I have many books on owls, and this is one of the most comprehesive books that I have seen on the natural history of owls. There are good drawings and photographs in the first 15 pages of the book. The classification and evolution section was of great interest to me and very useful. The natural histories of each species is very in-depth and thorough. There is also a glossary, which is very helpful in defining words which you may not know. Overall, the book is excellent, and I would highly recommend it to the beginner, novice, or expert birder.

This book is a fantastic reference book pertaining to the appearance, mating behaviors, habitat and range, nesting patterns, and favorite foods of North American Owls. The color pictures are so much better than any black and white drawing could hope to achieve. The individual discriptions are well organized under sub-topics for quick reference.

The book is about many different owls and how they live.Some owls live in the forest some in the snow some in the the hot dessert.they eat rodents,lizards,

Paul is an amazing man and it shines through his writing. I strongly believe that if any of you wish to be touched deeply by just how the spirit of love can grace all of us even when we have difficulty holding up our chins, read this book.

Thank you personally Paul, you are such a blessing in my life and in the lives of each person you touch. Love and cheers!

While many have written their thoughts on spirituality, few have gone the step beyond to share their personal experiences and problems with us in this capacity. The author, Paul R. Prows, in his search for answers, partners with God/dess and brings light and hope to us all that we are not alone in our trials and tribulations. Here is a diary, of sorts, which details real life thoughts and incidents with answers from the One. The author opens himself up to us as few have done before. Over and over again I was able to relate to an incident and gain insight on how to improve my own life dealings. I have truly found this book to have the most personal enlightenment in my own search to finding the answers. This is a book for all of us. A book that shows us how similar we are to one another in our day to day lives. You will gain much knowlege and helpful information on how to deal with most anything and live a more rich and fulfilling life. This is definitely a book you will refer to again and again. A must read!

An inspirational look at how we can relax, listen and let go to find the answers and help from God that we all need in our daily lives. It's an up close and personal look at the author, Paul Ronald Prows and his relationship with the Goddess, through his conversations with the Goddess. The Goddess responds to Pauls thoughts and feelings in a very unique way. By not only complimenting his abilities, but also telling it like it is and not holding back. I loved this book. Open it up and get ready for an awesome journey. Read it without being judgemental. Put your own lives situations and thoughts and feelings into it and listen to what you get back in return. I think we can all relate to most of the situations in this book. I myself have felt in many ways, the same way Paul has in his life experiences. As I read this book, I applied it to myself and my life.......what an eye opener! It has not only brought me closer to MY God, but has also helped me to look at things in a new light! God answers us and leads us in many differnt ways, this book is a great way of listening to the answers we need and finding them in our own hearts. The Goddess states at one point in this book " When you discover me, and learn how to partner with me, nothing in this world will be able to withstand our power"! What a true and powerful statement. For anyone wanting a closer relationship to God, and a better understanding of our lives feelings, thoughts, actions, accomplishments and dissapointments, this is a must read book! Refer back to this book again and again when you come to a situation you feel you need help with, and watch how much you grow and learn, like I have.

This book has been as challenging as ever! The children in my year 6 class have thoroughly enjoyed solving the many layers of puzzles in this book. However, unlike the other Paul Adshead books we have used, we are a little frustrated by this one! We have solved all the puzzles in the book except one of the 'four puzzling messages'. We know where it is and how it is drawn - but we can't decode it! Ahhhhh.

The book gets better each time you read it. First time, it's an exciting, particpative, interactive book for kids, with great illustrations. And then you start with the puzzles : they get better each time. You can play with this book for days.

This playful bedtime story is one of those wonderful gems you can read with a group as well as one on one. A sleepy snail calls upon various birds in the "Forest of Nod" to help her wake a disruptive snoring owl. As each new group of birds makes their noisy entrance in "12 days of Christmas" style, a great din begins. Each page is elaboratly illustrated, including colorful feathered friends and a brilliant sunset which deepens with each page. Younger children will enjoy the playful rhymes, while older children love finding the "hidden" birds. A fun twist to use when reading this book to groups: kids can make an appropriate sound with each added bird (humming hummingbirds, quacking ducks). This allows for great, if a bit noisy, interaction!

