Book Reviews

Book Reviews

The Double Moon Drawing: An Instrument for Intervention and Research in Structurally Complex Family Situations

“I am delighted to endorse the publication of this book. The Double Moon Drawing (DMD) can be used in both clinical and research settings, facilitating the exploration and understanding of family boundaries and sense of belonging in structurally complex families. In particular, this symbolic-graphic tool allows the exploration of “absence”,  addressing how the subject deals with the loss or distancing of emotionally significant people. I have personally used the DMD, finding it a powerful and intuitive instrument, able to facilitate the participation of children and parents in the meaning-making process prompted by the clinician. Finally, the manuscript presents numerous clinical applications, which make it an invaluable resource for professionals working in the field of mental health. I strongly endorse the publication of this book, as I am confident it will make the application of the DMD more accessible and clinically sound.”
Tanya Lecchi, PhD
Anna Freud Centre
Kantor Centre of Excellence
London, England

The Double Moon Drawing: An Instrument for Intervention and Research in Structurally Complex Family Situations is, in my opinion, an innovative publication, filling a gap in the field with great benefit for clinical practice.”
Dr. Gabriella Gandino, Researcher and Family Therapist

“The ‘Double Moon’ drawing tool is a novel, clear and cogent model for understanding the applications of visual stories to (family) therapy and counselling.”
Dr. Lisa Fellin, Researcher and Family Therapist

“A real strength of the Double Moon is its accessibility. The voice of young children is often hard to obtain or is missed on many assessment methods. Through using creative methods, the perspectives and in turn voice of younger children is heard.”
Claire Harrison-Breed, Trauma Therapist

“Capturing meaning and sense that derive from conscious and unconscious dialogue, identifying some ‘complex/problematic’ family structures (children of divorced parents, foster or adoptive children, children that suffered a bereavement in the family) the DMD permits to get a precise focus on lealty/belonging conflict that follows any significant transformations of family environment.”
Giuseppe M. Festa, Specialist in Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapist

“Dr. Greco has developed the DMD, a new model of assessing families functioning theoretically well founded, easy to administer, clear in the scoring procedure. It is a highly valuable and reliable instrument both for researchers and clinical and mental health practitioners to analyze core relational dimensions of complex families.”
Camillo Regalia, Director of Families Studies and Research University Centre at Catholic University of Milan, Italy

“This book, which presents the Double Moon Drawing (DMD), is a promising work tool in clinical psychology and in psychological research. Its simplicity of use makes the DMD a brilliant instrument to get a meaningful picture of structurally complex families. I highly recommend this book to psychologists and health care professionals who like working with families and wish to do it well.”
Marco Cacioppo, Associate Professor in Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, Lumsa Univesity, Rome, Italy

The Earth in Fragments: A Memoir by Michael Charles Tobias

“Michael Charles Tobias’ The Earth in Fragments: A Memoir, is a veritable history of the environmental movement, as told by one courageous, global ecologist. He is an authentic witness to the Anthropocene, which he has remarkably chronicled in many of the most provocative, telling and important initiatives and moments of this, or any generation. This book, an epic journey, is an ecological confessional in the rich vein of Jean-Paul Sartre and Aldo Leopold. Tobias has created a masterpiece of reflection that will seduce, illuminate, and challenge readers to seek at long last a true peace treaty with the planet. Many thanks to him for the massive amount of work he has accomplished; and for keeping so many candles of hope burning globally, lighting up dark times when it is all too easy to give up.”
Dr. Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of Colorado, Boulder
Author of Rewilding Our Hearts: Building Pathways of Compassion and Coexistence; and, The Animals’ Agenda: Freedom, Compassion, and Coexistence in the Human Age

“What do you get when you combine restless spirit with an intellect that can only be described as breathtaking in scope and scale? That person reveals himself marvelously in these pages. Michael Tobias is a citizen of the planet. When he looks at things, it’s from the perspective of someone who can quote 17th century literature, as easily as the taxonomy of a rare plant species indigenous to the dark forest of Bialowieza; someone who has climbed many mountains, who has been an enduring hero for animal rights, who knows the nuances of the most esoteric crannies of science, who has found solace in the company of Jain ‘Ahimsa’, and has helped shape the doctrine of ‘Gross National Happiness’ in Bhutan. What comes through more than anything is Tobias’ deep well of compassion for our Earth; for all life. He has seen the impact of human overreach firsthand in every part of the planet. He is clearly pained to his core by the tide of existential challenges that more and more threaten life on Earth, and the collective human culture’s failure thus far to adequately address those unprecedented challenges. Though Tobias seems skeptical that humanity will find a way to correct course in time to avoid biospheric collapse, he does see some hope that the best empathic instincts of the theoretical individual will somehow prevail over the worse instincts of the collective human culture. Beautifully written, richly nuanced, I admire Michael Tobias the human being, and heartily recommend his memoir, The Earth in Fragments.”
Geoffrey Holland, Author, The Hydrogen Age

