Rav Kook is the greatest Jewish thinker in the last 200 years because he most fully understands the spiritual crisis of the modern Jew. Although there were a number of dynamic Jewish religious leaders who took up the mantle of leadership in order to rebuild the shattered remnants of the Jewish world in the wake of the Holocaust such as the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik and the Satmar Rov, their message was basically directed at a relatively small group of Jews. Rav Kook has a message for the entire Jewish people. His great contributions were: (1) to emphasize the dynamic nature of both the spiritual and physical worlds, and, one the one hand, tell the traditional religious Jew that the Torah is flexible and can stand up to the challenges of modernity and change, while on the other hand demonstrating the perpetual relevance of the Torah to the Jew who has a less than full commitment to it; and (2) to demonstrate the absolute necessity of the Jewish people to return to the Land of Israel and build a modern society rooted in the Torah. This fine book gives a sampling of these ideas and is a good introduction to the mind of this remarkable thinker.

Rav Kook was the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine and helped lead the continuing dialogue of Jewish Mysticism into the 20th century. This collection of his writings is both profound and beautiful. Some of the pieces such as 'The Lights of Penitance' might appeal only to scholars, but Kook's poetry can be appreciated by all. His idea of a unified Judaism where the secular and the holy both make up parts of the whole are very moving. Other themes include vegetarianism and a universal love for all people.

This book was a wonderful survey and introduction of Rav Kook's works. The philosophical texts are compelling and inspiring, the letters are touching and personal, and the poetry exposed a sincerity and passion which could not be harvested from any history book. Fantastic, meaty reading.

I love Asimov's writings. His Science Fiction has helped create the genre. His History works are always insightful.

I also love the Bible, and knowing old Issac is an Athiest I bought this book with a degree of trepidation.

My trepidation was unfounded. Asimov treats the Bible with respect and understanding. He recognises many of the Old Testament Prophecies about Jesus (another point that concerned me, knowing of Asimov's Jewish heritage).

He puts the Bible into its wider historical perspective.

This isn't the first book I will refer to to understand a part of the Bible, but it is one to which I will often refer.

The Christian bible is a fascinating document, and the contents are open to a vast array of interpretations. In this book, Isaac Asimov examines it from a historical perspective. Despite the enormous attention that it has received from scholars of all types, the authorship of many of the sections has not been established, and Asimov makes that very clear. What is the most fascinating aspect is the interpretation of some of the passages based on the social and political conditions of the time. Whatever you may think about the early leaders of the Christian church, one fact remains very clear. They managed to take a small movement and turn it into an international one that survived fierce persecution by the Roman Empire, the greatest and most long-lived political power the world has ever seen. This is most impressive, and those who accept the Christian religion will find Asimov's descriptions supportive of their beliefs, even though he was a secular humanist.
A book that describes the beginnings and growth of a powerful institution that outlived and outgrew all others that tried to destroy it, as a popular record of the history of the movement it has no equal.

Asimov opens by stating that what most of us know of world history comes from the Bible and then in a tour-de-Asimov introduces the reader to thousands of details concerning the little we know. Very thorough, very informative and above all, very readable. As a coincidence, I had just finished reading Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad," which includes Twain's visit to the Holy Land, when I began "Asimov's Guide to the Bible." The two books form a pleasant symetry of knowledge and perception concerning those ancient times and peoples.

Minor SPOILER included in review, turn back now or....
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I really didn't think Mr. Tiedemann could continue to please after the two parts of this story (Mirage and Chimera) proved to be so entertaining.....but I was wrong, Aurora was an excellent conclusion to this trilogy. I only dinged it one star (the first two got 5 stars) because a character I really liked and hoped to see again dies...oh well.

I whole-heartedly recommend this series!! Worth every penny!

Tiedemann brings Asimov's robot universe to life in unexpected ways. The complex twists and turns of the story keep your attention riveted.

Once you pick up this book, or any other of Tiedemann's work, you can't put it down until you reach the end. I's like getting a box of chocolates, you can't have just a little bite, you want the whole thing.

This book, in particular, delves into subjects and themes that are both cutting-edge and timeless. His characters seem real, with real problems and attitudes. Even his robots are imaginative and have personalities that capture the imagination and leave you wanting more.

