California Books

This book taught me one thing I didn't know (finite differences -a lot less strain on me to find formulas and equations) and gave me challenging problems.

I borrowed this resource from another teacher during my student teaching as a math teacher. Now I am in my first year teaching full time and looking to buy my own copy--I don't know what to do without it! It is a great resource for problems for many age and ability levels. The problems are interesting, use a variety of well-established strategies, and make problem solving fun! A great book.

Six years ago I actually took Problem Solving from Ken Johnson, one of the authors, at Sierra College. Problem solving became a whole new and exciting recreation from then on. I would have to credit that miracle to the class's amazing teacher and the book he wrote. I have had hundreds of teachers in my life, and am a teacher myself, yet I have never met any teacher that was as gifted as Ken Johnson. His talent is clearly evident in his written work as well. (PS, how many people would it take to give this book 396 thumbs up?)

I had to purchase this book for a Class I was taking at Sam Houston State University. It is an excellent book to help learn problem solving strategies. Although, I am an elementary education major with a math specialization and had to take this class, I would recommend this book to anyone who is planning to teach grades 1 through 12. This book was designed for middle school grades, but could be adapted to any grade level. Problem solving is so important in mathematics.

This book can be hard going but if you grasp the theories and understand how they are linked with jurisprudence than you will enjoy the book.

No doubts Kelsen is to be considered a watershed specially concerned to juridical thought. His efforts to break with the natural theories' tradition is of maximum importance for the basis on what the concepts of law and right were built. What is to be focused - as the importance of the works of Hans Kelsen is no new - is the impossibility of having his theory as the only one to be appliable to modern juridical dogmatics. Reading Kelsen is deffinitely a must for the ones who intend to study Law in deep. Nevertheless is to be kept in mind that his work is not and end in itself,but a solid and well structured beginning point.

This is undoubtely the most important book on philosophy of law ever written. It's the book that broke paradigms (in the Thomas Kuhn sense of expression)and brought scientific dignity to the study of law. You can divide the science of law between "before and after" the Pure Theory. Even other really important books, like "the Concept of Law", by Hart, or "On Law and Justice", by Alf Ross, would be not possible if Kelsen hadn't written this book first.

"Pure Theory of Law" is a classic and a must for Law and Philosophy students. Hans Kelsen is extremly successful in building concepts and also his theory. Although this "pure theory"is extremly criticised nowadays, its reading is essential ,and help readers to understand other theories clearly.

This is the best book I have read on the subject of rape & how to survive it. Unlike so many of the books out on rape, this is not written from a statistical aspect & how to prevent rape in the first place. This book is written totally to the survivor with exercises to help you recover from rape. If you are a victim of rape & trying to figure out how to recover from it, this is the book for you! It really made me realize that my reactions are typical of the normal victim & that there is nothing wrong with me for taking so long to recover. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been the victim of rape & is trying to become a survivor!

I found this book very easy to read and helpful in the recovery process. It basically describes the process of going from victim to survivor. The shortness of the book did make it easier to read as I was in grad school at the time. I didn't have time to read anything besides my assignments. It addresses shame, guilt and anger and ends with solutions or ways to change thoughts and behavior (cognitive restructuring). It was a good introduction to survivor issues in a very manageable size.
If you are in crisis now you can call the national sexual assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. They will forward you to a local rape crisis counselor. The crisis center can give you a referral to a rape crisis counselor, a therapist, victim advocacy (for reporting to police or going to court), provide free counseling or offer a support group. This hotline is run by RAINN.org which is the leading resource on sexual assault.

I have read several books for survivors of rape and this one has the best ideas written most succinctly. Also, this book can be completed in one day if a person has the time.

As a therapist and survivor of rape, this book has been an essential resource for myself and so many others. This is the first book I recommend to all clients who have been raped. It can be read immediately following the rape and for years after, each time offering meaning and hope. This book may also be a guide for family and friends affected by this event, helping them better understand what the victim may be experiencing. This is a great place to begin and continue a healing journey.

This isn't your ordinary coffee table book. Jim Goldberg delves into the lives of homeless kids living on the street, cataloging and following two kids through his collage of pictures and stories. Although it's hard to resist just leafing through it's pages, the real message and story is in reading the book from cover to cover. Jim Goldberg ties the pictures together with stories, giving you a real sense of what these kids go through, what their motivations are, what their daily lives are like.

