Nine simple and obvious questions, but most secular and even many (most?) more observant Jews don't know or really understand the answers. Perfect for the Jew, prospective convert, or interested Gentile wondering what Judaims thinks about the big issues and how it arrives at its answers. Prager is generally credited as a modernist but serious Jew who has brought more to Judaism and its ideal of ethical monotheism than perhaps any other commentator/lecturer. Telushkin, a rabbi, provides the scholarly support.

Sick of books that try to introduce you to Judaism through "same old, same old" descriptions of holidays, the Sabbath, and kosher food laws?

This book cuts right through all of that and says with gusto, "this is what Jews believe!"

Whether you're a Jew or not, this is one book you want to pick up if you want to understand the Jewish mind a little better. Did you go to Hebrew school as a kid but now you're not sure why you should care? This book will get you caring, whether you agree with Prager or not.

Even those who disagree with him cannot deny that his writing gets Judaism up off the page and brings it to life in a way that few other "Intro" books do.

Prager is an apologist in a religion that offers little by way of heartfelt apologetics, and an oasis of reason in a sea of religious hyperbole.

Fascinating insight into the relevance and challenges facing modern Judaism. This book manages to answer the most important and complex questions facing the Jewish people in a logical and easy-to-read format. Particularly useful for Jews questioning their faith and for non-Jews seeking to understand more about Judaism, it's beliefs and struggles. Read it.... you won't regret it!

Murphy takes the reader back to a time when religious education was
memorization, intimidation and terrorization, the urban 1950's in
America. As a product of nearly an identical school yet from a later
era, Murphy gave me a sense of the collective spirit held by students
at such institutions then, a spirit which was very different by the
late 70's. The hopes of past generations weighed on the shoulders of
these students, and far from crack from the pressure, they thrived
upon it.

White Sport Coat made me think about the great difference
in the type of education and experiance that I had as a young man, and
for someone who came of age post Vietnam and post Watergate, White
Sport Coat is a culture shock. A common sense of purpose and a deep
caring for each other is a trademark for each charachter in this
book. It is little wonder that most of those profiled succeeded in
military careers, business careers, and as parents.

Lastly, Murphy
writes of his experiance with the Marist Brothers with an even vision
of the past. Some were caring individuals, some were brutal enforcers,
yet no where does the author destroy the character of those who abused
him and his friends. With age, he has seen that the priests were
entrusted with a task from the parents of the Bronx, and executed it
as advertised. This could easily been a vehicle for admonishing old
standards, but instead Murphy turns the other cheek. Kudos.

For
those wanting a view of what may be known as the building blocks of
charachter, this book unveils the mortar; loyalty.

A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation is a wonderful depiction of a day in the life of four high school seniors in the 1950's at the prime of their life who know the true meaning of friendship, loyalty, and honor. It journeys into the joys and the hardships a young man encounters while attending an all-male Catholic High School. Every page allows the reader of any age to remember what he or she experienced during last year of high school with the simple joys in life like sharing a keg of beer with friends and the worry of what was to happen the day they received their diploma. As the reader moves through the chapters, he or she is eager to discover how these four boy's lives turn out in the end... it can best be viewed as American Graffiti meets Ferris Buller's Day Off.

Although I was two years behind Joe in school, I witnessed many of the incidents he describes. While I disagree with his "pardon" of the atrocities perpetrated by the primary antagonist (Brother James), I enjoyed his true-to-life rendition of the events. However, I must say that, in contrast to the bullies like Brother James, there were many others that were just the opposite--Brothers Declan Claude and Steven Laurence come to mind--that were able to control their tempers and deal with us kids with love and genuine concern for our future.

This book can be read on two levels. The first is the obvious story of a group of teenagers that are risque, comical and eternally bound to one another. The other level is the ability of us all to triumph over injustice.

If you will pardon a Navy vet from a bit of plagiarism, Semper Fi, Joe.

Gerry Stellwagen

This is It. Great drawings, many useful photos, a wealth of measurements and wood machining advice. So far, only one measurement error has been discovered: the starting length for the board from which the arm pieces are cut for the Morris chair should be 42-1/2 inches, not 37 inches.

The nine projects are authentic Gustav Stickley Craftsman designs, and are not for the novice. Most are for the accomplished intermediate woodworker. If you can find the piece that you are looking to build from the list of nine, then you need look no further.

