One of Sandra Brown's best, this book is a super-fast read. Heavy on the suspense with just the right amount of romance. And some of the creepiest bad guys I've seen in quite some time. There are many, many plot twists that keep you guessing right up until the end. There are no loose ends left by the satisfying conclusion. Ms. Brown, keep those romance thrillers coming! I'm hooked!

As a fan of Ms. Brown's romance novels I hesitated to read her suspense novels. My aunt recommended this book to me and I'm ever thankful she did. This is definitely one of the best books I've read this year.

Kendall Deaton is a Public Defender in the small town of Prosper, South Carolina. She marries handsome hunk Matt Burnwood expecting to live a fairy tale life. But her life then changes. She is witness to a hideous event and is running for her life. To reveal more details would ruin the story.

This book is just awesome. It has a spine-tingling plot with twists that will literally keep you on the edge of your seat. The plot will keep you reading for hours on end. It's almost as if the pages turn themselves and you have been sucked into the story. The characters are wonderfully written. Kendall is someone you have to admire and you really don't know her whole story until the very last page. I can't say it enough, this book hooks you and won't let go! I agree with the other reviewer that I would like to see a book about Ricki Sue and Jim Pepperdyne. One could definitely see the sparks flying off the pages with those two.

Once again, an excellent book worth the time reading. Great job Ms. Brown.

This is a terrific novel, and probably one of the best suspense novels I had read by Sandra Brown. In other novels by SB, I can pretty much guess where it's headed, and to a certain extent I did with this too, but I wasn't quite prepared for how caught up I was with the characters in this book until I heard myself quite literally gasping in horror at some of the suspense filled pages.

I especially liked how Ms. Brown kept dividing chapters from present, to flashbacks, and into the mind of not only the heros, but also the villians. It gave you better insight of what motivates the characters, and the thin line between good and evil, hero and villian.

The characters are beautifully written, and I found myself swept away from the very first page. I love that in a book!

This is an enjoyable book, but the message of grace is hardly new. Unfortunately, it is new to many people who have not been well taught and/or have not read the scriptures themselves. Manning comes from a Catholic background, so grace was a bit of a surprise to him. Recall that Martin Luther broke off from the Catholic church about 500 years ago over this issue. What Manning does bring to us is the experience of God's grace. Manning was a down and out drunk when God touched him and cleaned him up. It is from this experience in his life that Manning appears to have truly begun to understand God's grace. This is not a book on theology proper, but on the individual's experience of God's love and grace to us. The style is often rambling, almost stream of consciousness at times, but readable. One of the things that kept me from giving this book a higher rating is that it was not written in such a way that most of God's ragamuffins could understand it. It uses many allusions and cultural references, and a lot of 50 cent words. I teach Bible studies to prisoners and I believe that most of them could not understand a lot of this book. However, they are the ragamuffins that God came to save (along with the rest of us). At times I wondered who Manning was writing the book for - the ragamuffins, or the intelligentsia. Still, for those who can get past that, it is a worthwhile book.

I read the original version of this book over 4 years ago and it changed my life. I am so excited to see this book reissued.

The message of Manning's book is The Gospel, pure and undefiled...God loves you, no strings attached. Not only does God love you but He is pleased with you and His saving grace is always there for you.

The book helped me out greatly because I was in a spiritually abusive situation at the time I read this it and it helped me to realize that there was nothing I could do to earn God's love. Many Christians accept God's Grace freely when they first dedicate their lives to Him. They then spend the rest of their spiritual walk trying earn that love and forgiveness (which we can never do).

Brother Manning's book is a refreshing Oasis in a Christian world full of works-oriented deserts.

Even if you think you completely understand what Grace and Love are all about there will be something for you in this book. This book will challenge the very way you look at God.

Included in this book is a foreward by Contemporary Christian Music giant, Michael W. Smith, plus a 10 year's after update by Manning, a study guide.

If you have yet to read this book, what are you waiting for? If you read this book a long time ago, now is the time to re-read it.

