Cross Books

oh my i love this book, i didn't want it to end!
this is a very deep and meaning ful book, with alot of dramas and deaths. it really opened my eyes, and the story line of the book stayed with me for weeks after reading it.
however doesn't like this book either have a bad taste in books or cant read!

Although written for teens this book will capture the interest of adults. The characters are well-developed and you become instantly attached to them and worry about how they will survive their trials and tribulations. I could not put book the down and finished reading it over a weekend.

Naughts and crosses is a great read.
I really loved the storyline, and how it was reversed.
This book was given to me as a gift from a co-worker, I had to thank her again when I was done.

I thought this book was amazing, one of the best I've read. I'm a kid, fourteen, so it's not what I'd normally read, and I admit that I chose it only because I didn't understand completely what it was about and wanted to find out more....It's so sad and scary that this was so real in our history, even now. The book does an excellent job to capture Callum's simultaneous hate and love of Sephy, love for her and hate for what she was brought up to be, Sephy's ignorance in knowing just how bad things were, and her hunger to please Callum and help, and both character's emotions in general. This book made everything real, and I appreciate it knocking more sense into me.

In NAUGHTS & CROSSES, the author creates a very believable alternate world that is almost like our own--but the main difference is a major one. Everything you think you know about race relations and prejudice holds true, but is switched. The ruling class to which Sephy Hadley's family belongs are the black Crosses, named for their supposed closeness to God. The other, the white Naughts, like Callum and his family, are second-class citizens. In this world, it's unacceptable for a Naught and a Cross to be real friends, and unthinkable for them to fall in love. Callum and Sephy are breaking all the rules of the society they live in.

The two have known each other from a very young age, when Callum's mother worked in the Hadley household. Even after she loses her job, though, Sephy and Callum remain secretly close. They meet in secrecy, forced to tell lies and make up excuses, but they never stop seeing each other, no matter how difficult it is. Soon, though, they'll see each other every day--but that's not as good as it sounds. A new law has been passed, and a limited number of Naughts will now be allowed to attend Cross schools. Callum has been accepted into Sephy's school, and Sephy's excited to see her best friend more often. Callum, however, knows that letting their friendship be public could prove very dangerous for both of them. Things continue to get worse when Sephy and her mother are nearly caught in a terrorist bombing. Sephy's life is saved when Callum pulls her out of the building just in time, but nobody's fooled--that's no coincidence. Suspicion falls on Callum's family.

Callum's father is the prime suspect in planting the bomb, supposedly on the orders of a radical Naught terrorist group, the Liberation Militia, or L.M. They're devoted to their goals of rights for Naughts, and they'll go to any length to achieve them. This world even has a parallel to Martin Luther King, Jr.; Alex Luther is an activist whose goal is to achieve equality peacefully. Callum's mother is a supporter of his, but Callum's father and brother don't believe that Alex Luther's way of doing things will actually get anything done. The events that unfold after the bombing threaten not only Sephy and Callum's relationship, but their very lives and the lives of those around them.

NAUGHTS & CROSSES is a fantastic story, and one that will keep your mind occupied long past the final pages. The world created in Malorie Blackman's novel is one that is much like our own, and inspires a lot of "what if?" questions. What if that was our world? It's not so far off to imagine. How would our lives be different? They almost certainly would be. You wouldn't be where you are now. You wouldn't be who you are now; everything would be remarkably different, but still so much the same.

Malorie Blackman's writing does plenty to draw you in and keep your attention with the story, not bothering with the excessive and often boring detail used by some authors. It's definitely a page-turner! Sephy and Callum are very well-developed main characters, and the secondary characters are quite believable, as well. The story is told in alternating chapters narrated by Sephy and Callum, which really adds a lot to it. Sephy and Callum are remarkable people, showing the strength that love can have, the bridges it can cross, and the determination to see past what's on the outside. That last quality is one that is, sadly, not as common in our world (or Sephy's and Callum's) as it should be. Sephy and Callum also show how willing children are to love, regardless of the prejudices of their world, before their minds are poisoned by their elders. Sephy and Callum became friends at a young age and, remarkably, they stayed that way (and became more), despite the prejudices of their society. NAUGHTS & CROSSES is a remarkable book, one that you won't want to put down once you've started reading.

