E. Anthony Rotundo has written the book, American Manhood, to show the historical development of the concept of manhood throughout the nineteenth century in order to understand, to a certain extent, the idea of manhood within our own historical time. He focuses on a very narrow group of men for this study: Northern, white Yankees of middle and upper class pretensions. This is an influential group for this period but it does feel that the entire picture of the changes evident in American manhood at the beginning of the twentienth century might have been better understood by including a knowledge of different forms of manhood that were emerging from the burgeoning immigrant population. That being said this study is an important and necessary one to begin the further work needed on this topic and Mr. Rotundo provides many unique and important insights on this topic. An interesting book and a good beginning for more work on the gender politics involved in changing ideas of masculinity.

To learn about the culture of manhood, a good place to begin is with a good, strong, well documented history. This is, indeed, a good place to begin. Positing male sociolization within a context that includes its affect on women and children and the family in general, Rotundo is able to place the history of work, virtue, romance and identity in a way that makes sense in terms of where we've been. Hopefully, this will give us a clear first step in terms of where we go from here. Any book that clarifies, from the very beginning, the difference between *gender* and *sex*, is a book that has a good chance of knowing what it is talking about.

I've used this book in my graduate seminar introducing students to the study of the social sciences, and they loved it. I've also used it in my 12th grade gender studies class, and its sections on boy culture and youthful romantic friendships helped students decide that the study of past lives was worthwhile.

One of the better Nancy Drew notebooks I've read. I liked the ending when Nacy wrote down in her blue notebook about what she had learnt in the case. But a lot of the Nancy Drew notebooks I've read end with no one directly responsible for the case. I usually like it that way, but I feel that I want a culprit in this story.

Would you ever want to face a challenge to see who the best was? Well, Nancy Drew does. Jason Hutchins, one of the three pests in the class, thinks he can beat Nancy in solving a mystery. Nancy Drew has lost her special blue notebook that she writes all her clues in. No way! Nancy is the best detective in Carl Sandburg Elementary. Jason is not going to solve a mystery before Nancy..... or is he! 0 Read this book to find out who wins the challenge in Nancy Drew Notebooks, the Best Detective by: Carolyn Keene.

When Nancy looses her blue notbook, a boy named Jason chalenges her to see who can find it first. He said that whoever found it first was the best detective.

Hoekema is a careful and thorough theologian. Here he takes on a difficult, yet more pivotal doctrine that many take far too much for granted: imago Dei, human sin, grace, etc.

His survey of doctrinal history is adequate, however concentrates as it should on Hoekema's Reformed heritage.

He comes out with a position that appears to be untenably suspended between soverignty of God and man's freedom, while all the time upholding total depravity. This is part of the Reformed dillemma, which focuses not on Christology but on soverignty. There is no issue with soverignty if primarily tied to Christology and soteriology.

In this reviewer's analysis, the tensions left are not Biblical tensions, due somewhat to this faulty anthropology.

For a different look, try and locate a magnificent treatment: "The Doctrine of Man in Classical Lutheran Theology" by Chemnitz and Gerhard. Here anthropology jives with Christology and soteriology, as what is central to imago Dei is lost righteousness before God, restored in justification in the "now and not yet" of proper eschatology. Original sin has its way, thus freedom in spiritual matters is gone with Christology and means of grace working.

Hoekema is certainly worth the reading and careful attention to his opinions, and this volume certainly delivers such.

While attending Bible college, I took a class called "Biblical View of Persons." One of the many books we read for this class was "Created In God's Image." From the first to the last chapter I was totally subdued and challenged. It truly gave me many things to think about and study even more. One of the more challenging chapters was chapter 3 that focused on "The Image of God: Biblical Teaching." This caused me to have many questions as far as interpretation of the passages he looks at from the OT. The topic of man losing the image and/or likeness of God was quite reeling and forced mew to think more on the subject than maybe I had previously thought. My second challenge in this book was in chapter 6 with "The Question of the Self-Image." he brought out things that I had thought of before but muffled and I must say I feel he was right on target. His point about the three-fold relationship - to God, others and nature - really being four - to himself - is ideal. I could not agree with Hoekema more when he states that the relationship to himself is not alongside the other three, but underlies the other three. His definition of self-love and self-esteem are right on target and I must agree with him that the term "self-image" is much more suitable.

