A master work which starts off slowly and then fizzes into unexpected space. Pregnant with insight.

The Critical Edition of Q : A Synopsis Including the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark and Thomas.

This is an exceptionally clear and easy to use book.

The section on the history of "Q" research is a splendidly clear and concise review of the work done today and would bring you up to speed very quickly.

The layout of the synopsis in 8 columns is actually a great deal easier to understand than at first glance and quickly becomes user friendly.

The Synoptic Gospels, Q and other canonical texts are paralleled in Greek with the gospel of Thomas being paralleled in Coptic. Q is translated into French, German and English with the parallels of Thomas being translated into Greek, French, German and English.

I would not hesitate to recommend this work to anyone who is studying in this field or has an interest in it.

This newest updated version of Q is a MUST read for all!

Informative and thought provoking;for all serious thinkers..... this book clearly settles the case....once and for all.

Mike in Melbourne,Fla.

A very under-rated book, while other Crossgen titles seem to get more press, this one truly delivers. Atlantis, long grist for any dreamer's mind, is given a fresh look here. This isn't the Submariner's Atlantis, blue-skinned people living in a fantastic underwater city in the depths of the ocean, but rather people actually dealing with the calamity that destroyed their island, as well as adjusting to life some 100,000 years in the future. Alright, it isn't very realistic, and the parts that deal with Atlantean society are, for me, anyway, the most interesting, but one has to keep in mind that it's a comic book. It would have been nice to see them awaken to this time, when opinion seems to be evenly divided whether Atlantis is fact or fiction, but setting it faroff in the future also gives it an ironic twist to it, where they are left wondering what kind of civilization we may have once had. Honestly, the book doesn't even need all it's superhero team trappings, it succeeds just on at it's terms of being a book about Atlantis and it's characters, but, being a comic, one has to realize that much of that comes with the territory. Mark Waid is a great writer who's words often seen in a comic book, and his characterizations are dead on, a very literate comic book writer. Steve Epting has long been one of the most under-rated artists in comics, in my view one of comics's best, and his work on the Avengers a few years ago was one of the high points of the industry during the nineties. Anyone sick of the current Japinese anime art style will love his work here, few artists can master actual human expressions as Steve Epting does. Anime may have some strengths, but expression certainly isn't one of them. As I said, I would have preferred a little more of Waid and Epting's take on Atlantis, Atlantis Rising is good enough that it doesn't need to cater to the typical comic book conventions, but it is an intelligent, well written book that should keep people hooked, not only to the mystery of what happened to Atlantis, but the rest of civilization.

At the time of this review Crux and Negation are my personal favorite Crossgen titles. Crossgen has done a wonderful job of creating a very fascinating universe. It's our universe and Crux's events take place on Earth, albeit many millenia in the future. Not without cause is this title named Crux for Crossgen has promised Earth and the story told here will be...well, the crux of the Crossgen universe.

We are introduced to Atlantis and 9 key figures - the 7 Atlanteans, one human and a mysterious stranger who awakens them from stasis but refuses to tell them why. The stranger grants them an orange sigil-mark (in marked contrast to the yellow and red sigils of characters in other CG comics). And thus the mystery begins. Why did Atlantis drown? What happened to the other transitioned Atlanteans? Where has homo sapiens - the race the Atlanteans were mentoring in its infancy - gone? And why are they being attacked by strange bug-like creatures?

I agree this book is the one to give to a comics-reader who likes team superhero books as in one sense Crux is such a book. That is, it features characters wielding powers not available to ordinary humans even though these characters wear normal clothes (no spandex or capes here). Of course, by that broad definition the majority of Japanese Anime also falls into the superhero genre. Nonetheless, this team doesn't go around fighting crime. There is a depth to the story as hints are dropped of a larger epic storyline which is a feature that runs through all of Crossgen's comics. You do not need to read any other comic or graphic novel in the Crossgen universe if you don't wish. Crossgen has taken care to make sure each story can be understood and enjoyed alone. But if you choose to read some of their other comics or trades (I HIGHLY recommend Negation) a story-arc on the scale of an Epic emerges (and I do mean Epic with a capital "E").

In one sense this very coherent world has some of the same elements that make me love Tolkien's Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. As the story unfolds in Crux you begin to see true depth to the history, myths and legends that shaped the Atlanteans, Earth and interest is piqued in the mystery of missing humanity. Characterization is particularly strong. I got a very distinct sense of each members own personality, likes, dislikes, etc.

