Customer Reviews:
Very Useful Read.......2005-09-25
I truly enjoyed reading this book, I'm reading it for the second time! I found the information in this book to be the most "reaslistic" parenting advise I have read to date. It has changed the way I parent, my approach, made me more patient with my children, and given me great insight into what I have to look forward to as my children get older. (I have 3 children, my oldest is 8) I just purchased 10 more to give to friends.
Not so sure about this one.......2004-06-02
I first I thought this book was a great concept, but I agree with some of the other reviewers that the criteria for what makes a "great kid" needed to be more clearly defined. The author cited popularity with peers as one indicator, which makes me wonder: Are we looking to raise likeable class clowns, or are we striving to raise decent, good-hearted human beings with minds of their own? Also, some of the parents' comments were very random. And when the topic of spanking came up, well, that's when I got really annoyed. The book does not present two arguments for spanking -- it actually advocates the practice, under the right circumstances. Tsk, tsk, tsk!
An Impressionistic Set of Anecdotes.......2002-02-11
After I read this book, I did not feel that I knew how good parents raised great kids.
The authors state that their book "...relies only on genuine, unbiased evidence gleaned from eighteen months of interviews with 'true experts'--the parents of extremely well-adjusted, well-rounded, happy children" (p.1). They say further, "[t]hough we had the background, experience, and credentials to initiate a scientific study, we chose to take a journalistic approach..." (p.319) "[W]e did not attempt to have a scientifically random sample that was statistically significant." (Id.)
This book ends up being a report of the authors' impressions of common themes they heard from the parents of children of whom school administrators and counselors thought very highly.
If one wanted to know how good parents raise great kids, one would, I believe, define what a "great kid" is, and investigate a statistically random sample of children to try to determine what parental behaviors are correlated with a kid's being a "great kid," to a statistically significant degree.
The book's subtitle "The Six Essential Habits of Highly Successful Parents" echoes Steven Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, which is not a statistical study either, but which has a deep general logic to it, which these "habits" do not. Those seven habits are a structure of life leadership that have general applicability. Contrast them with the habits in this book- one of them is "Communicate." A parent is also quoted in the book "Parenting is much more like a baking a cake than a delicate souffle. You put in all the right ingredients, throw it in the oven and forget about it for a while." Reading those two side-by-side, I'm not clear as to how hard to press to communicate when.
Instead of this book, read The Nurture Assumption by Judith Rich Harris. It will tell you what is known and not known about the effect of parenting on the personalities of children.
The Best of a Bad Lot.......2000-12-25
The authors say that they went to high school guidance counselors to ask them who the best kids they knew were and then interviewed the parents to determine how they raised their kids. They claim to found out what these parents did to make the children successful. To interview people who have successfully done a thing as the basis for an advice book is a better basis than the great majority of advice books have. This is why I give it four stars. I am uneasy about this book, though. Did the parents give consistent advice? The author's note about this book on this page appears to say "no." The title talks about six "essential" habits of good parents, which would appear to indicate "yes." I got the impression that the authors were concerned that the book seemed too conservative. I would have felt much more confident about the advice in the book if the authors had presented their views straightforwardly, instead of being concerned that their "words would be twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools." The books purports to distinguish between the good parents and the less successful parents, but I didn't notice any interviewing of less successful parents. The authors say that although they "had the background, experience and credentials to inititate a scientific study, * * * [they] chose to take a journalistic approach." This is not a scientific study. There was no control group. The sample of interviewees was approximately 130. This was not a double-blind study. The interview questionaire was revised during the course of the study. The next book I read after I read this book was Judith Rich Harris's The Nurture Assumption. It leads me to think that there are no data to support the assertions of this book.
Impressive, Insightful & Indispensable.......1999-09-18
I purchased this book after attending an impressive live presentation by author Robert Davidson. As an attorney with a busy family law practice and, most importantly, as a parent, I found it to be indispensable. The techniques Mr. Davidson suggested really did work for me in the real world of parenting. I found the book to be a tremendous help in developing an overall parenting "strategy" as well as to find the best and most effective solutions to everyday problems. The book is an enjoyable read - it moves more like a well-paced novel - and focuses on mutual respect between parent and child. Highly recommended.
Book Description
A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War, Russia 1941-44 is the haunting memoir of a young German soldier on the Russian front during World War II. Willy Peter Reese was only twenty years old when he found himself marching through Russia with orders to take no prisoners. Three years later he was dead. Bearing witness to--and participating in--the atrocities of war, Reese recorded his reflections in his diary, leaving behind an intelligent, touching, and illuminating perspective on life on the eastern front. He documented the carnage perpetrated by both sides, the destruction which was exacerbated by the young soldiers' hunger, frostbite, exhaustion, and their daily struggle to survive. And he wrestled with his own sins, with the realization that what he and his fellow soldiers had done to civilians and enemies alike was unforgivable, with his growing awareness of the Nazi policies toward Jews, and with his deep disillusionment with himself and his fellow men.
An international sensation, A Stranger to Myself is an unforgettable account of men at war.