Anthony Hoekema's book, Created in God's Image, is the second of his trilogy - The Bible and the Future (1st), and Saved By Grace (3rd). I found this book very insightful; both in terms of making sense of various passages in the New and Old Testament, and along with adding meat for me to build a better understanding of what man's relation to God is, and what is man's relation to other persons, or even the natural world. This is what you will find in this book in case you too are wondering what it means to be created in God's image, since that is essentially what the book is about.

To answer that question, there have been various answers. There are materialists and determinists (no necessary connection) in which people claim that all we are is determined, or others say we are simply just a material body. But is this consistent with a Christian anthropology? Hoekema doesn't believe so. First, he wants to establish that man (humanity) reflects God's image *now.* As you can imagine, there are theologians who denied that the image of God in man continued post-fall. After establishing that man still is, what is the relevance of that? Hoekema considers various historical answers - from Irenaeus to Aquinas to Calvin to Barth, etc - followed by a scriptural exposition about what is the correct view. Various questions in that area are: what is meant by freedom; what are the results or the origin of sin; what about original sin; and how is man composed (i.e. body and soul - dichotomy, or something else?); etc.

One brief criticism. Hoekema comes from a Dutch Reformed background. This means that he has a really strong view about the effects of the fall in terms of man's deadness in sin. On the other hand, Hoekema wants to affirm that man has the type of freedom such that man is really the self-determiner of his actions. So, on the one hand, he affirms libertarian agency, on the other he affirms total depravity. I may be wrong, but how this is possible is completely paradoxical and perhaps inconsistent as far as I can see from a philosophical stand point. Nevertheless, I at least highly respect him for admitting that he will just have to accept it as a mystery, rather than ruling out moral responsibility or some form of agency.

In sum, besides that one point which I think Hoekema could have had a better way to approach the issue by (such as what Jonathan Edwards did), I think Hoekema's book is a gem in getting a good grasp about what it means to be created in God's image. He exegetes scripture well and articulates his view nicely.

Piers Anthony is best known for his popular fantasy / comedy series Xanth, but before he became bogged down in the puns of Xanth, he wrote some great science fiction and fantasy of world class. "Prostho Plus" is one of those really great books.

What sets this book apart in the spirit of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is that the protagonist is an unlikely dentist catapulted off terrestrial Earth into the highly dangerous field of intergalactic dentistry. Dr. Dillingham, the human dentist, is propelled from alien mouth to alien mouth performing badly needed procedures for xenoforms in pain. The book is hilarious and Anthony's ideas about alien mouths are both interesting and innovative.

I highly recommend this very amusing and well-written novel!

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

I originally read this book when it was new. Browsing an airport book stand for a sci-fi to read, the jacket design caught my eye. I followed this with reading the blurbs: "Can a mild-mannered dentist from Earth make it in the high-powered world of galactic dentistry?" Sounded like fun. I was completely unfamiliar with Piers Anthony's works before this. He subsequently became one of my favorite authors.

When I first started reading this book I was pretty doutfull,but as I read more I found myself not wanting it to end.

This book is one of the best I have read in a long time. I have always had trouble finishing books and I can always tell a book is good when I can't put it down. This book achieved just that.

I just completed a truly epic book--epic in the broad definition of a novel that typifies grandeur, a fictionalized historical narrative which is especially revelent in today's world. It is brilliantly written, the characters are well developed, and the setting of life in the 16th century under the Ottomans is realistic and spellbinding. It clearly is extremely well researched. Anthony Goodman's writing is concise and articulate, and conveys a feeling to the reader of one being privy to the intimate machinations of each of the numerous historical figures. I look forward to its appearance as a cinematic triumph, because the story lends itself so well to that medium.

Shadow of God achieves the balance that so many other historical novels fail to comprehend. Good historical fiction is just what the words say, well written plot centered around real history. The story suffers if either side is lacking or is unrealistic. Shadow of God is a fine example of the education and entertainment so many historical stories can offer if written well and faithfully portrayed.

