Spencer Books

If you work in higher education and are thinking of planning any studies abroad, you will need this book as your guide. The book is very well planned and contains tons of information. The guide is very practical and much of the information will be new to you. A wise investment, buy it before you plan your trip(s) abroad.

When I read "Hair In the Air" aloud to my third-grade class for the first time, we were all laughing so hard I could barely read! I passed it around to some of my co-workers to read to their classes, and everyone agreed it was one of the funniest things we had ever read.

You know why nobody has ever reviewed this book on Amazon? Because shoppers interested in a gigantic collection of academic papers on morphological theory are already AWARE of what it is, and don't need to be told about it. And anyone else will never, in fact, look at this review. So it's entirely a bizarre anachronism - a review that nobody will read, that has nothing useful to say.

This is, of course, a wonderful compilation of papers on morphology. It's chocked full of data (and yes, Mr. Zwicky, I'm consciously using 'chocked'), and tons of careful analysis. Most of the papers are theory-neutral, or nearly theory-neutral, and thus it is actually a nice general reference piece, since it won't become outdated. I think this was the general goal that the editors were shooting for, and they met it fabulously. When I want to know how different languages do something, for example Noun Incorporation, I can open up this book and have piles of lovely examples with intelligent commentary. Morphology being the mess that it is, there's not as much really clear organization as I'd like (lots of "Some languages do this, but others kind of do that, and then there's this thing - that we don't know WHAT...to do with") - but that's more to do with the state of morphology than the state of this book. The syntax, phonology, and semantics books in this series are all beautifully organized, and, paradoxically, much more apt to go out of date.

But you probably already know this. If you didn't, you wouldn't be looking at this book - you'd be off digging up a used copy of "M is for Mush-For-Brains" by Sue Grafton-Higgins Clark. And then you wouldn't have any clue what I'm talking about, and probably too busy being led astray by William Safire or Richard Lederer to bother trying to find out.

This is only one book in the series - it is a behemoth, though, so get a cupcake for the mailman when he delivers it to you.

This book recounts the history of Charles Broadwater, businessman and visionary, who dedicated his life to making Helena, Montana a thriving city. In doing so, he committed his wealth to the development of Montana's frieghting industry, the rise of Helena as the state's financial center, and ultimately the construction of Montana's grand resort--the Broadwater Hotel and Natatorium. The Broadwater Hotel and Natatorium (indoor hot spring spa) stood as a symbol of Helena's wealth, and Montana's progressiveness. Masterfully constructed and elegantly furnished, the Hotel existed in a time when people took the time to enjoy life. Sadly, the Hotel and Natatorium could not withstand the challenages of time and nature. Few physical reminants remain of the Hotel, but the structure's rich history is brought to life in this wonderful book. Filled with beautiful images of the Hotel, Natatorium, and Helena, this book is a treasure for anyone who loves history.

I really wanted to give this book a bad review. Bowersock has some truly screwy ideas about Late Antiquity (see below). But I just had to give this book five stars for three reasons: (1) Bowersock is an excellent writer, (2) he knows his stuff, (3) he writes about things that, at least to me, are fascinating and important.

This book covers that period of history called "Late Antiquity". This is a euphamism for the time when the Roman Empire simultaneously became Christian and fell apart. Of course only the western part of the empire completely fell apart as soon as it became Christian - while the eastern part (which is what Bowersock is primarily interested in) simply entered into a prolonged irreversible decline.

The book begins with a look at John of Ephesus - a mid 6th century Christian missionary in western Anatolia who was horrified to find 1500 (by his estimate) active Pagan places of worship. To make things even worse, these Temples and shrines all sent representatives to study and "receive the law" at a central main Temple. Like this story, much of the book has a "regional" focus, and Bowersock's main thesis is that "Hellenistic" culture had made itself right at home throughout large parts of "the east" - and that this Hellenism never really replaced the local cultures so much as it became the language through which various local cultures not only expressed themselves, but were able to communicate with each other.

Bowersock is explicitly, and illogically, opposed to the idea that Late Antiquity was characterized by a struggle between Paganism and Christianity. He even goes so far as to promote one of his pet theories (to which he has devoted a whole other book) that Julian's desire to revive Paganism was both ill-conceived and completely at odds with "real" Paganism. Julian, according to Bowersock, was never really a Pagan, but rather a misguided Christian who just tried to create a completely new kind of Paganism that was really nothing but a mirror image of fundamentalist Christianity. In other words Julian was some kind of Late Antique Satanist! Despite Bowersocks loopy ideas about Paganism, this is nevertheless a wonderful little book that provides a wealth of information about some of the ways in which Paganism persisted even as Christianity "triumphed".

I would recommend this curriculum to any counselor looking to run a Family Change or Divorce Group- it is absolutely great. Comprehensive in background information, statistics, and step by step group lessons. It is making the Divorce Groups I run in a middle school very productive.

This is an excellent textbook for those going into the counseling ministry. I not only enjoyed the book but gleaned alot of helpful information.

Finally!!! A workbook that actually helps! The workbook really helps you develop a story with full body! This book will help you narrow in on the nitty gritty part of editing and story boarding. I'd also recommend the book and cd set with Laura Lee.

Excellent book with top notch photos and location of photos listed. Highly recommend this book to any current or past resident of Omaha or person intestested in Omaha history.

Rather than a collection of historically important papers, this is a collection of papers ABOUT the history of physics (spread over the history of Physics Today). I was confused at first, but I'm not disappointed in the book. This book has a large-format with plenty of room for photographs, charts and even newspaper clippings. It's approx 8" x 11" with 373 densely packed pages of three-color ink printing. The third ink is a septia tone added to all the photographs and article titles and charts for distinction. There are so many individual articles organized by chapters, it's impossible to list them all. All the articles are reprints from Physics Today (they seem to be exact photocopies of the pages because sometimes you can see the bleed-through in the photographs and the bleed through isn't from this book, but from the original magazine). Needless to say with such a pedigree, the articles don't pull punches and will serve any serious student well. It includes a section called "Personal Accounts" with, well, personal accounts by Einstein on Einstein, Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck.