As you read this series, you become involved yourself. You love the people Paul loves, as well as hate the ones he hates. You are right there as he and his friends risk their jobs to save a dear friends life by taking an inmate with incredible healing powers out of the Green Mile in the middle of the night. You wonder how John Coffey knew he was going on a ride that night, and how he can heal like he can. You are hoping that when they reach their destination, that he can heal Melinda and that they can pull this off. I could not wait from the very beginning of this series for the next book, and when I complete #6, I will be very sorry to see it end. As only Stephen King can, he guides your imagination into places you did not know existed.

Once again Stephen King took me into his world and, as always, I loved it. I, personally, prefer to have the entire book at once rather than in installments. I don't have a problem reading the end of the story only when I get to the end of the book. Waiting a month for each installment was very difficult for me, so I waited until I had all the books before I read them. Mr. King makes it so easy to see each of his characters and, also, to form the opinion of them that he wants you to form. Do yourself a favor and walk the Green Mile

In Part One, Stephen King introduced us to his latest horror saga. We learned of a brutish hulk of a man who happened to end up in the right place at the wrong time. We also learned of a shell of a man who was in the right place at the wrong time. In Part Two, we met an unlikely hero. A little mouse who seemed like less than he actually was. Enemies were made and friends were lost. In Part Three, the man known as John Coffey shows his true colors and his true power, but, is it that of good, or that of evil? In Part Four, a little Frenchman with an etraordinary little friend takes his turn down the Green Mile, but meets with the most unlikely end which shows how bitter sweet revenge can be. Now, in Part Five of Stephen King's first multipart novel, which may very well be the best one of his career thus far, the guards of Cold Mountain Penitentiary take the biggest chance they can by taking John Coffey out of his shackles and with them on a NIGHT JOURNEY to the bedside of a woman who's life is being shattered by pain. It is now the moment that Stephen King's fans have been waiting for. The truth about John Coffey. Man or Monster? Good or Evil? The only way to learn the truth is to read the most captivating 90 pages you will ever read in THE GREEN MILE PART 5 OF 6: NIGHT JOURNEY.

POSA1 is written far better than other related texts, such as GoF. (And be aware of the fact that GoF only contains design level patterns - it does not contain system architecture level patterns.) At the same time, after its nth reprinting and redesigned book cover, the text still contains non-UML diagrams (although there are some UML-like sequence diagrams included), and very few real code examples. The lack of code examples, though, can in some ways be seen as a positive aspect of the text. Compare this text with Applied Java Patterns, for example. AJP has very extensive code examples, but because the code examples for each pattern run for pages (rather than simply providing code snippets), the reader may be inclined to narrow their view of how the pattern is applied. For example, MVC is definitely not a pattern limited to GUI user interfaces! The point on which I think that POSA1 seems to come out ahead is that the stronger-than-ususal pattern descriptions and applicability, with a small amount of code provided where deemed especially relevant to the point being attempted to make, helps one understand the patterns better rather than memorizing language-specific implementations of patterns. This point is why I think the text was chosen to accompany Software Architecture in Practice for the graduate software engineering course in software architecture I just took.

This book is a perfect companion to "Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software" (the GoF book) and it is more didactical than the later.

If you are new to patterns, I suggest that you first read this book and refer to "Design Patterns" when needed.

In "Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture", there are some chapters on pattern and software architecture concepts, but most of the book is dedicated to describing architectural and design patterns (there are a few pages on idioms). Some of the architectural patterns are well known: layers, pipes, filters, broker and microkernel.

The code is clear and written mainly in C++. The notations used are easy to understand (OMT notation is addopted for the object models and an adaptation of Message Sequence Charts to object interations).

The production (cover, paper, etc) is excellent.

It's a nice reading after the GoF book. The GoF book provides more practical and easy to implement design level patterns, so I suggest you start from it first. After that, if you want to continue your journey in the software patterns, you should read this one. The first 300+ pages, talking about Architectureal Patterns/Design Patterns, are very good. The rest 100 pages are still interesting, but are a little bit light. Overall, it's a worth reading for software architects/developers. I'd like to give it 4.5 stars - well, 5 stars should also be O.K., considering there are so many quick & rush computer books on the market.

I was very skeptical about this book because I usually don't think of one-shots as being all too good. I wasnt dissapointed with this graphic novel at all. It had amazing art and enough interesting stories before Daredevil became the Man Without Fear; back when he was the boy with plenty of it.
Unfortunately, the origins of how some things went down (like Elektra's introduction) are different than they were in Frank Miller's original comics in 1980 (also featured in Frank Miller Visionaries Vol. 2). I guess it's just filling in the blanks to what we did not know before. Either way, this book is a masterpiece to any Daredevil collector or just someone interested in his story.

This story retells the origin of Daredevil starting with him as a normal kid. It really is not until the end we get to finally see Double D in his superhero costume. This story is violent and has some minor language but its the way, I think, Daredevil should be told.

I bought these original issues that make up this trade paperback back when they first came out. Anyone who knows anything about comic books knows that when Frank Miller writes Daredevil, you don't miss it. Frank Miller carved his niche on Daredevil as an impressive artist, then later we discovered he was even more masterful as a writer when he took over the writing duties as well (see Daredevil Visionaries vol. 1, 2 and 3). Frank Miller's legendary run on Daredevil had long since past, and he had gone on to do works that he would become even more famous for; most notably his work on Batman for DC with Year One and The Dark Knight Returns (both equally fantastic). When it was announced that Miller would be doing a mini series called The Man Without Fear (essentially Daredevil: Year One) everyone interested in the medium knew it would be something special, and it was.

Now Daredevil: The Movie is out after months and months of previews; previews that made me dread the release of this hollywood mucked up movie. Everytime I'd see a preview I'd think back to this definative Daredevil story. Not really knowing what the movie was going to be about, I would think there could be no better story for the film than this. Rather than digging the originals out of their storage, I decided to purchase the TPB not only so I could relive the magic, but so that I could let my girlfriend appreciate the real character and story before the film polluted her. She was interested in the movie (from the previews) and I knew we'd for sure be seing it. But I wanted her to see for herself, rather than have her suffer me trying to explain how the film missed.

Needless to say, she read it (too fast I feel) and loved it, and I didn't have to explain anything. The movie missed the character and story just as I knew it would (see my review of the film) and now she's reading through the Daredevil Visionaries set. And this is someone who's never really read or been interested in comics.

This book is amazing. The writing, while perhaps not Frank Miller's best, is deep and meaninful. He continues to prove to the world (that won't listen) that comics can be a legitimate medium of literature. John Romita Jr's art was just starting to come into it's own the time this series was drawn so is a litte rough around the edges in places, but wonderful none the less.

If you know anything at all about the medium, you don't need to hear anything I just said. You already know it. But if you are new or curious about it, this book is for you. And it's 10 times better than the movie.

This is King at his best in a serial novel dealing with such light subjects as life and death, love and hate. In the form of nursing home memoirs, King spins a gripping yarn about a crew of death row inmates and their keepers.

We meet a gentle miracle-working African-American giant sentenced to die for the rape and murder of two young girls. We see one of the normally hated murderers on "The Green Mile" (as Death Row at Cold Mountain prison is affectionately known) in a sympathetic light and when his gruesome death is portrayed in Part 4, we cannot help but hate his "righteous" executioners. We see hardened working men (whose jobs involve state sanctioned killing) in the Depression become transformed as if King intended this story to be a modern day Gospel narrative with Coffey in the role as the Christ.

Overall this is a powerful, disturbing story which tackles such weighty issues as racism, the death penalty, justice, grace, love and even old age with style and penache.

The serial format, which would have been extremely effective with the months long waiting period between installments, is now simply a way to squeeze a little more cash out of the reader. Read the story, but buy the complete novel.

