David Grant Books

Wonderful historic document. You have to read it bearing in mind when the text was written (there are a lot of thoughts that are considered prejudices today) but apart from that, it's such a magical story! This poor Hawaiian king trying to learn from other monarchies in other countries and trying to convince the world that Hawaii also exists. I really recommend it to fans of traveling, Pacific cultures, monarchies or international affairs.

This book provides a fascinating insight into a historical adventure that most people are unaware of. King Kalakaua of Hawaii was the first monarch ever to circumnavigate the globe, visiting many of the countries with whom Hawaii had treaties. Kalakaua was a highly educated and intelligent man and an exceptional diplomat who spoke numerous languages including the Queen's English, and courts around the world were highly impressed with his character and knowledge. He also liked to party and could be a bit of a rascal, so there are some quite humorous scenes as well. The author, who travelled with Kalakaua, inserts some rather unfortunate racist judgments in his commentary, which can be hard to stomach, but if one can overlook those, the substance of the story itself is fascinating, and in my opinion would make a great movie!

dr. strombeck was my major teacher at the university of davis california, he is a great teacher and this book is the best in small animal gastroenterology

I think this book is the best in gastroenterology that you can find in veterinary literature.

I bought this book because I needed to learn about UbD's for my new district this year. I thought that the book was well laid out and gave you a great framework for the UbD's but there was so much flab in between. There were a lot of pages that I felt like I could skip through. I do not know if that is because I graduated with an Education degree and therefore I knew most of the things they said in this book or if it because it repeats itself a lot. Overall I think this book is great for college students just starting in the profession.

We used this book in a condensed class and it was very useful although i would prefer to have had more of a variety of examples of the actual application of the theories.

I used this book as part of a graduate level class. The book is quite informative and gives great ideas on how to teach for results instead of just covering necessary material. Basically, it tells teachers to start with goals, then work backward to the introduction and teaching of the material. There are other similar strategies out there, but this is very specific as to curriculum design. It gets repetitive, but it is useful overall.

This was a required text book for a graduate class. It is one of the most poorly written text books I have ever had to read!

Whether the human mind is capable of understanding the process of understanding is a philosophical conundrum that has occupied the time of great thinkers from the pre-Socratics to the modern-day exponents of the theory of the mind. It is against this background that McTighe and Wiggins, respected American education researchers and theorists, attempt to say important things about understanding to teachers hoping to improve their lessons and their lesson planning.

Their book sets out to do this largely by attempting to clarify some pragmatic trivia in a well ploughed field. Unfortunately, the reader is soon furnished with ample evidence that McTighe and Wiggins are patently out of their depth in this field. Their definition of understanding is an extremely poor one - "that a student has something more than just textbook knowledge and skill - that a student really `gets it.' " - although, to be fair, their definitions of assessment and curriculum are much sharper and better considered, and remain useful even outside the context of this book.

What the two researchers can achieve is the definition of a series of facets that they themselves create - the Six Facets of Understanding. One is immediately reminded of Bloom's taxonomy here, but McTighe and Wiggins claim that their research supports the notion that this rubric is valuable for teachers seeking to deepen the understanding of students in their classes.

Typically, for this type of book it is the anecdotal evidence they cite which remains in the mind. There is a tradition of made up anecdotal evidence being perfectly acceptable in American education research - as long as it describes patterns of behaviour that are empirically evident in schools. I have strong reservations about the validity of making up classroom scenarios, but it is possible that this fictional anecdotal approach can occasionally be useful in clarifying areas of learning that are hazy. My problem with this book is that if McTighe and Wiggins are relying upon empirical data to persuade the reader to accept their facets of understanding rubric, then they themselves are recognizing only one of many possible definitions of what understanding is.

In my view, the six facets allow the teacher or assessor to assert that the participator in a lesson influenced by Understanding by Design has been advanced further along an arbitrary linear spectrum called "Understanding" than might otherwise have been the case. No more and no less.

The book is, therefore, mainly an explanatory footnote to the six facets rubric. It's a useful rubric for accomplishing some pragmatic classroom tasks, but it has nothing new to say about understanding.

If you plan lessons that may broadly be described as

* open ended
* based on standards
* containing clear criteria for student success
* include different ways to ensure student enthusiasm
* flexible enough to accommodate the "teachable moment"
* accessing the higher echelons of Bloom's taxonomy
* integrating skills

then the likelihood is you won't learn anything new from reading Understanding by Design. If you don't already do the above, Understanding by Design may be a useful tool towards self-improvement as a teacher.