Reviewed by: Jocelyn Pearce

I was raised in a Lutheran church & school but now work at a non-denominational church. This very good book forced me to ask questions not only about my personal beliefs, but about the state of the Lutheran church today. No doubt this book will be hailed as genius by Lutheran's everywhere as Veith does a very good job at pointing out that Lutherans have it theologically right. Even after going to hear Veith speak I found myself amused at the notion that here was another Lutheran being 'right' talking to a bunch of other Lutherans about how right they were. I actualy agree with almost everything he says. My question for him is 'ok, now what?' Cause if all we're going to do is go to a potluck afterwards and sit around patting each other on the back about how 'right' we are, are we really living out the great commission? That being said, his chapter on vocation is phenomenal. All Christians should read this book.

Written by a lay person who frames the Lutheran theology and how it applies to our existence and our spirituality in an easy to understand manner.

Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a professor of English at Concordia University (Mequon, Wisconsin) and Culture Editor at World Magazine. He is also a man who has had a rough go at finding an adequate Christian denomination. During his earlier years, he had been involved with American Evangelical church bodies, Liberal Protestant church bodies, and others...but finally became a faithful member of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod. Veith writes this book in part to reflect on his own spiritual journey--to record what most attracted him to Lutheranism. He writes in part to explain what makes Lutheranism unique among the various Christian denominations. He writes in part to members of other Christian denominations because he thinks they can learn a lot from the Lutheran take on various spiritual/doctrinal/practical matters.

The end result, "The Spirituality of the Cross," is an excellent book that summarizes the unique theological outlook championed by confessional Lutheran Christians. This book does not deal with basic points of Christian doctrine (e.g. the Trinity, Christology), but rather deals with aspects of theology in which Lutherans neither "side" with Roman Catholics nor Eastern Orthodox nor Baptists/non-Denominationals nor liberal Episcopalians/Presbyterians/Methodists nor five-point Calvinists. These topics include:

Justification (neither free will nor predestination yet still faith alone by grace alone);

The Means of Grace (how God gives his gracious gift of saving faith to a person--through deceptively ordinary means);

The Theology of the Cross (more about how God showers the richest blessings on his people through deceptively ordinary means; why the cross is central to a Lutheran understanding of God; why Lutherans don't buy into the idea that great faith leads to earthly wealth; why bad things happen to people)

Vocation (why Lutheran pastors say, "I forgive you of all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit;" why a garbage man is just as honored and esteemed as a pastor or a CEO just as honored and esteemed as a housewife; how one should go about his calling/career; the Christian ideal of mutual dependence)

Living in Two Kingdoms (how a Christian is to balance the facts that he is a forgiven child of God with heavenly citizenship while living in a sinful world; why Christians can be proud of their vocation as judge, soldier, or public executioner)

Worship (that a Christian is served by God in worship, not vice versa; why we use the objective, emotionless historic liturgy instead of emotional, ever-changing praise-band forms of worship).

The book ends with a reprint from an article Veith wrote for Touchstone Magazine that introduces Lutheranism (60 million strong worldwide) to Catholic/Orthodox and Protestant readers.

In all, Veith does an excellent job of identifying some of the idiosyncrasies of the Lutheran understanding of the Christian faith, fully explains them (both theory and anecdotes), and explains the many merits of the view. This is my third time reading this book and Veith is more insightful every time he is read. Highly recommended to Lutherans as well as Catholics, Orthodox, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., etc., etc.

Dr. Veith's ability to explain the basic tenets of Christian doctrine (Justification, Means of Grace, etc.)is pronounced in this small "gem of literature." He begins the book by opening himself up to the reader, telling them about his path through the religious arena. In the remaining chapters, he artfully explains the doctrine of Justification, the Means of Grace, the Theology of the Cross, Vocation, living in two kingdoms, and concludes with a summation of the theology espoused in the previous chapters.
Throughout, Veith explains the uniqueness of confessional Lutheranism amidst the doctrinal confusion of our modern age. The "spirituality of the cross" and its theology is about Christ crucified for the sins of the whole world. It is incarnational and not about what we do but what God has done for us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Modestly, the book shows how confessional (Biblical) Christians understand the Bible-as with Christ in the center stage-and thus live out their spirituality in a world plagued by sin and death. Secular(and most often "Christian") bookstores are infiltrated with bad theologies. I recommend this inexpensive book for anyone's theological library as a source for personal, intellectual, and theological enjoyment.