Have you ever wondered why we dream of animals or see them in the clouds and stars (e.g., Ursa Minor, Ursa Major, and Bootes)? Have you ever wondered why Paleolithic men decorated their caves with animal art? Have you ever wondered why we share our homes with animals, entertain ourselves at zoos, or why some of us eat meat? Or have you ever wondered why "mass society delivers itself into military hands" (p. 138), or seeks comfort in "massive therapy, escapism, intoxicants, narcotics, fits of destruction and rage, enormous grief, subordinations to hierarchies that exhibit callow ineptitude at every level, and perhaps worst of all, a readiness to strike back at a natural world that we dimly perceive as having failed us" (p. 156)? Ecophilosopher, Paul Shepard addresses all of these questions, and more, in this fascinating Sierra Club Reader. "The generic human in us knows how to dance the animal, knows the strength of clan membership and the profound claims and liberation of daily rites of thanksgiving," Shepard writes in this book's Preface. "Hidden from history, this secret person is undamaged in each of us and may be called forth by the most ordinary acts of life" (p. xx).

A friend recommended this book to me as a good introduction to Paul Shepard's ten other books. In the first Chapter, "The Eye," Shepard studies the human eye and how it differentiates us from species. In Chapter Two, "On Animals Thinking," he argues that the human mind "and its organ, the brain, are in reality that part of us most dependent on the survival of animals," that "living animals are a necessary part of the mental growth of humans" (pp. 22-3). Whereas Darwin "rediscovered" in 1859 that man was an animal, Shepard's book considers what animals tell us most about ourselves (p. 107). "Physiologically," he writes in Chapter Five, "from the neck down, so to speak, [man] is an omnivore whose diet is about three-quarters plant products, like a bear or boar. By looking only at his gut one might predict that he is a kind of oversized raccoon. Yet the patterns of life set by hunting-gathering peoples are centered on the spiritual and ceremonial eating of large mammals. Behavior and culture are more wolflike than bearlike" (p. 113). Men "wolf" their food, as they say. "Man is a fat-making, fair-weather carnivore who can eat more than three pounds of meat at a sitting. He is also a primate snacker, a connoisseur of ripe and unripe berries, of frogs, crabs, and insects" (p. 131). Like animals, "men need, in their nonhuman environment, open country with occasional cover, labyrinthe play areas, a rich variety of plants, animals, rocks, stars; structures and forms numbering into the thousands, initiation solitude, transitional and holy places, a wide variety of food organisms and diversity of stone and wood, nearby fresh water, large mammalian herds, cave and other habitation sites, and so on" (p. 135).

In Chapter Six, Shepard examines how we have "broke bonds with the earth, soil and nature," and how the human spirit has become dissociated "from seasons and celestial rounds" (p. 149). As a result, civilized culture has become stuck in immaturity; "to remain a child," Shepard observes, "is not an appropriate individual destiny, nor is it a norm for our species" (p. 160). He encourages us to free ourselves from our cultural immaturity.

Nature writer, Barry Lopez calls Shepard's writing "endlessly stimulating." Paul Shepard was an original thinker, and this brilliant book offers an eye-opening and imaginative look at ourselves, and "the only world we've got."

G. Merritt

I used Shepard's works a few years ago among supplemental books for a course I taught theological students regarding their awareness of science and nature. People may recognize me today as the co-author of the recent "Nabokov's Blues: The Scientific Odyssey of a Literary Genius" (1999)(which I must mention to make my major point about Shepard and his books). My point concerns the world's own "right of passage" regarding urgent dictums akin to "its the only world we've got". What we see in Paul Shepard and his work reflects a level of awareness typifying the keenest of polymathic minds from, say, the 1970-1990's. However, many people do not realize that before that (before the major books of environmental awareness were well-known to the public [Carson, Ehrlich, Meadows et al., etc.] and thus germinal in most minds) writings about nature by even celebrated literary writers, like Vladimir Nabokov [as in The Gift], or great "nature writers", like Edwin Way Teale, peculiarly LACK a sense of this urgency. Recent writings on these latter authors (who shared 1999 as their centenary year) brought this question to the fore when comparing them to the "levels" of modern eco-awarenss in men like Shepard. Observers were stunned-- how could men like Nabokov and Teale who wrote so genuinely, and with wondrous detail, concerning nature, "miss the point" [i.e. no "urgency"] regarding what we see as the environmental crisis today. A fine reading of Shepard's works (this "Reader" among them), provides the answer. If ones reads far enough back in Shepard's writings-- and then follows the development of his major theses enculcating URGENCY in eco-awarenss-- one realizes that what one is seeing IS precisely the germinal stage of that sense worldwide. Before that, for writers even as sensitive to nature as Nabokov or Teale, its seemed that no matter how assaulted nature was around them, and in their writings, "it still had someplace else to go". Somehow, great writers of nature of that earlier era never had that "personal epiphany" when a "line in the sand" was drawn for them. It seems so odd to scientists today (especially those working overseas) who experience that epiphany very day. With this in mind, Shepard's works are perhaps one of the best examples of that awakening and seeing them in that historical perspective gives them even more life.