The first chapter in "Coffey's Hands" strays from the cliffhanger in the previous book ("The Mouse on the Mile"), which is a little aggravating if you're reading The Green Mile in chapbook form, from book to book. In this first chapter, Paul Edgecombe is shown in his current retirement home, before the book picks up where part two left off--with William "Wild Bill" Wharton arriving at Cold Mountain Penitentiary and nearly killing one of the guards. He certainly lives up to his wild name in this book.

Then the reader learns of John Coffey's healing gift, which he uses on Paul to cure his urinary infection. Paul later does a little investigation into John's past, though nothing new is revealed.

This book has a great cliffhanger, just like the previous book, though this one is a little sad. If you enjoyed "Coffey's Hands," then you'll want to start with the first two--"The Two Dead Girls" (#1) and "The Mouse on the Mile" (#2)--and continue with the remaining three: "The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix" (#4), "Night Journey" (#5), and "Coffey on the Mile" (#6). Or, better yet, just get The Green Mile novel.

The Green Mile,Coffey's Hands- continues the mystery of a large gentle man on death row. The prisoner seems mild,not likely to use the great power in him arms and hands. Convicted of a tragic crime, Coffey waits on death row and exhibits an unusual gift...King's Shawshank Redemption was an intimate look at prision from the prisoners viewpoint. The Green Mile uses the viewpoint of the death row guards, and no one's closer to prison life than that. More than just a dreary life of awaiting death, this story keeps you guessing and wantingto know more about Coffey--and what he means to the others on death row. Another terrific read for Stephan King fans!A series in six parts, I can't wait for the other three

Francis Parkman lived the Oregon Trail, slept it, ate it, marveled at it, and wrote an excellent memoir that leaves one with the feel of sand in your boots and the smell of buffalo roasting on the fire.

As a young man, Parkman went out west in 1846 to discover the American Indian. Setting out from Independence, Mo., Parkman proceeded to Ft. Larime (Wyoming), spent many weeks with a band of Indians as they hunted buffalo and secured life's necessities for the coming season, and returned to "the settlements" via Bent's Fort (Colorado) and the upper Santa Fe Trail. (Making this wonderful book misnamed since he was only on about the first 1/3 of the Oregon Trail and never crossed the Rockies).

What Parkman has left us is a wonderfully descriptive first person account of overland travel in the rugged west and the life of the Indian (as viewed by an outsider).

The strength of this book is in the details. Parkman has a keen eye whether it is turned towards imposing landscapes, Indian village life and travel, or buffalo hunting. This book has a gritty feel that paints the grandeur of western vistas as well as the hard reality of subsistence life (both Indian and white traveler) lived outdoors in a frequently unforgiving land.

Parkman's voice does have a 19th century feel. Modern readers will find he over-introduces new subjects (ie, "since, reader, we are telling of a buffalo hunt, now is a good time to acquaint you with the manner in which buffalo are brought to ground.") and the book does not have the flow associated with more contemporary writing. His attitudes towards Indians reflect the majority view of that time period and he was certainly at times a gratuitous hunter.

But the book's descriptive power, as well as the fascinating telling of life among the Indians and on the plains makes this well worth the time. This is a first person account that speaks of authenticity and gave me a feel for "what it must have been like." A good read.

Francis Parkman lived the Oregon Trail, slept it, ate it, marveled at it, and wrote an excellent memoir that leaves one with the feel of sand in your boots and the smell of buffalo roasting on the fire.

As a young man, Parkman went out west in 1846 to discover the American Indian. Setting out from Independence, Mo., Parkman proceeded to Ft. Larime (Wyoming), spent many weeks with a band of Indians as they hunted buffalo and secured life's necessities for the coming season, and returned to "the settlements" via Bent's Fort (Colorado) and the upper Santa Fe Trail. (Making this wonderful book misnamed since he was only on about the first 1/3 of the Oregon Trail and never crossed the Rockies).