Here are the nine projects:

Mirror

Screen

Combination Bookcase and Table (Spindle Sides and dividers)

Rocker

Recliner (Drop-arm panel-side Morris Chair)

Settle (panel)

Dining Table (Open-frame, keyed-tenon single stretcher)

Bookcase (captured panel sides, small panes at the top of the doors)

Clock Case (lattice-front grandfather clock)

This is the book that Gustav Stickley would have written. I am building the Morris chair, and I am finding everything works just as is should. Study the text and pictures, (measure twice, cut once), understand what the author says and marvel at your work! With so much Mission furniture, the author needs to offer a companion book with more projects

Buy this book...make beautiful furniture.

I purchased this book as a guide to building a version of a Stickley piece of furniture. I have found an error that quickly became very costly in the projects section on the book. The "Morris Chair" project materials list calls for lumber dimension of 37" by 5" by 1" for the arms. Next, the text of the project specifies "From the extra length of the arm provided by the oversize dimension given in the materials list, cut a piece 5 1/2" in length." Well, that is where the problem lies. The FINISHED arm should measure 37" long. We just cut 5 1/2" from that measure, leaving 31 1/2" arm. The materials list should read : 42 1/2" by 5" by 1" . At the prices for Quarter Sawn White Oak these days, you wont want to make the same mistake.

What do the United States, Myanmar, and Liberia have in common, as opposed to every other nation in the world? The answer is that they are the only nations not to have embraced the metric system. Inevitably, they will; their scientists all use it, and cars are made by it, and trading with other nations requires it. The inevitability of victory of the metric system is something Napoleon himself recognized: "Conquests will come and go," he declared, "but this work will endure." The work he spoke of was the defining of the meter, and it was a task begun in the final days of the French monarchy. In 1792, two French astronomers set out separately on the quest to make an accurate measurement of the globe, a measurement that would enable people to use the constant of the size of the globe as the foundation for rational weights and measures. Their plan was to measure enough of the distance of a north-south meridian through Paris that they would then be able to calculate the distance from the equator to the north pole, and one ten-millionth of that natural distance would be the meter. They aimed for unprecedented precision, and they got it, but they didn't get it exactly, for fascinating reasons all wonderfully told in _The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error That Transformed the World_ (The Free Press) by Ken Alder.

It seems a simple task; a line of longitude from Dunkirk south to Barcelona would be mapped and calculated by triangulating high points, like mountains and steeples, along the line. In practice, it was devilishly, maddeningly, and lethally difficult. Weather, disease, the ravages of time, superstition, politics, and war all conspired to make the work of a few months stretch into years. The astronomer Delambre, heading north, was mistaken for an aristocrat, detained, and suspected of using a church tower as a royalist beacon. His partner Méchain, who took the southern route, had similar problems, and worse ones, as war with Spain erupted while he was in Spain. He had a fiendish obsession with exactitude, and made measurements of Barcelona's latitude by reckoning from the stars. Unfortunately, they were wrong due to refraction from the atmosphere, and Méchain knew they were wrong, but couldn't get them right. The knowledge of the error tortured him for the rest of his life. Méchain's error is not the error referred to in the book's subtitle. All the triangulation work had shown that the critics had been right from before the beginning, for the work could not produce a perfectly precise meter; the world was too irregular for that. The astronomers' work had produced, however, documentation of the more interesting fact of Earthly irregularity.

This story could not have been presented in a more dramatic and entertaining manner. An epic about the foundation of the metric system might seem to be impossible, but Alder has made the personalities interesting. He has also made clear the process of triangulation, the equipment required, and the scientific philosophy of what an error actually is. He has well described the history of the period, and the failures of the French Revolution, such as the calendar containing twelve months of three ten-day weeks each, or the clock with ten one-hundred minute hours in a day. Beside the origin of the admirable metric system of weights and measures, Alder has also given a brief history of how the world has adopted the system, which Americans ought to know about, since, with reluctance, we are having to use it more and more

THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS is a delightfully written account of the quest by Delambre and Mechain, two astronomers who, in the midst of the French Revolution, attempt to use the latest technology (at that time) to triangulate various points along a meridian to find the perfect measurement, the meter. (One ten millionth the distance between the North Pole and the Equator) Along the way, they combat rapidly changing governments, ignorance and fear of the unknown, and most importantly (in Mechain's case), a crippling fear of error. The twists and turns of this enterprise are amazingly well-researched by Adler, and they are written in a style that is both informative and entertaining. Adler suggests that this quest led to nothing less than the transformation of how science was perceived by its practitioners; the change from the idea of savants (who believed in certain absolutes in science) to scientists (who were "engaged in a struggle to quantify their [scientists] uncertainty. ") The metric systems importance to France and the world at large is explained in political and economic terms that are easily digested by the reader, but at the heart of this book is the basic concept that how man deals with error; it can be his salvation or in the case of Mechain, his downfall. This is a wonderful examination of this momentous undertaking and well worth the time of anyone interested in man's constant efforts to utilize science for the improvement of the human condition.

