Richards Books

There's probably a great truth in the fact that the last 50 years of planning have enrich few and impoverished many.
Zoning is simple, clear, fast and economically definable, but it isolates the people who are destined to live there, and enslaves them to the use of car.
Overlapping and dense urbanism is historically a step back, is more work for planners, more difficult to understand for the laymen and developers and will cost more, but it will ultimately favor humane contact, regenerate sense of community, diminish the slavery of people on machine and last but not least reduce pollution.
We have to reconsider the word coined by the Polish American Architect Lubicz of Nycz: Urbantecture.
Urbanism & architecture are very delicate matters, intimately tided they create the frame for the world we live in.
This is a great book for planner, politicians and people, because everybody today is oblige to look at cities as sustainable places where life can prosper only in respect of nature.

After reading this book, I wanted to pack my bags and head to London to study with Richard Rogers. His observations on the importance of balancing population, resources and the environment is right on. He identifies the need for compact cities, but seeks to reinvent the dense city model to be a cleaner, greener, more integrated place. Rogers pays specific attention to positive social changes that compact cities can make, and he addresses the importance of regionalism to acheiving sustainability goals. Also, he explains how proximity allows for creative reuse of resources and efficient building design. The book is unique; Rogers makes concrete suggestions and offers actual examples of ways to acheive sustainability.

"Cities for a Small Planet give me the reassurance that there are influential people trying to reduce the destructive impact of human activities on the world. The case study of Curitiba, Brazil is particularly inspirational.

Author Richard Rogers looks for ways to make city centers more sustainable and points out the importance of public space within a city. He makes a case against single-use developments, the sprawl of the suburbs and the need for automobiles. I can't help but to wonder, though, about the average family living in a suburb in their own house with a backyard garden, two dogs and a cat. Those average people are quite happy to be away from the city centers, from the panhandlers and predators, from unsafe feelings while riding public transportation, from the sounds of police sirens and honking horns. Will dense sustainable city developments change that?

Not everyone is cut out to live in dense cities. A more appropriate question (at least in the United States) might be, "What can we do to make our suburbs more sustainable?"

Just an aside: I found the font size of this book to be a bit on the small side, and the captions under the pictures to be small to the point of near unreadability.

It is a good book, small but with lots of information. It introduces in a simple form the urban problems of the world and tries to focus in it's solutions. After I read it I showed it to teachers at my school and they now quote it in class.

Unusual and very well thought-out propositions for the architectural/urbanization problems that arise today as society everywhere struggles with increasing overpopulation. EWspecially noteworthy is the inclusion of small town issues, a topic normally overlooked by other architects/scholars who write on urban planning. Some interesting research, and of course the intriguing sketches and drawings I associate with Rogers, Foster, Piano, and all thoes other postindustrial architects. It's a small little book that is great for reading on the plane. Usually something not too common with architecture books.

Spiro Kostof's book is a fantastic and intelligent foray into urban form. What I found most appealing about the book was his approach in grappling with the WHY of things; in describing how certain urban forms have come to pass, he offers the requisite determined factors as any architect of the City ought to do and then manages the neat trick of gracefully acknowledging that these factors do not necessarily lead to a single outcome. But he is intrepid in his analysis and his approach. Beginners may find this book difficult because it does assume a basic understanding of cities and city planning; however, ambitious readers should give it a try. Mr. Kostof's cultural and historical references and his non-linear style are extremely appealing and intriguing, so much so that I will continue on to "The City Assembled", the companion piece, with great eagerness.

este livro possui indicacoes excelentes para um pesquisador da forma urbana e da historia da cidade trilhar seus conhecimentos.

pesquisa seria e escrita magnifica.
boa escolha.

Probably the most comprehensive guide to the thoughts, theories and practical aspects of designing a city. Buy it and weep for your boring grid plan cities....

Well written, consistently interesting and structured around the challenges of topography and the urban form demands invoked by market needs, political architectures and cultural expectations through history, this beautifully illustrated book delivers the promise of its title and a lot more.

