10-K

I know it's a "classic collection", but after reading it, I have to wonder what all the fuss is about. I mean, do all the really worthy Father Brown stories come later, and we all praise these early ones out of misplaced fondness?

First, I'm left wondering: Who was that little man? Does he have a personality? Who was that little man who likes to show up at bizarre British crime scenes and make enigmatic statements after figuring everything out in two seconds? This is one shadowy, slippery great detective. Why did Sherlock Holmes or Nero Wolfe ever work so hard to establish such memorable, multi-faceted personalities? It would seem that's a lot of bother for nothing; just be like Father Brown, the cipher, fading in and out once in a while.

Cruel to pick on the Great Detective? Then let's talk about the plots, the cases, the whodunits. A more contrived, improbable collection of rummy circumstances, somehow resulting in ultimately unexciting deaths, I have never seen. And this so-called "locked-room" classic--'The Invisible Man'--well, in the real world, wouldn't one of the four witnesses keeping an eye on the scene in question at least mention the presence of a certain person, even if they didn't actually infer hostile intentions on the part of the so-called "invisible man"? That's all I can say: I wouldn't want to spoil this dull story for you.

The better entries: 'The Wrong Shape', The Sign of the Broken Sword', 'The Sins of Prince Saradine'--where I suppose the unfolding logic seems slightly less contrived than usual--and especially 'The Honour of Israel Gow', which at least had some authentic creepiness, and a solution that related to one man's idea of promises kept.

As for any wonderful spiritual significance these stories are supposed to display...yes, I'm aware they starred a wise priest.

In recent weeks I have suffered from the rail conditions in South East England. I might have gone mad if not for this book (and a few others, of course). Each story was like getting involved in a cryptic crossword. The stories are weird, wonderful, sometimes quite horrific but always enthralling, and they keep you guessing till the end.

I had really enjoyed 'The Club of Queer Trades', and found 'Father Brown' had the same typically Chesterton style.

Father Brown reveals the dark side of human nature and revels in the unusual and fantastic. I only wish there were more stories.

Does anyone else write like this?

The 12 stories herein can of course be found in _The Complete Father Brown_, and _The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown_. This is the first Brown collection, which introduces not only Father Brown himself but Flambeau, the daring thief. Father Brown worked on Flambeau during their early confrontations, and eventually persuaded him to give up his life of crime. He became Father Brown's friend and sometime sidekick, and appears in three-quarters of the stories herein, in one capacity or another.

"The Blue Cross" - The great detective Valentin knows that Flambeau the thief has selected a little English priest as his target, since the priest has been entrusted with a valuable cross set with sapphires. But when Valentin begins tracking the priest across the city, a very odd pattern of incidents begins to emerge.

"The Secret Garden" - Father Brown is a dinner guest in Valentin's home.

"The Queer Feet" - 'The Twelve True Fishermen', meeting for their annual fish dinner at a small, exclusive restaurant, saw the usual count of waiters - but one had died hours before! Father Brown (called in earlier for the waiter's dying confession and last rites) unravels a spectacular caper.

"The Flying Stars" - Flambeau's last crime (as noted in the 1st paragraph of the story), cited as an example of his love of artistically matching settings with crimes. His confrontation with Father Brown resonates nicely with the preceding story's metaphor of Brown having him on a line like a fish.

"The Invisible Man" - Locked-room mystery. The inventor was found murdered in his flat, but witnesses say that nobody could have gone past them without being seen.

"The Honour of Israel Gow" - This story actually takes place *after* "The Wrong Shape". The Earl of Glengyle was a hermit - and after finding some very odd circumstances in the Earl's home after his death, Flambeau and Father Brown begin to fear that Satanism is involved.

"The Wrong Shape" - The writer was a bad husband and an unpleasant man, and the beautifully penned suicide note seemed almost too good to be true.

"The Sins of Prince Saradine" - Flambeau takes Father Brown along to collect on the prince's invitation, sent to him during his criminal career, to visit if he were to become respectable, since he greatly admired Flambeau's stunt of once arranging for one policeman to arrest another, when both were looking for *him*.

"The Hammer of God" - The last two Bohuns are the curate, who pursues the beauty of his church, and the colonel, who chases women. But if he managed to catch the blacksmith's wife, it may well have been the death of him.

"The Eye of Apollo" - Locked-room mystery. Father Brown came to visit Flambeau, who has taken an office in a new building. Pauline Stacey, a rich idealist in a neighbouring office, fell down the empty elevator shaft that same day - when nobody else, apparently, was in the building.