Veith has a wonderful clarity in his writing that is extremely helpful. I really liked the brevity of this book because it makes it very easy to recommend to people who aren't such strong readers. Read it and learn something, or re-learn something.

i bought this book for my aunt who is a single, middle-aged, jouyful southern woman. she is an exuberant believer in Jesus Christ who unfortunately doesn't know much of his world beyond the USA, and i thought this would be a good way for her to explore it while connecting (a word that is very near to her counselor's heart) with people.
i don't know how much she has read yet, but my sister and i devoured it in the few days that we had it. we came away from it feeling even more curious about life in different places and reminded of our privilege as women to live in a financially independent manner.
all in all, if you need an antidote to self, this book will help.

I read the Material World several years ago and I was excited to see that Peter and Faith had published a "sequel" of sorts for the book. Women in the Material World is fascinating, especially if you can review it side by side to the Material World. I thought the questions regarding love in their marriage and their expectations for their children were so interesting. I am very happy with my purchase of this book and I recommend it to anyone who is considering it.

A sequel to the authors' successful, "Material World: A Global Family Portrait," which interviewed 30 "statistically average" families from around the world and photographed them surrounded by all their worldly goods, "Women In The Material World," by Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel, revisits 21 women from these families.

With interviews conducted by women over a period of days, even weeks, and 375 color photographs of women captured in their daily lives, this is an absorbing look into an overlooked world of marriage, women's work and families. From female circumcision to divorce, from finances to education, gender roles, work, and friends, women discuss every aspect of their lives - seemingly freely.

Two themes repeat through this largely agricultural world - women's work begins before dawn and ends long after dark and most women feel they have enough children - whatever that number may be.

This is a fascinating, captivating and beautiful volume, to be read, not just browsed.

This book is a superlative sequel to the early Material World by Peter Menzel. I have read the earlier book so many times that when this new volume came out, I bought it immediately sight unseen. In this book, Faith D'Aluisio revisits 19 of the 30 families featured in the Material World to find out about the women's lives.

The articles are organized alphabetically, together with short features on marriage, laundry, work, education, childcare, hair, food, water, and friends. At the back of the book, we find statistical charts about women, and a useful statistics glossary. Each article has an extended interview with the mother of the family that reveals parts of her life story as well as her attitudes towards topics such as marriage, child care, education, money, and possessions. The articles are of course filled with numerous color photos, large and small, of the women at work and with other family members.

The Material World itself is a monumental book, but it was hard to go back to it after reading this book, where we find that the details presented in the Material World were so incredibly superficial. For example, family life for Maria dos Anjos Ferrerira in Brazil or Carmen Balderas de Castillo in Mexico isn't nearly as rosy as one might guess from looking at their original smiling photos in the Material World. On the other hand, Zhanna Kapralova from Russia continues to be a survivor. No matter how much you learn from the Material World, it will be far eclipsed by this book with its extended interviews and additional photographs.

A companion to Material World: Portrait of the Global Family, this book is an incredible expose of the lives of typical, average women all over the world. I, as an American woman with everything I could ever possibly dream of, especially appreciate seeing how things may have different for me had God just decided to make me the girl child of a Vietnamese working family vs. my background. It really makes you take stock of your life, appreciate it, and feel blessed no matter what your circumstances may be. America is truly a wealthy and favored nation. Even our poor, compared with most of the countries in the world, are rich! We should all feel compelled to give back, not matter how much (or how little) we have. I've been giving this book to my friends for gifts (thank you, Amazon!) A MUST READ!

This book is a must-read for anyone considering adopting a child. Adopted children have very specialized needs. This easy to read book has so many practical ideas for parents. I actually think every preschool and elementary teacher should read it as well. As an educator, I am wishing I had had some of these strategies to use in the past with students who were foster or adoptive children. A great resource indeed!

Karyn Purvis really understands her subject and what a challenge parenting adopted kids can be. She gives good practical information you can use today to parent kids that had eventful lives before they were yours. I recommend her book highly.

So many books on attachment are clinical and overwhelming. The recommendations seem so impossible to incorporate into your life. Not anymore! These authors offer amazing insight (you'll think they've been living in your house), practical advice, and inspiring commentary. I recommend this book to all foster or adoptive parents. If you know someone who is considering adoption or has recently adopted, you'll want to buy this book for them too!

As a parent of three domestically-adopted kids, this book has been a lifeline, a lifesaver and has helped us tremendously in getting the kids settled into a safe and healthy routine.