Excepting the bible itself, this is the most highly regarded and oft recommended book I have ever had the priveledge of reading. I have given away three copies, and will continue to do so whenever possible. I was brought up in the church, my father was a minister and a very loving person, and I became a follower of Christ at the age of 18, yet I never had the slightest understanding of the much-touted "grace of God" until I read this book. I felt like Paul on the road to Damascus - blinded by the light. For the first time, I understood what it meant to be loved by God; to be UNABLE to make God hate me or give up on me (he won't...ever)! I cannot truly describe the feeling - it felt like Oxygen to a drowning man. I was finally free to love and forgive. To understand love is to understand grace - and vice versa. If you have ever felt your life to be a "grave disappointment to God", please, please, PLEASE do yourself the kindness of buying this book. Let yourself know the real God who wants to make you his child.

from one Ragamuffin to all you other ones, Peace.

I purchased the Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, Grace Frick(Translator)on a chance it might be good. I was not let down. The book though fictional poses a very realistic intimate peak at Hadrian the man and the Emperor. Focusing on the man (rather than a whitewashed idealistic view of the Emperor), the author's attention to detail and painstaking research makes this work believable and thoroughly enjoyable. In the "Memoirs" you learn something about roman politics, psychology, and philosophy. Also, you get a closer look at the eternal issues of life and death, what every human must face.

Seldom do we find a historical novel written with both so much scholarship and passion. Marguerite Yourcenar not only incarnates the soul and spirit of Emperor Hadrian but of his time as well (second century A.D.). Narrated in the first person, it is the written meditations of a sick man who holds audience with his memories. Suffering from gout, knowing that his remaining days are few, Hadrian leaves a testimony of his life, his accomplishments, his philosophical outlook on life, and some pieces of good advise for his successor Marcus Aurelius. Hadrian was an architect of peace as well as buildings, he felt responsible for sustaining and increasing the beauty of his world, and his duties forced him "to serve as the incarnation of Providence," to the point that he felt he was indeed divine. A lover of the arts, of Greek culture, of the occult, he was above all a pragmatic man whose motto was "Strength, Justice and the Muses." For him life was "like a horse to whose motions one yields, but only after having trained the animal to the utmost." His positive attitude in every life experience allows him to look back as a man fully satisfied... except in matters of love! His passion and tragic death of young Antinous reminds him that "love's play is the only one which threatens to unsettle the soul."

It is history and story written with superb craftsmanship, the end result of painful and laborious 15 years of work and research. It is a psychlogically penetrating portrait of an outstanding figure in history; a man who was able to capture the spirit of his time, which in turn has been recaptured by the genious of Marguerite Yourcenar.

That's how we feel after reading this masterpiece that took a lifetime to craft. We become Marcus Aurelius, the recipient of the last letter of the old and noble Imperator Hadriannus. Full of passion and pain, and the obcession of a lost love.

Madame Yourcenar researched extensively, consulted scholars and travelled on the footsteps of Hadrian, smelled the same scents, saw the same beaches and monuments, etc, all to recreate a real feeling and the thoughts of the emperor.

The prose is immaculate and extremely expressive, a man of culture (of greek culture) like Hadrian could very well express himself in such an eloquent way.

When you finish this book, you will find a collection of notes about how it was written and describing minutely her sources.

Although Madame Yourcenar did a great job, a scholar will find minor errors like Hadrians beard didn't hid a scar, but he grew a beard "...to cover natural blemishes on his face." Historia Augusta; also at Trajan's triumph 10.000 gladiators fought...not died (the lanistae would go bankrupt in no time, gladiators were expensive, hard to train and mantain), the mortality rate of gladiators varies between 20% and 50%(depends on the scholar). Another minor mistake when Hadrian is remenbering the Sarmatian Wars and longs for wearing is mail coat... well, tribunes and legates wouldn't wear a "lorica Hamata", usually they would wear a bronze or iron breastplate, pteruges and sometimes greaves.

Apart this, most of this brilliant work of art is historically accurate and almost an history lesson... but also an humanity lesson.

