As a caretaker of six cats and a dog, I have used Bach Remedies for years with my animals but I've always had to refer to books focusing on the use of the remedies with humans. This book has come to my rescue and I especially like that there are separate chapters on cats and dogs. There is also a separate chapter on use of the remedies wih horses.

The best feature of the book is the second chapter "Using the remedies" where the authors spell out the animal behaviors that can indicate a need for each of the 38 remedies. For example, Crab Apple is the remedy for cleansing and is indicated for a animal who does excessive grooming or chews on its fur or feathers.

The only negative aspect for me, as an American, is the very British slant in the resources lists and in the case studies. However, that is a small complaint in the overall usefulness of this title.

Hull outlines what a church based on discipleship principles looks like. He casts a good vision of why discipling is important, talks about the core values, and then outlines the progression in the early church from first church, to mission church, and finally discipling church. He discusses how Jesus developed formed a group of twelve leaders to carry out ministry, and how every church needs this type of approach in the 21st century. His appendix on building a leadership community is relevant and exciting -- especially to those planting cell-based churches. There is also a good section on how to structure small groups. Hull's best work thus far. This is a book that every church planter and pastor wishing to increase the leadership quotient in his church should read.

Anyone wanting to improve the quality and increase the longevity of their feline companion's life should own this reference book. Based on the teachings of Dr. Edward Bach, a prominent physician in the early 1900s, who was concerned not only with the physical problems of his patients, but with their emotional outlook as well. This book reminds us that cats are as individual as humans--each with their own set of emotional and health issues. The 38 Bach Flower Essences are listed alphabetically, with a general description as well as specific behavioral traits exhibited by cats that each remedy could correct. Suggested remedies for humans having difficulty dealing with injured or ailing cats are also given. No previous knowledge or experience with flower essences is needed to start using this information immediately.

The Halloween Ball, published in 1987, was James H. Kunstler's sixth novel. It takes place in a small up-state New York town during a roughly twenty-four hour period on Halloween day. The story revolves around four main characters, all men in their thirties, who are involved, one way or another, with a Halloween costume party that will be thrown that evening, and which promises to be the biggest social event the town has seen in decades.

Kunstler's prose is concise and accessible, and seems to reflect his journalist background. He has an eye for architectural detail, but does not allow his descriptions to get in the way of the story. There is a definite anti-developement message, but it is not as strident and tendentious as Kunstler's more recent writings which specifically critique what he calls the "fiasco of suburbia."

Kunstler does an admirable job of getting you to care about his characters, although you never really get to know them very well. And while the main plot lines intersect and tie-up nicely, there are a few threads which seem to just fizzle.

Nevertheless, the Halloween Ball is a good read. Curl up with it on a chilly autumn evening with a mug of mulled wine and enjoy.

This book provides an excellent, detailed account of the war crimes and genocide which happened in the 20th century. Ball details human rights abuses which occurred during WWI, WWII, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Cambodia. In providing an in-depth look into our past, Ball shows where international law may be moving in the future. The international community continues to see gross human right violations since the Nuremberg Trial. Ball provides Problems and Prospects for the future of the international community to protect victims against human rights violations and to punish those who commit human rights voilations.

From its rather droll beginnings: "Thurgood Marshall was born in 1908," Howard Ball's biography, A Defiant Life : Thurgood Marshall and the Persistence of Racism in America, only goes downhill. His writing style is bland and the story line follows no distinguishable pattern, aimless flowing from point to point with few overarching themes.

Unlike Juan Williams' Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary (a truly great biography focusing on the personal as well as the legal issues of this American giant) or Mark Tushnet's Making Civil Rights Law and Making Constitutional Law (two books that provide an excellent legal analysis of Marshall's work), Ball's book repeats stories and facts that are already well-worn and understood. Most tragic, one gets little understanding about what drove Marshall to fight the brutal system of Jim Crow oppression and led him to become such a forceful advocate of individual rights on the bench.

The personal and legal story of Marshall is much more interesting and deserves a much better biography. Best to skip this one.

Gut wrenching in its honesty,thought provoking in the truest sense of the word. It allowed me to take a step back from racial madness and see through another pair of eyes. No law can change people's attitudes, morality is judged by the majority, this book shows us. And yet it had a hopeful note beneath the surface. Initially I was put off by the inhuman, thesis sounding title.. do not make my mistake-read this book and absorb culture at its ugliest (and most honest).