The Chronological Study Bible: New King James Version Review

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(More customer reviews)The new Thomas Nelson Chronological Study Bible is more than I expected. Swirling around the publishing date of this new Study Bible was much controversy. Many people were skeptical about it and I admit so was I. However, if you purchase this Bible, I think your skepticism will subside (mine has).
I've been pouring myself into this Bible, wandering how long it would take me to review it. However, I can't approach this as if it were a normal fiction or non-fiction book. For me to read every page of this Bible, and then comment on it would take months. I have though, thoroughly looked at, worked with and studied this Bible. In fact I was up past midnight last night pouring into it! Below is a synoptic view of this Bible, starting with what it is.
Before cracking this Bible open, I expected it to be a Bible set up in the Chronological Authorship of the Scriptures. If this were the case, Job most likely would have been first, it being the first of the Biblical books written. However, the Chronological order is of the Biblical Narrative, not of the authorship. It also follows the narrative History of the entire world, placing the Biblical events into a time line, which we can (due to History class) better place in our minds when it happened. The Bible is divided into Nine Epochs (or ages of the Earth). The Epochs Being: Epoch 1: Creation- 2000 B.C.; Epoch 2: 2000-1500 B.C.; Epoch 3: 1500-1200 B.C.; Epoch 4: 1200-930 B.C.; Epoch 5: 930-586 B.C.; Epoch 6: 586-332 B.C.; Epoch 7: 332-37 B.C.; Epoch 8: 37 B.C.- A.D. 30; Epoch 9: A.D. 30-100.
Within these eras, the Chronological Narrative of the Earth and the Bible is placed. Instead of reading the Scriptures as separate books, this places the entire Bible on one Narrative time line.
I was skeptical at first, because I didn't know this was the approach of this Study Bible before I read it. I thought it would be the same feel as a normal Bible, so I wandered why I should bother spending my money on a product that simply re-arranged the Bible by the first books written to the last books written. However, placed in this narrative chronology, it brings the Scripture into a whole new light! You can follow for example David and his Psalms. We see an event happening to David and we can see the Psalm written by David, directly after the event! That in and of itself allows me to understand the particular Psalm as well as David better! It opens the eyes of the reader to a whole new plain of Biblical understanding.
I believe that Thomas Nelson has done well with this Bible also, because they understand the importance of story to my generation and the generations after me. Connecting to story is a HUGE way for my generation to connect with God. Placing the Bible in it's narrative chronological order will speak to people of my generation that a normal Bible won't.
Also, seeing the Scriptures in this ways brings a depth of Study that other Study Bibles don't bring. It incorporates the history of the world along side the Biblical History, helping the reader to better understand the cultural context of a particular piece of Scripture.
There are MANY features that I haven't even mentioned, all of which bring amazing things to this Bible. Some a person could do without, but they are all pretty interesting none-the-less. Here is what you'll also learn about (taken from back cover): Agriculture and Herding, Architecture and Building, Arts and Literature, Beliefs and Ideas, Cults and Supernatural, Culture and Society, Daily Life and Customs, Food and Drink, Geography and Environment, Health and Medicine, Marriage and Family, Plants and Animals, Politics and Government, Religion an Worship, Science and Technology. All of these features are placed in little boxes or bubbles in and around the text. My only issue is that at points it feels very cluttered and hard to follow. Once you get used to navigating the scriptures as well as these extra boxes and bubbles, it connects and makes sense, but it can be difficult at times.
Lastly, the layout of the Scriptures can be difficult to understand. If you are trying to find a specific passage from memory of where it was in your original Bible, chances are you won't find it. Unless you look at the very back of the Bible, which gives (in Biblical order) the pages certain portions of scripture can be found. It takes awhile to learn how to use, but once you do, this Bible is quite incredible. Read it as a story and it will make reading/understanding this Bible a whole lot easier.

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Bloodmoney: A Novel of Espionage Review

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(More customer reviews)David Ignatius has written another political thriller/mystery. It is filled with the cynicism of someone familiar with the current situation of international politics and the espionage community...all intelligence communities lie, it is their job. We can also see the touch of history in here, the same conflicts happening today as yesterday, the same thing that happened to the British is occurring today in their once occupied countries. Ignatius is also an astute observer of human and national nature.
Two matters stand out in this novel, looking through the eyes of the enemy and why he is motivated to act as he does. A brilliant mathematician/computer scientist/professor, "pondered how he might make these assassins feel the same fear that the people of his valley had felt for all these years," after seeing his whole family destroyed by an American drone. There is a bit of sympathy for this person, but he is still presented as a criminal. The other matter is the constant need for subterfuge, the lies of espionage and intelligence communities even within their own ranks, the problems and the necessities to get their job done.
The mystery to be solved is: Where is the leak that is getting agents killed? How do they know where and when these undercover operatives are going to be? This is a political thriller, a mystery that perhaps delves deeper into the seas of the espionage world than they would enjoy.
Where Ignatius shines of course is in describing the actions and methods of the news media. Ignatius, has researched his subject thoroughly, even traveling into these dangerous regions. It is an interesting twist to get inside the head of someone who wishes to kill your countrymen; but even more than that is the fact that the reader can picture and feel and know and empathize with all of the main characters. It is a well written novel that will pull you into its' world.


