Penn State Books

Great book but I don't like the way it is organized. Too much flipping from one section to the next.

PROS:
- Succint and clear notes on grammar. Indeed the book is useful long after you have completed the exercises as the explanations are excellent for future reference.
- Plenty of exercises (30 chapters - 3 to 5 sets of exercises per chapter. Each set has between 5 and 10 questions)
- Balanced treatment of Croatian and Serbian standards. The dialogues are presented in both versions and differing tendencies in usage by Croats and Serbs are noted in the grammatical notes and vocabulary lists where applicable. All of these still show that the similarities between the speech of educated Croats and Serbs still outweigh the differences.
- Interesting but dated notes on culture (useful as a way of comparing the situation in the 1970s and 1980s with that of 2007)
- Tapes are available for the dialogues (may need to do a little searching through Audio-Forum in order to find them)

CONS:
- A little dry and dialogues in certain parts may seem a bit stilted.
- Some of my friends in Croatia have pointed out that a few of the words presented as Croatian in the book are instead Serbian (is this a political judgement by them, perhaps?).
- No answer key to the exercises thus you'll need a native speaker to correct your answers to the exercises and get feedback on your progress.

When used in conjunction with a native speaker of Croatian or Serbian and comparable courses such as "Teach Yourself Croatian" or "Teach Yourself Serbian", Magner's course is an excellent resource for learning Croatian or Serbian and I highly recommend it if you will use it in this way.

This book is not at all useful if you are trying to teach yourself the language; it may be useful in a classroom or as a reference. It is not organized for the person who is trying to learn conversational Croatian or Serbian. The dialogues are not immediately applicable to travel situations, and the audio cassettes are terrible; speakers speak at full speed and leave no time for the listener to try to repeat the phrases. The stilted dialogues are reminiscent of the old Chinese government texts for learning Mandarin.

As a sole text for either 'teach yourself' or classroom use, this book is not a good choice. It has far too many flaws. However, as an additional reference, it has some excellent points.
Bad stuff: The dialogues are utterly ludicrous. People just don't talk like that!
While the first few lessons provide a glossary of new words right in the lesson, after about lesson 5 you have to go to the back of the book and look up every new word in the dictionary.
Little grammar is explained in the lessons themselves; you have to, again, go to the back of the book and read the separate grammar section.
Despite the 1995 publication date, the book hasn't actually been updated in decades. Many of the words are out of date, and the country is still referred to as "Yugoslavia."

Good Stuff: An extremely complete dictionary in the back.

Separate columns in each chapter give the Serbian and Croatian varients of each dialogue. (In the first few lessons the Serbian is in latin lettering, for the rest it's in cyrillic.)
The exercises are decent.
The jokes and songs in each lesson are cute, and following the final lesson there is a section with excerpts from real (if rather dated) Croatian and Serbian books and articles.

The grammar summary at the back of the book is EXCELLENT. (The book is worth it for this alone.) While it would probably be confusing for a beginner, if the reader has some basic grasp of grammar, the book provides clear but detailed explanations of all the major aspects of Croatian/Serbian grammar. Noun declensions, verbal aspects, prepositions, verb conjugation in all the tenses, and more are covered very clearly, with numerous examples and tables.

In summary, excellent as a grammar reference and dictionary. Less than satisfactory as a textbook.

In preparation for a visit to Serbia, I have been learning Serbian. The first book I purchased did such a terrible job of distinguishing Serbian from Croatian, that I felt I needed a text which made the distinctions more transparent. Magner's book has some flaws, but at the very least, he clearly indicates where Serbian varies from Croatian, and he provides very direct parrallel texts to illustrate the differences. Magner's failure is in the grammar which is separated from the narrative text and quite dense. I have studied many languages, and even so, sometimes find the style and presentation of the grammar lacking clarity. In his defense, Magner did not intend this book for the casual tourist/learner and I imagine that with a teacher the combination of excellent original source texts, grammar and glossary would be unsurpassed. A very good book for the serious student, but tourists should look elsewhere.

