In this book and its essential companion, The Instructor's Manual, McKinney, Beck, and Heyl have provided an amazing resource for instructors who use an active learning perspective (versus the old, "sage on the stage" one-way talk method). The student handbook presents instructions and worksheets (when needed) for 50 exercises in 10 topic areas and 2 more general classroom process areas: theory & methods, culture, socialization and interaction, groups and social influence, stratification, organizations and bureaucracy, race & gender & sexual orientation, deviance & crime, collective behavior, social institutions, multi-topic assignments, and course structure & process.

Each set of short instructions follows the same format: rationale, instructions on actually doing the exercise, and how it will be graded. Some exercises require worksheets, which are included. The exercises were contributed by faculty who actually developed and tested them, and so most of the bugs have already been worked out. Instructors who use these exercises can modify them to suit their own classes, but they are so well-designed that I suspect most will just use them "as is."

The accompanying instructor's manual is an absolute necessity. The table of contents gives a short description of each exercise, as well as a chart indicating whether the exercise is for individuals or groups, and how much time is needed for the exercise. Each contributor has provided several pages of background for each exercise, following the same format: history and context, purpose, instructions for facilitating the exercise, other suggestions, and hints about time use.

An entire introductory sociology course could be designed around this book, or entire sections of it could be used for specific courses, e.g. on stratification or social movements. With this book and some rich supplementary readings, your students would probably not need a textbook.

The authors have provided a wonderful resource for those of us teaching from an active-learning perspective. I highly recommend the book AND the instructor's manual.

This title shipped more quickly than I had anticipated and, being a big fan of the 1998 edition, I started in on it right away. So, while the format and the new articles were satisfying, I was a bit miffed that there were also many articles that were re-prints from the 1998 edition. I suppose that it's an old game with textbooks and those considered supplements to them, to revise, call it a new edition, and force students to pay the premium, but with a title like "Current Perspectives in Geology" I was hoping for the latest in information. Some of the articles are dated from the 1970's. Drawing from publications that include Science, Discover, Nature, and others, I would hope that there would be enough new material in the last two years to not require as many repeats. Still, five stars for those who have not read the 1998 edition, three for those of us who were hoping for more new info.

The Book of Mirrors has several good laughs and quite a bit of thought-provoking material in it. It also has fairly thorough indices on most of the information in Mage books published to that point. None of it, however, is necessary for any clear-thinking Mage player who owns the main rule book. To boot, some of the FAQs are self-contradictory. The "cheat-sheet" at the back of the book, "Common Magickal Effects," is simply inaccurate, and D. McKinney's article on gender and roleplaying is sexist and insensitive.

While it contains useful, thought-provoking matieral, and quite a few laughs, the FAQs that most people rave about are ill-thought out and sometimes self-contradictory. Also, the section regarding gender issues and roleplaying is rabidly sexist, which is somewhat surprising coming from a company that is so selfconsciously egalitarian. There is an index of all the mage books, items, rotes, etc, up until the publication of the BoMirrors, and a basic sphere effects cheat-sheet, but the latter is inaccurate.

This is one of White Wolf's better offerings within the Mage arena. While it doesn't have as many rules clarifications as I would like, it does give a strong showing for the whys and hows of running a good Chronicle, from the ground-up, including different styles and other methodologies.

One of the nice touches that's found within is the 'FAQ', a synopsis of questions similar to a Usenet FAQ, with most of the answers that many might ask found within. Also useful are the many indices found at the back of the book-- it's often that /I/ can't remember where to find something, I think that's a nice help, White Wolf has had problems with indices in the past.