George Wood describes the strategies he brought to bear, and others which can be brought to bear, in public education high school reform. The result? A school that does not do absurd things to youngsters, which encourages them to become good citizens, and which leaves them opportunity to go to college, or not--but not to fail as persons.

His advantage is that his high school, Federal Hocking, was small; that he was skilled at seeking teacher collaboration; and that he has imagination.

His disadvantage is that he subscribes to some time-worn Essential School maxims. Nevertheless, he is able to do creative things and you get a sense that he, the teachers, and the students are spending more productive times together.

A quick read. Implementation of his ideas takes some real planning and commitment.

George Wood's book is an amazing description of what can happen in a typical public high school, if you organize the school as a learning community, focused upon developing citizens and neighbors. Wood is a high school principal who has written a book about what has been done to improve his high school in rural Ohio. This is a must read book for anyone who is concerned with the deterioration of the public schools in America. Wood, through stories about students, provides helpful suggestions for how to improve schools. His stories will have you crying with joy as you see the impact of a school organized to care for each student as an individual. Read this book, and then, give copies to your school superintendent and school board. After reading his book, you'll want to pack your things and move to his town, just so your kids can go to his school. And the truth of Wood's approach is that it can happen anywhere. What a breath of fresh air and hope for our nation's public schools.

This book is a very good addition to the literature in the broad area and the only one of it's type on the Australian situation.

A unique contribution and a must for all students of the area.

The book I am reviewing is the Kilgo-Wilkins book titled "Fire-King Glassware", volume II, (1997), a 200 page bright red hardcover with a jadite collection featured on the front cover. This book is especially helpful to EAPC collectors as it has a marvelous 10 page section on Prescut featuring a timeline listing what pieces were made each year, 1960-1978. In my opinion if this book had been published a year or two later when the EAPC craze really took hold and if it had some reference to EAPC in the title that could have been picked up by a search engine, I wouldn't be the only guy out here waving his arms around. An excellent resource for other Fire-King glassware also. Good close-up photos of most of the Anchor-Hocking labels, good explanation of Anchor-Hocking Company logo evolution. Prices tend to be somewhat out of date as with most reference manuals of this sort. If you're a serious Fire-King or EAPC collector you must go find this one!

In Forest Green Glass, Philip L. Hopper has once again teamed up with photographer Bruce Walters to produce a well-researched and stunningly beautiful book on Anchor Hocking glassware. The documentation is meticulous, and includes copies of old factory sheets, batch formulas for Anchor Hocking's green glass, and a section on confusing similarities. Besides precise research, Hopper's captions clearly identify each piece of glassware, it's measurements or dimensions, the factory's stock number, and an estimated value for the piece. Since there are only a few items per picture, the reader gets an enlarged view of each and every piece of glassware, and doesn't have to flip back and forth to find out what it is. Combine the thorough research with Bruce Walter's creativity, and technique of underlighting colored glass, and you have one gorgeous publication. A 21 gun salute for the Colonel and his cohort!

I am writing a research thesis on how Schopenhauer influenced T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets," so this book showed how T.S. Eliot read and discussed Schopenhauer in the Seminar (p. 120). Eliot was one of nine other people taking the seminar with Josiah Royce and he was clearly influenced by his reading and discussion of Kant and post-Kantian philosophers in his writing.

Jenny Hocking's rigorously researched and documented account of the life of Australian Labor Lawyer, politician and Judge Lionel Murphy is a real story of twentieth century achievement.

So much of what Murphy did in his life represented a huge step forward socially and politically for a country that until the mid 1970s, for example, banned many classic books, artworks and films - such as, unbelievably, statuette replicas of Michaelangelo's David! But of course removal of ludicrous censorship provisions was only a tiny part of the incredible list changes he helped bring about. The abolition of the death penalty, cheap, quick and accessible no-fault divorce laws, consumer protections, an international case to stop French nuclear testing in the pacific, free legal aid and anti-discrimination laws are part of an enduring legacy.

