Programs Books

This is a wonderful program. I honestly can't say enough good about it. What a way to reach out to the women in your church, or in your neighborhood! I went through the program last summer and had the opportunity this week to serve at a new AOG session. It has been such a blessing to me, especially at a time where not many take the time out of their busy schedule to nuture friendships. I have never felt so truly cared for. The meals we did were not the ones in the book, but we did do meals. Some groups have chosen to leave this part out. I would definitely not do this. There is something so great about having a meal together and also not lifting a finger! You feel so pampered! Can't wait until the author pens a continuation study!

If you can find some mentors to lead you and friends through this study do it, but don't be afraid to start your own group. This is great for a neighborhood study. JE

This is a wonderful idea for strengthening relationships with older and younger generations. We are going to try it in our church. We may alter the program a bit as it is quite ambitious, but I think we can make it work. Be willing to work with it and don't get bogged down in the details of making it look just like the model.

This is a great book and program by a lady that really shows her love for the LORD!

Read this book and then buy more to give to your friends. This is a wonderful group program for older women to mentor younger women.

I bought this for my 5-year-old daughter and she loves it. It has many classic children's science projects, like making a tornado using two soda bottles, and all of the projects use common materials and are easy to do. They are just right in length and complexity for her age.

This book was excellent. I searched many bookstores to find it. It was full of exciting science experiments that anyone can do. It can be used in a whole-language curriculum to teach science. I am very excited to use it this year with my kindergarten class. It will reinforce their learning of the ABC's and teach them the wonders of science! I would recommend this book to any early childhood teacher

This book is both entertaining and informative. There are very few childrens science books which can capture the attention of a 4 year old, and still relay meaningful science; this book does. All of the experiments have fun poems to go along with them, and there is additional information for more in-depth scientific thought at the back of the book. The experiments are fun and easy to do. Overall, it's an excellent first science book.

My five year old loves the idea of doing science experiments, so I have purchased three or four science books geared for kids her age. This is the best one that I have seen. The activities are fun and easy to do. Almost all of them require only materials that are readily available in the average household. Most take under half an hour from start to finish. The reason that I gave the book only four stars and not five is that the poems themselves are not great. Bottom line: the science experiments are terrific, but the book is not a great read.

I just went to the California Kindergarten Conference and saw this book presented. There is a poem and a science project for each letter of the alphabet. They are simple, hands-on experiments and very affordable for the K-1 teacher.

This book has been very helpful to me in my personal study of statistics. It is practical, with everyday applications, as well as explanations behind the formulae. Be sure to buy one with the CDROM. It is essential to solving the problems suggested in the book.

I really just had to take the class to finish my masters. The book explains the theories behind the formulas. Having an instructor was very help to understand it all.

I have a large library of math texts from many years in school and I have never read one that was so much fun. This book is really interesting and practical. Finally a statistics book that does more than scare the wit out of somebody. I would highly recommend that more professors choose this book for their students.

Incredibly useful book, easy to use. Contains all the Excel information you will even need in a basic statistics class.

I have used this book in my classroom for the last 3 years and found it very illustrative and simple for students to comprehend statistics. It covers theory with practical examples and therefore keeps it 'real' for students. I have used other books in the past, but students found them theoretical and 'brain show-offs' by authors who really did not care for student comprehensions unless they were math majors. This book is far different and even beginner students can easily relate to the hundreds of practical examples that the author provides.

The Excel examples are easy to follow and my science students usually pick up many practical models from these examples. The regression covered at the beginning level in Chapter 3 is fully covered in multiple regressions in Chapters 17 &18 in a way that makes it easy to teach...

Of the 40-60 stats books I have in my office, this is by far my favorite....

Dr. Bjarne Berg
Assistant Professor Lenoir-Rhyne College
School of Math and Computer Science

I enjoyed the authors' book on logistic regression analysis in 1989, and this book is just as good, or better, with many extremely practical suggestions on building regression models for survival data. Happily, the authors summarize, compare, and contrast several major texts on survival analysis which have appeared in the past 10 years. For example, they discuss different names used by different authors for score residuals. They present a helpful appendix on the counting process approach to survival analysis, which will make more advanced texts accessible to students; thus, anyone who wants to use survival analysis, at any level, should consult this book, even if he has already studied books by Miller, Lee, Collett, Fleming-Harington,Andersen, et al, etc. An unfortunate drawback to this book is that the first printing contains many careless errors, some of which may affect student learning: for example, the definition of a survival function is misstated. I recommend that you insist on the second or third printing when buying this book, and you will be quite satisfied.

