Kudos to Dr. Diane Plotkin for her thorough research into the lives of the women featured in this book. Her attention to detail helps transport us to the various camps where we experience dehumanization and deprivation. Through it all, however, it is interesting to see the various ways these women nurtured and tried to protect one another. This is a "must-read" book because it clearly illustrates the general differences in the ways men and women coped with, and adapted to, life in the concentration camps.

It was hard to put this book down once I started it. Although the women portrayed faced a living hell all around them, the authors elicit the courage and determination each women had to continue the daily existence in the camps. And that is what is so powerful; the daily horrors which become the backdrop for extermination are also part of the reason that each was able to define for herself a path through death.

This book was a difficult endeavor, as one never wants to face the potential raw ugliness of mankind. However, the voices of these women are invaluable in helping the world to remember a time which must never be forgotten.

As a young woman (34 years old) and a mother of three (which qualifies me as a caregiver, I guess), my heart went out to these brave women, struggling to impart some small measure of kindness or at least relief of suffering to their fellow prisoners. Women and children are seemingly the most vulnerable when society engages in chaos, but the women caregivers chronicled in this book were apparently among the most intrepid of all. I believe they gathered strength from the acts of focusing on giving aid to others in the most desperate of circumstances. Anyone who is interested in what the human spirit can endure, and indeed, overcome, should read this book.

"So, What's Your Point?" is an excellent book. It is written in a style that is easy to read and entertaining. The book contains excellent advice on improving your interpersonal skills. It is written primarily from the perspective of an employee but the lessons can be applied more broadly.

I am using this book as a way of training my staff in better business communications. It has helped me break down some pretty tough communication barriers.

This is not a large book, but it is certainly one of the most practical you will find concerning one-on-one business (or personal!) communications. I'm familiar with Dr. James Wetherbe's other work, and I have found him to be extremely perceptive about all that he writes about. (By the way, another top-notch book on one-on-one communication is "How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk" by Faber and Mazlish, which is (really) about much more than communicating with kids.)

"Soar" was given to me by a dear friend. At first I was a bit hesitant about reading it. But, I picked it up and found myself reading it cover to cover in the first sitting. The information in it is so valuable that I read it with a pad an paper handy to jot down notes.

This book has become a manual that I keep close at hand. I refer back to it often. "Soar" is an intelligent, passionate outline of how to succeed by applying focus, imagination, and hard work. Mr. Ball explains the importance of prioritizing goals, imagining them coming true, planning a course of action, and working hard to achieve those goals. He is at once forceful in his strategies and supportive in his intent. The reader is left energized and empowered. I recommend this book very highly.

"Soar" encourages you to look within yourself, to identify your goals and avoid the obstacles that may be standing in your way.

The author's voice is both encouraging and forceful in expressing the discipline required to acheive your true potential. "Soar" encourages and pushes you in the way a good athletic coach inspires his team. As with any training, this discipline requires practice. As a result, the book is organized in such a way that you are encouraged to re-read sections, make notes and review the ideas discussed.

"Soar" is a necessary reminder that we must all look to accomplish the "most" that we can and to share our unique talents with the world. The message of this book goes a long way in reminding us to believe in our dreams and to stop at nothing!

Soar If You Dare gives you good, strong principles and methodologies and explains how to apply them directly to your own life. It doesn't waste your time with unrealistic philosophies, it gives you true-to-life examples of how to achieve success in both your personal and professional life.

Fighting for what's right means that when the government threw the leaders of the Socialist Workers Party and fighting labor leaders into jail in 1941 for defying Roosevelt's war drive and Tobin, the bureaucrat that ran the Teamsters union then, Cannon and the other revolutionists respond by explaining why they were socialists, how the fight for a workers and farmers government in this country will proceed. This book has all the answers to any question about the fight for socialism, not only in the USA but anywhere else. It also contains a lot of history, a lot of humor, and a lot of Cannon's generous wisdom and wit.

One of the chief founders and continuators of communism in the U.S., Cannon helped lead working class opposition against two world wars. The government put Cannon on trial. This book is the transcript of his courtroom testimony. He answers questions about the fundamentals of socialism-many of them posed by a very hostile government prosecutor. Despite the tense environment, Cannon speaks as though he were addressing interested co-workers during lunch-break in a factory. Down-to-earth, logical, witty, and with a deep and passionate grounding in Marxism. Cannon's assumption is that socialism, clearly explained, will make sense to workers. This approach--rather than talking-down or sugar-coating a la the Greens and other reformists-is the correct approach. As workers see their hopes of health, security, dignity and justice going down the tubes with the unfolding capitalist crisis, they want to hear the unvarnished truth about capitalism and socialism. This book gives it.

