Westerns Books

The book covered a lot of ground. I believe it offered a lot of insight into the world of human resources, primarily, the challenges faced by HR today. Some highlights were the concept of valuing human assets, the implications of globalization, federal regulations, the importance of well-designed and applicable feedback systems, employee separation and compensation. Overall, it was a fairly easy read. I would recommend this book to professors, students, and entrepreneurs.

I purchased this book on the reading list for a conference I am attending next month, on applying mindfulness techniques to healthcare problems.

This is a good exposition of mindfulness theory and practice. Althought a novice therapist will find the text useful, most of the insight gained by reading this text will be achieved by therapists with 5 to 10 years actual practice under their belts. I would advise novice therapists to buy this book immediately and then delve into each chapter several times per month for the next few years. They will never regret it. The problem and promise on this book is that it requires you to go back and review each concept of your original training, whether it is Adlerian, Freudian, Cognitive or Christian. Mindfulness is the goldplating overlay that makes your therapy more valuable.

This well-written, wise, accessible book will help novice and seasoned therapists incorporate mindfulness practice into their clinical work, skillfully and thoughtfully. The editors and contributors provide a range of expert perspectives on the role of mindfulness in psychotherapy and convey the complexity of good psychotherapy, mindfulness practice, and the union of the two. The clarity with which they accomplish this is remarkable. The depth of their personal and professional expertise and experience is evident throughout. Inclusion of a thorough review of current research in the area is another notable strength of the volume. I highly recommend this book to clinicians and researchers interested in the powerful role that mindfulness may play in psychological healing. It is essential reading for anyone interested in this highly promising area of study.
-- Lizabeth Roemer, Ph.D.

I'm not really a psychoterapist, I'm an M.D.And although being a mindfulness meditation practitioner myself, I'm just entering this world as a way to "awake" my patients.So this is a good book for any health prefessionals who has to deal with all kinds of emotions, and essentially human beings.Liked it a lot!

As a psychotherapist for 30 years and a mindfulness practitioner for nearly 10 years, I have read a lot of good books and articles on both subjects. "Mindfulness and Psychotherapy" is as clear and helpful in both disiplines as any I have encounted. The editors have done a 'mindful' job in selecting from an array of perspectives. Mindfulness is defined and contextualized for our western psychotherapeutic practice, while also placed in an historical and cultural framwork that informs and enlightens our understanding. Indeed the more philosophical essays are perhaps the strongest pieces in this marvelous compendium. We are reminded that the Buddah saw himself as a physician who sought to diagnose and find a cure for human suffering. Out of his own intimate encounter with suffering, he devised and revised a program that we in western psychological science are just now testing and finding curative-both for our clients and for ourselves.
There is much here to be considered by all schools of psychotherapy. Paul Fulton presents an intriguing chapter on Mindfulness as Clinical Training. There are concise chapters on teaching mindfulness skills to clients (even children)with varying disorders, including panic,anxiety, depression, and psychophysiological problems. There is a comprehensive while managable 'Resources for the Clinician" appendix.
Andrew Olendzki deserves special mention for his piece on "The Roots of Mindfulness." I had to stop highlighting as each page was yellowed with brightness.
If you are a psychotherapist, a meditator, or thinking of practicing either, you will do well to read this wonderful book.

The condition of the book was great(like new). Seemed like I turned around after ordering and the book arrived it was so quick. My only issue was that it was the wrong edition and that might have been me not paying attention to the sellers description. So make sure you do that. Otherwise, great service!

This text is geared toward the 'business student' and assumes minimal amounts of prior math (the general prerequisite is a semester of college algebra). That said, this text is very poorly structured which can lead to a general frustration when reading it. The main 'flaw' are the 'applications boxes' that appear quite often. The 'boxes' tend to be in the middle of a discussion on math - and take up half the page. As the authors run out of real world examples, they make people up (and tell you the photo is real, the guy is fake in his quotes).

My issue with this book has to do with the approach to statistics. This book could easily be condensed to 200-300 pages and nothing would be lost - you'd gain from a cheaper text. The CD is not worth anything - it just contains data files from problems that are completely worked out in the book. There is very little mathematical rigor - the emphasis is on an applied, formula memorization approach. Another problem is that some important (tested) topics are mentioned in two sentences.

The solution manual is not worth getting - I had an instructor who posted the word version of it. Instead of actually going through the steos to reach the answer, the approach is essentially to give you the answer and nothing else. It's not at all helpful.

I realize this is a required text for most of you, but you would do well to purchase a used copy and avoid the solutions manual.

The college I teach in replaced this book with another, widely accepted book with a simiar name. This was two years ago, and yet the instructors still keep this book to use for examples, and we would like it back as the book of choice. It stands head and shoulders above most of the competition.
My students are mainly business majors, not mathematicians, and this book is 100% suited to this type of application. The examples are 'real world' that actually explain where a particular concept or distribution may be used. In essence-this book covers everything you'll need and then some...

