Living Things Books

With a wealth of drawings, pictures, and photographs, this book explains the basics of natural selection and the evolution of life on earth.

The authors also do a good job of confronting issues that have little to do with science but which may nevertheless be raised by some in connection with this branch of human knowledge. References to certain mythological beliefs are done in a straight-forward and non-offensive way, with reasoned explanations of why people may have thought the way they did (or do). This book is highly recommended for children in Middle School who are confronted with class-mates who do not understand evolution or who for some reason have been taught that it is not 'true.'

But the main strength of this book is a strong presentation of the evidence for natural selection that is found in nature. By combining many interesting facts about fascinating animals with a small dose of hard science this book is a perfect introduction to areas of science such as geology and anthropology. As such it also provides much information that will complement Middle School science classes. This book should be in every educated family's library.

I was looking for a book on evolution to give to a child who was asking questions about the subject. I found this book in eyewitness fashion to be low on text but told its story through many engaging interesting pictures. The book sensitively dealt with questions of creation and biblic questions relating to evolution, answering them with scientific and historical information. It also provided multicultural references and included creation stories from non-western cultures as well.

This book is a must for high school or even junior high science teachers who are faced with justifying teaching their subject matter to parents, board members and community members. Not to mention, its a beautiful descriptive book that is a welcome addition to any general level scientific book collection.

"What would you like to have accomplished in your lifetime?" is the question posed by the author on page 8 of this wonderfully insightful book. He uses the rest of the book to answer the question. On page 10 he offers a summary that really places the whole issue in context. "The life we desire deep in our being is the one we were created to have, consistent with the way God made us. That's where we'll find the kind of significance we're after."
As the discussion progresses, he talks more about one will encounter along the way. For example, on complexity, he observes "Only at the edge of chaos can complex systems flourish."
Three common elements found in any book of this nature are included; perseverance, desire, and hard work. They are necessary for the fulfilled life.
Passion is another common theme. When a person works with passion, it makes a positive difference on those touched by the work.
On self-examination, he encourages readers to discover the passion burning within them. What is it that you are uniquely qualified to offer by the way you were made with your talents, gifts, abilities, and insights?
One's giftings identifies them at their core.
He has a particularly strong section on dreams. "All your dreams and longings are vital, even the illogical ones--maybe especially the illogical ones--because your dreams are trying to reveal to you very important pieces of who you are" (p. 106).
He talks about how breakthrough discoveries start with "crazy dreamers." Dreamers are encouraged to find like minded people with whom to share their visions and goals.
Plans are the vehicles by which dreams become real.
Small steps lead to the destiny of dreams being fulfilled. Annual goals are advocated.
This book is full of spiritual advice which is practical. For Charlies Hedges, all spiritual advice is practical.

In going through an assessment of my current status in life I found this book very helpful. It is written for easy reading to help in discovering greater meaning in your life without a lot of strain. The author wants you to realize your full potential and change from doing the right things to getting the right things right. Not confusing just right.

As a positive psychologist, and as a woman, I love this book. I have been reading it on and off for eleven years and it never goes stale. Alexandra Stoddard's writing has the grace and charm to keep me involved again and again on each page. Although I often don't take the time to live as gracefully and deliciously around food and social engagements with friends and family, I find this book gives me a way to do so vicariously. Also, I've learned a lot from Alexandra's style of living. She has convinced me to take things a little slower and with more personal engagement. In fact, she is quite a positive psychologist! Maybe I should move over and let her share my clinical chair with me sometimes. She certainly knows what is good and healthy for adult women. And by the way, the quotes you find in this book are just the best.

Over the years, I have read many of Alexandra Stoddard's books, but to my way of thinking, she has really outdone herself in this one. I found Gracious Living very inspirational and do-able because she really advocates simplicity and living in the moment. To her, life is not a problem to be solved, it is a sensual experience to be savoured. All of it--even what you might have previously thought of as a chore. Her descriptions--verbal snapshots really--of some her lifetime experiences are so well-written you can live them with her and, of course, recall your own. I read one section each morning as a 'wake-up call' and really found this got me out of bed 'on the right side.' This book is especially useful if you (or your friend) suffer from perfectionism and feel your life looks better on paper than in your heart.

