California Books

If you love beautiful gardens in California, but haven't a clue how to go about creating one, this is your book. Landscaping made simple is how I'd describe this book. One of the best features in the book is that you can see the full height/growth potential of different plants and trees. Also, there is a detailed guide on what grows where using a number system to trace each section. Thus, you won't fall too hard for any plant, flower or tree that hasn't a chance of thriving in your particular environment. On the other hand, you can plant with confidence those garden items that will succeed in your home. As surrounding yourself with nature can soothe the soul, this book serves as a handy tool in eventually finding a garden sanctuary. Love, Mom: A Mother's Journey From Loss to Hope.

I was looking for a general, beginners introduction to gardening in S. California. I think this book is good for showing highlights of what to grow and how to garden in California. I bought it for my daughter, who is new to gardening and short on time and money. It guides one to good choices, particularly in choosing trees and shrubs for the garden. My one slight disappointment: it was very brief on the subject of vegetable gardening- what to grow in each season, and how to set up the garden, soil amendments, watering, etc.

What a great book--it gives you the very best trees, the best vining plants, etc. I was having a hard time deciding what to plant until I bought this book. This was especially the case with trees. When you know you have room for two or three trees, but there are so many to choose from, how can you pick? This book is so helpful! They also suggest other plants that go well with the top ten in each category.

I'm not a California native so this book was a blessing when I moved to the Coast with my very own front and back yard to fill up. This book is easy to follow on when, where, why and how for plants and planting in California. Also it's great for beginners to advance gardeners as it helps you plan a garden and then gives you ideas on embellishments. This book is a must have!

A hard to find book but one well worth reading to anyone interested in law enforcement or, in particular, the LAPD. I couldn't put it down. Gates does an excellent job in providing the reader with a good picture of the Los Angeles police force and the trials and tribulations it's endured for the last 40 years. Gates comes across as a chief who genuinely cares for his department and it's officers as well as the community in which they serve. Plagued by a seeming knack to say the wrong thing or be endlessly misinterpreted by the media, one can not help but like the man and sincerely hope he will pen another one in the future

I was a potential victimof one of the serial killers in the book. I live with survivors guilt everyday. I fit the profile of his victims. I lived in the motel, and my friends and myself hung out at his room! I was mortified to hear what he did!

There is a good reason this book is so hard to find: it is onehell of a good read from the early start of the superchief's careerall the way to his unfortunate retirement this book takes the reader to the inside of the LAPD's world. The Chief did a great job for his first attempt. This reviewer only hopes he will produce more! The viewer gets an insiders look at the nations best police department the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Prologue starts with his visit to Washington for a conference on violence. He returned to Los Angeles at the time of the Rodney King attack. (Who was minding the store?) Chapter 1 tells of his early life, and the impact of the Depression on his family. His father's lost job was followed by alcoholism and hard times; they depended on government handouts (p.6). His mother was the backbone, and sole support of the family; his father was often in trouble with the Glendale police. After graduating from High School, Daryl joined the Navy and saw action in the Pacific. Daryl went to college on the GI Bill, married, and needed money. A friend suggested joining the LAPD.

Officer Gates learned there were more traffic deaths than homicides in 1950 LA. People got citations because warnings had no deterrence (p.20). The people Gates encountered were no poorer than he had been, but the Gates home was never without hope (p.23). Chapter 3 tells of the corruption in the LAPD before Chief Parker. Gates says Mayor Shaw and the underworld controlled the LAPD (but doesn't speak of the local ruling class). Gates was picked to be Chief Parker's chauffeur, and learned the importance of political support (p.31). Gates also learned of Parker's faults. Chief Parker streamlined the organization, reassigned police by time of day and neighborhood where crimes were committed. Parker instituted pro-active policing, creating the most aggressive police department in the country. Page 36 tells of the power of the 'Los Angeles Times': it elected mayors, and told the City Council how to vote (no mention of the powers behind them). Chapter 5 tells how hard he worked at preparing for exams. Gates came out first for the sergeant's exam, and for every exam afterwards (p.58). Promoted to lieutenant, he rejoined Chief Parker, and became his executive officer (p.65).