The story revolves around the siege of Rhodes in 1522. At the time, the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful in the world, whose provinces spanned three continents. Money and tons of other resources poured into the imperial coffers. The new sultan, Suleiman, was determined to prove himself the equal of his ancestors. To this end, he organized a massive army and armada to deal with the 500 Christian knights that held the fortress of Rhodes. The descriptions of the Ottoman court and the functions of the state are extremely interesting and enlightening. The Janissaries, the Pashas, the Viziers, are all fascinating subjects that are described very well.

Garrisoning the small island of Rhodes are the Knights of St. John, an order of Christian warriors. From the island, the multinational group of soldiers leads pirate raids on nearby Ottoman ports and ships. The new grandmaster, Phillipe, comes to the fortress as news of the Sultans arrival begins to leak out of Istanbul. The stage is set for one of the most brutal sieges in human history.

The mechanics and tactics of siege warfare are complex but are intriguing when written in a fictitious style. Greek fire, cannons, arquebusiers, muskets, tunnels and underground mines are all detailed and drawn in an entertaining light, never losing their connection to real history. The battle is something to really enjoy. The unbelievable amount of violence and death is written in a horrific narrative. Thousands of Janissaries slipping on their comrades blood is an image that is pressed into your memory throughout the story. The tunnels are the worst part, where thousands of Ottoman slaves are buried alive in an effort to enter the city. The back story is also very interesting and does not compromise the history of the battle.

Both sides of the conflict are characterized as what they were. The Ottoman Empire was a very progressive empire intellectually, but it still captured thousands of slaves from Europe and was built for conquest. The Knights of St. John are courageous and honorable, but they were also somewhat motivated by piracy and the accumulation of wealth.

A great historical story made accessible to all lovers of fiction and history.

Having read and enjoyed the first two books, I hunted down a copy of this one, and was terribly disappointed.

It reads very much as if someone else wrote it from Horowitz's outline, contradicts various elements from the first two books, doesn't have the humor, and is fairly flat. As a stand-alone book, it would be all right, but it doesn't mesh at all with the first two books in its series.

I first read the devils door bell 15yrs ago and i was hooked, i am still looking for the last 2 books in the series. Does any one know what they are called? No body knows here.
This was my first book that got me into reading, even at 25yrs i still want to know what happend. the first 3 books are not available in the local librarys here,(only available at schools, and i defiantly recomend it at any age) we have to order them, so iam still waiting for them, i just cant wait.
Some body please mail me to update me on the next 2 books.
thanks

I can't really add anything to the previous comments, these books are TERRIFIC!!! I've read the first four books of the Pentagram series about six times when I was a kid, and the finding of the fifth book still haunts me!! So maybe I can help those who haven't had the chance to be frightened by the 4th book. It's caled "The Day Of The Dragon" and was first published in 1990 by Methuen Children's Book Ltd, London. In the first part of the book we see Martin Hopkins and Richard Cole again, the second part introduces the fifth boy, Will Tller. The story is mostly situated in Hong Kong and Kowloon, but it's been 4 years now since I've last read it so that's pretty much what I remember now. Except for the fact that these books were really really thrilling of course. A must-read series for EVERYONE!!!
And if anyone knows anything about the fifth book, PLEASE let me know!

Aaron Gunner is a streetwise private eye working out of an office in Mickey Moore's Barber Shop in Los Angeles. He's already working for Connie Everson who wants him to find out who her City Councilman husband is having an affair with--she already knows about his white woman, but fears she has a black rival. Now, he's also hired to find Yolanda McCreary's brother, Elroy Covington. Elroy never returned home from the Million Man March. When last seen, he was in LA at the Stage Door Hotel and he had Gunner's card in his room.

Looking for Elroy leads Gunner to Barber Jack Frerotte, a notorious razor blade wielding psychopath and then to the Defenders of the Bloodline, who are dedicated to ridding the African-American community of "Uncle Toms".

As always, Haywood is stronger on setting, character & dialogue than on the actual mechanics of the mystery. While he doesn't measure up to James Sallis or Walter Mosely, it's still a fun series.

GRADE: C

Gar Anthony Haywood has done it again. As usual, he has two plots going at once and the reader has to figure out "who done it" for both of them. He doesn't have predictable endings.