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The Charming Quirks of Others: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel (Isabel Dalhousie Mysteries) Review

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(More customer reviews)If you're a fan of Alexander McCall Smith, as I am, you may notice in The Charming Quirks of Others that Isabel Dalhousie is turning into an insecure, lighter-weight, Scottish sketch of Mme Ramotswe (of his Ladies' Detective Agency series). The "detective" work she does has become a much smaller part of the novel. The story lines in general are less developed and detailed than previous books in the series as well as by the author in general. There also are significant parts of stories that are treated with back of the envelope resolutions by the end of the book (such as the one with Lettuce) -- an unwelcome inconsistency with his previous works. And, well, while I hate to say it, Isabel comes off as whiny in this one.
I'm glad that Isabel is with Jamie full-time now, her interactions with him in this novel make her seem less of the independent woman she has been in the previous books. McCall Smith also has cut Jamie a bit thin as a character. I was dismayed to discover that the relationship Isabel has with her niece has deteriorated into jealous sniping as well. The bits about Charlie are satisfying and realistic.
There are the customary nods to artists of Edinburgh and a few key locals tossed in, but not as many as you would expect of an Alexander McCall Smith novel. Usually, there are lengthy discussions of the country's gorgeous landscape, and of the islands, but there were few mentions of it in this book.
Overall, I was disappointed with this one, as I have of his latest books. Sadly, he set the bar very high in his earlier novels and is now falling a bit short.

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King Raven: 3-in-1 of Hood, Scarlet, and Tuck (The King Raven Trilogy) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Kindle edition -- the correct book -- is now available, as of May 5, 2011. Please don't let the earlier customer service problem and the ratings that were based on that, rather than on the book itself, deter you from enjoying this excellent trilogy for a terrific price.

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The New Jerusalem Bible: Standard edition Review

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(More customer reviews)There is not an English Bible that will bring you closer to the full historical, literary, and religious meaning of the Bible than this one--and I've looked at all the competition up close. The format of the full edition is great, and for most people, this is the only Bible you'll ever need. The translation (made not from French, as some persist in saying, but from the Hebrew and Greek) is faithful without being awkward or obscure, and fluent without being fuzzy (NEB/REB, anyone?) or inaccurate. The scholarly apparatus (especially the footnotes, also the marginal parallel passages, introductions, and indices in the back to places, persons, and major footnotes) is outstanding. Only the Oxford Annotated can compete, and, again and again, I have found that the Oxford editors are guilty of tedious plot summary, while the NJB actually gives historical, cultural, and textual information that deepens your understanding of the text! I am a scholar, not a Roman Catholic, and moments where I think "Catholic" reading a note are EXTREMELY rare. This is not a Catholic Bible, this is a Bible for whoever wants the most objective, historically sound, and readable presentation of the original texts. The way I think, if you're going to read books that are millennia old, you need HELP. It's all here, the perfect marriage of readability (much better on this score than NRSV) and accuracy (arguably the best here too, though of course preferences in this domain are controversial).
Don't be misled by the half-truth that this literarily distinguished translation is somehow "looser" than, say, the NRSV (which, in the New Oxford Annotated Bible, is probably the NJB's only real competition). The NRSV, in the tradition of the KJV, still tilts towards word-for-word translations even when they don't give a clear and accurate sense of what the original text means. Not only is this not ideal for general readers, who will blame themselves for not understanding what the hyper-literal rendition has obscured, but it is not very helpful for more scholarly readers who too often will only see the impenetrability of the original reproduced in English. The fact is, that centuries of scholarship have given us a good understanding of most of these difficult passages. The NJB does the favor of bringing out these accurate understandings in translation; and when it really IS obscure, it explains the difficulty in a note! I have often had the experience of reading the translation of a passage I've studied closely, and thinking "Aha! of COURSE that's the correct nuance that didn't come through in my own clunky 'literal' attempt to read the original correctly."
In all fairness, some criticisms/clarifications. Some have expressed concern that this translation's intention to be "inclusive" has led to departures from the original texts' true meaning. In general, this is not a problem with the NJB. For example, in reading 1300 pp. of the Hebrew Bible, I found the translators' choices to be guided by accuracy and fidelity. (Non-philologists often don't realize that the ancient languages have loads of ways of making gender-non-specific constructions; the problem has often been to get it into modern English!) But there was one howler. In the decalogue, we read "set your heart on your neighbor's spouse." This is a bit of a stretch from the Hebrew "your neighbor's woman [wife]." I think the great fame of the Ten Commandments as "universal" principles clouded the translators' judgments here. A more frequent but minor irritation is that the translators have violated good English usage in writing "the wise" to mean "the wise one" (singular). They thought it was less awkward (and they are right to avoid the inaccurate "man"), but they judged wrong--it's just not good English to use "the wise" with a singular verb. One more complaint. As other reviewers have said, the superior notes (for which you have to buy the full edition, ISBN 0385142641) are one of the biggest reasons to use the NJB. But if you are reading whole books of the Bible at once, you will probably feel some annoyance that the explanatory notes are mixed in with the textual notes. In other words, when you see that a verse has a footnote, you don't know (without reading it) whether it has to do with a minor and uninteresting textual variation in one of the traditions, or whether it is one of the NJB's fantastic notes that contextualize the passage, give a thought-provoking reference to elsewhere, etc. In this regard, the design of Oxford study Bibles (where the two kinds of notes are segregated, though there's no marker in the text that there is an explanatory note, as there is in NJB) is probably superior. In most books, it doesn't matter, but there are some where the textual tradition is so messy that you really get tired of looking at the bottom of the page, and it disrupts the reading experience even for a reader who enjoys a complicated and scholarly view of the Bible.
To me, it speaks volumes that the problems I've mentioned (one howler + occasional infelicity + design error of the notes) don't change the fact that this is the most accurate, fluent, and useful-for-study-purposes Bible in existence!