I'd highly recommend this book to anyone that loves great SF.

Okay, if you have any personal integrity whatsoever you've already read Mirage and Chimera, the previous Tiedemann titles in this Asimov's Robot Mystery series. They were both great reads, but this is the one that (being a SFWA member) I'm giving a Nebula recommendation to. (And I usually don't do that for so-called "sharecropper" novels.) Why? Because this novel goes way beyond the mystery/action level of the previous books, and brings the background into play in very interesting ways. Without discussing the plot, I'll only say that it also brings the Asimov "universe" up to date with the concerns of modern SF readers. Questions like "Where's the nanotech?" and "What about AI's?" and "What happened to the Spacers?" are dealt with, or ominously foreshadowed. Most importantly, the questions raised by the existence of Bogard are not swept under the rug or reduced to a mere plot point to be conveniently tied up later. Bogard raises fundamental questions about the Three Laws, and robotics in general, and Tiedemann faces up to them and lets them play out. Good stuff.

I read this book when it was first published and until recently had always wondered why Carr was killed. I always felt that it was a contract murder but didnt have a clue as to why the contract on carr was carried out. Mr carr was it seems a very bright, well versed man. It" interseting to note that despite all the violence and mayhem. of which Carr contributed was a very itelligent man who was never able to seperate his inate intelligence from his penchant for violence. Mr carr was a victim of his past deeds and very much a product of the era in which he lived. A good read, disturbing because conditions in California State Prisons remain for the most very much the same today as they did in Carr"s time.

The book is very well written and not at all dated. Best Prison book I've read. Extremely honest. Deals with race wars, sexual predators, murder...This guy doesn't make excuses, he just tells it how it is. He admits that he was a guy who didn't want to work so he did liquor store robberies. Every time he got out of prison, the first thing he did was get caught for something & sent back. He was in prision during the time that the Mexican Mafia was starting and has some interesting insight on that. Very involved in race wars and riots. It's interesting how he moves from institution to institution (San Quentin, Tracy, LA County, among others) and always runs into cons that he knows. This guy was so bad that he got moved from a juvenile facility to San Quentin at the age of 16. An all around bad guy. Great read.

any book that starts out with the line "when i was 9 years old i burned down my school"is definatley pulling no punches, no not a damm one. inside this world we are taken through the early history of the L.A. gangbanging of the 60's,the deppression and hopelessness of an inmate in the 70's. and finally with a healthy dose of monumental juxtaposition we end our relationship with a man on the verge of a possibly promising career as a writer he is murdered shortly after completion of his one and saddly only novel.

(This review refers to Volume One only.) Asimov has collected eight stories in this anthology that were influential in his own writing. Asimov read most of these stories when he was about 12 years old, being fortunate enough to devour most of them from pulp magazines that were sold in his father's candy store. As might be expected with any anthology, some stories are better than others, and some have held up better through the years than others. Yet these pieces are not included for comparison to current stories, but to show what Asimov read as a young person and how the works influenced him. Asimov's mini-autobiography alone is worth the price of the book. After each story, Asimov tells how an idea or a concept from a story led to the formation of one of his own works. A very interesting idea. "The Jameson Satellite" is a forerunner of "I, Robot," and "Submicroscopic" is a small step from "Fantastic Voyage." As mentioned by another reviewer, the reader will have to deal with several prejudices from the time these stories were written (especially racial), but overall this book is a great insight into what makes Asimov Asimov.

This collection of early, pulp-style scifi works is a great joy. Asimov's introduction to the stories is exceedingly interesting and helpful. The stories sometimes show flaws or problems in their writing and in their attitudes (while several stories are forward-looking, most show the racism and misogyny common to that time), most of the stories are entertaining and all of them are interesting from a historical perspective. Check it out if you can get your hands on it, it's a great find. I really got a kick out of several pieces, which run the gamut from more reasonable 'conquered man, driven underground, strikes back at his evil alien oppressors' to the completely ludicrous story about the planets of our solar system hatching into giant space chickens. (That last story is meant to be taken seriously, by the way.) A veritable laundry-list of great, long out-of-print authors and some wonderful writing from the early days of popular science fiction.