Promoted to captain, he learned "you can't give up on people" (p.68). Soon he was in charge of Intelligence. Gates noticed a lack of good protection for JFK in 1963 (pp.73-4). Gates explained the conflict between Chief Parker and J Edgar Hoover (p.76). Mob influence was minimal in LA, compared to Chicago or NY (p.78). There were checks and balances to avoid corruption (p.85). Gates was promoted to inspector in 1965, before the Watts riot. The postwar baby boom led to a huge increase in the number of young people, the predominant age group for criminals (p.105). Gates political skills paid off when he won the biggest pay raise in department history (p.130). The May 1974 incident with the SLA made SWAT famous.

"People really don't have the freedom to know what is going on in the world, only the freedom to know what the media wants us to know" (p.181). Proposition 13 "substantially lowered property taxes", and Chief Gates came up with a budget cut that avoided layoffs. One of Gates decisions was to allow each officer to choose when to wear a short-sleeved shirt. Gates discusses the two "chokeholds": one disables, the other can kill (p.214). Page 216 tells how the 'LA Times' misquoted him. Page 242 tells how the FBI tried to gain control of the LAPD. Chapter 19 tells of his efforts for gun-control. Was he angling for a plush job with Gun Control Inc? Or a Federal job with some agency (p.128)? Chapter 20 has some suggestions on fighting crime. The Rodney King beating gave his many enemies a chance to oust him (Chapter 22). Gates boasts of the lower ratio of police to population compared to NY or Chicago. But the places with less population density tend to have less crime. And so do places with "the right to keep and bear arms". This also made LA different from NY and Chicago. LA also has a lower ratio of pedestrians.

This study is by a Barnard College professor that I heard lecture at the China Institute in New York City. The traditional Chinese cultural custom of deforming women's feet to make them smaller, resulting in pain, deformity, and disability, is no longer practiced. But it is a complex and controversial subject involving, among other things, sex, social status, and feminism. For me the value of this book is the author's focus on the perspectives of women who experienced, continued, and even promoted the practice, highlighting their views on it's costs and benefits. It's a useful counterpoint and a rich resource.

Dorothy Ko locates the core of interpretation for footbinding lost in so much that has been written on the topic for the last 150 years. Ko has written extensively on the topic, feeling that such a complex phenomenon cannot be adequately explained by a book or two. Not content with prevailing feminist writings which privilege "oppressive patriarchy" as the only worthwhile conclusion, Ko frequently attracts critics who often suggest she glorifies footbinding and undoes strides towards gender equality. It's even been implied she undermines advancements made since the May Fourth events which empowered Chinese women almost 90 years ago.
Though some readers feel she euphemizes the "crippled feet" by resorting to cultural poetics which justify oppression, she actually advances a much more sophisticated strategy employed by the Han women of late imperial China. Rather than rage conspicuously against patriarchy the path lies in re-appropriating the meaning of footbinding to a custom that subverts the gender inequity; in short, diminishment of the oppression from within its complicity.
With Cinderella's Sisters Ko addresses the rhetorics called chanzu, tianzu, and fengzu (bound feet, natural feet, and letting out feet, repectively). A conflation of male desires, and a redefined view women had about their own bodies are both at odds with each other yet bound together in a custom whose meaning differs not just across gender and class, but across time and place. Ko produces very original and badly needed insights through new readings of Gu Hongming (1857-1928) and Wang Jingqi (1672-1726) contrasted with (some say) biased western scholars such as R. H. van Gulik (1910-1967) and Howard S. Levy (1920- ).
By translating women-authored works from anthologies of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Ko delights readers of this latest work who benefit by having the feminine perspective so often missing. When this recovered discourse converges with the new deeper readings of male texts, both anecdotal and scholarly, the subjectivity of a whole society comes together, resulting in unprecedented integrity. Indeed, Dorothy Ko's greatest "fault" is appending the subtitle A Revisionist History of Footbinding to Cinderella's Sisters. This book is not revisionist - this book is vision, belonging on every bookshelf of every library.

