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If you can think of a word to start out with, but want to search for a better one, you can look the word up in the alphabetically arranged index. There, you will find listed several different faces of the word, some representing subtle variations in the word's meaning that you may have never considered before. Then, after thinking about what aspect of the word most closely resembles your intended meaning, you can look up the word's various implications in the main body of the book. There, you'll discover a plethora of other words of similar meaning.
You'll find the body of the book organizes all of human experience into categories..."the body and the senses", "feelings", "place", "measure and shape", etc.. If you want to describe something intangible, such as an emotion, and cannot even think of one word to begin with, you can wander through the categories of human emotion... pleasure, excitement, contentment... sadness, regret, lamentation...until you find what you are trying to describe. This process helps stimulate thought about exactly what you want to say. A merely alphabetical thesaurus could never offer anything like this.
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We were so concerned about this book going out of publication and to know that it is being sold again is wonderful - If you are looking for a story you all can share, year after year, this is the one!
It has seen us through over thirty years and is still going strong!
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For those of us shooting in 35mm some of the lessons cannot be put into practice directly because pushing or pulling is limited to whole rolls of film rather than individual frames. However the insights are really valuable.
I recommend it.
Adams' attention to detail in testing contrast and resolution in various lighting situations forms the core of the Zone System and of this book.
Issues such as filtration remain the same today as they did with negatives. Although pushing and pulling film is carried out differently in the digital age, it's not impossible if you have even a modicum of exposure control (for instance, overexposing and lowering brightness will still yield lower contrast). And if you are into digital, you'll gloat at your full control of exposure tweaks beyond the one-dimensional control you get with timing chemicals in solution.
One thing that may be disappointing is the emphasis on black and white. There's a brief description of color, but it really deserves a book of its own. This is especially true for filtration and contrast control.
The three books in this series can be read independently, but together provide a complete clinic from positioning the camera to displaying a final print.
A must read for any aspiring b/w photographer.
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I thought Baron and Hector were well-drawn characters, the women and incidental characters less so. I thought the ending was great - very exciting! I think it hooked the reader from the start, and it kept my interest to the end - I really wanted to know what was going to happen, and the characters were sufficiently developed for me to care what happened to them.
I could do without a steady stream of physically perfect female specimens, but I recognize that they are an integral part of male fantasy-land. A little gratuitous sex sells books, and this wasn't obnoxiously gratuitous.
Negatives: I think Walker needs to work on dialogue. He sets all the various scenes very well, so I always had a very detailed mental image of the physical location - the café, Regina's castle, etc. But dialogue sounded cliched and trite from some of the characters, some of the time, and it was jarring, because it didn't match the quality of everything else. Not from Hector or Baron so much, but from the other characters, as I mentioned above.
But over all, I enjoyed it enough that I am purchasing two more books to give away as Christmas presents!
Walker creates interesting and volatile twists in the plot to keep you turning pages, and then neatly pieces it all together in an ending you won't forget. His fight-to-the-death scene is one of the best I've ever read, where you see and feel the pain, the cold, the adrenaline. Throw in the crisp descriptions of European scenery and background and characters who help fire up the plot and you have a marvelous book in your hands that you absolutely can't put down.
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Love Comes Softly is an eight book series written by Christian author Jannette Oke. I thought when my mother-in-law tried to get me to read her books, that I was in for another mushy Harlequin Romance novel, filled with people involved with three, four or five men, and definitely no sign of God in their lives. Boy, was I in for a VERY pleasant surprise. Mrs. Oke leads us through the life of a very young Marty Davis, who has just left her family in the east, to travel west with her new husband , Clem. Clem and Marty had been living out of their wagon, eating pancakes and drinking coffee EVERY day, because that1s all that Marty knew how to make. Unexpectedly, though, Clem dies, and Marty is left alone with child and no home, no money, and just what she has in her wagon.
The Love Comes Softly series then begins to take us through the struggles Marty has to overcome and Mrs. Oke guides us so beautifully, that we feel like we are right there with Marty. The eight books lead us through 40 years in Marty and her family1s lives. I enjoyed every minute of the readings. Never has a book so captured me like Mrs. Oke1s did.
I try to count my blessings every day, but after reading this group of books, I found more to be thankful for. I never stopped to realize what the generations before us went through. With Marty, I learned what is was like to bear a child with no husband and no doctor around--just a local lady that had delivered many babies. I learned what it was like to leave family behind, knowing that you will probably never see them again--or even hear from them again.
