This book is so apt to question the historicity of the Bible, it finds itself refuting orthodox history, because of its inherent bias. 'We can't be certain David and Solomon exist at all, can we?' I hope you detect my cynicism. It might as well deny Israel's existence prior to 200 B.C. Israel after all didn't appear to around Jesus' time, right?

Having gathered works by renown scholars of the history and anthropology of Israel, Hershel Shanks created a masterpiece in Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple. The book itself is easily accessible to one who is unlearned in the history of Ancient Israel (as am I). It also is useful in an undergraduate college classroom setting - As it was used in a Biblical Archaeology class at my school. The only negative feedback I have on this book is that, by its very nature, it is far to concentrated with facts. At times, you may feel very overwhelmed with the information presented. However, if you familiarize yourself with the general history of Israel by quickly reading through the book and then following that reading up with a more indepth reading, this book may serve you well. However, trying to remember all of the dates, names, and rulers at once is overwhelming. I recommend this to anyone who is even slightly interested in learning thoroughly about Ancient Israel and has little background in history during this period of time.

A collection of eight essays by recognized scholars in the field, this book provides an overview and interpretation of relevant archaeological work for the non-technical reader. Its popular style makes it well suited for undergraduate classes as well as lay readers unfamiliar with the history of Israel.

All of the essays have been revised for this second edition, and most have been significantly expanded. Much has changed since the first edition appeared in 1988, and the revised edition reflects those changes well.

The archaeological data and literary evidence available for some periods of Israel's history is far more abundant and diverse than for others. The essays reflect this variation in the available data, and the authors do a competent job of stating the evidence upon which their claims are based.

One doesn't envy Islamic scholar Khalid Duran the task of trying to describe his religion to any audience, let alone a Jewish one, but must admire his courage for making the attempt.

As he states in the preface to this five-chapter volume (a companion to The Children of Abraham: An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims by Reuven Firestone): "The important thing is to delineate both the ideal and the reality honestly, rather than project unsavory practices at the expense of lofty ideals or present ethereal ideals as if problematic actualities did not exist... sometimes there is more beauty and sometimes more ugliness, sometimes the ideal is stronger and sometimes the reality bleaker. Sometimes it is not so clear what really is the ideal, and even the reality cannot always be easily gauged."

With a whole chapter dedicated to "Present-Day Threats" - in which he decries the "hijacking" of key concepts such as shari'a (Islamic law) and jihad by the "Islamists" and "jihadists" - Duran takes great care to distance what he calls the essentially pacifist, pluralistic faith taught by Muhammad (who said "Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you" and "An Arab is not superior to a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab superior to an Arab") from the twisted travesty with which the world has become all too familiar since September 11.

What Muhammad intended, says Duran, was not to create a third religion after Judaism and Christianity, but "to bring them all together on a common platform: the reconstituted Abrahamic original."

But rather than unifying Judaism and Christianity, multiple assassinations in the wake of Muhammad's death in 632 meant that within a century Islam itself was split between the Shi'is, who felt that only members of Muhammad's family could succeed him, and the "orthodox" Sunnis who, following Muhammad's example, bestow leadership of their churchless community, where every believer is his own priest, on the most worthy.

"In the course of time," relates Duran, "each of these early factions developed a separate theology, drifting apart in matters of ritual and law as well as communal structure. What at one time were political parties turned into religious sects."

The Shi'is thus created the imamate, while the Sunnis instituted the caliphate, a religious-political-economic empire which eventually came to dominate a large part of the world.

The immense wealth and concomitant "boisterous materialism" of the caliphate eventually became an affront to many pious dissenters, who reacted by embracing an ascetic, fatalistic lifestyle and wearing garments of coarse wool (suf). Thus arose a branch of modern Islam known as Sufism, often described as Islamic mysticism.

HOW THE originally simple, but today almost anarchic religion known as Islam has interacted with the world's Jews over the past 1,400 years is the subject of Duran's third chapter, "Jews and Muslims." This chapter begins with a section titled "A Difficult Start," goes on to describe the Muslim version of plurality (dhimmitude) - in glorious theory and often-less-than-glorious practice - and concludes in the modern era ("Fresh Wounds and Dim Hopes: The Twentieth Century" and "A New Page for Other Priorities: the Twenty-First Century").

The fourth chapter is titled "Religious Life and Society," and outlines the origin and nature of the Koran, providing some details about the religion as practiced today.

But Duran leaves out much. For example, the explosive and, to Jews, incredible claim that God's Chosen People have corrupted the Torah (according to Muslims, it was Ishmael and not Isaac who was almost sacrificed by Abraham) is mentioned only in passing.

In his final chapter, "Women: The Most Vexing Question," Duran laments what he seems to feel is Islam's greatest shortcoming: its attitude toward and treatment of females.