It's a wonderful book for chinese women's history, let you learn about the history of footbinding in feminism perspective.

Like a typical Westerner, when I first encountered the story of bound feet Chinese women, I was horrified. How could someone actually do something like that? But my initial disgust grew into interest, and I found I wanted to learn more than simply see the results of the practice of binding feet. The world is full of misinformation of this custom.

After reading Beverly Jackson's Splendid Slippers (a beautiful and informative book), I decided to find a more academic text on footbinding, and selected Dorothy Ko's Cinderella's Sisters. This book has provided me with a thorough overview of the historical context of footbinding. It explores the difference in gender perceptions of bound feet, the different definitions of bound feet, and more. Ko's style is very readable, and I appreciated her using Chinese terms (tiangzu, chanzu, fangzu) and their rich interpretations to illustrate her points and describe the historical context.

This book shows Angelenos and the world that there is much diversity to celebrate and enjoy in Los Angeles and it does it in a fun, colorful way. The illustrations are delightful and the text informative. Even long-time residents will learn something new. Fun for adults as well as kids. We bought them as gifts for everyone on our holiday list.

Elisa Kleven consistantly ups the ante, no one working in publishing today has her eye for detail. Her colorful and inviting spreads paired with Jaskol and Lewis' informative and fun text make this book a winner. Only Kleven and company could make L.A. so appealing and inviting!

As residents of Los Angeles we are thrilled to have a book which highlights our city, its diversity and its vivacity. Each page is a jeweled mosaic. We will enjoy introducing our grandchildren to their city in picture and word.

This book is one of those rare children's books that teaches the adult as well as the child. I can only hope that the authors and the illustrator work on capturing the magic of other cities, just like they did with Los Angeles!

This book is great for identifying underwater creatures. There are full color photos and it is organized well for easy use. I would suggest this book for any diver or snorkeler as a great resource.

I wish we had bought this book before our recent dive trip to California. The little fish id cards just don't have as much info and the quality of pictures in this book. As a fan of the Humann id book series, I can say that all of his books are the best on the market and any snorkeler or diver should own them all.

As a freediver along the coast north and south from San Francisco, I frequently refer to this book for reference of the fish I find in the kelp beds. I am able to find every fish I saw in the water in this book. The color photos are great for that purpose. Other books in my collection are sometime visually vague due to the lack of photographic images (paintings and/or black & white sketches). In ths book the text along with the pictures are also informational: distinctive features, description, abundance & distribution, habitat & behavior, reaction to divers.

As an avid diver in the Puget Sound, I have found this book to be very useful. It features great photos to help me identify the fishes that I encounter while underwater. The format is easy to use because it is geared toward the underwater naturalist. I recommend it to all my diver friends.

This must be one of the best travel guides I've ever read. The author apparently wrote this book based on extensive personal experience since there is a ton of information contained in the book that one would not know unless one has actually travelled to those places.

Highly recommended !

A very helpful guide for driving up or down my favorite coast in the world! Doerper takes you almost mile by mile - was particularly helpful as I drove from Sebastopol up to Menocino, heretofore undiscovered country for me. Galen Rowell's photographs have always been a treat. His death was a real loss, but at least you can tour the CA coast through his eyes in this book.

I liked this book enough to buy Doerper's corollary for the Pacific Northwest to use this year:)!

I bought this book before traveling from San Francisco down Big Sur (about halfway), and it has great coverage of the Big Sur coast, the Santa Cruz area, and San Francisco.

Costal California is more than just a guide book to the California coast. A first glance, Galen Rowell's spectacular photography, 25 full-color maps, wine labels, and historical photographs tell you that there can't be a better illustrated guide for this local. When you start to read this book, you find that it is more than just travel data. John Doerper writes, "The California coast is as much a state of mind as it is a place. Its people, and the stories and myths they have woven around this magic coast, are as captivating as the spectacular scenery." He obviously kept this thought in mind as he wrote this inspirational , entertaining, and expert guide.

