If you know to look for this book, you probably already know that it is the definitive reference on stonefly nymphs. This is not for the casual reader: if you are not an entomologist, you will find it difficult but rewarding reading. For the flyfisher, the introductory chapters are an excellent introduction to plecoptera, once you want to go beyond Swisher and Richards, or Leiser and Boyle. I have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Stewart, stay at his home, and collect with him. His graciousness is as great as his knowledge. A revision is in the works.

In "Shakespeare and Macbeth," Stewart Ross takes us to London, 1605 as the Elizabethan era has come to an end and a new Scottish king sits on the throne of England. Knowing King James loved the theater and was fascinated by witchcraft, Shakespeare wrote a play to please the king. Ross tells how Shakespeare conceived and wrote "Macbeth," covering the playwright's sources (such as Holinshed's "Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland") and telling about the actors who performed the play at the Globe theater, such as Richard Burbage. Ross talks specifically about how Shakespeare transformed the raw facts of history into his tragic drama, putting in things that would hopefully impress the new king from Scotland (when we see Banquo's heirs that will come to sit on the throne the last figure represented is, of course, King James himself). The artwork by Tony Karpinski and Victor Ambrus is based on careful research with regard to period clothing and the like. There is also a cut-away diagram of the Globe Theater and in the back of the book there are some excellent pencil drawings accompanying the synopsis of the actual play (I believe Karpinski did the paintings and Ambrus the drawings, but do not hold me to that conclusion). "Shakespeare and MacBeth: The Story Behind the Play," has a foreword from actor Kenneth Branagh, who praises it for conveying much of the excitement he felt when he was first introduced to "live" Shakespeare. The strength of this volume is that it does indeed give young readers an idea of how Shakespeare's plays were written and produced. True, it only scratches the surface of such things, but then the book is clearly intended as an introduction to the world of Shakespeare. As such, "Shakespeare and MacBeth" certainly succeeds in its goal, just as the Bard succeeded in having King James calling for a performance at court during the first state visit of King Christian of Denmark to England (when Ross has Shakespeare cut out a reference to a Scottish victory over the Danes during the performance you have to be impressed by his attention to to details).

I have looked over this work several times, and can proudly say that the authors have managed to write a text without committing a single error of commission, logic, or spelling. However, several errors of omission remain.

Although I found the arguments a bit transparent in the beginning, it is clear what Meier and Stewart have done here is produce a classic post-constructionist work of scholarship--this book literally is what you make of it. Nonetheless, it is a rollicking good read in same tradition as their earlier work, "A General Theory of Everything, and Other Things We Keep Meaning To Get Around To." Highly recommended, though I'm not sure what Keith Gaddie (see first review) read.

Meier and Stewart have proven once again that they can produce invisible masterpieces in the area of policy study. Indeed, if I did not know better, I would think it impossible that anyone could have written this book.

I am currently using this book for a Business Communications class. I have to say it is by far the worst book I've used in my college career to date. I talked to one instructor who said she changed books because the examples in this book were so bad. She even went through the effort of re-designing the course just to switch books. That is how bad this book is. If the instructor you are going to take a class from recommends this book please do yourself a favor and find an instructor who has the courtesy to search for a book that will allow you to excel in this type of class. This is not the book to help you do that.

Being a college graduate from a another country, commmunicating in English has been one of the setbacks I encounter while working in the retail industry. I kept searching for materials that will help me improve in my communication. But the materials that I found were either not to my level or not emphasising on business communication. But Camp, Satterwhite and co. were able to address the issues I have been looking for. This book lays emphasis on daily communication faced in today's business world. I will recommend this book to anybody seeking on how to improve on their business communication especially for foreigners. I really liked how the dealt on the speaking aspect of communication.