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The Triumph of the Sun Review

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(More customer reviews)Once again Wilbur Smith confirms his mastery of meticulous historical research coupled with a good old fashioned 'rip-roaring' yarn!
As with his dozens of other tales that span the history of his of his fictional Courtney family, this tale keeps the reader literally on the edge of their seat throughout all 500 plus pages.
As with the other superb books which track over four centuries of the lives, loves and struggles the Courtney clan, Triumph of the Sun is set against the sprawling backdrop of Africa.
This novel covers the adventures of Ryder Courtney and pits him against the fanatical Mahdi and the infamous dervish troops during the long siege of Khartoum defended by the legendary British General Gordon.
In this novel however Courtney's heroics almost pale in comparison to a member of the other fictional family of Smith's African saga's, Captain Penrod Ballantyne.
Ballentyne plays the role of the handsome, dashing, fearless young British officer that was most typified in the swashbuckling films of the 30' and 40's, by Errol Flynn.
The almost Hollywood style love interest is supplied by the beautiful teenage daughter of the British consul general, Rebecca Benbrook. In a neat little package that would have done a Hollywood director proud, Smith also manages to throw two preteen younger sisters, Saffron and Amber, into the mix as well.
As the story weaves in and out to cover the long years of the siege and battles, Smith cleverly develops the pair of young sisters into love interests as we watch them grow up under the most adverse but exciting of conditions.
In the hands of a lesser author, this tale of dashing hero's and winsome maidens in peril could have turned into a hackneyed 'Saturday matinee' of a novel.
But Smith is a master when it come to the historical saga. And although both Ryder and Penrod make escapes from certain death, survive fiendish tortures and rescue fair maidens, Smith spices the mix with liberal doses of really good history and cunningly woven and often shocking detail, so that the reader is truly caught up in the adventure and never bored.
As a matter of fact there is one incident when Penrod is held captive by a dervish prince, who suspects him of treachery, where I actually find myself getting choked up. The dervish decides to expose Perod by torturing in the most gruesome manner imaginable, a poor little slave girl that Penrod has befriended.
For the rest of the novel, I perused the pages with a vengeance, waiting for Penrod to even the score by plunging a saber into the dervish's guts!
It is a powerful writer who can evoke that sort of emotion in a reader, and Smith never disappoints.
I heartily recommend Triumph of the Sun as yet another in Wilbur Smith's long list of triumph's.
Richard S. Wasley "Ric - Author - Shadow of Innocence - coming January 2007 from Kunati" (Boston, MA USA)