The authors provide a really nice, non-technical survey of the landscape for Cox Proportional Hazards models. A nice aspect of their treatment is the care they take to reference all highly technical texts and journal articles. For example, if you'd like to find out more about goodness-of-fit tests for survival models, the authors provide ample references to the Counting Process Theory of Martingale Residuals.

The first chapter discusses the basic characteristics of survival data, including the notion of censoring (in all of its various forms). Examples of the principle types of censoring are included. The chapter also includes introductory material on the general survival model, including a nice description of the log likelihood function. Curiously, the rigorous definition of the hazard function has been omitted, probably to avoid intimidating readers who are not familiar with formal limits.

Chapter 2 continues to build up the general survival model and introduces the relationship between the survivor function and the cumulative hazard. Pointwise estimators for the survivor function are discussed, including the Kaplan-Meier estimator along with the various variance estimators. Test statistics for comparing two survival populations are introduced, including the Log-Rank and General Wilcoxon statistics. The reader is encouraged to read the counting process treatments of these statistics to see why they produced defensible hypothesis tests.

Chapter 3 is devoted to the Cox Model and Cox's partial likelihood function. Tests for significance of the coefficients are introduced, included the Wald test, log likelihood ratio test and the score test. These are used heavily in the later chapters as the basis of a model-building methodology.

Chapter 4 is a very short, but nicely written chapter explaining how to interpret the values of each regression coefficent. It also describes covariate-adjustment techniques for model diagnostics.

Chapter 5 is just a wonderful chapter which outlines classical model building techniques. This is a great chapter for anyone who has ever been thrown a ton of data (with a bushel of possible covariates) and asked to "fit a model to this stuff".
Readers who have done a lot of purposeful fitting of linear regression models won't find the basic techniques new, but use of survival specific residuals and selection criterion will probably be an eye-opener. The section on assessing the functional form for continuous covariates is also nicely written.
However, the section on Best Subsets Selection was a little too "cook-booky" for my taste.

Chapter 6 is another very nice chapter on goodness-of-fit. It discusses analysis of the various residuals and their use for analysis outliers, testing proportional hazards assumptions and overall Goodness-of-Fit.

Chapter 7 discusses the standard extensions of the Cox model, including stratification and time-varying covariates. Chapter 8 discusses parametric survival models, and is a good introduction to the SAS procedure LIFEREG. The generalization of the Cox model to recurring event data (also know as Aalen's multiplicative intensity model) can be found in Chapter 9.

My only complaint is that each chapter was designed to be read in one sitting. Individual ideas, topics and formulas can be buried in a seemingly unbroken chain of paragraphs. The lack of sub-sub section titles,etc, makes using the text as is somewhat cumbersome to use as a desk reference. I've gotten around this limitation by marking key concepts, etc., in the margin in order to give a "quick search" capability enhancement to the index.

Applied Survival Analysis is an excellent book for someone seeking a non-mathematicial explanation of survival analysis. The book covers the motivation behind the development of survival analysis, estimation of survival curves, the Cox proportionial hazards, and some parametric models. The book also covers the major methods used in variable selection, model building, and diagnostics. Someone with an undergraduate background in statistics and econometrics will understand the book. The book relies on text to discuss the methods and uses mathematical formulas only when absolutely necessary. Numerous examples are used to highlight what the text covers. The math that is used is easily understandable. This book is ideal for someone who needs to learn the tools of survival analysis but not how they were derived.

This book provides a good, clear, concise explanation of Cox's proportional hazards models. For someone seeking a non-mathematical description this is a great guide. The original datasets from the text examples can even be downloaded and you can go through the same process yourself. Because of some mistakes in the text, I would recomend looking at other sources as well.

Hosmer and Lemeshow have given us a clear, nontechnical introduction to using survival models. The book strikes a good balance between covering the basics and addressing the most recent, state-of-the-art techniques, including repeated events, frailty models, and others. They also do a good job of addressing practical issues, including estimation details and available software. While most of the examples are drawn from medicine and biostatistics, this book could also serve as a useful starting point for social and behavioral scientists interesting in learning the fundamentals of these models, as well as a useful reference for applied researchers.