"The Sign of the Broken Sword" - Why has Father Brown taken Flambeau to every monument to the memory of the great general, finally ending here at his grave? "Where does a wise man hide a leaf? In a forest." Someone, unfortunately, once took that saying to heart.

"The Three Tools of Death" - With three weapons visible on the scene, why did the victim die by a fall from a window?

I teach English to immigrants and international students in the U.S., so I'm very familiar with techniques for teaching and learning languages. If you are not planning on actually taking a class, I would say that this book is excellent. It provides tips on pronunciation based on American English. (Most other books don't have the pronunciation tips, but you have to spend extra money on a cassette or CD.) The person who complained about the book missed one important factor. This book provides language than gradually integrates it into the "directions." Most book give directions in English only, this one substitutes those words that you've learned already in Norwegian! It also does what is called "Scaffolding" - they introduce an idea or word in one place, then re-introduce it later. This book is also very colorful and offers flash cards, sticky-labels and more! Personally, I recommend the English as a Second Language version of this book to my beginning level students- because if you really are interested in learning the language, this is a very inexpensive and effective tool. The down side to this book is that some of the sticky-labels don't make any sense. For instance, where are you supposed to stick "Good morning???" Others, like "Kitchen" or "glass" are better. I would recommend doing this book first and then moving on to "Teach Yourself Norwegian" - or use both at the same time, because they reinforce each other.

I see another review on this book and I believe that author missed the point of this book. The objective of this book is not to have you write a sentence in English then translate to Norwegian, nor be a comprehensive source for learning Norwegain, but expand your vocabulary used in learning the language.

The book has several mutually supportive exercises in expanding vocabulary and proper word usage. There are sentences with fill-in-the-blank missing words. There are little stickers to help you memorize the names of common household items. There are also exercises that help with gender, numbers, and common expressions.

This book is definately not going to teach you Norwegian except when used with other resources, but this is a great addition to the other tools that one uses to learn Norwegian.

I can't say enough good things about this book. There's so much useful information, including common words and how to pronounce them. Best of all, it's presented in an entertaining, fun way that makes you want to use it. In addition to reading, you have to write the words and phrases, which as anyone knows from school is the key to remembering what you've learned. I particularly like the stickers for rooms and items around your house. Every time you look at the item or room you see the sticker and this helps to reinforce the Norwegian words. Before long you're counting to yourself or looking at things and mentally saying the Norwegian word. Finally, there are cut-out flash cards and a laminated pocket guide to take with you so that you can work at learning Norwegian wherever you are. I wish there were intermediate and advanced versions of the book. This truly does make learning fun. I highly recommend it.

I loved the Earthsea trilogy (it will always be a trilogy to me) from the first time I read it, in high school. Years later, they are even better. Tehanu is not cut from the same cloth. I was sorely disappointed with the plot line, character development, general tone and themes of the book. While the first three books contained wonderful, compelling and unforgettable tales, this one seemed like a cross between a romance novel and some sort of psycho-mystery. It gave me the same feeling in the pit of my stomach as watching The Phantom Menace and listening to them explain the Force in terms of science. I can only hope that Ursula LeGuin herself actually writes any future books, because I can't believe the same author wrote this as the first three.

I can accept the plot inconsistancies with the previous books in the "trilogy." I can accept her vague style of writing. I like her ideas and think they have potential. But I would have thought that, with the passage of time, her writing would improve. Unfortunately, not only does it not improve, it actually seems to have deteriorated. She spends the first 90% or more of the book developing the background, then rushes through the plot development and the climax (if it can be called such) in just a few pages, as if she were sick of the story and of writing in general and just wanted to get it done with. What a shame.

After finishing The Farthest Shore and absolutely loving it, I was greatly excited to read Tehanu...and then disappointed. It is thoroughly disjointed from the overall "feel" of the first three books, no doubt due in part to the length of time between the years they were written.

I found the writing typical (and lacking the passion that I found in the first three novels), the plot tedious, and the underlying themes completely in-your-face obvious. I read entirely through to the end within a few hours, waiting for something to happen...and nothing did, until the end, when the plot diverged into two different ones, and then abruptly stopped. Honestly, there was a lot of unnecessary plot that could have been left out.

It is helpful, however, to remember that there was another sequel written taking place shortly after Tehanu, which ties up a lot of loose ends. But as much as I love the Earthsea books, this was almost a pain to read.

