Departments Books

After paying over twenty dollars for a copy, I wish I could find more information on more AACSB-accredited doctoral programs in this book. Towards the end of the book, there is a list of all such programs. However, detailed information is only available for a small subset. I do not think my money was well spent.

I ordered this guide for the "40 in-depth profiles" of the most important schools, but found this guide completely missing the mark. There's no ranking whatsoever of the "top" schools. Also, if you look at the faculty lists for the schools that they *do* profile, you'll find that the top schools hire faculty from a very select 10-14 schools; a large portion of these schools are omitted from the "40 in-depth interviews" that this book promises. Nothing on Harvard, MIT, Northwestern, Carnegie-Mellon, Yale, Columbia, Berkeley, London School of Economics...these are the key schools where the faculty of the leading institutions are hired from. Yet there are plenty of write-ups on second- and third-tier schools...no offense, but if you want to discuss Doctoral programs, leaving out the top schools gives your "guide" virtually no credibility, despite your nod to the masses who aren't necessarily targeting the elitist institutions. One last point, some professional layout for the guide is in order. It looks like it was desktop published by someone on their home computer. Not to mention written by someone who is not familiar with the subject matter. The last point to add is that this claims to be "the only comprehensive guide to US doctoral business and management programs in print." Frankly, if the standards remain this low, it won't be the only guide for long.

When I read the reviews of other readers, I thought some of the comments could not be true. But after buying it myself, I totally agree with everyone's rating. The book is a waste of money. Especially when the authors keep emphasizing that this book is the only one of its kind on the market. The AACSB is supposed to be an informative and reliable source. If I were the AACSB, I would withdraw as soon as possible because this guide is not worth even a $1.

If you are interested in the university programs that paid to have themselves profiled in this book, then it might have some value to you. Otherwise, there was very little information on the majority of doctoral programs currently being offered in the United States. A big disappointment coming from an agency that would have complete information.

I don't know how this book got published. I've read some bad books, and this is seriously the worst I have ever seen, ever. The writing, the characterization, the plot, are all horrible. Then they all merge together to make it even worse. I would try to say something nice like "Well, at least the author seems to be a native English speaker!" except that the author keeps having characters say random things in German, and the line "Dumbstruck am I" (page 77) has got to compete with "Ya know that guy off in whose camper they were whacking" for its awkwardness, but it's worse because you know it was supposed to sound formal whereas "off they were whacking" was from the Beavis and Butthead movie.

The plot is that a woman is murdered and everyone's immediate reaction is to worry they will be the top suspect, then they stand around and complain for 164 pages, and then they have a seance that is successful in calling up the spirit of the dead woman to reveal the killer, even though the only suspension of disbelief previously required by the reader was to believe that there would really be so many lesbians all working together in the same department of the same school in Texas. There are I think 5 characters total, all minor, who aren't lesbians; and two of those are gay men. But the plot: on about page 15 I imagined the worst, stupidest possible ending to the story that could possibly occur, AND THAT WAS WHAT HAPPENED. They hadn't even introduced the characters who did it yet.
The book is also written confusingly in an imaginary 3rd person by an imaginary 1st person who puts editor's notes in the middle of the imagined text for no reason and there are also entries from someone else's diary as well. Yes, yes, it makes about as much sense while you're reading it. I can only imagine the author did this because she realized the book was terrible and wanted to shift the blame onto a poor helpless figment of her imagination. The 3rd person segments don't read like a person would write an autobiography, the diary segments read nothing like a diary -- in fact, most of the people don't even act like people. They act like someone wrote down a single word to describe the character's function and personality (i.e. "Paula - black." Oh, I'm not kidding. There's also "Lester - male," which means that he hates all women who won't have sex with him.)
This book is tagged as being Lesbian Interest, but I can't see how this would interest lesbians aside from the fact that a lot of the characters are lesbians. Like cop stories must all interest cops and histories all interest dead people. And by the system reported above, "Lesbian" is always their main personality trait, which means they have to start doing romantic/sexual things with each other at weird times, like in the middle of grave conversations. Example:

H.& I in my house. In bed, sipping wine. "I have a student who is a potential problem."
Her round face looks sympathetic. "Poor dear. Boy? Girl?"
"Her name is Reggie."
"A crush, do you think?" Hannah puts her finger in her wineglass & drips a few drops between my breasts. Then she licks them. "Um," she says.

If this were a conversation with a male/female, I would be demanding the girl take that wine bottle and smack this inattentive jerk over the head with it. Also, that above piece is supposed to be from a diary -- Samuel Pepys himself would not have been so formal, I tell you.
There is also a weird habit -- made even more weird by the fact that the book is supposed to have been written by one of the characters within it, that instead of describing important actions occuring in a scene, the author instead starts describing the locations of furniture. Characters' thoughts are never explored, in fact they don't even seem to listen to each other when talking face to face. They are good or evil as blatantly as if this were an old-fashioned melodrama, with villains cackling and twirling their mustaches -- which they have because they are men -- and the good guys faults only existing out of bad luck or misunderstandings.

The author is a college professor in a drama department, and maybe if this were a play instead of a book it wouldn't be half so bad. The way that scenery and every single little movement of the characters, including every single time someone licks their lips, which happens a lot it would seem, has to interrupt any existing action in order to be described might then be sensible. And that's about the only compliment or forgiving thing I can say about it.