We're first-time parents and wanted a sane, easy-to-follow book to guide us through some of the rough spots. This book is chock full of common sense techniques, tips and ideas. I consult it at least once a month - but have read it through many, many times.

I bought this book after having read Deborah Grays "attaching in adoption" and I got so much more out of this book and many practical ways to handle our "not so easy to handle daughter". I also thought to myself as I read this book that alot of the advice would probably be valuable to any parent with a "challenging child", not just an adopted "challenging child". This book has helped our family tremendously with no nonsense practical ways to address difficult behaviors. It also taught us how to be compassionate and more sensitive to our daughters past and her current issues.

I first read this book the year it was published. I have re-read it every year since and I always find new insight. For those who simply cannot accept Jesus Christ and His necessary sacrifice, or do not understand what His Passion meant and still means, this book will turn the light on for you.

I bought this book as a guided meditation during Lent one year, but I have kept coming back to it year after year. Fr. Neuhaus knows how to cut to the heart of the matter and really make us think about our lives. Ever since high school, I've had a practice of "giving up something" for Lent. However, recently I've found that "adding something", especially something as powerful as the meditations in this book, help me to prepare much better for the Easter celebration.

Of course, you don't have to wait until Lent to be moved by the power of Fr. Neuhaus's message. I recommend this book at any time during the year.

My first encounter with Fr. Neuhaus's writing came through the pages of "First Things", a magazine on the role of religion in public life. His penetrating insights and carefully crafted arguments are true gems of wisdom. I've come to appreciate them and depend on his daily reflections on current issues the way some people depend on a shot of caffeine to get them through a day.

This book, however, is written in a completely different style and with a very different aim. Here we see a more spiritual and meditative side of Fr. Neuhaus, and I, for one, am grateful for this insight. Here he contemplates the seven last words of Christ, devoting a chapter to each one of them. His aim is to takes us deeper into the mystery of crucifixion and the death of Christ, and to resist the temptation to just rush over to Easter. The book can be used as a devotional aid, and would be a good companion reading material during Lent.

The meditative nature of the book does not prevent Fr. Neuhaus from making and defending some theologically strong positions. The greatest, and for non-Christians probably the most controversial, claim is that "[i]f what Christians say about Good Friday is true, then it is, quite simply, the truth about everything." The purpose of this statements is not necessarily to argue a theological position, but to bring urgency and highlight the importance of what happened on that Friday afternoon. In reading this book we can make one big step closer to that goal.

This is one of the most profoundly moving books I have ever read. I re-read it every year during lent, and it never fails to move me in the same was as before. Here is why.

In the final scene of "Saving Private Ryan," Ryan himself, now much older, is visiting the grave of the soldier who saved him. He recalls the final words of the dying soldier who rescued him, a plea to make his life worthy of the sacrifice being given. In tears, he asks his wife whether he has in fact lived his life in a way that justifies that sacrifice.

Although "Death on a Friday Afternoon" is far too complex and nuanced to be summarized succinctly, one of its objectives (which it fulfills admirably) is to look its reader directly in the face and ask, "Are you in fact living your life in a way that justifies the sacrifice that Jesus made to save it?"

Two brief excerpts provide a glimpse of this book's seriousness and importance:

"Our lives are measured not by the lives of others, not by our own ideals, not by what we think might reasonably be expected of us, although by each of those measures we acknowledge failings enough. Our lives are measured by who we are created and called to be, and the measuring is done by the One who creates and calls. . ."

"To belittle our sins is to belittle ourselves, to belittle who it is that God creates and calls us to be."

This book is a call to seriousness about living our lives in response to what God has done for us.

There is much more as well. Don't miss it.

This is a wonderful book, written with patience, love, and care--written, at times, prayerfully and poetically. In contemplating our Christian faith, Neuhaus urges us not to skip Good Friday and go right to Easter and the joy of the Resurrection (though it IS joyful). Rather, we must reflect on the Crucifixion, on His death, without which there could have been no Resurrection and without which there would be no redemption. Some outsiders and even many Christians find the Crucifixion morbid and shy away from pondering it, but it is meant to shock and disturb. (This was not lost on Dostoevsky, who has some excellent passages and descriptions of the crucified Christ in The Idiot.) It was a death and murder, one in which we all are complicit. We must understand this before we can hope to understand the meaning of His death.

