Building Expertise, by Ruth Clark, is an excellent book for instructional designers, course developers and technical communicators who are interested in using research-based psychological theory to build effective training materials. Clark effectively summarizes the research, while also giving real-world training examples. I found Clark's comparison of the four instructional architectures (receptive, directive, guided discovery and exploratory) to be very useful when designing computer and web-based training. Clark summarizes cognitive theories concerning working memory, long term memory and attention and then describes instructional methods to deal with the limits of each. Although not a "how-to" book, Building Expertise provides practical, research-based guidelines for designing training materials.

I had the pleasure of meeting Clark Brady last year and given the previlege of reading the compedium. I was very impressed and jealous (just kidding) as I am an aspiring writer myself and have yet to find my niche. What that we could all have the determination to compile the info required for this work. Hopefully the author will continue and possibly give us new works on such contemporary works as Indiana Jones?

Glenn

New Orleans

This book is a lot of fun! A perfect storytime read-aloud filled with great images and rhythm -- unique illustrations complement the very inventive text. The bus-a-saurus is fun and friendly. If you have a preschooler-3rd grader, this one will be a hit!

I read this book just before starting an MBA course called "Basic Statistics". I found the book to be clear, intuitive and it certainly covered all topics we discussed in class. In my opinion, this book presents an easy way to understand Statistics by applying them to real business situations. I still use it as reference at work. Highly recommendable for business people interested in Statistics and with no much background in Math (just make sure you know how to add)

I love to go out into nature and view any type of wildlife, especially birds. My husband and I enjoy weekend driving trips in California where we live. The California Wildlife Viewing Guide has been a constant companion for us since we purchased it about two years ago. In fact, I purchased a second copy when I could not find my original copy and we were driving to the Central Valley of California. We wanted to view the migratory ducks and geese that come to that area each winter but needed to know where to go and how to get there. This book provides detailed information on wildlife viewing areas throughout the state with directions and maps and great pictures. It lists what can be seen at what times of the year and what to watch out for (eg. rattle snakes, heat, road conditions, etc.) I found out that the publisher, Falcon Press, publishes these same guides for most of the US states. These guides are apparently the official series of guides for The National Watchable Wildlife Program whose sponsers include Defenders of Wildlife, The USDA Forest Service, BLM, The US Fish and Wildlife Service, The Bureau of Reclamation and The National Park Service along with state sponsers depending on which state the guide is for. As an added plus, as you are driving along, there is often a sign with a binnocular that points to the wildlife viewing spot you are headed for, making it even easier to find the desired location. Wow! Now when I decide to go out of state, I make sure that I have the Wildlife Viewing Guide for that state. I just ordered four more books for a birding trip to Texas, passing through Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico.

This is an eight-volume history of Africa that I can't recommend highly enough. Patiently working my way through it over the course of several months did more to reduce my ignorance of human history than anything else I have ever done. I found several discussions particularly helpful:

- the physical evidence for human origins in Africa south of the Sahara

- The colonization of Madagascar by voyagers from Malaysia, which introduced the banana and several other valuable food crops into Africa in classical times

- How the conquest of valley-dwelling, agricultural Hutu by hilltop-dwelling, cattle-herding Tutsi serendipitously benefited both cultures, since manure from Tutsi cattle enabled greater Hutu cultivation of the banana

- How the Iron Age came to Africa south of the Sahara (this was what led me to this work in the first place)

- The breadth and depth of Arab learning and philosophy at the height of the Muslim empires during Europe's Middle Ages

I did find the discussions of late-Christian Egypt and Arab civilization more difficult to follow than the rest, because these discussions make heavy use of italicized Egyptian and Arabic words without bothering to explain them to the non-expert reader. This forced me to keep going back and re-reading earlier passages as I figured out these terms' likely meanings from their context in later passages.

Overall, however, this is a work I would love to have on my own bookshelf, if it weren't so very costly to purchase. The copy I read belongs to the King County Library system. (Seattle and Redmond, Washington, are the best-known cities in King County.)

As a new Social Studies teacher I found it hard to find any material on the usefulness of certain materials and good suggestions on the use of them in the classroom. This book had both! I also found that this books provides a wonderful critique on how minorities are portrayed in Social Studies Textbooks, in the past and present. This book also gives suggestions for lesson planning and unit planning which I found very useful and comprehensive. Overall this was the best Social Studies teaching guide I have yet to encounter and am thankful to the authors for writing it. Thank you.

This book delves into the human element that makes up any warship. It starts from the Navy's conception of a class of light carriers, retrofitted from light crusiers, that would serve as a stop-gap measure until the larger Essex Class carriers could be brought on line. The resulting developement was a small, but fast, carrier that was staffed by battle experienced officers and men, many from the USS Hornet, that quickly gained the attention and admiration of the Navy's top brass. From the energy filled first hand accounts of dog fights, related by the participants themselves, to the heroric effort to save the ill fated ship during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the authors present never before printed insight into both the ship and the crew. The book dispells many previous inaccuracies concerning the source of the explosions that would dome not only the Princeton, but would also claim hundreds of victims that made up the crew of the USS Birmingham. These first hand accounts were collected over the years by interviewing the participants at veteran reunions and recollections of Mr. Bradshaw, himself a crew member of the USS Princeton. From the combat wizzardry of VF-27 (Catsmouth) to the daring deed of Ens. Burgess, the reader will truly enjoy this book. I give it a thumbs up all the way!

This book is an excellent review for critical care nurses. I am a critical care educator and I use this text with my new nurses. It provides great rationales and terrific information on specific disease processes. I lost my first copy and moved heaven and earth to replace it!

I picked up this great little book at a Nursing conference. It is dynamic and easy to read. Each system is covered with thought and practicality. There are many questions and the answers are given with the rational. A terrific review book for the CCRN or just to brush up on your critical thinking skills. Terrific. I loved it.One of the most practical and interesting Nursing books that I have.