Because the author, Spiro Kostof, organized his book by patterns and topological relationships, the text compresses history and geographies into a comparative perspective. This presents a disadvantage to the reader if he/she is interested in only one time, one culture or even just one architectural movement.

On the other hand, the comparative perspective lends authority to Kostof's overarching theoretical approach of connecting urban forms to content and how those relationships persist across the spectrum of the human experience. A must for any architect's or planner's library.

Perhapes part of Kostof's category for urban patterns( as organic, grids, grand manner....) is arguable, but his wonderful ananlyses for each individual sample lead us into deeper understanding of urban patterns and social meanings behind. Many cities familiar to most of us (Siena, Paris, New Dehli....) appear refreshingly unfamiliar in his book.

This concise history book, on the American civil war, is an excellent introduction on the topic.If you have enjoyed reading,'Nicholas and Alexandra'(1960),by Robert K. Massie,then you will be quite pleased with this book also.It has the same intelligible writing style that flows and brings the reader along for the swift adventure.Hansen's Flaubert-like literary style brings the events to life far above what Bruce Catton has done.Catton's worthy writings focuses more on the epic battles' time-line events and factual data rather than the personal stories however.Anyone who is interested in understanding the current political workings of American government today ,should start with this primer book.The congressional and contragressional actions of our government can be better understood ,by studying the civil war.Then later move forward to the writings of the late Shelby (Early) Foote.Foote is a direct descendent of an Irish confederate general and he has written many extensive volumes on the fascinating subject.

Harry Hansen's book was the first I read on the Civil War and it sparked me to read more. The battle descriptions are some of the best I have ever read, especially Hansen's handling of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. This book takes you into the minds of the generals and common soldiers who waged the war and explains their actions in a clear and concise way. Not overly wordy, but having enough description to keep it interesting, this book is perfect for anyone who is just getting started on the Civil War, as it also digs into the political, social, and historical influences that caused the war. Another great feature is that the book is not biased towards either of the contingents, and gives a straight report without overly critizing either side. All in all, an excellent book that I highly reccommend to anyone with an interest in the conflict

After watching a recent history channel show, I realized how little I remembered of the civil war from school 40 years ago. Wanting to learn more I read several books and found this one to be the best for a concise coverage of the war. However the type in the $8.95 version is horrible. It goes from dark, thick and blurry, to thin and light. The margins and spacings vary and letters get dropped or partially cut off. I did see a larger paperback edition after I bought this one. It was almost twice the price, but probably worth it. If your looking for one book on the civil war, Hansen's is definitely the one to get.

If you only have time for one book on the Civil War, you ought to consider this.

I thought when I picked it up that it might be rather plodding and just a recount of 'Grant moved here and Lee counterattacked'. I was wrong.

The book sucks you in right away with the reasons and legislature behind the Civil War, like the Missouri Compromise, the Dred Scott decision, etc. How Lincoln fought Steven Douglas for the Senate seat in Illinois and lost, then won the election to become President. There is a wide range of speeches and comments by Lincoln. The old chesnuts of 'A House Divided' speech, plus some less well-known quips about generals.

This is a great one-volume instroduction. I have found myself ripping through it eager to read more. It is not just about the Civil War, but it lays the foundation for what will come in the ensuing years as war breaks out and both sides jockey for supremacy.

I hadn't really read anything on the Civil War since high school, so this makes a welcome refresher and a book that makes you stop and think 'hey, I never knew that' and has an engaging and fluid writing style most readers will welcome.

Harry Hansen's book was the first I read on the Civil War and it sparked me to read more. The battle descriptions are some of the best I have ever read, especially Hansen's handling of Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg. This book takes you into the minds of the generals and common soldiers who waged the war and explains their actions in a clear and concise way. Not overly wordy, but having enough description to keep it interesting, this book is perfect for anyone who is just getting started on the Civil War, as it also digs into the political, social, and historical influences that caused the war. Another great feature is that the book is not biased towards either of the contingents, and gives a straight report without overly critizing either side. All in all, an excellent book that I highly reccommend to anyone with an interest in the conflict

I gave this as a gift...and she loves this book!