This was my first Aaron Gunner story, and it won't be my last. This book had the the P.I. tackling two mysteries at the same time. Looking for a disreputable writer missing for over 9 months and tailing a congressman in search of his indiscretions had Gunner at his wit's end, but each plot had it's own twists and turns, and there was no way to guess each ending. Believe me, I tried! It is so hard sometimes to settle down with a good mystery, because in order for the story to work, the detective must be familiar and accessable to the reader. With this P.I., it was no problem. If you are a fan of Walter Mosley's Easy Rollins or Valerie Wilson Wesley's Tamara Hayle, then this guy is for you. Good Work, Mr. Haywood!

I couldn't have said it any better than the reader from NYC did... I feel lucky to have happened upon this book. I agree, too, that Lou Glasser may not deserve his fate but he doesn't not deserve it enough to escape it, and that the pace never flags in this novel. I think Siegel is an impressive writer. This book is funny and intelligently written. I enjoyed the plot, the language, the characters, the philosophy. He juggled a lot in this novel, and did a great job doing so.

Stumbled on this book and picked it up without knowing what it was because I had a plane trip to kill. Lucky for me. ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD is a truly unique novel that defies easy classification -- it's a thriller/character study/philosophical mystery. Attorney Lou Glasser is amoral but not evil; his descent into the wrong side of the criminal justice system, catalysed when a pot-dealing client turns him in on a manufactured charge to cut a deal, is played for irony, humor, and something not completely unlike tragedy. Glasser may not deserve his fate but he doesn't not deserve it strongly enough to escape it. The book is slyly humorous and savagely well-observed as it gets inside his mind and reveals that his son is being groomed, like it or not, for a similar fall later in life. The writing is topnotch -- and unlike some "literary fiction" the pace never flags. Only at the end does the author show his hand and reveal that this "thriller" is something much more profound, a meditation on modern life, morality, and the gray zones we all inhabit. Really a brave, interesting, excellent book.

All The Money in the World is a novel of rare beauty and intelligence. The protagonist, the complex and flawed Louis Glasser, is a marvel--a somewhat shady defense attorney for drug dealers, Glasser is rendered with great compassion and insight. In its scope, bravery and clarity of vision, Siegel's work stands up with the work of Roth and Bellow--but Siegel has staked a claim that is entirely his own. His writing is jazzy, lyrical, absolutely captivating. Read this novel if you want to read about the dynamic between a son and his difficult father, the workings of the criminal law system, and society's obsession with status and money. This is an unforgettable, important book.

Another Xanth addition. This book was pretty good, though, not THE best Piers Anthony book. As always, this book is full and packed with puns and that Piers' "silly humor".
Basically the story is: The Demon Earth has been kidnapped and without him the world of Xanth will be without gravity. The result: Xanth flies off into space and all the Xanth creatures float away. Bad Bad! So the next person to pose a question to the good Magician, will be the person who is given the task of finding the Demon Xanth because only a Non-demon can find a demon. Anyway the person who shows up with a question is a flying centaur named Cynthia and she must find 6 people to help her find the swell foop (the only thing that can control demons).
So overall a good book with quite a few of the recurring characters. Such as the Simurghs son, Sim, and Justin Tree and his beloved Breanna of the black wave. Oh yeah and lots of talk about cleavage and lovely female bodies. (as always) LOL

I have finished Swell Foop and I can't wait to get Piers Anthony's next book. I have read the Xanth series from the first book (Spell...). I would really recomend any of Piers' books to any one if they love puns and Fantasy. You can start on any book you want, but if you like to read stories that go some where you should start with the first one.

I love Piers Anthony's Xanth novels.This one my favorite next to Demons don't dream and Zombie lover.
Awesome.

The poet's first book had some moments of interest. I have to agree with the prior reviewer that things got much weaker as the book progressed: insufficient charge, lack of dynamic, failure to come alive off the page, absence of organic vitality or variety after awhile.

With this collection, the same weaknesses manifest themselves. Much more reminiscent of Robert Francis (hard to find anthologized or cited much anymore), and nowhere near the level of mastery, depth, profundity, multi-layered dimensions of Frost.