Here is the chance to see one conception of the beauty and history of Atlantis (the art is breathtaking - Atlantis definitely looks "Atlantean") with fascinating characters struggling in a world that has drastically changed from the one they knew. Any fantasy or science-fiction fan should give this graphic novel a shot.

Although CrossGen Comics has made a point of not doing any "superhero" comic books, Crux is definitely the book to give to your average superhero fan. It has all the elements of a superhero team -- a diverse group of people, each with a unique super power, thrust together into harrowing circumstances with the fate of the world resting on their shoulders.

Of course, like everything CrossGen does, this book has a twist. The "superheroes" in question are survivors of the lost city of Atlantis. Millennia ago, half of the Atlaneans underwent some great transformation while the rest went into cryogenic sleep on Earth to guide the developing race of humans. In the far future, seven Atlanteans are awakened to find Earth deserted, its final fate being some sort of galactic amusement park.

The question is, what happened to mankind, what happened to the other Atlanteans and what are these strange monsters called the Negation that attack the remnants of Earth?

As far as high-octane superhero mystery goes, you can't beat it. The characters are distinctive while never falling into stereotypes -- twins bicker but their powers are only strongest when together, the muscular "tough guy" of the group is really something of a pacifist. And as the title implies, this book seems to be where the keys to unlocking the mystery of the CrossGen universe lie. It also ties in very closely with another CrossGen book, "The Negation," which is also a spectacular read.

A cup of Chicken Soup for the soul is a miniature version of one of the best selling inspirational books ever. It is small so it is easy to tote around, so you can read chicken soup whenever you like!

This little book is full of wonderful stories that touch the heart and soul. Even though I've read many of the other "Chicken Soup for the Soul" books, these short stories were all new to me. I'll reference and recommend this book to my participants in my motivational and educational Seminars. This book makes a great gift even to those people who don't enjoy reading. Barry, Jack, and Mark continue to make a positive difference...one story at a time.

Not only have I read the book, my family is in it! Our stories, "Merry Christmas Jennifer" and "Merry Christmas. Love, Jennifer", were published in this wonderful book. It has helped us remember my sister and to share our story with others!!

After reading this book I must say that it is a great introductory piece for ASL students. Hard facts about the loss of identity many deaf children face when discouraged to sign (essentially, to effectively communicate) are wonderfully brought to light. Those who wish to understand what Oral Schools are about and the detrimant they cause I encourage to read this book. Those interested in teaching in Residential Schools for the Deaf are also urged. This book gives one a feel for the isolation felt by many deaf people. An easy read and an interesting one.

Despite the wishes of two sophisticated Deaf parents that their hard-of-hearing son be educated in all-hearing schools, he learns their happy secret anyway -- that there's a whole lot more to life and doing well in a world prejudiced against the deaf than pretending to hear when you can't. With humor and gentle self-deprecation, Mark Drolsbaugh, a Deaf guidance counselor at the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, exposes the isolation and relentless humiliations that plague a lone hard-of-hearing child in the regular schools. Once he embraces the Deaf culture of his parents, he then returns to the "hearing side" of his mother's family with the ability to help them understand and accept deafness with a love and pride that was not possible before.

This book is a must for anyone who either knows or has a hard-of-hearing child in the regular schools, but is a fun read for anyone, whether conversant about the Deaf community or not.

Mark Drolsbaugh tells a fascinating true story that demonstrates how a person's minority culture can be almost obliterated with the best of intentions by those in the majority. His story demonstrates that society today still will not believe the needs of a minority group, even when they express their needs in quite understandable words (signs). The beauty of this work, however, is that it is a happy story with no animosity toward those who would have Mark be someone other than who he really is. Mark's revelations about discovering his true culture, his successes which have followed his discovery, and his fulfillment as a Deaf person could be the story of so many other Deaf individuals. This book should be a MUST read for any hearing parent whose child has been identified with a hearing loss. The professional working with children who are Deaf or hard of hearing (especially those with prelingual hearing loss) should read this. It will provide them with a valuable insight into the life of a Deaf or hard of hearing child.

Stuart M. Kaminsky is the prolific author of three distinctive mystery series (Chandler-esque vintage Hollywood private eye Toby Peters: _Murder on the Yellow Brick Road_, Chicago cop Abe Lieberman, and here, the McBain-esque Moscovite Office of Special Operations.)