Neuhaus uses the seven last "words" (utterances, really) of Christ to explore the nature of His life and death, as well as the nature of our own lives and deaths. Tangentially, he comments on our culture and society, on permissivity and the like--ideas that will be familiar to readers of First Things. But this is primarily a book on religion, not politics. Nor is it an exposition of theology. Neuhaus avoids the often complicated and difficult-to-understand theological matters (and debates) that surround Christ's life, death, and resurrection, as well as the implications for us. Certainly, Neuhaus adheres to his--which is to say, the Catholic Church's--interpretation, but here he seeks to get to the foundations of Christianity. The result is something all Christians--and, indeed, anyone desiring to understand the faith--can enjoy and appreciate.

This series is a real favorite of mine. Great story line, great characters, and unique ideas. Now (as of Summer 2005) the latest Conrad book, "Conrad's Crusade" is now available from [...], on line! It is solid action on par with the best in the series. [...] and I recommend it highly.

This is a great book and a great series - taking an excellent idea and executing it perfectly. It almost certainly is aimed at a male audience, but women should enjoy it too if they aren't too offended 0:)

Similar storyline to Twain's 'Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' - only this time, it's a Polish engineer in 13th century Poland.
It's a fun read, although I found it a bit convenient that the hero was an engineer - it would have been much more fun & challenging if the hero only had a rudimentary knowledge of how things worked.
A similar book to these that I'd also reccommend is 'Enchantment' by Orson Scott Card. That book and the Stargard series are the only time-travelling in Poland fantasy books I'm aware of.

The Cross-Time Engineer is among the best time travel books I have ever read. It leaves nothing to chance even displaying that properly placed geneticly enhanced War Horses can be found in 13th century Krakow. Conrad Stargard is plagued with moden emotions and ethics in a medieval world that holds life as worth little. It is a great set of books so be sure not to stop at number one.

Very decent sci-fi / time-travel / alternate timeline treatment. If you're at all technically minded, and if you can look past the author's rather abysmal treatment of anyone of the female persuasion, you'll probably enjoy this as a nice break from something deeper and harder hitting. It's fun and diverting to imagine what one expert engineer who (unlike most of us technical rabble) actually knows how things work could do with 13th century technology, culture, and a great deal of luck.
The first 2-3 books of this series are by far the best, as near the end the author seems to loose a bit of interest - or at least creativity - and begins to engage some serious Deus Ex Machina plot elements with Conrad's friends in the distant future. Still, worth a read to those not offended by the "women are property - and they *love* it" garbage scattered throughout.

This is not a book which you read through over a period of hours. In fact it is quite possible that you will never read all of the book, but yet find it invaluable.

Fox breaks the sales stage down into logical segments and provides good "plays" to make the sales process more productive. Sales segments include: Thinking, Reaching, Engaging, Keeping.

None of the plays are innovative, but they are relevant. He provides the reader with good insight and detail on "plays" such as print advertising, Linkedin, PR, Customer referrals, Customer surveys etc. He also makes an effort to cost out these plays. I did find some of his costings on the high side, but it is up to you "the player" to make sure you get your value for money.

The book is not cheap, but if you want a good reference, idea book at your fingertip, it is good value.

Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations is a compendium of 102 marketing strategies to meet sales goals. A football-style theme and trappings capture the reader's eye, but at its heart Marketing Playbook is all business. Tips, tricks and techniques include the basics for creating a good business card, how to create a series of "thank you" postcards with impact, using web conferencing to give a sales presentation without leaving one's chair, how to break through voicemail, and much more. A surprisingly intense amount of detail on each topic and full-color photographs on every page distinguish Marketing Playbook as a top-quality reference and resource for marketing professionals.

Over the past several years there has been an outpouring of titles dealing with the topic of effective marketing techniques that has spawned a cottage industry of thousands of books, and whose publishers rant that by purchasing their book you will invariably be led to the Promised Land.

I don't doubt that most authors of marketing books often work extra hard to find new and creative perspectives on their subject. Unfortunately, however, most fail, as very often their approach is filled with a great deal of hype, but little useful content.

Now, along comes John M. Fox's fresh and innovative approach with his manual Marketing Playbook: The Manual for Growing Organizations 102 of the Best Marketing Plays to Get Your Sales Team Across the Goal Line, where the author uses the metaphor of a football playbook to tutor his readers on how to develop an effective and winning marketing plan.