The funniest part of the series was in the very first book. Marty decides she will try to make her new husband a chicken and dumpling meal. Well........she goes to the chicken pen to try and catch one. After tearing apart then pen, she finally catches one of only two roosters (she didn1t know she was supposed to only kill the female). Once she gets him, she has no idea as to how to kill him, so she decides to tie him up and kill him--that didn1t work, and she wound up cutting off the beak of the prize rooster. When her husband, Clark comes home, he finds the pen in disarray, and sees his rooster with no beak and he comes to find out that Marty was just trying to cook him his first real meal. This part cracked me up, along with the part where she tries to fix biscuits and they turn out as hard as rocks.
You have to read the books in order. They just keep continuing with this saga. The best book in the series was book four. I can1t tell you why, for it would give the ending for the rest of the series, but it was the book that kept me the most fascinated. The hardest part about the series was the way she wrote it. She wrote it with the accents as they would have said things. It was hard at first, but I got used to it by the second book. I highly recommend her books, and am looking forward to the next series I am about to read. The new series is from the Canadian West. It involves new characters, and therefore new lives.
I would really appreciate hearing from others who have read her books--especially the Love Comes Softly series. It would be enjoyable to talk with others about Jannette Oke1s books. You can find her work at any Christian bookstore or even the library. They are expensive, between $9-13.00, but they are worth their price. I found twelve of her books at the library, though. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. It is definitely a series I would read again and again, and I look forward to my two daughters growing up and wanting to read them as well. They are written in the same manner as the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. ENJOY!!!!!!
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truly a manual to get you on the road to wealth.
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Like many people, I had only read 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' when I was younger but never knew how starved of Lewis' passion for Christ, which is reflected through his theological publications, I had been. He is clearly very much in love with God whom he sees as incomparable with Nature.
The genius of 'Miracles' to me, lies in the fact that it is a very readable evangelistic text disguised as 'a philosophical preparation for the possibility of the existence of Miracles'. Lewis' method is very good. He uses a mixture of friendly sarcasm, reverse psychology and intense detail to get right alongside the reader who he assumes is not a Christian. As a Christian myself, I felt that the book was wasted on me, it should be being read by a person who does not yet know Jesus Christ as their Lord.
Most of the book is dedicated to excrutiating explanations of the Incarnation, God's use of the Miraculous in His constant governance of the Earth and Prayer.
If I had any problem with the book it would be that at times it is quite un-focussed on Christ. Lewis cites the Incarnation (God made Man in Jesus Christ) as God's primary miracle but he does not really explain what this means for the ordinary person in terms of grace (undeserved love of God for us all)and cancellation of sin through the Cross. Maybe, as an evangelistic type of person, I will never be satisfied with any book like Miracles! At times the book feels like a labour of love, his writing on the Law of Nature is painstaking and at times, a little tedious but this, I believe, is only a reflection of his passionate desire for the reader to know Christ. He just has to take you everywhere before taking you home to God!
One last obvious and unintended problem is founded in the fact that this book was written for a different age when the post-modernist free for all denial of absolute truth was just a glint in the modernist's eye. Lewis would also clearly be shocked that unlike his own 'unvenerated' age, sexual intercourse has lost its mystery and need for self-control. I think he would be shocked by today's society - or lack of it.
But really, this is a terrific book. Reading Miracles as a committed Christian, I can see the method he uses and where he will take the reader. It's as if he is speaking in code to Christians! But this code is no secret, to decipher it is to know the greatest gift ever given to humankind, the person of God in Jesus Christ.
It is only when you are almost finished does Lewis just about admit that he had an alterior motive for writing Miracles. But by then, he hopes, the reader will be ready to begin looking into the riches of the Christian Gospel (good news), not just the possibility of the Miraculous!
Go and read it or I could send you my notes on the book. Feel free to get in touch.
Enjoy! Nicola.
In the introduction, Lewis says what his subject matter will be. He notes that before one can look at historical evidence, one must settle the question philosophically (i.e. whether miracles are possible). If someone is persuaded that miracles, per se, are impossible then no amount of evidence will convince. So, it you are looking for argumentation regarding specific miracles look else (I suggest William Lane Craig; his defence of the Resurrection is the best available).
I think there are better, shorter and more forceful defences of miracles but this book is not too bad. Other places to look for a defence of miracles: The Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics by Norman Geisler and Reasonable Faith by William Lane Craig.
Lewis' first task is to define naturalism (I think he does a muddled job but the gist of it is: the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations or that only the physical world [i.e. Nature] exists). Lewis refutes this by showing that immaterial objects exist namely Reason (that is to say both the existence and validity of logic and the part of human beings that performs acts of reasoning) and the existence of morality or ethics (i.e. When somebody suggests that I ought not to sit in his seat in the theatre, he is not simply making an emotional statement, he is saying that I have violated a rule. The fact that the language of ethics, "ought" "should" etc are meaningful shows this).