I volunteer helping out homeless kids in Seattle, and from what I've seen this book does a good job of accurately protraying these children, including why they're on the street. He's unbiased and uncensored in his view, I think echo's review reflecting this (one of the kids followed in the book) only stands as a testament of this.

This is an eye-opening book full of amazing photographs that will leave you FEELING what these kids and adults are and have gone through living on the streets of San Francisco. Not too often are you experiencing so many emotions as you will when you flip page through page through this book. I can't say much more but it is worth the money...you will experience something that many of us are fortunate to have not experienced.

Accurate and thourough- Jim Goldberg told our stories truthfully, and lets you draw your own conclusions. - echo

Goldberg documented street kids of San Francisco and Hollywood over the course of ten years. His work reflects the effort and emotion of that period. Unlike previous attempts to document homeless youth, Goldberg never sensationalized or objectified the kids he worked with. The text maintains individual voices, never judging, never interpreting, simply transmitting narratives that mainstream society would otherwise never hear. His photography radiates relationships of trust: he allows kids to illustrate their issues and amplify their voices, sharing their stories, artwork, and writings, without ever speaking for them. Such justice is rarely provided to an oppressed population. "Raised by Wolves" incites the reader's tears, anguish, and outrage - but also joy, that someone was able to successfully provide a platform for such truths to be heard. Goldberg more than did his part in attempting to educate America. The greater issue is, will we listen?

As this book comments, "Donors Sign Checks, Arnold SIgns Bills." It is a thoroughly researched look at how Arnold raised money for his campaigns, and the favors that he did for his contributors.
I was quite amazed that this book was written while Arnold is still in office- usually a book like this would take many years to research and assemble.
I enjoyed it because I am interested in California politics and also campaign finance reform, and corruption.

This was an incredibly thorough and well documented book on how big money continues to dominate politics on both sides of the aisle, always to the detriment of ordinary citizens. The non-partisan approach was rare and refreshing for a book of this kind. If every citizen read this book, we might just get our democracy back.

Consultant and founder of the nonpartisan watchdog organization TheRestofUs.org Derek Cressman offers his unvarnished insights in The Recall's Broken Promise: How Big Money Still Runs California Politics, a no-nonsense denouncement of the increasingly blurry ethics of California's partisan politics. Chapter cover the events of California's historic recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger's rise to power, and the ultimate disappointment as big money politics continued as usual. A bitingly insightful look at the corruption weakening California's governmental system, and the reforms that are needed immediately.

For anyone interested in California politics or campaign finance reform, this is a great read. Cressman approaches a complex topic in a very readable way. I was fascinated to learn more about how our campaign finance system really works, along with all the problems that accompany it. The author makes a great pitch for why we need some real reform, and he concludes the book with some practical ideas of how to fix the system.

This book gives a fascinating glimpse into the minds and hearts of newspaper reporters. The section of how reporters covered the Black Dahlia murder case was interesting, if not a little disturbing. Very thorough look at L.A. and its newspapers.

Rob Wagner has performed a great and long overdue service. He has chronicled the history of L.A. newspapers in the first half of the 20th Century---a "Front Page" era when L.A. had a half-dozen dailies, with many editions per day. Wagner is to be particularly congratulated for recounting the rise and fall of the original L.A. Daily News, a peach-colored oversized tabloid much revered in its day. The DN, at one time the circulation leader, hosted an array of great writers, from the legendary Matt Weinstock (THE L.A. columnist of his day)to Jack Smith and Jim Murray. The book is painstaking in its research of circulation figures and union struggles---spiced with rollicking anecdotes about great newspapermen (and women) of the day. This is the definitive history of Los Angeles newspapers.

Red Ink, White Lies is an impressive and informative chronicle of the successes and failures of six Los Angeles daily newspapers during an era of the city's fiercest newspaper wars and competitions. Author Rob Wagner (who is a veteran of more than 26 years as a reporter, city editor, managing editor, and night editor) interviewed dozens of newsman and women, resulting in a vivid and candid portrait of prewar and postwar newspaper reporters, including their lifestyle, ethics and professionalism. From celebrity journalism to mob era police corruption, reportage of ethnic minority communities and the "red-baiting" 50s, Red Ink, White Lies is a thoroughly fascinating, insightful contribution to the 20th century history of journalism.