I bought this cookbook about 6 months ago. When I finished reading the book, I immediately sent an e-mail to the author thanking her for her work in this book. I also watched the CBS Sunday Morning Special about this cookbook. I ,too,was a Chinese immigrant and learning cooking from watching my dad and mom without any measurement of the "stuff" you put in a dish. Often as I cook, I do not measure the ingredients. Many of my American friends want the reciepes of the dishes I cook and too often I am too lazy to write them down. Now, I have Ms. Young to thank you for writing this cookbok. Many of the fine reciepes in this cookbook I shared with my Amercian friends. They too have read and said they enjoy the history and the philosophy of the Chinese cooking. I would recommended this book for anybody who is learning about Chinese cooking. This cookbook by far are on my number one list of the chinese cookbook of this decade. Oh, by other way(Ms. Young), the most frequent reciepes that I shared with American friends is "Tomato Beef." Your brother was right! (You should not omit this receipe.)

As an American Born Chinese, finding this book was a huge relief. Like so many ABCs, I love the food of my culture but certainly didn't know how to prepare it. This is an authentic down home Chinese cookbook. No fancy dishes here - only comfort food need apply. The book is divided into the following: 1) rice from steamed, fried, dumplings and porridge 2) stir fry - including tomato beef and beef chow fun 3) steamed cooking- egg custard, sponge cake, spareribs with black bean sauce 4) cooking with ginger - drunken chicken, cabbage noodle soup 5) seasonal market dishes - braised taro and chinese bacon, stir fried bitter melon with beef 6) celebratory dishes - stir fried clams with black bean sauce, pepper and salt shrimp, sweet and sour pork 7) New Year's dishes - turnip cake, seasame balls 8) authentic recipes from the homeland - savory rice tamales, pork dumplings, stuffed noodle rolls 9) Chinatown favorites - soy sauce chicken, roast duck, barbecued pork and salt roasted chicken 10) a slew of healing soups and dishes. Reading it was a trip down memory lane for me. The dishes are truly authentic to the Chinese family experience and or those who seek authenticity, Young has presented it here. She also includes a handy guide to shopping and mail order resources!

Growing up in Chinatown, my family ate Cantonese food pretty much every meal, every day. When cooking Chinese food on my own, I try my best to mirror how my parents cook because there are no written recipes to follow. With this book, there are finally written-down Cantonese recipes that a real Chinese family would cook at home and are perfect for those people who want to cook like mom & dad used to. Most of the recipes are for everyday dishes such as Steamed Pork Cake with Salted Duck Egg, Stir Fried Egg with BBQ Pork or Soy Sauce Chicken. But there are also a few special occasion recipes such as Shark's Fin Soup. Extremely helpful is the index/description of common and not so common ingredients and their Chinese characters/ Cantonese pronounciations for those who don't speak Chinese. I couldn't attest to the 100% accuracy of the history behind the dishes as other reviewers have been critical of, but I'm just looking for recipes, not stories. Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's The Chinese Kitchen is okay but seems more complicated so I find myself gravitating to Grace Young's book more. If you prefer Chinese food like you find at a mainstream American Chinese restaurant, then you'll probably be disappointed with this book. This is a good book to buy if you're interested in Cantonese food that goes beyond Cashew Chicken and Sweet & Sour Pork (both authentic Cantonese dishes and found in this book - but taste very different from what is found in most restaurants). A valuable find!

L. Frank Baum's enduring story is wonderfully presented in this elegant edition and the Washington Post called Lisbeth's The Wizard of Oz "the loveliest edition imaginable."

However, the assessment of the local kids is the drawings are "weird." Perhaps intended for a more adult audience, the illustrations are beautiful--I enjoyed them--but their idiosyncratic style may not appeal to the younger set.

The characters pictured in the illustrations are dramatcially reinterpreted by the artist, however this may disappoint some viewers. The Scarecrow will look nothing like any scarecrow you've imagined. The Witch of the North is difficult to identify. This fresh point of view will be enjoyed by some but is sure to disappoint others.

I also felt the illustrations don't tell the story as well as the edition by Michael Hague or the original edition with W. W. Dinslow. (This is more important to the younger, read-to crowd, than the older, I can read it myself crowd.)