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Groundswell Review

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(More customer reviews)Emma Walker looks like she has it all. Just seven years ago she was on the verge of being exactly nowhere without a job or her scholarship to college when she gets the letter she's been waiting for - a chance to work with a screenwriter on a movie. While she's been warned to stay away from its womanizing, captivating star, she still falls under the spell of Garrett Walker. After a whirlwind courtship that defies all of the rules of Hollywood standards, the two fall in love and marry.
Now here she is all these years later rubbing shoulders with everyone who's anyone, a successful screenwriter in her own right with a summer blockbuster under her designer belt but there's still some of that insecure girl that Garrett plucked from the movie lot seven years earlier in her. The crowds, the parties, the faking it all - it's getting tiresome. When she sneaks away for some peace at a big event, she ends up seeing something that destroys her world instead - evidence that Garrett has been unfaithful.
With a leak to the press and depression setting in, Emma decides to flee somewhere she's never been before, somewhere simple where she can reconnect with the woman she was before Garrett - the kind of woman who didn't wear high heels or fancy dresses - and decide what parts of her life were real and whether she can go back to the life she used to have.
This is such a crazy emotional whirlwind of a book, generally in a dramatically good way for a reader. Emma very quickly goes from a starving student to having one of the world's most sought after actors at her feet. There are awkward moments when she's tossed into social situations he didn't prepare her for and things that he just dumps on her but when he sees she's stressed, he piles on the charm and they work through the problem.
There's barely any page time given to Garrett and Emma's seven year marriage, but there is a lot written about what happened before the wedding and the ways that Emma had to adjust to his lifestyle. It was a pretty interesting look at Garrett - I wanted to channel Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost, grab Emma's hands and tell her, "You in danger, girl." I believed he loved her but he had pieces that were a little scary.
I had a like/dislike relationship with Emma. She only seems to have two ways of being - in a relationship or lonely and depressed. I really liked three of her long-term friendships, one that she made during her relationship with Garrett; they were probably the best - maybe only - indicator of her growing confidence with herself. When she got to Mexico and started to pull herself out of her depression, she was more likable than before she'd even met Garrett.
This would fit perfectly as a good beach read. It's not overly fluffy but it's a smooth story with some Hollywood name-dropping, a rags-to-riches smart heroine who deserved better than the flawed hero she ended up with plus a little sparkling Mexican surf and a gorgeous surfer to ride the waves with.


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EAT, SURF, LOVE. A butterfly flaps its wings in New York City . . . and a groundswell forms in Mexico. . . . Sometimes the biggest ripples come from the smallest events. Like the day that Emma Guthrie walks into world-famous movie star Garrett Walker's trailer. When she steps through the door, she's a novice PA who's just dropped out of college after losing her scholarship. When she walks out, she's on her way to becoming Mrs. Emma Walker—wife of an A-list actor. Soon, Emma has made the transition from nobody to red-carpet royalty, trading jeans and flip-flops for closets full of Chanel and Birkin bags, swishing past velvet ropes to attend every lavish party and charity gala on both coasts. With her husband's encouragement, Emma pens a screenplay based on her life, Fame Tax, which becomes a blockbuster sensation. Through it all, Garrett is her ally and her mentor . . . until their relationship is thrown into question by an incriminating text message that Emma discovers on Garrett's phone the night of the Met Costume Institute Gala. Devastated by her husband's infidelity and hounded mercilessly by the paparazzi, Emma must flee New York City to get away from it all and clear her head. Her destination? A sleepy coastal town in Mexico where no one recognizes her and there is nothing but unspoiled beaches for miles. Here, she meets Ben, a gorgeous, California-born surf instructor, who teaches her about the healing powers of surfing, shows her the joys of the simple life, and ultimately opens her up to the possibility of love. From Manhattan's hippest restaurants to the yacht-and-celebrity infested waters of St. Barts, Katie Lee's debut novel is an irresistible insider's glimpse into a glittering world—and a captivating story about how losing everything you thought you wanted can be the first step to finding what you need.

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Wind, Water, Sun : A Solo Kayak Journey Along Baja California's Desert Coastline Review

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(More customer reviews)This book was quite enjoyable for anyone who has ever (or thought about it) kayaked in Baja. The book has a nice selection of photos and maps of the Baja region and should certainly be included in your "Baja library."
The same topic was covered previously in Jonathan Waterman's "Kayaking the Vermillion Sea." The difference between the two is the obvious (solo vs having a partner), but also extends beyond that--Waterman provided a closer introspective view of his experience, while Darack is more matter-of-fact about his experiences. In a way, Darack underemphasizes the dangerousness of the Sea of Cortez.
I certainly recommend reading this book.

