Very few surgical fields demand a complete and comprehensive knowledge of the entire human body. Plastics and reconstructive surgery is right up there when it comes to that. A successful Plastic surgeon incorporates knowledge of Gross anatomy, microscopic anatomy, tissue physiology, physiology of the patient itself and the innate aesthetic sense to recreate from tissue and prosthesis alike.

Grabb and Smith's text offers a comprehensive and engaging review of the essential aspects of Plastic surgery. Each Chapter starts with a review of clinical anatomy and leads on to Clinical aspects of diease. Historically important surgical approaches as well as current techniques are discussed. Disease classification is also described in excellent details through the use of tables.

I do firmly believe that this book is a worthwhile investment of time and money.

When I received the Book with Cd I thought that Cd will contain some interactive materials or MCQ self test kind. To find the CD as exact version of the book makes me wonder whats the idea behind.

This is primarily an ID guide to 188 native and naturalized trees, and another 84 that are commonly planted in what is termed the Central Hardwood Forests, defined as those portions of eastern North America dominated by deciduous trees. This is an octopus-like area that includes all or parts of 30 states and provinces to varying degrees. The only states wholly within the "shading" are IL,IN,RI, and KY; nearly so are CT, OH, TN, and MO. Small to large chunks of MN, WI, MI, PA, WV, IA,NE, KS, OK, TX, AK, AL, GA, NC, VA, MD, NJ, NY, MA, NH, Quebec and Ontario fall within the boundary; but ME and VT are inexplicably outside it, as are vast areas of deciduous forest in New York state. Few if any of the trees in this book are restricted to the Central Hardwood Forests -- most range widely beyond the boundary of this arbitrarily defined region, and many barely enter it at all. The reader would be better served if the book simply covered trees of the northeastern United States, without contriving an ecological framework for choosing species to write about. Most of the book consists of tree descriptions alphabetized from Abies to Zanthoxylum, with over 900 photos of varying quality, and maps for most species. Data headings are Habit, Bark, Twigs, Buds, Leaves, Fruit, Wood, Habitat and Range, Propagation, Wildlife Value, Landscape Value, and Best Recognizable Features. Discussions are very brief. A section of 116 color photos adds a welcome break to the cramped and confusing composition of the text. Summer and winter keys to genera are confusing due to the inclusion of numerals referring to previous couplets, and left unexplained; and because there is no identation, or spacing between couplets. The book is sturdily made and contains valid information, but is uninteresting in its style and mostly visually unappealing. It is not likely to inspire students.

This book is the best i have ever laid hands on for describing the trees of the eastern forest. I have a B.S. in Forestry, Im a certified Arborist and am currently working on a M.S. in Forestry. I have seen lots of books on trees and this is the best. Period.

Vroman's photographs are often without equal in their ability to capture timelessness and "being there". Many fascinating faces, personalities almost visible, of Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, Acoma, Navajo peoples, all taken in their pueblos or hogans.

Each photo has a detailed explanation of what is shown, including (often) the story behind it. This is probably the best collection of such photos between covers available on the people of this area, and most were taken between 1895 and 1904.

This book consist primarily of multiple-choice questions about economics. I have used it during my undergraduate studies and it helped me significantly. Although it is not sufficiently challenging for postgraduate study of economics - I can recommend it to anyone who is still undergraduate.

I found Rhett's writings to be ironically similar in style to those of his nemesis, Jefferson Davis: rigid, self-righteous, and self-important. This book does, however, provide valuable insights into workings of the mind of a radical secessionist. The modern reader will frequently take issue with Rhett's ideas, but seeing how Rhett thought is useful in itself. William C. Davis does his usual excellent job of illuminating the text with insightful endnotes. The only flaw I found in the book is that the endnotes probably should be footnotes because they are so helpful in understanding Rhett's writings as well as Rhett's historical context. Leaving the notes in the back makes them less convenient and useful to the reader. Overall, I recommend this to the student of the secession crisis.

The focus of this excellent wildflower guide to flowers found in the Smokies is to tell WHERE and WHEN to find them in bloom. The book relies upon color plates for ID and is limited enough (only 144 pages) to allow a quick scan of all the photos when searching to ID that elusive flower. Although not nearly so complete as THE AUDUBON GUIDE TO EASTERN WILDFLOWERS (my overall favorite), this book has become my LOCAL favorite for use during outings in the Smokies.