As one who has benefited from Richard Leider's work during my own mid-life transition, this new work takes us into new (yet old) territory and reminds us of what's been lost in our society and in ourselves through the industrial era. The best is yet to be . . . and let Leider & Shapiro be your journey partners!

To retire or refire? What does the future hold? "Claiming Your Place at the Fire" helps us ask the right questions as we try to make sense out of and find meaning in the second half of our lives. It is full of insight on how to do that in a way that makes sense for a variety of people in all sorts of situations. It was very helpful to me as I weigh the options in my life and work. Thought provoking and conversation starting.

You can grow old in the darkness of night or grow alive in the light of your sun--your choice. Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro take you by the hand and help you see how to let go of the things that don't bring you alive and replace them with things that do. Can it really be that simple? You decide.

CLAIMING YOUR PLACE AT THE FIRE lets you see how to believe that every second of human life is valuable. And, oh how our needy world needs the best of every single one of us. If you can answer a telephone and speak, you can volunteer for a prayer line where people call for comfort in times of turmoil and are so grateful when they get a live person.

When you are tempted to give in to your aches and pains, do remember Stephen Hawking, our modern day Einstein confined to a wheel chair, who had a body that was unable to respond to him. So, he used to the fullest what was able to respond to him, his mind, and blessed the entire universe with his wisdom.

Best of all, CLAIMING YOUR PLACE AT THE FIRE makes you feel warm and comfortable about walking your path instead of so afraid of what will happen to you.

If you've 'tripped over the human 50-yard line' ... then this book is definitely for you. I personally wish I would have been wise enough to understand it's deeper meanings 20 years ago - but that would not have happened. The words and wisdom of this book are just not for the younger years. But as the book shows, it is our - those of us who now find ourselves, by age and experience, at the edge of the fire - responsibility to pass on - as mentors - to the younger generation the most important piece of advice they can get: "You will one day be here, prepare now."

A must read for every man and woman over 50 years of age. This is a guide book for

+ WHY you should look forward to living past 50,
+ What you should have been doing before you got here
+ How to make the most of your Life Learnings
+ Where you are now and in the remaining years of your life
+ Who your focus will be on from now on: giving of your Life Learnings to the younger generation

This is what those 'hot-dog roasting fires' were meant to be! Go read the book. Then go build a fire and roast some hot-dogs, make some smoores and gather your friends to enjoy. The rest will come as the embers begin to glow. So will you.

HomePage 3.0 is an older program but it has the advantage of being cross-platform (meaning Mac and PC) on the same disk. I have made a dozen websites using it and it is a wonder to behold. Newer standards have overtaken the WWW so not all of the new functions are integrated into it.

It has a first rate tutorial on the disk which can help you to make perfectly decent small websites. However, this book is the perfect manual to go along with that tutorial. In fact I think it is essential to own this book so that you can address problems as they arise without having to bounce around between the program, the Help, and the tutorial.

As with most of the Visual Quickstart series, this one is filled with pictures so that those of us who cannot grab the meaning from the text alone can guide ourselves with the screenshots showing what the text just spoke of.

I recommend both this program and this book to my students who wish to build their own websites, even though both the book and the program are out of print.

This book was very helpful getting me up and running and doing what I wanted to do--make my website. It was also helpful in stepping me through publishing my first database on FileMaker Pro. I would reccomend it to anyone wanting to use Home Page. I should say that Home Page is a very easy to use, but powerful program. It is quite intuitive. This book just happens to make it even easier to use. I just kept it on my desk and if I hit a snag it would unsnag me.

i need to know how to make a web page for 5$ if any one can give me instructions how to make a page mail me them thanks. p.s.hoss8617@aol.com

This book was very helpful getting me up and running and doing what I wanted to do--make my website. It was also helpful in steping me through publishing my first database on FileMaker Pro. I would reccomend it to anyone wanting to use Home Page. I should say that Home Page is a very easy to use, but powerful program. It is quite intuitive. This book just happens to make it even easier to use. I just kept it on my desk and if I hit a snag it would unsnag me.