This book contains the good old stories from the 1930's. There is nothing great here, but it is till worth reading. You can see the evolution of the Science Fiction field by reading the stories in this book.

The book, Isaac Newton and the Scientific Revoultion, was a good book beacause it went futher than the inventions and into Isaac Newton, the man. The book showed his public and private fueds with rival scientists. The books also shows his emotions; lots of resenment and hate, love of the unknown, and joy of experinicng life to the fullest. The only bad part of the book was it was to fast; it didn't show enough of the discoverery, it raced along to show what happened to Newton after the discovery like his fame and how it destroyed his rivals. But in the end you feel like you knew Newton and lived in the Scientiic revolution.

This is not just a great biography'it's one of the best-written science books around for young people. Christianson has sifted through the historical documents and accounts of Newton to paint a convincing and intelligent picture of the complex and at times irascible genius. Even more remarkable, the biographical portrait he presents is a compelling story. It begins with a beheading'that of Charles I'and ends with the poetic image of visitors to Newton's gravesite pausing "in silent tribute to the sacred permanence of the dead." The author demonstrates a remarkable sense of Newton and his times. For example, while many other biographers struggle to explain his experiments in alchemy, Christianson puts them in context of the great scientist trying to unravel the mysteries of the atomic world with the best tools available to him. The narrative also shows how Newton changed as he grew older: from a young, intense, reclusive academic to a living legend justifiably vain about his reputation. Reproductions of documents, Newton's sketches, and paintings of well-known figures illustrate this fine book

I have never read a biography quite as good as this. This book has some of the best descriptions of Newton that I've ever heard: "Like Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton was not just an aimless childhood tinkerer, but a tinkerer playing with ideas and mechanisms." It has so many interesting details about his life, such as the jumping contest at school, or the many different clocks that he made. This book made me realize that Newton wasn't just a great scientist, but a political figure as well, with a seat in Parliment, head of the Royal Society, and Director of the Mint. If it is possible, Cristianson would be my nominee for the Pulitzer Prize.

I was required to read this book in college ... and I loved it. A tale of courage, the knights code of moral and adventure, this book is not only an adventure story but a depiction of the human condition. Selfishness and fear can ruin our moral constitutions. The knight was a tower strength and courage yet the book brought to focus his fears and his selfishness.

I'm sure there are deeper levels of analysis for this book - good books often do.

- johnny -

I was required to read this book in college ... and I loved it. A tale of courage, the knights code of moral and adventure, this book is not only an adventure story but a depiction of the human condition. Selfishness and fear can ruin our moral constitutions. The knight was a tower strength and courage yet the book brought to focus his fears and his selfishness.

I'm sure there are deeper levels of analysis for this book - good books often do.

- johnny -

This 14th Century poem is one of the earliest known works in English. Its provenance is a mystery because literally nothing is known of the poet. It is written in a unique dialect of Middle English and is pretty much unread in the original. This verse translation by Burton Raffel is terrific and does much to elevate the work to the level of Beowulf & Chaucer.

At Christmas time, a Green Knight enters Camelot and challenges any Knight of the Roundtable to smite him with one blow of a battle axe. The only catch is that one year hence the smiter must receive a similar blow from the Green Knight. Sir Gawain volunteers for this strange duty. He beheads the Green Knight who thereupon picks up his laughing head and reminds Gawain of his obligation & tells him to find him in exactly one year to receive the blow.

The enchanting adventure leading up to and inculding their subsequent confrontation is beautifully rendered by Raffel. The poem is exciting, humorous & deals with great themes: courage, honor, etc.

GRADE: A+

Briefly, Asimov wrote Black Widower short stories for _Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine_ for years, rounding out each batch to a dozen with a few previously unpublished episodes for each new Widower collection. The Widowers are a stag club who meet once a month at the Milano restaurant: Avalon (patent attorney), Drake (research chemist), Gonzalo (painter), Halsted (teacher), Rubin (author), and Trumbull (intelligence analyst). They rotate the office of host; each month's host brings a guest for an evening of dinner, conversation, and grilling, and each eventually produces a problem of some kind for the Widowers to try to solve. (Problem-solving isn't the point of the club; Avalon, for one, grumbles about how the grilling always seems to degenerate into sleuthing, lately.) The seventh Widower - Henry, the waiter - always produces the solution after the other six have batted the problem around awhile.