A real-life trial, with an exasperated and somewhat ineffectual prosecutor, an interesting defendant - and world revolution as the topic. Ever wonder whether communists aim to kill individual capitalists? How can you be a socialist if the majority of working people today don't agree they need socialism? Why take away the property of the wealthy that they have obtained by legal means? James P. Cannon answered each one of these questions, and many more, in his 1941 trial on charges of sedition. A wonderful, easy-to-read guide for anyone trying to understand Marxism. Excellent for high school students.

A collection of essays wrote by african american and biracal young adults. The essays are about struggles the writers have been through while growing up, and on college campues. I throught all the essays were good.

This book is a very well-done sociological study of African American/bi-racial college students and the telling of their stories to get to this point in their lives. The stories are diverse yet similar. Bright, misunderstood, sticking out like sore thumbs because they were of color and intelligent. That is not the way it is supposed to be. Why is it African Americans are ridiculed for being smart. I read Kunjufu's book some years ago when my daughter was in middle school, Black Peer Pressure: To be Popular or Smart. Why must you choose. I am trying to remember my childhood experiences. I cannot remember being ridiculed for doing well in school. It seemed that was the norm for my group and the kids seem to have more respect for one another. I know this is unusual. I think about my brother who is now a well-known cardiologist in the Bay Area and when I look back on it, he must have felt isolated because he was one of those super-smart, gifted students. From the first story of Prince which was heart-wrenching. He was truly a testament to the poverty and hardship. He proved he could succeed against the oods. So, it is with Malik who had a drug-addicted mother. These young men's stories is in contrast to some of the more affluent of the group. Maria, Rob, and Steve had all of the amenities to have a good head start, well-eduacated, financially secure, and good neighborhoods. However I must say, I was disappointed that these students felt they had little in common with other black students because of their status. And it seemed their attitudes were reinforced by their parents attitudes who seemed to feel if it's white, its right. I am trying to reconcile these parents with the generation that had to strive for basic civil rights in housing and education. Where was the pride in being black. Why were they not going to black churches and putting their children in contact with other young black people with groups such as Jack and Jill or church youth groups? I always thought it was the generation these students that lost the black pride, not their parents who I guess are in their forties, fifties, and sixties. Claudio and Alessandro had to do with the problem of being both black and Latino and all the trials associated with being of a double culture. So often in Latin cultures, children are told they are Latino and then they get out into the world where no one will let them forget they are black. That can be a rude awakening when culture and color clash. The bi-racial students angst of being between two world, not knowing where they belong. This story was also very well told in "Black, White,Other" by Lise Funderburg. Christina and Susanna's black fathers evidently had problems with their black identities. It seems in these and many bi-racial families they do no discuss race, as if not talking about it, it won't be a problem. But as they find out, these issues need to be discussed. Sure these kind of parents say they just want their children to grow up to be good, healthy individuals, regardless of race. Not in America where race and race matters are so pervasive. The editors forewords before each chapter, Janie Victoria Ward and Tracy L. Robinson among them were provacative, intelligent studies. I would highly recommend this book to high school and college student of African descent as well as their parents and students of black sociology. Very well done.

Souls Looking Back is a thought-provoking, engaging and critical work that solidifies the validity of personal narrative as form of interpretive research with a focus on critical race theory. Anyone who may posses any questions regarding the power of such representation should read, ingest and reflect upon the stories of the young people presented in this book. The editors splendedly synthesized these educational and personal memoirs within the context of personal identity, critical race, critical feminist and critical race feminist perspectives. I would strongly recommend this book for all those with sincere interests in anthropology, sociology, psychology, African-American/African-Carribean/Afro-British studies, and education. This book truly exemplifies the multiplicity of lives our young people of color experience.

I was not planning to read the whole book, I just planned to read enough to get me through one period of high school. Guess I should have picked a different book because once I got into this book, I couldn't put it down. I read through all my classes, including geometry. I really reading about Nathan and Kylen, I only wish it told us if Kylen was alive or dead...I haven't read the second book yet(Demolition War) but I am really looking forward to it.

