This had many solid points and I like the fact that it has many example of the constructivist theory in use which makes this book more practical for some one who doesn't want to worry about getting to deep into the theory. The only problem with this book is that the theory that is presented is flawed. They completely down play the role of traditional education and present their theory as the opposite to traditional education. This goes against John Dewey's basic theory and makes the fallacy of selective emphasis. This is a great book if you want to practical experience from schools that this method has been used at but if you want theory, you are better off going to the source, John Dewey.

Constructivism has a myriad of definitions, or so it seems in education today. In this book, the general principals of constructivist leadership are defined and "fleshed out" through the contributing authors. Excellent book for administrators that are trying to find theory based rationale for site based management in school. A book that should be kept on your office bookshelf because you will refer to it often. The listing and comparisons of past educational methods is nicely done and easy to reference.

This book essentially examines the dynamics of a learning community within the theoretical framework of constructivism. While the book is dense in theory, it's clear prose and liberal inclusion of examples and stories make it an accessible and meaningful read. The book's title may be misleading in that an educational leader, in the constructivist sense, is any educator who seeks school improvement through open, democratic processes. In this sense, the book would seem useful to any organizational development specialist who craves a broader theoretical understanding of the nature of OD, and insight into how groups of educators can build learning communities committed to improving the lives of their stakeholders. The book is complex in its scope and depth, but nonetheless answers a fairly simple question: How does constructivism help us see what humane and effective schools should look like? Lambert and her colleagues weave a fairly cohesive and inspiring narrative of social change within the educational context.

According to the writers, constructivism is a theory of learning derived from the fields of philosophy, psychology, and science. Constructivism in simplest terms posits that learning is the process of reforming what we know, believe and value based on the connections between new and already held knowledge, values and beliefs. In other words, people are in a constant state of learning in order to secure or enhance their existence. In the school context, Lambert defines 'Constructivist Leadership' as 'the reciprocal processes that enable participants in an educational community to construct meanings that lead toward a common purpose about schooling.' (p.29) These reciprocal processes entail building trust through social and professional relationships, identifying and reconstructing commonly held assumptions and beliefs, building new shared knowledge, and altering individual and group behaviors to create new ways of doing school. In this way, Lambert and her colleagues argue, we begin to see leadership, community, and schools themselves not as roles or physical entities, but as social processes, which require constant tending and development. In a biological sense, individuals are in a constant state of constructing their understanding of the world. In an ecological sense, interdependent groups of individuals must co-construct their understandings in order to create a desired reality. In this way, Lambert's constructivist view of learning and leadership is in close company with Senge's view of the learning organization, which strives to move from status quo to a shared ideal of something better.

Theoretically, constructivism owes much Lee Vygotsky's work on the relationship between language and learning. Not surprisingly then, this book's core chapters all deal with the role of communication in constructivist leadership. In 'Leading the Conversations', Lambert argues that conversations 'are the visible manifestation of constructivist leadership' (p.83). On page 86, she provides a useful 'Typology of Conversations' model, which shows that four conversation types (dialogic, inquiring, sustaining, and partnering) contribute to, among other things, collaborative sense-making, remembrance and reflection, sharing and building ideas, and respectful listening. In 'The Linguistics of Leadership', Diane Zimmerman deconstructs the processes of paraphrasing, inquiring, and articulating ideas, and argues that when used in balance they help groups uncover 'the unspeakable', make sense of assumptions and beliefs, and find new patterns and paths to improvement. In 'The Role of Narrative and Dialogue in Constructivist Leadership', Joanne Cooper argues that 'stories provide a vision and a desired direction for adults working in schools'' (p.122) Narratives bring to life 'tacit knowledge' and in so doing imbue groups with connectivity, and common purpose and vision. In these chapters, we see strong practical and theoretical themes that are consistent with the change work of Fullan, Senge's work on learning, and the organization work of Schmuck and others.

Constructivism, as an epistemological theory, has a long and broad history in this century. I found this book refreshing for making clear connections between a theory of knowledge and the practices and perspectives relevant to organization development and learning communities.

