I heard about this author from a couple of friends who had taken a class from him on comedy and religion (didn't know there was any comedy in religion but there you go). So I looked him up on the net and read samples of his novels and ordered Benedict XVI because it's the only one he's published so far. I'm still laughing. The sample was good but the novel gets better and better and ends up as the best damn comic novel since, you fill in the blank. What sets it off from the standard "bestselling" novel is the characters. Benny Good the charming bastard, Ariel the Southern California airhead, Esther Geld the virginal agent who sets Benny up as pope, Ron Something, whose last name Benny (and the author?) can't remember, Maven Plum, the Barbara Walters of this crazy world-the list goes on and on. Plus the plot. You think you know where things are headed but no, the story takes you in another direction entirely. Breathtaking roll-on-the-floor funny. What we have here is not a failure to communicate, what we have here is an undiscovered comic genius. If you like the Coen brothers you'll love this stuff!

Did I mention the cover is a gas?

A clearly written guide to internet programming in C++. The examples are solid, and yet simple enough that you don't get bogged down trying to figure out the code rather than understand the concept being taught. It's a shame other programming books aren't as well written.

The layout of this calendar enhances the beauty of the images, making each page a work of art. The information includes all feasts for the U.S. and Canada, as well as the major secular holidays. The quotes from the Holy Father make the calendar even more special.

Robert & Linda Easterbrooks

This should be considered the definitive statement of the Roman Catholic Church's thinking and belief to-date. As Pope John Paul II says, "A sure norm for teaching the Faith". Answers many questions and clarifies specific issues currently in the fore of Catholic and world thought.

Beautiful...a beautiful way to begin the new millennium as we reflect upon excerpts from our most fearless and patient leader.

A priest read a page at a mass during a homily and I was hooked on the idea to make this a daily devotional part of my prayers. These short insights into the human condition allow me to pray for us all.

THis work comes out of the "Braaten/Jenson Ecumenical Center" which has provided so many great books on Christian reunion. The center isn't called that, but those two untiring Christians have done so much that it should be named after them!

Now this book doesn't solve any problems per se, but it does put them into context and it avoids the unhelpful, silly, and unscholarly straw man arguments that the cheaper scholarship throws out as to why we should be Catholic or Protestant or Orthodox or "Protholidox"! WHile it is a great book for those interested in reunion, it is certainly a must-read for those who have read Ut Unum Sint, "that all may be one".

See my review of Brian Tierney's "Origins of Papal Infallibility" for a great selection of books that deal indepth with the subject of reunion between east and west as it relates to the papacy. Enjoy!

Soy profesor de Nuevo Casas Grandes Chihuahua y quiero saber que precio darían si comprara cerca de 50 libros y que facilidades darían para el pago espero pronto su respuesta. Este es un libro que vale oro, pero que debe ser accesible a todos para adquirirlo

Escapo is a good illustration of when comics live up to their potential and deliver serious themes in a fresh artistic tapestry. Paul Pope uses the escape artist to examine several different types of escape and our flirtation with love, death and life. Plus Escapo shows that circuses and escape artist can still be cool!

The authors of the Notre Dame Sympsium in the summer of 1999 worked toward the goal of helping people understand and appreciate a profound document from the Holy Father in Rome.

Pope John Paul II introduces the 1998 encyclical "Fides et Ratio" with a question. He wonders whether philosophy makes people feel sick and queasy? The immediate answer is to say, Yes, philosophy does make people feel sick, because of a "widespread distrust of the human being's great capacity for knowledge" (paragraph no. 5).

The conclusion that philosophy makes us queasy receives support from the following induction. Try a simple test and read the following questions: "Who am I? Where have I come from and where am I going? Why is there evil? What is there after this life?" (no. 1).

Do these questions of John Paul II bring about feelings of sickness and light-headedbess? Are the questions heavy and confusing? Do they produce repulsive, clammy feelings in one's nervous system? If you are like some college students in philosophy class, then your anwer may be affirmative.

Philosophy and the above question should be attractive to us and should cause us to relax. "These are questions which we find in the sacred writings of Israel, as also in the Veda and the Avesta," writes John Paul. "We find them in the writing of Confucius and Lao-Tze, and in the preaching of Tirthankara and Buddha." These questions have been confidently addressed in every place and every time history. "They appear in the poetry of Homer and in the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles, as they do in the philosophical writings of Plato and Aristotle."

Unfortunately, we do not find these questions at Disneyland or Las Vegas. Disneyland in Anaheim has 60 major rides among eight themed lands: Main Street, Tomorrowland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Critter Country, Mickey's Toontown and New Orleans Square. However, Philosophyland is excluded from the park. Las Vegas ignores the tough questions and provides "escapist fun" with colossal hotels and casinos: Excalibur, Luxor, New York-New York, Circus Circus, MGM Grand and Treasure Island. As the AAA Tour Book says, "Las Vegas became a city that thrived on illusion and fantasy" (California/Nevada 2000, p. 262). However, there is no Philosophy casino in Vegas.

After visiting Dineyland and Las Vegas a person might ask, "Where can I find answers to the tough questions on page 9 in the encyclical?" The Pope replies by saying that "the Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery" (no. 2). The Church is good place to investigate the philosophical questions, because the Church "received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life" from the Lord, and the Lord is "the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14: 6).

This is one of the best biographies I have ever read and it is the an incredible work done by authors. They describe in detail all relevant facts about the Pope and, based on these facts, the authors explain his ideas and his influence under the modern church. In this book, the reader will be able to understand many of John Paul II's thoughts and actions that were performed and will be performed by him during his period as a Pope. A book worth reading in order to understand the real man behind the Sant Peters Throne.