Sexualities, Gender and Violence: A View from the Iberian Peninsula

“The eleven essays included in Enguix and Vieira’s must-read collection offer a much needed interdisciplinary reflection on the multifarious intersections of sexuality and gender-based norms in Southern Europe with the topic of violence, providing massive food for thought both within and beyond academia.”
Ana Cristina Santos
Senior Researcher in Gender and Queer Studies
Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra
Portugal

“A fascinating collection, offering an exciting and thought-provoking journey through many – new and familiar – sites of negotiation of gender and sexuality in the Iberian Peninsula. Empirically rich, theoretically challenging, and critically engaged, this book is a powerful reminder of how personal and political, how pleasurable and violent, how material and elusive, gender and sexuality can be.”
Maria do Mar Pereira
Centre for the Study of Women and Gender
University of Warwick
United Kingdom

“Begonya Enguix Grau and Cristina Pereira Vieira’s edited collection, Sexualities, Gender and Violence: A View from the Iberian Peninsula, provides an overdue and much needed survey of contemporary gender research across Spain and Portugal. This excellent collection, tackling topics such as the configuration of relationships, digital intimacies, sexual violence and harassment and sex education charts issues of concern that speak to a set of interests that animate debate across gender research at an international level. The collection is essential reading for anyone who is interested in the relations between sex, gender and violence in the contemporary moment.”
John Mercer
Professor of Gender and Sexuality
Birmingham City University
United Kingdom

Caspian: Status, Challenges, and Prospects. An Analysis into the Legal Classification, Security and Environmental Concerns, Geopolitics and Energy Flow Impact of the Caspian Plateau

“A thoughtful, comprehensive, and balanced analysis of the complex interplay between geopolitics and geo-economics in Central Eurasia, and pivotal energy plateau – that of Caspian. We finally have an all-in reader that was otherwise chronically missing in international literature, which will hopefully reverse the trend of underreporting on such a prime world’s spot. Hence, this is a must-read book for those wondering about the future of one of the most dynamic and most promising regions of the world and what it could entail for both regional and external players.”
Andrey Kortunov
Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council

“Although of pivotal geopolitical and geo-economic importance, the Caspian energy plateau represents one of the most underreported subjects in the western literature. Interdisciplinary research on the topic is simply missing. This book by the three authors is unbiased, multidisciplinary, accurate, and timely. It is certainly a much-needed and long-awaited reader: a must read for scholars and practitioners, be it from Eurasia or beyond. Authors were able to tackle a challenging subject with a passion, knowledge and precision, and turn it into a compelling, comprehensive (yet concise) read which I highly recommend. It is truly a remarkable piece of work!”
Mr. Erzhan Kazykhanov
Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Washington, D.C., USA
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Kazakhstan

“ARTNeT secretariat is pleased to see how our initial invitation to Prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic to present at the ARTNeT Seminar Series in 2015 evolved. The talk was initially published as a working paper for ARTNeT (AWP 149). Now Prof. Bajrektarevic, in collaboration with another two co-authors, offers a comprehensive study on a nexus of legal, security, and environmental issues all emanating from and linked to energy cooperation (or lack thereof) in the subregion. This volume’s value extends beyond the education of readers on the Caspian Basin’s legal status (e.g., is it a sea or a lake?). It is just as relevant for those who want a more in-depth understanding of an interplay of economic, security, and political interest of players in the region and outside. With the global institutions increasingly less capable of dealing with rising geopolitics and geo-economic tensions, more clarity – even if only about some aspects of those problematic issues – should be appreciated. This volume offers such clarity.”
Mia Mikic
Director, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP)
ARTNeT coordinator

This book on the Caspian Region by Anis Bajrektarevic and his two co-authors, Tanvi Chauhan and Mak Bajrektarevic, is a comprehensive overview of Central Asian area. Its very title is comprehensive and fitting. This region’s pivotal place – practically in the heart of world’s largest continental landmass, that of Eurasia – is masterfully covered: Their instabilities, energy security, including pipelines, and economic interests are only some of the areas covered. It even addresses the important legal classification of the Caspian Basin, this world’s largest inland (landlocked) water plateau. For me, the book offers a wonderful learning experience, because we in the west (of my generation) learned little of the history and even geography of the various states and peoples making up the Soviet Union. Our interest and preoccupations focused primarily on geopolitical issues associated with the cold war between the Soviet Union and the West led by the United States.”
Honorable Donald J Johnston PC OC QC
Former Minister of the Canadian Government, Secretary General of the OECD (1996-2006)