I found this book very understandable and full of explanations. It summarized much of what the help menu in Claris Homepage offered, but showed detailed diagrams and steps on how to complete the functions for most web page design. I recommend this to any beginner with Claris Homepage to use as a basis to learn the program and understand the buttons and capabilities of the total program.

I'm a chemist and in my practical experience in the laboratory I have to say this is probably the best text you will find if you are a analytical reader. Of course, this book is not written with a enjoyable style, but if you bear to read it carefully and really analize the details, you will not regret the effort. This is great for reference and if it wasn't so dull in style It will make a great job as a textbook too, besides this is a classic.

I'm medical student from Hong Kong. I find it very useful in preparing Problem-based-learning tutorilas. The interpretation of the laboratory results are the most useful. It helps me understand more in the PBL cases.

Simple and delightful , filled with nice illustrations this book is necessary to every doctor not only clinical pathologists and laboratorits but everyone who handles daily with ambulatory and infirmary pacients. A must in every uptodate doctor or even meddicine students bookshelf.

I rate this book a "4" as it's essential reading for residents in clinical pathology. A large number of the pathology board questions come directly from this book, making it necessary reading. It's also VERY dry reading, even for a pathology textbook. After reading this book you'll be ready from something comparatively exciting, like watching paint dry. However, due to its importance in studying for the boards, I highly recommend it.

This reference receives from all reviewers the top recommendations for comprehensive, concise, understandable presentations. Every laboratorian needs this reference. The 20th edition is due in February, 2001.

Dr. Walton has done an excellent job of presenting one of the few textbooks on this topic. This is a thoroughly researched and carefully documented book containing not only Dr. Walton's expertise on the subject matter but that of several other experts in the fields of behavioral profiling, geographic profiling, forensic document examination, and forensic dentistry. The illustrations are excellent and tell much of the story visually. The last chapter, which details how investigators solved one of the oldest cold cases to date had me reading late into the night, even though I knew how it ended from reading newspaper articles at the time!

I am a retired Chief Investigator for a DA's office in California with over 30 years of criminal investigation experience. I currently operate a private investigation business, also in California. I have specialized in the investigation of violent crime for decades and have taught related courses at the college level. This textbook is by far the best homicide investigation textbook that I have ever encountered. While the title might lead one to believe it is primarily a "Cold Case Homicide" textbook, it is actually the best text on ALL homicide investigations that I've found. It's a "must have" for anyone involved in such investigations or teaching a course on any kind of homicide or other violent crime.

Richard Walton's COLD CASE HOMICIDES: Practical Investigative Techniques provides the law enforcement and forensic communities with the most important and comprehensive work to date on the subject of cold case homicide investigation. Walton has combined his thirty years of law enforcement experience and his impressive graduate work to merge theory and practice into impressive textbook. The case history format, which I find to me an excellent methodology, combined with the checklists, photographs and illustrations makes this book easy to read and comprehend.

Walton has provided the definitive roadmap for those who wish to successfully investigate cold case homicides. His innovative and time proven methods offer the reader a realistic overview of the cold case homicide and details various investigative methods to be used in this inquiry. Walton also provides practical and current information technology and advanced investigative tools, which have allowed law enforcement to re-examine cold cases with new forensic tools.

This publication is an invaluable asset to law enforcement and I am proud to have this book in my Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigation Series.

Lt. Cmdr. Vernon J. Geberth, M.S., M.P.S
Author Practical Homicide Investigation
Series Editor, Practical Aspects of Criminal and Forensic Investigation
Taylor & Francis

I bought and read this book because I'm related to Walter David, accused along with Jack Ryan, in the 1925 murder Dr. Walton refers to in the introduction and throughout the book. This book is very readable, even for non-professionals. I learned a lot and can see this would be a very helpful textbook for law enforcement professionals wanting to learn more about investigating cold cases.

I wish Dr. Walton great success. His investigation became a 13 year hunt for the truth, resulting in the long overdue pardon of Jack Ryan.