What Parkman has left us is a wonderfully descriptive first person account of overland travel in the rugged west and the life of the Indian (as viewed by an outsider).

The strength of this book is in the details. Parkman has a keen eye whether it is turned towards imposing landscapes, Indian village life and travel, or buffalo hunting. This book has a gritty feel that paints the grandeur of western vistas as well as the hard reality of subsistence life (both Indian and white traveler) lived outdoors in a frequently unforgiving land.

Parkman's voice does have a 19th century feel. Modern readers will find he over-introduces new subjects (ie, "since, reader, we are telling of a buffalo hunt, now is a good time to acquaint you with the manner in which buffalo are brought to ground.") and the book does not have the flow associated with more contemporary writing. His attitudes towards Indians reflect the majority view of that time period and he was certainly at times a gratuitous hunter.

But the book's descriptive power, as well as the fascinating telling of life among the Indians and on the plains makes this well worth the time. This is a first person account that speaks of authenticity and gave me a feel for "what it must have been like." A good read.

Before his death in the early 1890's, Francis Parkman would be hailed by many as North America's greatest historian. One of his first major works, The Oregon Trail, illustrates why. Written in 1847, the book chronicles an extensive journey by the youthful Parkman and his loyal friend Quincy Shaw the previous spring and summer. Parkman's express purpose was to see the "real" American West and live among "real" American Indians before their way of life passed forever. A vigorous young man, possessed of a keen intellect and observant eye, and already blessed with a rare and masterful prose style, Parkman chronicles his journey from St. Louis into the heart of the largely "unknown" American Plains. Peopled then by only a few white traders, trappers and ruffians, slowly pushing their way into the domain of the Pawnee, Comanche, Arapaho, Dakota, "Shienne", Snakes and Crows, the West was a truly wild and dangerous place - and Parkman revels in it, providing meticulous descriptions of the landscape, people, and struggle for life and lifeways that would soon be no more.

Along the way Parkman introduces you to the men of Fort Laramie (established and maintained by traders, long before soldiers came to the territory), lives amongst a Dakota band, hunts buffalo, weathers awe-inspiring Plains' thunderstorms and periods of drought, explores the Black Hills, the Rocky Mountains, and New Mexico. His journey takes him up the Missouri River, the Platte, the Arkansas and more. And far more than describe fascinating places and events, Parkman charms with full renderings of the characters he meets along the way: redoubtable hunter and guide Henry Chatillion, muleteer and cook Delorier, the dolorous Raymond and Reynal, jester Tete Rouge, hundreds of loathesome "pioneers", Indians Mene-Seela, Smoke, Whirlwind, Hail Storm, Big Crow and more. All characters worthy of Mark Twain. Plus, we are made witness to Parkman and Shaw's slow transformation from adventurous young Bostonian scholars to worthy "plainsmen".

Even before finishing his college studies, Parkman declared that his ambition was to chronicle the "struggle for the continent". He achieved his goal in glorious measure. Parkman's works on the founding of "New France", LaSalle's explorations, the French/Indian Wars, Pontiac's conspiracy, Montcalm and Wolfe, etc., remain standards today, rich source material for authors from DeVoto to Eckert.

His brilliance lies in the fact that Parkman was no "arm chair" historian. His research was not limited to books and papers found in libraries from Boston to London and Paris. He personally visited nearly every town, battlefield, and waterway he wrote about. Parkman was also deeply committed to understanding the effects of the English/French/American struggles for the continent on the hundreds of North American tribes that were caught in the middle. To wit, the "Oregon Trail" trip to the Plains of the 1840s was designed to assist the historian's mind in understanding what was lost by eastern tribes decimated during the wars and land-lust of the preceding century. Even then Parkman foresaw a similar misfortune for western tribes: loss of free roaming on their ancestral lands; extinction of the buffalo; the ravaging effects of disease, whiskey and other evils of white contact. But Parkman was no romantic. He refers to the various tribes and some individuals (both white and red) as "savages", revealing a touch of his mid-1800s Bostonian elitism, yet by no means can Parkman be considered a closed-minded misanthrope. His life's work, starting with The Oregon Trail, reveals far too much sensitivity and fairness of thought for that label to stick. Read this, then dive into Parkman's later work on the history of Canada and early America. It is astonishingly good stuff!