If I DO have a couple of 'moans' about the book, it gets a bit too 'in depth' in some areas, way more than the average business student would ever need, and also the CD, which is a bit of a waste of time, dealing with data files for Excel and Minitab. There are no 'REAL' learning tools.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn the subject at their own pace. It's expensive, and the prior versions contain about the same stuff, just in a cheaper package. There have been no real 'breakthroughs' in Stats in the last few decades, so the subject matter is pretty much unchanged. As the adage goes "You pays yer money and takes yer choice"- a few 'dog-eared' pages won't kill you!

Finally a statistics book that isn't just a math book with no practical implication.

This book really helped me at my job to make decision calculations.

The book is very clearly outlined and easy to read. It goes it depth without unnecessary information. The cases in the back are interesting and are supplemented with plenty of visuals.

I would have to compliment the teacher that picks this book for their course. The book is interesting and easy to read. The fact that most of the cases are from real life situations makes the reading more interesting and easy to follow! Great book.

This book was used for my law and ethics class in my MBA program. The book is actually quite good in breaking down business topics and looking at the precedents that helped shape our current laws. The book is also good at applying the law to actual events such as the Enron scandal and other legal events in the past few years. While some people might say that it is a waste of time to read this book because you are not going to become lawyers, I would argue that it is important to at least have a basic understanding of some business law.

This book provides an excellent supplement to a regular college business law text by exposing real world dilemmas, and how they were handled by the courts. Can be used to generate discussion on ethical responsibilities, sexual harassment, and some aspects of agency law.

This textbook has some good information, but it is wordy and redundant in spots. Some topics have more detail than what is needed in the real world. Chapters are too long. Make these edits, enlarge the print, and the textbook would be a better product.

Bateson's writings are profoundly layered with meaning that a brief glance will overlook. His prolific influence can be found in sundry fields of study, including psychiatry, communication theory, and marriage and family therapy to name a few.

This is the type of book (among few) that can be read over and over again while discovering new facets of understanding every time.

I highly recommend the metalogues.

Take all the buzzwords in fashion in psychology and philosophy: classification, genotype, flexibility, somatic, discrete, threshold, characteristics, analytic... mix everything together and you get this book.
In other words there's not an ounce of meaning in those 700 pages, it's all worthless. No case studies, no examples, long phrases full of self importance written by someone who thinks he's an authority in everything from zen to medecine to evolution theory to archeology. Not only does he prove he doesn't understand anything, you'll laugh yourself silly reading any paragraph of the book at random.

If you have to read this for an assignment, you'd better change major and give it to your worst enemy for toilet paper. That's how low I think of this. And to think that a tree was felled for this. Ha !

Really, what is the difference between a nip and a bite? They look the same, when you are watching kittens playing, how can you tell if they are biting in earnestness or just fooling around? Well you can't really tell, because a nip is a bite and isn't a bite all at the same time. However, you can tell, of course you can, because a nip has a sign posted on it saying "this is play", a bite on the other hand has a sign saying "this is for real". Moreover tells us Bateson - one of the greatest minds in social thought - whoever cannot tell the difference between a bite and a nip is in big trouble, because the sign stating "this is play" enables us to tell reality from imagination, thus safeguarding our sanity. "Steps in the ecology of the mind" is a profound statement on the mechanisms that make us tick, on the human condition.

Reading "Steps" helped save me from the unremitting horrors of divorce court; I'd probably be on a death row somewheres if not for this & some peripherally associated material. I am very pleased to see that it's in print again.

From those meticulous metalogues to those essays on the Theory of Logical Types, Bateson can mesmerize, if you're prepared for it. Especially enlightening is the lecture on the Treaty of Versailles & cybernetics; for Bateson, the two most important events of his lifetime: if you're going to deceive someone (the Fourteen Points), you'd better get an honest man (Woodrow Wilson) to do it.

"Steps" is to science & reason what Frost's "West Running Brook" is to poetry: an intense meditation, soliloquy & dialogue. It's worth your while.

After my paperback copy of SEM decayed from several readings, I was more than a little disappointed to see that it had gone out of print. I'm glad that its finally back.

Absolutely, Bateson is a "sloppy thinker," just as Picasso was a "sloppy painter" by the standards of Vermeer and Rembrandt. And really a comparison to artists - not formal theorists - is the metric by which Bateson should be judged.

Why is it that Bateson attracts such loyalty? Because his writing illustrates a *process* of thinking, rather than a specific indisputable conclusion. Those who expend the time and effort to read Bateson - and in particular SEM - are rewarded with the certainty that the thinking process is as interesting as any possible conclusion. And it is somewhat more than "clever" that in the SEM dialogues, Bateson uses the very structure and form of his writings to illustrate the content he's explaining.

Indeed it is precisely that uncertainty which vexes "formal" theorists (such as the reviewer below). Bateson - as a systems thinker - was always more interested in process and context than in defining any literal end result. After all, what possible "proof" could be offered that dolphins are second-order thinkers because they can learn about learning?. How on earth could proof be gained that icons and verbalizations are mediated by dreaming?

