Chicago Chronicles vol. 3 is a decent source for a campaing in chicago, and the added section on milwaukee adds an extra setting. But this volume has rather useless information and things are repeated. the book is tedious and not at all as usefull as the other 2 for shicago by night, but the milwaukee section makes it at least worthwhile. I recommend gamemasters using chicago buy the first 2 books, Chicago Chronicles vol. 1 and 2, but the third is only necessary if you want an added area like milwaukee.

This book has "collector" written all over it. Anne Galperin's design and the collage by Strand featured on the jacket make it the sort of book one buys as much for its appearance as for the writing itself. Turtle Point Press is a nice small press, and they've done a very fine job here; also, the sewn binding suggests the book is made to last.

CHICKEN, SHADOW, MOON & MORE consists of twenty lists, each titled with a different noun: "Chicken," "Shadow," "Moon," "Sun," "Lake," "Hour," and so forth. Each list contains two to three dozen sentences or (more often) sentence fragments, each containing the title word. Longtime readers of Strand will be amused but not surprised to find a list titled "Dog."

Judging from his comment on the book jacket, Strand (who won the Pulitzer Prize for his last collection of poems, BLIZZARD OF ONE) is reluctant to think of this as a poetry book, but that's essentially what it is. He's taking risks, but the risks often pay off: although some of the writing is flat, or simply odd, much of it is playful, evocative, and thought-provoking. As a whole the project is an uneven but interesting addition to his oeuvre.

The autobiography of Mark Brandon Read 'Chopper' gives us a unique and seldom told insight into the criminal underworld of Australia, particularly Melbourne. The story begins by an infatuation with guns, explosives and military history crossed-wired with a young child who spent a lot of time drugged up in a psychiatric rehabilitation prison. Mix two vital ingredients together and you're left with a dangerous man.

Probably the most sought-after criminal in Australia, Chopper acquired his enemies through his friends' enemies and from robbing the bank robbers and other similar criminals. He's killed plentiful, but protests "I'm no murderer...I'm a garbage disposal expert" and from a certain perspective, his tales hold a strong point of view. The only men he has claimed to kill are murderers themselves, drug dealers and rapists. Any other men he has killed may well have been innocent, but Chopper was acting purely in self-defence.

Spending most of his life behind bars, Chopper inevitably made friends with other inmates and also confronted his worst enemies. Cleverly thought out antics and plots to burn down prisons are just a range of things Chopper and friends would execute in an attempt to relieve boredom and pass time. Nevertheless he claims: - "It is a madhouse in prison - and twice as bad outside,"

Packed with hilarious non-chronological stories about imbecilic big shot gangsters; Close attempts to wipe out Chopper; And a world where criminals fear Chopper over the law; this book will keep you thoroughly entertained from start to finish.

In his own words; "You can fool some of the people all of the time, And you can even fool all of the people some of the time, but in the real world of blood and guts you don't fool Chopper Read any of the time."

This book is an interesting look at the theme of justification, the law, and salvation in the New Testament. Seifrid combines both traditional Protestantism and the New Reformation perspective together in this complex subject. In chapter 1, Seifrid deals with Paul's life, before and after conversion. How and why Paul persecuted the Church and his subsequent conversion to Christianity. Seifrid denies the newer understanding of Paul's opposition and solution to the Jewish problem by arguing that Paul did not see the Jewish problem due to its continuing exile or because of its nationalism through the symbolic elements of the Law. Paul opposed the Jewish "gospel" because it demanded that people do works of the law to gain salvation. Chapter 2 is a short commentary on Romans 1-8. However, I do take exception to Seifrid's contention that Romans 2:13 refers to justification by works at the Final Judgment FOR believers. Chapters 3 and 4 are about Paul's understanding of justification and the Law. I do object to his view that justification is a "renewal/transformation" of creation. However, he does an excellent job proving that the Law is a whole unit, not a tripartite entity. In chapter 5, Seifrid does a good job explaining what "obedience of faith" means. Contrary to some scholars (e.g., Garlington and Schreiner), the phrase does not mean "doing works" but putting faith in the risen Christ for salvation. However, he still believes that final justification for believers will be based on their works (but not as a reflection of saving faith). Chapter 6 is the best chapter of the book. Seifrid goes over the history and fall of physical Israel and why God ordained them to fall. The author's contention is that God ordained the fall of Israel so that He can display His gracious soteric acts from the condemnation of the masses. God's glory and grace can only be manifested in darkness. Justification can only come when there is condemnation. Though there are only a "remnant" of Israelites being saved throughout history, the author makes an excellent case for the full conversion of physical Israel at the Second Coming (pp. 158-168). Chapter 7 is the only chapter I have a problem with. Seifrid's position on justification is more along the views of Schlatter, Kasemann, and Stuhlmacher, and proposes for the "recreational" view of justification rather than the purely forensic (traditional Protestantism). He even criticizes Protestants for making too much of forensic justification and imputation of Christ's righteousness. Therefore, he significantly departs from traditional Protestant soteriology. On page 181, he even states that justification is by works alone (his understanding of James 2:14-26)! Many evangelical Protestants will have a hard time agreeing with Seifrid's view on justification (as a result, Seifrid sides with so-called evangelical scholars like Fuller, Hafemann, Schreiner, Garlington, and Thielman). The first 6 chapters are good; the final chapter is bad. Overall, an interesting look at the Law and Justification.

Buried within this flawed and schematic book is a valuable point. Contra to much recent historical discussion one cannot contrast a liberal humane American Republicanism with an illiberal French republicanism that is contemptuous of rights and is infected with totatilitarianism. There is much within this book that contradicts the facile arguments of Tony Judt and the uncritical worshippers of Alexis De Tocqueville. This book is based on a historical debate between "liberalism" and "republicanism." Now these two terms are not, like say, Judaism and Christianity in being clearly distinguished by its adherents. The concept of "republicanism" developed in the sixties and seventies from such scholars as Bernard Bailyn, Gordon Wood, J.G.A. Pocock and others who sought to distinguish elements of American revolutionary ideology that made it different from modern liberalism. These ideas included an emphasis on virtue, community and greater political involvement. These ideas are to be contrasted with the rights oriented nature of individualist liberalism. But because republicans can believe in rights and liberals in virtue, it is not easy to distinguish them.

Hulliung also isn't very helpful in distinguishing them. What he does do is criticize those who see in French republicanism an innate hostility to liberalism. He makes some very important points (1) first off, republicans have praised the rights of man in the first, second, fourth and fifth republics; (2) if the third republic did not possess a declaration of rights in its constitution, that is because it did not have a constitution but a fragile series of compromises composed of an assembly divided between Orleanists, Legitimists and Republicans; (3) A key problem with the reputation of Liberalism within France has been that the self-proclaimed liberal Orleanists, Guizot, Thiers, Tocqueville, Renan and Taine, have been contemptous of rights, universal suffrage, democracy and the people in general. In combatting their influence, the French Republicans have in effect been preserving liberal values from its self-proclaimed advocates.

Unfortunately for the reader, there are a number of flaws with the book. On the part it is not clear why one should divide the French into "liberals" and "republicans" in the first place. It is not clear why the Republicans aren't liberals, except that particular term isn't popular in France. Hulliung fails to recognize that there is a gap between the ideology and the term people use to describe it. In the first decades of the last century moderates and centrists in both France and Czechslovakia called themselves socialists ("Radical socialists" and "National Socialists,") even though they were clearly nothing of the sort. For much of the Third Republic, conservative parties liked to give their parties names that were more liberal than they actually were. There have always been American Conservatives, but no Tory party in America since 1783. Hulliung does not seem to appreciate this problem of nomenclature. Nor does he probe the possibility that differences betweens the Americans and the French may be less ideological than a patriotic, chauvinistic desire to get the credit for spreading liberalism.

Moreover, there is a certain facile and misleading tone throughout the book. In order to challenge modern day scholarly sympathizers with republicanism he conflates their ideas with Burke, who was obviously not a republican (p.5). Hulliung describes the American courts in the seventies as receiving "unqualifed praise from the reformers" (p.35) which is clearly not the case in the era of the Burger Court. Likewise American liberals in the fifties and sixties did not uniformly despise the French Marxist school of the French Revolution (p.175) or the Jacobins; Palmer, Darnton and Woloch were rather sympathetic to their aims and goals, and even Alfred Cobban praised the Committee of Public Safety's energy and competence. It is not very obvious why George Fitzhugh is described as a Republican (p. 167), since his contribution to American thought was to declare that slavery was not just good for black people, but for all labourers (p. 167). The chapter on "The Uses of Republican Rhetoric in America," (92-127) describes all sorts of populist rhetoric, whether Whigs or Jacksonians, Populists or Henry Cabot Lodge, from Tom Hayden to Irving Kristol, while leaving the idea that they were all equally unreal. Hulliung criticizes Tocqueville for sneering at democratic culture (p 131) and in particular for ignoring Melville And Fenimore Cooper. This strikes me as unfair as Melville first published a decade after Tocqueville visited the United States, while Fenimore Cooper is just, well, awful. By the end, Hulliung has fallen victim to a fatal case of muddledness.

The TEXT in this book is pretty good but the pictures provide little/no information. They are too dark, the captions do not clarify what they are attempting to display and the black and white format make it near impossible to see anything to begin with! Other than that, the text supplies sound strategies and it has proven to be helpful.

The book does contain a lot of information about both coins and stamps. It gets 3 stars.

However ...

The package that comes with this book includes a CD-ROM and a floppy disk. According to the Errata, the disk is supposed to be a version of the software that has not expired. For me, neither worked! I had to go to their web site to download a Windows 98 version that worked. That sure was a nuisance. This part gets only 1 star!

Also, note - the software that accompanies this book is SHAREWARE. It does cost $ to get the registered version.

I am new to the wonderful world of Majolica. I was looking for some reference books to help me purchase quality pieces of Majolica on ebay without paying more than I should. I found The Collector's Encyclopedia of Majolica a good reference because of the approx. 180 pages of colorful pictures illustrating the various types of Majolica pottery available. This book includes a value guide for the pieces pictured in it with a few pages of general information. I gave it 3 stars because it is helpful in pricing certain items but does not give you alot of details about the history of the many companies that produced Majolica.

I just received my copy of Combat Command and was disappointed to find that it was a combination choose your own adventure and war game story. I was hoping for another Troopers style adventure perhaps expanding on the doctrines and technology of the Mobile Infantry described in Heinlein's original novel. Unfortunately that was not to be. I gave it three stars and I will probably read it over thoroughly, but I am disappointed none the less. If there are any others out there as engaged in thinking about what the specifics of the Mobile Infantry might be drop me a line I would be interested in a discussion.

This, 'Mark Hitchcock' book didn't grab me like his last four did. The geographical details are confusing and uneccesary. Maps, charts should've been included.