I love to read about Los Angeles history, and I thought I've studied just about everything on this city. But this book just blew me away. It's a totaly different take on early 20th century Los Angeles told by the men and women who lived it and reported on for the city's daily newspapers. It is filled with anecdotal accounts of L.A.'s most sensational crimes, mobsters, and bad cops. It tells the history of the city not from the scholarly ivory tower but through the eyes of the newspaper reporter, editor, and photographer who witnessed these actual awesome events. A real wonderful read. It's well-sourced. I got a kick out of the who's who at the end of the book that lists and provides bios of nearly 200 L.A. journalists of the day.

AMAZING BOOK, IF YOU LOVE YOUR ANIMAL COMPANION OR ANY ANIMAL THIS IS A MUST READ

Having a better understanding of the role of our animal companions, as this book has given me is wonderful. Ms Smith has given me a never before insight that has lifted me into a whole other realm of love for animals everywhere. I recommend this book to anyone who has animals. Feel the power of love with each story told. Imagine, a mirror to help guide us through our lives, in an unexpected source. Excellent!

This is a fascinating book to read. Many people are curious to know how closely some humans can communicate with animals and Sharon Callahan seems to have a very special gift. Luckily for the reader, Deborah Demoss Smith has a special gift as a writer because she really makes this story come alive. The stories of animals and their people are great reading and will help you understand your animal better.

This moving account of how our animal friends become so interrelated with our lives also has a strong message: the power of love to conquer obsticals in our daily lives.

So not only is this a great read about some incredible stories between folks and their animals but a lesson on more gracious ways to live.

It comes highly recommended.

A lovely book, plenty of inspirational photography and sufficient detail to inspire the intended pool builder or professional. Coffee table interest

The photography is fabulous. Many of the pools were designed by the author, but this does not detract from the book. It is well balanced. The chapters include: the natural pool, lap pools, infinity edges, indoor pools, historical pools, among others.

Detailed analysis of a few each of several different types of pools: lap pools, "natural" pools, indoor pools, famous pools, etc., all in California. Not a construction manual, but full of details worth considering when designing a pool. A must for anyone considering getting a pool on a difficult or very special piece of land.

This excelent book is focused exclusively on design. Very inspiring and unique. Do not expect to find anything about maintenance, it is a book meant for designers. A must for landscape designers and architects.

I suppose this review may be a bit biased since I have been a Riata Girl for 32 years and am prominently featured in the book. The most impressive part of the book is not the photographs but the life lessons and philosophy skillfully articulated and paired with the physical activities of ranch life and western performance. Our founder, Tom Maier was a visionary and on the cutting edge of teaching and pairing life lessons and horsemanship for students young and old. Since his passing in 2002, I have continued to present the Riata program and up hold the teachings and life lessons found in "Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls, Life Lessons on the Back of a Horse"

All the Best,
Jennifer Welch Nicholson
Riata Ranch International

My niece loved the book and got it in time for her birthday!

Thanks!!!

This book trails one of the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls in her education about riding and horses. I had heard of the stunt team before and recently saw them featured in the 2004 Rose Parade on their Appaloosa horses but never really knew anything about them. After reading this book (suitable for anyone 10 and up I would say due to reading level) I have a hearty respect for the stunt team and their dedication to the advancement of horsemanship.

Although this is not a how-to book about riding, I think that it is a good addition to a horse or cowboy-lovers library because of its matter-of-fact exploration into what it takes to trully be a champion in horsemanship. Additionally, the story flows well and is very well illustrated with photos from Riata's heritage.

The story of Tom Maier and the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls is a remarkable one, and should be an inspiration to anyone, whether they're interested in horses or not. For years, Maier has worked with children and horses, and the Cowboy Girls are world reknowned. The girls who are part of his program excel in all aspects of thier lives, thanks to the training and discipline they learn as part of this team. The story is very well written, and the photos are lavish. This book would make a great gift for anyone interested in horses, western culture, or successful models for inspiring greatness in children.

I am like The Rice Sprout Song.Eileen chang is the greatest writer of China.

Another one of Eileen Chang's translations of her Chinese works, this is an excellent novel about China's farmers and the struggles they encounter as a result of Maoism in China. This is my second favorite novel of hers, behind Naked Earth. Unlike the latter, The Rice-Sprout Song is much easier to find, and now includes an excellent introduction by David Wang.

The Old Master who collected Chinese wisdom in Tao Te Ching some 2,500 years ago wrote pithily:
"The sage never has a mind of his own;
He considers the minds of the common people to be his mind."