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Khan: Empire of Silver: A Novel of the Khan Empire Review

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(More customer reviews)Whenever I read a Conn novel I expect to be taken on a journey. A grand, expansive, lyrical journey. I have followed him since before his first `Emperor' novel and have stayed a fan since. My only quam is that he takes about a year and a half between novels so I tend to lose a bit of the story because 1. I'm not getting younger and 2. Ginsing is NASTY! Trying to keep up with the bloodline of Genghis is like trying to read Braille with ball bearings attached to your fingers. But as I read this latest installment in the `Khan' series, everything slowly comes back. As massive a figure as Genghis was, the character that took me in this book was Tsubodai. The General. The Strategist. The non-bloodline "outcast" that helped build one of THE greatest warrior nations ever. His true impact we'll probably never know but `Empire of Silver' does a pretty good job of helping us see his contribution. His brutality seems second only to Genghis and I enjoyed reading about the slaughter he meted out to anyone who didn't have the sense to give up.
Conn does the Khan History justice in this latest installment of The Mongols. We get the battles, the blood (although I was hoping for more), and even the time treasured, never ending politics of a Nation. Genghis has so many children and offspring that if he lived today he would be playing in the NBA. Because of this, there are numerous, legitimate claims to the Khanate that are constantly being challenged. Ogedai is the Khan in this book but for how long? Will honor, greed, or bloodlust win the day? Once Ogedai makes his decision as to who will rule what and where, the generals are loosed upon the world. And I guess their orders were to slaughter damn near everything because... geez! They introduced so much blood to the world that vampires were like "seriously, stop". Reading a Conn novel is truly pure joy because there is so much story and the way he's writing these Khan novels, there's no end in sight. Fine with this reader.
Conn's writing has sharpened since his first `Emperor' book but a small part of me wishes for the "old" Conn, especially when it comes to the blood and brutality. Don't misunderstand me; it's in here but not at the level as his previous books. Doesn't take away from the story, just a personal preference. Anyway... enough of me crying and belly aching... the action in this book is exactly what you would expect from Conn; fast and vast. The simmering hatred Batu has for Tsubodai and his forced yet mocking obedience of the famed General. Chagatai biding his time before unleashes his version of the Mongol Smackdown. The terror of the Russian towns and her citizens at the knowledge that they would not live to see the next morning; heck the next hour. A shocking sacrifice by one of the brothers, the genius of a forgotten General, and a razor sharp kirpan twist at the end.
Anyone wanting to know how to write an historical-thriller needs to sign up for `Conn 101'. Anyone wanting to read a massive historical-thriller needs only to visit their local book store to do so. When you get there, go to the "I" section, look up `Iggulden', and then cancel your life for the next week.
One last thing: Conn adds some historical facts at the end of this book to give us perspective as to what was true and what he took liberty with. I'm assuming he did this because for some reason Conn gets beaten up mercilessly by critics scream from the mountaintops that his books aren't "accurate". Conn is an author, Conn is a creator, Conn is a storyteller. If he wants to take liberty with history so be it! I understand why he did it (if that is indeed why he did it) but I say screw the corncob pipe smoking critics man! He has a gift that they don't; he can tell a story and hold people. The only difference between a non-fiction book and a fiction book is the "non". (Wow, deep). It's all about perspective. Conn sees it one way, I see it one way, and the corncob dork sees another. Ignore the detractors and the purists. You want "true" history? Go to Oxford and proceed to be bored stupid. You want a series that makes your heart pulse? It's right here.

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The Brave: A Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)Nicholas Evans, best known for his bestselling "The Horse Whisperer," has a gift of creating believable characters and developing them over the course of a novel. He gives his prose and settings a masculine feel, while keeping the themes more feminine-friendly, focused on family and love and jilted relationships. It's a formula that's worked, though it was beginning to feel like, well . . . a formula.
In this latest effort, Evans varies his themes and structure, giving us his most ambitious work yet. It's aptly titled, since his approach is brave in its attempt to go into new territory on new trails. We start off with young Tommy as he deals with childhood, bed-wetting, and bullying at an English boarding school. I was thankful for this different direction, and found myself caught up in young Tommy's struggles. The prologue, though, clued me in to drama and violence to come. Sure enough, the story takes some turns within a few chapters, and less than a hundred pages in throws readers for a good twist. It works. But it also feels a bit pedantic, the way Evans spends pages going back to explain how it came to be.
Tommy ends up in Hollywood with his mother and step-father, part of the movie industry scene. He remains relatively unblemished by an era that is known to have been saturated in sexual and narcotic misadventures, but his mother is not so fortunate. The step-father becomes increasingly abusive, and his mother is pushed to make some fateful decisions (yes, this is where the typical Evans comes in). It's really no surprise when she ends up in the arms of, you guessed it, a man in Montana who has a gift with horses. Yawn.
More frustrating than this Evans cliche is his decision to alternate chapters between not only characters but time frames, with very little to reorient us each time the switch is made. We jump from Tommy's young life to his divorced adult life to his mother's teenage years to his own son's fate. Danny (the son) is facing a possible court-martial for his part in civilian deaths while working in the US military. This subplot was intriguing, but felt tacked on in the midst of the nostalgic and self-discovery bits. On a side note, I wish Evans' editors would fix a few British tendencies in the Americanized versions so that we don't have Americans such as Danny saying things that sound patently British.
All in all, Evans gives us interesting characters and settings, but I hope his next book will find a happy medium between the cliches and formulas and the disjointed structure of "The Brave."