He deals with the objection that miracles are against the laws of nature or that experience in general is against miracles happening. Lewis also deals with the objection that miracles were believed and wrote about millennia ago because the people were simple-minded, misunderstood the world and lacked modern science. Lewis also deals with the "problem" of language (i.e. the literal "v.s." metaphorical uses). The remaining portion of the book is on different topics...
For example the chapter: Christianity and "Religion", Lewis compares Christianity with pantheism. He says that modern people hold to pantheism because they think it is a sophisticated belief that doesn't have all the old-fashioned mythology et al that theism has. Lewis then goes on to show that merely because pantheism is easy or popular is no reason to accept it as true. In one of his insights, near the end of the chapter he says:
"Man are reluctant to pass over from the notion of an abstract and negative deity to the living God. I do not wonder. Here lies the deepest tap=root of Pantheism and of the objection to traditional imagery. It was hated not, at bottom, because it pictured Him as a man but because it pictured Him as king, or even as warrior. The Pantheist's God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for him like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you." (page 124)
Lewis then looks at the issue of how probable miracles are. He then has a chapter entitled, "The Grand Miracle," which is on the Incarnation, the Resurrection and the Ascension. However, it does not seem to be an argument as such to me, rather it is an explanation and discussion of what the Incarnation is. This is fine, but I don't think this sort of material is appropriate in work that is setting out to DEFEND Christianity rather than simply explain it. He also has a chapter on the general Resurrection.
The book ends with an admonition to keep Naturalism out of our minds. I agree with Lewis that it is defeated as a philosophy; the problem is that it can easily gain a foothold in our minds and before we know we are thinking with naturalistic assumptions.
This is a fairly good book but sometimes I wondered while reading it, "Where are you going with this, Lewis," or, "How is this relevant?"
How exactly do you define a miracle? Lewis defines a miracle as "an interference with Nature by supernatural power." Lewis then presents many questions. Are miracles in contrast to the laws of Nature? What exactly ARE the laws of Nature? Are exceptions possible? How does probability fit into the discussion of miracles? Later in the book, Lewis focuses on three categories of miracles: The Grand Miracle (God becoming man in Jesus Christ), Miracles of the Old Creation (miracles of fertility, healing, destruction, etc.), and Miracles of the New Creation (miracles of reversal, glory, resurrection). This last portion of the book I found to be the most fascinating as Lewis examines several specific miracles from the Old and New Testaments.
"Miracles" is a relatively short book, but properly read will take a little time to read. Take time to absorb and contemplate each chapter. Lewis left us with a lot of things to think about here, regardless of your worldview. You may not agree with everything Lewis says, but it will cause you to think long after you've closed the book.
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Raised in upper class surroundings in Ashville, North Carolina, Robert Morgan seemed to have a care-free life of good times, fast cars, and plenty of women. But World War II intevenes and Morgan, at loose ends, joins an expanding Air Corps in late 1940. He fell in love with flying, but his career was often jeporadized by his propensities for buzzing buildings and beaches, and his disregard for proper military attire and the finer points of military discipline. There is no doubt of Morgan's abilities and courage, however, because in 1943, after a lengthy tour with his Memphis Belle and crew on a bond drive, he volunteers for the brand new B-29 program. As a squadron commander, Lt. Colonel Morgan is part of the 73rd Bomb Wing, based on Saipan, and flies the first B-29 mission to Tokyo, November 1944, in "Dauntless Dotty." After twenty-six often perilous missions, he is grounded and returned to the States in the summer of 1945. Later discharged, Morgan returns to civilian life with wife and now children and enters the business world begun by his father and headed by his brother, David.
But Robert Morgan's flying career is only part of his story. The other is his personal journey, a trek tinged with sadness and search Despite the privileges and luxury, his father was distant and his beloved mother, a friend of the Vanderbilts, was often away. The suicide of his mother when Morgan was 18 was a serious psychic blow, perhaps accounting in part for his numerous love affairs and marriages. As was true with many others who had seen too many friends killed or lost, Morgan continues for years after the war to wonder "why was I spared, my buddies killed." A drinking problem becomes more serious and it is not until Morgan seeks help from his "Command Pilot," God, and counsel from Billy Graham, does to come to grips with the demons that plagued his life.
Another story is also told; the story of Morgan's greatest love, "The Memphis Belle" and his efforts and those of others to have this fabled plane properly enshrined in Memphis. May Morgan and his "Memphis Belle" have tranquil times in their remaining year.