As a Judge on Australian's constitutional and highest appeal court Murphy was often in dissent but his judgements were enormously persuasive and the court has slowly but surely moved to his view in many cases.

Hocking's description of his last tortuous few years when he was hounded in a media and politically driven witchhunt is extremely moving. Nothing in Australian political life has ever happen like that before or since and it is no wonder that the man died from stress-related cancer as a result. This sorry episode is akin to the McCarthyite hysteria of the 1950s.

All the time though Murphy's unique character and spirit is evident. He was surely as charismatic and exciting as any politician last century.

It's a great read.

This book is fantastic. It clearly translates the Song of Solomon in the Bible into easy-to-understand, contemporary principles for healthy sex lives. It is beautiful, lifechanging, and non- threatening.

Finally, a glass book where you don't have to guess what the picture is!!!! Each illustration has a caption, telling what the item is, along with the vital statistics. No more flipping from page to page to find out what it is, or worse yet, a picture full of glass and no list or caption. The illustrations are incredible. Not only has the author researched his subject thoroughly, the photography will dazzle you. Thank you Philip Hopper for one of the best depression glass books I've seen yet!!!! I sincerely hope you will write more of these high quality glassware books!!

Unfolding Bodymind: Exploring Possibility Through Education is very highly recommended reading for student teachers, classroom teachers, and teacher educators seeking fresh approaches to holistic and embodied forms of pedagogy, research, and curriculum development in the field of education. Editors Brent Hocking, Johnna Haskell, and Warren Linds have assembled a series of outstanding, highly recommended essays and commentaries that are as thought-provoking as they are informative. Unfolding Bodymind is enhanced with an afterword by David Abram and David Jardine.

Very clearly written, full of examples and counterexamples, making use of pictures but never sacrificing rigor, the authors of this book have given students of topology a superb introduction to the field. Many students have been educated in topology by using this book, and it is sure to remain a classic in the field. It builds a solid understanding of the basic rudiments and intuition behind point-set, geometric, and algebraic topology. There is a lot of material covered in the book, and some very specialized subjects, such as Cech and Vietoris homology and some dimension theory, but with some preserverance and concentration, the entire book can be grasped within reasonable time constraints. Probably the only minus to the book is the lack of exercises. This is a quite serious omission, for the only way to master a subject is to work problems that require careful thought for their solution.

The beginning student of topology should probably read this book with the following mindset: try to think of ways and techniques that you would devise to study the structure of a topological space. Homotopy and homology (in various forms) are the standard techniques for doing this. These strategies have varying degrees of success, but their use in topology now seems to be reaching a saturation limit, even though the explicit calculation of homotopy groups is still a very active area. New techniques and concepts, representing sort of a "large deviation" from the standard ones discussed in this book, will be needed to make further progress in the study of complicated topological spaces. Something more is needed now, that is completely different than homology and homotopy theory, that will make more transparent the properties of these spaces. These new techniques will be somewhat radical from the standpoint of current ones, but they will be more effective from a conceptual (and computational) point of view.

When I was a graduate student 40 years ago there were very few texts in topology. The only two that I recall being in use were Hocking and Young and the book by Kelley. Over the years my copy of Hocking and Young has become quite worn. It is a wonderful book that gives the true flavor of topology. It is also contains a large number of topics that one can refer to later on. It becomes quite apparent very earlier that no one will be able to fully appreciate the book in the time span of one course. It is a book that must be read and reread over and over again. It is a real classic. I do not believe that it is the type of book that would be of much or any general interest but to a point set topologist it is a classic and must for his bookself. I am quite surprised over its low price. I can not help but compare it with the newer book by Munkres. I recall seeing Munkres book many years ago and disliking it. But the current edition seems much closer in flavor to HY and Munkres book is quite good. Munkres style is much clearer than HY, but both books target a very specialized group of people. Neither book is for the faint of heart and will take many years to absorb. Considering that Munkres book is 9 times as expensive as HY, HY seems to be the better buy.

An excellent book, not for those persons unfamiliar with the topic of topolgy; yet, combined with simpler texts this book is a goldmine of topological theorems and their proofs.