From reading the Forward and Prologue one has reason to expect this book to contain a WEALTH of evidence attesting to the historicity, Messiahship, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. The author(s) assure that 'the sceptic will be challenged'. As a matter of fact I was sadly disappointed as I went thru this 'gateway of discovery' on the 'grand adventure' that reportedly 'unveils a trove of treasure'. I found the 'evidence' to be weak, sparse, and confusingly presented. The book is obviously written for a Christian audience to provide some inspirational hype to bolster the faith of the believer. The author(s) appear to confuse hearsay with 'evidence'. This is most obvious in Ch.8 where reference is made to 'tens of thousands of witnesses' and numerous sources that should suffice to satisfy our need for indisputable 'evidence'of the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. The bible is presented as 'evidence' without informing the reader that only FOUR of its authors where in fact eyewitnesses to only SOME of these events of the life of Jesus. They inexplicably waited more than 20 years (and as many as 50-60 years) before recording these events. The author(s) don't attempt to differentiate between eye witness (all be it tardily recorded) accounts and hearsay recollections in the biblical record. This 'evidence' does not rise to the level claimed for it by the author(s) of the book. The 'ancient rabbinic literature' is also appealed to. No 'trove of treasure' here. I only found 2 applicable sources that were presented. Each lacked the specificity necessary to clearly identify a referrance to 'Jesus of Nazareth'. In fact contextual considerations would strongly resist such an interpretation. In the area of 'secular historical references' there are 7 listed and the author(s) make claim to: 'many other non-Christian historical sources for Jesus of Nazareth but since space is limited we will move on...'. I wish space wasn't 'limited' (I can't help suspecting the main limitation being a dearth of pertinent sources). They need more sources because out of the 7 presented only 2 actually MENTION Jesus!!! Those 2 are NOT eyewitnesses and are NOT even contemporary to Jesus. Josephus was 60 years after the fact and Tacticus was at least 80 years after Jesus. The Divinity and Messiahship of Jesus are primarily presented from the Biblical evidence. Numerous texts are used but confusingly organized and often gratuitous (having no bearing on the issue under consideration). The 2 strongest texts supporting the contention for a suffering/sacrificial Messiah, Psalms 22 and Isaiah 52-53 are well presented in part. What is lacking is an explanation of the contradictory passages which appear when one reads the entire prophecies. Ps.22 has the protagonist escaping death thru God's intervention due to his crying 'day and night'. Is.52-53 has a silent protagonist who is ultimately dispatched having 'opened not his mouth'. It seems to me that both passages cannot be talking about the same person. I feel the view of the author(s) that the 'ancient rabbinic literature' shows an expectation for a suffering/dying Messiah was poorly substantiated. Numerous passages are cited in the text and appendices; but one gets the feeling that there has always been a disparity of belief among the rabbis rather than a shift of position from 'ancient' beliefs to contemporary ones. I did email one of the authors (Mark Eastman) with a few of my questions. He was gracious enough to reply. He related that he was 'a big picture kind of guy'; and was mainly trying to show that rabbinic views have changed down thru the ages. His reply though did not give any further specific support for his position. I have no problem with the author(s) holding such beliefs. Being born and raised in a conservative Christian family myself; I too have enjoyed the belief that I have access to the knowledge of God and am therefore pretty well informed. I'm a little resentful (and frankly underwhelmed) though, when the author(s) start making grandiose claims of 'evidence' (that suck me into an examination of their argument); but only present the same inadequate (to me) material that I've seen and heard in the past.

I loaned this book to a friend and never got it back. Now I need it to re-read and study again, and so here I am at Amazon ordering it. Great book.

This is a well-written book that I have started on the "lending" path with my friends. It opened up the world of the ancient rabbis for me and allowed me to see what their criteria was for the Messiah. I highly recommend it for anyone who is looking for the Messiah or wants to look at the history of Jewish and Christian beliefs. It was so interesting that I've already ordered some of the other books that Mark Eastman recommended in his book.

many good poems, but there's so much irony in this book that when you get to poems like Tonette the poet sounds like a hypocrite. how'd erma bombeck get into the room? "bad people" is a weird mix of nostalgia, empathy and disapproval but ends up feeling parental (ask your mother) and hence cliche. "Other Pages" reads like a page torn from the Frank Bidart handbook "Emotional displays through Typography." and haven't i seen some of these poems before, in Tasker Street? the poet seems to have painted himself into a corner here.

The best thing about Mr. Halliday's work is that you can see the personal nature of the author in the poems. I can see Mark sitting up late at night writing all of this (Loaded Inflections) and I can understand the relationships he has with his characters (Divorce Dream). Selfwolf is absolutely believable and devoid of cloying sentiment. His personality is on those pages and to read them leaves me wanting to research volumes on his thoughts. This book is a lot less like typical poetry and a lot more like the most interesting discussion you've ever had with that one person who is intriguing because he won't let you pick his brain. The one disappointment? I want to know even more.

Considering that I usually consume books of poetry in one healthy sitting, the fact that I savored this book for almost two weeks stands as partial testament to its brilliance, intrigue, and genuine understanding of the human condition. Halliday writes about experiences which, while superficially banal, actually manage to penetrate both the conventional medium of poetry, and the varied audiences receiving his poems. Throughout the book he continually pokes fun at himself as a poet and the meaning of "immortality" through writing while also providing us with a tragic and beautiful collection of ideas ranging from the traditionally important (divorce, loss, heartache) to the Romantic oddities (Baudelairian passing of strangers) to the existentially bizarre (urban mediocrity, male angst, reconstruction of self). This book cannot be ignored by anyone seriously interested in gutsy, intelligent, witty, entertaining poetry. I'm still stuck with its pungent, admittedly disturbing though remarkably satisfying aftertaste!

This book was just awful. I liked the writer's first book, The Kafka Chronicles, but this one just didn't cut it. It tries to be a novel and fails. It tries to be hip and fails. It tries to be shocking and fails. It tries to be clever and fails. And the cover is not appealing with the transexual playing a guitar. It's no wonder this author hasn't published another book since 1996.

Mark Amerika just presented his work in the Whitney Biennial 2000 here in New York and gave a reading from his novels at some alternative art space and both me and my girlfriend came home right after the reading and bought both Sexual Blood and Kafka Chronicles. I'm a big William Burroughs fan but there's no question that Amerika's work, though influenced by the Beats, is much more in tune with what's happening in contemporary culture. It's part cyberpunk (near-future city with walking Viruses), part experimental postmodernism (a so-called "concept album" within the heart of the book), part erotic thriller (the guy, Mal, transforms into a woman, but only internally -- externally he looks like the same slacker/musician that he is -- and his mission is to make up for all the bad things he did with his old girlfriends, only he has trouble following through on his mission :-) ...

My girlfriend says the writing reminds her of Kathy Acker (which makes sense, Acker gave the book a great blurb comparing Amerika to Burroughs). She also sees some Mark Leyner in his sense of humor but Amerika is much darker!

Sexual Blood is easily a 5-star read just for the brazen content alone, although some of the sex scenes are quite explicit and not for everyone.

america is under attack from the media, drugs, sex, paranoia, and ourselves. Sexual Blood is the follow up to The Kafka Chronicles(1993) and serves as the dramatic leap into the unknown where Amerika is the King and the rest of the world is huddled in corners too busy smelling themselves.

The book was a complete and utter disappointment. Someone trying to capitalise on the difference between the East and West of doing things. Why do Americans always feel that there notions of the world have to be correct - that is the thought that I had instantly when I read this "masterpiece". It is certainly not worth owning - sorry to say.

I've lived in Japan for 20 years but popular culture is one area that continues to elude me. This book goes a long way toward filling that gap. The author tells the stories of crimes that stayed in the headlines for weeks, but the great thing is that he explains why these deeds were important to the Japanese. Kim Hee Roh, for example, was an ex-con who held 13 hostages for five days--after he killed two yakuza. His story was especially important to Japanese readers because he was a Korean, a minority that has come in for some hard treatment by them. The writer fills us in on Kim's life story and shows how different commentators, even people-on-the-street, responded to the criminal and the hostage standoff. The book covers 15 more crimes with similar thoroughness. The crimes themselves have a certain shock value and are entertaining in an offbeat way. But the book also gives sidelights into the psychology of the criminals and places their crimes in cultural perspective by evaluating the responses of the press and others. We get to see what the crimes meant to the Japanese, and in this regard the book becomes a commentary on the popular culture of this fascinating country. The author obviously read dozens of articles in the Japanese-language press in order to report on each of these crimes. He's done a great (and entertaining) service to readers and done some excellent scholarship, too. My only criticism of the book is that it's only 312 pages long. I'd be happy to go on reading for days. Sergeant Joe Friday, on the TV detective series "Dragnet," used to say, "Just the facts, Ma'am" when he interviewed witnesses. I'm glad this book gives much more than just the facts.

Mark's book in a really good read. I do not like the title because it sounds like something you pick up in a supermarket as you pay for your groceries. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find I did not want to put it down after I started to read. The crimes are handled in a delicate manner and the real focus is on what happened later. Police incompetence, uniquely Japanese answers to problems other cultures would handle differently are all shown with gentle and sometimes pointed humor with just a hint of irony. Since many of the crimes are unsolved or the quilty may have been innocent it is fun to read some of the hypotheses about who really "done it and why." All & all a really good read.

I eagerly awaited Southern Style's release ll/l only to find that the content was repeated from past issues of Southern Accents. I was looking forward to new pictures/content but found very little that wasn't in old magazines. I think the editors could have at least given us different camera shots of those same rooms. Big disappointment.

I have been an avid reader of Southern Accents for years. I found their book to be well written and filled with the beautiful photography I've come to expect from the magazine. Chapters are broken out room-by-room, making it an easy reference guide. The book is one that you'll not only keep out on the coffee table, but also will refer to often for great decorating ideas.

I found Southern Style a great compedium of how design in the South has evolved. As an editor at a competing magazine, I wish more publications would give us a backward glance at their previously featured work. This book shows not only where southern design has been, but the way past photography and styling techniques have changed. I wish more magazines would publish such a compendium. It would save us all a lot of space with hoarding decorating magazines. Oh admit it,we all do it. Also great text, with deep insight into it's subject matter.

I am just guiding some readers who might NOT be able to decide.

MANY people believe that INDIAN automatically means "INDIA". Can their visual/mental senses differentiate between INDIAN and RED INDIAN?

There is nothing really magical about INDIA - even the ROPE TRICK doesn't work in a populace of OVER A BILLION!

Cheer up folks! THINK FIRST - and then - GET DEEPER INTO YOUR SEARCH!!..

Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, columnist and reviewer for MyShelf and author of This is the Place and Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered

Here they are!
Five guidebooks,all part of a series, that look and feel more like art books.

Five guidebooks so closely related that they become a library or set suitable to give as a gift to anyone who lives in, travels in or just loves the Southwest.

Published by Rio Nuevo Publishers, an imprint of Treasure Chest Books, these slender paperbacks have a different polish than most guidebooks, both outside and in. The covers have a satin-finish feel. The pictures in each are full color and so well done you may feel less tempted to buy a piece of art in any one of these categories'or more tempted as the case may be. There are diagrams and maps in full color and other information like histories for the artists, the genealogy of related artists, etc. Anything that will help a reader/art lover to understand the subject better. Bibliographies, indexes, suggested readings and pronunciation guides are also included as needed.

Mostly, these are helpful well-written guides by knowledgeable authors like Kent McManis, Mark Bahti, and Robert Jeffries. You'll find them on Amazon and other sites that sell books under their separate titles and here they are:

A Guide to Zuni Fetishes and Carvings, both Volume I and Volume II
A Guide to Hopi Katsina Dolls
A Guide to Navaho Weavings
A Guide to Navaho Sandpaintings


(Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards.
Her newly released Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remember has won three.)

A great overview of fetishes, charms, and amulets made by Southwest Indian tribes. I like the mix of stories from Indian's folklore and the power from the fetish would provide to user. Now my collection of fetishes have now taken more meaning and understandings from Indian point of view. Also there is notes about material used in making the fetish. Why the color plays great role in fetish. Great reading and must reading if you collect fetishes from Southwest.

The photographs by John Bigelow Taylor are wonderful, but this book has a paucity of explanatory text. I don't just like to look at pretty pictures. I want to know about the jewelry. Who made it? How was it made? Who wears it? How is it worn? Why was it worn? What is the human history behind it? I particularly want to know all this about ethnic jewelry. You won't get it here.

No people are shown wearing the jewelry, so the book is sterile. There is no cultural context. It's a lot to pay for no additional knowledge about ethnic jewelry.

This is, indeed, a very beautifully photographed book. The represented pieces are all exquisite.

Though, it's true that there could have been more background information provided, giving the book a rating of one star, as the first reviewer did, is grossly unjust - an act of spite rather than of informed criticism. Clearly, the book was never meant to be a exhaustive examination of all the ethnological aspects of each piece (though there is ample annotation); such a book would have run to 2000 pages rather than 250! So the Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry is not a doctoral thesis but rather a stroll thru a museum; in this case, the Ghysels Collection. A coffee-table book if you want, but beautiful none the less and of the highest standard.

If you have previously had no interest in ethnic jewelry per se, this book will open your eyes to the extraordinary artistry of these ornaments created by the world's non-industrial peoples. Each object in itself says much more than an accompanying treatise ever could, and I cannot imagine anyone coming away from this book without a desire to learn more.

A second copy purchased for a friend who deals in ethnic jewelry was very much appreciated.

This is a HUGE book filled with georgeous close-ups of really inspirational jewelry. A favorite of mine!

This book is mostly fluff. The 1st 75 pages are devoted to how much wood and stone it takes to build buildings and how long it takes to construct the buildings. This information can easily be learned by playing the game for a week. The 2nd half of the book (next 75 pages) deals with how to play the single player scenarios. This may be of help to beginners, but most folks find the single player scenarios easy enough to win without help. The book offers almost NO advice on how to play specific strategies against other online players (except for 2 pages of weak general information at the end of the book). The book does offer an occasional tip, but most of the tips are obvious to the casual player. This book would have been better titled "A Beginner's Guide to Settlers III".

Okay...so it may not have been the most informative strategy book of all time...but i learned a lot from it at its at least worth checking out.

i thought the game guide was a big help towards gameplay and help me with levels that i could have never finished my thanks i think ill order 1 more for a friend and tell you friends about it. it will help alot.

i am actually doing a report on rap and selected this book expecting some insight...i was surprised. it seems like some of this was even just put here to take up space; i was dissapointed, expecting something better from costello. a point of view not needed in most situations. of course, ten years ago it might have been close to adequate--now it seems totally inadequate to use in my report.

David Foster Wallace and Mark Costello are too cute by half in this book, and it is horribly out of date. (Just to give an idea, A Tribe Called Quest, who were considered an elder statesman group when they broke up two years ago, had not yet released an album when this book was published.) But most of the analysis of rap's place within popular culture remains somehow applicable to the current scene if you are willing to do a bunch of critical work along the same lines and ignore the dumber flights of fancy. Still a fun book to read and a fun book to debate. Not to be missed if you remember when LL Cool J was good and you have read anything by a master of postmodern philosophy.

costello and wallace examine rap culture and rappers as they influence our society. although at times it seems like they are being narrow minded, this book examines what shapes society and how society can react to these things. the book goes well beyond merely rap music and examines how society is influenced and how it influences. anyone who reads this and sees it as simply a look at rap music is missing the entire point of the book.

Its safer to go with more accepted companies when choosing a guide. Avoid this and buy a Nintendo or Prima version. This guide, although fair, could use a lot more. Its simply not worth paying the money to buy this subpar material when you could be getting some actually well-written and thoughtfully putout guides. It seems Douglas Arnold and Mark Elies, if they have written over 30 guides, could have done a better job on this.

Boo

Mike London

I swear I cannot get thru a game without some sort of guide. This one did not help me so much. First of all, it is in black and white, which I was not expecting. So that makes it hard to tell what part of the game they are talking about. It really is not much a walk thru either. I guess I have been spoiled by Primas' full cover step by step guides for playstation. This guide is ok if you are already a video game pro and just want to see what you may have missed. But for those of us that can't get past the first few levels without a guide - I do not recommend this one. It also is over priced for what you get.

This book is awsome.It has helpful information