This book does not offer an objective analysis of service learning. It is written by proponents of such pedagogy in order to promote it.

The major problems:

Related to the issue of objectivity, there are literally hundreds of student quotes sprinkled liberally throughout this book; none are hostile to the project of service learning. As a teacher who has had students participate in such projects for the last five years, I can assure you that the authors simply chose to not include students' harsh assessments of their service learning experiences.

The authors repeatedly criticize traditional instruction methods, and then cite studies supporting their views. When you look up the citations, you find that those authors are also true believers in service learning. No critical voices are treated seriously.

The authors again and again extol the benefits of "learning by doing", and denigrate other, more traditional, academic practices. Isn't writing a formal paper, however, a form of learning by doing? It is applying and using knowledge in a creative way, but the authors are clearly not interested in such assignments--at least not to the extent that they could replace or challenge the dominance of "service" in terms of "learning by doing." My favorite quote from the book in this context is the following: "Students who are by temperament active learners may be less than enthralled by writing, but some noted that in spite of the work of sitting down to write, this was a productive process..." This is classic educratese: when you have a poor writer, you label him/her an "active learner by temperament"; and when the writing assignment turns out to be productive, this is treated as a news flash. Obviously, education majors don't do much serious writing.

Perhaps the most seriously for those of you thinking of implementing service learning in your classes, this book offers no analysis of which types of courses work best with service learning, and which do not. The authors repeatedly use the "soup kitchen" and "homeless shelter" examples, as though those placements would be of use to a course on Greek history or Organic Chemistry. One striking sentence in this context is the following: "Finding service that roughly matches course content is fairly straightforward." As an instructor with much experience in this field, I can tell you that this is just not true. Further, this quick sentence is the beginning and the end of their discussion of finding good placements.

This book shows why Education departments are widely considered among academics to be of generally poor quality.

For years, many educational researchers and practitioners have been looking for research that helps us understand how the engagement of students in service-learning activities - community service activities that are integrated with academic learning - affects students' learning. Based on the findings from two large service-learning research studies, the book presents a comprehensive discussion of the dimensions of "learning" and then provides a thorough analysis of how service-learning affects the development of each dimension. This well-written and thought-provoking book provides important answers to the most asked question in the field of service-learning: Where's the learning in service-learning? This book is certainly one of the best books in the field of experiential education. I highly recommend it for any interested in understanding how active learning pedagogies, such as service-learning, affect students' learning. Although the book focuses on students in higher education, the findings from Eyler and Giles's research have implications for understanding how service-learning affects K-12 students.

"What would you do if you woke up with a penis?" This question was put to women artists, scholars, performers, writers...women as varied as Sidney Biddle Brown and Germaine Greer. In her introduction, Ms. Giles writes that women's experience of the penis ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. The answers to this outrageous question-- serious, humorous, and sometimes strange-- bear this observation out.

OK, a few of the selections are boring. But the entire premise is fascinating, and this book makes readers think outside the box. As a woman, I felt validated by some of the writings, identified with some, was saddened by the truth of some ("The Pricks in Physics: A Historical Fantasy"), laughed out loud at some, was uncomfortable with some. Only a few left me unaffected. Isn't that one of the highest goals of a book, to stimulate thinking?

52 women and 2 men wrote pieces for Fiona Giles discussing how having a penis for 24 hours might help them understand males, men, and masculinity. What Giles has collected are 17 art pieces ranging from drawings to photos and 37 written piece ranging from short essays to poetry to short stories. Among the contributors are Pat Califia whose essay addresses stereotypes and what "phallic envy" may really be about, Jane Yolen's modern fairtale, "Ask Isadora" advice column by Isadora Alman. Some of the pieces are funny, some are nasty bits of revenge, and a few are even quite insightful. I'm sure something in it will offend everyone but I also think everyone can finding it amusing and moving. Now when we have the reverse experiment?

