Leroy Davis is a briliant scholar and an excellent teacher. His depth of knowledge on John Hope is amazing, and the real man comes through in this great book.

-Adam Rothwell

Up till the publication of 'C-46 Commando in Action' by Squadron/Signal this book was the only publication about the Curtiss Commando, but the five stars are merited by the thorough investigation by these enthousiasts. It is only lacking a color art section to make it a real all-time classic, but there is hardly anything that could be better (information-wise) in this nice book by Air Britain. Though the book is published in Britain, the writers all hail from the USA -as does Curtiss Aircraft- and these gentlemen give you the history of each and every 'Commando' ever built and a lot of black-and-white photographs of this plane. The 146 pages of this book are printed in a rather small typewriter font, so there is more information than you should judge just by mere size of this book.

As novice birdwatchers, this book was indispensable for planning our birdwatching trip to SE Arizona. It gave specific locations to visit for birds that you could expect to see there. Directions were clear and concise. With help from this book, we saw nearly every bird species we had hoped to see. This book is a must for this region!

A great book and a fine review of the Davis Cup and its history. Several timeless photographs and interesting accounts of the ties as they were played. Any fan of the Davis Cup should own this book. If you have been to or watched the ties you will enjoy the memories. If you have not you will enjoy understanding the history and why the Davis Cup should become one of the most important championships in sport.

IF THE NAMES BIG BILL HAYWOOD, EUGENE DEBS, IGNATIUS DONNELLY, WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, SOAPY SMITH SOUND FAMILAR, THEY ARE VERY FAMILAR TO DAVIS H. WAITE; a.k.a. BLOODY BRIDLES.

THE POLITICAL LIFE OF WAITE IS DOCUMENTED THROUGH EXTENSIVE RESEARCH OF SOURCES.

THE BIOGRAPHICAL SEGMENT LACKS FOR SOME ACCURACY REGARDING FAMILY HISTORY DETAILS AND ANCEDOTES. THIS SITUATION WILL BE CORRECTED IN THE NEW BIOGRAPHY OF WAITE BY HIS GREAT-GRANDSON, FRANK S. WAITE .

I arrived at the teachings of A. H. Almaas through Ken Wilber's books. "The universal message of the Diamond Approach," Almaas explains, is that "when we learn how to invite our true nature to reveal itself, it will guide us toward realizing our spiritual ground and, at the same time, actualize our potential in all walks of life." John Davis, one of Almaas's first students (p. xi), now teaches "Ali's" Diamond Approach to human potential here in Boulder, a practice that integrates the ancient spiritual wisdom of Gurdjieff, Sufism, Vajrayana and Zen Buddhism with modern psychological theory (p. 10). "The aim of the Diamond Approach," he writes, "is to live fully and deeply" (p. 3), and like a diamond, the practice is "durable, valuable, precious " (p. 17). In a way that is easy to understand, Davis surveys the main concepts and methods of the Diamond Approach, including teachings on inquiry, the soul, space, essence, self-realization, and pure Being. The practice itself, however, is more challenging. Writers including Wilber, Jack Kornfield, and Tony Schwartz have all recognized the value in the Diamond Approach, and in his book, Davis provides his readers with an introduction to Almaas's Diamond teachings that, well, glitters.

G. Merritt

Although there are probably as many theodicies as there are people in the world, Stephen Davis does a fine job selecting scholars who represent various, major viewpoints on the classic problem of evil to elucidate their positions. John Roth represents a theodicy of protest whereby it is insinuated that God may not be totally good. God, says Roth, has a dark side and so must be persuaded by human protest and prayer to do what is right. Hick, of course, represents the position of an Irenean theodicy where God is portrayed as simply unable to stop all evil since evil is born our of free will and God cannot contradict the free will He gave us (lest it cease being free will). More than that, however, God has created a world in which trouble and evil exist in order that, by virtue of our free will, we might grow in character through the hardship. God, says Hick, is in the business of soul-making and has an overall plan for us as His creation to grow into spiritual maturity through the joys and sufferings of this life. Davis takes the classic Christian perspective position that evil is the result of human sin, that Jesus died to redeem us of that sin. We are responsible for the evil in the world, but God has created a way to redeem the world by taking sin on Himself in the form of Jesus Christ. By recieving Christ into our lives, not only are we promised a future in eternity without evil, but we are able to grow through the sufferings of life instead of shun them as worthless. He argues that there is no logical contradiction between the Biblical God (omnipotent and omnibenevolent) and the existence of evil in the world. Griffin represents the process theology position that God is evolving with the creation and so is learning as He goes. Matter, says Griffin, is eternal like God and has its own kind of "free will." Complexity in the arrangement of matter, furthermore, is tied to the amount of free will something has. Thus a rock can do less evil and yet God is less able to use it for good, but something as complex (and thus having more free will) as a human is capable of doing much more evil by resisting God and much more good by submitting to God. Finally, Sontag takes a highly skeptical position about God's goodness. God is unpredictable and violent at times and all we can do is hope for the best. We must acknowledge God's existence and power, but Sontag's god is semi-demonic in nature which explains evil in the world and why he doesn't stop it.

Of course, this small review doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of the indepth and well written arguments of each of these scholars. The book is complex enough for college and graduate classes but written with the lay-person in mind as well (the writers are careful to define their terms in most cases). Also, I really enjoyed the fact that each contributor has the opportunity to critique the other's theodicies and then the chance to defend against the other's critiques. This point/counterpoint approach was excellent and informative.

My only critique of this book is the subtitle ("Live Options in Theodicy"). While the five views represented in this book are indeed reflective of five major worldviews of the problem of evil, they are not the only *live* options. To suggest so implies that any theodicy significantly different than those represented in the book is not a valid option. But because the problem of evil is more of a mystery and less of a logical problem to be solved with a fancy syllogism, it can be approached in a number of ways -- not just five.

As a molecular biology student I find this book a very good quick reference. It outlines all the major terms and explains them very well. As far as doing reports and assignments is concerned, for me this has got to be the most valuable starting point. It contains excellent diagrams which are easy to understand and follow. I would recommend this even to a non biologist. Naz Bradford

Matt has done a great job with this book. It is well written, and he seems to really know what he's talking about.

The descriptions (with color photographs) of the different weight exercises are nice, but the real value in this book comes from all the different programs. It's like having a personal trainer write this stuff up for you directly.

For anyone getting involved in fitness, I'd recommend that they get human training in how to lift weights (free weights, machines, etc), but I think that once you get that base level understanding and fitness, this book can take you to a next level of fitness. The programs are tailored for specific goals (Fat loss, Legs, building mass, abs, glutes, etc..). This is a book that speaks to men as well as women.

If I were to buy just one fitness book, it would be this one.

This book is very helpful to those clinician's who want to evaluate and fabricate foot orthotics in the office. Easy to read and follow. The author must be very good.