I really have nothing to add to the other reviews of this book. I've never learned as much from one single book as I have reading this one. Love it!

This is probably one of the best computer architecture books I have ever read. The thing I like about this book is that Reis does not fall into the same trap as other authors and fills the first seven chapters of the book with lessons on what binary and hex is and how to convert between the two. I have always hated when technical authors begin an advanced technical book with freshmen level topics such as number systems. Real does not repeat this typical mistake. He actually teaches advanced topics such as how the JVM actually works, or how to write a simple compiler by using simple examples and that one can build on. He is obviously very knowledgeable, but uses non technical language in order to reach you. Kudos for a job well done Mr. Reis.

I rank this book at the same level as the Patterson/Hennessy book on computer organization. P/H is more advanced on the hardware side (perhaps too advanced for a first course in this area) but much weaker on the software side. Reis' book is better for a first course. The software that comes with the book is well designed and works well. It allows you to work with the computer at both the machine and micro levels. I've been using the Linux version. Versions are also available for DOS, Windows, Sun Sparc, and Macintosh OS X.

This is one of the greatest books about assembly you can buy...

I will tell you why:

The most of the books (e.g. 'Assembly Language Master Class' of Wrox) which you can buy about assembly are about topics like 'how to paint a bitmap on the screen', 'how to write to a file', 'how to read a character from the keyboard', and so on.

This is nice if you only want to know some little tricks and learn (nearly) nothing about assembly.

If you want to learn something about assembly buy this book! This book covers nearly everything you can imagine in depth.

The nice thing is that is starts like a typical B.Sc computer science computersystem/architecture class: what are numbers, what's hex, what's binary. What about negative numbers? This is a really nice book for someone without formal CS education which want to jump to that level (and beyond).

It covers number theory (hex/bin/etc), Logic units and ALU, etc. etc. This book covers really everything: Virtual Memory, OO programming in Assembly (yeah read it right), different processor architectures, instruction sets, codegenerating by compilers, writting an assembler (yeah cool! 'an' not 'in') etc. etc.

So: if you are looking for a tips and tricks book look somewhere else. This book starts pretty easy, so a lot of people can read this text, but after you finished this 800 page pounder you will have more insight in low level programming than a typical B.Sc/M.Sc in Computer Science (like me).

This book is the best book I've seen in assembly language/architecture. It's very clear, thorough, and concrete. It is really superb in how it teaches system concepts. And it shows how C++ and Java works, in addition to how computers work. It has a great chapter on the JVM. It also covers the SPARC and the Pentium. By means of the included software, the reader can design, implement, and test new architectures.

From a lay perspective, "tradition" arises from a repeated series of human acts. In many cases, those acts were first spontaneous or induced by some external event.

Can you "create tradition?"

The most interesting part of this book to me was Rykwert's analysis of Celebration, Florida. This was, of course, Disney's effort to create a brand-new "small town" from the ground up. He correctly diagnoses the effort as being dominated by profitable real estate development. In fairness, he distinguishes Celebration from a typical suburban development because of its dependency on "Olde World" design principles.

What he foresaw, almost inadvertantly, is the more widespread use of this modality for commercial/residential developments now springing up in revived, older suburban areas. These have been commercially successful and have created the sorts of delightful spaces he describes in his coverage of older urban spaces.

It's a good book, albeit a little dogmatic.

Joseph Rykwert's new book is perhaps his most radical, although he elaborates on themes that have preoccupied him for more than 4 decades. Never has he so emphatically stated his conviction that the cities we desire can become the cities we have, but only if we take hold of our capacity to effect meaningful reform. Rykwert's position is particularly encouraging and insightful at a time when most of us perceive the built environment as the result of abstract and impersonal economic and political forces seemingly beyond any individual influence. Rykwert's stance is a challenge to architect's, urban designers, planners and other citizens who cannot imagine an alternative between revolution and acquiescence other than surrender to conditions as they are. Such inertia is countered by Rykwert, as are rationalist and quantitative approaches to the city, with affirmation of the city as a fundamental setting of and for human will, dreams, and desire. It follows then, according to Rykwert, that any successful making and re-making of cities depends on a set of rational principles that are flexible enough to accomodate chance, elaboration, and improvisation. Features Rykwert believes can become the special qualities of contemporary and future cities (if they are not eradicated). Rykwert's consideration of the city investigates the full-range of attempts to make cities places of and for people; a thread he pursues from ancient cities, to the revolutions of 1848 to the Seattle demonstrations in 1999 in opposition to the World Trade Organization. It is for these reasons, and many others, that Rykwert's book is a must-read for all lovers of cities and perhaps especially for all those who don't yet love them.