This is one of the best stories Grant has ever written. Please resort to your non-linear, artistic, symbolic lobe when reading. If you do you will "get it". If you can understand THE INVISIBLES you will "get it". If you can appreciate DOOM PATROL you will "get it". If not, then buy it anyway.

Hands down one of my top three essential, could not live without graphic novels.
People always say "yeah, that doesn't make any sense," when i bring up this book. Seriously, they're stupid. The entire thing has a complete, self-contained system. The stories get very broad, and unless you've got a photographic memory, WILL require some re-reading and back-tracking to either recall character names or situations or complex ideas that are referenced only liminally later. But, the art is fabulous, each issue has it's own specific smaller story (usually the premises are HILARIOUS and absurd, all too gruesome to describe here) and relates to the plot's overture...which, when it hits, will really knock you flat. Morrison, I'm pretty sure you're a genius.

Fantastic book; incredibly detailed, terrific art, bizarre and surreal, while maintaining a strong storyline and interesting characters. 5 stars. Not for the faint hearted though. ;)

Morrison getting freaky again. There is some whackiness here reminiscent of Robert Anton Wilson. Secret agencies trying to keep consensual reality intact, porn star superhumans with semen weapons, crazy guys, split personalities, and old bachelor guys that live with cats.

I don't think it is supposed to make sense, some of the time, either.

First of all, this review is based on what I got out of this graphic novel. I may be very dense and can't understand subtle humor of this nature. I found several parts of this humorous, but most of the time I was confused and lost in the story and where it was going and why it was going that route. Maybe it wasn't supposed to make sense and I just didn't get it. It any case, the art was, to say the least, incredible and visceral. I would definitely get another penned by this artist. But the story left me confused and somewhat disturbed.

This book has several recipes in it for different weight dogs. Most of them have some sort of wheat and/or corn products in them. Any of you who are trying to feed your dog good food will know that many dog are allergic to wheat and corn. I tried one recipe for one serving for my 10 pound dog and it made so much that it fed my two 10 pound dogs and my 25 pound dog for 3 meals, and they didn't really like it to begin with.

I liked the nutrition information in this book and the recipes have everything for a healthy dog. I found most of the recipes too complicated--I did not want to cook gourmet meals for my dogs. The recipes are for a specific weight. I have two dogs: 50 lbs and 100 lbs. It was hard to make one recipe for both. I took the ideas of the recipes and make my own. I tried taking the fresh veg/fruit in the blender and my dogs did not like it. I cook the fruit/veg together with meat and they look the food!

I found the recipies to be a bit difficult but the book is good and I decided to go raw instead and use an occasional recipe from this book as a special treat for my dogs. It is well balanced without a milloin supplements required (a few in each recipe). I found my dog won't eat rice at all even with something good mixed in my puppy will but the dog will eat whole wheat maccaroni noodles so that in itself helped me. There was a lot of information in this book that I liked and some I didn't but it is a great buy for someone considering cooking for thier dogs.

I would read this book as a companion with "The nature of animal healing." This book is very easy to read and gives you a basic understanding of diet & health and it does give you some great recipes with easy instructions. But I would not rely on it soley. Read it with "The nature of animal healing" and you will shock your vet with how much you have learned and you two can actually have a serious conversation about your pets health...you may even be able to teach your vet something! Mine in fact purchased both of these books shortly after I spoke to her about them! (thats kinda scary actually...)

I bought this book some time ago and use it often. I found it easy to use and very complete. Good recipes for the finicky eater and most importantly healthy for them!! This is not in the book but something to consider as to why we should feed our pets home cooked foods. Before the end of WW2 and the start of commercial dog foods, dogs where fed from the table eating most what we humans eat. Back then dogs lived well into their 20's. Now if they live to 10, 12 years it's concidered old!! Something to think about as we feed our dogs commercial foods and vaccinated the heck out of them!

Great - I laughed and winced at the same time. It's all too horribly true. Buyers of consultancy are spending shareholders' and taxpayers' money, not their own. They have a duty to make sure that they are getting value from it. Often, they are not. As quoted from the FT, "No company or government department should let a management consultant through the door until they have read this book from cover to cover. Twice."