Paul Shepard (who also wrote The Tender Carnivore, which is also highly recommended)was one of the most insightful and brilliant thinkers of our century. This book has the power and impact of Thom Hartmann's "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight" and the insights of Michael Tobias's "World War III." Highly recommended.

Paul West is a brilliant novelist but it wasn't easy for him to get into Oxford. When he was finally accepted at one of the less well known colleges he had, well, arrived.

This is a touching memoir full of humor and just nice experiences in a world long gone. Oxford still exists of course but the Oxford attended by Paul West exists only in memory. He has, however, put it all down for us in this wonderful book.

West is one of the most versatile writers I know, as his ever-growing list of both fiction and nonfiction titles show. He's particularly fabulous when recalling in his elegrant and playful prose those events and places he experienced first-hand. This recollection and preservation of his youth defines the moments that will eventually make the great stylist he became. He is a writer and a man extraordinaire...and this is a book to be cherished.

As a devoted reader of West's novels, I knew the prose would be stylish and witty, but I didn't anticipate how funny this memoir would be. It's a wonderful evocation of an era at Oxford, full of eccentrics, later-to-become famous writers, and West's touching memories of his life at a nearly mythic university. I found it smart, charming, and spirited.

The art of paperfolding has been one of my interests for many years and one I enjoy sharing with my students. This book is a great reference, first of all because the illustrations are very clear and easy to follow. The projects range from simple to somewhat advanced, but none are too difficult to make once you understand the basic folds. My students are always particularly fascinated by the figures that "do things" such as the "Chinese Balloon," which you can blow up and toss around, the "Bird with Flapping Wings," which really seems to fly, and the "Snapping Alligator," which, well, you guessed it. Other paperfolds from this book that never cease to amuse children as well as adults are the "Money Fold Bow Tie," and "Jumping Frog." If you are not sufficiently amazed with your finished paperfold as it is, the author gives additional options and uses for each. Paperfolding is beautiful, magical and tons of fun. This book is a must have if you enjoy the art as much as I do.

Very useful book, especially for beginners. Unlike some of the Japanese origami books, this assumes no prior cultural knowledge, so you can knock off some easy projects quickly, and do some quite complicated ones later. Recommended!

This book is amazing! It has many interesting projects to do. Unlike other origami books, this book teaches you easy methods of folding. It doesn't take long for you to become a master at origami and you'll have fun too. Invest in this book soon and you won't regret it.

As an instructor, this is an excellent CD. It shows many pieces of art and gives information, in audio. Highly recommended for any one interested in art.

This CD is the very best in its class. It is organized in such a way as to make available images, history, anecdotes, and gallery placement with just a click. The variety of choices and the ease of use is breath-taking. You can go into any gallery, look around at all the walls, select a particular painting to learn more about and then jump into a list of all the paintings by that artist or a time line that places that artist into historic context. All CDs from museums or art collections should be this comprehensive and easy to use!

This CD-ROM includes a tour of the Barnes collection as well as an index, archives, history, and fabulous color pictures. The CD is interactive. You can sit back and listen to the tour guide, or you can click your own way through the collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth century paintings. The index to the collection shows a thumb-nail size color shot of the art work listed, which you can click on to see as large as your screen allows. Renoir, Matisse, Modiglianni, and dozens of Cezanne paintings in living color! At your fingertips! Great.

The author is incrediable. Specifically, concerning the author's style of writing, he is writing for those who know very little about Paul, yet in such a concendensed book as this, you will finish feeling you know Paul like he's your neighbor. He begins with an explanation of Paul's life, his goals, and then moves on to bigger questions about Paul. What was Paul's view on rightousness? His view on the law?

I still can't believe that after reading this small book I've learned so much about one of the most influencial apostles of our time. If you don't know much about Paul, or want to brush up a little, this really is an excellent book.

Of course, if you want to deeply study Paul, you may want to go with a book that's more than 100 and some odd pages, but for my purpose, which was simply finding out "Who the heck is Paul?", I don't think I could have found a better book.

This little volume is a reissue of Ed Sanders's book on Paul in Oxford's "Past Masters" series. It's held up well.

Sanders, the author of several highly acclaimed works on Palestinian Judaism and of two absolutely magisterial works on the historical Jesus, here presents a highly condensed and accessible summary of Paul's thought. The reader should be aware that Sanders (a) locates Paul within the Judaism of his time and (b) has what most Christians (I'm not Christian myself) would call an extremely "liberal" approach to New Testament interpretation.