Dr. Richard Walton's COLD CASE HOMICIDES is not just a textbook for cops and criminalists. His well researched, plain talking "How To" is for anyone and everyone interested in knowing how a real murder case is painstakingly put together, a fiber of trace evidence here, a reinterview of a cold case witness there, until it is solved. Its all here, from crime-scene to courtroom. This is a must have, easy reading reference book that should be in the library of every mystery fan and writer. Law enforcement professionals know the value of this book and I expect it has already been shipped to most police academies and Criminology 101 classes. But, I believe the book's greatest contribution will come from how it informs the layperson of how real cold case murder investigations should be conducted. Congratulations to Dr. Walton on a job WELL DONE.

Steve Hodel
L.A.P.D. Homicide Detective Supervisor (ret.)
Author, Black Dahlia Avenger: A Genius for Murder

This is the Coleridge I thought I knew through his poetry. Holmes brings him to life in this first volume of Coleridge's early years. The book makes you wish you had known Coleridge personally and shared in his life. His life is complex and challenging and so it must have been for Holmes to research and write Coleridge's life. In fact, Holmes seems to have a special knowledge into the life of one of the greatest poets of the English language. This book gave me insights into Coleridge's works I had not had before. If you want to learn more about Samuel Taylor Coleridge, his life and his works, this is the book to read.

The general reader and the scholar should enjoy this book. Holmes does set Coleridge talking.

Don't miss Owen Barfield's WHAT COLERIDGE THOUGHT if you want to explore the matephysician.

If you think Coleridge was finished by 1804, think again. True, all his great poems had been written but an astonishing life of triumph and tragi-comedy lay ahead. "Coleridge, Darker Reflections" is the long-awaited second half of this award-winning biography of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It covers the period 1804-1834 - a time when, according to popular belief, Coleridge's fertile imagination had dried up and he faced a slippery slide to an opium-induced decline. But not according to the author Richard Holmes, described as "Our best post-war biographer". He is a superb story teller and unlike so many biographers before him, deeply in touch with his subject. His first volume, "Coleridge Early Visions" introduced the poet to a new generation of admirers (including myself who was fired into writing a play for children about the poet's early magical years). This wonderful book will surely establish STC as a troubled but gigantic genius of the 19th century. Holme's own genius is to show us Coleridge the man. "Always on the knife edge between tragedy and comedy" said Holmes at the London book launch this week (21st October 1998) Holmes has worked assiduously through STC's vast notebooks. Like his namesake, Sherlock, the author clearly enjoys the detection element of biography. His is a personal search for the man, his millieu and his place. Holmes retraces STC's footsteps around England - echoing the desperate perambulations of the wandering poet. Holmes tells this astonishing story at a cracking pace - he has the thriller-writer's gift for making you turn the page. We follow STC through his Malta years - a wonderful evocation of Coleridge's chaotic life. The years of tragic opium decline in London are brought to life (I challenge you not to cry) - and yet there are so many triumphs - the marvellous late poems that Holmes has championed in an earlier collection, the seminal lectures on Shakespeare, Coleridge the thinker and radical, Coleridge the father (not a very good one), the years of relative happiness in Highgate where we find Coleridge the guru. Above all is Coleridge the man. Holmes as only the greatest biographers can, brings his subject completely to life and shows us why Coleridge was such a tour de force in the Romantic movement and why Byron called Wordsworth "a fixed star" but Coleridge "a meteor". There is so much to love in this book - it is hard to know what to recommend. If you have never read a biography before, make this your first. If you think you are familiar with the life of STC, this book, so full of new discoveries and insights, will make you reassess the poet. Holmes is clearly enamoured of his subject. It is a book that will make you laugh out loud in places. You will see exactly why Charles Lamb said of his great friend "He is an archangel, damaged."

This treatment of Coleridge's early life is excellent in scope & detail; in fact, it won a prize. But its strength-- objectivity-- is its weakness. Holmes expresses no imaginitive sympathy for his subject. He writes about Romanticism with the detatchment of an entymologist examining a butterfly. And while he treats Coleridge's pathology in an overtly psychological manner, he fails to identify the pathologies he describes -- like a doctor who collects symptoms without making a diagnosis.