OMG. How long do I have to ride on Anita's selfish morals. hey, guess what, JC has the same problem too, can he feed is beast? I a fan of the Anne Rice chronicles. and I'm used to the writer giving her readers what they want. I don't mind dragging out a good relationship, but ruining potential erotic seens that I and i'm sure plenty other readers have been dying to see happen.

You say too much sex, I say not enough. Ok, Anita's a Hero. A big mouth, and show stealer. now can someone else have the spotlight without Anita jumping in to ruin the party with her shyness of the flesh. Thank goodness she was exposed to Jc "problem" now, maybe, we will really have some Erotism" going on. not just holding hands, and shooting bullets.

Obsidian Butterfly was without a doubt the best book in the Anita Blake series. Unfortunately, Narcissus in Chains made me not want to read any of the books anymore. I had no problem with the sex and S&M. I had a problem with the main character becoming something she originally despised. She always said she'd rather die than become anything less than human but she didn't. I loved this series until this book. After reading it, I didn't want to read another. Hamilton is a great writer but should have left Anita as she was.

I read this book first before the rest of the series. this book made me want to read lkh entire series. the characters are very real and flawed something you normaly do not find in most characters in all diffrent kinds of books. i thought this was one of the best so far other then the killing dance as that is still my favorite. I feel that lkh is delving deeper into all the relationships that anita is having with all the people in her life, for a woman who did not want to develop any relationships she is now having friendships, love affairs and maternal instincts for her pard. i am on the edge of my seat waiting for the next book i love that lkh is now bringing in belle morte into the relationship with asher and jean claude. lkh has given anita the ability to have a heart and mind and to be as strong as all the men involved. i will say that i wish that richard would finaly grow up and realize that both jean claude and anita both need him and that he is a pivitol part of the trimvirate, yet i noticed how jason was able to come in and be used with that marks i would love to find out more about that. please keep more coming.

This book gives absolutely no insight into the complexities of Russian grammar, and the 'phonetic transcription' will help you do nothing other that get laughed at by native Russian speakers if you try to use it on them. Basically, a good waste of money.

If there were a way to put zero stars and still post a review, this book wouldn't have even gotten one.
Over time I have aquired 6 languages. This book is the worst language book I have ever seen.
1. It does not provide accent marks, so....so why bother even having it? You will have to get another book to learn how to pronounce the words...so...again, why bother with this?
2. It as a cool idea to learn Russian in 10 minutes a day (with this book, 10 minutes a day for the next 15 years still wouldn't teach you to do anything but to go around hoping to find magic vocabulary stickers.)
It does not provide, cogent explanations, or examples for syntax and grammar points. There is some vocabulary, but without real explanations of how to use the language, the book is pointless.
3. I recommend a travel phrasebook if that is all you want. Get a real text, Penguin's course isn't bad, or the "Ultimate Russian: Basic-Intermediate (Living Language Ultimate. Basic-Intermediate Series (Manual & Cassettes)) Nancy Novak / Crown Audio Cassettes / April 1998" if you really want learn, aquire, and use Russian.
4. "10-minutes.." is too big to carry around, too vapid for any real learning, and too disorganised to make any progress on any single topic.
5. The book is snake oil. I doubt the author had any intention of really trying to be usefull. It was easy to write, cheap to print, a quick money maker for a lazy author.
Get something else.
San Antonio physician.

This book might be okay for kids, but it's not really a serious learning tool. Learning a language in ten minutes a day may be a fun fantasy, but the resources available in this book won't do much to help you learn Russian.

On the surface the book looks great - big pictures, stickers, activities, flash cards and a laminated "pocket pal" with a short list of phrases and such. The problem with these resources is that they all fall short when scrutinized individually. There aren't enough flash cards, and the words that are chosen are sort of odd. Some are obvious for the beginner, but many just leave me scratching my head as to why they picked them. The activities in the book are the best part, but as a workbook, it's only average. The stickers are a good idea in theory, but are you really going to put stickers on objects all around your house? The "pocket pal" phrasebook would be a decent idea, but it's a real pain to get out of the book (I had to cut it out with a razor knife), and it's too big to fit comfortably in your pocket when folded up. Because this book tries to be everything to everyone it falls short on all counts.

If you want to learn Russian and can only buy one text, buy yourself the Penguin Russian Course if you want an inexpensive beginners textbook and then make your own flash cards. If you can afford a little more, get the ready made Russian cards from Vis-ed. For a workbook try the Berlitz Basic Russian Workbook, and then a decent phrasebook like the one from Lonely Planet. These products are all available from Amazon and may cost a little more in total, but will take you much farther.