Customer Reviews:
To much detail for a simple person........2007-10-11
I really had high hopes for this book because of what a rare find it was and how lucky for everyone it even got published but after just one page of it I was wanting to put it down. It has plenty of good parts with great detail but to much detail, detail that only a poet could understand. The writer was a dreamer and I found it so hard in between his details about the trees and flowers to even keep track with what was going on. If you are looking for a book about the sufferings of the Russian people then this is the book for you to many times his unit fell back on the help of locals and to many times they took advantage of it, many times I felt like I was reading a book about escaped prisoners running through the country side and not a book about the proud German Army that I have gained so much respect from reading other books. The lack of characters in the book will also bother you, you have no other soilders to read about or follow during his hard times, nor is their much listed about his unit and their exploits and any unit pride. This book is a true product of drafted men fighting in a war they never should have.
Fine...If You Like Poetry.......2007-09-20
I was excited to read what sounded like a fascinating memoir from a relatively rare point of view: a German solidier on the Eastern front. What I ended up with was a rambling, at times barely coherent attempt at writing memorable quotes. By the time I was 2/3 of the way through the book, I found myself pleading, "Just tell me what happened! Quit trying to sound so poetic!"
Toward the end of the book, Reese finally starts describing what he was going through in a less-flowery manner. Then it became pretty interesting. It just took a LONG time to get there.
Reese's story is a tragic one, but there are more informative war memoirs out there if you want actual information.
This book proves war is hell........2007-06-06
Willy Peter Reese. I had never heard of him before the first part of June 2007. I met Reese, in his memoirs. He bared his soul for me. I sat next to him as he endured the frigid cold of a Russian winter. He told me of his pain when wounded. I watched as he and his fellow soldiers wore lice infested uniforms, suffered from pyoderma and lymph inflammations.
I watched a young man, quiet and reserved, go to war. In degrees I witnessed this young man give up on life and accept the horrors of war.
Reese, through his writing style, has left behind a compelling piece of literature; painting the war on the eastern front in such vivid colors so as to burn a hole to the readers soul.
Please read, A Stranger To Myself. For those who glorify war this may give you a realistic perspective of what can, and usually does, happen when soldiers face each other. As an Army veteran I am not so naive as to think war can be avoided every time, but when one reads what war is really all about then it is worth the time to try diplomacy first.
Read this book. It will take your breath away.
Richard Neal Huffman
The Bear And IDreams in Blue: "The Real Police"
Tragic but Fascinating.......2007-04-08
This book, which is basically the memoirs of a young German soldier fighting in Russia during WWII, was tragic but fascinating. The language that young Willy Reese is beautiful and gripping. The young man who wrote this, in other words, was a prolific writer. He used captivating language and an unbridled vocabulary. His metaphors and allusions where breath taking and you never got bored from the raw detail that he used to describe the horrors of war. And with this book you also gain an unparalleled account of the horror and wickedness of fighting in the Eastern Front. I would recommend this book if you like WWII history or if you like to read a pseudo-prose poem and memoir with outstanding and fantastic language.
Terror, boredom, revulsion, obedience...life as cannon fodder........2007-02-14
A remarkable book which left a deep impression on me. At once literary in style and harrowing in its descriptions of life as cannon fodder, albeit thinking, passionate, feeling cannon fodder.
Willy Peter Reese was no hero. I am not even sure he was brave. However, as a good German boy he did his duty to the fatherland. First he trained to put on the "mask" of the soldier. Then he went of to war in Russia, mask in place.
He passed through a land where atrocities were the reality. He pillaged food from the starving. During the German Army's massive, fighting retreat Reese's unit was always among the last to get the order to fall back. His young eyes took in the full terror of the Nazi's scorched earth terror tactics. And he was part of it.
Along with his comrades, he routinely drank himself into some other world. When there was no other way to move it, he and his fellow soldiers relentlessly dragged the unit's artillery piece. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year.
All the while, his young mind processed what he witnessed. Temperatures so cold he could only cry. A body infested with parasites. Legs and feet with open oozing wounds. Taking shelter in hand dug hovels. Corpses hanging from trees, lying in ditches, everywhere. In between the bouts of horror and killing, however, were sights of beauty and moments of mental and spiritual clarity. His writing only stopped when his life ended.
Yes, Reese was trying to write like a writer. His loves were Rilke and others of that ilk. His book though, must be taken as a whole. To dissect it, to say this part is too wordy or that part is too introspective, is to miss the point. No, Willy Peter Reese was not a hero. He did his duty as he saw it. He tried to stay alive. He was not brave. Surely, then, he was the typical German male of the day who was thrust into a situation over which he had no control. He did not rage against his lot nor did he relish it. He simply existed through it as best he could.
Customer Reviews:
War on the Eastern Front: The German Soldier in Russia, 1941.......2003-10-30
The Eastern Front was by far the deciding factor in ending WWII. By the time the Allies opened up a second front in the West, the Germans were already heading for defeat.
I anticipated more personal stories from a soldiers point of view rather I found the book contained more narative explanations.
The book does contain some chilling accounts of the life of a german soldiers during the Eastern campaign.