In "Healthy Living Made Easy", orthomolecular nutritionist Steven Whiting deftly draws upon his considerable expertise in the field of human nutrition to provide non-specialist general readers with an informed and informative introduction and overview of what they need to know in order to have a comprehensive and applicable basis for establishing a healthy diet for a sound body, engaging in effective exercise for weight management, and create a personalized supplement program that will best maximize their personal health and well-being regardless of their age or circumstance. "Healthy Living Made Easy" truly lives up to the promise of its title as Whiting explains how we can dine out in the restaurants of our choice and still maintain healthy eating standards, how to exercise for personal fitness in just 90 minutes a week, get everything we need by way of vitamins and minerals through selected supplements based on a single formula, and most especially, how to customize a diet and supplement program to an individualized need. "Healthy Living Made Easy" should be a part of every community library's Health & Medicine reference collection, and is confidently recommended reading for anyone seeking to master their own health challenges, preventing illness, and even reversing a wide range of ailments that currently afflict them.

I love this book!

I've been a health nut for 30 years during that time many things have changed and been learned about health and nutrition. The title for the book is perfect. The author really has made things simple and it's right up to date with what I know about health and wellness today.

This is the first book I have read that actually explains nutritional deficiencies and how to spot if you have any...AND what to do if you have. The exercise section makes perfect sense and fits in a fast paced modern society with room to spare.

But the part I like the best is in the second half of the book where everything about supplements and why we need to take them is explained in simple plain English. There's a list with dozens of common ailments, where the true cause of the problem is explained, and the solution in the form of the right nutrients, in the right amounts, to reduce or eliminate the problem is suggested.

This is the kind of stuff we should be teaching kids in school today.
It has much more relevance in a modern world that most topics.
I think every home should have this book!

The book arrived in good time and as advertised. Very satisfactory purchase.

This quick-reference guide provides helpful answers to the many rules of music notation that are often variable or those situations that create doubt about proper principles of modern usage. The book covers notational rules that are absolute and those that are flexible. Users of computerized music typesetting software will find solutions to problems that the computer may set incorrectly or leave as variable. Even experienced notators will find quick references to those elements that are used infrequently and have escaped the memory. Above all, this concise reference book provides immediate answers without offering readers more than they really want to know.

Living the Truth is probably the best of Pieper's books. It offers the finest insights into Medieval epistemology available, illuminating philosophy from Plato to Aquinas in a remarkable way. The second part of the book, building on the first, gives completely fesh insights into the basis of moral action, grounded in the knowledge of essences. Perhaps the most significant thing about the book is that it shows what has been lost in Western philosophy since the Enlightenment, where the concern changed from knowledge of essence to empiricism.

As usual with Pieper, the book is written with consumate clarity.

This book reads much more like a methodology of how Pieper uses philosophy, and his justifications for his usage, than any of the previous books of his I have read. Pieper defines how modern thought has corrupted much of our vocabulary - in comparison with the Medieaval use - of such words as: truth, reality, knowledge, perception, idea, essence, object, subject, imagine, potential capacity, natural, ideal, cognition, will. He also makes an effort to clear the name of Aquinas, from past abusers of his ideas, Aquinas being the primary philosopher Pieper draws his ideas from. Pieper largely defends Medieaval thought against the Modern. The Modern insignificantly began with Montaigne, significantly started with Decarte, and became rock solid with Kant (each with their legions of followers). Pieper is a defense of what there was before. How what is good in the Western Tradition fundamentaly lays there. The book's points are profound; at their essence the most profound of all of Pieper's books I have read thus far. However, they are also the most abstract and possibly the least accessable to the common reader, such as myself.

Many of Pieper's books read much more as a guide to living a better life, this is not one of them. Abuse of Language Abuse of Power is, as are Leisure the Basis of Culture and The Virtues of the Human Heart - and many of his other books I have not read as of yet. These books are accesible and ones, I believe, that will result in a reader making postive life changes significantly altering one's view of the world for the better, for themselves and their brothers.