The book then concludes with a chronology and a much-appreciated glossary of terms.

To sum up, Children of Abraham is a courageous and much-needed attempt to explain one side of an age-old conflict to the other, but doesn't provide the greater understanding of Islam or explain its antipathy toward Judaism that this reader was hoping for.

It is not surprising that Duran has got into trouble with the so-called Muslim fundamentalists, who are here generally called Islamicists. Although he sets out their views without distortions, as well as those of their opponents, he not only is intensely critical of them, but makes it clear that the great majority of Muslims do not agree with them,which I think is such an important thing for the West to take on board. His account of all the varieties and issues within Islam in a relatively short space is clear and exemplary. Curiously enough, the weakest section of a book with this particular title is, in my opinion, that which deal with the history of the relationship between Islam and Judaism, which I found a trifle perfunctory and no more than adequate, with some important material omitted.

In this book Khalid Duran reveals many fascinating aspects of Islam including how the female head scarf, the hijab, which is meant to prevent marital infidelity, actually promotes it, and what the true meaning of female circumcision really is. Although Khalid made took great pains not to offend Islamic sensibilities when he wrote this book, on June 6, the Jordanian Arab language weekly newspaper Al-Shahed called for Duran's "blood to be shed". Duran is in hiding because as he told the Jewish week "I am certainly not taking this lightly--I have had so many friends and associates assassinated". The only problem with this book is that Duran does not tell enough because of his fruitless efforts to avoid offending Muslims. This brave man may pay with his life for telling the truth, it is the least we can do, to buy his book and read it.

This has been one of the more interesting biographys I read. This book focoses in more on his childhood than more on his life in polotics.

My mom was always encouraging me to read biograhies. One day, my mom sat me on a chair and forced me to read at least one chapter. I didn't think I would like it, but I loved it! Tons of info on Abe Lincoln! Some conversations were added to make it more interesting, but most of it was true. I am reading tons of bios from the same series (the Childhood of Famous Americans series). I would encouage everyone to read this book and other books of the series!

This was the first book I read on the subject, and it was average - lots of names and facts - like a text book, but no convincing thread pulling it all together and convincing me of the author's view.

- a cornucopia of information that mysteriously and interestingly ties together seemingly disparate areas of study into a unified powerful statement.

If you've ever wondered about the origins of Western thought - not to mention thousands of other little intellectual sidestreams, grab this book.

Its nontraditional format that seems to jump around from subject to subject is easily manageable and quite enjoyable. The wealth of information makes the whole process definitely worth it.

I highly recommend it, and would hope to accomplish something similar in my own work.

This was one of the most frustrating books to read on the subject of eating disorders because the emphasis seemed to be on the wrong things. When we think of eating disorders we must realize how much we still need to learn. There were so many references to "ideal" weights and dieting that it would be counterproductive for a patient with an eating disorder to read this book. Some interesting facts about eating disorders and pregnancy were mentioned in this book, and these seemed to be more in the authors' area of expertise. There are many other books written on treating eating disorders and the key seems to be treating the patient with compassion. There was confusion in the book in defining the different eating disorders because there aren't any international standards. In the U.S. we typically use the DSM-IV for diagnosis guidelines, but the guidelines used in other countries are somewhat different making this more difficult to understand.

This is a thorough book. The basics of the three major eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia and obesity, are examined both individually and as a group, with opening chapters on adolescent eating behaviors and the sexual maturation process. Numerous case history outlines provide surprising insights into the mind of the eating disorder victim. You will not find what you might expect. Any parent with a daughter in sports should get this book. Eating disorders are a subject which parents today cannot study enough

The main character's ex-husband is an ex-prisoner and and "60's" rock star who goes insane after everything that happened to him starts to take effect on him mentally. Jessie, the main character's, daughter Kate is kidnapped by her father. Who has multi identities, as Boa Dai and Pat Rodney just to name a couple, then Jessie's best friend Barbara a lawyer is murdered by a hit and run which seem's to be Pat who was driving the car. Jessie goes on through all the police investigations, which lead no where, and decides to find Kate herself. Looking through Pat's home and belonging's leads to a strange message on the kitchen blackboard that is written in French and German. This same message was recorded on Pat's answer machine butgot cut off half way through the message. She goes to Vermont talking to Pat's old friend's from the sixties, and a used-car salesman who tells her he seen her daughter and Pat a week ago. Becoming more anxious and losing hope every minute that goes bye, she finally finds him in a senator's home. The senator happened to be the husband of Pat's mother, who turns out trying to kill him and Kate and whoever gets in way. Jessie and the police scramble to get there before he kills anyone and successfully shot him down after a long gun chase through the snowy woods. In my opinion, this book was partially good, because the kidnapping and the killing were intense, but the traveling around and talking to Pat's old friends was dumb. Jessie should have never allowed Pat to take Kate away for the weekend, he was always a cocaine user before she met him and the drugs and his attitude got worse over the years. The book is all right and really strange mixed uo through the entire story.