Uneven in quality. Some genuinely touching and heartfelt moments; some gravity; some wit. Some original music on occasion. But overall lacking the inspiration and sublime artistry of Wilbur, Hecht, Hardy, Betjeman, Larkin and the magnificent short pieces of Yeats, Auden, Robinson, Housman, de la Mare, Masefield, W. Owen, Sassoon, C. Rossetti, Bogan, Wylie, E. Jennings, Vikram Seth, Tim Steele, Dana Gioia, Heaney, Wordsworth, Blake, Geo. Herbert, Glyn Maxwell.

It is hoped the next collection will provide enough maturing, development, progression, freshness, and elements of what Harold Bloom in his just-out book calls 'Groundbreaking Genius' to rate the poetry higher on the rereadable-memorability scale

Very Far North has filled hours with Timothy Murphy's unique ironic but spiritual sensibility. I've never seen anyone use so few words to present such lushness of thought. He is a master of the art.

There is no more more poignant and stunning quatrain than "Blow Winds and Crack your Cheeks." "Horses for my Father" blew me away. Such a lust for words, such wind-blown vision-I wouldn't say they are "bleak." The love Murphy bears living creatures allegedly of a lower order than humanity is his greatest teaching; the tributes to his father, too.

His originality, playfulness with words and sense of magic are enough to make me feel no one could possibly tell the effects that fall upon a reader from this work. The floods and droughts are bleak, true; but not these poems.

Some of the experiences or dreams he describes have uncanny parallels in my life, like the wolves circling. Among my favorites of Murphy's poems in this collection are "Pa Sapa," "Headwater," "Elsewhere," "Landfall," "Casa Abandonada," "Hunting Time," "Vulture Acres," "Transformation," "Flight Across the Moor," and "Timing."

The fact that he ends the volume with a series of poems about Tibetan Buddhists is another unique aspect of Murphy's consciousness: who else could, has ever, combined themes of hunting, Buddhism, sailing, fauna and flora, farming, patriarchs, prairie wisdom, absurd wordplay and Americana in one slim volume? Who else ever will?

Here is the first stanza of "Timing":

Walking a narrow path
where pilgrims go astray,
I regulate my breath
because I cannot pray.

What can be unearthed from this perfectly direct and seemingly simple, even childlike, quatrain is hidden knowledge: that praying is, to Tibetan lay folk who are devoutly religious, essentially a regulation of breath, and one which slowly spirals the consciousness upward.

Here is "Headwaters":

Up switchbacks to passes
we ride winded horses
through spruces, then grasses
ribboned with watercourses,
the Wind River's sources.

A trail called Highline
meanders through flowers
from treeline to snowline
where War Bonnet glowers
on Cirque of the Towers.

A bald eagle's shadow
plummets from its aerie,
then circles this meadow
whose cold waters carry
some hope to our prairie.

This is akin to a prayer, a prayer for the prairie, and regulates the breath as part of its effect. A towering achievement in a paper wrapper.

Tim Murphy is one of the most distinguished contemporary American formalist poets.
Very Far North is a fine collection of (mostly) short poems, deeply rooted in his experience as a farmer in the American Midwest. It encapsulates the wisdom and humour of a man who has spent his life on the land, close to nature.
His work is characterised by simple, clear imagery and precise thought, as in this moving tribute to Robert Penn Warren:

Red Like Him
He was tutor to a lad
he never really knew -

only the shock of red
like sunrise on a slough.

Out for an autumn walk
I hear the great geese cry
and hail a red-tailed hawk
spiralling up the sky.

He's also a master of the sonnet form. This poem won the prestigious Nemerov Award. It's quoted by Anthony Hecht in his introduction to Very Far North, and is one of the finest contemporary sonnets I know, bearing comparison with Robert Frost:

The Track Of A Storm
Bastille Day, 1995
We grieve for the twelve trees we lost last night,
pillars of our community, old friends
and confidants dismembered in our sight,
stripped of their crowns by the unruly winds.
There were no baskets to receive their heads,
no women knitting by the guillotines,
only two sleepers rousted from their beds
by fusillades of hailstones on the screens.
Her nest shattered, her battered hatchlings drowned,
a stunned and silent junko watches me
chainsawing limbs from corpses of the downed,
clearing the understory of debris
while supple saplings which survived the blast
lay claim to light and liberty at last.

If you like these poems you'll love the book.