Social Services & Welfare Books - Page 5

Touched with Fire

Kay redfield Jamison

List Price: $14.95 By: Free Press Amazon Marketplace: 43 new & used starting at $1.81

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Depression
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Mental Health -> Manic Depression
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Mental Illness

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Not the whole story...but a fine effort all the same 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

As mentioned by others, if you are looking for the actual process of how depression is seen to predispose certain people to be creative then this book is not for you. The fineline between madman and genius is still poorly understood. Jamisons book is a treatise on what information is known along with citing studies and statistical analysis. It is aimed more towards scientists etc. studying the phenomenon as opposed to individuals looking for answers as to why they are prone to depression and the creativity that depression brings about.
However, with the above in mind, Jamison has done a good job. I feel it to be incomplete as it doesn't really get in to the nitty gritty of what exactly is happening to cause the madman/genius scenario. Alas that isn't a failing of Jamison, more a case that currently no one knows with any certainty as to what is going on. Is it hereditary?, Genetics?, a social failing, artists taking advantage of societies perception of the madgenius-artist?, being predisposed to being more emotional and just feeling the highs and lows of the human condition to a greater degree? etc. etc. Hopefully one day soon the underlying causes may be know but not today. And in a way that is a plus for this book - Jamison for the most part appears to be impartial to the theories and merely collects them together for the reader to to review. There are some biographies of certain artists/writers/poets/musicians etc. with Lord Byron being the greatest study. They make for very interesting reading, along with the lists of well regarded artistic types and their battles with mental illness.
If you are someone looking for answers this book isn't for you. But if you are looking for the current state of affairs in this field then you will find much here to dwell on. My background is science so I found the delivery of the book to be standard scientific fare and had no problems reading it. It may come across as dry to a reader not so well versed in this manner of writing. As I am now a writer and an artist I found the book to be very interesting - I didn't learn much beyond what common sense will tell you but it was useful to have all the current studies in one tome. A book in a similar vein worth reading is Anthony Storr's "Churchill's Black Dog".

Editorial Review:

Kay Jamison's brilliant work, based on her lifelong studies as a clinical psychologist, reveals that many artists subject to exalted highs and despairing lows are, in fact, struggling with clinical manic-depression. Jamison applies what we now know about this illness to the lives of van Gogh, Byron, and others. National publicty.

Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools

Jonathan Kozol

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harper Perennial Amazon Marketplace: 377 new & used starting at $0.01

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Education Theory -> Philosophy & Social Aspects
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Education -> Special Education -> Behavioral Disorders

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 147 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Eye opening 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I needed this book for a class I was taking. WOW!, it was a real eye-opener. As it was really hard to read because it is sad. How amazing that there are schools here in the United States that are in dire need. I would reccomend it, but be prepared to cry.

Must Read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Kozol's Savage Inequalities paints a frightening picture of urban schools in the United States. He describes schools that are overcrowded, dilapidated, and flooded with sewage. He asks why we allow our children to go to schools in conditions where none of us would choose to work. He deeply explores the issue of inequality in funding. While he does suggest equalizing funding, he is careful to mention that the problems facing schools are complex and require innovative solutions. I know many teachers have read this book, but we need policymakers and elected officials to read it as well.

Editorial Review:

National Book Award-winning author Jonathan Kozol presents his shocking account of the American educational system in this stunning New York Times bestseller, which has sold more than 250,000 hardcover copies.

Orphaned: One Woman's Mission to Save Africa's AIDS Children

Melissa Fay Greene

Amazon Price: $11.88 List Price: $11.88 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks By: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Amazon Marketplace: 18 new & used starting at $4.56

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 40 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A truly moving experience 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a wonderful book! Having myself been to Addis Ababa recently (July 07) with my daughter to pick up her adopted Ethiopian baby boy (4 months old), you can just imagine how this story of one woman's love for so many orphans resonated with me. The book is a quick read -- something interesting in every chapter. The author intertwined Haregewoin's up and down story with bits of Ethiopian history and the unwinding spread and theories of HIV-AIDs plus added her own experience with H. and the adoption her own Ethiopian children -- which made the reader come away with a true cultural experience. H. is truly a "Mother Theresa" figure and an inspiration to all women. Thank you, Melissa, for introducing us to her. I really enjoyed having the photos of many of the children and their adoptive families to relate to. I will be sure that my daughter reads this book and I have suggested it to my book club in Boulder, CO which will read it in the fall. -- Gayle Weiss

