Ross-Stephen

Wow. This book jumps you. I read it out of curiosity, having seen the film version "Owning Mahowney" (sic).

I was unprepared for what a hard-working journalist can do to ignite your feel for the main character. Magnificently well researched, and woven with the artistic sensibility of a Truman Capote (I'm thinking "In Cold Blood").

I'm quite disappointed not to see anything else available by this writer. Of course, I have no idea if he's even alive. But my hat's off to him in any event.

I'm curious re Mr. Molony as well. I hope his life's proved as worthwhile as he would wish.

You cannot regret buying this one. No way.

Teaching has always been a tuff profession and when you add a poor principal to the mix, the job can be almost unbearable. Glickman, et al have presented the clinical supervision model in a very earthy, hands-on manner. The examples are true to life and the chapter questions are thought provoking and right on the money. This is one book you will keep when your program is done and I'm sure you will come back to it over and over.

Working in the Diocesan Vocation Office, I keep my eyes open for books about discernment. So when I saw the Institute of Carmelite Studies advertising a book entitled, Temptation and Discernment, I ordered it. What I found was both a disappointment and a joy. It was a disappointment insofar as the book offered nothing in terms of vocational discernment. It was a joy insofar as it proved to be some of the most captivating spiritual writing I have ever read.

Segundo Galilea is a priest of the Archdiocese of Santiago, Chile. He has served as a pastor in Santiago and worked for many years in the area of pastoral renewal. Galilea has authored several books on evangelization and spirituality.

Grounding himself in the thought of Ignatius of Loyola and John of the Cross, Galilea offers brief, even pithy chapters, seldom more than two pages, that are sharp, practical and insightful. Acknowledging that temptation is part of any human as well as Christian life, Galilea observes that those with a mature spirituality generally resist temptation to intentional evil but instead face the temptations of mediocrity, tepidity and stagnation. Often these evils can appear as good and hence the need for greater discernment. After initially reflecting on discernment as a type of salve applied to the eyes so that we might see, Galilea divides the book up into two sections regarding ministry and prayer. Each concise chapter concerns itself with a "demon" of ministry or of prayer.

Galilea first describes sixteen demons of prayer that include activism, sectarianism, entrenchment, pastoral envy and losing a sense of humor. In his analysis Galilea shares some succinct but sharp wisdom.

Commenting on the demon of messianism and setting oneself up as the center of all pastoral activity, he simply states, "Distrust of collaborators in ministry...reflects a distrust in God." Warning against the discouragement that accompanies activism, he notes, "Impatience and discouragement are twins." Concerning ministers who have given into the demon of entrenchment he observes, "Tacitly they have made a pact with their imperfections and mediocrity".

The second section lists twenty-one demons of prayer ranging from discouragement and neglecting one's lifestyle to putting quantity above quality and not putting sensations and feelings in their proper place. He warns against secularizing Christian prayer insisting that this demon, "...concludes by putting all prayer under suspicion." Another chapter is entitled, "Neglecting the Humanity of Christ. Here he maintains that "...spiritual decadence and devotion coincide with different forms of false `mysticism' which minimize the relationship with the historical Jesus and as a consequence with church's mediation." Yet another chapter concerns separating prayer from concern for others. Galilea distinguishes between personal prayer and individualistic prayer insisting that the latter is incompatible with Christianity. Prayer, he argues, "...always has a dimension of apostolic solidarity." Galilea's foundational notion of image of prayer is being clothed in Christ and participating in his life.

The chapters on discernment and ministry would be helpful to all involved in church work and even those involved in any type of ongoing service. The reflections on prayer would well serve all those seeking any type of intentional spiritual life. Though small, this book carries a lot of punch and is excellent not only for personal reading but for book clubs and group discussions. The brevity of this book both as a whole and in its chapters makes it ideal for the busy and those unable to give much time to spiritual reading. It is well written, well translated and deserves a place on the shelf with the great spiritual authors.

This book is an excellent source of basic information on living in prison including many issues such arrest,living conditions,rules and regulations,gangs,food etc.
On the legal issues about arrest refer to the #2 Amazon review of this book by criminal defense attorney, Jordan Copeland for a second opinion on some matters.
The book has a lot of useful basic logistical information on a wide variety of issues, however it lacks some detail on strategies to deal with specific threatening situations and how to interpret behavior. The book could use some interviews with different types of convicts on these issues and address these issues in regard to how different types of people may have to adopt different survival strategies according to factors such as their race, religion, nationality, age,looks, ability to defend themselves,body type,physical limitations,friends and affiliations, willingness or non willingness to fight, verbal defences,relationships with guards etc.
Also see Nobel candidate and convict Stanley Williams' book, Life in Prison for one man's account.
It would be interesting to find what a frail, weak person could do to himself to survive.
An excellent movie from the 70s' on the subject is Glass House, starring Alan Alda. I do not have the experience to say how accurate it is.