This was my first experience with a Jack Liffey novel and it won't be the last. Rather than start with his later work, I ordered "The Concrete River" as this is the first in the series and I wanted to be in on the beginning. John Shannon is clearly an underated talent and I am pleased to see that there will be reissues of more of his earlier work. Shannon's writing is Chandleresque and Liffey is a great world-weary private eye. The descriptions of the underbelly of Los Angeles are spot on and remind me of Hammett, Mosely and Michael Connelly. Avid mystery readers owe it to themselves to check out Shannon. You won't be disappointed. My next Liffey novel is on pre-order!

Captures Los Angeles perfectly. Protagonist is believable, story is absorbing - I couldn't wait for the second of this series and bought it immediately when it came out (this is the first). Looking forward to the author's next book. If you like Michael Connelly, Abigail Padgett, and find Andrew Vacchs compelling (if not always palatable), give this author a try. You won't be disappointed.

This book begins John Shannon's Jack Liffey series about a character who becomes an unintended and unlicensed detective tracing lost children. Liffey fits right into the tradition of other Los Angeles offbeat detective-protagonists. The random comments about the weirdness of L.A. are especially amusing. Recommend reading the series in order to appreciate the development of the characters.

There are writers in various genres (mystery, romance, westerns, etc.) and then there are Writers; they're the gifted people whose genre is scarcely relevant because their work always rises above the territory upon which they've staked their claim. John Shannon is a Writer.

This first of Shannon's Jack Liffey series is a work of lean, effective prose, spiced with startling dashes of outrageous humor (as was The Orange Curtain, my introduction to Shannon's work). Los Angeles, as portrayed through Liffey's eyes, is a series on ongoing atrocities and carnage that are so everyday as to be normal. Add to this mix a character with a tired, yet invincible, spirit who observes and accepts (but doesn't like) what he sees, and you have a hero unlike any other.

Liffy is the essential American of a certain age, (and a Viet Nam vet) possessed of heart and conscience, trying very hard to be honorable while he searches for missing children (in itself a profound metaphor for the lost innocence not only of the city, but of our entire society.)

It is a sad fact that talent is not its own reward; it does not guarantee success. But if anyone writing today deserves recognition on a large scale, it is John Shannon. His work is both insightful social commentary and an unflinching, wrenching look at the human heart. If you want to be entertained and informed, get this book! Go to out-of-print booksites if you must, or search your local library, but this is a writer who very much deserves to be widely read.

I would highly recommend this book for the diverstiy of interests covered. The internet addresses and contact people have changed, so that is a bit annoying, but I realize the book was written a while ago now. I can't wait to connect!

This is not a guide book, rather is is a life-style guide on how to expand your interests and meet new people of similar interests. The authors help give you a way to balance your harried work life and find other things to do (and hopefully meet cool people with similar interests). The research is very thorough (groups and places many San Franciscans have not heard about) -- where can you experience the flying trapeeze?, where do beekeepers meet?, you like model railroads?, whale watching?. I didn't count them, but there seem to be at least 693 entries. Great book -- well worth the price.

For me going out and meeting people can be uncomfortable. I bought CISF and went to several of the organizations listed in the book. I couldn't believe how easy it was for me to fit in and have a great time. I'm going to at least one new place a week now.

Like everyone else I know who has purchased "Connecting in San Francisco," my copy is book marked throughout with "stickies". Sure, as a San Franciscan for six years, I knew of a number of groups and activities. For me, the most fun was learning about the ones I didn't know existed and new groups I wanted to join. I have tried many new pursuits, which have become part of my weekly routine and have vastly enriched my life. Along with recruiting friends to join me in these activities, I have acquired new friends. Most of what I have done required a minimum investment of time and money and the rewards are enormous. It's also interesting to note that this book is of great value to visitors and those who are just in the city on a temporary basis. Many listings are "drop-in" activities like two of my favorites: The San Francisco Art Association's First Thursday Gallery Nights and the free rollerblading lesson and rentals offered by Marina Skate and Snowboard. No matter how obscure you might think your interests are, you will find something in this book. And the joy in trying some new things is in discovering another side of yourself. The authors have done their research. The activities have been great fun and the environments very welcoming!