I perused this book carefully because I want information on diet and FMS. There are good definitions of FMS, but the info and recipes seem to be geared toward reducing the "inflamation" of arthritis. As I understand it, FMS is not a condition of inflamation. Thus, my confusion. For forms of inflamatory arthritis conditions it looks excellent. I'd like to note that I have seen other books that tag FMS on to Arthritis in their titles or covers and don't seem to have much specific to FMS. A selling technique, I suppose. This book is attractive and seems very good for arthritis, but not specific for FMS.

I got this book, and I liked it very much. I am 14 and have JRA, OA, and Fibro. This book was very helpful, and the recipes were good. I would recommend it. I've read many books, and this is one of the better ones. I enjoyed the food much!!

This book has a lot of great suggestions for those dealing with arthritis. It provides techniques for cooking with less pain and effort and has recipes, too! I found it very helpful as a person who works with helping older adults cook and care for themselves. I highly recommend it for anyone with arthritis.

Well, now I know why Ffiona Morgan had to start her own publishing company to get this book out on the market. It's a total mess, not to mention the shoddiest editing job I've seen in my life. Within the first few pages, I saw numerous errors--simple typos that should have been caught by even the laziest editor.

Oh, and did I mention that Ms. Morgan can't write? Yeah . . . grammatical errors all over the place. Not to mention sentences that simply didn't make sense at times.

Some of the stuff in the book is nice, like the poetry and artwork, but you have to wade through so much b.s. to find the tiniest bit of useful information. Some of her goddess correspondences were also way off. Her knowledge of mythology leaves much to be desired. It was also SO annoying that she kept on changing the way she spelled 'woman'--womyn, wimmin, womon, wombon, wemoon. If you want to alter the spelling to drop the 'man' association, fine, but choose ONE way to alter it. Not five. It gets on peoples' nerves.

Anyway, if you're looking into Dianic Wicca, please read something by Shekhinah Mountainwater or Diane Stein instead.

This is a great book. The chapter on the Wheel of the year is the best I have ever read regarding the Dianic tradition. Other books just describe how they celebrate it but she describes the theme of each Holyday, exapmles of Goddesses to go with that theme and why. The way she put it makes it easy for you to design your own Wheel of the year. The chapter on Lunar Magic is also great. The only complaint I have is that she listed Oya as a Maiden when actually she is a Crone.

this, text culled from Daughters of the Moon's independently-published tome Wild Witches Don't Get The Blues, is a great collection of information on Dianic Feminist Witchcraft for those already acquainted with the practices. The information on the sabbats, with beautiful rituals included, is worth the price of the book itself. Illustrated throughout with images from the breathtaking Daughters of the Moon and Book of Aradia tarot decks. There is a lack of clear information about the basics of Wicca in this text, but highly reccomended to those already knowledgable about the craft of the Goddess.

Lynda Van Devanter's Home Before Morning is a thoroughly engaging narrative about her "coming of age" as an army nurse in the Vietnam War. Her moral, political, and emotional growth throughout the novel follows a classic pattern: she is initially naive about war and guided mainly by her untested ideals, she goes to Vietnam and "loses her innocence" about war and its nature, and she grows and develops as a result of this "loss." This pattern recurs again and again in Vietnam narratives (e.g., Platoon and Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War), and its familiarity lends much emotional weight to Van Devanter's story. In all fairness, however, the power of her experiences cannot be denied. As an army nurse she sees a great deal of the bloodshed, and she is in a particularly important position to "put a face" on the dead and wounded, which she and co-writer Christopher Morgan do very effectively. However, while this book is a powerful introduction to the realities of the war, it tends toward the melodramatic (particularly when Van Devanter becomes involved with a doctor), and it never really explores some of the deeper issues about the war that her experiences raise. For readers looking for books on the Vietnam War that exhibit both top-notch prose and an insightful exploration of the ambiguities of War, I would suggest Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato, as well as Michael Herr's Dispatches.

I read the book in the context of one person's experience, not for a global understanding of the Vietnam war. It was a moving and informative look at the life of a person who paid a painful price for her service.