The book provides some interesting insights into the consultancy business. It highlights some shortcomings about the services that consultants provide. The book is well written in simple and easy to follow language and style. Readers who have had experience working with consultants are likely to relate to some shortcomings highlighted in the book.

The book should be of interest to a wide readership including consultants, companies wishing to engage consultants, academics in the field and analysts as well as any reader wishing to be acquainted with the workings of consultants. Good consultants would no doubt be happy to guard against the failures highlighted in the book, of failing to provide practical workable advice and guidance to clients at reasonable fees. Managers in organizations would learn about more pragmatic ways to manage the relationship with consultants and ensure that they get value for their money. Students of the profession will learn some of the shortcomings that they need to avoid if they are to establish a trusting and mutually beneficial relationship with clients.

For the unethical consultants, well, the secrets of your tricks have been revealed, so it is time to change and avoid shaming a good and worthwhile profession.

I should also say that I have witnessed some excellent consultants that have done a wonderful job of turning some organizations around and saving the livelihoods of thousands of employees. At the end of the day, we have to appreciate that consultants give advice to change or improve a situation but have no direct control over the implementation.

As the author of Rip-Off! I wanted to reply to the review "don't expect too much". I don't mind a bad review. But I have a feeling that the review was actually written by a consultant pretending to be an executive so that they could slate a book which criticizes consultants. I have 3 reasons for being suspicious: my book has had rave reviews from senior journalists and respected management experts: the reviewer actually uses words and phrases taken directly from articles about the book: the reviewer says he is an executive who has worked with consultants for 10 years - what executive worth their salary would use consultants for 10 years? Anyway, you can make up your own mind by reading the 1st chapter free on www.consulting-moneymachine.com and if you like it buy the book at amazon

This book was an interesting change in my readings menu. The book's `true story telling' style gave it a nice `page turner' effect but yet it had so many interesting facts about our business. If you are a consultant with a straight forward and honest attitude towards your clients, this book will expose the real deal about some of your competitors and hopefully give you a positive charge to carry on like the one I received. The potential clients who are considering hiring a consultant will also benefit from this book as their selection will be more educated and wise. Finally, to those consulting companies practicing such despicable methods depicted in this book I say: you are a disgrace to the consulting profession.

The book is a thin account of the author's experiences as a big 5 consultant, and takes place before the implosion and restructuring of the overall consulting market.

The resulting conclusions are largely inuendo as the facts are not fully attributed. It has a tell all style, but without the tell all facts. For such a accusatory set-up, the finish is weak. As a buyer, I felt ripped off.

This is an excellent astrology kit. I've owned two of these kits already and it never fails to disappoint. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to acquire a complete set nowadays as it appears to be out of print. What a shame.

Judge for youself. Refer to page 10 of "Book one: How to Cast a Horoscope" in book one of the Astrology Kit. Your horoscope will be judged on the position of the sun and the moon at the time of your birth. From there, you fill in all the conjuctions and aspects of the other planets for additional readings. But the author states that you can not know the position of the moon unless you know the exact time of your birth! Such as 9:43 a.m. If you don't, you will have to guess among three sun-moon horoscopes as to which is yours! Good luck. Now if you do know the exact time of your birth, you won't have to guess ONLY if the time of birth was not early in the day (let's say between midnight and 3:00 a.m.) or late on that date (let's say between 9:00 p.m. and midnight). Then you are to choose between two horoscopes based on which one you are most alike. Since I know that I'm a highly intelligent and loving saint, this wasn't hard for me (JOKE!). But that still leaves the odds at 25% of missing. And many of the aspects and conjunctions will be based on a very possibly erroneous moon sign. So you will be just be having fun and be giving a bad name for astrology in the process. Simply put, if you can't obtain the exact time of birth, your chances of being right are 1 in 3. And if you do know the exact time, it's 75% in your favor. You can do better. Buy Suzanne's White "The New Astology". And if you want to go deeper, get one of those exact time charts. I did a woman's astrological chart whom I met on the internet. She turned out wonderful according to "The Astrology Kit" (we are to date soon). Using this kit, I now wonder if she will slice me up into little bity pieces and stuff me in her mailbox (joke, lol, hiccup). Good luck future astologers of America.

I have used this system for the last 6 years and think it is the absolutly BEST that I have seen for chart interpretation.