This is another book in the tradition of Dava Sobel's Longitude--taking a relatively unknown but important event in scientific history and describing the drama of discovery. In this case, Ken Alder has decided to tell the story of Mechain and Delambre, two "savants" who were charged with determining the length of the meter. Originally, the meter was defined to be one ten-millionth of the distance from the north pole to the equator. So Mechain and Delambre set out to measure the length of the meridian more accurately than had ever been done before.

Like the best books about science, The Measure of All Things shows the nature of real science. First, that science is performed by real people like Mechain and Delambre with their own strengths and foibles; it does not just appear miraculously in textbooks. Second, the development of science is influenced by the history of the time such as the revolutionary period in France through which most of this story takes place.

But because this book is describing the determination of the meter--the basis of the scientific measurement system--it shows other important aspects of science that are often forgotten. For example, the important idea that how we measure things is ultimately completely arbitrary. Despite our natural desire to find the "absolute" meter, there is no such thing as Mechain and Delambre discover. We can choose the length of the meter to be whatever we want as long as--and here's the difficult part--we get everyone to agree. The problems of getting the meter accepted, even in France where it was developed, is a fascinating part of this book.

The cover of my edition of this book touts the "hidden error that transformed the world." This is a bit of marketing strategy to entice those, I think, who like to read about other's mistakes. But, as a scientist, I see this notation of error as being a part of what science is. Modern science understands that measurement is never error-free but this was not always understood and bothered scientists like Mechain. It is very worthwhile for non-scientists to see how scientists learned to deal with the fact that there are always limitations to their measurements.

Anyone interested in the importance of measurement in science would be amiss is passing this book by. Alder has provided a readable account of the development of the basis of our modern, nearly-universal method of measurement. It is definitely worth a read.

The little boy hated "stories that ended by being somebody's dream."and I don't blame him. (Spoilers below, you've been warned.) As a Christian fantasy, Betz's Song of Fire is a nice departure from the usual Tolkienesque stuff; unfortunatly this is also something of a drawback, stumbling into Allegory mode more than once. The plot is of Stranger in a Strange land: Out ice-skating, Jeremy falls, in a comet of song and light into the realm of Persus Am, where all music has been forbidden. Bentz can draw a convincing world, his descriptions of the various countries are believeable. There is a vague resemblence to Narnia; Jeremy has been sent to restore faith in God to the silenced masses, in defiance of the dictator Umbriel; specifically he leads a group of the faithful to the Promised Land Caladria. Much is made of Christian faith, of turning back to God, while at the same time the plotline compels. All the same, I wasn't completely satisfied. It is no easy task to fit spiritual guidance into a story without sounding twerpy; at one point Jesus, or "Emajus" as he is known here, stops by to give Jeremy a pep talk, a scene which almost works......sort of. Interesting characters, ideas are brought up, then dropped. Jeremy is continually seeking his girl Anne, tho we never really see much of her, much less why he loves her. The terrible tryant Umbriel comes off more as a conniving politican. Much of Bentz' imagined land suffers from being an "Allegorism" than a real place, Caladria comes too close to being a Christian Oz, conviently hidden away until needed. To me, the biggest drawback is of the initial idea--the banishment of music, yet this book comes off as strangely silent. Jeremy's guitar is mentioned, there is a song at a political rally, but the only real sense of music is at an "Emajian" church, which comes off as a revival meeting. Bentz is an inovative writer--I liked the "music bombs"--but it's not always easy to follow him; his ending is especially too abrupt. As a Christian counter to fluff like the Celestine Prophecy, this is a wonderful book; but as a work of fantasy tread carefully, there's cracks in this ice.