Make no mistake; Behind Bars is written for cons, and by cons. Because of this, the reader can be certain that the information contained in this text is not glossed-over, heavy-on-the-big-words academic pretense written from inside an office. Drs. Ross and Richards offer this book as both an analysis and a precaution. Step-by-step advice from the moment of arrest to months after release that refuses to ignore the physical and mental/emotional problems modern American correctional facilities provide. There is nothing resembling coddling in prison, and there is nothing within this book that will attempt to coddle the reader. Rather, the fact that fifty percent of federal convicts return to prison in under a year after initial release is constantly beaten into the head of the reader. However, Ross and Richards do present methods of proper social interaction among cons, with guards and other personnel, who to trust and not trust, etc. If, as an individual, you so much as know of any illegal activity, you are liable to serve jail and/or prison time. No one is innocent, and no one should be so smug as to think their life experiences could never include those mentioned in this book.

What a real eye-opener! Behind Bars provides explicit advice on how to survive in prison. It was easy to read and I strongly recommend it to everyone. Ross and Richards give you factual information about what prison is all about. Their information comes from their direct experiences. You will find out just how complex our criminal justice system is. It is shocking and somewhat disturbing. This book should be mandatory reading for all University students.

I picked this up at my local gaming store yesterday, and I've taken the time to read it through since. There are some disappointing lacks and ommissions, particularly the lack of differentiation between Amadicia and the rest of the Midlands and the lack of information on the Seanchan.

The channeling system, despite my intial reaction to it (weave slots, only so many weaves per day? No way!) actually looks good. Weave slots aren't absolute limits, they're upper *safe* limits. Your channeler can exceed them if needed, but it's a risk. Affinites and talents are handled gracefully as well, though you have to read the One Power chapter carefully.

Some thing are ommitted or simplified, but considering the size of the game and the easy availablity of the source novels (and that RJ himself's writing the Prophecies of the Dragon advanture book), this is understandable. All the major elements are included, and even a starting adventure (which I haven't read, not being a GM). So although it's expensive, it's worth it I think.

And one final note: The cover art is by Darrell K. Sweet, and it appears somebody sat on him until he got things mostly right instead of vastly wrong.

I worried this adaptation of Robert Jordan's vast and colorful Wheel of Time Setting would be a disaster. I need not have bothered.

Source material-wise, the book is densely packed. It certainly has information gaps, but I did not reasonably expect one roleplaying sourcebook to exhaustively give the setting for a 7000+ page novel series.

For roleplaying material, the book is superb. The jump from 3rd edition Dungeons and Dragons to Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game should take less than a day for the GM and maybe two hours for a player. Complete newbies may need more time, but new players need a longer learning period for any roleplaying game.

The adaptation of the magic items and spellcasting system are spectacular. I had been terrified that a handful of DnD spells would be renamed and one or two ill-considered dreamwalking spells would be inserted. Instead, small aspects of the DnD mage and sorceror class have been taken and tweaked with a lot of new material. Channelling, shielding, linking, sa'angreal, and saidin's taint are covered and covered well. Dreamwalking also earned its own section.

There are few elaborate adventure hooks but a number of short ones and numerous hints and suggestions.

I say, get it and go nuts. (...)

I really enjoyed the flavor of this campaign setting. I am a fan of the books, even if they do drag on a bit later in the series. I have little intention of playing in robert Jordan's world, but the ideas this book presents make it a valuble addition to my library.
The two best ideas in the book are charater creation and presitge classes.
The Prestige classes are not just a collection of powers, they form sociteies which dominate the world. This is what these classes should be. That said some are unnessarly difficult to get into (4 ranks in balance ???) but they are essential to society and most characters will aim to join these elite groups.
The character creation process is lovely, requiring the human's free starting feat to be dependant on the area of the world where they grew up. Additionally each reason has favored skills that are treated as class skills. These add real impact to a charaters personality.
The game uses new classes well designed to fit with the setting, nobles who have bard like inspiration and favors to call in.
Both trained and wild channlers and wanderers instead of thieves.
The world itself lends to low magic campaigns, with any magic item (i.e. ter'angreal & angreal) being very rare and monsters so rare they are considered imaginary. The book lists the main charaters stats of course, which make intresting reading. The city and country descriptions are well detailed and full of flavor. The channeling magic system is complex and limited at the same time, and while it works well with the books I am uncertain how it would play. My primary irritation with the book is the amount of reprinted material from the core rule books, such as feats, skills and combat rules.
While low magic is stressed the PC's could become movers and shakers of the world's politics. If I was to run a campaign it would avoid the dragon reborn, mabey by 300 years, and the book gives a few guidelines for playing in other times.
The channeling magic system is complex and limited at the same time, and while it works well with the flavor of the books I am uncertain how it would play. A comprensive list of each weaves would have been nice. There are 52 total, 15 are lost (only known by forsaken or dragon reborn)
Overall The Wheel of Time is a good source book for ideas and methods, but has the flaws of any game based on a book.