I would offer this question to Bateson's critics: if his thinking is so irredeemably sloppy, what then is his lasting appeal? Why does he - among all the philosophers and scientists of the 20th century - continue to have such a loyal following? Name a single cybernetician or epistomologist who is commonly cited in contemporary philosphical thinking.

Answer: there are none. So the bigger question is not why Bateson is popular, but why systems thinking (of which Bateson was a practitioner) is so absent from American academia. That fact is an indictment of something, but is certainly is not Gregory Bateson.

The book arrived in excellent condition and several days before it was expected. Great service. The book is required reading material for my Marketing class.

Good book for school. very basic examples.
might be to basic if you have work experience.

There are many in our society today who are dissatisfied with the traditional church; too dull, not enough excitement, want to feel good when I leave on Sunday. In an effort to try to understand what this new emerging church is and how or if they are true to scripture I selected this book. D. A. Carson has given a thoughtful and frank assessment of this new movement. Just learning what the terms emerging and or emergent are was quite insightful.

Three months ago, I was at a Q&A session at Southern Theological Seminary, and the panel, which included Seminary President Dr. Albert Moehler, was asked about the Emerging Church Movement. Moehler commented that to some churches, replacing the piano and organ with a praise band is being emergent. Others claim that title because they are legitimately disillusioned with the traditional church. Still others latch on to this movement because of a heart of evangelism to today's society. He had no problem with these; his problem is when it affects doctrine. One of the other panelists recommended this book.

One thing I look for in reading a book is how broad a brush the writer uses. Does he put everyone in the same category, or does he identify the variations and praise the good as well as criticize what isn't? Dr. Carson succeeds at this, though one improvement would be to use this later in the book just as a reminder. He points out that the movement is so varied that neither his praises or his problems apply to every emergent church.

He has an orderly and logical progression to his book, moving from defining the movement, praising its strengths (which he points out that are not exclusive to the movement), and then moving to its criticisms, with a parenthetical introduction to post-moderninsm and its relation to this movement.

The bottom line is that this movement has a problem with truth. Every other shortcoming is tied in to this. Carson deals with the problems in the movement as a whole and in two representative books by perceived leaders of the group, before pointing out what Scripture has to say about it.

Is this the best book on the movement? Having read only one, I cannot answer the question. Do I recommend this book? Yes. It is a great introduction, though it requires you wear your thinking cap when reading it; it took me a while to work through some sections because of its depth.

This book is for the intellect. It was very hard to keep my mind on the facts. There were too many difficult sentences and words to make this interesting and informative for me. Sorry! But I am sure it is truthful.

This is essential reading for anyone on the outside looking in that wants to know more about the "Emerging Church." Dr. Carson explains what the "Emerging Church" is and explains it's philosophical foundation, postmodernism. He then presents both the strengths and weaknesses of the movement in a fair way. This book made me think and helped make it clear why I have felt so uneasy about aspects of this movement.

To sum things up, the "Emerging Church" is very good at providing context, understanding culture, and reaching previously unreached segments of society. The movement however resists objective truth, which ensures that their treatment of the Gospel message is extremely problematic.

The only warning is that this book is very academic (I found myself reading this with a dictionary alongside). This is not your typical light Christian reading.

What I find interesting is that I was actually driven by watching the debate on this book to read McLaren's book "A Generous Orthodoxy" prior to reading this one as I thought the debate was a riveting one. Having read both books, I have to say that I feel McLaren has been much maligned in the characterization of that DA Carson makes of his work. That is not to say that some of his assertions are not valid in regards to areas of the emerging church.
Many of Dr. Carson assertions are quite valid. It has been my personal experience that many emergent churches (several I have visited or attended) do seem to struggle with a watering down of the Gospel through offering services about being a better you and other self help style sermons that can sometimes remove the focus on God. Many struggle with, as Carson put it, "a shallow" view of faith that often borders on a selfish pursuit by these christians of a "prosperity gospel" that portrays God as a cosmic slot machine for believing. Prayer goes in -- red corvette and wealth come out. There is truth to a tendency of these groups towards a "feel good" and "non offensive, political correct, and an all encompassing tolerance that rubberstamps all divergent beliefs&

The case studies presented were interesting and well-written. They grabbed the reader's attention. Some of the cases were useful to me as an instructor, but my needs are focused on cases that relate to federal/state/local government audit issues. I don't regret getting the book, as many of the issues raised are relevant and helpful to new auditors.

Do the case studies have questions and answers for students to look at?

I can't say anything more about this book. The author's presentation skills and overall arrangements are marvelous. It's not only informative to read it, but extremely fun! Though my firm specializes in securities, internal control, and compliance areas, I still regularly raise those issues highlighted in this book to my colleagues over email or during conference. We all benefit from it a lot.