My daughter asked that we return the book and get a different edition for her. I would urge you to carefully consider the sample pages, except the sample pages don't cover a broad range of the illustrations included with this edition. The sample pages do include an image of the dramatic and striking cover. Unfortunately, in the judgement of several reviewers from 4 to 40, the other illustrations were noticably more "weird" than the cover and I don't think the sample pages represent the overall reading/viewing experience scrupulously.

The Wizard of Oz is about a girl named Dorothy who is a farm girl from Kansas. One day Dorothy is carried away by a cyclone to a magical land called Oz. While she is there she meets a tlaking scarecrow, a man made of tin, and a cowardly lion afraid of his own shadow. Dorothy and her friends follow a yellow brick road to the Emerald City where they hope to find the famous wizard that can grant each of their wishes. But the wicked witch keeps trying to ruin their trip to the Emerald City.
The setting of the book is in a magicla land full of little people called Munchkins, flying monkeys, and a wicked witch that will melt if touched with water. The characters have their separate reasons for wanting to see the wizard. As the story goes on, the reader can not help but fall in love with them.
The text gives great detail as to what everything looks like and with those details the whole world of Oz can come to life in the readers imagination.

The Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum is a wonderful book about a young girl who goes on an adventure full of excitement and fun. Dorothy the main character lives on a small country farm in Kansas with her Aunt, Uncle, and small dog, Toto. One day a twister comes over their country farm and whisks Dorothy along with her little dog away to a make believe land called Oz. There she is greeted by the people who live there. She asks them how she can get home to Kansas. They tell her that the Great Oz will help get her home. But before she heads on her way to Oz the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead and says that with that kiss no one can harm her. So she and Toto head on their way to Oz. On her way she meets The Scarecrow who wants a brain, a Woodman made of tin who wants a heart and a Cowardly Lion who wants courage. These four new friends eimbark on an adventure to the great city of Oz. Will they all get their wishes? Find out when you read the Wizard of Oz. I loved this book because not only did it have fantasy but it is a great book for all ages. I recomend it to anyone who loved being a child.

I have now completed the entire lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers after originally being intrigued by an Amazon.com customer review and online book preview. Each book was excellent. The bible studies at the conclusion of each book challenge the reader to study related scripture in conjunction with the fictional account based upon God's word.

Tamar's story (Unveiled) was my favorite. The author researched the mores of our ancient Jewish ancestors to formulate an opinion as to why Tamar prostitued herself and why in spite of this sinful act, God still chose her offspring to bear the lineage of Christ. An historic example of of God's grace and forgiveness.

Francine Rivers takes a brief story from Genesis 38 and gives it more meaning and substance in her book,Unveiled, the first in her series entitled Lineage of Grace. She shows the faith and perserverance of Tamar, who is chosen by Judah to be the wife of his son Er. Er treats her cruelly but she remains faithful to him. God puts Er to death and Tamar then becomes the wife of Judah's second son Onan. Onan refuses to father a son with Tamar because he knows the son would be considered to be his brother Er's. After God puts Onan to death, Judah fears that the deaths are connected to Tamar and he banishes her from his household with the promise that she will one day be the wife of his third son, Shelah. When Tamar realizes that this is an empty promise she uses deceit to persuade Judah himself to father a child. When Judah discovers the truth, he is ashamed of his own deceit and realizes the consequences of his sin, beginning with the banishment of his brother Joseph whom he refused to protect against his angry brothers. This is a story revolving around the theme of sin and redemption and gives deeper meaning to the life of Tamar.

I absolutely loved this book! What a treasure we have in Francine Rivers' books! I had never really appreciated Tamar's story before. The Bible gives her story only one chapter - Genesis 38. The book has the background about Judah and how he still felt guilty all those years for selling Joseph into slavery. It is very interesting how the well-known story of Joseph and his brothers (taken the Broadway in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat") is so closely related to this much-less known story of Tamar and allegiance to the family of Judah.

