Anyone who attempts to read, understand, teach or learn anything about the Gospel of Mark, whether cleric or lay, scholar or non-scholar, MUST read this first. No section, episode or verse should be commented on, interpreted, or even read without the necessary insights of this book. Before we can understand a reading of Mark, we must understand HOW to read Mark. Only after reading this book did I even begin to grasp any other introduction, commentary, or interpretation of the world-changing literary achievement we know today as a gospel. This book unlocks our minds from reading backward through orthodoxy and instead allows a fresh, unbiased reading of what has been unrecognized as a truly literary masterpiece. Mr. Fowler is deserving of any and all accolades he receives for this landmark work of scholarship.

This book is amazing. During the course of writing a master's thesis on Mark, I waded through a LOT of commentaries and this is the only one that I would recommend to the general reader. Here is why: he makes you see so plainly what you almost certainly did not notice before by using simple techniques of literary criticsm to make the text plain. No matter what it takes, hunt this one down.

Don't be put off at first by the black and white photos. This book has some color photos, and I was at first hesitant to purchase this book because it seemed to be mostly black and white photography.
However, once I began to read this book, all thoughts about photos went out of my head! This book is informative, intelligent and thorough. The author has studied his subject very well, and writes in a clear and easy to follow manner. I really do find the floorplans to be an invaluable tool towards understanding the buildings the author is describing.
I am currently using this book as a research tool for my novel, but I did buy this book just for the love of the subject and I was not disappointed.
I would recommend this book again and again to anyone with a love of history and architecture.

Mark Girouard, an architectural historian, has traced the roles of form and function in England's Great Houses in this densely illustrated, sensitively written book. Floor-plans, innumerable photographs and drawings (many of homes now destroyed), and portraits pepper the text, which is readability itself.

The book follows a chronological path from the Mediaval Household to the present day. The text isn't dry at all. Delicious details abound: Bess of Hardwick pacing her Great Chamber of Hardwick Hall, waiting for the royal visit that never came in the instantly-dated house she'd built for this very purpose, ... The origin of the phrase "backstairs intrigues" (both political and sexual).... the slow but persistant birth of the aristocratic ideal of "privacy"--and how it affected dining halls....the rise of the great dilettante libraries (and the rooms to house them).....and the advent of the freakish innovation of indoor plumbing (and a picture of the Duke of Wellington's elaborate WC) are just a few tidbits.

Mr. Girouard doesn't neglect the "downstairs" portion of a Great House, because he's interested in the whole institution as a functioning unit. Some of the most intriguing photos are of beloved servants' portraits, and the almost Shaker-like beauty of a working kitchen or laundry. Included, also, is a printed "Summary of Livery Men's Duties, Etc., Etc.", of Hatfield House, and darned if it doesn't sound like instructions for empoyees at an indifferent New York hotel!

This book is a delicious retrospective, and will make any red-blooded Anglophile who longs for one of these faded leviathans very happy indeed. Now, if you need me further, I will be in the Orangery.

I read this recently after having kept a copy around for years; I now wish I had read it years ago. It is witty, observant, and a wonderful slice of American history; the
now-vanished steamboat culture comes alive like nowhere
else. However, the best part is the contrast between the author's confident early youthful years and the much later, postwar years of bittersweet reminiscence and regret for what has passed, never to return. A wonderful book - I simply cannot praise it highly enough.

Let me guess: your total exposure to Mark Twain came in high school, when you were forced to read about the antics of Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer, right? Well, now that you've reached adulthood, you should make time to read _Life on the Mississippi_. It's mandatory reading if you live in a state that borders the great river, anywhere from Minnesota down to Louisiana. It's mandatory reading if you have come to that point in life when you can suddenly appreciate American history and post-Civil War stories written by someone who lived through that time.

Writing in the first half of the 1870s, Twain retraces the steps of his youth: the watery highway he knew when he trained to be a riverboat pilot nearly 20 years earlier. He speaks of how life _was_ along the river, and what life _became_. It's almost a "you can't go home again" experience for him, while the reader gets the benefit of discovering both time periods.

I have two favorite parts that I share with others. Chapter IX includes a wonderful dissertation about how learning the navigational intricacies of the river caused Twain to lose the ability to see its natural beauty. And Chapter XLV includes an assessment of how the people of the North and the South reacted differently to the war experience. If I were a social studies teacher, I'd use that last passage in a unit on the reconstruction period. So put this title on your vacation reading list, and don't fret: the chapters are short and are many -- 60! -- but you can stop at any time, and the words go by fast. _Life on the Mississippi_ should make you forget all about any Twain trauma and report-writing you may have suffered as a teenager. [This reviewer was an Illinois resident when these comments were written.]

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this book but I was pleasantly surprised! It offers so much great advice for dealing with a variety of life's situations. The advice is simple & easy to read. There are so many topics covered, I liked the section on personal finance the most. Although the parts dealing with family situations are very useful, direct and to the point, like tracing a family tree, dealing with problem neighbors, etc...I recommend this book. It a good home reference book.

What an amazing achievement. Antoniak takes life's most problematic tasks and turns them into easily followed step by step processes. From the monumental -- buying a home -- to the mundane -- shopping for a used car -- Lifemaps offers solutions. Buy this book and you won't need to fill up your shelves with lots of other how-to books. Since I bought it I've used it dozens of times...and I've bought copies for all my kids too.

The right foods, in the right amounts, with the right kind of preparation is a key element in the treatment and control of diabetes. In Light & Easy Diabetes Cuisine, culinary expert Betty Marks (herself an insulin dependent diabetic for 26 years) has compiled a superb collection of easy-to-make, diabetic diet appropriate, thoroughly delicious dishes that are especially appropriate for people with little or no time available for meal preparation. From Cucumber Buttermilk Soup (cooking time: 0, preparation time: 10 minutes); Crabmeat Salad (cooking time: 0, preparation time: 15 minutes); and Fusili with Sun-Dried Tomatoes (cooking time: 15 minutes, preparation time: 15 minutes); to Almond Rice (cooking time: 15 minutes, preparation time: 5 minutes); Sesame Bread (cooking time: 20 minutes, preparation time: 10 minutes); and Coffee Cream Pudding (cooking time: 0 minutes, preparation time: 25 minutes), Light & Easy Diabetes Cuisine is a welcome and ardently recommended addition to any diabetes sensitive cookbook collection.

This cookbook is awesome! The recipe Crunchy Chicken Bake was so easy to make! It was wonderful eating too! My friends enjoyed the meal as well! My friends didn't even know that the recipe was for a diabetic! All the ingredients are easily found in the grocery store! I can't wait to try even more recipes! Thank you so much!

Finally---the definitive history of The Light Crust Doughboys, one of the "big three" in the history of western swing and Texas-style country music (the other being Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys and Milton Brown's Musical Brownies). But this must-have book is so much more than a book: history "comes alive" with the included music CD which features a classic Doughboys' decade, the 1940s, alongside their contemporary Grammy-recognized work. And it's in this newer work that fans can really see the legacy and enduring power of a band that's been called country music's greatest historical band. In songs like "Texas Women", "Sending Me You", "Looking Through A Stained Glass Darkly", and "Amarillo, Where The Wind Blows Free, the reader can see how The Light Crust Doughboys keep evolving as artists while always keeping a foot in the best of their Texan and American past.The Light Crust Doughboys are one of the select bands in country music history equally renowned for their instrumental as well as their vocal prowess. Long known for their eclectic approach to music, combining elements of the blues, cowboy music, old-time, gospel, and dixieland, The Light Crust Doughboys are true American ambassadors and modern troubadours of American music. You'll read here of The Doughboys' pioneering use of electric guitar and electric bass in American music. You'll read that they pioneered being a western band in Hollywood's golden age (they pre-dated Bob Wills' film debut by four years). You'll read and hear how they combined gospel music and western swing (with gospel legend James Blackwood) to develop gospel western swing. You'll read how they came up with the idea of blending Pacific/California surf and Texas western swing with Ventures' guitar great, Nokie Edwards, resulting in critically-acclaimed roots music including an Americana Christmas album! Let's all hope that this book paves the way for long-overdue recognition in the NashVegas-dominated Country Music Hall of Fame as well as "early influences" recognition in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Is there a Pulitzer Prize for music history or Texana? This book and CD has earned it! And, do your heart and ears a big favor by searching for other Light Crust Doughboys' music and videos at Amazon.

The Light Crust Doughboys Are On The Air: Celebrating Seventy Years Of Texas Music by John Mark Dempsey (a native Texan and Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism, University of North Texas) is an enjoyable and informative study of The Light Crust Doughboys band and their Texas music, which was broadcast in the "golden era" of radio. Their long-lived radio show lasted from 1930 to 1952, and their particular brand of gospel music was nominated for the Grammys in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2002. An enjoyable, fact-filled, enthusiastically recommended blend of biographical background and cogent musical assessment of this evolving group, The Light Crust Doughboys Are On The Air is enhanced with a music CD featuring 30 of the band's most popular and beloved songs.

Ted Conover's piece on Africa, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc's "Trina and Trina" -- well, basically everything the editors chose was outstanding. What I especially valued were the introductions on the art of "literary journalism" and the introductions to each of the journalists. I'm teaching a workshop this fall at The Writers Center in Bethesda and I'm putting on the reading list with a great big star.

Great feature writing is often notable for its transparency, drawing the reader into the story with the power and immediacy of the subject matter. Not surprising then that the craft and quality of the writing itself is sometimes overlooked. Sims and Kramer have produced an eclectic mix of fine writing which challenge the reader to regard it from the perspective of literary attributes and construction, as well as its fascinating and obscure topics of human interest. These are some of the finest feature journalists in the country, each with his own style and emphasis, and all with the ability to look at small stories with great insight into their human dimensions. It's an excellent book for prospective writers and for anyone interested in stories of sometimes mundane matters which are given transcendant implications by a keen journalistic sense and prowess. (Literary Journalists, another Sims collection from 1984 is also recommended.. it's not dated at all!)

A buddy of mine is a memeber of a group that works hard to study and preserve the Little Big Horn Battlefield. He let me take this tape home and listen to it. I have never heard anything like this before. They used music, actors and sound effects to make a sort of radio movie. I found this to be really cool and recommend it to everyone. My friend says that it is also very detailed and correct from a historical view.

If you love the old west, then you will love these two tapes. Little Big Horn tells the story of Custer's last stand in all of it's rousing glory. Some say Custer was a fool, but you can not question his bravery! The music and sound effects really make this piece of history zing. I really like the tune Gary Owen. The Bozeman Trail is a bonous program that tells the story of the little known Fetterman Massacre. The similarities to what happened at the Little Big Horn are erie. I highly recommend this for any history buff, or lover of the old west. Sit back with your favorite bottle of Rot gut, and let the shoot out begin.

I was elected President of School of the Osage PTA because of my dedication to education and I highly recommend Little Fish! My six year old son and my twelve year old daughter both enjoyed reading this book and it reinforced some important lessons that I have tried to teach them. Jacob, my six year old, is very small for his size and is the youngest student in his first grade class. Perhaps that explains partly why he related so well with the story of Little Fish. Sometimes Jacob gets frustrated because he can't run as fast or kick a ball as high as most of the children his age and reading this story helped to give him the encouragement that he needs to, "never give up." I am sure that through the years we will read this book over and over again. Chapter 8 even taught me things that I did not know about Trout! Ralph Moisa, Jr. was kind enough to visit our school and tell a story to the children. My son still shares that experience with everyone that he meets! Lisa Hader- President of School of the Osage Lower El. PTA

Little Fish learns there is more world around her than just the shallow waters of where she was born. Old fish, one of the grandfathers, comes to teach the young fish people how to reach a new place to live and survive. Will Little Fish try hard and succeed to reach the new waters or will it be too hard so she gives up? A great story about teaching those around you about the ways of life simply written for young readers. Ralph Moisa does an excellent job of using his Indian history to convey his meaning of the important job that "fore-fathers" have of guiding the young. Mr. Moisa also includes a non-fiction section at the end of the book sharing information about trout. This book relates well with Great Eagle, Small One, another good book written by Ralph Moisa with the same format.

You could hardly do better than to get "The Little Green Goose" for any father, whether adoptive or biological. Adele Sansone's text is a miracle of economy, covering parenthood, adoption, geneaology, and more with a minimum of fuss and text.

The barnyard goose decides that he wants to be a father, but as he has no wife or other partner, he decides to adopt a spooky looking green egg found by the dog at the edge of a field. The goose settles himself on top of the eggs and waits and waits. When the egg finally cracks open, what emerges is some sort of lizard or dinosaur or who knows what--but it definitely is not a goose. Still, Sansone's goose dad utterly ignores the differences between himself and his new son and makes a natural (and skillful) parent. When the "green goose" decides to try to figure out what his real background is, he has little luck and ends up coming home to the goose--who, after all, is the only parent he's ever known.

The illustrations, by Alan Mark, are utterly charming. The "green goose" is splotched and splashed with color, while the goose is drawn sparingly and convincingly. This is, overall, a fun tale with subtle and valuable life lessons.

Wonderful book covering so many subjects in a short entertaining time. Father goose longs for a child, and adopts a very strange egg. After the little green goose is born, the baby chicks tease saying thats not really your mommy, you dont look anything alike. The little green goose goes around trying to find out who he looks like and then becomes lonely and returns home, realizing home is where you are loved. Great book for adoptive fathers. Also for those involved in transracial adoption. The story illustrates a fathers love and caring, the idea that families do not need to look alike, and all this is done with a tale that is good for its own sake. The illustrations are superb, my favorite is the final one, this great big green dinosaur-like creature (the little green goose) with the father goose laying on top of his head, one wing stretched out protectively over his child and both fast asleep.