I've been very happy to see this new view on the book of Hebrews by Dr. Woods. He shows through this book a great deal of thought and clarity. This is not a comprehensive commentary, in the sense that he doesn't interact much with the other commentaries on Hebrews. However, he does a great job of presenting his argument, and showing how it affects the interpretation of Hebrews (especially those infamous "warning passages").
I would recommend this book to anyone willing to meditate on a new view on Hebrews. If you want a more interactive commentary, you might want to look elsewhere. But this commentary must not be overlooked. Happy reading!

(This book is a sequel to The Land Beyond the Gate, and the second book in the quadrilogy.) When he receives a cry for help from the bard Taliesin, Alan MacDougall must reenter Lucifer's world, and see what lies beyond the second gate. Beyond the second gate is Ochren, a dismal land of the gods of the Celtic underworld. While seeking to avoid playing the game of Ahriman, MacDougall must outthink the gods to stay alive. But, with each adventure, he learns more about the powers he possesses in this world, and the true nature of the armlet he carries!

As with the last book, this one is quite interesting. The author makes copious use of dues ex machinas and populates his world with improbable people (Romans, Vikings, Chinese, etc.). However, for all that, the story is so very well written, that you have no trouble suspending your disbelief enough to like the story. I enjoyed the author's use of the Celtic pantheon, and really liked the way he inserted members of the Sumerian pantheon without straining credibility.

So, once again, I would say that this is a good book (though not a great one), one that I highly recommend to you!

I recently found this book again while cleaning out by bookshelf. My mother used to read it to me when i was a small child. It is an illustrated children's book which follows the story of Arthur and Clementine, two tortoises who marry and experience the reality of the differences between us. On reflection, i think this is where my feminist roots stemmed from!

When a special episode of Arthur and his friends' favorite television program, "Dark Bunny" airs, the gang is seriously peeved because Mr. Ratburn has piled them down with homework and with all of that work, they're not going to be able to watch it. That is until Arthur threatens that he just won't do his homework, in fact, he'll even skip school. Francine doesn't believe him and so she decides to call him on it- by daring him! Things escalate from there, until everyone in Arthur's treehouse is dared, including the studious Brain! You'll have to read the book to find out how they deal with this, but it all comes down to the lesson that you shouldn't do something you know is wrong simply to prove that you can. This book isn't as funny as some of the other Arthur chapter books and some of it is just weird, but overall it's still a decent story.

"Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms" is an interesting work, going into the history of the north of Britain in the Iron Age, Roman period, and post-Roman centuries. Moffat makes a good case for a historical Arthur, who was based out of the ancient Welsh-speaking north, which is now the Scottish borderlands. It's good to get to know something about this Arthur, or at least the times in which the historical war-leader Arthur would have lived, in a genuine historical context, rather than a mythological or semi-legendary context only. For anyone who's a fan of the stories of Arthur, or fascinated by the history of the so-called "Dark Ages" in Britain, this will be an informative book. Be prepared for a lot of references to the P-Celtic and Q-Celtic language subgroups, British tribal names, and some other references which might be obscure to the novice. Some of Moffat's evidence is largely supposition, but he really does dig up some nice history, and he's not overbearing. It's worth reading.

Overall, I wasn't too impressed by the television version of this episode. There was a lot of bad dialogue, it's hard to watch any season five episode with some of the voice actors they had and it was painful to watch the Brain attempting to be funny. However, the wonderful Stephen Krensky actually manages to make a bad story into one that's actually kind of fun to read. He does so by adding details that weren't in the television version and adding extra dialogue to enhance parts o the story. Also, he smartly removed a very bad gag involving Brain's brain telepathically communcating with other brains. A good read for all Arthur fans.

The Internal Revenue Service has made significant changes to regulations affecting nonprofits, shifting responsibility for compliance from the organization itself to the directors, staffs, and major donors as individuals. Most nonprofit board members and executives are only dimly aware of these changes, and fewer still are prepared with the documentation necessary to address issues of conflict of interest, private inurement, and disqualified persons.