The book opens with Judah choosing Tamar as a wife for his oldest son Er. After the first two sons (and Tamar's first two husbands!) meet with bad ends, Judah is understandably reluctant to honor his last son by giving him to Tamar, lest the deaths of his other sons had something to do with her. Judah sends Tamar back to her family, in disgrace.

Through determination and cleverness, Tamar makes sure that Judah's line continues through her. She conceives and gives birth to twin sons Perez and Zerah.

Unveiled is the first in a new Francine Rivers series called "The Lineage of Grace" - each is about a woman who is an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

This book was easy to read, yet very thought-provoking - lots to chew on here! And I found the Study Guide at the back of the book to be ENORMOUSLY helpful! The scriptures quoted were outstanding and the questions and comments really make you think. I got much more out of the book since I also took some time with the Study Guide.

I highly recommend this book - it's wonderful to find such an enjoyable, yet thought-provoking book in a small package that won't take you too long to finish!

May God bless you all! Please check out my other reviews of Christian books and music.

First of all, the reason I gave this book 4 starz (rather than 5) is because Grace Llewellyn doesn't seem very open-minded about any type of education besides unschooling. I definently don't have anything against unschooling, it's just that different types of school work for different people, so it's not really fair to pound conventional school. Everything else was absolutely fantastic!!! I am surprised it is not NY Times bestseller by now. I know a lot of people who need to read this book. The Teenage Liberation Handbook is quite a masterpiece in my opinion, because it is written for teenagers without once being condescending!!!!!:) The purpose of the TLH is way more than the what the title professes: it not only tells you how to quit school and start learning, it also inspires you to actually get off your...an DO suff. Unlike school 'survival guides' (that encourage you to stay IN school) the boost of happiness and confidence the TLH gives you remains mint fresh. Another thing: Has Grace Llewellyn written any novels? She is one of the wittiest and most entertaining writers I have ever read. She makes the TLH just plain fun to read. This book is not fantasy stuff. I totally encourage you to read it!!!!!!!!!!

As a drop-out of the educational system, it was very hard for me to adjust to the embarassmemt or the feeling of being an outcast. Structured school never held my attention, and I was often bored during the advanced classes and near drooling during the regular courses. Needless to say I was able to learn on my own and succeed in the areas that I pursued, but I wish I had had this book as a reference back then so that I could have known about other people and forms of alternative education and not struggled on my own so much.

The author does a great job at encouraging the reader about the decision to take on the task of self education, but she sometimes goes a little too overboard and negative toward the public school system. That attitude is understandable, though, in a culture where a certificate that says you've finished some classes is actually worth more than a body of work. But that was the only downside to this excellent manual on how to successfully remove yourself from the school system and excel in your studies, including how to cope with the negative stereotype of a 'drop-out'.

She covers several learning/teaching styles and references various home schooling and unschooling publications and organizations that provide all sorts of means for which to learn the things that interest you, as well as learn productive habits for self learning that will last a lifetime. I can't recommend this enough, especially for people who have completed high school or college and are suddenly thrown into the workforce and are struggling to learn in unstructured environments. This books provides the methods for creating a structure that works for you and steps towards success. It really opened my eyes.

I was in a school that was a failure in almost every way. Emotionanlly and physically abusive, the low achievement and education rates were hardly worth noting. The only thing that school taught was how to obey and accept abuse.

Dropping out at 16 to escape the violence, irresponsibility, and abuse dealt out by the faculty (supported by the principal), I discovered unschooling, and this book, from a woman that helped homeschooled kids. (Unschooling is a specific type of homeschooling, and different from what most people assume.) All the unschoolers that I met are light years ahead of people in the public schools that I once knew. My only regret is that I waited so long to do this!

Grace Llewellyn is an inspiring author filled with hope, enthusiasm, and inspiring thoughts for all who read her books, including this one. Even when she shares the problems she experienced as a teacher, there is an undercurrent of humor that is refreshing and inspiring. But this book is mostly about how to learn without school, not about condemning the school system. Even when she's critical of the public schools, she remains positive. When she explains unschooling, she is inspirational!