Editorial Review:

In a tin-walled compound outside Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a middle-class woman named Haregewoin Teferra suffers terrible personal losses. In grief, she turns to the church, and is presented with two orphans and asked to house them. Haregewoin agrees. Once she opens her gate, she never manages to close it again. Here is a woman who does not run away from HIV-positive and AIDS-orphaned children, brought to her on foot, by bus or by donkey cart. There are over a million AIDS orphans in Ethiopia; "There Is No Me Without You" tells a few of their remarkable stories through the eyes of a woman whose own life has been altered by them.

A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps

Stephanie S. Covington Ph. D.

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hazelden Amazon Marketplace: 65 new & used starting at $4.15

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This book has provided help and understanding for many women in recovery 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

The language of the 12Steps, writen over 70 years ago, primarily for male alcoholics is a tried and true series of 'suggestions' that have seen many men and women find sobriety and a better way of life. A Woman's Way Through the Twelve Steps is very faithful to the 12 Steps as written in the Big Book but 'plumps out' the language in a way that is helpful and speaks to the spiritual and emotional needs of women. We have used this book in several groups and found the content to be so rich that we have to often take the Steps in two or three sessions. Its a gift!

11 years sober 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you need help understanding how the 12 step work, for you or a loved one, read this book

Editorial Review:

Created to make the Twelve Step program more accessible to women and the way they experience addiction, this book illuminates each step to reveal the underlying meaning from a woman's viewpoint. In the second part, the author discusses major themes in the lives of recovering women, including spirituality, powerlessness, and the emergence of the feminine soul.

Student Manual for Corey's Theory and Practice of Counseling and Psychotherapy, 7th

Gerald Corey

Amazon Price: $38.98 List Price: $54.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Brooks Cole Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $9.74

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Applied Psychology
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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Counseling -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Text! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was a very thorough and easy-to-read book about the various theories of counseling and psychotherapy. I, personally, often need "supplemental" things to go with a text to help me learn the material. This book did a great job of explaining the concepts, comparing and contrasting theories, and giving examples of practice and assessment. Although someone else that wrote a review didn't particularly care for the student manual, I found it extremely helpful while preparing for my exams. I read the chapters first, and actually enjoyed the readings, and found that "brushing up" with the student manual before my exam was very helpful, and reinforced the theoretical concepts. Also, the Case Study book was required for my class, and is an excellent source for understanding the theories "in action", so to speak. When learning these types of theories, it is very helpful having concrete examples to work with, and Corey does an excellent job with that. Over all, a great text, with lots of info that is clearly illustrated with examples and case studies.

Editorial Review:

Helps readers apply theory to practice through summary charts, open-ended questions and cases, structured exercises, self-inventories, and a variety of activities. The manual also contains a glossary for each of the theories, chapter quizzes for assessing the level of student mastery of basic concepts, and suggestions for working with a single case (Ruth) using each theory.

They Cage the Animals at Night: The True Story of a Child Who Learned to Survive

Jennings Michael Burch

List Price: $14.95 By: Dutton Adult Amazon Marketplace: 15 new & used starting at $4.61

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 188 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

I've read it over ten times 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Since I first read this book over 15 years ago I've read the book over 10 times. I read it three times the first year. I felt it was an amazing story, very touching, and able to tug at me each time I read it. The strength and courage that the author had was amazing.

Wonderful book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I could not put this book down! It made my cry a couple of times but it does have a happy ending.

An awsome read 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is mind-numbingly captivating. I dont like getting depressed after reading a book, and I was expecting to find myself knee deep in a semi-horror novel. Such as David Pelzer's "A child called It," (good book by the way) but this story is different. Though the events told in this story are horrific, there is an enchanting light of hope that guides you through the chapters. The good expressed in this book is equal to the bad, and it makes for a well balanced read. The innocents and wisdom this child reflects is just heart wrenching. I love it.

Editorial Review:

Burch was left at an orphanage and never stayed at any one foster home long enough to make any friends. This is the story of how he grew up and gained the courage to reach out for love.

The Vision of the Anointed Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy

Thomas Sowell

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Federal Government
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Government -> Social Policy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 110 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The man does his homework 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is a brilliant book. I'm an historian (I teach history at a community college) and have studied, in depth, the philosophic background and history of the rise of modern secular ideology and its utopian vision--the people Sowell refers to as "the anointed" (and it is an accurate term). Sowell is hated by these people for two reasons: he's black and thus does not fit their stereotype of the down-trodden African-American, and his argumentation, which attacks some of the actual consequences of "the anointed's" philosophy, is buttressed by a wide ranging array of facts and evidence. To one who truly understands the philosophy of modern secularism, Sowell's book makes perfect sense and provides the factual data which proves absolutely many of the harmful effects of these "anointed" views.

If you truly read it, this book will make you mad. That there are people out there--who have power, and that's frightening--who want to tell you what to believe, who turn violent criminals loose on a whim, who'll take children away from their parents based upon their own view of how those children should be raised, who flat-out lie to the American people in order to gain the control they want...anybody who believes in freedom will burn in anger while reading this book. The American people, in general, have a sense that there is something wrong with our country, that there has been a gradual decline and degradation over the last generation or so. But most of them can't quite put their finger on what it is. Read this book and you'll find out why. Then come take my history course and I'll give you the historical background to all of it.

What Sowell writes about isn't happening by chance. As incredible as it is to decent, thinking Americans, there are actually people in this country who believe "the anointed's" philosophy. That they can get away with some of the things Sowell describes in this book tells us how stealthily they've stolen this country from the honest, moral people who built and who are still the backbone of it.

Editorial Review:

Sowell presents a devastating critique of the mind-set behind the failed social policies of the past thirty years. Sowell sees what has happened during that time not as a series of isolated mistakes but as a logical consequence of a tainted vision whose defects have led to crises in education, crime, and family dynamics, and to other social pathologies. In this book, he describes how elites—the anointed—have replaced facts and rational thinking with rhetorical assertions, thereby altering the course of our social policy.

Final Exit (Third Edition): The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and Assisted Suicide for the Dying

Derek Humphry

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Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Death & Grief -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 62 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

As the legal controversy continues--this newly revised and updated third edition of the landmark bestseller contains new, critically important information for patients, loved ones, and medical personnel.

The original publication of Final Exit stunned the nation by offering people with terminal illness a choice on how--and when--to end their suffering. It helped thousands by giving clear instructions to doctors, nurses, and families on how to handle a patient’s request for euthanasia.

In the wake of court cases and legislative mandates, this revised and updated third edition goes far beyond the original to provide new information about the legality of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and a thoughtful examination of the personal issues involved. It has become the essential source to help loved ones and supportive doctors remain within existing laws and keep a person’s dying intimate, private, and dignified.

With deep compassion and sensitivity, it spells out why a living will may not be sufficient to have a person’s wishes carried out--and what document is a better alternative. It updates where to get proper drugs and exactly how to carry out the quickest, most peaceful way to make a final exit. Finally, it gently talks to a person considering self-deliverance about alternatives, planning, and the means to make every death a "good death" at our time of greatest need.

Down and Out in Paris and London (Penguin audiobooks)

George Orwell

List Price: $16.95 By: Penguin Audio Amazon Marketplace: 12 new & used starting at $6.69

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 97 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Not as good as I would have hoped 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

First of all, I love Orwell, but by the time I finished this book I have to say that I felt let down. Paris was wonderful and exciting, but London I found to be boring and depressing. Both were educational and in that regard, a very interesting read, but I just found Paris to be much more entertaining at the same time. Overall, I'd say you're not missing much if you don't read this one.

Reliable 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The book's in good condition. It came in pretty quickly, a week and a day. Price was good, not too expensive.

Heavily edited 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Wonderful language, rare book I do not regret reading.
Too many-----. I would like to know what do they stand for.
----- editors!

Down and Out in Paris and London - indeed, now I have been 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

First of all, I'm really happy I told myself to look for more Orwell books once I'd exhausted "1984" and "Animal Farm". Coming out of "1984" slightly disappointed (as compared to the superb "Animal Farm"), I picked this thin, tightly printed novel up. A few hours later, I set it down and leaned my head back to think.

First off, a slight shake of my head at Mr. Orwell. It cannot possibly be that every single Jewish person in the world is a sneaky, cunning, manipulative crook. The book isn't anti-Semitic, exactly, but it certainly shows the culture-deep dislike of Jews. It got a bit frustrating, that the two or three Jews mentioned were all fairly... evil. So seriously.

Other than that, basically, the book is pretty great. "Down and Out in Paris and London" reminded me a bit of Somerset Maugham's great "Of Human Bondage" (but with a better name) in that I felt like I was being told an honest, true story about the at times crappiness that a young poor man in these cities faces. There are clear differences between the two - very different styles, different time periods, different points, different messages - but I left both books with the similar feeling that I had just learned something very important about this world.

Orwell describes in a manner that is impeccable and frighteningly honest what it meant to be poor - down and out - in the two great cities of Europe. One can imagine the wealthy all they want. Orwell gives us the lowest possible scenario, the starvation, the humiliation, the difficulties (mentally and physically), and does so clearly. Anyone else coming from "Animal Farm" will find a similarly readable style that makes this an easy book to read in one, albeit long, sitting. It's honestly two books and can even be read as such - the Paris part (totally awesome) and the completely different, slightly less interesting but still fascinating London part. Together, however, "Down and Out" paints a bleak picture of the working world. It's not pleasant to think of.

Other than just making you reflect on your own life (how pleasant it is, that is), "Down and Out" will present you with a new way to look at things. I don't think I've ever quite thought of bums (tramps) the same way. I similarly gained a whole new level of respect for anyone forced to work in devastating conditions for minimal pay (Orwell's description of a Paris kitchen). Clearly portraying the difficulties and problems of the lowest social class in two large, great cities, Orwell once again created a novel (semi-autobiographical, perhaps, but novel-like nonetheless) that is at once enjoyable, engrossing, enlightening and thought-provoking.

Statements such as these are not outdated even today, provide readers with perspective, relevant observations, and important ideas. There are amusing edits, meant, I assume, to maintain the original feel, but it's a bit silly to see lines instead of swears... All in all, "Down and Out in Paris in London" rose above and beyond my standards. Very different yet so similar to numerous other books out there (Orwell's own "1984" and "Animal Farm", "Of Human Bondage", some Zola novels as well...), "Down and Out" stands firm as an excellent book that just about everyone should read. Highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

Part autobiography, this unusual novel follows the experiences of a penniless adventurer, first in Paris in the early 1930s and later in London, where he mingles among tramps and street people.

Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health (California Studies in Food and Culture)

Marion Nestle

Amazon Price: $45.00 List Price: $45.00 Usually ships in 2 to 4 weeks By: University of California Press Amazon Marketplace: 56 new & used starting at $6.25

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Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Economics -> Agricultural
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Popular Economics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

We all witness, in advertising and on supermarket shelves, the fierce competition for our food dollars. In this engrossing expose, Marion Nestle goes behind the scenes to reveal how the competition really works and how it affects our health. The abundance of food in the United States--enough calories to meet the needs of every man, woman, and child twice over--has a downside. Our overefficient food industry must do everything possible to persuade people to eat more--more food, more often, and in larger portions--no matter what it does to waistlines or well-being. Like manufacturing cigarettes or building weapons, making food is very big business. Food companies in 2000 generated nearly $900 billion in sales. They have stakeholders to please, shareholders to satisfy, and government regulations to deal with. It is nevertheless shocking to learn precisely how food companies lobby officials, co-opt experts, and expand sales by marketing to children, members of minority groups, and people in developing countries. We learn that the food industry plays politics as well as or better than other industries, not least because so much of its activity takes place outside the public view. Editor of the 1988 Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, Nestle is uniquely qualified to lead us through the maze of food industry interests and influences. She vividly illustrates food politics in action: watered-down government dietary advice, schools pushing soft drinks, diet supplements promoted as if they were First Amendment rights. When it comes to the mass production and consumption of food, strategic decisions are driven by economics--not science, not common sense, and certainly not health. No wonder most of us are thoroughly confused about what to eat to stay healthy. An accessible and balanced account, Food Politics will forever change the way we respond to food industry marketing practices. By explaining how much the food industry influences government nutrition policies and how cleverly it links its interests to those of nutrition experts, this pathbreaking book helps us understand more clearly than ever before what we eat and why.