While this book purports to be an unbiased account of the foster care system and its impact on African-American children, it fails miserably. The author is biased against the system from the very beginning, and presents only stories that back her view of the system. There are definitely issues with the foster care system including: overworked case managers, lack of funds, inability to assist children in an appropriate fashion 100% of the time. Certainly there is a racial issue since the majority of children in foster care and up for adoption are minorities, but is this because of the foster care system itself or are we missing a major piece in the puzzle? It is this missing piece that is missing from Ms. Roberts' book.

I read Ms. Roberts book and believe that she is on target to the destruction of the Black family. The number of African American children in foster care is not a new theory. In fact, Black children have been in the foster care system since slavery. Slavery in itself was a form of foster care. The continued systematic destruction of the black family is caused by poverty, poor education and MISeducation, as well as, a host of factors created by the racism and classification of "minority" for black people. It is very easy to place fault on poor parents but the system pays more money to pull families apart than to help form the bonds of the bloodline.

In the state of Missouri, for example, black children make up only 14% of the total population of children in the state. Nonetheless, 44% of all children in the foster care system are black. A highly disproportionate number. One state, but multiply that by all states and the math speaks for itself.

I highly recommend this book.

This book is filled with valuable information, but there are two problems:

1. Some of the information, or lack thereof, is outdated (it was fully updated in the most recent edition - 1996).

2. The focus of the book is somewhat narrow, although there is no indication of this fact until you read other books and understand Dr. Franklin's clinical and research interests.

That having been said, there is a wealth of excellent information regarding structural infertility causes in both women and men. Dr. Larry Lipschultz, a leader in his field, authors the best and most comprehensive chapter I have seen on male-factor infertility - this alone makes purchasing the book worthwhile!

Dr. Franklin provides detailed information regarding endometriosis, uterine abnormalities and tubal abnormalities in addition to other issues. Where this book is lacking is on matters of hormonal causes of female infertility. For example, it lacks FULL information regarding the treatment of Polycystic Ovarian Disease, instead focusing on telling women to 'just lose weight.' Many treatment options for hormonal-based infertility are not covered. Other books are much better for this purpose. (This stands to reason since Dr. Frankin is not a reproductive endocrinologist. This is a key point.)

The bottom line is this book has a lot of good information, but is best used in conjunction with other books on infertility.

I read this book before I had my first Laparoscopy and HSG. It helped me to know what to expect, and how the procedure is performed. And (! ) if I should get a disappointing diagnosis, which I did, I had it all right there in my hands. From PCOS to Endo to Adhesions, it has it all, but not everyone has it all. And for this reason I found it extremely helpful for many friends of mine who have a different diagnosis than I to give them descriptive reference. What I especially liked about the Author was his way of "looking" into his patients feelings. I wish more doctors would take that extra, yet essential time, to really know their clients.

I have lived by this book for the past three years. Instead of having the medical terms that were tossed around at my clinic visits go right over my head, this book gave me the tools to understand what was happening at all times.

Also, my husband and I were able to make informed decisions about what procedures we would be willing to go through, and those that we did not feel were right for us.

If you are looking for facts, and a way to determine if the odds for a particular course of treatment are favorable, read this book.

Day is a very interesting person, and her intense lifestyle lights up this book, creating a complex mixture of emotions.

BOOK WAS OK. NOT AS MUCH IMFORMATION AS I WOULD HAVE LIKED

This field guide covers ascomycetes and basidiomycetes from southern California to the Rocky Mountains, and north to Alaska. Besides the major groups of fungi, there is a good description of how mushrooms grow, a glossary of mycological terms, mycological collections & societies, and instructions on successful collecting.

I own quite a few field guides on mushrooms, and rated this one a 3 because it probably would not appeal to first-time mushroomers. Mushrooms are described according to the latin name, but the common name is not included in the title. There is a list of common names in the back of the book, which is helpful, but would be more so if included in the title. There are not enough drawing and photos to assist amateurs in sure identification. There are several pages of color photos in the center of the book, and many b/w line drawings throughout. A nice feature is a series of keys for different species. You match up the qualities of your specimen and discard those that do not, until the correct name is found.

Although this is not the field guide I would pick up first to identify a mushroom, I have found its thoroughness helpful in narrowing down the possibilities because of the book's detailed descriptions.

Ever since her rediscovery, Dorothy West, who recently passed away, has been rightly hailed as the last living writer of the Harlem Renaissance, an important author who focused on middle-class African American lives in the mid-twentieth century, and an artist of the first rank whose career was tragically put on hold for a number of reasons having to do with canonization, race, and sexism. This allegedly scholarly collection purports to bring us her writings during her nearly 40-year absence from the public stage, when she lived on Martha's Vineyard and wrote for the local paper. But the collection is hastily assembled according to no discernible guiding principles (other than, of course, to take advantage of the West revival and to make a buck). There is a perfunctory introduction that lacks insight and introduces nothing, and that also has no attributions to the serious scholarship on West that it borrows from but does not bother to acknowledge. There is no scholarly apparatus, nor annotations nor footnotes, nothing that is remotely helpful for either the student of West or for the interested non-scholar. The book seems to have been produced in as much time as it took these editors to grab a bunch of West's many columns, type them into a word processor, and send them off to a third-rate press that will publish anything. ... West is a terrific writer; she deserved a lot better than to have her unpublished material looted for profit.

I love reading history and am a loyal fan of black women authors, but this book is way too expensive! Would rather check it out from the library than own it.