Joseph Rykwert's new book is perhaps his most radical, although he elaborates on themes that have preoccupied him for more than 4 decades. Never has he so emphatically stated his conviction that the cities we desire can become the cities we have, but only if we take hold of our capacity to effect meaningful reform. Rykwert's position is particularly encouraging and insightful at a time when most of us perceive the built environment as the result of abstract and impersonal economic and political forces seemingly beyond any individual influence. Rykwert's stance is a challenge to architect's, urban designers, planners and other citizens who cannot imagine an alternative between revolution and acquiescence other than surrender to conditions as they are. Such inertia is countered by Rykwert, as are rationalist and quantitative approaches to the city, with affirmation of the city as a fundamental setting of and for human will, dreams, and desire. It follows then, according to Rykwert, that any successful making and re-making of cities depends on a set of rational principles that are flexible enough to accomodate chance, elaboration, and improvisation. Features Rykwert believes can become the special qualities of contemporary and future cities (if they are not eradicated). Rykwert's consideration of the city investigates the full-range of attempts to make cities places of and for people; a thread he pursues from ancient cities, to the revolutions of 1848 to the Seattle demonstrations in 1999 in opposition to the World Trade Organization. It is for these reasons, and many others, that Rykwert's book is a must-read for all lovers of cities and perhaps especially for all those who don't yet love them.

What's Joseph Rykwert's perspective and what's his view of the city? It's not very easy to peg down. It's not that of "sociologists, traffic experts, and politicians" as he says that he's "always been struck at how little the physical fabric of the city - its touch and smell as well as its sights - occupies their attention". Maybe he's more inclined to take an economists view and see things as Jane Jacobs does. Then again maybe not. Rykwert says quite plainly that cities do not develop "naturally". The perspective is definitely not that of a speeding, disinterested motorist. Rykwert refers to the impact of cars as "catastrophic" and says "I am not, nor have I ever been a driver." Now we're getting somewhere - a supporter of New Urbanism? Not quite. He has this to say about one of those showpiece communities: "the whole business of 'community' at Celebration is about...real estate". Rykwert is equally critical of a few architects (modernists), certain building designs (government and institutional), a couple of city plans (Brasilia and New Delhi), and some approaches to urbanism (the New Town concept of post WWII Europe).

With all that's wrong it's amazing that this book didn't turn out to be a miserable reading experience. That's partly due to Rykwert's writing skill but moreso because of his very obvious love for the city. THE SEDUCTION OF PLACE and affection for city space is obvious. The depths of his thinking about the urban form is manifest and Rykwert offers a synopsis of what's wrong and also what's to love about a city. "My polemic is not against the disordered, even chaotic city but against the anonymous and alienating one." With this we finally understand what his perspective is. It's that of a person open to experiencing the personality of a city; that of someone at ground level. Our difficulty with coming up with a clear view of the city might be due to the fact that we haven't experienced the city as Rykwert has and it doesn't yet occupy the same space in our hearts and minds. He invites us to begin. "The very condition of openess is what makes our city of conflicts so attractive to its growing crowd of inhabitants. The lack of any coherent, explicit, image may therefore, in our circumstances, be a positive virtue, not a fault at all, or even a problem."