This was probably one of the first books I read on Vietnam. Part of my attempt to put my experiences there into some kind of perspective. I found the book deeply moving. It also opened my eyes to the experiences of those who consistently saw more of the horror of war then many of the rest of us did. I am in sharp disagreement with the review by Mr Versaci. This is an excellent look at the experiences of the physicians and nurses who took care of us.

As a former Morgan Stanley employee, I found this report was disappointing and out of date. A more useful report on Morgan is the Vault.com 2002 Guide to Morgan Stanley

I wonder why an ex-Morgan Stanley employee would bother buying a report on the company. Could it be that this person really works for Vault? hmm. I thought this guide was really useful, especially if you don't know anyone who works there and want to know what it's really like and how to best prep for your interview.

The investment banking industry has been so hard hit that I wondered if it was a good idea to even consider it coming out of my MBA program. But Morgan Stanley among others has always had a solid reputation on the Street, and so I remain undeterred in trying to get a job either there or at another comparable firm. This guide is a good one for someone with my goals. I am feeling much more up to the job of landing an internship there. I understand better now what it's going to take and what I'm going to get out of working at MS. I really enjoyed the read. It was clear and concise. It cut through all the fat and got right to the meat of the matter in what I'd say is just the right amount of pages. I certainly don't have the time or inclination to read a tome on MS--as i've seen other company guides floating out there do. Rather, I like that this guide boils it down and tells me just what I need to know.

Morgan's Mercenaries are a group of men that are employed by the famous Morgan Trayhern. Morgan is the Hero from the previous books by Lindsay Mckenna. The three stories in this book are about men that work for Morgan's company Perseus. This is a company out to make the world a better place.

Heart of the Wolf--Morgan Trayhern the famous character from the popular series by Lindsay McKenna has formed his own company called Perseus. The main goal of this company is to make the world a better place. Morgan has plenty of resources at his disposal and his company is made up of only the best. Wolf Harding is one of those men and this is his story. Wolf has returned beaten and battered from his last mission and right now he wants away from it all. Wolf needs away from people, to be able to deal with what happened in South America, and to be able to find peace again. Wolf asks his boss, Morgan, to use his resources to help him get away. Wolf is sent to Montana as a forest ranger. His first day on the job takes him to Sara Thatcher. Sara is a woman in need of protection, and being the man that he is, Wolf will do his best or die trying. There are men that want Sara's land and will do anything to get it. Sara is a bit naive at times and I believe she makes things worse on both her and Wolf. Both Sara and Wolf need to heal from their pasts and hopefully they can help each other. This is a great story of a man who has been through the worst kind of hell, but is now trying to live and love again.

The Rogue--Morgan Trayhern the famous character from the popular series by Lindsay McKenna has formed his own company called Perseus. The main goal of this company is to make the world a better place. Morgan has plenty of resources at his disposal and his company is made up of only the best. Sean Killian is one of those men and this is his story. Killian is a very close-mouthed individual which makes his next mission perfect for him. Susannah Anderson is related to Morgan and was shot after returning from a visit with him and his wife. Susannah awakened from a coma after two months and does not remember the accident and is unable to speak. Susannah's life may still be in danger from the gunman. Killian usually does not take jobs that involve women, but Morgan orders him to take this case because its personal and Morgan does not trust anyone else. Killian goes to Susannah, but he is unprepared for the emotions that she stirs in him. Sometimes it is hard to tell who is helping who-Killian helping Susannah or Susannah helping Killian. Out of the two of them I would say that Killian is the more wounded one. This bear of a man has always bottled everything up inside him and Susannah is determined to help bring it all out. This is a good story of a man whose job has him constantly fighting battles physically and it never ends for him mentally or emotionally until one stubborn determined woman enters his life.