The writer seems pretty pro Nazi.......2002-07-10
I thought the writer made too many excuses for the SS and their actions. It has some interesting tactical information, but I do not agree with the beliefs of the writer on what the SS really was about. I did not feel the book was worth buying...get it from a library.
Good First Step.......2002-04-07
This is a good book on the topic because it covers many of the issues the average solder had to face. The author does not bog us down with a lot of detail on tactics or hundreds of different division names from multiple armies. This book reminds me of "Eyes Deep in Hell" which covers the foot solder in WW 1. The author does keep the story moving and before you know it you have completed the book. This book is not the overall history of the front, just a very well written overview. If you are looking to start studying the eastern front or just want a good book on the topic, I would recommend this book.
A decent book for the casual reader.......2001-12-07
What to say? This is by no means an academic book and has no 'scientific' pretentions. It is an informative work aimed to transmit to the casual reader a feeling of what war on the Eastern front looked and 'felt' like - and in this it's probably successful.
The book is divided in chapters, each concerning a specific subject (like partisans, the German High Command's invasion plans, the characteristics of Russian terrain and Russian weather, etc.). It is not an organic work, and I have an impression that many of the chapters are drawn from specilistic sources (for example the chapter on partisan warfare is indebted to Hesse E., "Der sowjetrussische Partisanenkrieg 1941 bis 1944"). The one chapter of interest for the reader already having some understanding of WWII is n.17, concerning German Assault Artillery (generally known to the American public as SPGuns).
The book has a penchant to emphasize the German feats of valour; and this, depending on the reviewer's perspective, may be interpreted as an attempt to liven up the narration, as a well-deserved recognition to Teutonic discipline and heroism, or as a pro-National Socialist stance. I don't really care what, but this book could be the right choice for a history teacher willing to introduce his pupils to a pro-German inclination without making it too obvious that he's doing so.
All in all, I would recommend this book only to beginner students of WWII and the Eastern front. Otherwise you may wish to look for Kershaw R., "War Without Garlands", or, in a more general perspective, for Overy's (or even Erickson's) general histories of the conflict in the East.
Interesting book..........2001-09-05
My favorite part of this book was the chapters detailing the use of self-propelled artillery in many of the battles. You don't find this mentioned in many books but it was very deadly on the Russian attacks. Many of the accounts give you the feeling of what it must have been like to be in the battle.
I don't know what book Sergio was reading for his review below but he must have had his own agenda when he read it because I didn't notice any of the drivel that he's ranting about. Read it again Sergio, you missed the part between the front and back cover, lol.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book on the Eastern Front........1998-09-28
Theis book provides very interesting details on subjects rarely addressed on the Russian Front. I loved it. Much has been written about the tanks and infantry, but theis book teaches about the self propelled artillary, the rockets, staying warm, marching, terrain etc!
This book is unashamed to detail the bravery, endurance, guile, skill and professionalism of the brave German soldier and his equally brave Russian foe.
His writing style is excellent, the chapters and topics are short and sweet.
Customer Reviews:
Vivid and Accessible.......2001-08-16
I fell in love with this book's well-written and passionate articles a year ago and decided to teach it in my second-semester English composition class. My students, working-class youngsters from New York State, found it their favorite: it taught them about style in writing without being too abstract or introspective. They had energetic discussions about the issues Hochschild raises and the people he portrays: "Fishhooks and Chickens" led to some strong opinions on U.S. foreign policy, "Summer of Violence" prompted them to discuss their own civil-rights heroes, and the piece on ex-racist Floyd Cochran elicited opinions on reform and forgiveness. And their own writing showed that they learned a great deal from Hochschild's stylistic grace. This book will be a great document of its times for many, many years.
Average customer rating:
- An excellent textbook for undergraduate students
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Petrography to Petrogenesis
M. J. Hibbard
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0023541458 |
Customer Reviews:
An excellent textbook for undergraduate students.......2001-05-26
I find this book excellent for those undergraduate students taking petrology and petrography courses.The way the chapters are organized, follows an scheme that goes beyond the typical three-fold classification of rocks and the information is presented in an attractive, friendly fashion.
The first four parts of the book give the reader the basics for the description and interpretation of rock forming processes, with lots of useful drawings and excellent pictures. These are the keys to the understanding of any of the remainder chapters.
Some of the sections from the first four parts deserve to be highlited. The whole section about optical mineralogy is excellent and goes right to the essentials. The chapter referring to the physical attributes of rocks is very useful; the chapter on textural interpretation is very interesting and gives the reader a new perspective of petrographic analysis.
The remainig of the book deals with all rock types describing the processes that give rise to them and always emphasizing the textural features of each rock type and the imprints of every process.
Examples in thin section are abundant throughout the book, as well as sketches and drawings. Field examples are few but descriptive.
A final word. This book describes the processes but does not put them into a plate tectonic context, and does not give the reader a lot of experimental geochemical data. And it's not intended to do that. However, using this book as the basis to go further, or side-by-side with any text which deals with rocks in a tectonic framework, will provide the reader with a better understanding of the rock-forming processes and of geology itself.
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