This book is inspirational to read. Runkel writes with meticulous attention to detail, accuracy and precision yet his writing is almost poetic such is his mastery of prose. As if the writing style wasn't enough, the subject matter is revolutionary in the paradigmatic sense of the word. Runkel essentially has written an psychology text for a first year university course. The difference is that Runkel has approached the subject matter of psychology from the perspective of perceptual control. Runkel is quite literally coming at the material from the other end. Whereas modern (and historical) psyhcology has attempted to explain behaviour as controlled output, Runkel explores behaviour from the perspective of controlled perceptual input. The results are suprising and refreshing though not always comfortable. Do not read this book expecting to find your ideas of behaviour to be endorsed and reinforced. The perspective of perceptual control affords new opportunities for considering behaviour. These opportunitites suggest new questions to ask and new answers to seek. The promise of a better world seems much more attainable after reading this book.

This book is a tour de force on psychology as a discipline. Well done to Dag Forsell for making this book more widely avaialable! Philip Runkel was Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Education at the University of Oregon. When he came across William T. Powers (1973) book "Behavior: The Control of Perception", his view of psychology and how it should be studied, researched and practiced experienced a quantum shift. In this book, Powers describes a theory (Perceptual Control Theory; PCT), which was developed from earlier work on control engineering and considers human behaviour as the control of perception. The mechanism is specified in great detail but it basically relies on organised (and reoorganising) hierarchies of negative feedback loops. It forms the heritage of several contemporary self-regulation approaches within psychology, but arguably, the original theory is unparalleled in its explanatory power.

There a quite a few books on Power's PCT, but this one I think is unique. It takes the reader very steadily through the principles of PCT using diagrams and everyday examples. The size of the book (500+ B4 pages) is also a strength because PCT can be hard to assimilate and understand within the context of mainstream psychology - Phil Runkel considers and critiques psychological concepts in a measured, perceptive and constructive manner. The book also incorporates some of the most up-to-date implications and applications of PCT in enormous breadth - covering research methodology, social psychology, neuroscience, memory and imagination, personality, language and communication, psychotherapy (Method of Levels) and education. It provides a great reference to many other sources - papers, books and some of the most recent online discussions and contributions - that help to illustrate the capacity of PCT to be applied to an enormous range of areas of human behaviour. The language of the book is clear, accessible and welcoming. I would recommend it for anyone starting out with an interest in PCT, or control or self-regulation theories more generally, from the more inquisitive and probing final year undergraduate students through to senior academics and professionals with an applied interest in this field. It may change your take on human behaviour forever!

This is A Good book for you if you are dealing with a lot
of inner pain of the Past,whether Memorys of a Pass Marrage,Childhood,or Teenage years. This Book helps you recaptrue those moment that you feel you were robbed of with a feeling of newness for life today....

I haven't finished this book yet, but have found a lot of helpful insights into my behavior and the behavior of others and why we act the way we do at times, especially when we don't want to act the way we do. I recommend this for anyone who is trying to figure out some of the whys in their lives.

Great book my class enjoyed reading the book.

Although the ages listed and the children depicted in this title and Cool as a Cucumber, the companion volume, are quite young, older children could definitely benefit from these little books. Teachers doing units on the five senses up to grade K or 1 will find them useful and informative. Some exotic fruits and the descriptive adjectives (juicy, tart, etc.) will also build vocabulary. And, you will definitely have to follow up with a "tasting party" after reading these books. Delicious!

It seems lately we do not hear enough encouraging words from todays young people.. if author Danea Jacobson has anything to do with it that will all change. Danea's book is a quick, inspiring read for people of all walks of faith. Whether she is reflecting on family, friends or the future her outlook is always positive. That is something our society never has enough of especially from the MTV generation. Although raised in a family with strong values, Danea admits to the same confusion and struggle all people have encountered through life. This book would be a great read for parents and teens especially those going through the tough teen years. There are plenty of positvie thoughts and quotes throughout this book Danea seems to always find a silver lining in every cloud.

I saw this in the bookstore and after looking through it, bought it for my cousin who's turning 16. I like how Danae shares her life experiences and how she sees God throughout them. I think because it's written by a young woman it will touch the younger generation in a way that other books can't. I hope this encourages my cousin to look at life in the same way.