This is a fun, full-color, "idea" book which describes a collection of animations which I have built for my O Gauge model railroad layout. The basic ideas, however, are fully applicable to any gauge model railroad. (G thru HO and smaller!) An overview of my layout, and philosophy concerning my approach to developing these animations is provided. In clearly drawn pictures and diagrams, I show how easy it is to build over 20 of these custom animations for your own model railroad layout. The animations embrace use of physical motion, lighting, smoke, sound, and time in various combinations. All may be either directly copied or tailored to complement your individual interests. Some are controlled via very simple, low-cost electrical circuits that are explained in easy-to-understand terms. No previous knowledge of electronics is needed. No critical adjustments are required. Some animation examples include: "burning" railroad ties, children flying a kite and a model airplane, smoke-puffing billboard, flashing car-headlights warning other motorists of a speed trap, playground swing, ballet school dancers, operating bulldozer, a model "Music Hall", moving train in hobby shop window, gazebo band concert, etc. All necessary parts are identified and multiple sources listed for their purchase. Hopefully, the thoughts and creations presented in this book will not just entertain, but will in some way contribute to adding new interest to your own model railroad layout. Enjoy!

This book IS marble collecting made easy. It's easy to understand with very clear pictures and text. The pictures are fantastic. I had picked up some old marbles in an auction boxlot and this book really made it possible for me to identify the valuable ones. It has to be the LEAST dry and boring antique reference book I've ever found. I highly recommend it!

This book grew out of one of the Great Plains Chautauqua, the first and best of the modern Chatauqua movement. All sorts of thinkers, writers, politicians and activists from the early 20th Century are included. Each chapter has a short introduction to the life and work of the person profiled, and a selection from their writings that includes some part of their vision for America. Everyone from Jane Addams to Teddy Roosevelt is here, as well as some lesser know people that you will find interesting to learn about.

It is interesting to read these perspectives and compare them to the realities of American life today.

This is a great work!

Hoffmans stories are an obvious influence on fantasy classics such as the OZ books and Alice in Wonderland. I just discovered Hoffmans work and I'm totally in awe. H.P. love craft can't hold a candle to Hoffman's supernatural imagination. His writing is not stuffy or archaic at all. He writes in a quick moving vortex of fantastic visual and emotional concepts casting a spell on the reader. totally unexpected.... totally unique!

All fantasy authors should read this book. It boggles the mind!

This book is super cute. It was bought for a high school to expose students to books in Spanish. They were amused. First year spanish students were able to figure out what the text meant based on the pictures. This was very helpful.

This is such a well done guide. Another good book in the California Natural History Guide series by the University of California Press, this book is particularly strong in its keys. Replete with line drawings of the living animals as well as instructive views of skulls for use in identification. Good range maps, and index. It has 77 pages of mammal ecology including sections on studying mammals (even gives addresses for suppliers of night vision scopes and hunter style hearing aid devices). Another 260 odd pages are the species accounts: Marsupialia, Insectivora, Chiroptera, Carnivora, Pinnepedia, Cetacea, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla, Rodentia, and Lagomorpha. I would say your California natural history bookshelf isn't complete without this one.

Donald Everett Axinn is a practiced, dedicated, literate, accessible poet with five volumes of published verse to his credit. Change As A Curved Equation is his sixth collection and one in which his poetry deals with the phenomena of life, earth, the passage of time, the seasons, geography, geometry, and the weather. Scene: Summer sun splashes on this delusory/Seurat-sea bouncing off frothed/Fronts of cresting waves/Their tight claws pouncing on the brazen beach./Through bottoms of hairy eyebrows/Squinting eyes observe ripened shore grass/Swaying in unexplained patterns to muted music/Orchestrated by puffs of gusts pushed out/Of the east and arranged by that same/Source that sponsored this morning.//A flag unfurls held stiff by the wind./One a flagpole it pierces the horizon/Where the sky begins while a mockingbird mimics/Everyone's songs and that analyzer in my brain/Is punching out so many cards/I cannot read them all so fast.

Chapter One: "Psychodynamic Marriage Counseling" Chapter Two: "Teaching Couples to Fall in Love" Chapter Three: "Foundational Understandings in Marriage Counseling" Chapter Four: "Couple Communication" Chapter Five: "Relationship Development" Chapter Six: "Christian PREP: An Empirically Based Model for Marital and Premarital Intervention" Chapter Seven: "Marriage Counseling: A Brief Strategic Approach to Promote Love, Faith, and Work" Chapter Eight: "Marital Counseling: A Christian Integrative Approach" Chapter Nine: "Exploring Christian Marriage Counseling"