Convoluted and evasive right down to the wire, Hard Rain by Peter Abrahams is a bleak yet thrilling study in what happens when a woman marries a man she knows nothing about. With switched identities, retiring FBI agents, politics and a background involving Woodstock, Peter Abrahams has written a cautionary tale with more bangs for the buck than any recent book I've read. Very highly recommended.

It is a good atlas for a trainee. It includes difficult part of body with a precise label. However, it is not easy to find the one that you want since there are plenty of labels. In addition, I think it is much better if there are few sentences to elicit the information concerning the radiological imaging like certain common normal variants that one could see in the radiological imaging

I highly reccomend this for MRI and CT images viewing. The images are very clear and capture the area of interest very well. Medical professionals will sure can rely on this atlas for normal images.

As far as I can see this book has but one fault, and that is that it claims to be a work of historical non-fiction. First of all, the body of John Wilkes Booth was not examined by his family at the old arsenal, it was examined in Baltimore shortly before being buried in the family plot. The story about Booth's escape to Asia is extremely far-fetched, and as a person who has spent a great deal of time reading about this man, it is highly doubtful that he would have brooded at all for killing Lincoln, although he might have brooded a bit for himself after he realized that he was now a hated man throughout the country. Finally, there is the icing on the cake, Booth's death in Enid, Oklahoma in 1903. If anyone has seen photographs of the man who claimed to be John Wilkes Booth shortly before dying, then it is very obvious that this man is not Booth. His forehead is much smaller and his features are much more rugged than Booth's. An interesting sidenote, the last known whereabouts of Boston Corbett, the man who killed Booth at Garrett's farm, was Enid, Oklahoma. My hats off to you Mr. Nottingham, for this book is much more entertaining than the other recent fiction book about John Wilkes Booth.

Theodore Nottingham is primarily a writer of religious books and fiction with a religious and/or historical bent. In The Curse of Cain, purportedly a biography of the assassin of Abraham Lincoln, he creates a work that is both a religious parable and a work that is at once history and historical fiction. His rationale for doing so is his desire to put across the torment and the motivation of a man reviled by history as the murderer of both the man Lincoln and of the ultimate well being of the post Civil War South. His reason for doing that is his family connection to the protagonist, for Nottingham is the great, great, great grandson of John Wilkes Booth.

As I said when I reviewed the biography of the Empress Josephine, I tend to like my history "neat," and this is no exception. That doesn't mean that the book is a total waste, however, for a number of reasons. For those readers who prefer the story behind history, the first half of the book should be quite captivating, for it certainly reads like a Shakespearean drama. Nottingham claims to have received some of his ancestor's propensity for drama and grim intensity, and he certainly reveals that when he throws himself into Booth's tale. The setting, character, and plot, including the implication of important figures pulling strings behind the scenes, are interesting enough to hold the attention. I read the first 142 pages in about 2 hours. To some extent the author's choice of words and phrases was a little trite, or perhaps more fairly, a little adolescent. In fact the book might well appeal to adolescent boys who find history too dull because history books are too "dry," a mere collection of names, dates, and places to be memorized for tests if one is to pass them

On a more redeeming note, from my perspective at least, is the final few pages of the volume which are mostly historical data drawn in part form family diaries, reminiscences, photos and documents and in part from public documents. The hurried summation of this data in these final pages certainly provided some justification for the more theatrical pages that preceded it. It also provided data that seemed to support the intimation in the earlier pages of collusion in high places. If nothing else it rubbed away the patina of the ages from the events of that era and revealed the solid brass of the time. Like our own world, full of subterfuge and hidden agendas, political posturing and diplomatic positioning, the post Civil War Era was filled with urgency and moment, with people who won big time and those who lost big time. It demonstrates that nothing under the sun is truly new, especially when it comes to human drama, something that both Shakespeare and Booth would have understood.

I think it's a pity that so little space was given to the documentation and the conclusions to be drawn from it. When I ordered the book, it was that that I expected from it. Given his access to family material, Nottingham could have made it a far more major and serious work of history.