Wildflower enthusiasts of all types should have this book in their pocket when hiking in the Smokies. It will save you time because it focuses only on about 225 flowers found in the Smokies. If you've located in the book one or two types of flowers in bloom in the area where you are hiking then you'll be within 5 or 6 pages of the correct location for all the other flowers in bloom at that particular time!

Other nice features of the book include the ring binding which allows it to open easily, the manner in which all color plates are on the right side so as to allow thumbing thru in search of the correct plate and the excellent close-up color photos of the flowers.

My primary complaint is that the book doesn't offer photos of MORE species of flowers--hey there are over 1,500 species in the Smokies--but this book is rarely a disppointment for me, an avid wildflower enthusiast who spends at least one or two days/week hiking in the Smokies during warm weather months.

This booklet includes copies of Dr. Mendelsohn's newsletter, "The People's Doctor," which answer common questions about the need for, and safety of, immunizations. The book was written in 1988, and he does spend much time discussing the DTP vaccine, which has been since been updated to the less harmful DTaP, but most of the information he gives is still applicable today. He cites research done in other countries and clarifies medical terminology for those of us who didn't attend medical school. If you're contemplating immunizing your child I would recommend that you read this book - it may change the way you view Western (American) medicine, and not for the better.

Instinctively, most decent people don't like to see anyone singled out and denigrated unfairly. To most, it seems particularly distasteful if the denigration is on the basis of race, gender or (to many, at least) sexual orientation. Yet the authors of this book, all of whom are active in campaigns for equality as well as for civil liberties, see codes on US campuses which prohibit and punish such speech as a threat.... Why?

Their book examines the arguments for and against such codes and the issues that underlie them. Objections to these codes include that :

They are a threat to basic free speech principles. In particular the idea that speech should be protected regardless of its content or viewpoint -- a principle intended to prevent the law from favouring one interest over another.
 
They have a chilling effect on wider discourse. Nadine Strossen points out that : Regardless of how carefully these rules are drafted, they inevitably are vague and unavoidably invest officials with substantial discretion in the enforcement process; thus, such regulations exert a chilling effect on speech beyond their literal bands. (1)
 
They put us on a "slippery slope". Ideas not originally intended to be the subject of the codes will be penalised. Throughout the book examples are given of this happening. Strossen points out that in Britain the "No Platform for racists and fascists" was extended to cover Zionism (whereby its victims included the Israeli ambassador to the UK). (2) In Canada the victims of restrictions of free expression have included the black feminist scholar Bell Hooks, and a gay & lesbian bookshop in Toronto. (3)

Much the same issue was raised from the floor of an LM sponsored conference in London at which one of the authors (Nadine Strossen) spoke; it was pointed out that the UK Public Order Act of 1936, which was ostensibly introduced to control the followers of British Fascist leader Oswald Mosley, had been invoked time and time again to ban demonstrations by leftists and trade unionists. Similarly, police tactics used against the National Front in the 1980s to prevent their coaches from reaching demonstrations were later employed against striking miners.

The book's authors note that the codes give power to institutions and government. Can we trust them with these new powers? As David Coles, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote :

...in a democratic society the only speech government is likely to succeed in regulating will be that of the politically marginalised. If an idea is sufficiently popular, a representative government will lack the political wherewithal to supress it, irrespective of the First Amendment. But if an idea is unpopular, the only thing that may protect it from the majority is a strong constitutional norm of content neutrality. (4)

Donald E. Lively questions how new powers will be exercised :

Reliance upon a community to enact and enforce protective regulation when the dominant culture itself has evidenced insensitivity toward the harm for which sanction is sought does not seem well placed. A mentality that trivialises incidents such as those Lawrence relates is likely to house the attitudes that historically have inspired the turning of racially significant legislation against minorities. (5)

But perhaps Ira Glasser puts it best in her introduction to the book :

First, the attempt by minorities of any kind -- racial, political, religious, sexual -- to pass legal restrictions on speech creates a self-constructed trap. It is a trap because politically once you have such restrictions in place the most important questions to ask are: Who is going to enforce them? Who is going to interpret what they mean? Who is going to decide whom to target?
The answer is : those in power. (6)

Another condemnation is that the codes are an exercise in self-indulgency, a trivialisation of real racial imperatives by the pursuit of relatively marginal and debatable concerns....
Donald E. Lively states :

As a method for progress, however, protocolism (1) seriously misreads history and disregards evolving social and economic conditions, (2) is an exercise in manipulating and avoiding racial reality; and (3) represents a serious misallocation of scarce reformist resources. (7)

Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex doesn't just put the arguments against speech codes -- it also deconstructs the arguments put in their favour. The three most interesting arguments in favour of such codes are, in my view, (1) that racist expression is not about truth or an attempt to persuade and so is not worthy of protection; (2) that racist declarations are in fact group libels; and (3) that racist expression is akin to an assault.