This text was required for my university Trig class. Other reviewers have argued that math text books are only supplemental to the material covered in class - that it's the teacher that makes the difference. If that's the case, without a good teacher, this book is nearly useless. Whether the authors are covering fundamentals or advanced concepts/calculations, most everything gets a very cursory, succinct treatment. Should you not understand something covered in class, this text likely will not help to clarify. If you are at all unfamiliar with Trigonometry (as I was going in to this class), this text is not intended to enhance your understanding.

This book really lacks proper theory and instruction. The book focuses more on giving you problems than it does trying to explain the principle and aspect covered in Trigonometry. If you are are looking for a book that can help you out by giving you work(math problems), this is it. Otherwise, stay clear of this book, find a book that has more instructions, more theories, simply more.

I first learned trigonometry 26 years ago, and am currently a tutor in a Tutoring Center where math and English are the primary calls for our assistance. We started using this book on Trigonometry by Lial, Hornsby and Schneider last year, and it has been a real aid to all of us.

The chapters are designed with brief overviews, 'Chapter Openers', at the beginning of each. There are sample exercises in the explanations, as well as exercises in the problem sets keyed to specific application of examples. There are summary exercises that give review of mixed concepts, pull-quote boxes (here called 'Function Boxes') to highlight the reference aspect of the text, and useful chapter reviews to the same.

One thing that stands out about this text from the one I used so many years ago is the colour aspect. There are pictures, multi-coloured graphs and illustrations, and a general feel to the book that makes it visually worthwhile to look at. This book also takes advantage of the increasing sophistication of calculators - again, back when I took trigonometry, there were tables of data in the back for looking things up, since calculators (such as they were) had only add/subtract/multiply/divide functions.

The chapters go in a fairly standard pattern for trigonometry. Chaptes progress from basic Trigonometric Functions, defining triangular and angular ideas. This continues more in depth with Acute Angles and Right Angles, then proceeds to Circular Functions, introducing Radian Measures in for good measure. The fourth chapter introduces graphing ideas for the circular functions (sine, cosine, etc.), while the sixth chapter introduces the idea of the inverse circular and trigonometric functions. Other chapters include trigonometric identities (this always seemed to me to be like geometry or logic using trig functions), vectors, complex numbers, polar equations, exponential and logarithmic functions. Many of these concepts have direct application in engineering and other sciences.

This book is also geared for students who will be advancing on to calculus, and gives marginal notes on how trigonometry is used in calculus (so as to pre-empt the question, 'when am I ever going to use this?').

Actually, I found trigonometry to be among the more enjoyable math courses I ever took; together with geometry, it confirmed an early love of the discovery of patterns and symmetry in the very fabric of existence. This book reminds me of those early days of exploring ideas, and it is a pleasure to share these same ideas with new students via this text.

This trig book I used in college in Spring 2005 was GREAT. When I'm stuck with difficult math problems, I looked at the examples in the book and then i got it figured it out and got right answers. This book made homework easier for me. The examples are very clear. This book was so much better than other book (I dont remember the title of the book and name of publisher and author's name) I used in high school trigonometry. The high school trig book was terrible and confusing and caused me to fail the class. Great job, Lial because this book made me to aced the trig final and pass the class with a B in college!

I used this book in a semester trigonometry course (covering Chapters 1 through 8), and the book was not the best. First of all, some lessons contained too much information and some too little. In addition, although the exercises are worthwhile, their difficulty levels differ from question to question, so there is no gradual increase in skill and difficulty. The book only provided good explanations on a couple of topics (for example, inverse trig. functions). All in all, the book is "okay"; if you have a good instructor, you'll still learn trigonometry.

I loved this book. By telling her story so intricately, Nabrit, provides the foundation for all of us who are choosing to educate our children at home. I appreciate her transparency and vulnerability in the book. She made some mistakes (along with her husband) and we can all learn from them. She also shares some brilliant ideas. This book does have a Christian theme in part because they are a Christian family. Another reviewer said it was more about race, than homeschooling. If you are homeschooling an African American child/teenager, rest assured this book IS about race and YOU WILL BE GLAD FOR IT. When you buy this book, you will read it for information and keep it for inspiration.

