Simply put, this is one of the best novels I have ever read. The story is a tremendously engaging and well-crafted portrait of a crucial period -- 1914 to 1950 -- in France's history. Read does a magnificent job of showing the complexity and grayness of the various character types, world views, politics, etc. of this period of history. The story is so compellingly told that the pages turn like you are reading a great spy novel.

As a non-theologian, and simply a Catholic layperson, I found this book helpful for deepening my appreciation of St. Paul, enfleshing and rounding my understanding of his personality, trials, and work; and solidifying the importance of agape love in Christian life.

The author systematically studies the positions of multiple New Testament scholars in explaining Paul's argument for justification through faith, rather than law. He passionately hammers home the message that it is not adherence to a set of rules which saves us from sins' bondage- but rather through our faith in Christ. As God showed ultimate love in giving Jesus to humanity, and Jesus demonstrated sacrificial love in giving Himself on the cross, now we are free to show love to God and others, as to ourselves.

While acknowledging that all in life is not pleasant, the author reminds us that suffering can "have meaning and value", but that "suffering and death do not have the last word". Freedom to love was given to Christians, for their happiness in this life, and the next. If the author's ultimate hope was that his writing draw the reader closer to Jesus Christ, that mission was accomplished. We can demonstrate our faith, through acts of unconditional love, starting today.

submitted 31 December 2001

Russell makes a compelling case that the traditional compatiblist interpretation of Hume is mistaken, and that Hume's account of responsibility is part of his greater discussion of moral sentiments. In the end, Russell argues that Hume's position is closer to that of P.F. Strawson in "Freedom and Resentment" than it is to the traditional reading that Ayer, Mill, and Schlick give. Russell also gives an account of what implications Hume's theory has for a contemporary theory of responsibility.

I've concluded that the epic of Mr. Lovejoy, a contemporary of Abraham Lincoln, is about a man who didn't know when to quit. Former U.S. Senator from Illinois, Paul Simon, has formulated a fast reading, riveting rendition of the way too brief life of this "glutton for punishment." Simon's account coincides well with the embarrassing story presented in Alton,IL these days. Still, I was left with questions, like "Why didn't Reverend Lovejoy move on?" "Was Lovejoy the catalyst for the American Civil War rather than John Brown?" and "Why was Abraham Lincoln's duel in Alton cancelled?" I found the answers by visiting the city where the final months of this anti-slavery newspaper editor's life transpired. The tale of Elijah P. Lovejoy, although 165 years old, gave me plenty of food for thought. If you want to know more there are other books. If you want the gist, this volume will serve you well.

Some photo-essays have a cinematic effect. You start to forget that you are leafing through the pages of a book and fall into a world that is at once unfamiliar yet somehow known. As the images pass by you keep hoping that the show will get even better and if you are lucky, sometimes it does. As with French Farmhouses And Cottages which reads like a great movie and kept me surprised with its eccentricity and charm right to the last page. Cottages and out-buildings like these are each absolutely unique and all are situated in settings that epitomise the notion of living in creative harmony with your surroundings. If for no other reason than the structures are always built of the materials that comprise the land of occupancy.

The photo captions in French Farmhouses And Cottages are superb and highlight the type of construction in evidence, the purpose of each building economically in the life of the community, and the building materials that were used and why. A lengthy section of text which is entitled 'Introduction' would better be described as a comprehensive review of rural life in France during an era when the horse provided the defining reality for all economic activity in agricultural areas of the country. Extensive discussion in this well-written and highly informative essay focuses specifically on building practises on farm steads as well as planning strategies for setting up the working farm. Materials which were readily available for building and roofing are given consideration as well since local stone, clay and wood were utilised for French farmhouse construction as represented in this volume. But the setting for the creative labours which made use of those materials, rural France a hundred years ago, produced the inspiration. The synthesis of the two frequently defies imagination.

The book is systematic and explains in easy language the various grammatical rules...If you can have only one book this is it!

EASY TO UNDERSTAND. EXCEPTIONAL BOOK FOR BEGINNERS.THE METHOD USED BY THE AUTHORIS EXCELLENT.

This book shows a wonderful range of clearly stated frequentist and emergentist views of functional linguistics. I heartily recommend this...

Quoting the publisher's blurb for this book:

A mainstay of functional linguistics has been the claim that linguistic elements and patterns that are frequently used in discourse become conventionalized as grammar. This book addresses the two issues that are basic to this claim: first, the question of what types of elements are frequently used in discourse and second, the question of how frequency of use affects cognitive representations.

Reporting on evidence from natural conversation, diachronic change, variability, child language acquisition and psycholinguistic experimentation the original articles in this book support two major principles. First, the content of people's interactions consists of a preponderance of subjective, evaluative statements, dominated by the use of pronouns, copulas and intransitive clauses. Second, the frequency with which certain items and strings of items are used has a profound influence on the way language is broken up into chunks in memory storage, the way such chunks are related to other stored material and the ease with which they are accessed to produce new utterances...

Stemming from a 1999 lecture and slide show for the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Artists, this crisply designed book with almost 150 images is sure to be of interest to designers everywhere. The works included here come from the personal and professional lives of three young designers: Nicholas Blechman, Christoph Neimann, Paul Sahre.

Blechman is the art director of the New York Times Op-Ed section, and met the other two through his self-published political 'zone, Nozone-samples from which constitute about a fifth of the book. Neimann is German a freelance illustrator for a number of well-known magazines, and a teacher at the School of Visual Arts. His samples have a slightly quirky and offbeat amusing air concealed in their simplicity. Sahre is a well known book cover designer and postermaker, and his samples tend to be more outrightly commercial and graphically appealing than the others.

The book is a quick read, you can probably absorb it in about two hours, and well worth it for those interested in how graphic designers work and arrive at solutions. My own favorite part was the brief "killed work" section, where the three designers discuss work of theirs that was rejected and why. I'll definitely try to track down Fresh Dialogue 2, which covers the next year's lecture.

The relationship of Frederick Nietzsche's philosophy to Sigmund Freud's psychiatric concepts has long been an object of interest for students and practitioners of psychoanalysis. In Freud And Nietzsche, educator, historian and philosopher Paul-Laurent Assoun methodically reconstructs Freud's encounter with Nietzsche, his personal interpretations and the contribution of Nietzsche's champions. Assoun articulately examines the thematic similarities that appear on the surface to reveal close affinities between the two theorists. The analogies between the theories and writings of these two influential and original thinkers are fascinating, informative, and a vital part of critical theory which continues to be actively discussed in regard to critical theory to this very day. Ably translated into English by Richard L. Collier. Jr., Paul-Laurent Assoun's Freud And Nietzsche is a significant and highly recommended contribution to the study of Freud, Nietzsche, and psychoanalysis.