"The Cross of Lorraine" - Host: Rubin. Guest: the Amazing Larri, a stage magician with a sideline in exposing psychic fraudsters. (However, Larri's discourse on psychics is only the prologue to his problem; for a story concentrating on psychics, see _Tales of the Black Widowers_). Larri wants to make a lady reappear: Gwendolyn, whom he met on a long bus ride. But a young French fellow-passenger could offer only one clue as to her destination. [Implausible for an 8-year-old to have spotted the main clue without being able to give clearer directions.]

"A Case of Income Tax Fraud" (a.k.a. "The Family Man") The evening's guest initially casts a pall over the banquet by revealing that he's employed by the IRS. (The griller, learning this, says that "you can have no friends here, or possibly anywhere.") His recollection for the evening is of a fraudster who managed, apparently quite innocently, to mislead him about his identity by giving the impression of being a family man when speaking of holidays. What went wrong? [This one's a stretch.]

"The Sports Page" This evening's guest is haunted by a mysterious dying clue left by a US agent that apparently, if properly unraveled, could have averted the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Naturally, the dying spy came up with a clue in his last moments that experts couldn't crack even years later, but Henry can.

"Second Best" An old soldier's problem is that he has never been able to grant the last request of a dying comrade on a battlefield; the only clue to the dead man's name is a reference to the 'second-best' vote-getter among the US presidents. [Dying-clue stories are inherently problematic; the more obscure the clue, the more tortured the rationale, and this one's *bad*. Asimov appears to have had a presidential-trivia bug, having used a similar clue in _Puzzles of the Black Widowers_.]

"The Missing Item" As with _Banquets of the BW_'s "Neither Brute Nor Human", someone dear to the guest has become involved with a cult: in this case, his wife wants to join the Tri-Lucifer cult, who claim that the anointed will one day live in a Martian paradise. He's trying to find a logical flaw in Tri-Lucifer dogma to persuade her that they're fakes, since being faced with logical inconsistency in doctrine has always persuaded her in the past to turn aside from unusual belief systems. [This one turns up in SF collections, and it's pretty good.]

"The Next Day" - Host: Drake, who's writing a book on recombinant DNA. Guest: Stephen Bentham, an editor at Southby Publications, despite Rubin's authorial objections to socializing with editors. Stephen's problem, however, is another author entirely: an unknown with tremendous potential, who not only resisted editing of his manuscript, but now claims that Stephen drove him away with vicious sarcasm. What happened after their last conversation?

"A Matter of Irrelevance" (a.k.a. "Irrelevance!") Guest: Dan Burry, high school principal, who's trying to interpret a mysterious paper a student apparently involved in a burglary ring was carrying, to convince the kid to cooperate with the law. [*Way* too involved for real-life thieving.]

"None So Blind" Mysterious death of a spy - and nobody could identify the killer.

"The Backward Look" - Guest: Milton Petersborough, stuck trying to create a murder-motive in the SF mystery he's writing on a bet. (He mentions that Asimov's career began with a similar bet.) But how could two photographs of an eclipse differ dramatically enough to motivate one photographer to murder the other? [My, but that *is* weak, isn't it? For a story about a story, "Earthset and Evening Star" in _More Tales of the Black Widowers_ seems a better bet.]

"What Time Is It?" - Host: Drake. Guest: Barry Levine, trial lawyer, who realizes the important of little things: the fate of his current client, charged with murder, hangs on a 20-minute discrepancy between two witnesses over when he left the scene.

"Middle Name" - Host: Gonzalo. Guest: handsome Lionel Washburn, rejected by a militant feminist for another man. She added insult to injury, claiming Washburn lost *a battle of wits* against his rival. The challenge was to produce a 1-syllable middle name that every schoolchild knows but doesn't know. Incidentally, James Drake is called on to recount the original reason for the stag rule of the club: the tale of his failed marriage to a woman his friends couldn't stand.