Paula Penn-Nabrit chose homeschooling for her three black boys when they were pushed out of an elite midwestern private school. She and her husband, C. Madison, managed to put together an effective homeschooling program that supported their Christian, upper-middle class black values and helped her children reach elite education. For educators seeking radical solutions to addressing the challenges facing black students, this book offers a powerful testimony of one family's strategies in finding an alternative path.

For those readers looking for nuts and bolts information, I'd advise you to look elsewhere. Much of this book is spent clarifying the values and motivations for their choices. Little space is devoted to explaining curriculum choices. I can see how other reviewers were frustrated by the relative lack of specific details. I wish that the title didn't include "how" and focused on "why" or had some kind of cue to alert prospective buyers to how radical this book is.

Sadly, one audience who would really benefit from this book will probably never find it. This family is related to one of the lawyers who argued the Brown vs. Board of Education case. They have ties to elite networks in black America and both parents are Ivy League educated as well, which may have eased the process in gaining acceptance to Princeton and Amherst for the boys. Nabrit's painstaking defense of her decisions and her reflections on the attitudes she faced can be very helpful for those seeking to understand black elites and the tensions between trying to gain access to the upper echelons of American society such as private schools and Ivy League schools while trying to maintain an identity that is very distinctively black.

Some readers may be turned off by the frequent quoting of scripture to defend the values. Others may find this story to be too particular a case to apply to their own homeschooling situations. Personally, I was very intrigued by the chance to peer into the home of a black family that defied many traditional categories and found a very creative response to the challenges of education.

I'm not about to homeschool my future family after reading this book. But I do plan to apply some of Nabrit's holistic values for educating black males to my own work. Already, I see myself wanting to use some of the values in this book for supplemental educational projects related to black male middle schoolers.

Very helpful for a narrow audience...
4.5 stars for me
2.5 stars for being somewhat mislabeled
3.5 stars overall.

The Nabrits did an exceptional job of homeschooling their 3 sons, but I never finished the book. The rhetoric of racism and the Nabrit's "Ivy league status" was like a recurring theme on every page that took away from the purpose of the book. Was this a biography or a homeschooling book??? I came away with 2 things....all white people are bad, and she is (self-described) smart. I felt like it was her outlet to tell her story of mistreatment, and not a practical homeschooling book. I have moved on to practical, helpful, not negative, homeschooling resources.

I am grateful to Paula Penn-Nabrit for having written this illuminating book. It is beyond my criticism. Perhaps the greatest treasure it offers is its revelation of how racism is still being played out by well-meaning white people. (You would have to read it to "get" it, especially if you are a standard white person like I am.) I also love that the Nabrits devised their own curriculum: so creative and applaudable! In fact, Paula is so personable you will appreciate her as a woman, despite the flaws that she confesses. You will also know she is no less a genius for not graduating all 3 sons from Ivy League Schools. I think those sons must be fantastic people and the Nabrits have done us all a favor by sending out into the world children of such extraordinary character. I would hope everyone reads this book, whether they choose to homeschool or not- it presents such a superlative example of what you can do for your children. Thank you, Paula.

First, let me say I totally commend the Nabrits for their inspiring accomplishment with their sons and also for their desire to share their experience with the African American community and the homeschool community. But the book wasn't the 'homeschooling resource' that I expected it to be. Ms. Penn-Nabrit's experience of racism were shocking and disappointing to this white woman who 'thought' America had moved further beyond racism than, apparently, we have. I found the book enlightening on that score, but after a while (& could this be my own defense-mechanism?) I started to feel like some of the racism she finds might be a part of self-fulfilling prophecy. If you look hard enough, you will always find it. I am not doubting her first-hand experiences, but perhaps don't fully agree with some of her choices as to what to focus on.
Penn-Nabrit does offer useful suggestions such as using graduate students as tutors, and finding other strong mentors for your children. I also like how she used 'reverse-engineering' basically, to use college admission requirements to help design a course of study. I just wanted to hear more of THAT sort of info. I wasn't crazy about the organization of the book, and felt I had to sort through lots of personal data: which son had which birth weight or liked which sports, as well as the racism experiences in order to get to the bits that were fresh and applicable.
I totally support homeschooling, and would love to see more of it. I agree that African American homes have been under-reached on this topic. This book may well motivate someone TO homeschool, but you'll then want to move to other resources as to the HOW TO homeschool.