“The book by Professor Bajrektarevic and his co-authors embodies a wide-ranging overview of the intertwined interests pursued by the young democracies of the Caspian basin, battling with inherited land and water disputes, and their interplay with regional and global powers. Apparently, supporting political independence of the formers and promoting their integration into the latter’s markets requires adequate analyses, timely outreach policies and consistent engagement. In this sense the publication serves as one of the scarce handbooks to understand diverse interests of stakeholders, dynamically changing security architecture of the region and emerging opportunities of cooperation around the Caspian Sea.”
Ambassador Galib Israfilov
Permanent Representative to the UN Vienna and to the OSCE
Embassy of Azerbaijan to Austria

“The Caspian basin and adjacent Central Asian region (all being OSCE member states, apart from Iran) have, since the early Middle ages, acted as a crossroads between different civilizations and geopolitical spaces. In an increasingly interconnected world, growing geopolitical competition, economic interdependence and the emergence of new global challenges, particularly those related to water, energy and the climate emergency, have highlighted the relevance of this region, making it of increasing interest to researchers and academics. This book presents a thorough analytical compendium of historical factors, political dynamics, economic trends, legal frameworks and geopolitical interests which underpin, but also affect, the stability and development of this complex, diverse and strategically significant region.”
Ambassador Lamberto Zanier
Secretary-General, Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (2011-2017)
OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (2017-2020)

“It is my honor to reflect on this work on Caspian. Comprehensive and content rich, this book of professor Anis H. Bajrektarevic and his co-authors brings up comprehensively all the useful information on Caspian, with the geographical and historical background and cultural, economic as well as security aspects related to it. Authors’ novel and unbiased approach shall certainly help decision makers in their bettered understanding of the region that has centuries-long history of peace and cordial neighbourly relations. Long-needed and timely coming, I warmly recommend this reader to those who want to know, but more importantly to all those who want to understand, this pivotal region of the world.”
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Former Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Iran to United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva & Vienna

Georgian Military Forces of 19th Century

“It turned out that the rebellion of 1829, known before as the peasants’ riot, was actually the anti-Russian riot. This is confirmed by the unknown archive materials provided in this book.”
Avtandil Songulashvili
Doctor of History, Professor, Head of Department New History of Tbilisi State Universitety’s Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History and Ethnology

“Ideology of regular Russian army of that period, with long service term (25 years), slaveholding relationships and strict, enslaving discipline, did not cause any good feelings in Georgian population that was characterized with high military culture and traditions. Cult of the warrior, protector of the native land was apparently much higher than the model of the soldier offered by Russian Empire to Georgians.”
Nikoloz Janjgava
Major General, Doctor of History

“XIX century was a very interesting and painful period in the history of Georgia. To regain the historical lands of their country the Georgians fought under Russian flag.”
Khatuna Ioseliani
Doctor of History, Chief Scientific Worker of Tbilisi State Universitety’s Ivane Javakhishvili Institute of History and Ethnology

The Ovarian Reserve: Current Trends and Applications

An excellent book on ovarian reserve, concisely written, well referenced, with balanced views and containing many practical tips. It is a must read for clinicians practising reproductive medicine.”
Professor Tin Chiu Li, PhD
Professor of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Reproductive Medicine
Director of the Assisted Reproductive Technology Unit at the Prince of Wales Hospital
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

“The concept of ovarian reserve is central to reproductive medicine and management of infertility. This concise yet comprehensive monograph offers the reader an up to date and readable summary of our knowledge of ovarian reserve and its measurement in 2021. As couples increasingly defer their decisions to start a family, assessment of ovarian reserve has become a mainstay of clinicians ability to advise on topics such as oocyte or embryo freezing, when to try for pregnancy naturally and when to discontinue IVF treatment. Modern approaches using serum AMH and ultrasound assessment of AFC require detailed clinical knowledge to facilitate accurate interpretation of test results, making the contents of this book invaluable to both primary care physicians and those specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology and reproductive medicine. In addition, the more specialised content focussing on clinical implications of diminished ovarian reserve will be of use to those involved in management of early onset of menopause in addition to reproductive medicine specialists. It is also pleasing to see clear advice on what tests not to use. Having read this monograph, the reader will be confident to approach these common and often mismanaged clinical conundrums.”
William Ledger
Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology
University of New South Wales, Sydney

“Waste-to-Profit” (W-t-P): Circular Economy in the Construction Industry for a Sustainable Future. Volume 2