Commando--Morgan Trayhern the famous character from the popular series by Lindsay McKenna has formed his own company called Perseus. The main goal of this company is to make the world a better place. Morgan has plenty of resources at his disposal and his company is made up of only the best. Jake Randolph is one of those men and this is his story. Jake's next mission is to be a bodyguard for the beautiful Shah Travers. Shah's father, at first, paid Perseus to kidnap his daughter and bring her home, but he quickly learned that kidnaping is not a part of what Perseus does, so he agrees to having Jake as her bodyguard. Shah's job is to investigate the destruction of the tropical rain forest in Brazil. The job has turned dangerous for Shah, but she refuses to back down from the men that are threatening her if she continues to investigate. Jake has suffered a tremendous personal loss in his past and is surprised at his feelings for Shah. Shah has suffered at the hands of all of the men in her life. She has learned to be distrustful and has a hard time accepting Jake's offer of help, but eventually she gives in. Together Jake and Shah face the danger from the men determined to destroy the rainforest and together they work through the pain in both of their pasts. This is the story of a man, given a second chance at love and happiness, and his courage to take it.

Lindsay's latest three-novel trilogy covers the relationships that develop between three of Morgan's Men- Wolf, Sean [Killian] and Jake, and three somewhat innocent and naive ladies- one's a sapphire miner,one's a schoolteacher, and one's a crusader for the earth.

Now, I recognize that it's a common practice for authors in the romance genre to try to balance out world-weary, haunted heros with idealistic women who will love them, no matter what. And to an extent, I enjoy reading about the trials and travails of characters in such a situation. Certainly, Lindsay manages to give all of her female lead characters more depth than your average earth-mother healing type female-character. But there is a limit to my own tolerance, and while Lindsay did an excellent job producing suspenseful situations, interesting and amusing dialog, and sheer emotional 'pull', she failed to do two things, and that failure cost her one star. First of all, this compendium showcases only her more innocent, and, regretably, somewhat foolish female characters. Women in her other books -most recently, Heart of Stone- are more interesting reads, having more character and depth to their actions, as well as to their emotions. Only the last story, Commando, had a female character with the type of grit exibited by Inca and Maya, in their respective stories. The other fault in this book is its lack of well developed 'evil' characters - the antagonists tend toward flat, rather uninspiring or original motivations. Again, read Heart of Stone,or Heart of the Warrior, for an example of Lindsay at her best.

Overall, an inspiring and warm read full of positive aspects which make these stories all worthwhile reads, but which lacks the stellar aspect of, say, later novels or one of Elizabeth Lowell's intrigue-filled heart-twisters. Read it, please, but don't believe this is the summit of Lindsay's work. She's done better, more recently.

Also, warning to prospective readers: be prepared for a great deal of frustration as you follow up on the series, because almost all of Lindsay McKenna's books have been out of print for ages and will cost you an arm and a leg to get -assuming you can even locate them.

If you like your hero to be brooding, vunerable and tourtured you will love this Three book collection. These three unforgetable characters have faced terrible hardships such as tourture, death of a loved one and failure. All try to overcome these obsticals to be able to be with the wonderful, strong Heroines. I trully enjoyed this book but I am still trying to figure out who the Heroic figures in this book is. The men who overcome or the women who lead their way. Enjoy

When looking for Native American word lists, this was the first dictionary I came across. I bought it because it was the only one I could find. If I had spent a little more time with it before I checked out I might not have, because this dictionary is not realy just words but entire thoughts and terms. This maybe just a function of the Navajo language or it may be just the way it was edited. If you are looking for a word list this is not the book for you.

Having known only English as my primary language this book helps the laymen learn the basis of translating the Najavo culture and language into English and back again.

Extremely detailed with notations on pronunciation, verbage and usage of slang.

Having know a Navajo Native American for a while, this book helped me understand the subtlties of the Navajo Language and Culture.

Nothing compares to a real teacher, but this book does help. Buy it!

Members of the Navajo tribe have volunteered in the armed forces throughout every conflict since 1868. In WWII, the Code Talkers were able to transmit messages, and despite every effort, the US enemies never broke the complex syntax and complicated tonal qualities. The US Marine force acknowledges that without the members of this tribe the Marines would never have taken Iwo Jima and other crucial locations.