David Roochnik, a former student of Stanley Rosen, provides a clear and persuasive analysis of the use and meaning of techne in Plato. As well, he devotes a chapter to the pre-Platonic inception and transformation of the term. His thesis, even 7 years later, is quite radical as it challenges much of the predominant and conventional ways of understanding Plato as a philosopher seeking a science of moral knowledge. He engages with such promiment scholars as Marthat Nussbaum and T. Irwin. Roochnik's book is a significant contribution to the recent attempt to re-appreciate a philosopher so often seen to be a footnote to modern thinking. Finally, anyone interested in the question of technology will find this study worthwhile and very illuminating of the difference between its ancient form and the current understanding.

Roochnik's 20 years of study has revealed a clear but shallow book on Plato; he forges his "techne" glasses on everything he touches leaving the reader with no clear understanding of what Socratic wisdom consists of. His Plato becomes boring and uninsightful. Readers should skip this book and go directly to Strauss or Bloom for a clear and meaningful understanding of PLatonic wisdom.

If Roochnik's thesis is correct, great injustice has been done to Plato. You would think, after 2,500 years we would have this right, but, unfortunately Roochnik thinks we are teaching Plato all wrong. Roochnik does battle with a thing he calls the SAT (standard application of techne) which is a scholarly consensus that Plato had an art (techne) of virtue and it was teachable. The problem with this thesis is, as Dr. Roochnik points out, that it makes Plato a Sophist and not a philosopher. This is a welcome exercise in philosophical and interpretive hubris. It has a quality that Kierkegaard called angst, a sympathetic antipathy. One can imagine scholars attracted to the book for it's lively and fascinating discussion of pre-socratic techne, at the same time, put off by the thesis that everyday the world over paid professional academics are misrepresenting the thought of one of the foundational figures of western culture. Can you not imagine such a one holding his nose as he footnotes a reference? It is to laugh!

Topics were covered very well and this book will help me a lot with future classes.

I felt that was too much to pay for a book that did not have a cover. I was really disapointed, but I guess it beats paying the full price.

The book is a decent additional resource to Urioste's "Red Book" (see also her 2003 26 trad routes addendum). Combined w/ the Red Rocks' SuperTopos the three will almost give you one good guidebook's worth of beta.

It IS your Red Rocks' "Bible" if you are a sport climber.

I do not believe this book can even be considered a guide book. No topos for certain areas. Poor descriptions. I went to Red Rocks with this book and it only got me to where I needed to park. I used the kindness of locals to get me to where I needed to go. Don't waste your time on this book. It's a pile.

I consider Swain's guide book to be a work in progress. I hear that the 3rd edition is out and that it is improved. You have to remember that Swain is tall and likes to sandbag, so if he downgrades your best onsight, don't let it get to you. Sure, he messes up some pitch lengths, pitch grades and approaches but I believe he's trying to do his honest best to write a quality guide. He's no Greg Opland, but maybe he can learn.

The book is very good overall. However the author should have spent a lot more time editing it before printing. The book has numerous contradictions as far as the rating system goes. One climb might be listed as a trad climb only and then in the index that same climb is listed as a sport climb. The index's section on the 5.10a climbs is completely screwed up! About 85% of these climbs are listed as a sport climb but then when you flip to that page they are listed as strictly trad climbs. It's very frustrating sometimes. The book has a lot of very helpful information and as of 1999 it was by far the best available. Hopefully the author will fix all of these problems in the next printing that has been rumored to be release for about 2 years and going.