"A Shedunit"

Miller, Lynn C., "Death of a Department Chair". Terrace Books, 2006

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

Lynn Miller is a mystery writer who has done a bang up job with "Death of a Department Chair". This is one of the fastest moving murder mysteries I have ever read and boy did it pack a wallop. Academia is always fun to read about and throw in a gay theme, it is twice as fun. And then are twice as many villains here. Those of you who have been to college will feel right at home with this cozy book. It is witty and a real page turner. It is not just a "whodunit" but a "who woulda done it if they coulda".
Margaret Held, our heroine, tells the reader of the previous year when she was the chief suspect in the murder of her former lover and department chair, Isabel Vittorio. Vittorio was not all that clean herself; she had been involved in hanky panky regarding the hire of a new female professor who happened to be African American and was at odds with the majority of the faculty. Miriam, on the other hand, was forced into acting in the opposite direction and therefore had to defend both her reputation and her life. In her quest for the truth, Miriam gathers evidence that seems to incriminate all of her friends and colleagues. What develops is an atmosphere and mistrust and a new look at departments of literature that few of us have ever seen before.
Cleverly and wittedly, written there are enough twists and turns to made heads spin and what emerges is a clever satire of the academic world. Miller's characters are so finely created that there were times that I felt that if I looked up from the pages of the book, I would find one of them sitting in the room with me. Combined that with clear and lucid prose, a wonderful story and outrageous goings on, you are set for a wonderful read.
Miler has written one other book, "The Fool's Journey" which I can't wait to read and co-edited "Voices Made Flesh: Performing Women's Autobiography." What she has done for me is create a fan that is anxious to explore her writing. I have never really liked what is referred to as "Lesbian Lit" but this book sure made me change my mind.

I disagree with the other reviewer. I own the book, used its advice, and was admitted to more schools than I expected. It's true that it's a bit outdated and leaves some questions unanswered, but I still found it to be a decent general guide to getting into graduate school. Those who need extensive advice on interviewing or essay writing or who are specializing in an obscure field may need a book more specific to their needs. Because the book is so general, I would recommend buying it used for a lower price or ordering it through your local library, but it is certainly worth your time and a few dollars.

Anyone who needs to read this book shouldn't even consider going to graduate school. I have never seen so much obvious advice collected in such a short book. Were you hoping for advice on how to approach people you were interested in studying with? How to behave at an interview? What a good GRE score would be? What criteria the admissions comittee is using (other than, you know, "good grades")? Well don't look here. This book taught me literally nothing. In addition, it is completely out of date, with numerous references to our current "boom" economy.

The book is written from the view of the author (a newspaper reporter) and the sole investigator who couldn't catch them. Therefore much of the story is left blank or filled in by the authors vivid imagination. The online story "Behind The BlueWall Life of NY police officer Kenneth Eurell" is more detailed from the corrupt officers (Dowd & Eurell) point of views and, gives vivid detail of the crimes involved from an inside look. The book is basically rehashed NY newspaper articles from when the officers were first arrested.

...the author was able to tell the reader more about the "bad cop", Michael Dowd, than about the "good cop". I followed this ongoing NY Post story back in the early 90's and was enthralled by the misdeeds of these men in blue who were first coined "rogue cops". However, this book was very repetitive, and bored me at times with the angst of the internal affairs officer. For NYC true crime afficionados only.

Most of the pictures taken of the snakes of the Americas were blurry and faded in color. Of course, most of us take precautions against snakes in the wild. But generally speaking, this book should be revised and republished.

Perhaps people would be less likely to misunderstand snakes if the government didn't publish misleading information about them... starting with the fact that there are no "Poisonous" snakes. The correct term is "Venomous". I don't plan on buying this and neither should you.

A great resource for first time and experienced importers who do not fully understand their responsibilites as an importer.

All of the information in this book is available through the US customs website. Don't waste your money.

The bonus chapter is a shameless plug for you to use the services of a couple Hong Kong firm's who the author apparently is associated with. Skip this book.

I purchased this book because of Kaplan's brand. Unfortunately, I am very disappointed by the book and going to return it. This is the fifth edition and yet there are so many mistakes throughout the book. Worse, the content is just space-filler and useless. I find my time spent reading the book wasted time. Furthermore, this is supposed to be a workbook but the exercises included is just half of that included in Barron's general GRE prep. In brief, save yourself time and money by staying away from this book.

If you already own the Kaplan Premier edition for the GRE, then don't waste your money buying this as many of the questions for the verbal component are repeated in here. Though I found the opposite drills useful, most of the other drills were only average and I personally preferred Barron's GRE coverage of the verbal component. By itself, this would be good if you don't already own the Premier GRE edition by Kaplan which covers all the components of the GRE general test.

First things first: they are VENOMOUS SNAKES NOT POISONOUS. I agree with the other review it is very backward.

I purchased this in 1997 from Dover books which claimed that it had been updated. When I compared it with the original hardback from the 1960's it was obvious that it had not been updated. Despite this, it is still an informative book for those interested in poisonous snakes.

I ordered this thinking it was a reprint of the current or at least a recent Individual Combat Skills manual. It is not. The graphics, diagrams and text are from manuals dating from the early 1970s to the very early 1980s. The product description is deceptive.

I saw the publication date, and thought it would have info useful for my son, who plays paintball. While I never expected him to use the hygeine or medical section, I was hoping for a lot more regarding movement, fields of fire, and basic tactics. Not so.

What I found was a rehash of a bunch of Cold War era FM's. All the info was Euro-centric, all the equipment was out of date (I doubt we even have 90mm RCLs in any armory inventory,) there was no real discussion of movement or signalling (despite the chapter). It did not help I found the entire manual online.

The only thing saving this book from one star is the fact there were useful references. However, unless you are utterly unfamiliar with the Army, I would NOT recommeend this book.

In reading the description for this item, I cannot see any real difference between this product and the "21st Century Guide ..." also by DOD. Read my review of that product here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1592481817/qid=1130083151/sr=8-9/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i9_xgl14/104-5853979-1919162?v=glance&s=books&n=507846
before you buy this one. Unless they have made some major changes, save your money.