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Sun and Shadow: An Erik Winter Novel Review

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(More customer reviews)I'm rating this book 5 stars just to bring up the abysmal rating given by the only other reviewer so far; it deserves better. I'm an aficionado of Scandinavian detectives (see my manic list elsewhere). Edwardson's books are as enjoyable as any. "Never End" - the sequel to this book - is maybe richer, but "Sun and Shadow" serves as an excellent introduction to the icy world of Winter & company. The plot evolves in several dimensions and casts its own bleak spell. Connoisseurs of crime fiction won't want to miss it.

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A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction (Cess Center for Environmental) Review

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(More customer reviews)My fascination with Christopher Alexander's work began with "The Timeless Way of Building," but increased tenfold upon discovering his inexhaustible classic, "A Pattern Language." At over a thousand pages (I think,) "A Pattern Language" is an encyclopedic study of what makes buildings, streets, and communities work -- indeed, what makes environments human.
Alexander and his co-authors present us with over two hundred (roughly 250) "patterns" that they believe must be present in order for an environment to be pleasing, comfortable, or in their words, "alive." The patterns start at the most general level -- the first pattern, "Independent Regions," describes the ideal political entity, while another of my favorite patterns, "Mosaic of Subcultures," described the proper distribution of different groups within a city. The patterns gradually become more specific -- you'll read arguments about how universities should relate to the community, the proper placement of parks, the role of cafes in a city's life. If you wonder about the best design for a home, the authors will describe everything from how roofs and walls should be built, down to how light should fall within the home, where your windows should be placed, and even the most pleasant variety of chairs in the home. An underlying theme of all the patterns is that architecture, at its best, can be used to foster meaningful human interaction, and the authors urge us to be aware of how the houses we build can help us balance needs for intimacy and privacy.
They admit that they are uncertain about some of the patterns -- they indicate their degree of certainty using a code of asterisks placed before the pattern. For each pattern, the authors summarize the pattern in a brief statement printed in boldface, and then describe it at length, drawing upon a variety of sources to give us a full sense of what they mean: these "supporting sources" include an excerpt from a Samuel Beckett novel, papers in scholarly journals, newspaper clippings, etc. Most patterns are accompanied by a photograph (many of them beautiful and fascinating in their own right) and all are illustrated by small, casual hand-drawings. Taken together, "A Pattern Language" is an extraordinarily rich text, visually and conceptually.
As I said in the header of this review, "A Pattern Language" has changed the way I look at buildings and neighborhoods -- I feel like this book has made me attuned to what works, and what doesn't work, in the human environment. I'm constantly realizing things about buildings and streets that this book helped me see -- things that make people feel at home, or feel "alive," in their surroundings, or conversely, things that make people uncomfortable. And the book makes me think differently about life because it showed me how our well-being depends so much upon the way our buildings fit, or don't fit, us as UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS.

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The Wake of Forgiveness Review

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(More customer reviews)"This is the bloodlust of brothers, the vengeful rage of the father, all of it born out and somehow flawless in its wickedness, like some depraved reenactment of Genesis staged solely for the amusement of reprobates." -The Wake of Forgiveness
Every once in a great while you come across a book that does all the things you want a book to do. Prose so sumptuous you hold your breath through whole sections because breathing - even breathing - would disrupt the amazing way a thought is unfolding. A plot with absolutely no holes, that steps surely through event after inexorable event leading you through a story as deep as any Greek or Shakespearian classic. The Wake of Forgiveness is one of those books. It's a Texas- lean epic novel. The story of a Czech family led by a patriarch as cruel and driven as Ahab, and a family of boys physically and emotionally twisted and misshapen by the hard labor and rigid disciplines their father forces upon them.
The Wake of Forgiveness is about hard men with broken hearts, and intentions that may seem evil but are born out of harsh lives in a harsh environment. It is also about the only gentling agents in the environment - women and children. It's about how forgiveness can catch us in its wake, and bring us a little closer to shore, and most importantly, it's about what I think every great work of fiction is about - redemption that rises against all odds from soul breaking struggle.
Against what would seem to be all possibility Bruce Machart writes of these men with great affection because their actions, both gentle and monstrous, are motivated, and even seem necessary considering what has befallen them.
I'm going to re-read this one right away, and it's going to live on my shelves, handy for readings in the future.