The cover price of this book would give one more than adequate funds to build a lovely incense stash and purchase a couple of cool, simple burners. Here's my book, for free: buy a bunch of incense at a shop, or at the sidewalk mon's incense table or online- be adventurous and unafraid of your own instincts. Now, burn it. Write down their names, and mark which ones you like or don't like. Don't buy the stinky ones again. How hard is that? I could see if this book told one how to make incense, and believe me, I'm a book person, but heavens, have we gotten so lame that we need this to tell us all about how to enjoy something so simple? Proof you can truly publish anything these days.

If you get this book, it DOES NOT teach you how to make your own incense. However, it only tells you how you can have incense in your life if its a stressful one. This book doesn't really tell you all the things that can also release stress as well, besides incense. Its not a book that i would recommend to someone cause its very cut and dry and very blah with its content, however, the pictures are very well done.

This is a beautifully written and photographed book with wonderfully different ideas on how to use incense in your own home, different types of incense you can find - either by type (sticks, cones, coils, etc) or by country - Japanese, Indian, etc. There are loads of great pictures, information on the history of incense and its uses as a spiritual practice. It's relaxing just to browse through this book!

After reading this book, I still didn't know why Frederick II of Prussia had been accorded the title "the Great" by history. This volume spends a lot of time on detailing the personal life of a very flawed man, and very little explaining why he was a seminal force in 18th century politics. I finally turned to his entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica, which in a short article did a better job of explaining Frederick's place in history than this book did.

Other flaws in this book: for those of us not familiar with 18th century European political geography, a map or two would have been helpful; without maps, it's impossible to understand Frederick's political machinations or (especially) his military campaigns. Also, incredibly, among the pictures there is not a single one of Frederick's queen!

At times criticized and commended for its focus on merely Frederick, rather than Frederick the Great, MacDonogh's effort merits the attention of amateurs and enthusiasts alike. In a relatively brief space, MacDonogh is able to reveal a great deal of primary insight about a man who distinguished himself not only with the sword, but also a pen, a flute, etc. MacDonogh also demonstrates his ability to use the personalities to illustrate the time; weaving a thread through the German principalities of Frederick's youth is difficult enough without the need to discuss the circumstances of Frederick, his father and the machinations of foreign and Prussian envoys and courtiers. MacDonogh has given us an insightful piece about a man who lived a life full of something for everyone.

In a society stuffed with anglophiles and, more recently, celticphiles, we have little history available on Middle Europe and its grandeur. We know that it produced the most terrible army of the 20th Century. We also know of colorful snippets about how 18th Century German mercenaries lent a hand in Britain's fruitless effort to keep 13 American colonies from becoming an indepent nation.

The book gives a much deserved look at how Middle Europe's nations evolved through marriage, annexing and (naturlich) war. Frederick is taken off of his pedestal for us to take a closer look, and the authors shows us Frederick's warts and all. His family, especially his father, plays a vitol role in the book, which the author infers that this is a key element in driving Frederick to succeed.

If there is a shortcoming in the book, it would be the battles. Though the book was not published to be a historical guide on tactics and strategics, I would like to know more on how the protagonist became so land rich at Prussia's zenith.

This book does include all the highlights on each section. However, the layout could be improved for readability. There's an error on the questions and answers arrangement. Overall, I like the in-depth answers to all the questions, help readers to analyze questions in MS way. It's great to review this book prior to your exam for consolidation.

This book has some good information, but it's obvious that they skipped all the steps needed to locate the errors. It's supposed to have the correct answers for test questions. However, multiple times up to chapter 7, I'm finding that the answer key is off, obviously off by getting the numbers mixed up and so on. This book can still be helpful, but it's very disappointing to find this many errors after paying good money for the book. I'd consider going to other publishers before buying again from these people.

Contains a lot of useful stuff but the sections in chapter 18 on protected mode operation was too short and the accompanying diagrams were a bit skimpy. Having said that, the example code was useful. There was no hard data on virtual 8086 mode and the paging mechanism which is a key feature on 80386 and subsequent processors. Information on how Windows uses the later processors' segmentation, task switching and paging features was notable by its absence. I wish I could find a book that covers this material.