This book is very poor. I give it a poor rating because the solution manuals that compliment this book are very mediocre. The solution manual that came with the book (It came bundled with the text at my college bookstore) seems as though it was hastily put together. Some answers are wrong, have typos, or even lacking altogether. The solution manual only covers chapters 1-12. The remaining chapters are covered in another manual...that's where the above problems are thrown into plain view. In the second solution manual, some answers don't match, are missing, or wrong. For example, chapter 13 has two sections that are flipped around, which shows the haste in bringing out this book. I have nothing good to say about these texts. When Calculus 3 is over this semester, I have 660+ pages worth of TP...that's the only way I feel the purchased can be justified.

As all of you know already, all (except some exceptional textbooks by distinguished authors) Addison Weslely Mathematics books are well known for their terrible excercizes, explanations, lessons, and their contents. There are a few reasons why the above statement is true, but you can figure them out by yourself. Also, lack of information that hinders AP Calculus B C students further emphasize that this is a book made for the novice mathematicians of extremely low ability in problem solving and thinking. Overall, this book is not a book that can be used in an Advanced Placement Calculus BC class; and indeed, this book would a terrible choice for a short calcululus class at a university that offers a good quality mathematics education. This book definiately receives a "poor" recommendation; its contents must be enhanced for it to receive a better recommendation from the instructors and learners in the United States.

This calculus book is an excellent choice for college bound mathematics students in high schools. It covers every topics needed to succeed in later math courses and future; it has ample real-life problem situations that not only hone mathematics skills of the students, it also helps them to understand most of the abstract concepts of calculus. This book is suitable for use in any AP Calc courses (AB or BC). Despite many special features in this overall superior book, I do not strongly recommand this book. The reason is that this book uses very minimum colors and graphics that can help high school students to be interested in the materials in calculus; besides, graphics with colors CERTAINLY helps everyone to grasp the abstract "stuff". If you are a high school chairperson, and you are considering to purchase this book for your school to use as an AP Calc text book, I recommand you to look for a newer book.

Both of my sons and both of my nieces have been through this curriculum. If we were given any alternative math options, we would take them.

While this program was rated highly by an educational group, it has been a major disappointment to us. Many of the parents have supplemented the math taught at the High School with extra courses for high school students, given by State Universities.

As an engineer, math is extremely important to me. My oldest son hopes to become an engineer, and I'm struggling with how to 'patch' his poor math background. He frequently comes to me with questions that he should understand, but that are poorly communicated in the book.

The teachers often would say "there's an error in the book on page..." My kids said this happened daily.

This shouldn't be necessary. Math is foundational, and texts written for math should be very critically edited, to make sure mistakes are removed, that concepts are well explained, and that the fundamentals are all covered. These steps did not happen with this coursework. And the creators of this material have not responded with improvements to the curricula.

Integrated math as a concept may be very positive. But this series is probably one of the poorest ways to do it. If you're sold on integrated math, try another program.

I have studied this curriculum intensively as a potential math teacher. I have seen it in action in urban schools. I have taught it briefly. My daughter suffered through it two years ago.

There is a lot of mathematics in this curriculum. The curriculum is a rich source of ideas for teachers. Every potential math teacher should work through it. It is a poor choice for a high school curriculum for several reasons.

First, Core-Plus is a very, very wordy math curriculum. At risk students will not understand it. Nor will they work with texts that are this dense. As a very well educated and mathematically sophisticated parent, I had to struggle with the text to help my 14 year old daughter because it is so poorly written. The essence of mathematics is the precise use of language and I often became infuriated at how hard I had to work to figure out what they were trying to say.

Some students with very strong verbal skills and a good work ethic will do well, with Core-Plus without learning enough mathematics to succeed at the university level in the sciences. The assessments put a premium on busy work, written and oral communication skills and social skills. Mastering symbol manipulation to the point where a student is equiped to learn physics gets short shrift. On the other hand, Core-Plus will strengthen non-math skills for many students.

Most high school math teachers are not equipped to teach this curriculum well. Because the approach is almost exclusively problem solving, the interconnections between the different strands of mathematics are below the surface and often are just not there. The teacher must be skilled enough to bring them out, reinforce them through review and extra practice and supply the missing links when necessary.