The manual organizes itself into 102 plays, each comprising one glossy page with full color images, wherein you have the following sections: a diagram, illustration or picture of the Play when correctly executed, next to the image you have the number and name of the Play, on the left hand side of the page you have the strategies and costs, while the center of the page consists of the Assignments and Coaching Points, and the bottom of the page indicates the Primary Receivers as types, their level, and who is the product or service best suited for.
In addition, Fox includes a value-added bonus by providing at the end of some of the pages a section called Extra Points, where you can download from the author's website extra information pertaining to the Play. There is even a scoreboard that rates the Play's strategic or tactical applicability.
For example, if we look at Play 35, Press Releases That Get Ink, we notice that the focus of the strategy is to get your news story in the press, what are the expected costs of a professional writer, how the marketing team and the PR agency should work together, and ends with vital coaching points.

By presenting the material in this way, devoid of technical jargon, verbiage and redundancy, fundamental principles are broken down into understandable messages that everyone can easily follow. Moreover, the book is as informative as it is fun, as the author has taken pains to be clear and concise, while keeping the tone light and approachable. Although, the author states in his notes that he has written the book from the first-person to company leaders, rookie employees and the self-employed will likewise benefit from its reading.
For those who wish to explore the various topics further, the author provides a bibliography of references, resources and additional reading that correspond to each of the Plays. There is even at the end of the manual a glossary index containing a listing of some familiar and unfamiliar terms the author uses in his presentations.

Norm Goldman, Editor Bookpleasures

This book is very engaging, in fact, hard to put down. As a seasoned marketing executive, I am often disappointed with marketing books yet this one was a pleasant surprise and loaded with useful information. John's suggestions are easy to implement and focused on helping sales make sales! Too many marketers focus on brand image to the exclusion of lead generation and customer aquisition. What good is a brand if there is no money in the bank! This book will keep new and seasoned marketers in growth companies on track with cost-effective ideas to ring the sales bell. An excellent feature is a list of sample vendors and the approximate cost of various "plays"; this alone will save new marketers research time and money and allow them to maximize tight marketing budgets for maximum results. This book is worth every penny and there is something inside that will work for every type of business.

Whether a company needs to know how to get its news in front of people who care through news distribution, or how to present it in a binder, John Fox's Marketing Playbook lays it out ... plus John gives you the names of sources who will help. It's the kind of book anybody in marketing and sales will keep and refer to often.

A must have book.... So beautiful you want to have it on your table at all times.

I took a chance on buying this book for my sister's birthday even though I could find no example of what kind of prayers were in it. I had seen some of the photography, though and I was impressed. I was not disappointed. The prayers are simple, elegant and inspiring. The photography is wonderful. I will post some images I snapped before giving it to my sister so you can see for yourself.

While I was at a local book store I saw and purchased a copy of "Prayers through the Seasons". I found that the photographs of the photographer David Middleton, who by the way was a major contributor to "The Nature of America", added emphasis to the prayers of Reverend Deborah Kaiser-Cross.

It is a wonderful bond of photography and short prayers. Each adds emphasis to the other. Definately of coffe table quality.

This book is the most wonderful collection of prayers and photographs that I have seen in a long time. Rev. Kaiser-Cross's prayers are beautiful and beautifully matched with Mr. Middleton's exceptionally inspirational photos. I would say this is a must have for nature lovers who feel the presence of God in the wonders of our natural world.

As a poet and lover of words, I find myself looking for visual stimulation. This special book surprised me with it's raw beauty. Nothing is more sacred than Nature. And Laurie Bohlke has created a special gift for the "tenderest" of us. I have to admit that I do not keep it with my "coffee table" books, but next to my best friends; the Dictionary and Thesaurus.

What I like most about Pfitzinger's and Scott's book is that it is a very friendly efficient book that gets right into the subject matter and it breaks down what others describe in more complex fashion, like VO2 Max, into much simplier terms making the comprehension easy and in far fewer pages. Although written in the very late 90s, this book is still an excellent guide for HS and runners virtually up to local elite status. "Daniels Running Formula" is probably mote satisfying, and more detailed for top guns but Pfitziner and Scott give you a lot of the same information with a variety of workouts based on goal times at various distances. The authors even quote Daniel's research and others so it still is in the game. If you want a quick grasp training book that is top knotch, pleasant to read with examples and pictures, then this is your book.

