Perspective Books

Truly an excellent study of the meaning behind Bach's use of counterpoint in his treatises on Harmony, Counterpoint, and Fugue. David Yarsley's insightful understanding of tonal counterpoint and how it functions, in conjunction with his great historical perspective, allows him to draw some very interesting and useful conclusions on Bach's works. For example his explanation of Crab Cannon is about as good as it gets and clearly shows his mastery of the material at hand. This book is a must read for any serious composer or lover of Bach.

An unusual book about an unusual dog. I really felt Duncan's sorrow and joy. The author has a gift for bringing us into the scene and she transported me to the streets of the Island of Abaco with ease. I cried when I pictured Duncan's beginnings and I laughed at his antics when he came to California. For any dog lover, his perspectives ring true and so do the perspectives of his new family. You will enjoy reading this warm and wonderful book. A great read.

This book is full of practical information about NCLB and its implications on research and research-based instruction. People interested in educational research will want this book as a reference.

John Ray's book is in keeping with the excitement and suspense of other accounts of this fascinating battle (the only one in history to be fought completely in the air), but he takes the point of view of Britain's Sir Hugh Dowding, Commander-in-chief of RAF Fighter Command. Ray tells of the inner workings of the RAF, the political battles and clashes of personality that were happening as the battle was being fought and eventually won. It isn't a hagiography of Dowding, but defends his positions and points out his weaknesses. The details on the battle are given as they relate to Dowding's story, without a rigid historical chronology, but containing some terrific anecdotes (such as Dowding's visit to the French Armie de L'Aire headquarters in March of 1940, which helped him make up his mind not to send any more of his fighters to be destroyed in what was obviously a lost cause.

This is a book for those who already know the Battle of Britain and wish to delve deeper into the personalities involed, rather than a complete record of events during the Summer of 1940. It is an intellectual and entertaining look at the Battle from behind the desk of its most tenacious leader.

I loved this book. This book helped me become more political than any other political book ever. This book realy helped me understand all of the problems that other demicratic nations have.

Cantwell Smith's rare gifts shine through this remarkable book, which should be a must read for all serious students of religion.

Readers in grades 5-7 will find this 'New Perspectives' series addition stands alone as an excellent survey of history surrounding the Berlin Wall in general and Eastern Europe in particular. The Berlin Wall uses different viewpoints to tell of how the wall was built, how it affected the peoples' lives, and how it came down. Politics is clearly explained and explored.

This book is about the software quality methods and initiatives that have evolved in Europe. It's a collection of presentations that were given at three years of ISCN (International Software Collaborative Network)conferences.

Dr Richard Messnarz, the editor, did an excellent job of ensuring that the material is not only uniformly written, which in itself is no small task considering that there are over 30 contributors from 11 European countries. However, the way this book is organized reflects the real editorial genius. It's divided into three parts covering (1) principles (theory), (2) experience (practical application of the principles), and (3)synthesis and conclusion (what the future holds and how the European approach is different from the U.S. approach).

Chapter 1 is clear roadmap to the book and shows how the subsequent chapters tie together to form an alignment of principles and experience. More importantly, it also shows how technical aspects of the principles link to business issues. This is evident in Part 1 where chapters 2, 5, 6 and 7 address business-enabling topics, while chapters 3 and 4 focus in the underlying processes and methods to achieve them. My favorite chapters from this part of the book were 6-Process and Product Measurement, and 7-Costs and Benefits of Software Process Improvement. In particular, chapter 6 had clearly written guidance on project controls that is a pet interest.

Part 2 is devoted to the experience part that ties to the principles. The ten chapters cover thoroughly how the principles were employed at a variety of European companies. I like the cross-section that the editor includes, which covers big and small companies. This selection of case studies shows that size of the company does not matter as much as commitment to perform, which is the bottom line in any endeavor. This is where theory meets practice, and the case studies clearly show that the two can be aligned.

Part 3 is a single chapter that outlines the differences between the U.S. and European approaches to software quality and processes. It is interesting reading because the challenges are cultural and also hampered by national pride. However, from my perspective, which includes international consulting, the biggest cultural differences are company cultures and not national ones. Still, lessons can be learned from this chapter because you will see the same symptoms when comparing two different companies in, say, Los Angeles, as you will when comparing national cultures.

Overall: every one of the chapters is well written and thought provoking. The processes and methods, drawn from a large number of European initiatives, are true best practices. The case studies are not only illuminating from the perspective of someone who wants to implement mature processes, but they are also inspirational in that they show that it can be done in companies big and small. The biggest value, though, is the masterful way the editor has organized this book. The way principle is linked to experience, experience of large companies compared to that of smaller ones, and the array of approaches and methodologies presented make this book easy to use as a reference. I strongly recommend it and give it 5 stars.

I am truly astounded that this book is not ranked higher in terms of sales. This is an exceptional compendium of disciplinary (including psychologists, chemists, biologists, and physicists) perspectives on a very important, relatively unexplored topic: time. I HIGHLY recommend this book for people interested in exploring more completely the problematics resultant from a linearly, determinsitc conception of time in scientific exploration.

This is an excellent read for academia. Although it can be somewhat slow-its a comparative analysis of two complex African American leaders- and how their intellect threaten and forever changed main-stream America. Depicted as polar opposites by the press (the machine) it takes one to the threshold of truly acknowledging Malcomn X and DR King as being much more alike (the Cross Roads) than they were different. Pass this one on to your love ones.....or challenge your HS or collegiate students.