Joseph Rykwert's new book is perhaps his most radical, although he elaborates on themes that have preoccupied him for more than 4 decades. Never has he so emphatically stated his conviction that the cities we desire can become the cities we have, but only if we take hold of our capacity to effect meaningful reform. Rykwert's position is particularly encouraging and insightful at a time when most of us perceive the built environment as the result of abstract and impersonal economic and political forces seemingly beyond any individual influence. Rykwert's stance is a challenge to architect's, urban designers, planners and other citizens who cannot imagine an alternative between revolution and acquiescence other than surrender to conditions as they are. Such inertia is countered by Rykwert, as are rationalist and quantitative approaches to the city, with affirmation of the city as a fundamental setting of and for human will, dreams, and desire. It follows then, according to Rykwert, that any successful making and re-making of cities depends on a set of rational principles that are flexible enough to accomodate chance, elaboration, and improvisation. Features Rykwert believes can become the special qualities of contemporary and future cities (if they are not eradicated). Rykwert's consideration of the city investigates the full-range of attempts to make cities places of and for people; a thread he pursues from ancient cities, to the revolutions of 1848 to the Seattle demonstrations in 1999 in opposition to the World Trade Organization. It is for these reasons, and many others, that Rykwert's book is a must-read for all lovers of cities and perhaps especially for all those who don't yet love them.

I've really been enjoying this book, ten minutes at a time. It explains the rules (I'm not sure I had realized there were any)behind the action, and includes capsule looks at number of bots I've seen locked in the box. The author talks about the costs of some bots, the time involved in designing them, and the number of upgrades they've gone through. I suggest this book for any fan of the TV show or the sport.

Fun book, lots of great pix, and a spread on my favorite robot: Dr. Inferno, Jr. What's not to love?

If you or someone you know likes BattleBots, Robotica, or Robot Wars, this is a great book. It has tons of high quality still and action photos. It also has great descriptions and pictures of famous bots and bio's of their builders. Find out how much your favorite BattleBot cost or how long it took to build! The book also has basic instructions on how to build a bot plus simple examples of different design types. It also has the Win-Loss record plus stats (like # of Knock-outs) for every bot. This book has something for everyone. It has enough "meat" to it that die-hard fans will love it and the photos and stats will keep even young kids engaged.

This glossy coffee table book is packed with photos, robot CAD drawings and a thorough history of the BattleBots competition. The abundant photos, in depth builder and robot profiles and stylized design caputres the real spirit of BattleBots. I love the chapter on "How to Build a Bot"- the step by step tutorial and comparison of materials provides solid advice to newbie builders like me. It is the best book on robotic combat I have ever seen. A must for all robot enthusiasts.

Great book! The history and the personalities behind Battlebots are really interesting. The machines are given the level of attention you always wanted to get on the show. Great looking too. Put it on you coffee table; guests will actually pick it up (and spend half an hour with it!).

I took a lot of ideas for working with my kids at school.

If you are a Reggio inspired teacher as I am, you will love this book. It takes you through the wonderful process of sharing the joys of all those little treasures that young children find and love. You will be amazed at how clever the children in your class become at sorting and classifying through the kinds of experiences that working with 'Beautiful Stuff' involes. I just love this book, it has changed the way I view the materials that I put out for the children, and how I use them. My friends also love this book and all ask, "where did you get it?" Thank you Cathy Topal Weisman and Lella Gandini you are inspiring.

In Beautiful Stuff!: Learning With Found Materials, Cathy Topal and Lella Gandini collaborate to share how real teachers in Reggio Emilia, Italy use ordinary and diverse materials found in any home to stimulate their student's imaginations, inspire storytelling and interactions between children, and serve to launch children into such creative activities as drawing, collage making, sculpture, and construction. Beautiful Stuff! is a marvelous, practical, inspiring, and easy-to-read compendium of ideas and suggestions for nurturing the innate creative of a child and adapting within the context of a classroom.

I am not a teacher and I was not experienced in the Reggio Emilia approach to preschool education (project approach) before reading this book. I sought this book for handwork ideas with the items my girls collect on their nature walks. I could not put this book down!

Beautiful stuff outlines the projects developed with found materials at the pre-school in Reggio Emilia, Italy. It starts at the beginning with the ideas of the teachers, the method of including parents and increasing children's awareness of everyday objects. (This book is full of details - they mention how the teachers scan materials and remove inappropriate / dangerous materials).

The book is filled with photographs from beginning to end. The photographs themselves show the story. I especially like the different approaches to sorting suggested in this book and the amount of time the children were permitting to sort, touch, feel, enjoy, and organize the materials. I also liked the three-dimensional project where the children first drew what they were going to build.