The result is an outstanding example of conventional literary biography, but one that is insensitive to growth, imagination, and mind in the act of making the mind -- or why Coleridge was passionate about them. Those interested in these must seek elsewhere, but this volume remains a good place to learn the facts of Coleridge's life, despite its dry prose.

Somehow Holmes produces scholarly biographies that make compulsive reading. He never fictionalizes or puts thoughts in his subjects' heads that he has no authority for - and yet he keeps us turning those pages. Is it the subjects he choses? Shelley and Coleridge both had strongly "plotted" lives. Coleridge married the sister of Southey's wife and fell in love with the sister of Wordsworth's wife. I liked his comment on Coleridge's father's predecessor in the the benefice of St Mary's Ottery.

Wilbur is one of the indispensables; impossible to imagine American poetry, or indeed the American trajectory, without these poems, so deftly shaped, giving such wry light. I am grateful for this book.

I first read Richard Wilbur's poems more than 20 years ago, but I have to admit that for most of that time he has been for me like the fire brigade or catastrophic health insurance -- I was glad he was there, but for whatever reason he didn't seem terribly relevant in my life.

This book helped remind me how wrong I have been.

Upon reflection, I realize that at least part of the reason for my undervaluing Mr. Wilbur's work stems from my own shortcoming: I was probably too young to appreciate his delicate insight and wit when I formed my opinions about him. But the main reason is probably because he's such a forgettable personality. He is a white male. Like most men of his generation, he served in the army during World War II. He doesn't use strange punctuation marks or filthy language. I know almost nothing about his personal life, but, as far as I know, he has never considered suicide, he has never been in rehab, he has never gone mad, and he has never been arrested. All he has done is produce beautiful and important poems, virtually non-stop for more than 60 years. In an age in which we are flooded with public personalities that demand to be noticed, that is disappointingly easy to overlook.

Collected Poems, 1943-2004 is probably as close as we're going to get to Mr. Wilbur demanding to be noticed. And if you are the type who enjoys simple pleasures and metrical poise, then you really should notice him as he appears on these pages. Everything Mr. Wilbur wrote through 2004 is included here, including previously unpublished recent poems, song lyrics, children's poems, and the great poet's well-known published works. There is no need to own any other book of Mr. Wilbur's poetry if you buy this.

I'm not enough of a fool to try to use my own words to describe Mr. Wilbur's. Instead, I'll end with the final verse of Seed Leaves, one of my favorite poems in the book:

Forced to make choice of ends,
The stalk in time unbends,
Shakes off the seed-case, heaves
Aloft, and spreads two leaves
Which display no sure
And special signature.

Indeed.

Wilbur's collected poems would be in every American home if poetry was taught better. He is the most technically proficient poet in American literary history. In matters of rhythm, meter, rhyme, shape and form, he is a sculptor, a magician.

Check out these tercets from "First Snow in Alsace," remembering that Wilbur saw pretty much three years of straight combat in World War Two:

The snow came down last night like moths
Burned on the moon; it fell till dawn,
Covered the town with simple cloths.

Absolute snow lies rumpled on
What shellbursts scattered and deranged,
Entangled railings, crevassed lawn.

You think: beyond the town a mile
Or two, this snowfall fills the eyes
Of soldiers dead a little while.

Collected Poems 1943-2004 is an anthology of poetry by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Richard Wilbur, who has previously served as poet laureate of the United States. The compendium features works in a variety of formats, meters, and rhyme schemes, with themes ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary. A superb cross-sampling of the best of Wilbur's work, Collected Poems 1943-2004 is a treasury recommended for both libraries and private poetry shelves, and is certain not to disappoint true poetry lovers. "On Having Mis-Identified a Wild Flower": A thrush, because I'd been wrong, / Burst rightly into song / In a world not vague, not lonely, / Not governed by me only.

This collection of the poems of Richard Wilbur is in several ways a gem. Not only does it contain the bulk of the works of Wilbur, who is one of the very few major poets of our era, it is also that rarity in today's publishing industry; that is, a beautiful book, well printed on good quality paper in a most readable typeface, and elegantly bound. Wilbur's work is notable for his affinity with the poetry of Europe and elsewhere. His translations from the French, in particular, are all of a high standard. Wilbur is not afraid to write verse which has rhyme, rhythm, and elegance. This is a book to be treasured.