Drawing on her experiences as a teacher and an educator, she vividly illustrates the difference between education and the currently outdated school system. Yes, there is a big difference. This book has restored my love for learning that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Grace Llewellyn, and this book, is inspiring and gives me hope for myself, and the education process as a whole for other kids stuck in the old school system.

Kozol never loses the reader's interest in that he not only refutes ultra-conservative theory through his own observations, but allows the underclass to refute such theory through his interviews. Kozol is sensative to those he interviews, but shows no reluctance to seek the truth about life in the South Bronx. The reader will find it difficult to read this book with a low eyebrow as Kozol describes the conditions in poor New York City hospitals, the daily occurance of substance abuse, violent crime, and the harsh words spoken by politicians and "educated" theorists. The author does not bore the reader with excessive theory, but uses dialog to show the gap between theory and real life. This is a book which can understood and appreciated by populations from all reading levels and backgrounds.

Kozol's Amizing Grace's by far one of the best books I have read in a long time! The way Kozol brings the people of Mott Haven to life through his interviews and research is amazing. This book make you sit back and thank God that you are as lucky as you are and to be thankful for what you have. Kozol make us as a nation look at what we are doing to our children and our minorities and asks why? What is the purpose for this? Do these people deserve this treatment? An over all GREAT book!

This book is a must read. It is an eye-opening account of life in Mott Haven, a veritable trash can were the very neediest of Americans are tossed by the very greediest. A place where the basic human rights, guaranteed by just being human, are not met. Mr. Kozol brings to light the atrocious living conditions and blatant injustices that exist in our own backyard. This is not in a far off country, but in the United States, where we pride ourselves on "liberty and justice for all". Kozol makes us realize that this statement is true only for those of us lucky enough not to be trapped in the web of injustice. If everyone were to read this book, I believe America would be a much better place, for we would be compelled to serve those less fortunate than ourselves. This was easily the best and most inspiring book I've ever read.

People who have never used Unix will find it very intimidating, but this book will definitely change that. This book doesn't try to throw a lot of information at you, but rather, it gives you a nice, easy-going introduction to using Unix.

Some of the books strengths are its using of examples and illustrations. Using screens shots to show what the user will (or should) see helps the Unix shy better understand should happen when they do something. This book really does a good job in going step by step in order to accomplish. New users definitely won't feel like they will get lost.

The other strength is how the book covers errors that users might encounter, and how to deal with them. Afterall, new users will make mistakes, and it helps to have a book that will tell users why they got that error.

If you have a fair amount of experience in Unix, you should definitely read other books. If you are really new to Unix, then definitely read this book. You will definitely feel more confident when you are done. Even those who have learned Unix before just might learn sometihng new (I did). :)

I remember my first look at a UNIX terminal. A little '%' with a flashing cursor. I don't remember how long I stared at the little prompt not knowing what to do. Then I pressed some keys and things became much worse.

Now I'm surfing around dizzying hierarchies of file structures, able to get to the root and back again and make and edit text files. I bite my thumb at weird commands that used to seem as comprehensible as medieval scholasticism.

I wouldn't have been able to accomplish any of that without this little book that's as intimidating as a ladybug.

The most difficult part of the book, in fact, is actually finding a UNIX environment to log into. If you're not at a University or a fairly good-sized corporation (and if you don't know UNIX they won't let you near a command line anyway) you may wonder where to go. Linux, in most cases, is a good substitute; or check the web for free UNIX (or Linux) shell accounts. Combine your new-found account with this book and UNIX will no longer be a gut-wrenching incomprehensible monolith.

Don't consider yourself an expert, however, and don't stop there. UNIX may not be as difficult as some like to think it is, but it's also not easily mastered. Take this book, digest it, then move on to bigger tomes (there is no shortage of tomes in the land of UNIX, as you will find).

Lastly, the owl on the cover rules.

