Zamoyski's ambitious book is a triumph. His sweep encompasses virtually all of Europe and North and South America from the 1770s to the 1870s. His theme is the way in which radicals, nationalists and revolutionaries appropriated religious fervour, rituals and iconography for their own protean causes. We meet an amazing assortment of cranks, would-be messiahs, unfocused idealists, adventurers and imposters. Though the events it describes are sometimes quite tragic, enlivened by Zamoyski's unfailing light touch it is one of the funniest history books I have ever read.

I'm sure in a book of this scope, specialist historians will find minor errors of fact; but general readers should not be deterred. Sometimes the need to simplify matters leads to some questionable interpretations. For example, I thought Zamoyski understated the extent to which the French were duped by Bismark into starting the Franco-Prussian War. I also felt he was running out a steam towards the end, so that his treatment of the Paris Commune was not as rich as one might have hoped.

As someone who has long been baffled by the need for many European and American countries constantly to rehash their foundational myths, I found Zamoyski's good humoured debunking of them hugely enjoyable.

Anyone interested in modern history should read this splendid book as a matter of urgency.

Adams worked as an insider at the highest levels of academic administration for much longer than anyone should ever have to. This book clearly takes up much of the hatred of the culture wars. You can see this topic played out in The Education of Max Bickford, or in novels like Straight Man, but the topic is so much more painfully dissected in this novel, as the people involved in the internecine war are much more human than they are ideological machines, and it's the humanity that suffers in the present conversation between traditional academic scholars and cultural studies mavens.

It's hard to put your finger on why this book is great. I've always been interested in anarchist communes of the Pacific Northwest. There's research and a resurrection of one of these. Another strong interest is how sexual harassment is being used as a weapon to gain academic power by a very small minority, and how this weapon is destroying any sense of collegiality in humanities departments. what Adams reaches for is the humanity behind people in those humanities departments. It is this that nobody really dares to show, but which is nevertheless always there.

This novel won't be for everyone. Anyone, however, who has suffered through the culture wars while attending graduate school in English at the University of Washington, however, will find this book right on the money. I'm not sure if other graduate programs are as terribly afflicted as that one, but that school was a disaster in which all sense of conversation had broken down, and only single-issue name-calling, and lies, and the bearing of false witness remained, except for a few small circles when they were in very protected environments.

This novel astutely and rather wisely recounts that one battleground in the cultural wars. I feel almost grateful to have gone through that war just in order to have this book's psychogeography down pat. Novels like this take something horrible and make it comprehensible, and manage to create a sense of community out of the incommunicable.

I'm grateful. I suspect that those who aren't very in on the lingo and debates of the last few years in literary studies will have a tough go with this one and be unable to quite get their bearings. For me, I couldn't put it down. It was a powerful and tremendous book that moved me as deeply as literature ever has, and is likely to remain one of my favorite books. there were some characters I couldn't get a feel for, and some of the plot concerning the fin de siecle anarchists seemed slow, as I couldn't wait to get back to the sexual harassment case in present time, but finally the author managed to pull it all together into a very impressive ending. This book is a song of experience: a lifetime spent in academia distilled, and one feels the author's simultaneous gratitude, amusement, and sorrow all mixed together and in no particular order.

If you're a visual learner and new to homeopathy, this small investment makes a good first purchase. The first part of the book explains what homeopathy is, how it works, how it views symptoms and other background information. The last part, the short "materia medica," gives a summary of 15 different remedies. Each includes not only a clear synopsis of symptoms typical of the remedy, but great little pictures of a person who would fit the remedy, and the picture of the little herb or whatever the remedy was made of. Peppered throughout are little text boxes which include helpful things, like what to do for minor injuries.

Marilyn McCord Adams takes on some of the ugliest theologico-philosophical tangles known to man - and does so very courageously. The fundamental dilemma, Does the believer in God commit himself to a logically untenable position when he posits the existence of an all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful deity, and yet acknowledges the presence of evil in the world? I.e. is there a possible world in which such a situation manifests itself? Of course, these issues have been debated to death by analytical philosophers (and some have concluded that believing in such a God is inconsistent with the existence of evil).

Dr. Adams moves away from the traditional formulations of this question within analytic circles, which makes use of the utilitarian pain/pleasure calculus type approach to morality (championed by philosophers such as Bentham and Mills). Instead, she offers alternative approaches by examining the works of various theologians throughout the ages. Among the approaches considered are purity/defilement (cf. Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy), the honor code, and aesthetics. She examines the most horrible of horrors encountered by man, and uses them to show how her God can overcome these horrors despite their apparent intractibility. Among some of the more interesting ideas suggested are the notion that God indeed suffers along with us humans and that even Christ (as God) had to experience abandonment by God, in order to fully participate in the human condition (even though these have been originally suggested by others).

While I will not comment on the validity of her arguments (I think the difficulties are too great for me), I do think that she offers profound insight into the nature of God (whatever such an entity might be). It is nice to know that someone still has faith in an all-loving merciful deity, despite the fact that we live in a post-consumerist, post-industrial, post-Marxist, post-Auschwitz world.

John Engels (professor of English at St. Michael's College and an award winning author of ten volumes of poetry) offers a impressively textured series of memorable poetic monologues in House And Garden in revelation and celebration of the thoughts of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (and beyond), and the process of establishing order through the naming of things - and feelings. Adam in the Graveyard: How cold it is,/that white sun smoking overhead,/powerful contours of snow//braiding, dividing/around the stones,/sheeting and rumpling as if//something were struggling/to break through./In this place//memory's no salvation,/there's no cause to wake/or trouble us, in this place love//has dwindled to fatigue/like winter gardens/discarded to this//whirl of dirt,/to these heaviest/of days, to this most durable//of our inclinations. John Engels' House And Garden is also available in hardcover.

This book really helps a Christian understand why they still battle with sin after becoming a believer. The author clearly explains how we can be committed to the Lord yet struggle with particular areas of sin. This book is very realistic and encouraging at the same time. We first read it twenty years ago and find the concepts stand the test of time.

In addition to the usual basic information, Starchild uses his experience to suggest innovative approaches that are not available in any other immigration guide.

Parents have been focusing their efforts on developing your child's talent academically. This book actually tells us why a child's talent is not limited to academic result only and the importance of developing the seven intelligences that the book pitches on. I thought it's great stuff. Kudos to the authors. It came with recommended games and activities too. And, I thought this is one those rare books that is written for Asian parents. A well written one.

I have played some of the games mentioned in the book with my four year old girl and she loves it! A fabulous book for Asian parents!

Brilliant book, absolutely essential creed book. One of the best-written WW supplements in years.

An excellent book. A must for all occupational health practitioners and students. We will recommend it for all members of our Kuwait society of occupational Health.