In the Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov series, Kaminsky has deftly transplanted the Ed McBain police procedural to Russia: individual detectives, each having his/her own serial back stories, investigating different cases. And through the time span of the series, the reader also watches as the Soviet Union disintegrates.This time, there is the mysterious disappearance of a Syrian Oil Minister's daughter and the murders of a Russian Orthodox Priest and Nun.

'With faith in his mission, Father Merhum [the eponymous dead Russian Orthodox Priest] had stood up to commissars, the leaders of his own church, the KGB, and state leaders from Stalin to Gorbachev. And now, days after the end of the seventy-year failure of Soviet socialism, he stood ready to take up the demands for reform with Yeltsin himself." ... "He would supply the names. He would read them in Red Square atop the empty tomb that had held the profane icon of Lenin." Hunh? Lenin isn't in Lenin's Tomb anymore?!? Where is he? I guess the old "stumper" of "Who is buried in Lenin's Tomb?" isn't so obvious anymore, nyet?

Here's a savvy and snappy comment on the State of Russian Dys-union at the time: "Tatyana smiled. `You are a year too late, pretty policeman,' she said. `You can't do such things anymore. People will run and tell on you and you will have to say five Hail Yeltsins in penance."

This is one of the series in the intermediate years between communism and post-communism. The emotional conflicts of the characters and how they are expressed are very real. Excellent!

Tony Hillerman says, "Never miss a Kaminsky book, and be especially sure not to miss 'Death of a Russian Priest.'" With a recommendation like that, who needs to wait!

Stuart Kaminsky, himself an Edgar Award winner, proves once again that his Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series in not one to miss. Set in Russia amid the rumblings and eventual fall of the Iron Curtain, the series captures convincingly the Russian atmosphere, politically, socially, criminally, and with such conviction, especially for an American writer who has not devoted his life to Russian studies.

In "Death of a Russian Priest," Inspector Rostnikov, accompanied by one of the few individuals he can fully trust, journeys to Arkush to investigate the murder of a local priest, an outspoken cleric and one whose death has shocked the local community.

Of course, as with all the Rostnikov books, nothing is as it seems and it takes the cunning, the skill, and the intellect of his team to bring all this together. He and Karpo, known as "the Vampire," are busy solving this murder while meanwhile back in Moscow, Sasha Tkach, Rostinok's handsome and randy and very married assistant, is involved in another investigation. Tkach has a new partner, Elena Timofeyeva (which opens up other complications!), and they are trying to find a missing girl and a cold-blooded killer. Kaminsky manages to tie these assignments together and quite satsifactorily by the book's conclusion. He, once again, has managed to provide humanity in an area where little is often found! Kaminsky's Russian tales are absorbing, and it is nail-biting waiting for the next episode.

Billyjhobbs@tyler.net

The cassettes are good listening and of good quality. I felt that I really did learn quickly, but there are a couple of provisos. I had wanted to learn with my ears, but found that the tapes EXPECT the listener to also have a textbook, which I never found! I did buy the second set in this series, and at that point the lack of the textbook (NO text materials were provided with the tapes) became more extreme. Also, there are only listen/respond components to these tapes, so you don't learn to HEAR the language. You can talk, you just won't understand the response!

I loved these practical, down to earth Spanish tapes that really did 'take the foreign out of Spanish'. EVERYTHING
had an immediate English translation so I didn't have to walk around saying 'Duh' all the time. It is unbelievable how much easier and faster it is to learn a language when you actually 'understand' what it is you are hearing and reading.
Everything that was referenced on the tapes was included in the guide.

I learned to speak and understand a lot of basic Spanish very quickly and easily with this course. The tapes were very easy to follow and the compact listening guide that came with the course allowed me to see how the language is actally written. I would use it as a guide (I would just shove it into my shirt pocket) on my trips to Mexico and Costa Rica. No complaints about the course or the guide. Just the comment that I am looking forward to the day that Language Dynamics writes a full comprehensive Spanish text or manual that uses the same fantastic, easy to learn techniques as the tapes.

This books is definitely Catholic - no mistaking that. Words such as "vestry", "vestibule", "liturgy" and "homily" are used so if you're not familiar with the Catholic church, you may find yourself resorting to the dictionary more than once.

What husband would love his wife less if he found out years later that she was adopted? He should love her for her; Adoption should have nothing to do with it. Besides, it's not as though she was keeping it from him; She didn't know herself until going through her now deceased mother's things, when she stumbled upon the adoption papers. When she does tell him, he doesn't want his wife looking into her adoption, using the excuse that it could jeopardize his political career.

Besides the adoption discovery, the story is about inner city youth, however, the main character is Mark Townsend - a priest. Confronted with a premarital liaison involving his youth worker and his youth worker's fiance, Mark doesn't handle it. It's not that he doesn't handle it well - he doesn't handle it at all. - That bothers me.

About 1/3 through and the story was still moving slowly with nothing exceptionally exciting happening. Mark and his assistant pastor, however, discover something going on in the church. Approximately halfway through, it started picking up to the point where I didn't want to put it down. It started getting interesting with the priest doing some detective work of his own.

It covers well how people are often thought of as guilty by association and how people - even those you trust - can also become suspicious without good cause. Makes me wonder if I would react the same way under such circumstances.

Although I can't see how the adoption factored into the story and even though there was at least one instance where the Lord's name was used in vain, this was a pretty good book. I would probably read another of the author's books if a review of it captured my interest.

This fascinating look at street life and the life of a Jesuit priest, makes for an easy and enjoyable read. The story opens with a dramatic murder and doesn't stop until the last page. You see the life of young street kids and the life of a parish priest and how they intertwine. Fr. Reynolds takes you through the complex maze of life with a very human approach. You know the people when you are through with the book. You identify with their trials and heartaches, their lifestyles and burdens. Just a very enjoyable book that will keep you up late to finish.

Father Brad Reynolds, S.J. has created a winning protagonist in this mystery set amongst the pews of St. Joseph's -- and the downtown streets where the homeless youth's struggle to survive. It is nice to have a mystery that tugs the heartstrings a bit without trying to "preach." (Sorry, pun intended)

I haven't read the author's two previous mysteries, but you can bet I'll be searching them out after reading this one. It is rare that a contemporary mystery can have a plot that still surprises, and motives that become apparent only in the last few pages. Deftly handled, I look forward to reading more of Father Brad Reynolds' mysteries! Highly Recommended.

Dangerous Water A Biography by Sam Powers

Dangerous Waters by Ron Powers is a Biography of the boy who became Mark Twain. The book is an insight into the genealogy of Samuel Clemens. Powers tells how the Family finally came to settle in Hannibal, Missouri after living in various other places in the growing United States. The book also goes into great detail about some of the origins of the style with which Clemens wrote. There is no doubt that the time that young Clemens spent in the slave quarters at his fathers home shaped him in many ways. Hearing slave spirituals such as "Better Day A-Comin" and "You Gonna Reap Just What You Sow" played a big part in shaping the man who would write about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. Powers goes on to write about how Clemens managed to go from being one of the literary elite in the 1800s to bankruptcy at the turn of the century. He tells of Clemens' life in a European society where he was welcomed but never really was at home. The book also covers Clemens' rise out of bankruptcy by traveling the world and giving lectured in places like Ceylon and South Africa and many other far off places that most Americans could only dream about. Even through this, the low point in his life, Clemens managed to catch the attention of the American society with a sort of neo-pioneer commitment to claw his way back to the life he had grown to love in his homeland. Overall I found the descriptions of the life of Samuel Clemens to be very exciting and a joy to learn. The vividness with which Powers tells the stories of Clemens' life as a young man in Hannibal made the tales interesting and captivating. However in some parts of the book, I found Powers to be somewhat wordy and hard to follow. At times, the author is crystal clear and I could actually imagine what the events he was describing must have been like to Clemens. On the other hand, some parts of the book felt extremely tedious to read. Ron Powers is a journalist, novelist and non fiction writer. Powers is the author of eight books and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He has been a columnist for The Chicago Sun Times and GQ magazine. He has been published in magazines such as the New York Times Book Review and Conde Nast Traveler. Powers, Like Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. I would have to say that this fact alone gives him a unique perspective on what it must have been like growing up to become Mark Twain. Powers is not the only author to study the life of Samuel Clemens and Mark Twain. There are many other authors who have taken on the task of writing about one of America's first super stars. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, A Biography by Justin Kaplan and Inventing Mark Twain, The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Andrew Hoffman are among the most popular. I think this book is best suited for college students or adults who enjoyed reading any of Twain's work and ever found themselves wondering where Twain got his ideas for his early writings such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Dangerous Waters will also interest anyone who wants to learn more about authors of the American Renaissance. This book offers a great insight into the development of Sam Clemens as a writer. So I believe anyone who has ever heard the name Mark Twain will find this book interesting.

Most biographies on Sam Clemens deal with him as the writer Mark Twain, but as Hannibal native Ron Powers points out there was the boy Sam Clemens who lived in Hannibal, Missouri and that is where the stories came from. The town of Hannibal on the banks of the Mississippi had an important impact on the making of the boy who would become a writer and it takes somebody who lived in Hannibal as a boy to understand the pull of the town and the river. Ron Powers paints a portrait of the boy, his family, the town, and the river and how he became the man the world knows. This biography will be an important part of the canon of Mark Twain as was the Justin Kaplan biography and all that followed.

I do not know of a writer who parses the American cultural landscape with as much intelligence and wisdom as Ron Powers. If you care about America's soul, and how it is faring as forces of modernity encroach upon it, you simply must become acquainted with Ron Powers's writing. This journey through the boyhood days of Sam Clemens is Powers at the height of his form.

The fascinating man becomes clearer through the pages of his notebooks, which are uneven but rewarding. A must for Musil fans.

Robert Musil is one of the most complex and little known authors of the 20th Century. I am sure that anyone who has read "The Man without Qualities" will want to know more about Musil after getting to know his writing. Sadly, there is no adequate Biography available, even in German, so one of the best ways to get to know the Author is through his fascinating Diary. These were actually more Notebooks than Diaries, and they contain an encylopedic array of information on Musil himself, his intests, his ideas, and most interestingly his plans for the "Man without Qualities". So it is must reading for those interested in Musil. The English Translation Compilation, has two major flaws. First, it lacks an Index and other Critical Apparatus, and secondly, we do not which criteria were used to re-edit the Notebooks, which were originally edited by Adolf Frise. The German Edition has one Volume of Diaries = 1,000 pages and one Volume of Notes and Indices = 1,500, pages, making it useful for scholarly research, to look up subjects, names and places, and most fascinating Musil's sources. Still the English edition is of great interest to those unaquainted with Musil.

As other commentators have said, Musil's diaries reveal this fascinating writer's process of thought, and are not filled with the usual "then he said something and we laughed and ordered another round" entries. In the regrettable absence of an autobiography or good biography, the _Diaries_ are a good substitute.

Musil's eye is at once poetic and objective. I could only be astounded by the maturity of the young artist. His description of a horse laughing, of sunset on windows, of a waterfall looking like a silver comb, of his emotions when he and his wife Martha argue, show a sensitivity sharpened by training. Musil captures things as they appear to him with a minimum of fussiness. Also, there is often a sharp humour which comes flashing out.

Some people don't like _The Man Without Qualities_ and prefer some of Musil's other writings. Whichever works one prefers, these diaries illuminate Musil and his writings from within.

I'll add two minor complaints about the layout of the book to those already voiced. I object to endnotes, believing footnotes easier to read. Why flip forward and back so often? Some of the endnotes are repetitive, and greater care should have been taken over them. But those are small things, and have more to do with editorial decisions than with Musil, who here steps forth from a kind of shadow (for english readers).

This book can't be recommended highly enough.

These authors are well-established as the premier non-fiction authors of "Doctor Who". Here, we are presented with another familiar book in a familiar format, which works without being outstanding.

The pentultimate volume in the Doctor Who Handbook series contains exhaustive detail about all of the adventures of the Doctor as portrayed by Patrick Troughton. Since so many of this era's episodes are lost, the detailed summaries are invaluable to modern day lovers of sixties' Doctor Who. As with previous Handbooks behind the scenes and production information is presented along with the often diverse opinions of the three authors on each of the stories as televised.

The second Doctor handbook is invaluable to Dr. Who fans. It continues with the way the other volumes in the Dr. Who handbooks have always been. But this one is ever more so different than the others. It's production details of how the second Doctor was concieved is very interesting, because such a thing had never been done before on changing the lead actor in a TV series with a completely different actor, but yet as the same character (with a new persona than the previous Doctor), was completely unheard of. A huge risk at the time for the BBC, unsure if the regular viewers of the show would accept this change. Reading about this is very unique to know. The usual handbook format is here, and this book's story production focus is on the sixth season story "The Mind Robber" (1968).

The one aspect that is very much priceless is the episode story summaries. These are very good, as I could almost imagine that they were on TV again. Also, the fact that almost all of the Patrick Troughton era of Dr. Who episodes was virtually wiped out from the BBC archives, makes these story summaries ever more so good to read about.

Another great book in the Dr. Who handbook series. The author trio of David J. Howe, Mark Stammers, and Stephen James Walker continue with their reputation as the definitive research team on Doctor Who's history. This was the sixth volume in the series, published in 1997.