Westerns Books

Very well written textbook, easy to understand. Good real world examples listed in each chapter.

Yes, the book has many additions to the text. I found them very useful and insightful, and they assisted in offering a connection between the text and the real world in most cases. I am taking correspondance courses, so this book is all I have, and I think it's great. The authors speak in a way that's easy to read and understand. I don't like reading much, but this book made it easy.

Very well written, easy to understand and a great format. I learned alot.

I love business, the class I have is fun, the teacher is funny as hell, but the book just stinks. However, there is a study guide that you can buy to go with the book, I strongly recommend that. Helped me study tremendously

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.

I didn't even give it much thought, it was so easy. I ordered the book for a Christmas gift and it got to my house in a very timely manner. I would definetely order more books from this person.

I hated to finish this book, yet I was compelled to so I could see if Sarah and Udell got together. I won't 'spill the beans' in this review so you avid readers don't have to worry.
The book is well written and captivating. The storyline is excellent and gives you a greater appreciation for our ancestors and their trials.
I would highly recommend this book!

I absolutely love this book. Mrs. Turner took me right back to the time period and made me feel like I was standing there watching these people's lives happen.

I approached Sarah's Quilt with some hesitation as so often sequels just don't live up to the anticipation of the first book's enjoyment. Sarah's Quilt, however, did not disappoint. The characters of the story are so fleshed out in such subtle ways, I feel as if I have come to know and love these people. The plot is, like life itself, a bit disjointed, and takes a while to get started. Certain matters occupy Sarah's mind more than others at times, but all the storylines ultimately are resolved.

I think this book had particular meaning for me because my second son recently left home for college. With two children away, and only one left at home, I felt many of Sarah's difficulties in how to resolve being a good mother to "children" who are growing up so fast, how to care for an older mother, and questions where life is heading. I am not sure if I had read this novel when I was younger (and by "younger" I mean ten years ago) if it would have had the same impact for me. It was comforting to know that the concerns of a pioneer woman over one hundred years ago can still resonate with a middle-aged woman in 2007.

Read this book if you like historical American fiction, especially involving a strong, independent woman as main character. Also, if you like reading stories where hearth and home are considered something worth fighting for.

Let me begin by saying that "These is my Words" was inspiring, and I couldn't put it down. But it feels as though the author put less effort into this novel technically, and therefore "Sarah's Quilt" didn't draw me in quite as much -- I was too busy noticing the inconsistencies in the writing.

This novel is written in diary format much like "These is my Words", but the format serves only to interrupt the flow of the story. The "diary entries" are inconsistent and cover huge chunks of time, including future days, which doesn't make sense. Also, Sarah's voice doesn't sound like she's writing in a journal, she sounds like she's writing the novel herself. I wish Turner had just written the book as a novel reflecting Sarah's history: still in Sarah's words, but without the unnecessary fictional "diary."

I found the actual story to be wholly engaging, but at the same time I agree with another reviewer who said that storylines such as Harland and his family were built up and then forgotten. I couldn't stop reading, but the disjointedness was frustrating!

My final criticism regards the title itself: Sarah's Quilt. Sarah and her mother work on this quilt throughout the story, but in the end it is just another prop. It doesn't have deep meaning or form a bond that links the story's different parts together. It's a convenient title which recalls Turner's family heirloom but has little to do with the actual story.

I DO recommend this book to people who enjoyed "Words" because Sarah Prine is such an engaging character and I enjoyed riding along with her on her journey. And I will probably buy Turner's next book based on the Prines as well. But reader beware: don't expect the same experience you had with "These is my Words."

Despite that the book is very expensive and a required text book for college, I think it is an excellent book. It is informative and easy to read. The author made the information interesting and kept me engaged. If I didn't need the money (from reselling it), I would keep it as a reference guide.

This book contains a concise explanation of every day problems regarding foreign transactions, together with an explanation of the Common law system specially in United States, this book concentrates pertinent cases for each of the subjects explained in it.

Fantastic guide for the park. Prices were higher than book states for many hotels and activities, so double check those since they go up constantly. Other than that, this is a great guide!

Very easy to follow. Like the way it was set-up in sections according to the park locations.

Bought this book as I was planning a trip to Glacier National Park with my wife and seven year old daughter. It was our first vacation west of the Mississippi and reading the book felt like I had already been there and it was easy to find my way around. We spent seven days in Glacier and, while we did not get to everything I had hoped, the book was indispensable. Ms. Lomax' spot-on descriptions of campgrounds, restaurants and camp stores as well as trails and sights helped us prepare better to enjoy the trip.

A good book with lots of details about Glacier National Park. However, it doesn't do a great job at explaining the big picture about the park and helping a first time visitor understand the general layout. There should be a different first few paragraphs that explain for a first time visitor. I couldn't find any better books though, so this is a good choice.

This was a great guide for my trip to Glacier. It proved to be invaluable. It detailed hikes, routes, accommodation, dining and wildlife in the park very accurately.Pretty much everything could be taken as fact, such as the overcrowding at Logan's Pass and the side of the car you should sit on if you're nervous of heights whilst on the Going-to-the-Sun road.
In fact, at Glacier it was the ONLY guide book I could find on the park (although I'd bought mine on Amazon!).
If your planning on visiting Glacier get this book in advance. It's really interesting as it tells you histories related to the park and lets you in on events that happen throughout the year, as well as good tips as to view the wildlife.

This textbook was required for my History 10a class at Harvard (Steven Ozment is the professor for the course). In addition to the scholarly explanations and descriptions of early European history, the book comes with a CD with plenty of primary source documents. If that is not enough, there also many excerpts of primary sources scattered throughout each chapter.