The book is already so short that summarizing it will require preternatural brevity. But here goes: for Sanders, Paul has an answer (Jesus's death and resurrection) to which he doesn't know the question, and his writings are an attempt not only to pass along the answer but to figure out just what that question is.

This little book is a nice introduction both to Sanders's thought on Paul and, for that matter, to Sanders himself. He's a master of expository prose style, reasonable almost to a fault, and a genuinely towering figure in modern New Testament scholarship; if you find that you like him, you'll want to check out his other books. I especially recommend _Jesus and Judaism_, _The Historical Figure of Jesus_, and _Studying the Synoptic Gospels_ (which he co-wrote with his wife, Margaret Davies -- who, incidentally, is the daughter of famed New Testament scholar W.D. Davies).

A very readable summary of Paul, based on Paul's letters in the New Testament. Not as hostile to Paul as other biographies, which place more of an emphasis on a claimed perversion and ignorance of Jesus's message by Paul. Still, it does devote some space to the conflict of ideas between the Jerusalum Apostles (mainly Peter) and Paul. It is more of an exposition of Paul's theology, and more briefly, of Jewish theology, and a very good one. Among other topics, deals with justification by faith, and how Paul reconciles (or tries to) why the law is not a vehicle for justification / salvation when God was the originator of the law (Torah). If you are familiar with the New Testament, it may lead you to some fresh insights, and if not, it is an excellent introduction to it.

I don't know how Neon Lit fared with the rest of the project, but this graphic novel version of City of Glass by Paul Auster is terrific. In a sense it brings the story full circle, because in the original novel Auster used the conventions of the private eye story to explore the issues implicit in film noir : identity, fate, good and evil, randomness, etc. Since many of the great hard boiled dicks first appeared in pulp fiction, it seems only natural to have this most modern (or post-modern) riff on the genre end up back in comic book form, however glorified.

Actually, Auster himself indulges in so many games with language, shifting identities and allusions to other works that the comic book format is especially well suited to his playfulness. And, like William Goldman's Princess Bride, that sense of fun serves to lighten what can often be most ponderous in post-modern literature, the way in which its practitioners act as if their metafictional techniques are revolutionary and profound. This work is such a throwback that it unabashedly wears its antecedents on its sleeve; never mind the obvious nod to mysteries of the 30's and 40's, it even goes so far as to discuss Cervantes and his metafictional innovations in Don Quijote.

I tend to doubt that Paul Auster's brand of existential musings will appeal to all tastes and I'm sure some will simply find the idea of reading a comic book to be beyond the pale. But if you're an Auster fan, a private eye or noir enthusiast, or just haven't outgrown comics generally, it's well worth tracking down a copy. I realize it says more about me than I should be comfortable revealing, but I actually think the best part of the book is the section on the criminally insane Professor Stillman's religious theses--they're frighteningly close to my own views and make for quite compelling speculation, adding to what is already a fun and unusual reading experience.

GRADE : A

The real magic here is that, in reworking Paul Auster's original novel, Karasik and Mazzucchelli have done what so many had deemed impossible: they have produced a true literary adaptation in comics form. This is no "Classics Illustrated"; this is a comic that strengthens its source material rather than diminishing it. The original book's concern with the gap between language and meaning is given further depth and resonance in the comic, which finds a visual language equivalent, and does it in a way that no other medium could have. This is no mere illustrated text, but comics as a formidable language and medium in itself. Interestingly, when the original book and the comic are read together, the comic itself almost becomes a physical character, another in the story's proliferation of literary doubles.

I'm reading The New York Trilogy right now. It seems to focus on the lives of authors--how rapt in observations they are. How they might feel that being observed themselves is the only way to prove that they exist--and to validate what they do all day--observe. That said, This comic book / graphic novel brings us an author, Daniel Quinn, caught up in role playing as a detective, sent to observe an old man (who is himself an author). The old man has a wild theory about Adam and pre-language and feral ch

I have two children and I find myself "donating" many of their used books, or trading them in at the local used bookstore. This book, however, is a real keeper. The illustrations are beautiful and we find something new in the text each time that we read it.

Here's a new version of a very popular lumberjack, Paul Bunyan! If your looking for a cute story that doesn't "skip" over Minnesota (especially Bemidji Minnesota, home of the second most photographed statues in the USA, Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox) this is a GREAT addition to your collection! (And yes, I know there are other Paul Bunyan collectors out there besides ME!) The pictures are great and the stories are fun! I am sure children will enjoy it! (too!)

This is an absolutely delightful book, made even more so by the splendid illustrations. Down South, where it rarely snows, the kids love reading about the snow and think it's a riot that the snow turned blue! A cute story brought vividly to life by Carolyn Stich's imaginative, detailed drawings.