This book should not be called Learning the Unix Operating System, since it only covers the preface, introduction, and first chapter of a typical introductory Unix text. That said, this book is very well written and provides a fast and easy start to using X windows and terminal command shells. This book will not take long to read, and I am sure that once you finish it, you will want to learn alot more. Fortunately, the text integrates well with other O'Reilly texts, and is included as one of the six titles in O'Reilly's Unix CD Bookshelf. In that package, you can just continue with the other titles as though they were one seamlessly integrated tome. I doubt that this book alone will satisfy the needs of most users, but it will certain whet your appetite! Lastly, if you are already familiar with command shells, even in their most basic uses, you will want to skip this book and move directly into a more advanced text, such as Learning the Korn (or Bash) shell.

Norris's wide-ranging and carefully written account elicited my respect and admiration for the endeavor, although I am a bit troubled by the too easy equation of faith and Christianity (or religion) throughout the book. Yet it is an account of a return to Christianity, and reportedly, a faith of any kind, so I am understanding of the "beginner's" tone to it all. At the outset, Norris describes her effort with the analogy of an infant and writes of "rudiments of words" forming in her response to the language of Christianity (page 2). "Religion came to seem just one more childhood folly that I had to set aside as an adult," Norris continues. "In my mid-thirties, however, it became necessary to begin to reclaim my faith." And later, on page 169 she writes, "faith is still a surprise to me, as I lived without it for so long." What I find surprising is how someone with such obviously well-honed reflective skills seems to be implying that she lived without faith prior to the return to Christianity. It just doesn't seem likely, at least from my perspective as a seeker with a similar spiritual story . Must experience be Christian to be faith-filled? God, I believe, is present in all of life, and faith experiences within or outside a particular tradition (even prior to affiliation or return) provide a "surplus of meaning" which religions never fully capture, I suspect. Religions do help illuminate experience in a particularly helpful way, so they can be useful partners in the journey of personal transformation, helping us to discern God's presence as the "hidden wholeness" (Merton) in those times when we thought we were without faith. Maybe Norris will reflect on this aspect in the future for those readers who sense that if a return to church (or religion) is not also a return to the world of profane experience, then it may seem cloistered indeed. What Norris may find in such an effort, to borrow a phrase from Caroline Myss, is just how "richly guided" our lives have been at all times. Now that is truly amazing grace.

I think I might have found a new favorite writer. Annie Dillard, I still love you, but Kathleen Norris' little pieces are just as imagistic, inspiring, and profound, as serious and intent about exploring God with a poet's sensibility and a writer's eyes, yet she unsettles and disturbs me less. Here I find a voice not only expressing, but helping me to work out my own faith.

In "Amazing Grace", Norris seeks to wrestle with and around tough, often scary words within the religios lexicon. Her efforts are not to define per se, not in any linear way, but to own and understand the faith and tradition that these words belong to; where they come from, where they're going. In the process, she lays down some of the basics of her own faith and belief - in a sense this book is something of one poet's religious manifesto.

This appeals to me so much more than a theology text, though it does basically the same thing! By simply being willing to wrestle with the words, to acknowledge their scariness, abuse, mystery, usefulness, by searching out the concepts behind the words (every word has a meaning, but also a reason) this is a beautiful exploration of faith and God.

In her other books, Kathleen Norris has written about the life journey that took her away from home, to Bennington College in Vermont and then to New York City, as she became a poet and lived in the eminently secular literary world; then back to the Great Plains of South Dakota, where she began attending her Grandmother's church and gradually found herself drawn to the Christianity she had forsaken many years before. In this book she tries to do exactly what she describes above, take individual words that she found, and many others still find, off putting from the Biblical and Christian lexicons and reconcile herself to their meanings, however harsh or judgmental or intimidating they may seem.

She does this in a series of very brief essays--about 80 in less than four hundred pages--covering such words as : Dogma, Heresy, and Pentecostal. Between the number of topics she covers and the very personal reflections they provoke, no one will agree with everything she has to say, and many will disagree with most of it. But she brings two extremely important qualities to the task : humility and skepticism.

....

People of faith are commonly caricatured as people whose minds are closed to all but their own beliefs. Kathleen Norris exemplifies the fact that quite the opposite is often true, that faith often comes to those whose minds are most open, to both doubt and possibility.

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