When I first discovered this one, I almost jumped on it. The Magazine (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition) itself is almost never to be found in Germany, so this seemed to be the perfect alternative. And don't get me wrong: it's worth every penny, but: the picture quality changes a great deal throughout the book. Some are so good, it makes you cry - others are rather poor blow-ups from the magazine. I would have assumed that with all the production-value that you have here (hardcover, nice binding, dust-jacket etc.) the editors could have done more to exclude pictures with the above-mentioned problems. Another thing: do not expect too many pictures from before 1990, the subtitle "five decades of swimsuit photography" seems a bit misleading.
All in all: high production-value, many rather exciting PG-pictures of beautiful women on the beach and very few disappointments concerning picture quality.

Some great photography of some beautiful subjects. If you've seen the swimsuit issues you know the style. The photos range from around the days of Brinkley to Casta.

The only reason I say it's not quite perfect is that they seem to have been a little too ambitious on the size of the book. Almost every photo is stretched to the limits of the pages, which can make for great impact, but some of the photos have lost a little quality being blown up that much. You can see some graininess in several of the shots; I think most of them are the older ones. Most of the pages are fine however.

It would also have been nice to see some of the body paint pics in here but they are absent.

Overall a nice book.

I'm not the "target" audience, have never really paid much attention to the swimsuit issue. But I will in the future. The book is not only a celebration of the female figure, it's also a real gem in terms of design -- stunning, smart, sophisticated. Anyone who appreciates design/beauty/fashion/art will find this book a keeper.

Really intriguing to see the history of swimwear fashion, and more importantly, the history of the female figure.
Hoffman and Deford have juxtaposed the images interestingly; sometimes one is compelled on a level of pure design/beauty -- how a curve in the landscape, the female figure, or the swimsuit itself mirrors a curve in the image on the opposite page. Sometimes it is interesting just to see how a model or suit from the sixties so starkly contrasts with a model or suit from the nineties. I look at this book as an important cultural record.

The quotes are also interesting, well chosen and a great complement to the images.

A gift that I was surprised to receive, I found the book compelling enough to write my first review for amazon.

The book was a great disappointment to me. The title and subtitle (Analytical and statistical techniques) led me to think that the book covered fixed income securities at a sophisticated and advanced level. Not so. If you need to learn how to calculate a PV, FV or IRR, this is the book for you...otherwise probably not!

This book covers the territory of fixed income as it existed 4 to 5 years ago. Now credit derivatives trade relative to the bond markets, and have a pricing structure all their own. First-to-default baskets and credit derivatives are important fixed income products. There has been a paradigm shift in the market in the past 4 years. Credit default swaps came out of nowhere and are now $2 trillion in size and continue explosive growth, and that's just one product in credit derivatives land.

I highly recommend Tavakoli's book: "Credit Derivatives and Synthetic Structures" (2nd Edition).

Many of us will be retiring in the next few years, or may already be retired. Fixed income from our financial investments will be an important part of our lives. How many of us really know what Yield To Maturity (YTM) means? Or, for that matter, the myriad of other measurements associated with fixed-income instruments? As a retired engineer with a propensity for computational mathematics, it is my natural desire to optimize my fixed-income portfolio. This "Perfect" book gives me a good head start in my endeavors. The text is logical and easy to understand. The mathematics is "cookbook" simple. As a minimum, I will better equipped to determine the correct price for most fixed-income investments. With enough effort, I should be able to manage my own near "Perfect" portfolio. Fabozzi picks up where most writers stop, namely, the quantitative analysis.
Thank you Frank.

The AT Backpacker is a well-written, no-nonsense guide. The Logues give the low down on hiking with an eye toward the Appalachian Trail. I found everything I needed to know about foods to eat and how to be safe in drinking water. They also go through the dizzying array of gear out there, from tents and backpacks to stoves, sleeping bags, boots and clothes, all with the AT in mind. There are also chapters on winter backpacking, backpacking with children, and long distance hiking which expand on the basics.

An earlier edition of this book gave me the confidence to get out on the trail for some shorter hikes (weekend hikes and a week-long trip). I have used the checklist for overnight hikes in the back of the book to prepare for many hikes and find it the best equipment checklist anywhere.

I bought this third edition to get the latest as I prepare for a thru-hike of the AT. The Logues have made numerous changes throughout the book. I'm glad they have kept the AT Backpacker current. The additional appendix on websites has proved helpful for planning my hike.

I recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn more before hitting the AT for a hike.

The Appalachian Trail Backpacker delivered what it promised--trail tested advice for hikes of any length. I found the info I wanted to give me the confidence I needed to get out for a week long hike on the AT. They taught me everything I needed to know to go out and do it. I recommend this book to anyone interested in hiking the AT. It's a well-written, no nonsense guide.

This book provides vital information for anyone preparing to hike any part of the AT. This book utilizes good format with headings and different sections to outline almost anything that one will need to know about planning a hike from packpack size to water filters. Since the book is advice from other hikers, it is general information, but DEFINITELY useful! I was extremely pleased!!

Mr. McLynn's book confirms my long held view that a fair account of a great man's life (well, shall we say a famous man, because opinions on Napoleon's supposed greatness may differ...) is better approached through a biographer who does not emanate from the same country. Although I read somewhere that Mr. McLynn is supposed to be "worshipping at the shrine", I found his biography thoroughly fair and balanced, very well written, constantly interesting and free of the rubbish very often found in French books on Napoleon. For sure, there are some Freudian explanations of Napoleon's attitudes, which appear somewhat speculative (why, for example, should the young Bonaparte have been "ambivalent" towards Louis XVI just because of his supposed attitude toward a protector who may or may not have gone to bed with Laetizia Buonaparte?). Other points are funny and entertaining, such as a comparison between the infamous Fouché and....J. Edgar HOOVER!!
Napoleon's military skills are frankly acknowledged, but so are his tendencies to sudden depression and the story of his campaigns is told with precision, yet the reader is never lost in the minutiae of some strategy. One may have wished for a few more maps but here is a very good biography, easily read, well written and entertaining, which can be highly recommended to anyone with a general interest in this strange Corsican, whose similarities with his sinister twentieth century successor (Adolf Hitler) are indeed striking.

I have read two other biographies of Napoleon, and felt like this work adds nicely to the literature on his life. McLynn provides rich detail on most aspects of his life, as well as insightful analysis. My only complaint involves his brief interjections of psychoanalytic interpretations of Napoleon's psyche, especially from the Jungian perspective. Although I feel that these interpretations are valid, they need to be either described in detail or not at all. All in all, however, I would recommend this book both to serious Napoleon students and those reading about him for the first time.

For some reason the book by Adam Schom has drawn all the recent attention for his biography of Napoleon. Yet Mclynn has written a well balanced and informative history of the period. Unlike Schom, McLynn looks beyond the military biography to grasp the social and political essence of the age.

His work on the Code Napoleon and the impact of the contintental system shows an historian who can maintain narrative flow while keeping an eye on detail.

I cannot think of a better introduction to study of Napoleon. It is both balanced and fair in its assessment of the man.

