Open Books

I've spent a great amount of time playing courses in both states since my father introduced me to the sport 24 years ago. What a like most about this book is that it gets right into the hard facts of each course with a concise and easily digestable graphic design. This book has saved me countless hours of displeasure...the type that often comes into fruition when playing a course site unseen. At least with this guide you get to know the course well ahead of your next adventure. Jimmy Shacky did a brilliant job with this book

Bestselling travel author Laurie Bain Wilson tempts families everywhere with delicious fun in her newest book. New York City with Kids is a treat from the word go. Wilson has road-tested all of the Big Apple sites with her son Alex, and offers an encyclopedic - and easy-to-read - guide to family-friendly hotels (even those that welcome Fido), restaurants, sights and activities in all of New York's boroughs. For example, Alex, a hot-fudge-sundae connoisseur, raves about Dylan's Candy Bar (p. 96). On a budget? Wilson lists museums with a "pay as you wish" policy (p. 58), so you can enjoy all of the bling without the ka-ching. She recommends the United Nations Gift Shop for terrific souvenirs (p.89) and the New York Gotham Baseball Club for reenactments of games as they were played in 1864 (p. 102). Filled with insider tips, perfect picks for the pint-sized, and great ideas galore, New York City with Kids is a home run!

My professor gave me this book in my graduate cultural studies class. I am very grateful for his choice. I enjoyed reading the book very much, from beginning to the end.

Allan tells you about the birth of the 'news industry', talks about the making and cultural politics of the news discourse, explains you how audience receive it, and discusses such very actual topics as gendered realities of journalism, and the racism in the news.

Even if you are critical concerning the news, after Allan's book you'll never watch news the same way as before. You'll start to think about things like 'why did they pictured this event this way?' or 'how do I interpret it?' or 'what can be the reality?'.

I recommend the book to everyone who is interested in cultural studies, and would like to know more about something we watch and read day by day - the news...

This set of articles, originally written for magazines and catlalogues, is one of the most eloquent collections of mountain writing I've yet come upon. The book is divided up into chapters such as 'Climbing with Style', which features articles about "the whole art of natural protection" written at the the start of the clean climbing revolution, and 'Further Aborad' which includes the authors account of a climb on Ama Dablam.

One of the features I most enoyed about the book was the introductions to various historical figures such as Smoke Blanchard and Royal Robbins. And the memoir style accounts of what it was like for a small band of climbers to live in the mountains away from civilization getting their kicks out of the "simple joys" and living in bare subsistence, long before climbing turned into the popular sport which it might be called today.

Doug Robinson is well qualified to write what he does, and his style is nice and clear without being base. Most of it is written in an autobiographical style, dealing with developments on the climbing and skiing scene for wenty odd years. If you are partial to a bit of Dharma Bums then get this book. Also anyone interested in the history of the Sierra Nevada.

My 20 month old really enjoyed this book. We borrowed it from our local library, the pictures are beautiful, and my son loves them! very cute book!

These easy open books are great -- the page sizes are staggered so that parents AND children can open them easier. We have both the numbers and the colors books; my eight-month-old son is fascinated with the vibrant photographs of animals on each page. It would be a little helpful to have the animal names listed somewhere...One penguin, two giraffes, three zebras, four owls, five ladybugs, six swans, seven meerkats?, eight frogs, nine goldfish, ten deer, many penguins!

James Webb provides a fine look into the world of the irrational in this book. The book includes everything from Nazis and the occult, to Jungian psychiatry, to the counterculture of the Sixties. Wherever man exists, there will be a need to imagine a better world, and it is this ability of imagination that allows him to construct the occult fantasy. In this book Webb traces these circles as they have developed throughout history.

I found the book to be very resourceful. Having many useful references that would otherwise be left unidentified. Explores the do's and dont's. Very helpful.

The memorable poetry of Pat Andrus as gathered together within the pages of Old Woman Of Irish Blood reflect her remarkable talent, her experiences of family, and her Irish-Catholic cultural traditions. The lyrical cadences and word imagery resonate within the mind, imagination, and heart of the reader. And if December: And if December/pulls us through, we'll/beat the frozen lakes naked/humming in the night's blackness/while invisible bugles sound/yet another birthday/hopeful/that life dances/free/and smiling.