The children are quoted throughout the book. The quotes are memorable and sweet and show the children's enjoyment of this entire project.

I would recommend this book to pre-school teachers, day care centers, people who baby-sit in their home or parents looking for ideas for found objects. I loved it!

This book is a great way to ease yourself into Reggio or to inspire others on your team. You do not have to be "Reggio inspired" to know that young children love small, collectable items. They find such wonderful treasures, but classrooms are not often set up to make good use of this "Beautiful Stuff". This book has great photos and easy to read text showing readers the process that children and staff went through in developing this long term project. I particularly enjoyed the summaries at the end of each chapter on what the adults learned during the process. My only complaint would be that I wanted MORE!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is like I wrote it myself it is so near to my own philosophy. If you would to explore something outside what you have always been told is the truth, read this book!

A lucid, permission-giving approach to finding one's own spiritual path, written by a psychologist who realized that traditional religion no longer spoke to him and decided to search for "new wells" to drink from. Excellent.

This book, which I've read twice through and refer to from time to time, gives the reader a clear explanation of spiritual paths. They are backed up by the author's experience and knowledge of the field. Being a southern boy from a conservative christian group, many of the concepts here are foreign to the heritage in which I was raised. I have attempted at times during the course of my life to understand and fathom this yet evolving alternative spiritual tradition. This book has been a help. The fact that it is authored by a person who comes from where I come from provides validation for me of the truths of this spiritual stream. David and I come from the same place in rural Arkansas. He is six years older than I and I can distinctly remember him on pitcher's mound throwing his roundhouse curveball to Pony league batters. We grew up in an intense, close knit christian group. Zealous and extremely rational, the rules are well set and little deviation allowed. But sincere, diligent, and devout beyond reproach. Therefore, I know where he is coming from. David was always a caring, thoughtful and feeling type person. Naturally, he went into the ministry originally but eventually found his way and home in the psychology profession (lucky for you dear reader). Even though I haven't seen or talked with him since I was a teenager in the sixties I can still hear his voice when I read the book. You can perceive that he made an impression on me. The book shows that he has read widely and he draws from resources back to the Greeks and before as well as spiritual writings up to the present. It is not New Age pap. I really admired him for self-disclosure and for his guts to say some of the things he did in the sections on the feminine and the erotic. The book is intended for those "outside the walls of traditional religion". But, it is my opinion that it is no less useful for those (like myself) who are within organized religion. So read it and try out some of the paths. It is good that he provides suggested structure and discipline. Didn't Jesus say something like "My yoga is easy my burden is light"?

This book expressed ideas that I have been feeling for a long time. This book was beautiful and spiritually insightful. I do believe in God and our lord and savior Jesus Christ, however traditional religion did not quench my hunger for spiritual knowledge. I strongly advise this book for the spiritual seeker

As a spiritual teacher I have often been asked about spirituality and religion. David, however, deals with this topic better than anyone I have ever seen--Del Millers, author, Dancing with God

This is an excellent book for children ages 10 & under; the whole series is equally excellent.

These were my favorite books in grade school!!!!!! The Billy and Blaze books I had read over and over and over. Nothing is like them. They are the dreams of horse lovers: this partnership between horse and human. I had wished I was like Billy when I was young (even though I was a girl).

If you have a child who has a love for horses, learn about horses and encourage your child to get involved despite the expense. There are opportunities to work for riding lessons. That is a good thing. There is also sponsership/lease available for part-time riding (3days a week) which helps both the owner and the sponser.

My favorite books from childhood. I dreamed about horses and learned to draw them from the very realistic illustrator of these books. Highly recommended for creative learners.

First a comment about the review on above: That review from Publisher's Weekly has nothing to do with this book. I don't know what book it has to do with.

Billy and Blaze books are a wonderful series about a boy and his horse and the adventures they find while out riding. I think any child could appreciate these gentle stories. They are a nice break from the commercialized books usually marketed to boys that are based on cartoons and toys and movies.

This is a great book for young readers, especially those who love horses. This is a refreshing story about a boy named Billy and his pony named Blaze.The two have a very special bond and care very much for each other.One day they go for an outing and events happen which put them in danger. Readers are kept in suspense as Blaze and Billy struggle to get home. I would recommend this book to all young readers.