I am a psychologist who works in a college counseling center, and I wish that I could make this book required reading for the parents of every new student entering college. Main author Richard Kadison--Chief of the Mental Health Service at Harvard University Health Services--does an excellent job of outlining the many issues which college students face and the ways in which these issues are potentially hazardous to every student's mental health. He also provides extremely useful suggestions for what parents can do to help their college student as well as practical tips for the college students themselves. The only sections of the book which I found to be less effective were the chapter and appendix which focused on what colleges should be doing to address the mental health crisis on campus; this information seemed out of place in a book largely intended for parents. However, the remaining two appendices were more relevant, providing a summary of data from the 2002 American College Health Association Survey results as well as an overview of common medications used to treat psychological conditions. Overall, this a well-done, tremendously valuable book; highly recommended.

With my fourth college freshman ensconced in college, I am sorry that I didn't have this book for reference with my other three children. Each student is different with different needs, stress indicators, and mechanisims for coping with college. This book clearly illustrates the number of ways kids react to college...both positive and negative. No one goes to college today without some form of stress either academically, socially, or emotionally. With the help of this book, college students and their parents have a chance at predicting the challenges and setting out a plan that is specific to preventing serious mental health issues from being so overwhelming. This is a great guide for coping and surviving these stressful years and perhaps leading to happiness and success.

My daughter is in her first year of college and experiencing some anxiety. I bought this book on advice from a friend, and found it invaluable. It's easy to read, very informed and informative. Dr. Kadison seems to have a special sensitivity for students. You sense that he really cares and therefore you really want to listen.

This book is very timely, and is of importance. There is a crisis out there, and parents and students need to recognize the problems of being depressed, and that there is something that can and should be done to cope with these disorders. The book is very well written, and easy to read. I feel this book should be read by every parent and every student so they can recognize the signs of depression, and get the help they need. It is a wake-up call, and a real contribtion to mental health. Dr.ERK

by don dallas, ddallas10@yahoo.com


"Parents, your job is not over yet, " declared a flier given me at an orientation session for parents of freshmen. The flier warned me that the first eight weeks on campus will be "stressful". It also urged me to talk to my son about alcohol abuse on campus. Until then that college and all others presented themselves as blissful environments of intellectual and human growth. This was the first time it was suggested that college was stressful.

The stress, it turns out, often is longer and deeper. The most authoritative source on campus stress, College of the Overwhelmed, The Mental Health Crisis on Campus and What to Do About it, was published in October, 2004, by Richard Kadison, M. D., a psychiatrist who is chief of Mental Health Services at Harvard University, and Theresa Foy DeGeronimo, a writer specializing in parenting and education. Contrary to the impression many parents have had that it is time to leave the kids on their own, the book urges parents to be aware, informed, and watchful. Parents are the "best hope" , Dr. Kadison and Ms. DeGeronimo say. They must engage their college sons and daughters in open, adult-adult (yet non-intrusive) communications not just for eight weeks, but for all four or more of the college years. The book even advises parents to have a "crisis plan" ready in case their college-based children need emergency help. "It's ironic that just when you feel you are setting your children free they often need your support and attention more than ever before." One out of every two students becomes so depressed they cannot function at some point during their college career, it says. One out of two become binge drinkers. Student mental health challenges too often go uncared for: students suffer silently as their already-besieged emotional health erodes further. Almost 10 percent of college students consider suicide. "Parents should also help their children choose a college that is not woefully deficient in the area of ...campus mental health. How can parents tell? The book offers checklists of symptoms to look for and questions for parents to ask campus staff and administrators. The book aims to "open a dialogue, get us talking, and suggest ways we all can face these facts and do something..." It is a seminal work, a goldmine of research, insights and advice. "Listen, Listen, Listen," the authors shout to parents. The mental health crisis on campus is the "elephant in the room nobody is talking about."