Sociology Books - Page 11

Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 27 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

                The Bestselling Text is Completely Updated and Better than Ever!

Praise for the Third Edition:

“I have used the older edition with great success. The new one is even better.”
-Kathleen Duncan, University of La Verne

The Third Edition of the bestselling text Research Design by John W. Creswell enables readers to compare three approaches to research-qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods-in a single research methods text. The book presents these three approaches side by side within the context of the process of research from the beginning steps of philosophical assumptions to the writing and presenting of research. Written in a user-friendly manner, Creswell's text does not rely on technical jargon. He cuts to the core of what a reader needs to know to read and design research in part by showcasing ideas in a scaffold approach so that the reader understands ideas from the simple to the complex.

Key updates to the Third Edition:

• Presents the preliminary steps of using philosophical assumptions in the beginning of the book
• Provides an expanded discussion on ethical issues
• Emphasizes new Web-based technologies for literature searches
• Offers updated information about mixed methods research procedures
• Contains a glossary of terms
• Highlights “research tips” throughout the chapters incorporating the author’s experiences over the last 35 years

The Instructor’s Resource CD-ROM (ISBN:978-1-4129-6672-6) contains: 

• Sample Syllabi
• PowerPoint Slide Sets
• Sample Student Proposals
• Suggested Studies Published in Journal Articles
• Application Activities and Tutorial
• Peer-Feedback Group Activities
• Study Design Group Activities
• End-of-Chapter Checklists

The Student Study Site at www.sagepub.com/creswellstudy offers:

• Sample Student Proposals
• Application Activities and Tutorials
• Peer-Feedback Group Activities
• Study Design Group Activities
• End-of-Chapter Checklists

Research Design, Third Edition appeals to students taking research design and research methods classes throughout the social and behavioral sciences-from undergraduates to the most advanced doctoral programs.

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality

Rob Bell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 102 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

good, not great 3 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I love Rob Bell and was really looking forward to reading this book. I found the chapter titles interesting, but was somewhat disappointed with the content. There were plenty of thought provoking ideas and perspectives, but overall I felt it to be dreary. I would recommend reading it, I may even give it another shot and try it again in a year. Maybe I missed something or need to be at another place in my life. Either way, I think Bell is bright, interesting and has a wonderful perspective on Christianity and our role in this life.

Antiquated 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Should have looked more closely at the author before purchasing. Although it's a refreshing view of the beauty of sex and the spiritual connection it creates between you and God, it also has a very conservative sexual undercurrent. My sense was that the author would not consider a queer relationship as applicable to his theory and he also strongly advocates for abstinence before marriage, which is something that I think is antiquated.

Editorial Review:

God and sex go together. You can’t separate the two, says Rob Bell, because this physical world is intimately linked to deeper spiritual realities. And so, in order to make sense of sexuality, at some point you have to talk about God. With beauty and unusual insight, Sex God explores this connection.

The Freedom Writers Diary : How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them

Freedom Writers, Zlata Filipovic

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Straight from the front line of urban America, the inspiring story of one fiercely determined teacher and her remarkable students.


As an idealistic twenty-three-year-old English teacher at Wilson High School in Long beach, California, Erin Gruwell confronted a room of “unteachable, at-risk” students. One day she intercepted a note with an ugly racial caricature, and angrily declared that this was precisely the sort of thing that led to the Holocaust—only to be met by uncomprehending looks. So she and her students, using the treasured books Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo as their guides, undertook a life-changing, eye-opening, spirit-raising odyssey against intolerance and misunderstanding. They learned to see the parallels in these books to their own lives, recording their thoughts and feelings in diaries and dubbing themselves the “Freedom Writers” in homage to the civil rights activists “The Freedom Riders.”

With funds raised by a “Read-a-thon for Tolerance,” they arranged for Miep Gies, the courageous Dutch woman who sheltered the Frank family, to visit them in California, where she declared that Erin Gruwell’s students were “the real heroes.” Their efforts have paid off spectacularly, both in terms of recognition—appearances on “Prime Time Live” and “All Things Considered,” coverage in People magazine, a meeting with U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley—and educationally. All 150 Freedom Writers have graduated from high school and are now attending college.

With powerful entries from the students’ own diaries and a narrative text by Erin Gruwell, The Freedom Writers Diary is an uplifting, unforgettable example of how hard work, courage, and the spirit of determination changed the lives of a teacher and her students.

The authors’ proceeds from this book will be donated to The Tolerance Education Foundation, an organization set up to pay for the Freedom Writers’ college tuition. Erin Gruwell is now a visiting professor at California State University, Long Beach, where some of her students are Freedom Writers.

Passionate Marriage: Love, Sex, and Intimacy in Emotionally Committed Relationships

David Schnarch

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 99 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Are you differentiated? 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

If you're not, you need to read this book! The passionate Marriage is an excellent book written in a personable manner with excellent anecdotes that demonstrate the concepts the writer is explaining. Reading this book helped me recognize where I wasn't differentiated and where I needed to do some serious internal work to help myself. It's also helped my marriage a lot, in terms of how my wife and I communicate.

If you're having trouble in your marriage or just want to communicate better and have more intimacy, read this book. It will help both you and your partner(s) connect with each other.

Great 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I have learned that it's fine to think about myself first, even during sex. This book freed us from the specter of uneven sexual desire, and battles about oral sex. I also recommend an amazing book in this topic I Love You. Now What?: Falling in Love is a Mystery, Keeping It Isn't

Editorial Review:

A sexual and marital therapist explains how to achieve emotional, sexual, and personal fulfillment and intimacy with one's partner in a committed relationship. Tour.

Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours

Kevin Leman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Winner for one at Whit's End! And everybody else too! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a must read for all parents...even the ones whose kids "mind" or don't think they need to. This book is more about being a good parent and being happy with the end result. It has made such a positive impact on my family, that I have told anyone that would listen about it.

What on earth is wrong with these kids today... 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

....probably you will see yourself in this book and help your child become all they were meant to be. Help yourself and your kids, give it a read.

Helpful, enlightening, good readiing 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to know how to get children to understand discipline.

Excellent Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book is for every parent whether their child is difficult to raise or not. Easy read and many examples to help you implement the discipline.

Highly effective! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Leman does it again. This book tells it like it is and gives us a great alternative to whatever it is we are doing that is not working! I could have done with a few less sports analogies, but overall this is a great, quick read with some very effective techniques.

The 33 Strategies of War

Robert Greene

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Total reviews: 51 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The contemporary companion to Sun-tzu's The Art of War, this brilliant distillation of the strategies of war can help us gain mastery in the modern world.

Spanning world civilizations, synthesizing dozens of political, philosophical, and religious texts and thousands of years of violent conflict, this is a comprehensive guide to getting ahead and staying there.

Each chapter outlines an approach that will help you win your life's wars. Learn the offensive strategies that require you to maintain the initiative and negotiate from a position of strength, and the defensive strategies that enable you to respond to dangerous situations and avoid situations where winning is impossible.

As in The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene uses illustrative examples from history: Lyndon Johnson's tenacity, Julius Caesar's decisiveness, Joan Crawford's refusal to compromise, Ted Williams's competitive drive, and the folly and genius of everyone from Napoleon to Margaret Thatcher, Shaka the Zulu to Ulysses S. Grant. Great warriors of the battlefield and the drawing room demonstrate prudence, agility, balance, and calm. The rational, resourceful, and intuitive always defeat the panicked, uncreative, and stupid.

Informed by the most ingenious and effective military principles in war, The 33 Strategies provides all the psychological ammunition you need to overcome patterns of failure and forever gain the upper hand.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Charles Mackay

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 59 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A fun and easy read on the stupidity of people 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. Often, people seem to think the problems of the modern world are new and insurmountable issues. This book shows the cycle of life is just that, a cycle. Working on the stock market, I'm constantly assailed with the negative news of the day. This book cites examples of the same issues we now face... only these examples come from roughly 300 years ago.

I am amazed that, as a species, we still cannot seem to learn from our past. This book shows that unregulated markets are rife with corruption, and the ignorant often suffer. Looking at our current housing market crisis, I see many similarities with the corruption and suffering of generations past. Within these pages, unscrupulous people will learn to profit. Of course, those same unscrupulous people will also be the ones crying for deregulation. There is a lesson to be learned here. Pick up the book and enjoy.

Informative and entertaining - it earns its status as a classic 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

In the weeks before the election, as the financial crisis spun ever farther out of control and the pundits' shrieks grew ever more shrill, I browsed through "Popular Delusions.." and found solace. Charles Mackay's extraordinary survey of the various manifestations of mass hysteria throughout history cannot help but offer perspective. He reminds us that, no matter how battily crazy a particular fad might seem, it's already been done by our ancestors. There is truly nothing new under the sun; the catalog of human daftness, though entertainingly long and varied, is nonetheless finite.

It's all here in Mackay's book, laid out with a kind of detached amusement that leaves no doubt as to where the author stands.

Market craziness got you down? It may cheer you up to read about the Mississippi scheme that wrought such havoc on the French treasury in the 18th century, while the South Sea Bubble engulfed the English, or to refresh your memory on Holland's infamous Tulipomanic excesses.

Three of the longer sections of the book are devoted to alchemy, the crusades, and witch-hunting. By the accumulation of examples and anecdotes across the geographical and historical spectrum (i.e. from different times and places), Mackay demonstrates that human folly remains a constant down the ages. He doesn't beat us over the head with this message - he simply assembles the data, with no overt analysis, and leaves us to draw the inevitable conclusion.

Most of your favorite targets are discussed in the book: eschatological prophets, fortune tellers, spiritualists, mediums, and the good Dr Mesmer and his imitators. The anecdotes are often hilarious, even more so because of Mackay's tone of dry amusement. But he knows when to administer the coup de grace, as for example, when he shows how easy it is to attribute post hoc meaning to the notoriously vague quatrains of Nostradamus. One can only wish that the folks at The History Channel would read these sections and take them to heart.

Shorter chapters are interspersed on topics as diverse as the wave of spouse-poisoning that swept through the courts of Europe in the 17th century, the influence of politics and religion on men's hair and beard styles, haunted houses, popular admiration of great thieves, duels, relics, and the sudden rise and fall of certain catchphrases or songs in big cities. (Yadda yadda yadda, anyone?)

This book is ideal for browsing. It's all pretty interesting stuff, presented clearly and wittily. You can learn quite a bit and enjoy yourself doing so - what's not to like?

Its classic status is well-deserved.

Letter to a Christian Nation (Vintage)

Sam Harris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 621 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

GET...right on outta town! 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I have to say that I began reading this book as one critical to the point of view expressed. I thought it was an extraordinarily well-written letter, using good grammar and turns of phrase, that though smarmy and condescending, were still of the highest literary quality. I started sympathizing with the author, because I'll admit, as everyone should, that not all Christians are "tolerant" of other points of view (like Sarah Palin is! ... couldn't resist). Roundabout page 21, Harris's argument got a little thin around the 10 Commandments ... I thought he was overly grasping, just to doggedly make his point. He gradually minced backwards until he admitted that at least commandments 5-9 were good ... and later on, I believe he indirectly endorsed #10 (like oh, by the way, envy, jealousy, coveting, etc. can be bad). Soon after, on page 26 his argument got a little thin again ... I'll let you read it for yourself.

This micro-tome on the injuries and idiocy of organized religion finished stronger than it started out, but still lapsed occasionally into sneering and pure name-calling. Also, conspicuously missing is any more than a passing mention of atheist ills and wrongdoings. Harris, Dawkins and basically every atheist advocate (though rightly reproachful of religious mobs) all fail to acknowledge the murder records associated with famous atheists. Thomas Aquinous, Popes Pious X and XII were famous Christians mentioned ... let's talk about some atheists that really got the world's attention! Socialism (to use the general term, which includes[ed] Nazis, Marxists, Communists, Maoists, and a dozen other political ideals which hinge on a faithless society to govern. BTW, Hitler cannot be described as anymore than a nominal, non-practicing, non-observant child of Christian parents, who admired the tenants of at least 3 religions insofar as they would further justify his persecution of Jews and his championing of the master races), anyway, Socialism is responsible for far many more murders/deaths/kills than Christianity. China's Great Leap Forward alone ended in roughly 25MM premature dirt-naps. Part of this is organizational (governments have more horsepower when it comes to killing than do private entities like a religious group), and part of it is that most religions condemn killing without good cause. He makes the irrefutable point that many groups of Christians, Muslims, Hindus and myriad others still have killed, though fails to mention there has always been dissent among them as well, showing a lack of dedication to religious killings overall ... socialist atheists haven't even this mild influence, and are thus left to depend on the (Harris's atheist assertion) intellectually obvious "morals" non-religious people can arrive at without the influence of religion. Nice job, Stalin! Way to misuse or ignore the Harris System to kill over 14MM (just like Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists have ignored the basics of religion ... and there I was thinking atheists were superior?!?!). Oh yeah, and Harris thinks science and religion don't mix ... this is where I stare at the screen and contemplate what would happen if the most integral part of science were faith, or the keystone of religion were emperical proof. Thanks for the head's up, Harris.

I find his framing the whole abortion issue around 3-day old blastocysts, used for stem cell research to be especially ludicrous yet prima facia ingenious. If you let Harris couch the argument as such, you really are missing out on the whole partial-birth thing ... oh yeah, that ... the thing that makes most people want to puke. I have seen folks get up and leave the discussion, the table and the room when the details of why partial-birth abortions are murder come up. These are pro-choice individuals without the stomach to fly the flag of their "convictions". I've heard them say, "If men had babies, abortion would be sacrosanct!" While a memorable and catchy phrase, this is not a valid argument any more than, "If Africans had reciprocally traded in white slaves, then slavery would've been OK." It has an air of fairness about it, but entirely misses the point. The harvest of thousands of petri-dish-blastocysts (though troubling to some) isn't really what the abortion battle is about. It is, however, viewed by both sides as a crucial stepping stone to partial-birth.

We religious nuts (which I'm actually not ... not even a moderate or religious liberal; I use this phrase only to identify with the thinking of the actual church folk, and to satirize Harris's caricature of believers as somehow mentally inept), anyway, we nuts aren't st-st-stoopid. We realize the benefits of stem cell research, and know all about the roughly 50% of all pregnancies being naturally aborted. We also know that a fetus torn limb from limb on the mother's whim is a grotesque miscarriage and misapplication of morals, and even writing about it makes me want to get up and leave the room . I know partial-birth bans are a stepping stone to blanket bans ... I also know framing the abortion issue around blastocysts is a chicken-poo and small minded tach, and is thusly receiving all the respect it deserves here in my review.

Finally, Harris closes with a moderately smug and again condescending entreat for all readers to please read up on the topic and join him and the other culturally enlightened souls who despise organized religion. The language is more than a little demeaning and harsh, which I sort of let slide, and his logic is mostly in step with the jack-booted rank and file atheists who want to tear down monuments and waste public dollars making uncultured and rustic rubes like me feel inferior. To rephrase, it gets a little thin more than once. I like that this book makes one think, and in that, I would say Harris enjoys total success. He isn't a bad writer or some demon-man (as far as I can tell). In short, nice little book with good points scattered throughout. However ... if you finish it, and say to yourself, "I agree with everything HE said", then I would say, "GET right on outta town!"

Editorial Review:

From the new afterword by the author:

Humanity has had a long fascination with blood sacrifice. In fact, it has been by no means uncommon for a child to be born into this world only to be patiently and lovingly reared by religious maniacs, who believe that the best way to keep the sun on its course or to ensure a rich harvest is to lead him by tender hand into a field or to a mountaintop and bury, butcher, or burn him alive as offering to an invisible God. The notion that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that his death constitutes a successful propitiation of a “loving” God is a direct and undisguised inheritance of the superstitious bloodletting that has plagued bewildered people throughout history. . .

Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time

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Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

FIERCE CONVERSATIONS

A way of conducting business.

An attitude.

A way of life.

Susan Scott trains clients in the art of fierce conversations, empowering them to achieve exceptional results through transforming dialogue. Success hinges on engaging people in ways that interrogate reality, provoke learning, tackle tough challenges, tap our deepest aspirations, and enrich relationships. Fierce Conversations takes you step-by-step through your first fierce conversation -- with yourself -- and on to the most challenging and important conversations facing you.

Susan Scott teaches you how to:

Overcome barriers to meaningful conversation

Expand and enrich the territory you explore with colleagues, friends, and family

Explore issues by mining for increased clarity, improved understanding, and impetus for change

Confront challenges with courage, compassion, and skill

Leverage new skills for frictionless debate

Handle strong emotions - your own as well as others'

Build breakthrough relationships with colleagues, clients, friends, and family Fierce Conversations is the master guidebook to transforming the conversations that are central to your success, offering a new way of relating to people -- at work, and in every area of your life.

Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth

Margaret Atwood

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Life and Debt 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

What could be more timely, in these economically unstable days, than a discussion about debt?

The essays in Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth were presented as a series of radio lectures in Canada in November 2008. While I often enjoy the non-fiction writings of writers who are more famous for their novels (Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Stephen King, among others), such collections are usually on a variety of topics or on a fiction-related topic such as writing. In Margaret Atwood's case though, she has taken on the subject of debt, although not exclusively financial debt.

Starting with a history of debt that is sprinkled with childhood memories of Scrooge McDuck and her first bank account, she examines the morality of owing other people. Using examples from literature and from nature, Atwood explores the universality of the concept of fairness. When capuchin monkeys realize that when one of their group is being rewarded with juicy grapes while the rest of them are being rewarded for the same work with lesser treats, they know it's a rotten deal and they rebel.

Atwood looks at how changing attitudes toward debt have affected the way we look at debt in literature. In Shakespeare's A Merchant of Venice, for example, Shylock is a moneylender, which is a necessary, but not very respectable profession. Now one of the most respected professions is banking, which of course, is mainly moneylending.

Debt isn't just about money. Atwood explores the concept of forgiveness, such as when Nelson Mandela was finally released from prison and knew he had to forgive those who'd persecuted him over the years and he had to do it before he walked out of the prison grounds. Otherwise he would carry those resentments with him forever. We know, as he did, that failing to forgive does more harm to ourselves than it does to those who wrong us, but we want payback. Payback for those psychic debts. It's only right, isn't it?

Atwood concludes with a modern-day Christmas Carol that puts all of these debt-related conundrums into perspective. Just in time for Christmas and just in time for the collapse of the world economy. How's that for serendipity?

Editorial Review:

Collected here, the Massey Lectures from legendary novelist Margaret Atwood investigate the highly topical subject of debt. She doesn’t talk about high finance or managing money; instead, she goes far deeper to explore debt as an ancient and central motif in religion, literature, and the structure of human societies. By looking at how debt has informed our thinking from preliterate times to the present day, from the stories we tell of revenge and sin to the way we order social relationships, Atwood argues that the idea of what we owe may well be built into the human imagination as one of its most dynamic metaphors. Her final lecture addresses the notion of a debt to nature and the need to find new ways of interacting with the natural world before it is too late.