Verily verily, the Christian Bible is very clear on the foundational importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Regardless of personal interpretation, Scriptures such as Romans 10:9 and 1 Corinthians 15:14 clearly state that for the believer, Jesus' resurrection from the dead must be regarded as a non-optional issue, and must be personally subscribed to doctrinally. Obviously, this can be an affront to the modern intellect and have the potential to collide with our reasoning faculties and idea of intelligence. In fact, that was exactly the case for English journalist Frank Morison when he began to write "Who Moved The Stone" over 70 years ago. As a skeptic, he set out to prove that the story of Christ's resurrection was only a fabricated myth... what he found, however, was a seamless validity in the biblical and extra-historical record.

I call this book a "study". By that I mean that it is not a light read, and one ought to follow up on all Biblical references and make notes as one goes along. I filled up half a notebook with detailed timelines, summaries, and diagrams, with the end result being that my initial understanding of the resurrection was further strengthened in a way that is impossible to exaggerate. For me, one of the greatest testimonies to the FACT of the resurrection has always been that the authorities at the time did not dispel the "myth" by simply displaying the crucified body. In the early stages of the apostles' preaching, when the church was gaining converts left and right... all the authorities would've had to do was PRODUCE the body of Jesus! Why didn't they do it? Read Morison's book with even a half-open mind and I believe that you will finish it in agreement with me... that they DID not, because they COULD not.

I've read many books on the historical reliability (and unreliability) of the New Testament; I've seen many educated opinions varying in every way; I done studies many resurrections-centered topics; but I've never seen a book quite like this! Morrison takes nothing for granted. He trusts his instincts, and, though coming shy of any kind of Biblical-Christian opinion, he beautifully defends the resurrection in this short examination. As a doubter I find it difficult to swallow what many Christians take for granted in their own faith. This book is not like most. However, as a believer I was thrown by Morrison into the last week of Jesus' life (and the following weeks) as I never have by any lecture or writing. Morrison brings to light many historical details missed my so many people (including myself). He is easy to read and difficult to put down.

To the skeptics: I was once a skeptic. It was not a brief reading of one or two apologetic works that convinced me; instead, it was months and months of hard research, with this book as one of the many highlights. I encourage all to read this.

Morrison's book will forever remain one of my personal favorites.

Luke Gilkerson

Almost 2000 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth was executed by Roman and Jewish authorities in the most humiliating manner of the time. His followers, who thought he was the promised Messiah, fled to the countryside, disbanding in confusion and despair at the death of their teacher.

Yet within weeks, they began to publicly and confidently advance ideas and practices radically at odds with centuries of Jewish culture and teaching, establishing the foundations of the Christian church. In the years to follow, all were tormented and killed for advancing these beliefs.

What happened to trigger this change, to reconstitute and energize the ministry of Jesus, and subsequently change the world? People aren't willing to die for something if they know it to be a lie.

The cause is given in the Bible; the physical resurrection of Jesus and subsequent interaction with not only his followers but hundreds of other witnesses on many occassions after an agonizing death on the cross.

"Who Moved the Stone" analyzes the events of the week leading up to the execution of Jesus and the discovery of his resurrection. Four somewhat different views are provided by the four Gospels and Morison shows how each contributes a piece to the interlocking puzzle of events, enhancing the coherence and credibility of the resurrection precisely because of the way they fit together (and sometimes seem not to).

This is a stimulating, well-written book everyone should appreciate and read, since it illuminates the foundational event of modern civilization. The author offers interesting inferences regarding the arrest of and formulation of charges against Jesus based on Jewish law of the time, Biblical accounts, who was involved and how it relates to historical practices. One begins to appreciate subtleties of the situation.

The book ended without addressing all questions people might have, such as seeming variations between the gospels regarding who was in the open tomb and when. A timeline that clearly harmonized all accounts (who was where when X happened, etc.) would have helped. However, Wenham's book "Easter Enigma" does this completely. William Lane Craig also has some good, if somewhat academic, analysis such as "The Son Rises" (which to me reads as being somewhat more "brittle").

All in all, this book is an excellent and persuasive argument for the Resurrection of Jesus.