The book is structured not only for researchers but for business people, municipalities as well as investors. I have never seen such an innovation before. I liked the fact that the authors of the chapters highlighted very important element for researchers to translate research and development findings into products, essential for economic gains. In addition, policies governing and regulating different enterprises are clearly highlighted to help entrepreneurs to start businesses in selected countries. What I found interesting is the way the authors explained processes to product development. Furthermore, recent research and development for each chapter is given comprehensively to accommodate professors. The author wanted the readers to get an idea about how different waste streams can be translated to commercial products. This has been the main challenge not only in South Africa, but globally. The book has accomplished displaying innovative processes which are used to translate waste to profit after demolishing a building. The argument is clearly stated. The topic is also clearly articulated. The author covers all aspects of the subject in a balanced fashion and the subject is covered adequately. The approach adopted is innovative in nature…This book has helped me understand the need to do much more value addition to construction wastes and how new innovative products can be produced. The demand of such products is highlighted with the view to help investors know where to invest. SWOT analysis is also given extensively. I would recommend this book to others who wish to do much more value addition to produce commercial products. The book meets the highest academic standards of clarity. I therefore, recommend this book, it will help different countries to learn processes of innovative product development for economic growth. It teaches practical approach to solving waste management challenges and processes are clearly highlighted. We thank the authors of chapters (contributors) for such a valuable contribution to “Waste-to-Profit” (W-t-P): Circular Economy in the Construction Industry for a Sustainable Future. Volume 2.
Dr. Nobathembu Faleni
Lecturer, Walter Sisulu University (WSU)

How to Take Your Course Fully Online

“In this information age, the book “How To Take Your Course Fully Online” is a timely project having online-learning/E-learning as the central focal theme. It is a well-researched and a way-forward project in this given theme. It introduces ‘essential ingredients to instructional designers and a guide to unfamiliar learners’ and evolve with an effective and qualitative online teaching-learning methodologies. Having this aim in view, it proposes a stepwise online course structure projecting learning outcomes, learning resources and learning activities to make the course a more student-centric, self-directed and engaging than ever before by successfully transcending tempo-spatial gap and getting out of the traditional teaching-learning methods. This process is facilitated by identifying different learners’ type and impediments in existing online course design and to come up with an innovative Universal design for learning style (UDL) designing to execute ‘what, how and why of learning’ via course design, module development, module implementation, analysing and evaluating the module outcome. This is a must-read book for online course designers, content writers, researchers, practitioners and policy formulators across the globe. I strongly recommend this book to all the readers.”
Dr. Asmita Bhattacharyya, PhD (JU), JRF-SRF (ISI, Kol.), MPhil (JU), M.A(JNU, New Delhi), Fulbright-Nehru Awardee-2020-2021
Department of Sociology
Vidyasagar University
Midnapore INDIA

“The textbook entitled “How to Take Your Course Fully Online” is a textbook that we have been waiting for all over the years. Such a book is great because these days, the following advantages are welcoming:
• Flexible schedule and environment
• Career advancement and hobbies
• Lower costs and debts
• Self-discipline and responsibility
To be honest, this textbook teaches the instructor how to make a professional online course, and how to disseminate the information in a professional fashion. I do approve this textbook for all academics and even high school teachers who lecture and teach STEM subjects. Other disciplines do need to utilise this textbook.”
Alvin Holder, Ph.D., FRSC, CChem
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Old Dominion University
4541 Hampton Boulevard
Norfolk, VA, U.S.A.

The Monadic Space of Suburban Canada

A very interesting comparative perspective on essential social and spatial aspects of suburban residential environments.”
Dr. Sasha Tsenkova

This timely and valuable contribution to the urban studies literature is a sophisticated and cogently argued need to reconceptualize the connections between the built form, gated-ness, and social cohesion.”
Dr. Ivan Townshend

“The debate over urban design in suburban communities has been too polarized between proponents of the grid versus the cul-de-sac models. Dr. Youssef offers an approach that incorporates the advantages of both..”
Dr. Alan Smart

Practical Application of Integrative Rules and Principles of Urban Design: Lessons Learned From the Past

Practical Application of Integrative Rules and Principles of Urban Design: Lessons Learned From the Past is one of the few publications which has notably explained the nature of urban design and how it may be applied to make the cities more livable. The main goal of Hossein Bahrainy and Ameneh Bakhtiar in this book is to develop an integrative urban design theory through a synthesis of theory and practice. They have recently formulated the theory, its philosophical theoretical base and main structure in their last publication (Bahrainy and Bakhtiar, 2016) which may be considered as a general theory of urban design. Now they have illustrated the implications of their proposed theory in a practical situation in this book…READ MORE
Shahrzad Faryadi
University of Tehran
Iran