All three arguments are dismissed by the authors. In the first case, Justice Douglas is approvingly quoted :

(A) function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and have unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea. This is why freedom of speech, though not absolute is nevertheless protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance or unrest. There is no room under our Constitution for a more restrictive view. For the alternative would lead to standardisation of ideas either by legislatures, courts, or dominant political or community groups. (8)

The second argument -- that racist, sexist or homophobic statements are group libels -- is likewise dismissed. The authors point out that libel involves the publication of information about someone that is both damaging and false. Apart from the obvious fact that group libel doesn't refer to an individual does it fit the definition? Henry Louis Gates Jr. states that it does not. He points out that racist statements may be right or wrong but cannot in many forms be judged true or false. they are often statements of what the individual thinks should be or an expression of feeling. As Gates points out : You cannot libel someone by saying 'I despise you', which seems to be the essential message of most racial epithets. (9)

The last argument -- that such speech represents an assault or words that wound -- is examined, and also dismissed. The authors accept that words can cause harm. Their concern, however, is that no code can be drawn in such a way as to punish only words which stigmatise and dehumanise. They point out that the most harmful forms of racist language are precisely those that combine insult with advocacy -- those that are in short the most political. (10) Attempts to deny that racist speech has a political content also deny that they are part of a larger mechanism of political subordination.

So, can we combat hatred on grounds of race, gender or sexual preference whilst cherishing and nurturing civil liberties? Can we encourage a diversity of thought as well as of population and lifestyle? The answer given by the authors of this book is an emphatic 'yes'. They don't see equality of opportunity and freedom of expression as being at odds. As such, their ideas are refreshing in contrast to the many who seem to have quite unthinkingly accepted that we must sacrifice our freedom on an altar of (faked) equality...

Maybe it's just me, but I found the "leadership lessons" in this book painfully obvious... one does not need to be a born leader to understand, for example, that "if one fails to listen to what another is saying, one will often fail to properly respond to what has been said".

Additionally, I found the Star Trek metaphor used rather clumsily, from the continual references to "the Starfleet" (which got on my Trek nerd nerves) to the ending of each entry with "Make it so". I would have preferred more insight into leadership and less attempts to sound like Picard.

While this book was pleasant to read, I simply do not find it that useful. One would be advised to look for leadership lessons in the past (perhaps from Confucius or Sun Tzu), rather than in a fictitious 24th century.

Even if your not a frequent follower of the Star Trek series, the lessons throughout this book are very relevant to the leadership characteristics of a successful business. In short, you've hired people to do a job, let them do the job.

This was an entertaining book, combining my love of ST:TNG and my professional career. As an IT project manager, I'm always seeking new ways to understand my job and my people. There are valid business lessons to be gleaned from the stories. It is an easy read, fun to see how the basic concept is wrapped around the context of a particular episode.

Like so many other books written by corporate presidents selling creative thinking, it is full of how I did this job at this prestigious company. A marketing exercise rather then a book to advice you how to do it.

I found that it had few ideas.

Kind of an ordinary treatment of creativity in the workplace. But has a value.

This is a how-to manual for inspiring and supporting creativity at the individual, group, and organizational level. It teaches you how to recognize your own innvate creative qualities. You will then be introduced to what Miller calls the "Creative Journey" -- a four stage process through which every type of creative endeavor passes. It offers a framework for identifying a challenge, focusing on priority issues, generating creative ideas, and implementing them. The gbook offers a variety of techniques for developing ideas and shows you the four "innovation styles" on which all idea-generation techniques are based. Also learn how to spark the motivation required for high level creativity by uniting people behind a shared purpose, a vision for thefuture, and aset of core values. It shos you how to ignite the internal drive and enthusiasm in yourself and others that launch creativity to its fullest potential. ...from Soundview Executive Book Summaries