This curriculum is deficient vis-a-vis the 2000 Standards in that there is an over-emphasis on data-analysis (statistics) and a serious underemphasis on symbol manipulation (algebra) algorithms and proof. The latest version of the NCTM standards corrects the many extremes and deficiencies in the 1989 standards and is far closer to a consensus of what mathematicians, teachers, educationists and psychologists believe are best practices in math education.

My daughter and all her friends hated Core-Plus passionately. She's no mathematician, but I find it so so tedious. There is no joy of discovery, no pleasure in mathematics itself in these books. The texts are ugly. There is no humor. I love Michael Serra's reform Geometry textbook because he thinks like a 13 year old, has a phenomenal sense of humor and is infectiously in love with math.

Core-Plus should not be used with heterogeneous classes in inner city schools because 75% or more of the students lack the requisite math skills and study skills. There are not enough students who are sufficiently competent to sustain the pace of the group work. These students, who have some hope of a college education, simply will not be prepared for serious study in any field that requires math skills.

Contemtorary Mathematucs in Context is a program that build on the theme of mathematics as sense-making. Through investigations of real-life contexts, students develop a rich understanding of important mathematics that makes sense to them and, in turn, enables them to make sense out of nes situations and problems. Yes, it enables them to think.

The materials are designed to implement the vision of high school mathematics portrayed in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics "Standards" documents. The curriculum materials include thew following features:

Multiple Connected Strands (Algebra and Functions; Geometry and Trigonometry; Statistics and Probability; and Discrete Mathematics.)

Mathematical Modeling (including data collection, representation, interpretation, prediction, and simulation.)

Access to core mathematical topics for all students. Differences in students in performance and interest and be accomodated by the depth and level of abstraction, by the nature and degree of difficulty of applications, and by providing opportunities for student choice on homework tasks and projects.

Technology (Numerical, graphical, and programming link capabilities found on many graphing calculators are assumed and capitalized upon. These provide opportunities to emphasize multiple representations and to focus on mathematical thinking, rather than mere computation.)

Active Learning (Instruction and assessment practices are designed to promote mathematical thinking. Collaborative groups and individual work are used as students explore, conjecture, verify, evaluate, and communicate mathematical ideas.)

The curriculum promises to make mathematics accessible to a diverse student population. Developing mathematics each year along multiple strands nurtures the differing strengths and talents of students and simultaneously helps them to develop diverse mathematical insights. Developing mathematics from a modeling perspective permits students to experience mathematics as a means of making sense of data and problems that arise in diverse contexts. Engaging students in small groups to work together on tasks develops their ability to both deal with, and find commonality in, diversity of ideas. Using calculators as a means for learning and doing mathematics enables students to develop versatile ways of dealing with realistic situations and reduces the manipulative skill filter which has prevented large numbers of students from continuing their study of significant mathematics.

Furthermore, in cases where the mathematics departments or admissions offices have reviewed Contemporary Mathematics in Context, the courses have been approved as meeting the mathematics admission requirements of those intitutions. Many students have applied, been accepted and are succeeding in many colleges and universioties across the country.

Lastly, I have been teaching high school mathematics for 27 years and have seen many programs come and go. I have also heard others use the phrase "This too shall pass." The reform movement is the right movement for students in this country. We do not need to focus on a curriculum that is a mile wide and an inch thick. Contemporary Mathematics in Context provides the depth to allow students the opportunity to be able to think, not just process. I hope that this mathematics movement does not just "pass." I really wish that I would have written these texts. I believe in them and the curriculum embedded within. And so do my students!

I am a student of marketing research and of SPSS. I was thrilled to find what I thought was a book providing instruction in applied marketing research using SPSS. Was I wrong!...P>If you purchase this selection, you get a marketing research text book, and an attached diskette containing SPSS 10.0 student version. Sadly, I must report that the instruction in the book is in no way tied to the software!!

Given the fact that I'm not going to do multivariate without SPSS, this book has not helped me in a significant way at all. Here's an example for you: In the 25 page chapter on Discriminant Analysis, the entire amount of air time given to SPSS is as follows, and I quote: "In the mainframe version of SPSS, the DISCRIMINANT procedure is used for conducting discriminant analysis. This is a general program that can be used for two-group or multiple discriminant analysis. Furtnermore, the direct or the stepwise method can be adopted."

Putting SPSS aside, I cannot recommend this book as a stand alone marketing research learning tool. If you're anything like me, you need lots of excercises to test your understanding. This book contains only a couple of excercises at the end of each chapter, and the answers aren't in the back of the book. If you're studying independently, as I am, this is NO HELP AT ALL!!