With the publication of Everett Ferguson's book on ecclesiology, another milestone has been reached in the scholarly presentation of the distinctive theological perspective of Churches of Christ. The book is divided into six chapters, each roughly sixty to seventy pages in length. Within each chapter, Ferguson neatly and systematically outlines his thoughts and arguments. The first chapter, entitled "The People and the Messiah: History and Eschatology," deals mainly with background issues. It examines the Old Testament teaching on the importance of covenant and the meaning of the phrase "kingdom of God" in its relationship to an and distinction from the church. Ferguson enters into the New Testament and ecclesiology proper via a consideration of Jesus as Messiah, including a careful exegesis of Matt. 16:13-23, where he concludes that the "rock" of Matt. 16:18 is not Peter, but the fact of Jesus' Messiahship. Ferguson's analysis of Matt. 16:13-23 is insightful and carefully articulated. Within this section, he gives attention to "the gates of Hades will not prevail" and concludes with some interesting yet encouraging insight. In the second chapter, "The Church and Her Lord: The Nature of the Church," Ferguson deals with and focuses on three images, "people of God," "body of Christ," and "community of the Spirit." A peculiar feature in this chapter is placing the discussion of the word ekklesia last rather than first. The latter would seem more appropriate and would seem to set the stage for the chapter, especially for a work of biblical ecclesiology. This great section will open the eyes of the reader and renew his focus of church. That is to say, this chapter correctly puts Christ as the head of the church and gives Him His appropriate place. The third chapter concentrates on, "The Church and Her Savior: Salvation and Church Membership." Essentially this section covers soteriology, which determines ecclesiology, but it is not ecclesiology itself. His full treatment of the nature of sin, the meaning of the cross, and the human response to God's saving work is only loosely linked to his topic of ecclesiology. This is not to say that this section is uninteresting or uninformative because it is quite helpful for a fuller understanding of these matters. Far more important is the content of Ferguson's soteriology. Ferguson is strong when it comes to the necessity of baptism. A few statements will give the reader an idea of his position: "Baptism is the time at which one is incorporated into Christ and so becomes a child of God" (pg. 170); "Baptism is a 'calling on the name' of the Lord" (pg. 180); and, "Baptism is the appointed time at which God pronounces forgiveness" (pg. 183). He concludes: There must be an objective necessity about baptism, or New Testament writers could not speak of baptism in the way they do" (pg. 185). How refreshing! In our world of relativity and ecumenism, people need to hear Ferguson's words, especially those in Churches of Christ. The last three chapters move into a more familiar territory for a treatise on the church. Chapter four, "The Church and Her High Priest: Worship and Assembly" is a great section for anyone interested in the dynamics of worship. Here, Ferguson begins with a type of etymology as a way of introduction, concentrating on both the Greek and English words. This introduction to the subject sets the stage for the entire chapter. Worship is a hot topic today, thus chapter four is rather applicable for our day with all the differing views. This section is multitudinously faceted and exhaustive. "The Church and Her Bishop: The Continuing Ministry" is appropriately the title for the fifth chapter. In this section, Ferguson again touches on some hot topics in the church. It is unfortunate however that he only briefly deals with the debates on miraculous gifts and women's roles. Ferguson advocates a cessasionist position on miraculous gifts and a complementarian position on women's roles, but leaves the reader thirsting for more information and a more comprehensive treatment of the issues. In a day where these two in particular issues are so widely discussed and debated, one would think that they might have received a little concentration. Again, this is not to eradicate what was accomplished in this chapter because it was insightful and obliging, especially given the fact that his discussion on deaconesses was amazingly insightful and well balanced. In chapter six Ferguson adequately covers, "The Church and Her Teacher: The New Way of Life." In this section, he includes an unusually prominent consideration of ethics and a very healthy discussion of the importance of Christian fellowship and its concomitant, church discipline. One last thing that must be mentioned about this chapter is Ferguson's section on unity. Although this section is brief, it is significant and insightful. Ferguson lays out the various aspects of unity and does so in just a few short pages. It serves as an excellent conclusion to a monumental work. Of course, any reader is free to take issue with some of Ferguson's conclusions. For example, the distinction that is made between the temporary and permanent endowments of the Spirit still awaits additional clarification, and there will be those who will score Ferguson, despite his disclaimer, for his synchronic rather than diachronic approach to the New Testament writings. This is a courageous book. Its Reformed-Restorationist slant that the proper doctrine of the church entails a return to the faith and practice of the apostolic church is unmistakable. There are numerous nuggets of exegesis and important points of emphases that make this book worth reading. It is astounding that Ferguson deals with so many facets of ecclesiology in a one-volume work. Not only that, but he also includes a helpful subject index as well as a number of bibliographies. Just a glance at his copious footnotes and it is clear that this book is well researched and well documented. This book should be one that every minister, church leader, and ministry student is required to read and ponder.

I have enjoyed many of Mrya Livingston poems, this one A Circle of Seasons takes you on a wondrous journey into the changing of the seasons throug a thirteen stanza poem. It gave me new insight to the seasons. A must read for any peotry lover. I highly recommend all her books, especially this one and Sky Songs.