I dont read too many books like this so for me to rate this so well, it has to be great. I am a trekkie and I only read startrek but this book has changed my mind, other books can be enjoyable. If you have never read Sci-Fi before, this IS the book to start with.

Space: Above and Beyond by Peter Telep is the first S:AaB book and is faithful to the TV script.

It is written for adults, unlike the four children's titles.

If you want to re-live S:AaB, but do not have the tapes, then this book is essential for all S:AaB fans. If you do have the tapes, then still buy this title. It is perfect for remembering Space: Above and Beyond.

All Saab books are great and Teleps a great sci-fi author I just wish I could find Any space above and beyond book for my personall library if you would sell me one in good condision e-mail me at Spbeyond@Yahoo.com

The practical exercises in the Christian traditions are useful, and cause growth. (Romans 12:2) This book is useful for any spiritual formation group and increases awareness of need to grow in Discipleship. Have used exercises in my Walk to Emmaus(spiritual formation/accountability) reunion group--leads to Christian action.

This book will help you discover where you need more balance in your Christian walk. As you learn to practice the 6 different traditions; social, contemplative, holiness, charismatic, evangelical, and incarnational, your walk with the Lord will become more balanced. This has been a life-changing study for me!

This is a very good book for starting a Bible study that is labor intensive versus study intensive. I do recommended this for all people to lead after they have to a personal study with Celebration of Discipline materials. To my knowledge, this version is out of print because it has been revised and replaces by ISBN 0062516264. This new book includes the sixth tradition of incarnationalism. Also recommended.

One of the first books written about the Wake, A Skeleton Key has been largely supplanted by the wealth of Wakean research done since its 1944 publishing date, but its value as a seminal text is undisputed, and many -- including me! -- still find it a very useful guide. It opens with a beautiful introduction by Campbell, then explains the purpose of the text, moving on to a synopsis of the overall story. After that, it breaks down FW page by page, stripping the text of much of its obscurity and serving up possible interpretations via footnotes and bracketed commentary. In this way Campbell and Robinson more or less retell the Wake, "prosifying" the text in an attempt to make it more comprehensible to the lay reader. While this is certainly helpful, it must be said that this technique can come across as being a bit dry, and is certainly no substitute for the breathtaking immersion in Joyce's scintillating river of prose! Additionally, many of Joyce's meanings were overlooked by Campbell and Robinson, and a few of their interpretations have long since been "overturned" by more recent and intensive scholarship. Because of all this, A Skeleton Key has lost some of the polished glow of its initial reception, and some Joyceans have gone so far as to call it almost completely tarnished, finding it occasionally more misleading than helpful. Although there may be some truth to that, I still enjoy this book, and I find its mythopoetic angle -- this is that Joseph Campbell, after all -- uniquely refreshing, and some of his mythological insights possess a brilliance that has rarely been matched. Still, however, it is no substitute for the text itself, but for a work written only a few years after Finnegans Wake was published, A Skeleton Key is a pretty amazing accomplishment! I would not recommend it over a more recent guide, but I do occasionally enjoy turning to it -- like a slightly dowdy but favorite aunt, I still like to curl up by the fire and hear her stories over a cup of tea.

If you have given up on the Wake, try this. The characters and storylines of Joyce's last book (yes, there are real characters and storylines) are brilliantly revealed here. What makes this book really exceptional is that it is not a commentary or series of notes alone, but a paraphrase of the entire Wake. The flavor of Joyce's invented language remains, toned down a little. I even venture the heresy that a person on a desert island with just this book and no copy of the Wake would still find it a good read.

First, please accept my disclaimer for this review: I have been a fan of J. Campbell for several years... The objectivity may be lacking, therefore, in this assessment: freely admitted, and accept my apologies.

Campbell spent ~4 years, if memory serves, on this book. He said he finally had to get away from the Wake because everything he read started to sound as though it was from the Wake..

Having been an avid reader of Joyce for the last 5 years, Campbell's KEY is to my mind THE definitive work on the Wake. Anyone can criticize another's work, and perhaps it is unreasonable to expect a critic to be as brilliant as the victim of his wiseacreing, but to my mind criticisms of this beautiful and inspired work are rather worthless..