One sentence from the book's introduction sums up the need for action: "The most important aspect of this legislation is that it empowers the IRS to impose punishment on individuals who violate the tax code by levying significant excise taxes initially and then more than quadrupling the penalty amount if remedy is not made to the [nonprofit] organization."

The solution, and the purpose of the book, is also summed up in one sentence in the introduction: "The key to protecting these organizations' officers and other interested parties from excise taxes is proper documentation."

The book is 3-ring bound and well-tabbed for easy reference and for copying of template forms and sheets that are included. In addition, the book ships with a companion PC diskette with forms in Microsoft Word 6.0/Word 95 format that should be usable by most current word processing programs.

This book is a valuable resource for nonprofit executives, consultants, attorneys, and others providing organizational development and counseling to nonprofits and charities.

The book does include examples and references to the health care field, but its content is equally applicable to all nonprofits.

The book's Table of Contents is as follows:

1. Overview of the Intermediate Sanctions Law 2. Establishing an Intermediate Sanctions Review Process 3. Disqualified Persons Determination 4. Diagnostic Review for Disqualified Persons 5. Diagnostic Review for Organization Manager Liability 6. Examining Revenue-Sharing Transactions 7. Rebuttable Presumption of Reasonableness

Appendices

-- Intermediate Sanctions Law -- Excerpt from House Ways and Means Committee Report on Taxpayer Bill of Rights 2 -- Intermediate Sanctions Proposed Regulations -- IRS Model Conflicts of Interest Policy

This book is a great book. I like it because it shows that there are ways to calm children (or should I say all people)down. Everyone should read this.

This wonderful book with an introduction by Laurie Thomas, reproduces the enormous range of of graphic expressions that Boyd created in his life time. I was recently visiting his artists camp at Bundanon on the south coast of New South Wales, and the book was there and I focused on it as an alternative to playing Polly Body's grand piano, I suppose with the spirit of Merrick and David Boyd in mind.

So to the immediate nature of his art. One of the things that is so evident in a book like this, is the image making facility in Boyd that seems always so liquid. This book ingeniously reproduces the drawings in all the various mediums on nonreflective paper in a folio format, very handsomely designed and uncluttered. The drawback in such entreprises in many ways is the inclusiveness of the catalogue project.This book does have to manage recording the ALL OF approach, and that halfway through the collection the editor has decided to reproduce the works as thumbnail illustrations. This apsect of the book is sometimes limiting.

Looking at the early self portraits of the artist as a young man, with those serious heavy looking back looks of self-portraits, I am reminded of an amazing work he etched of his friend Max Nicholson years later.In those sort of images where the brooding smudged semi-darkness expresses the atmosphere of a personality, I am intrigued as to the meanings of this drama. In such an intimate stage as these drawing provides, the engagement can be tender and this is so with this so with the representations of his family and inner circle of friends. The graphite drawings recording domestication and working spaces are almost cloistraphobic, which says somethings of the imagined drama he was experimenting towards in the paintings. In these early works of family, and a series of pen&ink drawings of urban menace one locates many of the themes and icons that litter his ongoing expansive painting project.

Probably the most significant record which exists in this book are the preliminary drawings for the Aboriginal and the Bride series which I predict will eventually become landmarks in Modern Australian post-colonial art.

Boyd is a natural narrative artist, and in this volume there are works which are coupled with the poetry of Peter Porter another Australian who has been in England for many years. In "Lady and the Unicorn" and "Jonah" and "Narcissus" and "Mars", the drawings in various ways outline Boyd's enduring narrative strategies. Ruark Lewis, Sydney 17.9.2000

There are surprises galore in this latest in the Venus Prime series, among them revalations about the Commander, changes in Sparta's views on things, and the central surprise which would be rude to reveal.

As Preuss says in his notes after the novel's conclusion, this book is setting up more events in the future, while still being a good read when held alone. I'd read the first three Venus Prime books in one weekend, and then had to wait months for the fourth. Hopefully, the next books in the series will arrive more quickly, but if not, at least I know they will be well-written.