This is a great story, very old and yet timeless. If you really are interested in a chance to experience the astrological force of Pluto, then don't miss this opportunity! In some way this force is bigger than human, and still we have to deal with it as good as we can. One big benefit of old mythical stories is that they help us to become familiar with such forces and to learn how to arrange our lives with them. For that I can very much recommend this book.

Arthur Yorinks is a spare writer with the gift of hitting the comic and serious simultaneously and with deadly accuracy. This book sings its humor and moves along with the pace of a keystone kop two reeler. And the picture of a man with no head trying to eat a bagel alone is worth the entire price of this prince of children's books. Read it and don't laugh. I dare you

James Hull Miller's life-time work in the area of self-supporting scenery is neatly organized and laid out in this book. This reference is especially useful to those producing a play, musical, etc., in a setting that is not the typical theater. Mr. Miller demonstrates that utilizing free-standing set pieces allows greater versitililty than the conventional set. His ideas are innovative, invigorating and inspiring! "Self-Supporting Scenery for Children's Theater and Grown-up's Too" contains both the theory behind free-standing sets and the practical "how-to" for building pieces. I like this book because it offers practical solutions to the problem of staging in an area that has no proscenium arch. The sets are light in weight, store easily, transport well and look good. Mr. Miller's expertise is obvious and appreciated.

Demonstrating with pissimism, "vision" and deep paranoia about the fatal schiz-phrenic human behaviour. For Koestler, the new Calendar has started since August 6,1945 with the Hiroshima bomb. Atomic bombs cannot be "uninvented", therefore they will be evantually used by man to destroy life on earth, unless we find a new injection or prescribtion to enhance the schiz contradictory social behaviour of the human race. Language is the source of human "unity", nobelity, and yet is the main source of dividing and isolating man.Since alwyas, the human history has been a continuous series of words and wars, and it will not get any better with the atomic and mass distruction weapons. It is all laid in the schizic human brain. For Koestler,it seems that through human evolution, a biological explosion has occured in the human brain,creating the new cortex, the new brain, that has the language, religion centers, etc, on top of the archaic brain, where greed, jealousy,lust are centered.A very informative book that is worth reading. It shows a great deal of unbelievably simple visionary observations.

Some good reading on Japanese work culture and why it works. It gives the reader a good understanding on where the Japanese came from and how they evolved to what they are today.

Jefferson Davis is the only American President not to be the President of the United States. In this excellent juvenile biography by Joey Frazier young readers will learn that Davis was a distinguished politician even before he became the first and only PResident of the Confederate States of America. Having grown up on a Mississippi cotton plantation, Davis was educated at West Point and served as an army officer. In the U.S. Senate Davis supported slavery and strongly championed states rights, which made him the perfect man to lead the South. Frazier also covers the years after the Civil War, when Davis was held in prison and wrote his memoirs after being released. Students having to research Davis for a class project will find lots of information in this easy to read book.

This book in the Famous Figures of the Civil War Era series is illustrated with historic paintings and etchings, although strangely enough the only photography is a contemporary one of a statue of Davis. I know there are historic photographs of him, but for some reason this series tends to shy away from such things. Side-bars focus on details such as the impact of the invention of the cotton gin on slavery and the attack on Ft. Sumter. Although these books always refer to their subjects by their first name, this is a solid series for young readers interested in the Civil War.

I'm using this book for my son's third grade Bible program. It's fast moving and fun, yet very extensive with weekly memory verses and step by step bible reading and questions about the child's own walk with the Lord. It puts the child in the role of a movie director researching Jesus' life for a movie. There are lots of study questions, as well as games and puzzles to make it really interesting. Third grade is the very youngest I would have a child doing this study, in fact we are taking 2 weeks to do each weekly unit, and it would be just as interesting for an older child up through jr. high.

I befriended a man soon after he was baptized into the Witnesses. Having read a Christian critique of JW's in Kingdom of the Cults, I quizzed him on the deity of Jesus and the Trinity. He is firmly convinced that Jesus is a created being and not equal with Jehovah nor part of a Triune Godhead.(a Satanically devised, man-made dogma promulgated in error by Christianity) This book directly mentions and addresses JW's unitarian belief with many Biblical quotations and fullfilled prophecies. Its appendix lists Old/New Testament scriptures where terms and characterstics are applied to Jehovah in the Old Testament and where the same is ascribed to Jesus Christ in the New. Strong proof to an open minded seeker of truth from the received text. Douglas Schatz

Arthur Zannoni has authored a fine book which is very readable and approachable, yet packed with fine scholarship. This book is easily read and leaves you wanting more. Zannoni's style is comfortable. Although a good read for someone working alone, he also provides good discussion questions at the end of each chapter, making it an easy to use book for small groups doing study together. Highly recommended

"The People's Aardvark" is Ed Slavin's sub-title for the chapter on "Purging Corruption," which focuses on Jimmy Carter's successful run for the Presidency in 1976. You see, that year, in the wake of Watergate, a Democratic party official had declared the party "could run an aardvark this year and win." Of course, one of the purposes of Ed Slavin's biography of Jimmy Carter is to given readers a better sense of how the first Southerner since Zachary Taylor to be elected to the White House (No, Texans do not count) was a bit more than an aardvark (with all apologies to Cerebus). Slavin begins his biography with Carter's last day in office, clearly recognizing the Iranian hostage crisis as the crucible of his presidency. The other chapters are devoted to Carter's youth and years in the military, his political career in Georgia, the surprisingly successful run for the Presidency, the impact of the oil crisis on Carter's domestic policy, his greatest success with the Camp David Accord, his foreign policy with regards to the Panama Canal and the Soviet Union, and a final chapter that parallels the downfall of the Shah of Iran with Carter leaving office. Written in 1989, this book touches only briefly on Carter's work since leaving the White House. However, there are other juvenile biographies that deal more with his political and social work over the past twenty years that have made him one of the more active ex-Presidents.

"Jimmy Carter" is a biography that effectively emphasizes depth over breadth. There are competing biographies that certainly provide more biographical information and details about the Carter Presidency. However, Slavin limits the number of topics to provide more substance and more analysis than you will normally find. The result, is a better understanding of the complex issues that defined the Carter presidency and which highlighted his strengths and weaknesses as a leader. Obviously, Slavin proves Carter to be more than the aardvark of the moment. "World Leaders Past & Present" is a biographical series written especially for young adults and intended to introduce people from history whose ideas and actions have determined the course of history from John Adams to Zhou Enlai. This book, and I suspect others in the series, has an introduction on "Leadership" by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. that defines the focus and import of the series.