The Key is always my primary reference for the Wake. "Annotations" is just a phone book of references; the Key is first-rate scholarship. Infallibility is not a requirement for brilliance, assuming there is merit to criticisms of this work.

But as Joseph Campbell would say, don't buy a book because it is said to be important; buy it because it "catches" you. Campbell's grasp of the Wake is a wonderful help to appreciating the Wake in less than a lifetime.

A great read with a lot of useful info for swim coaches. I support Sam and his techniques because his success cannot be denied. He is the man. buy the book.

I am the Womens Head Coach at a small Liberal Arts School in California. This book is awesome.

I was surprised at the content of Sam's book... I thought it was going to be mostly tutorial, but there was a lot more to it! The personal stories and bios about his swimmers were inspirational and entertaining. (especially for a swimming book!) This book is a motivator and may help many coaches pay attention to important aspects of coaching, not just in the pool (i.e. mentality). Sam is a great coach and after reading this book, it is easy to see why.

"Stars and their Spectra" is overall a significantly better read than Kaler's earlier work "Stars", which touched on many topics but didn't dive into any of them satisfyingly enough. This book delivers a thorough yet introductory coverage of the science of stellar spectroscopy. As an added bonus, it's very well-written and is great fun to read cover to cover. Kaler clearly harbors great enthusiasm for this subject, particularly when he discusses extreme stars like supergiants and white dwarfs.

Kaler spends the first eighty pages or so covering the basics of how stars work, spectral theory, and history of the modern scheme of spectral classification (OBAFGKM, easily remembered by the popular mnemonic Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me). The meat of the book comes next: a chapter devoted to each letter of the sequence, starting from the cool M stars and working up to the ultra-hot O stars. Here Kaler goes into significant detail on the defining characteristics of each class and how those characteristics manifest themselves physically. We learn how dwarfs, giants, and supergiants may share a spectral class but are fundamentally different (the giants and supergiants almost always aged into that spectral class from a different one). A wealth of other information on each class is presented. We finish up with stars that don't really appear on the regular H-R diagram, such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. Kaler also gives a nice overview at the end of how stars journey along the H-R diagram, changing spectral classes as they age and their internal fusion engines deplete their fuel.

I see stars of a myriad of different colors through my telescope. A few are stunning and a great many come in attractive pairs or multiples. Yet visually they're all points of light with little meaning. It was fascinating to see how much can be learned from analyzing the detailed characteristics of a star's light by dispersing it in a spectrograph. Due to the advancements in this science and the aggregation of data points on the modern H-R diagram, it is often possible to guage a star's size, age, chemical composition, and distance solely from the qualities of its light.

I sell most books after I read them but this one's a keeper and has a permanent spot on the shelf!

If you think that star spectrography is an obscure and boring field of research reserved to people with a Cambridge degree, well, you're wrong, and here's why. "Stars And Their Spectra" is yet another marvelous book by James Kaler one of the leading (and still the most underrated!) divulgator of stellar astronomy. It's the natural follow-up of "Stars", Kaler's book on the birth, evolution and death of (guess what?) stars. It explains how the light coming from objects distants thousands of light-years (or more) does contains a wealth of informations on the nature of those little points of light in the night sky. The classification of spectral data, the nature of emission and absorbtion lines, the whole array of concpet behind the analisys of stellar light, it's all presented in a clear manner, with great examples and the right amount of illustrations. Moreover, Kaler it's a divulgator but a scientist too, and he never insults the intelligence of the reader trying to banalize the subject matter. Based on a series of articles appeared on "Sky And Telescope", "The Stars And Their Spectra" will make turn you instantly in an amateur spectrographer...

As an amateur astronomer I simply cannot beleive I have gone so long enjoying astronomy without coming to grips with spectra. While the concepts are generally known this book takes the general reader step by step through probably the most important pillar of modern astronomy, analyses of light.

The book requires no advanced mathematics (if it had I wouldnt have understood it) and sticks to good solid concepts.

While it is accessible to the general reader Kaler pulls no punches even when you wish he had, insisting on parsecs instead of lightyears for example. However the joy of him pulling no punches is you are left with a good grounding with which to move onto other works or even do some spectroscopy yourself as I did.

I would commend other astronomy enthusiasts or lovers of space science to get to grips with how we determine the make up of stars and other objects, this is the book to do it.