La constitución de la sociedad, de Anthony Giddens, constituye junto a La Distinción de Pierre Bourdieu y Teoría de la Acción Comunicativa de J. Habermas, una de las tres principales obras de la sociología contemporánea.
Más allá de que Giddens terminó en el polo opuesto político de Bourdieu, sus teorías lograron romper con la falsa dicotomía entre estructura y construcción o agencia social.
Es una de las obras que ningún estudioso de sociología o teoría social puede dejar de considerar, desgraciadamente la traducción en castellano es pésima y es necesario recurrir a su lectura en inglés para poder comprender la obra.
Roberto von Sprecher
Prof. Sociología Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Argentina.

Dr. Giddens' work is grand on many accounts: it attempts to synthesize the insights of "macro" and "micro" sociology, and in doing so claims to explain the full range of human action using the disciplines of developmental psychology, philosophy, sociology, and human geography. "The Constitution of Society" (CoS) is simply fantastic in comparison with an earlier Giddens piece like "Central Problems in Social Theory" (CPST). While CoS does not give equal space to the myriad of social concepts it discusses, I found the book well organized and quite thorough on several important points.

I will not provide a restatement of Giddens' "structuration" theory in this review, although doing so might be of use to many amazon.com readers. Instead I'd like to discuss Giddens' primary motivation for developing structuration theory: an attempt to clarify the relationship between both material and social situations and human action. Giddens is an action theorist who, particularly like Marx and Weber, has tried to explain this quintessential sociological relationship.

Like CPST, CoS is organized around select elements of Marx's sociology. While this may be more readily apparent in the case of the former monograph, one need only read page xxi of CoS's introduction to get the picture: "This book, indeed, might be accurately described as an extended reflection upon a celebrated and oft-quoted phrase to be found in Marx. Marx comments that 'Men [let us immediately say human beings] make history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing.' Well, so they do. But what a diversity of complex problems of social analysis this apparently innocuous pronouncement turns out to disclose!"

Neither Marx, Durkheim, nor Weber posited a one-way relationship between environment and acting subject, but none of their theories described the relationship with enough clarity to satisfy Giddens. Reading CPST after CoS, one can see how the earlier work presents what would later become many of Giddens' mature views as the most important contributions of the classical authors.

In my opinion, structuration theory is so successful at explaining the environment/subject relationship because of its use of developmental psychology. Openly borrowing from Erik Erikson, Giddens considers the need to minimize anxiety as the primary motivation of human action. He argues that we engage in the type of regular social behavior observed by Garfinkel and Goffman because doing so lessens the anxiety that we first develop as infants. As if wedding the work of "interactionist" and "structuralist" sociologists were not impressive enough, Giddens enhances microsociology by providing a psychological basis for its observations. Furthermore, this combination facilitates the incorporation of arguments and observations from human geography. The spatial notions of presence and absense that form the basis of individual anxiety also define societies at large. Thus the "problem of order" in structuration theory is how it's possible that actors who are not co-present can coordinate their actions and reproduce anxiety-minimizing social norms across space and time.

As Giddens' critics have stated at length, the empirical utility of structuration theory is debatable. Even so, I consider "The Constitution of Society" an underutilized resource for guiding sociological investigation, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to all those interested in social theory.