Walter, an English sociologist and faculty member at the University of Reading, attempts to capture two main themes concerning the current trend in modern expression of grief. He uses the cultural contexts of the United States and Great Britain and mostly from white citizens of those countries to express a decidedly culturally distinct method of grief. By writing in two major book sections, he attempts to demonstrate that the culture of grief centers on an individual's need to integrate the dead while societies need centers on the need to regulate the grieving process. Walter demonstrates these themes through the use of qualitative transcriptions from earlier research. While some may think this a cheap trick appealing only to sentiment and sensitivity, from a literary point of view it is exemplar of the issues to be discussed.

Walter divides many of the current concepts into a dichotomous position that exist for the bereaved. In the first half of the book, he concerns himself with concept of integration of the dead from the bereaved person's point of view. In this section he aptly demonstrates the often-contradictory positions of the bereft person's need to leave the dead behind while still maintaining or even continuing to develop a relationship with the deceased. The author makes a distinction between these two issues by illustrating how as an individual we often have the need to maintain the relationship with the dead through story telling especially to others, remembering or recalling an iconic representation of the deceased, and even talking with the dead. Conversely, society tends to need to leave the individual behind yet immortalizes groups as with the death of large numbers of persons through tragedy. Walter shows how the individual can sometimes be seen as pathologic for their desire to maintain this relationship. At the same time, society encourages a continuing relationship with wartime losses if only out of a need to maintain some sense of history and to create the ongoing lineage of ancestors.

Another position expressed as opposites comes from the societal need to regulate grief especially as it relates to outward or public expressions of that grief. Society often allows for the initial shock response or tears and depression but often encourages the individual to get on with their lives. This often comes in the form of group distraction or encouragement to the widow/widower to remarry or begin to see others again. A contradictory point can be seen here in that there tends to be societal endorsement of the individual to work through his or her grief in approved and sanctioned manners such as grief counseling or support groups. Polar opposites tend to be replete within the culture of grief as the individual expresses private concern and society expresses a desire to regulate the bereavement process.

Walter creates a context for many of the concepts found in the book. For instance, he traces the transition of society's expectations that in a different time, a person was required to wear appropriate clothing to demonstrate appropriate grieving. In more contemporary times, the major focus or concern has moved on to the deceased and the appropriate ritual for burial and even casket selection to demonstrate adequate mourning. This movement from focus on the individual to focus on the body/deceased is shown with intriguing and often quirky snippets of personal correspondence, obituaries, and tomb stone sentiments. This not only makes for interesting reading, but illustrates the point in a manner that could not be grasped otherwise without such illustrations.

No examination of death, dying, and loss would be complete without discussion of the importance of religion in the cultural context of bereavement. Walter traces the historical and often the limit of time-bound aspects of Catholicism, Judaism, and Protestantism as the predominate Judeo-Christian influence upon this most private and yet public event. The author posits that the temporal nature of the state of the religion had a direct influence upon how both individuals grieved as well as how society sought to regulate its members' activities related to bereavement. As contrary or contrasting cases, Walter includes some discussion about such disparate religious cultures as the Hopi Indians and Puritanism on the culture of grief. Additional historically contextual examples or illustrations throughout the reading include the use of Diana Princess of Wales and President John F. Kennedy as case studies for how both individuals and society respond to death of famous figures.

One last significant point is that of gender issues or differences in how grief and bereavement take place. This gender orientation can be seen to prescribe for individuals and society as to what expectations are inherent with any particular chromosomal assignment. Walter also discusses the historical change in how men and women were both once allowed and encouraged in openly grieving and even shedding tears. It was through the emergence of the macho or Marlboro Man influences of among others, the post World War II influences that changed the societal expectation of men and women as it relates to grief behavior. Many local cultures continue to expect that women will perform the grieving for men as it has become unallowable for men to openly express their feelings about the dead.

Bereavement care and theories about bereavement round out the discussion. Walter does not try to proscribe any particular theory or method for bereavement. Instead, he attempts to illustrate the current thoughts about what society and the individual feel are appropriate systematic ways to deal with bereavement and grief. A good discussion is given related to how bereavement care has developed over the years and even changed in its foci as the needs of the individual and the society have changed.

Clearly, this text has added something to the body of knowledge about death, dying and bereavement. The text attempts to be as all-inclusive as possible related to the subjects chosen for discussion. Historical, temporal, religious, societal, and cultural aspects are used to shade and color the major themes being discussed. Walter provides us with a thoughtful approach to the study of bereavement and grief in the white Anglo-Saxon communities.