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Arctic Twilight Review

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(More customer reviews)Leonard Budgell - traveller, radio and naval expert, fur trader, story teller, Hudson's Bay man, dear friend - comes to glorious reality under the editorship of Claudia Coutu Radmore. With diligence and dignity, Radmore has sifted through hundreds of letters to make a life shine. These chronicles of a traditional way of Northern life should be required reading for high school students throughout this country; anyone with a heart for adventure will love this book.

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Leonard Budgell saw the Canadian North like nobody else. He put his observations into words as few others ever could. Said a seasoned editor, "Of all the books I've worked on, this is my favourite. I want all my family and friends to read it." As a "Servant of the Bay" Budgell ran Hudson's Bay Company trading posts for decades in isolated communities up the Labrador coast and across the Arctic. Living among aboriginal Canadians he witnessed episodes and heard stories that would never again be repeated - except he wrote them down. His pen memorably portrays everything from dancing northern lights and nesting practices of primal birds to astonishing human adventures. Northern ways intact for centuries changed with rifles and motorboats, radios and electric generators, new foods and different medicines. Most often, it was Budgell who bridged the aboriginal and southern cultures, building and operating remote radio stations at places like Hebron, taking an RCMP officer into settlements where a choice had to be made between two different codes of law and behaviour. In Arctic Twilight, Leonard Budgell chronicles, in an outpouring of letters to a much younger female friend, a traditional way of life that was changing forever.

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Tuck (The King Raven Trilogy) Review

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(More customer reviews)"It is an end worth fighting for," mused Bran. "It may be for others to complete what we've begun, but there must be a beginning." (p. 334)
Rhi Bran ap Brychan only wants restored what has been taken from him - his kingship on the throne of Elfael. Red William has led the Ffreinic in a seemingly endless battle against a mysterious group of outlaws under the leadership of King Raven. When he finally decides he will not tolerate another moment of rebellion - because he cannot afford the debt he must pay for the souls he has killed, a battle of epic proportions begins to form in the vale of Elfael.
Throughout the story, there is a short, stout friar named Tuck who faithfully fulfills the requests made of him by his fearless leader Rhi Bran. He is asked several times to go face to face with the enemy and ask that peace be considered, only to have his life threatened and his leader defamed. Yet Tuck remains faithful to pray for Bran and those who fight by his side, and the Lord is faithful to answer Tuck's prayers in some very unexpected ways!
Although Tuck is the final book of Stephen Lawhead's King Raven trilogy, it is a book that can be enjoyed on its own as well. I am almost embarrassed to admit that it's my first introduction to Lawhead's work, but you can be certain I am now a fan! Tuck absolutely transports the reader to another time and place, and from the opening sentence to the final page this epic story plays out in rich imagery, heroic daring and breathless chases! I couldn't help but laugh at Alan A Dale and his hilarious interpretations during Bran's masquerade as Count Rexindo, and I wept at the loss suffered by Bran and Scarlet during one of the final battles. Truly, the King Raven trilogy is an epic tale, and I highly recommend it!


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The Great Weaver from Kashmir Review