In this book Giddens gives us The answers, not only to why societys are like they are - the structural parts as well as the cultural - but allso the reason why we, the actors, let them be like they are. By doing this Giddens puts a final end to the micro-macro disussion of whether society constitutes actors or actors constitutes society, where he through his concept of "duality of structure" implodes the debate by not only defining the action of social reproduction as the constitution of society, but allso explaining the psychological reasons, the need for "ontological security", behind. While avoiding the temptation to reduce either actors to be a function of society or to reduce society to be an aggregate of individuals, makes it possible to discuss the links between as well as within the two analytical parts. Unfortunately his theory still lacks one essential aspect - the social dynamic. As a consequence the reader interested in social change will be mighty dissapointed. In the prospect of explainging social order Giddens develops a theory that lacks any other explanation to social change than the orthodox dogmas of unexpected consequences. My suggestion is that Giddens would do well to adapt the time perspective used by Piotr Sztompka, Margaret Archer and other critical realists. In doing so he would undisputably undermine any concurrence to the title as the one who closed the mest vigouros debate of social sciences in the 20th century.

I think Giddens' structuration theory is the most promising theory since collapse of Parsons' framework.I read this book at undergraduate for the first time. while I studied Husserl and Heidegger at the same time. this help me understand Giddens with ease. I recommend to read Heidegger's Sein und Zeit to see the motive under Giddens' theory. this is not hidden fact. Giddens himself noted it several times. without philosopical background knowledge, it's impossible to access him properly. u will see my point if u read the first page of his 'Central Problem of Social Theory'. I agree to Turner's point that Giddens' theoretical framework is vague at best sencitising for actual research. concepts are clearly defined but how those concepts are related to each other is not that clear. reader himself should fill the gaps. one should make up for this difficulty with grasping Giddens' deep motive under framework. to do so, u should know well the tradition of Sociology and modern philosophy.

This book provided me with information and details about programs at Edwards Air Force Base which were not available to me when I service as an Air Force Sargent at Edwards AFB during the 1960s.

George Marrett vividly recounts his memoirs of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base in "Contrails Over the Mojave". Marrett and his fellow test pilots constantly pushed the performance envelope in the mid-1960s to advance American military aviation.

Marrett's interest in aviation began at an early age during the height of World War II. He and his friend Bob used to run around the backyard pretending to be fighter pilots, or sometimes a bomber crew on a mission over Germany. He was always the co-pilot, because Bob said that you had to have a silver whistle to be the pilot. Marrett continues "I envied Bob and his whistle and promised myself that someday I would get a whistle and advance into the lofty ranks of the pilots. I never asked Bob why a whistle was required. It was just a requirement - that was enough for a young boy." After graduating flight school, he earned silver wings, but he was always trying to earn his next `silver whistle'.

The book does an outstanding job of focusing on the major events in Marrett's 12-year Air Force career. After his flight training at Bainbridge AFB, Georgia, he traveled to San Francisco, California to stand fighter alert in the nuclear-missile armed F-101B Voodoo. It was here that he learned many of the important lessons for young fighter pilots, and he also set himself up for success as a future test pilot.
After graduating from Col Chuck Yeager's `Charm School', Marrett finally became a test pilot. In this section, the book's scope expands to cover the contributions of the entire fighter branch, not only the achievements of Capt Marrett. To name a few of the bigger testing programs, the book offers recollections for the X-15; the century series fighters; the XB-70 Valkyrie; the SR-71/YF-12/A-12; the F-4 Phantom; and the F-5 Freedom Fighter.

Along with his engaging recollections of the aerial achievements, Marrett also captures the subtle entrenchment of bureaucracy at Edwards AFB. Along with the rapid expansion of the base, the Air Force Flight Test Center had to deal with increased oversight from the Air Force. As aircraft design knowledge (and aircraft prices) increased, there was an increase in the safety requirements at the installation. Tragically, Marrett recants the stories of far too many pilots who gave their lives chasing the next whistle.

Marrett is an extremely talented author. "Contrails Over the Mojave" is an insider's look at the flight testing of America's greatest fighter planes of the 1960s. Every aviation enthusiast needs to set aside a space on the bookshelf alongside Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff".

George Marrett has written an accurate, detailed and concise book about the flight test activities at Edwards Air Force Base during the 1960's. His ability to lend a personal touch to the people involved was remarkable.

An excellent tretise on flight testing at Edwards Air Force Base. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. My congratulations to the author for a well written piece.