I've been living and climbing at Red Rocks for two years now. Swain's guide book publicizes a number of new routes that are not in the previous guide; however, not all descriptions are adequate, and a few are even dangerous (such as fixed anchors indicated in the book where there are none in reality). You may also tire of the author's rather feeble attempts at humour! Having said this, I do use the guide alot, and when coupled with the older Urioste guide it serves its purpose. I am saddened however, by Swain's decision to not include a relatively large number of very good routes that were in the old guide-- thereby effectively 'erasing' good routes from the public memory. This amounts to a kind of bizarre censorship, as many of the routes he has left out are quite good and worth preserving. I, and many others, hope for a more enlightened guide book in the future; meanwhile, however, Swain's guide will suffice for most occasional visitors.

Dr. Eby balances the human tradegy with detailed historical facts to produce a very readable account of the fate of Hungary during and immediately proceeding WWII. Alot of the book is written in narrative form - detailed accounts of soldiers and civilians personal experiences. Some of the material is tough to read, not due to the writing, rather the brutal nature of subject.

Historians who are familiar with the period, may find a lot of repetition of the historical facts. This is due to the use of narratives - each story stands alone, the reader does not have to refer back to previous chapters.

Dr. Eby is also to be commended for his balance and objectivity. He covers a cast of characters with a very even hand.

The book is overpriced, the author is misinformed about many facts,and repeating himself throughout...unfortunately it is a very poorly written, mostly fictionus work. I do not recommend it to anyone, who is really interested in this period.
I gave it one star!!

As with all the other Antique Trader (AT) reference guides I've used, this one is a good, basic primer for the subject. Unfortunately, as with all AT guides, the lack of an index makes it tedious to search for specific items. It also tends, like all the other general AT guides, to attempt to include too many categories at the expense of including an adequate sample of items within each category. However, if this book happens to have just the item you're looking for, the photos and descriptions are well-done and the prices are reasonably accurate. Basically, it's a good general guide for someone who is attempting to gauge the general value of advertising items, but don't buy it with the express hope of finding a specific item.

As a lifelong resident of Pennsylvania with a great interest in the state's history and geography, I was hoping that this book would provide general knowledge of the little-known stories of Pennsylvania Indians. The big questions are, who were they and where did they all go? I did not find any useful answers to those basic questions. The book is merely a collection of dissertations by intellectually detached graduate students and professors writing in theoretical abstractions, in order to move a little higher up the academic ladder. So instead of enlightening history that can be enjoyed by the informed and interested layperson, we have analyses of historical "texts" (consider this term very carefully) used for exercises in obtuse postmodern theorizing, written in the usual dry and stilted language of academia. This is evident in the use of fatuous terms like "patriarchy," "gender construction" or "discursive antecedents." In fact, the book's laborious subtitle should have alerted me to what I was getting myself into.

The only consistently strong essay here is by Krista Camenzind, who finds connections between the social disruptions caused by the Seven Years' (French & Indian) War and the ruthless massacres of Indians by the Paxton Boys in 1763. Meanwhile, William A. Starna's look at the Iroquois diplomat Canasatego is an intriguing vignette of lost history. But otherwise, these essays sacrifice any and all insight into larger history and race relations, through an academic focus on very specific historical "texts," while assuming that the reader is already familiar with specific episodes and personages. This does a grave disservice to the interested layperson. The editors do even more damage to readability by chopping up the essays to the point where they begin abruptly with no larger historical backgrounds, and end abruptly with no big-picture conclusions. To enjoy most of this book, you would have to be each writer's academic advisor who is concerned about didactic research methods rather than learning and enlightenment. The rest of us will be better served by rootsy local writers and historians whose books can be found at local bookstores and tourist sites. [~doomsdayer520~]

The book was very academic. It did not tell history as I. Garland Penn saw it. Eventhough I found the book to be very informative and important African American history book I wish the authours had written some more things about Penn's personal life, his family and descendants.