The Navajo-English Dictionary was designed to aid Navajos learning English, those desiring to learn Navajo, and to help preserve this rich language. Without "The Sound System of Navajo" section in which Wall and Morgan teach about the pronunciation of the words this dictionary would serve as a research tool, but would not provide a way to correctly speak any of the over 9,000 entries.

The dictionary is formatted strictly with the Navajo words then the English definitions. If you wanted to find the perfect English word, then translate it into Navajo, you will have to search through the book. There are two columns of definitions per page. The Navajo is in bold, and I did not find it difficult to link the words together.

Writers:

The book will help create veracity whether your story is set in the old west, any world war, or current conflicts. Well-researched information allows the reader to suspend disbelief and become part of your story. For historians, this book is invaluable.

Here is a brief dictionary of a few of the words, but I am not able to show the correct grammar marks.

'a' a'a'n -- this is a hole in ground, tunnel, cove, or burrow.

bi -- he, she, it, they, theirs.

Be'e'sh Sinil -- Winslow, Arizona

giinisi -- fifteen cents

ha'adi -- where; where?

There are so many words and phrases, so much beauty and history, that any linguist, archeologist, or scholar will love the book simply for the history that is inherent in this ancient language.

5 Stars.

Victoria Tarrani

Kay Summersby's book is a fascinating look at the inner workings of the Supreme Allied Headquarters during World War II. She writes clearly and consicely about the organization that helped win World War II in Europe, and provides key details about the personalities and relationships between such notable historical figures such as Eisenhower, Churchill, Montgomery, Patton, Bradley, and such.

However, the nature of her relationship with General Dwight D. Eisenhower is the central theme of the book and she repeatedly alludes to their stolen moments together. To a person, all others on Eisenhower's staff deny her accusations, including Eisenhower before his death, and can refute most of her stories of their love. For example, she describes in candid detail interludes and rendevous they supposedly shared, but at the time of many of these, Eisenhower was away from his headquarters or with others, including his wife and/or son.

In her first book, "Eisenhower Was My Boss," written in 1947, she makes no mention of this romantic relationship. Why, then, 30 years later, did she expose the "truth." Perhaps it was because she was on her death bed and looking back on a life unfulfilled. She had two failed marriages, no children, and no job history. A fantasized relationship with Eisenhower, one of the most powerful men in history, could be her legacy.

Aside from the falacious story of the relationship with Eisenhower, "Past Forgetting" is a good read if you are interested in the manner in which World War II in Europe was fought and won on both the political and military fronts.

Kay Summersby produced this book while dying of cancer. It was actually ghostwritten, but based on material she provided the shadowy author, who writes extremely well. In fact, it's very difficult to put this one down and I have read it several times over the years. Kay paints fascinating word portraits of various WWII personalities she met, including the profane and hilarious Patton, the bombastic Monty, the loquacious Churchill and the shy Omar Bradley.

Of course the most interesting character is Ike himself. There is no doubt Kay was utterly besotted with Eisenhower. She was wildly infatuated with him, as well as being physically attracted to him. How Ike felt about Kay is more nebulous and one can't dismiss the hundreds of love letters Ike penned to Mamie during the time he was entwined with Kay. The fact that Ike's staff denied he was sexually involved with Kay doesn't count for much; for a discreet couple, it's easy to fool outsiders.

Kay writes of two thwarted sexual encounters. Both occurred in public houses where people could presumably walk in on the amorous couple. Their first attempt at being intimate was in England, but Ike couldn't perform. He apologized profusely for this failure, but Kay assured him still she still loved him anyway. Their second attempt at consummation was after VE Day, in Germany. Kay claims that clothes were wildly discarded and they tried to get down to business... but again, Ike was unable to complete the act. Poor Kay!

Historians debate whether this is all wishful thinking. One might question why a woman would invent a situation where her would-be lover is impotent. If you're going to lie, why not go the whole nine yards and invent passionate couplings all over WWII Europe? Indeed, the dialogue Kay invents is more upsetting that her sexual depictions. It's hard to imagine Ike grabbing her and saying, "God-----, Kay, I love you!" Or fantasizing about having a baby with her. This sounds like pure fiction.

