and theories are only half the game in chemistry.