Joseph Bentz makes Song of Fire "a powerful tale of the triumph of good over evil and healing love in a fantastic world that feels as real as the one we live in."
The book begins with a couple, Anne and Jeremy, skating and having an argument. Then suddenly, Jeremy falls into the pond and finds himself in a new world. "I came down in a swirl of music so bright that I couldn't see anything else around me." Music, in this world, is banned and whoever breaks the law suffers the pain of death. Jeremy arrives into Persus Am in a swirling cloud of light and music. Starting then, he embarks on his journey to find out his purpose in this world and in doing so he finds many friends. Many obstacles try to stop them but they listen to the voice of God and believe in him. From the "vast Gray Desert" to the wonderful Caladria, they began to devise a plan to restore the Temple and the Spirit of God to Persus Am; which at this point is completely prohibited. Jeremy and his friends face terrible events but at the end Jeremy finds his purpose, and he faces the truth deep down in his own heart.
When you sit down to read this book, you quickly find yourself wrapped in it from the very beginning to the expected but beautifully told ending. The testimony of how God watches over Jeremy and how no matter how many bad decisions Jeremy makes God corrects them. This book will help you extremely to check your relationship with God.
Song of Fire is a relatively long book, but it's like Pringles, "once you start reading, you just can't stop!!" I would truly recommend this book to those that believe in God, and even so, to those that don't because it's a good book just to sit down and read. But for those that have that relationship, you'll be waiting to read about the mercy of God and how he delivers his people.

This is a remarkable book. It all starts when Jeremy falls through ice while skating, and falls into a new one. He arrives in a blaze of light and music. But the light is the music and the music carries the voice and spirit of God. He goes through many trials and never quite knows why God has brought him to this place. Jeremy changing this other world, and himself, forever. What I liked best was how Bentz made you feel like you were accually there, be it a dank dungeon or the Amian royal palace.

This story is set in three neighbouring villages with which I am familiar. The crimes were committed in the eighties, but I only came to know the villages many years later, when I worked in Narborough (the middle of the three villages) from 1998 to 2002. I heard occasional references to these crimes, although never any in-depth conversations. Even now, the topic is too sensitive, so the only way I could find out what really happened was via this book.

Wambaugh gives an excellent account of the crimes and the often futile attempts to solve them. Perhaps occasionally it is more graphic than it needs to be, describing the state of the bodies in intimate detail, but its easy to gloss over that (it is in print, not on film) and there's not too much of that. Some of the main characters, including the policemen and their suspects, are described in great detail. While some may feel that this is just padding, I feel it all helps to make it a good story.

Again, plenty of pages are devoted to false leads, but this may help us to understand why detective work is never as simple as we would like it to be. At one point, after the second murder, the police think they've got their man. The parents can't believe that he would do such a thing and it is at that point that the new science of DNA testing is brought in. The parents are convinced their son in innocent. The police are convinced that he is not only guilty of that murder, but also the earlier one. Did the same man commit both murders and was this particular man guilty? The DNA test results eventually provide answers, but to find out what those answers were, you must read the book.

A fifteen year old girl is raped and strangled, her body left along a footpath near an English Village called Narborough. Though a massive effort is launch to find the killer, he remains at large for years. Then the Killer strikes three years after the first murder, killing another young girl in the same brutal fashion, and leaving her body only a short distance from the first. The police do not give up, but this man continually evades detection until several years later Scotland Yard comes a calling with a new tool: DNA. The first time its was used to solve a police case, and to actually track a killer not just to reinforce a case. In a very controversial move, nearly 4000 men in and around the town of Narborough are tested, everyone from teen to old man are 'blooded' meaning their DNA of their blood is tested against the samples of the killer. Never has any police force taken such a massive Orwellian move, compelling every male able to commit the crime to come forward for testing. Even so, the killer continually evades being blooded, but it was a matter of time and dogged police work.

Warbaugh's best work since The Onion Field, may be uncomfortable for some people because of the details of the murders etc, others - believers of the right of individual - will be upset with the Orwellian dragnet, but its a fascinating detailed account that often compels as repels in the same breath.

I read some of the other reviews of this book and found the last 2 to be completely incorrect. This is in fact, not a book for the weak at heart, but it never promises to be. This is very graphic and detailed. So, if you don't like this, don't read this book, but for other true crime fanatics like myself, you will most assuredly love this read. It starts in high gear and stays there throughout. There are no long intros or set-ups, this book hits the ground running and will never leave you thinking that your time could be better spent as some of the other reviews suggest. Sure, if you can't handle the bloodiness and truth of true crime, then go curl up in a corner and read a Harry Potter book!

My book review is about a book called Jim Ugly. The author of this book is Sid Fleischman. I thought this book was confusing.
I didn't like it when the author skipped from one event to the other. An exciting event in this book was when Jake looked all around for his dad. Finally, the best part of the book occurs while he is looking.
My favorite character was Jake because he never quit searching for his dad.
I wouldn't recommend this book to a friend because it was too confusing and hard to follow. However, if you want to find out what happens next, you can read the book.

Dear Reader,

Jim Ugly is a great book. I would read it two times but I can't do it again. I finshed it a month ago. I love that book. I hope you will too.

Your pal,

Bam Bam Big A LO

I read the book Jim Ugly; the author is Sid Fleichman.
The thing I liked best about this book is how Jake uses Jim Ugly to find his father. They never liked each other but then they became friends. My favorite character is Jim, even though he's a dog, he never gives up. I learned to follow your heart from this book and never quit. I recommend this book if you like adventures.

The book, written by two male therapists, opens by saying that not all men are jerks, but there is a significant number of men that ARE jerks, and they can make your life miserable. The authors also state that men in our society today ARE getting off too easy, that in their experience, men really DON'T work as hard as women do in improving relationships. (As if THAT is a big secret, just look at any magazine rack.)

The book follows the basic self-help formula, but with a twist. Most of the popular relationship theories bog down when they assume that your mate is willing to work with you 50-50 to improve your relationship. That assumption that has made John Gray (of Mars/Venus fame) a rich man and millions of women miserable, but I digress... Anyway, the authors assume you do indeed live with a person who would rather use John Gray's book for toilet paper rather than read it, so they proceed to tell what you need to do to make your life more bearable. Again, there's a twist, and their advice isn't for everyone. They tell you that jerks don't respond to an appeal for fairness or kindness (you've probably already figured that out), so you need to be willing to meet their manipulative behavior with your own manipulative behavior. At that point the book gives you some very concrete examples of what you need to do and say in order to get them to change their behavior. The book acknowledges that some women will not feel comfortable being manipulative, but their argument is you can either be 100% totally honest (which you already know gets you nowhere) or you can be miserable - or you can leave... My final take? If you're married to a jerk and value marriage more than your personal happiness, you can make things better, but only somewhat. If you're single and dating a jerk and wondering what to do? RUN LIKE HELL!

When I first saw this book, I thought that it was just another male-basher. Further inspection proved that it was written by men and that it was directed toward women. The focus was to help women recognize patterns in male behavior and make intelligent choices. The first thing that the authors say is that NOT ALL men are (expletive deleted). That impressed me. The author's credentials also impressed me. They have worked with women, men and couples for some years. I wish I had had this book ten years ago. But it's good to have it now that I find myself single. The authors have sorted men into different categories based on their behavior. They realize how hard women work to maintain relationships and give them strategies for having a positive impact on their own life and chosen mates. I don't give anything 5 stars, I won't give this one 5 stars because I think JERKS would have been just as good an expletive as the one they used but so be it.

My hat is off to these two authors! They have provided women with the tools they need to either deal with the particular type they have married or avoid future failures. In my case I must say that the book has provided me with the tools to deal with a partner of 26 years who happens to match two of the personality types discribed in the book. I have never been so uplifted and inspired. Upon first glance I knew that I had found a jem of a self help book. It is extremely well written and sites examples that most all women can relate to. Not only does it provide honest discriptions of toxic men but allows the reader to view the man she may be involved with in a different light. I have personally used several of the techniques in the book and I would like to thank the authors for their help. I was virtually at my wits end with my "toxic" man. The book discribed excatly what I had been doing and why I was going about it the wrong way. It was as though they had witnessed my misery and torment for the last 26 years and provided me the methods for dealing with it. I now feel empowered and no longer afraid of my "toxic" male. I am prepared to deal with each situation as they arise. I am recommending this book to all of my friends with toxic relationships.

David Wise writes the story of a spy thriller. Nerve Agents are actually only a side-line story. Much of the focus is on the FBI, HUMINT, and counter intel.

For those familiar with CBW, the story about dangling a deception such as Nerve Agent GJ, is intreging. GJ is not chemically identified, but presented as a protential Nerve Agent that would have required considerable efforts in binary weapons technology to ever be of any use. The author contends that this deception might have inadvertently lead the Soviets to create their Novichok class of agents. The discussion of GJ leads one to suspect it was a relative of the GV-series, such as Nerve Agent GP (GP11, or GV).

In the context of GJ, the author reveals that there were actually many more agents than just the familiar GA, GB, GD, GE, and GF. There G-series actually went all the way down to GH (isopentyl sarin). The treatment of Nerve Agents is conversational, and suits the purpose of his book.

David Wise made many interviews and performed as an investigative journalist to deliver a story that up to now has not been told. It does reveal the cultures of the people of the time, and is suggestive of many areas of future historic investigation.

Smoothly written and absorbing. Not my usual kind of book, but well worth picking up. In 1959, at the height of the Cold War, the FBI decided to dangle a prospect in front of a Soviet embassy employee named Polikarpov. Policarpov, a GRU officer, took the bait and enlisted Sergeant Joseph Cassidy as a for-cash agent. The relationship continued for twenty-three years, during which Cassidy solicited information that netted ten other Soviet spies and funneled an enormous mass of true, false, misleading, and trivial intelligence eastward. Much of the intelligence concerned the nerve gas research and production facility at Edgewood Arsenal, and may have led the Soviets into expensive and dangerous blind alleys. Details of the operation, especially the capture and release of two Mexican nationals who were confessed spies, make an interesting account of a US intelligence success not previously publicized.

This is an amazing story from the very real (and too soon slipping from memory) Cold War. It is principally the story of Joe Cassidy, a rather normal sergeant in the US Army, who was recruited to become a dangle for a Soviet Agent. The ploy worked and Cassidy became a double agent for more than twenty years. Of course, these kinds of stories rather quickly become rather entangled with lots of personalities and different threads of action. The author, David Wise, does an especially fine job in telling this tale and helping us keep straight who is doing what when and to whom.

The details of surveillance and spycraft are fascinating because they are so mundane but in their context seem so strange. This story demonstrates so many of the critical factors in running a counter intelligence operation: the importance of selecting the right agent (in this case Joe Cassidy), the necessity of patience and letting some things slip away in order to keep after the big thing, the chess like thinking of move and countermove in planning operations, the never-quite-sure aspects of whom to trust and what is real or what is a plant, and the role of just plain dumb luck. It isn't like Hollywood, but in many ways is more strange than a movie. If you tried to put some of this stuff in a movie people would complain that it was too far fetched. Yet this is all real.

The book also has some rather chilling information on Nerve Agents, which was the whole point of this many year effort by the FBI and other government agencies. It also has a lot of fascinating information on the devices of spy tradecraft including hollow rocks, rollover cameras, dead drops, micro dots, secret writing, and more.

Because the book is so well written it is a rather easy read. This is a real achievement because of the complexity of the story, but David Wise has long experience as a skilled reporter and writer about intelligence work and knows how to tell these tales. I recommend this book to everyone because it is just plain interesting, because I believe we should keep the reality and sacrifices of the Cold War in our collective memory, and because real people paid with their lives for our security.

After reading the second installment in the Joshua series, I still continue to be moved and inspired by the character of Joshua. Mr.Girzone's wonderful summations of the teachings of Jesus, coupled with its modern-day setting, create an identification with this character that is sure to wrangle any sheep that haven't found their way, or have previously strayed from the flock...Christian, or otherwise. He breaks it down so that the essence of Christ's universal teachings is what one comes away with...Love, Forgiveness, Peace... I will say, though, that from a literary standpoint, I felt the ending to this story was somewhat forced, or adapted a little too "conveniently" to the correlating Gospel teachings, thereby subtly overshadowing the impact of the events which transpired in the novel. Perhaps the parallel was overtly issued for the sake of those not familiar with the scriptures and teachings of the New Testament. But the point is made, and the characters in the book are ultimately better for it. I would also like to see more of the vernacular mindset of the local townsfolk in the two stories I've read thusfar- (the first being "Joshua: A Parable for Today"- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). There are occasionally stiff and overly polite personalities that could use a good shaking in their constitutions and speech patterns, once in a while. I'd personally enjoy experiencing more of the intonations and colors of the people about whom Mr.Girzone seems to have so much insight on. But above all...I will say that my understanding and reverence of Jesus and his mission have been amplified to a level for which I must thank you, Mr. Girzone. The personal, Spiritual Renaissance I've undergone can be heavily attributed to the impact your novels have had on me. Again, thank you, and God Bless.

Here is an educational little book set in violence prone North Ireland. Joshua sets up his current mission in a village currently divided by the hatred between Catholics and Protestants. Considering the adults a "lost cause" concerning their attitudes, Joshua targets the children as an instrument for change. How would Jesus deal with the violence in Northern Ireland? Read this book and find out!

Joshua, whom we soon realize is someone very special, returns in this book to a town torn apart by religious intolerance and violence. A parable for the situation in Ireland, as well as other places, it continues to answer that question "What would happen if Jesus returned?" This deeply moving book will make you laugh, bring a tear to your eye, and, most importantly, give you and your heart something to ponder