Despite all these problems, it's still an incredibly interesting book. You either accept Kay's romance with Ike or you believe she invented it all. I tend to think he was extremely attracted to her but was too uptight to commit adultery, especially with his chauffeur. Still, an excellent read.

This book by a dying Kay Summersby is a poignant account of what can happen when a man and a woman are thrown into a wartime work relationship that is unrelentingly stressful and from which neither dare retreat.

In her book, written largely from memory, Kay has no regrets and makes no accusations. She treats her infatuation and love for her near-genius and overstressed boss, Dwight Eisenhower, with grace and sensitive restraint, focusing more on the emotional than the physical. Her book reveals how their extreme discression ensured that virtually no one on Eisenhower's staff understood their special relationship. Anyone who has read the book will understand the post-war denials of truth by those on the periphery of Eisenhower's inner circle. Both knew that when the war ended their love affair also had to end. It is a very personal story without a storybook ending.

Her book gives first-hand insight into the personalities and quirks of the major leaders of WW2. Kay treated the emotional aspects of her mutual relationship with Eisenhower with honesty and objectivity. It was a story that needed telling.

I bought this book blindly without seeing the contents first (what a stupid mistake!) only because it said 'the first half of the book deals with link power budgets'. So you would think that this book has a lot of details about link budget calculations right? Wrong! Most of the stuff in this book is only in introductory level. The link budget calculation that was boasted as the main feature of the book is very superficial, the kind of stuff that you would find in any satellite communications book out there. If you are looking for a good reference for link budget calculation, I recommend Tri T. Ha's. It has a Crane's rain model in there. (But in the real work, people normally use ITU model. So you will need some of the ITU's recommendation papers that have the model calculations as well. For example, P 620 - just to name one.)

In all, this book is a fairly good introduction. I would have given it more stars if it were priced at around [price]. It is simply too expensive. If you want a better introduction book in satellite communications at lower price, go for Dennis Roddy's.

This text was required for a college course in Satellite Communications. This book is one of the BEST at explaining satellite operations and space communications principles. I used the Wertz/Larson "SMAD" book in previous classes and was puzzled by its explanation of several space communications concepts such as EIRP and Power Flux Density. This book gives simple, common-sense explanations for these types of concepts. The first chapter alone gave me more of a complete understanding of communications satellite systems than anything I read in Wertz/Larson.

Many of the calculations presented in this book involve decibels and logarithms and a math review would be helpful for most people. Since most communications calculations in general are done in decibels, this math is unavoidable but easily mastered with a little high school math review.

A good complement for this text is the book "Silicon Sky" by Gary Dorsey. This is the story of Orbital Sciences Corp/Orbcomm which is attempting to build a private communications satellite system. For a "business history" book, it gets surprisingly deep into the details of communications satellite engineering and provides a good real-world context for understanding the material in "Principles of Communications Satellites".

I hesitated a bit before purchasing this book because of the price and my relative inexperience in this field. It is indeed a classic textbook because it begins every topic with a clear explanation of the underlying theory and its importance in understanding satellite communications. The authors have also provided chapter-end exercises to reinforce the key points. Though my college degree is in Chemistry and never had any class in engineering or computer science, the concepts are well understood. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good theoretical knowledge of satellite communication technology

The authors of this book must get paid by the word. They will write 50 words where only 10 are required(I have other Wrox Books with the same problem). The breadth of coverage is good, but its unusable due to the amount of reading it takes to get the information. If this book were 500 pages with the same coverage it would be a 4.5 star book.

I learnt a lot from the book that I cannot get from other books.
Thanks, Simon.

The coverage of this book is excellent! You can hardly find a book that offers such a rich coverage of knowledge about how to code everything in windows envoriment, windows services, active directory, Registry. As experienced programmers, I and my coworker got a lot out of this book. It is my bible for us to learn new things that we didn't know, such as windows services and active directory. I really admire the authors's wide spectrum of knowledge of MS products, and sincertely appreciate it for their willing to share with us. The book is worth every penny its price.