While you do need to know your time of birth to get the most out of this kit, if you plan to get the most out of any astrological reading you need your time and place of birth to determine the exact location of the planets. That said, this kit is wonderfully detailed, but also very simple to use. My friends and I had hours of fun casting our horoscope and then reading our personality traits out loud to see if they fit us. A great introduction to the complexities of astrology.

The kit includes an easy to use astrology chart and instructions on how to cast a horoscope. Sun signs, moon signs, conjunctions and aspects of a chart are all included. It is amazing how accurate the personality readings are! My friends and I have played around with analyzing our bosses, boyfriends, and husbands! What a kick! Even if you take all of this with a grain of salt, as I do, The Astrology Kit makes casting a horoscope enjoyable and fascinating. I highly recommend this book.

I have enjoyed this book. I have learned much from it. The pictures and diagrams are helpful, and the information complete. The book is user friendly.

My book came just as was promised and in great condition. Thanks~ Megan (I would buy again)

very informative,, helps with test taking,, worth the money
great preperation for state written exam

This is a great way to review for the class tests and a good refresher for the national exam

This book was very helpful in theory...lots of practice questions and tests to help you review the concepts you learned in your EMT test. In reality, though, the book had many errors and discrepancies that made studying it frustrating. For one section the questions didn't even correspond with the answers - there was a question talking about bioterrorism, and the answer choices had to do with whether or not a certain trauma patient needed a cervical collar.

I would recommend the book to everyone if it were accurate, but since it's not, I don't recommend it. It can be very confusing to the frazzled EMT student trying to prepare for NREMT exams because it's hard to tell on some questions what the right answer truly is, and you can't exactly trust the book.

Fifteen Seconds is a photo journal that commemorates the 1989 earthquake. The book is a series of pictures, quotes and captions that are put together to show the reader how terribly destructive the 1989 San Francisco earthquake really was. This is a book definitely worth reading. It gives the reader a good view of what happened on October 17, 1989. If you want detailed information in written form, this is not a book to read. If you enjoy learning through art and photographs, this book will be a fun and interesting read.
With photographs, quotes, and captions this book tries to show you how it might seem if you were in the position of one of the many victims of the earthquake. Fifteen Seconds has many quotes that give you even more of a feel for how the victims viewed their situations and how this disaster affected so many lives of so many innocent people.
For example on page 35 a Santa Cruz resident compared the earthquake to her experience in a hurricane and tornado. She found the earthquake to be much worse.

The book sends a message through every single picture. Each picture is individual and has its own significance in its own way. The book Fifteen Seconds starts out with pictures of the great World Series game that was disrupted by the tremendous tremble. It also features a large section on the Marina District fire. Damage to the the Bay Bridge is included as well as the memorial services after the quake.
Even though all of the pictures are still without movement, as I read this book it was almost like I was reliving the great catastrophe of 1989. I could just feel the ground shaking below my feet and I could watch as the Marina fire started to burn. I could just imagine the tears streaming down my neighbor's face as if I were at the memorial service for a loved one who had died. Every picture is worth a thousand words.
One of the pictures that made the biggest impression on me is a picture of I-880. The picture on page 18 and 19 of the book gave me a good idea of how destructive this quake really was. In the picture there is a long stretch of highway which at one point used to be straight. In the picture the highway is twisted and turned and formed into an almost water wave like shape. There is smoke rising from the newly formed wave of cement and the caption read simply enough:
"Smoke rises from the mangled top span of I-880 in Oakland minutes after it collapsed, killing forty two people"
That small little note on the bottom of page 18 sums up the picture in what I thought just the best way possible. It tells me what I need to know and lets the picture tell the rest of the story as my imagination carried me away. There is also a quote on that page that read like this:
"I said to myself ` Lord don't let this span collapse,' and just about that time the span collapsed" Dave Rieman
That small quote tells whatever part of the story that had been left out. It tells me something about the people who had actually been there and actually experienced it. It brings me that last missing piece of the puzzle and really pulls me into the scene.

I was in 7th grade in Aptos, CA when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit Northern California. I didn't remember a whole lot about that time, so I bought this book to refresh my memory.

As my family is made up of both biological and adopted children I found this book very helpful. We adopted acrossed race lines so our sons do not look like our biological family. This book gave us a warm and loving way to talk about how the world might see them and whether that matters in making us a family. Books about looking different because of adoption for this age group are hard to find. I would recommend this book to any family with young children involved in transracial adoption.