Pfitzinger's book finally delivers on what I always want from a book on a complex subject, simple explanations and simple solutions. Why write 800 pages when 188 will suffice. If you are only looking to train for 5K's then you can skip the section on 10K and marathon training and get even more concise explanations. This book gives short, simple explanations to the key elements of a training program. We now know everything we need to know about VO2 max and lactate threshold training, their relative importance, how to improve them and how to incorporate them into your training program. Pete indirectly points out how most of us are doing no lactate threshold training (by running most of our daily runs to slow) and doing all of our interval work to fast. I recommend this book to anyone looking to improve his or her racing times.

I would also suggest buying "Daniels Running Formula". I bought it last summer and my 5K's times went down from 19:40 to 18:50. I bought "Road Racing for Serious Runners" to basically get a second opinion on Daniel's theories. Actually these are not opinions or theories. These are time-tested methods back by sound science. I'm 43 years old and I'm living proof that random training will yield random results. Both Pfitzinger and Jack Daniels book will eliminate the "lets try this" approach to training. Both books cover the same topics and both authors come up with the basically the same training program. Daniels book breaks his schedule into 4 six-week phases while Pfitzinger has a 10-week and an 11 phase. When you look at both plans it becomes obvious and almost laughable on how easy it is to improve on your racing times (and in my case actually cut back on the training intensity).

I would buy both books so you can really feel good about your new training methods. Pete's book is simpler and has separate schedules for some of us low 20-40 mile per week folks. Daniels book has slightly more science and covers more topics. Daniels also has been around longer and has trained more athletes. There are only a few contradictions in Pete's book. He states on page 21 that your volume of Vo2 max workouts (your hard intervals) should be 1 workout per week with a total distance covered of 4 to 8K with the possibility of adding a second lower volume session each week. This corresponds with Daniels book where he has 2 Vo2 max sessions each week (or 1 Vo2 Max and a race). But when you get to the detailed 5K schedules for the 20-40 miles per week you only see 6 Vo2 max workouts scheduled in 21 weeks, despite them being listed as the number one priority. Also only 5 threshold workouts are scheduled in the last 11 weeks for the 20-40 mile schedule. I guess Pete is no dummy. He knows that Bill Rodgers may not use his book and that it will be geared towards people like me. He knows that I'm going to sneak in a combination of ten 5K and 8K races this fall before I attempt to peak in early December. The Daniels book just encourages it and has those realities clearly shown on the schedules. Just buy both books, start training smarter and in some cases a little easier. I've bought bad unhealthy lunches for [PRICE]. If you run this will be the best [PRICE} you will ever spend.

Very good book for learning to race everything from 5k to marathon distances. There is no fluff, just the facts on how to prepare for a specific race distance. The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is the authors schedules are a little too general for those of us who must have a detailed schedule. This book is not a beginner's book. To get the most from it you need to have some experience running races, even if you are a slow runner.

I can't imagine a better, more concise book on running training for distances over 1500m. A great introduction to the physiology of endurance racing, and how to apply this knowledge directly to your own workouts.

If Jack Daniel's book is the bible of running, this book is a close second. Clear, concise, and with good training tables, this book is a nice tweak on Daniel's book.

Using the methods espoused in these two books has improved my race times dramatically. Instead of random training, every training run now has a purpose; be it a slow easy run or speed workouts at the track.

This is our second order of the book. It is used by our Tablet Users Group faculty members. We have had Thomas Angelo as a speaker at Rose-Hulman and were very pleased by him and his work. We would highly recommend Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers. The book has been very well received and helpful teaching, evaluating & assessing classroom techniques.

The book arrived in perfect condition, even though it was listed as used. Arrived on time.

This book is a handbook-style text that elaborates on the concept of "Classroom Assessment Techniques," a term used by the authors to refer to alternative methods of evaluating or assessing student learning. The book is a handbook because each "CAT" is listed in terms of how to prepare, use, and evaluate results; the authors also present rather subjective indicants of the amount of time required for each technique.

The techniques range from the laughably simple (such as "muddiest point") to the more involved (such as student learning portfolios); the handbook is arranged in terms of types of assessment that may be conducted with each group of techniques. The book provides a wide variety of techniques, and the user should be able to find several applicable techniques for a particular educational situation.

However, I would strongly suggest that anyone using these techniques NOT rely on this text as the sole source of how and why to do educational assessment and evaluation -- the field is too complex and the implications are too important.

Excellent book! Angelo was very clear and concise in guiding teachers through the assessment process.

The text was used in a course through UW Stout and it is a very good resource for methods that can be used to assess learners progress towards a goal. Great tool to have on the bookshelf!