I have two corp fin books by Ross and company. This book was purchased while studing for the Level I of the CFA exam. The other book was used in graduate school. Both books are sub par in quality and were not cheap either. Save your money. Don't use this text.

I have a master degree in finance and I believe this is the best work from Stepehen Ross. The book can be utilized for graduate students as well as undergraduate. If you are looking for a book which is extensively comprehensive and at the same time friendly you are looking for this book. It also contains diverse examples involving the use of financial calculators and software. It furnishes a preview on mergers and acquisitions and constantly tends to go beyond corporate to multinational

I have used this text in two corporate finance courses that I have taken at university and it was very helpful in allowing me to understand the concepts that were being presented in class.

I work as a consultant for banking clients. Hope that does not influence this review too much.

The authors have prepared the best summary available of the economic and statistical evidence regarding potential racial discrimination in approving mortgages. This book is a replacement for approximately two file drawers of published and unpublished studies that I have collected for approximately five years.

It has its limitations though. Most of all, it is a specialized monograph for a specialist audience. Even though it is aimed at influencing the behavior of the banking industry, most managers and policymakers in that industry will find this volume tough going.

Second, the authors seem to have the opinion that the financial industry rather actively seeks to avoid lending to certain minority groups. This seems naive, in that there are lots of laws that make such policies risky and also because the industry has invested heavily in compliance managers and employee training to resolve such problems. The industry may not be perfect but it is not actively avoiding its responsibility for equitable lending policies. I don't think their perspective mars their analysis but I do think that the same outcome could have been produced with a less accusatory tone.

Third, the policy recommendations offered may not be as workable as the authors imply, since the data requirements for implementing their proposed statistical tests would actually be quite demanding and perhaps beyond the legal authority of the banking regulators.

Nonetheless, this is a very valuable book because it is the first to make an authoritative stab at consolidating the economic knowledge about a very difficult topic. If you're just trained as a generalist in this topic, the policy chapters will still be useful but you'll need to pass the book along to a colleague specializing in economic and statistical research to gain full value from both the critique and the recommendations for new statistical tests.

I'm a longtime Lawhead fan. He is a master of scene and setting. His writing is full of the real-life struggle many of us face in our faith. With these attributes in mind, I looked forward to this new series.

The idea is straightforward. The gospel story is dropped into a near-future setting, with New York City as the primary background. Alex Hunter, an agent for an international group called ICON, is hot on the tail of religious extremists. When one of the extremist leaders is murdered, Hunter is drawn deeper into this violent web.

Sounds promising, but it devolves quickly into a transparent tale. The danger of retelling the gospel story is that we already know what's going to happen. New ideas and subtleties are necessary to keep us involved and to give us fresh perspective. Unfortunately, for me, this was predictable and stale. I wanted to like it, but I found myself skimming pages, waiting for something unexpected, for a new twist. When I ran into the NY governor, named, you guessed it, Pilate...I groaned aloud.

For a quicker read, I'd suggest the graphic comic book version.

Not a bad story line, not really a bad book. But in a couple of places I found some bad editing (the word "what" was used where the word "that" should have been). I also left the book thinking that there was more time to set development than character development. I still dont know all that much about Hunter or what makes him tick (beside wanting to be promoted back to a higher rank that appears to have been stripped from him early in the book), I think I know more about the Antagonist (Simon) than I do the main character of the book. But over all, its worth the quick read.

Okay, there is NO profanity in the book. Did Publisher's Weekly actually READ the book? It is an engaging tale that brings the historical Jesus Christ into a tangible context. The story is gritty and raw--just like the biblical account.

The authors have tried to cram all the theories and ideas of corporate finance in one single volume- they did a commendable job, but has made it too burdensome for MBA students who have to cover the whole book in a single semester. The initial chapters are a joy to read, but it all becomes unstuck when the reader reaches Part IV (Capital Structure and Dividend Policy). Then the authors become somewhat vague and make a heavy weather of explaining the important topic. That is the reason why I could not give five stars to an otherwise excellent book. The initial three parts viz. Overview, Value and Capital Budgeting, and Risk introduce novices gently to the basic concepts and tools. The writing is wordy, but very simple, and it never becomes irksome to the reader.The part on options is detailed enough to give the reader a basic idea of derivatives and will set him/her up nicely for future courses in advanced finance. On the whole, the book is much more detailed and easily acceptable than the other "classic" viz. Brealey and Myers. The best fact is that the authors are not writing for financial experts, but for people who are new to finance. Possibly, this is the best introductory textbook on corporate finance available today.