-Derek Jacobi takes the lead in the role of Brother Cadfael. In the Cadfael box set, four television episodes are soundtrack recorded with a narrator. Vocally, these four stories are wonderful pieces of fiction. However, even with a narrator, it sounds as if we are missing something. The production values are excellent, since these are the Brother Cadfael TV series which ran on PBS . . . But on audio, it sounds hollow . . .

If readers simply want to have a general overview of the making of Tate Modern Gallery, perhaps, this book is suffice. Should the readers be curious of cogs & wheels that create the Tate Modern machine, then, there's another superb book that shouldn't be missed. It is called "The Power of Art" written by Karl Sabbagh. Perhaps, these 2 books should be combined as a total reading experience so that there's nothing is amissed. The deficiency of "The Power of Art" is that it contains too few pictures but the shortcoming is succumbed by the author's inquisitive observations & countless interviews with all pertinent professionals, which were all recorded down in his confident but fluid writing style. I enjoyed every moment reading about the showdowns among architects (Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano, Herzog & de Meuron, Rem Koolhas, Rafael Moneo, David Chipperfield during the competition stage) & subsequently, between Herzog & Norman Foster regarding linking the Millennium Bridge with the Tate Modern itself, showdowns between architects & engineers, headaches & traumas of completing the project on time & on budget, unforseen circumstances which were never expected in the scheduling, clashes of personalities, inner politicking, different mindset between professionals & builders, reality is different from the model set, comparisons between it & the Paul Getty Centre, & Bilbao Guggenheim, how the presentation was going to flow, the election of the new gallery director, the parody or mannerism of Herzog & de Meuron (the firm), the PR exercise conducted between the Gallery & its surrounding neighbours, the selection of a new landscape architect Kienast Vogt Partner, the professionals' obsession with toilets, & so forth. "Building Tate Modern" however, ignored the "tasty" bit by simply informed the readers briefly of every & each process. Pictures took precedent in this presentation & the quality was adequate. The index for the building plans, nevertheless, was too small for naked eyes. What "Building Tate Modern" exceeds Karl Sabbagh's book is mostly the allocation of one chapter to explain Bankside Power Station & its architect, Giles Gilbert Scott before it was finally converted. These 2 books are 2 different kettle of fish together & therefore, it's impossible to say which one precedes the other. Suffice to say that both publications tried to do justice to the Modern Gallery by presenting it in formats which authors & publishers deemed best. An experience not to be missed.

Congratulations Harlow Unger! Competent, kind, insightful. Strategic guide,and yet,a completely thorough and indispensable book showing readers and students how to research and implement all alternatives to standard college courses. I heartily recommend this book.

Having read the author's recent Forty Words for Sorrow, I was curious to read his first novel. Published in 1989, Blunt has come a very long way in the intervening years. Cold Eye is a cold book on a Faustian theme: an artist, in essence, makes a deal with the devil -- in this case a hideous dwarf -- in return for success.

Nicholas Hood's chosen theme for his paintings is violent death. While his work is much admired for its technical skill, it lacks heart/insight/passion. So, in fact, does the artist who is married to an impossibly sweet and lovely musician (harpsichord). Everyone in the book is far too tolerant of this unpleasant man who becomes ever more unpleasant exponentially once he's made his "deal with the devil."

The writing is fine; the subject matter is merely unpleasant and not particularly revealing. Although the one truly inspired aspect is that as Hood becomes exposed to more and more violent murders, courtesy of Bellisle (the "devil" of this tale), Bellisle becomes, to Hood's eyes, more and more handsome. This is a very well conceived corollary: that the more attractive something becomes to a person, the more attractive becomes the purveyor or facilitator of that particular something.

Otherwise, while all the secondary characters are well-drawn and sympathetic and, no doubt, the author intended us to dislike Nicholas Hood, unfortunately he's so dislikable that it makes for difficult reading. This makes Blunt's progress as a writer notable, because Forty Words for Sorrow is one of the best books I've read in a long while. Cold Eye is worth reading for its value in tracking the growth of the writer. And I expect some horror fans might find it very entertaining.