"To the Barest" - one of the few stories mentioning the club's founder, Ralph Ottur, and, sadly, the last: Ottur's representative at this evening's banquet bears tidings of his death. Ottur loved puzzles, and wants the Widowers to play one final time. He has left a legacy to whichever Widower meets the specification, "to the barest" - and to guarantee that the Widowers play, it all goes to the neo-Nazis if their solution doesn't satisfy Ottur's executor.

Since Isaac Asimov wrote in so many areas, his mysteries are often overlooked. While part of this is due to them being overshadowed by his science fiction and popular science series, another significant contribution is that they are not generally very deep. Most of his mysteries are the short, puzzle type of problem with little or no psychological intrigue. Furthermore, he scrupulously avoids the staples of blood, gore, sex, harsh language and violence. When you have been bombarded with such things, his writings seem rather tame. Which also makes them refreshing. Like viewing an old comedy tape where the comedian relies on timing, delivery and the incongruous events of the human existence rather than shock or chewing up another, these stories are a welcome relief.
The setting is a monthly gathering of an all male club where a guest is also present. That guest comes with a problem and it is presented to the Black Widowers for solution. After the group members are suitably stumped, the smartest person in the room, the quiet efficient waiter named Henry, comes up with the "obvious" solution. The difficulty of the puzzles is just about right, in that the solution is clear if you think about it in the right way.
I consider the tales of the Black Widowers to be the best series of mysteries that Asimov produced. They are entertaining, clearly written and give your brain cells a bit of exercise. If you like mysteries that are more puzzle than a deep conflict, then you will enjoy these tales.

Isaac Asimov, better known for his science fiction series as well as for his non-fiction treatises on innumerable subjects, has crafted captivating short mystery stories. In the vein of "Minute Mysteries", the stories of the Black Widowers combines interesting character development as the stories conglomerate. Set in the atmosphere of a social gathering of professional gentlemen of varied fields, the story lines unfold as the members of "The Black Widowers" grill the guest of the month in unraveling a mystery they can attempt to solve. Never of earth shattering import, the mysteries are intriguing and challenging. They are also solvable by anyone with a modicum of knowledge on any number of subjects. Truly a treat you can give yourself, a few short minutes at a time.

A young man, who aspires to become a writer in Warsaw in 1922 gets caught up in issues of life, love, family, and politics. The times are chaotic and the future is uncertain. Social structures are changing, religon is under assault, and communism is on the rise.

This is the background for this novel by nobel prize winner Isaac B. Singer. This largly autobiograpichal story paints a picture of a culture and time lost in the ashes of history. His memories are touching and deftly written. A good read for any who are interested in this tremendous author.

David Bendiger is a penniless young man, willing to make a name for himself as a writer in Warsaw. But 1922 is a time of turmoil, war, anti-Semitism, the rise of communism, all of which deeply affecting a young generation that cannot find its place in society. More so for the Jewish community, torn itself between tradition and the new rationalism. David is a puppet in a world of chaos, who gets himself carried and involved in the lives of three women, each one of them with their own dilemma in life. Like in all his other works, I.B.Singer masters his depiction of human despair, love, greatness, and despicable existence.

David Bendiger is at a crossroad in his life. He is 18-1/2 and like his brother, Ahron, he aspires to be a writer. David also has the opportunity to obtain a certificate of passage to Palestine, a British protectorate in 1922. The only catch is that if he had a wife entry into Palestine would be that much easier. David enters into a fictitious marriage with Minna, a woman from a well-to-do Jewish family living in Warsaw. Minna plans to reunite with her adored fiance in Palestine and then dissolve her union with David. Needless to say problems ensue.

_The Certificate_ is a splendid and engrossing story full of unexpected plot turns. It captures that moment in a young man's life when he is just becoming an adult and must make important decisions that will affect the rest of his life. In David's case he chooses to begin his writing career by endeavoring to have some of his writings published. Newly discovering women, he ponders about the kind of woman he will eventually marry. The son of an orthodox rabbi, David also faces a challenge to his Judaism and his belief in God when he meets two Communist women at a rooming house, as well as from Minna, a self-denying Jew. Even his beliefs and his value system, much of these derived from Spinoza, are shaken. Whether David finds a new life in Palestine or takes an altogether different road may be discovered by reading this small, but important and engrossing work in the I.B. Singer canon.