As part of the process of learning Corporate Finance, I found the guide to be extremely useful in solving problems and applying the theory to the practical stuff. In general, Ross et al deliver an easily understandable book but the best is how he takes most of the concepts at a much deeper level that you can find in many specialized books (actually many of those specialized books refer back to Ross!!!!)

First off, I never had any particular interest in the area of Finance. I simply purchased this book as a required text for the core finance course in my MBA program. All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised. The course was very informative, with a top-notch professor leading us through the material. But even more than the lectures, this book was my primary resource for guiding me through the principles of Corporate Finance. Ross does a great job of clearly explaining each topic, then supporting his explanation with effective examples.

Even though the book is well written, I can't deny that it was still challenging for a finance novice, such as myself. But Ross's clean, to-the-point style was a refreshing way for me to approach a previously unknown topic.

Of all my textbooks, I typically keep about half of them as references, and sell the rest. This book is definitely a keeper.

I must admit that I was unable to complete this book. Halfway through reading this arduous book, I found myself deadlocked before a persistent question: why go on? What's the point?

This book is heralded as the first of a series of reflections on the gift. This seems like a noteworthy project but in the hands of this author, the project falls flat. For some, the conception of a series of studies implies growth at every turn. For Foucualt's The History of Sexuality, at every turn, the author was faced with challenges, crises, and redirection. It took 7 long years before Foucault continued the series; I doubt that the author here has ever faced such crises. I note that this gift series is well on its fourth edition. The gift series is on a roll... it is abundant, as the book repeatedly says (ad nauseum).

If Nietzsche was the greatest philosophical stylist--well, there is no comparison to Nietzsche here. Take for example a paragraph I found on page 167, which follows two quotes from Hegel and Heidegger (of which no direct link is ever made). It reads:

Only great art. Only poetry. Only thinking. Only humanity. Only man. Only only.

(resumption of the review)

What is going on here? Such pseudo-poetic turn of phrase appear throughout the book. By now we are accustomed to sentences that defy and challenge the conventions of logic and grammar. However, we have here just PLAIN BAD WRITING. This book, read as experimental prose will disappoint many. (I suspect that perhaps no one will be disappointed as no one should seriously consider this book at any length. The reviewer fully understands the irony here.)

But Stephen David Ross is a philosophy professor and this book covers the entire history of western philosophy from the pre-socratics to the recent works by Derrida, Butler, and Luce Irigaray. In its effortless and unconscienable 300 pages plus, this book does a great disservice to all. Technical phrases are haphazarously mentioned without explication. Otherwise, we are left with baffling and insolent phrases such as the following:

I interrupt this interruption before return from it to add that I understand one of the amrks of the good in our time, perhaps its most telling mark, to be the question of sexual difference, interrupting the hold of every category and identity with questions of gender and sexual identity. (page 12)

(resume review)

Interruption of an interruption for an interruption? Ross takes important themes of sexual difference, ethics, and justice and whirls them into a single, sprawled self-referential portrait. In the end, instead of promoting and drawing us to task on these issues and themes, the book repels any intelligent reader. I surmise that, metaphorically, the author paints exclusively in water color with emphasis on the pastels.

This is an incredible (incredulous!) narrative of a series that is based on the good but which stands without any real or explained connections. All is good by the virtue of the good that is forcefully squeezed out by the author. Enough is enough! this reviewer protests. Mercy, mercy. Enough of the good already! But as Ross repeatedly states: the good exceeds limits, always.

In the end, all is encased in this book as the good. But rather than challenging the history of western philosophy, Ross has virtually imposed and reified the very narrative that this work professes to challenge. What is the link between Heraclitus and Braidotti? The book answers: wht it is the good, of course! In the end this amounts to saying: que sera, sera.

And maybe somewhere between pages 200 and 300, the author cites from Doris Day as well. This reviewer, having said enough, having shunned the abundance of the good, may have missed this moment altogether...

Swim around in this book. If a book is able to provoke, disturb or open my mind, I spend some time with it -- and I have spent much time with this book. Much of it I do not understand, but I like what it is trying to do and I have benefited immensely from what I find in it. You may feel like you are drowning some of the time but just let the waters roll over you. You may emerge here or there with great delight. If you are more familiar with the world of philosophy than I, you will understand more, although you may not benefit more.