"An inspiring, profoundly wise, and easily accessible book, The Family Virtues Guide is really a guidebook for spiritual living for everyone: children and their friends and family, educators, and individuals. It can help ALL of us bring out the best in each other." -- Kathleen Hawkins, author of Spirit Incorporated: How to Follow Your Spiritual Path From 9 to 5

I introduced this book to our family as a "family meeting night" guide. We choose one of the 52 virtues per week, learn all about it, and practice it during the oncoming week. My four children love it, and enjoy pointing out when they see a virtue being used. Kids growing up in the world today need all the help they can get. This is an excellent resource for parents!

The book "The Family Virtues Guide" is the clearest and easiest to read and use of any book on virtues that I have found. I have William Bennett's "Book of Virtues" and even picked up some books put out by the Church of Latter Day Saints (I am not a member) on virtues. I also have some other books and articles on virtues but none of them really made it easier to use than your book. I try to sit down with my kids once a week to read a "virtue" and it is so easy with your book. Thank you for making it easy. In this day and age we need "virtues." We need it in every aspect of our lives.

This is a prequel to The Phoenix and the Mirror. Davidson the author imagines Vergil as a renaissance scholar may have imagined him(based upon renaissance era paintings of him showing him wearing dress more appropriate to the renaissance than to his actual era). Thus, Vergil is shown as an alchemist and sourcerer. This story shows Vergil's early years, describing his first major client, the City of Averno. Vergil's task is to help the city manage its wealth of natural gas deposits. The author's characters are gripping, and his narrative (which lets the reader slowly discover the background to the action) is unique. I love Davidson's writing, and am only sorry he did not write more about Vergil.

Wordy and totally devoid of a plot; somehow I got through 3/4 of it, and decided it was not worth it.

Avram Davidson was one of the SF field's true greats, a strikingly original writer of heady and eccentric prose. His virtues were most apparent at shorter lengths: his novels sometimes fall apart structurally, and sometimes show signs of having been written rapidly to rather pulpish models, though even in the weakest novels enough of his odd vision is present to make them worth reading.

One of his most accessible novels is Peregrine Primus, originally published in 1971. It's the first part of a projected trilogy, and the second book, Peregrine Secundus, appeared in 1981, but the third book was never written. Lack of closure is not a problem: the joys of these books are not to be found in the working out of the plot, but in the individual, very funny incidents, and in luxurious sentence after intoxicating sentence. Davidson's voice is addictive, and in these books it is developed to the utmost.

The story is set in an alternate history. Peregrine is the younger son of "the last pagan King in lower Europe". When he reaches his majority, his father reluctantly exiles him, in order to prevent trouble with the Crown Prince. So begin Peregrine's, er, peregrinations. Accompanied by a faithful page and an aging sorcerer, he roams about "lower Europe", encountering the remnants of an eccentric Roman Empire, a wide variety of mutually heretical Christians, and many other wonders. A glorious book - and most any other Davidson you can find will reward the purchase as well.

If you liked, or think you would like Eco's Baudolino, I recommend this little book as well. Very funny but insiteful portrait of the dying roman empire. Just delightful.