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(More customer reviews)That epithet would describe the character, Steinn Ellethi, as he initially appears in this ungainly first novel by the Icelander Halldór Laxness, but it would equally suit the author himself. There are pages and pages of brilliant writing in The Great Weaver, of a sort that preview the originality and pungency of Laxness's later novels, but the whole book is a muddy slog through 436 pages of semi-autobiographical philosophical agony. Possibly every great novelist has to write such a book in order to learn to that 'writing' well isn't enough, and probably most great novelists have the good fortune to lose the manuscript before it's accepted for publication. Above all, dear reader, if you're unacquainted with Laxness, please don't read this novel first. Read "The Fish Could Sing" or "Iceland's Bell", and then go on to "Under the Glacier" and "The Atom Station". If any novelist ever deserved his Nobel Prize, it was Halldór Laxness, who had, as the NYT Book Review declared, "an unearthly ability to find beauty in a landscape of destitution, wisdom in a congress of fools."
Laxness was in the throes of uncertainty about his adopted Catholic religion when he wrote The Great Weaver; one wouldn't need any preface to intuit that fact, since the character Steinn wallows in spiritual turmoil. Steinn is the scion of a powerful and wealthy Icelandic family, a 'golden boy' of overweening talent who aspires to be a great poet. Part Peer Gynt, part Siddhartha, with a spicy glaze of Faust, Steinn leaves Iceland and his childhood friend Diljá to become "perfect." That's his parting explanation of himself to Diljá, the woman who will love him and be destroyed by him. Steinn is every bit as prodigious as he thinks himself to be -- of course -- and probably the most insufferable narcissistic puppy of all of literature. Eventually his quest leads him to monastic Catholicism, which he embraces with the most exquisite heretical perversity. The 'quest' is its own exegesis; Scandinavian writing, from the Viking romances to Peer Gynt to The Great Weaver, is replete with quests that double back in fated failure. Steinn's quest for perfection leads him to the conclusion that he is spiritually worthless, the worst of men, and that that sinfulness is precisely his unique claim to redemption. There's a powerful undercurrent of Catharism in the most austere and mystical forms of Catholicism -- in the life of St. Francis and his 'poveretti' followers, for instance -- and from the external point of view of the reader, Steinn's eventual rejection of the Church seems as inevitable as age. In the meantime, however, Laxness compulsively belabors his holy sinner's stages of self-knowledge in almost embarrassing detail. The novel ends, eventually, with Steinn still a disbelieving devotee of Catholic gnosis and a guest in a Carthusian monastery. Apart from being glad to say good-bye to the arrogant brat, anyone who has read Laxness's later work will be grateful for the knowledge that Laxness himself DIDN'T take the final step into the oblivion of vows.
Women readers should be warned that Steinn is Laxness's mouthpiece for the most odious misogynist rants this side of Saint Paul. On the other hand, Diljá is the one character in the novel whose fate can elicit any sympathy. I'm reminded again of Peer Gynt and of Goethe's Faust, but the redemption that those two 'pilgrims' find in the love of the Eternal Feminine is explicitly rejected -- trampled on! - by Steinn. I'm happy to report that Laxness got this misygynist putrescence out of his bloodstream in this novel, and that the women characters in his later books are as richly multi-faceted and empowered as the women in the Medieval Icelandic sagas.
One final note: if you are yourself a practicing Catholic -- I like that expression PRACTICING in all its possible senses here -- you definitely OUGHT to read this novel, turgid though it be, as a spiritual exercise. Writing it was clearly transformative for its author.

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"[The protagonist's] grand, egotistical journey begins with art and ends with God, taking a path marked out by tormented disquisitions on all manner of existential questions."—New York Times Book Review

"Laxness brought the Icelandic novel out from the saga's shadow. . . . To read Laxness is also to understand why he haunts Iceland—he writes the unearthly prose of a poet cased in the perfection of a shell of plot, wit, and clarity."—Guardian

"Laxness is a poet who writes at the edge of the pages, a visionary who allows us a plot: He takes a Tolstoyan overview, he weaves in a Waugh-like humor: it is not possible to be unimpressed."—Daily Telegraph

"Laxness is a beacon in twentieth-century literature, a writer of splendid originality, wit, and feeling."—Alice Munro

Halldór Laxness' first major novel propels Iceland into the modern world. A young poet leaves the physical and cultural confines of Iceland's shores for the jumbled world of post-WWI Europe. His journey leads the reader through a huge range of moral, philosophical, religious, political, and social realms, exploring, as Laxness expressed it, the "far-ranging variety in the life of a soul, with the swings of a pendulum oscillating between angel and devil." Published when Laxness was twenty-five years old, The Great Weaver from Kashmir's radical experimentation caused a stir in Iceland.

Halldór Laxness is the master of modern Icelandic fiction. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955 for his "vivid epic power which has renewed the great narrative art of Iceland."

Philip Roughton's translations include Laxness' Iceland's Bell, for which he won the American-Scandinavian Foundation Translation Prize in 2001.

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Janice VanCleave's A+ Projects in Astronomy: Winning Experiments for Science Fairs and Extra Credit Review

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(More customer reviews)Any high school or junior high school student will want this book for science fair experiments and ideas. It takes you through the fascinating world of astronomy and all of it's mysteries, movements, and eccentricities. The best part is that each topic is accompanied with a sample experiment followed by questions and answers. You'll have great science fair success with this book!

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