Today, he would not change a word for the sage: the sheng-jen in Beijing. True, modern China, a colossus of 1.2 billion people, is fronted by Shanghai and other booming, skyscrapered, fiber-opticked, globally connected metropolises. But beyond the urban fronts, reality is 900 million peasants--75% of the total population--living a rural, feudal life with Marxist trappings. What gives the Beijing mandarin insomnia is not rhetorical exchanges with America like we saw earlier in 2001. No, it's much more the primal fear bad weather and bad crops might visit hunger upon the 900 million--if the peasants go hungry, the government goes down and chaos surely follows. Chaos, for the Chinese mind, being anathema (off the Tao, hindering wu-wei).

The Rice-Sprout Song by Eileen Chang (1920-95), first published in 1955, deftly evokes rural Chinese life in the early days of the Maoist Revolution. Though well known to Chinese readers everywhere, Chang's work has only recently been in print again for English readers. In 1998, three years after her death, the University of California reissued this novel and a companion work, The Rouge of the North.

Chang, a giant in Chinese literature, wrote and lived a self-proclaimed aesthetic of desolation, especially after immigrating to the United States in the mid-Fifties. A Garbo-esque recluse, Chang was found dead in a barren Hollywood, California, studio apartment. Her will asked that her body be "cremated instantly, the ashes scattered in any desolate spot, over a fairly wide area, if on land." If Chang, as she said, was haunted by thoughts of desolation, then The Rice-Sprout Song shows a corollary to her artistic hunger: Her writing transcends any simple, obvious political interpretation of her material. Neither pro-Mao nor anti-Mao, but a literary meditation on peasant lives caught up in the ironies of political will and human need when hunger stalks the countryside.

The Rice-Sprout Song gets underway with a common family event: a wedding. Gold Flower of T'an Village will marry Plenty Own Chou of neighboring Chou Village. This might not be a joyous occasion for Chang begins to summon the isolation and loneliness of village life: "Sunlight lay across the street like an old yellow dog, barring the way. The sun had grown old here." Yes, even that universal restorer of the spirit--the sun--can be menacing. That all is not right when the festive wedding occasion arrives is shown by note of the "inferior food" that of necessity is served. Big Uncle complains that he cannot see the rice in his bowl of watery gruel. This jho mush--anything but solid rice--becomes one thematic particular for hunger that haunts this novel.

If Chang were less an artist, the reader's easy-to-hate nemesis would be Comrade Wong, the kan pu of T'an Village, the local representative of the Party. For it is Comrade Wong's unenviable task to carry out a political action showing support for the People's Liberation Army in their fight on the Korean front: a gift the peasants cannot afford: half a pig and forty catties of rice cakes from each family. But before this leads to the tragic end to The Rice-Sprout Song, we follow, in flashback, Wong as he finds the love of his life, Shah Ming. He loses her in the vagaries of fighting for the PLA. When at last he sees her again, she waves from a window in the facade of a collapsed building on the battlefield. Inside the building, Wong sees only rubble and overhead, at the window, nothing. He knows his hallucination proved Shah Ming was saying good-bye from beyond. For Comrade Wong, fate gave him nothing but the Party.

We also see dramatic irony when Comrade Ku, the city intellectual, comes to live in T'an Village, to learn the ways of the peasants. His goal of a movie script about village life suffers from writer's block; he habitually sneaks off to another town to buy food to eat on the sly. And when Big Aunt, who spouts Communist rhetoric that is appallingly upbeat, breaks down in a fit of anger. She says they are all empty-bellied and she doesn't care if she is reported. And when Moon Scent, the wife of Gold Root, returns from working three years as a maid in Shanghai. A force to be reckoned with, Moon Scent, in an act of righteous anger, gives this tragedy its capstone.

Essential reading that shares the texture, the heritage, and the yearnings of nearly a billion of our fellow earthlings, search out this reissue of The Rice-Sprout Song. As one t'ai chi ch'uan teacher said, "Perfect doesn't exist. Near-perfect does." The Rice-Sprout Song is a "near-perfect" evocation of the common people in the timeless Middle Kingdom.

Rice Sprout Song is possibly the best work of literature I have ever read. It was first recommended to me as descriptive of the collectivization era shortly after the 1949 Revolution in China, a classic tale between the state and the individual. It is a spellbinding, troubling work, and is almost impossible to believe that it was Eileen Chang's first work in English. The language she uses is sparse, beautiful and conveys greatest impact after the last page is read, and the cover closed. It is more than an interesting story about conflict between the state and the individual. It is an unsettling story of physical starvation and the death of hope and love.