My congratulations go to Theodore J. Nottingham on accomplishing what few authors achieve -- captiviating and engaging my mind to such an extent I was unable to stop reading his book. "The Curse of Cain" gives readers a dramatic yet factual look at what occured in the mind of John Wilkes Booth in the days, weeks, and years following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. As this man makes his way through life, his thoughts run wild with moral issues. Booth's third-great grandson does a wonderful job telling the story, with both a dramatic and factual approach. A must-read for any history fan.
Michael J. Downey

The US is so protective of Formosa. Why should China not use the Lincoln example. The solution to an area wanting to secede is to reduce it to rubble cause the death of one million people, civilian and military, declare total war on both the military and civilian population. Once conquered, the cause of the war is to say that Formosa cannot be independent, is that Formosa is no longer a part of China. Install military dictators, take away the vote of most of the citizens and dictate that they must approve certain amendments to the constitution, even though they are not a part of China, before they can re-enter the union. During the conflict shred the constitution, lock up millions without benefit of trial, and close any news outlet that does not agree with the destruction of Formosa. Once the destruction of Formosa is over most certainly the victors write the history and within 100 years or less the current president of China will be considered one of the greatest presidents of China. So it takes Formosa 80 years to recover we will always know how evil they were for wanting to attain self determination.

Most certainly the Founders of this Republic seceeded from the British Empire. What was the diference?

"Look at me and I'll tell you without blinkin' this southerner prefers Abraham Lincoln"

goes a rap at the start of this book, and it is aimed at those of like mind, southerner or not.

A warning - half the book consists of illustrations of Lincolniana so that this is one for the specialist. The Lincoln- seeker should read David Donald's excellent biography before opening this book.

That said, does this book tell us anything new about Lincoln? The answer is yes, without being final or definitive. I liked particularly the article on Lincoln and the Constitution, showing that he was not the 'dictator' of Copperhead legend, nor the conscious revolutionary of Garry Wills' 'Lincoln at Gettysburg'. However, did his actions not have revolutionary results?

The article on the Lincoln marriage I felt a bit limited, but also a good corrective to the image of Lincoln the hen-pecked husband trapped in a loveless union. 'Mary, Mary, we are elected!" he cried to his wife on arriving home that great day, showing the essential nature of the partnership between them. However, this essay does not use Mariah Vance's remininscences, though written very much later that the 1850s, which show Mary Todd Lincoln as addicted to paregoric (which contained opium) and subject to alternating fits of drugged lassitiude, and withdrawal-induced sickness. However, even the Vance memoirs (she was the Lincoln's servant) are not entirely negative on Mary Lincoln.

Other essays cover the Lincoln youth, his fascination with death, his status as war leader and finally his image in American art. The enigma is somewhat clarified but somehow the enigma, and the continuing fascination, remains.

Attractively produced compilation with highest scholarship.... Boritt directs Lincoln studies at Center,(civil War) Gettysburg site. Has more than 60 pages illustrating portraiture of Lincoln, diverse forms. Mt.Rushmore,& tourist type statues- in NY, Abe greets girl who suggested he grow a beard. An 'abandoned' forlorn 62' statue stands at a closed campground,Charleston,IL. Best source for,trivia/folklore. More of same,short paperback,Gordon Leidner's collection,2001.

In an industry where the average "Hot" artist (or writer, for that matter), has a career lifespan of 10 years, Will Eisner is a true oddity. Not only is he still creating new work after over 60 years in the business, but he's still a vital creative force; He's doing stuff that no one else is.

The Name of the Game is the story of three Jewish families, and how the "Game" of marriage affects the fortunes of various members of those families. Eisner's art is great, as usual, but I felt no real emotional attachment to any of the characters in the book (except for Rosie, at the very end, and even she is morally co-opted before it's all over.), but perhaps that was Eisner's intent. We see so many cold, emotionless people doing rotten things to each other that we get detached, and in the end, these people have all gotten not just what they wanted, but what they deserve. (He does manage to give the vile Conrad Arnheim some Human qualities...even though he cheats on his wife, and beats her, he gives stock tips to his chauffer...)

The Name of the Game is an attractive package, and pretty much anything by Eisner is worth a look.

Eisner's latest graphic novel is a sweeping, episodic study of the rise and fall of a prominent German Jewish family over several generations. It focuses on the way that marriage and children serve to build, trade on, and maintain the family's social prominence. Reminiscent of Booth Tarkington's THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, it's an absorbing story, but it's difficult to feel any emotional connection to the characters. Eisner's artwork is slicker than ever, but the odd use of prose text segments that information that could and should've been conveyed either in art and dialogue or in conventional captions is jarring, and sometimes makes the artwork (which could've used larger reproduction, in any case) feel squeezed. It's a peculiar choice for an author who's always been such a strong advocate of the storytelling potential of the medium. A richly observed drama, but not up to the high standards set by Eisner's best work.

This work, the story of fifty years of marriage in three different ambitious Jewish families, is very good, though it is, as pointed out by the other reviewer here, difficult to get into the various characters. Eisner's a true pioneer, and the story he told is of by and large cold people, so seeing them treated coldly may have been intentional. What prevents me from saying this work is great is Eisner's over-reliance on narrative and dialogue to propel his tale. The true strength of Eisner's story-telling abilities here is in his drawing pencil, not his dialogue, so it's something of a shame he didn't rely on it more.