If you have an interest in the legal presentation in the Wounded Knee trials that led to Leonard Peltier's imprisonment, this is your book. Sayer demonstrates with clear evidence how corrupt out legal system is coupled with the power of the media in political matters, such as the wrongful imprisonment of Peltier.

The book gets into documents and testimony that you would think proves Peltier's innocence. However, there is a force that is greater than the truth, and that is corruption!

The American Indian Movement (AIM) and its attorneys have little chance as long as the American public remains blind to the powers that be in the legal system and in government. This book is an eye opener. However, be aware that the reading can seem mundane at times unless you have a keen eye and interest in legal jargon. I was lost a few times but finishing the book was worth it to hear the other version of "truth".

I recommend this book if you have any interest at all in the Leonard Peltier story or of the corruption of a system that works for the government, not for the people.

Connie Baxter Marlow has put together a tribute to Mount Katahdin and Baxter State Park. The people of Maine have a right to be proud of their mountain. This is not a trail guide to the mountain but rather a presentation of its flora and fauna. The photography is very good. However, the text tends to the mystical. This is not a total surprise. Mountains like Katahdin that stand by themselves tend to be regarded differently from those that are found in mountainous regions. For example, Mt. Shasta which looms over Northern California, just as Katahdin looms over the center of Maine, is the subject of legends about lost civilizations. However, this book is worthwhile for its photographs.

This book was extremely helpful to campers of all levels. I have been camping for quite some time and still learned a lot of tips on how to make your trip as enjoyable and environmentaly friendly as possible. Anyone considering a day hike or longer should read this first.

The only thing I don't really like about this book is the categorization. It discusses Napoleon, then skips to the industrial revolution, but then comes back to Napoleon again and the Bourbon restoration. In my opinion, history books should follow the chronology of history, and include everything from one time period in one section.

I am a teacher in Mexico and i use this book like a textbook. I think is a great history book, because all the mayor events are compress, so in one semester we see vol. 1 and 10 chapters from vol. 2, we start second semester in chapter 42 to the end. And now we are searchin for the books in english. Our intention is gave the class in english.

I picked up this book because I had some familiarity with the subject matter having worked in that field of biochemistry in the late '60s. That is probably the main reason I read the whole thing and enjoyed it.
This is very much a scientific biography. It's an interesting story of the evolution a scientific idea (The Chemiosmotic Theory) and how that idea came to be accepted by the scientific community. The originator of the idea, the imaginative, ambitious, passionate Peter Mitchell, had to fight for many years to see his theory finally accepted.
I was disappointed, however, that the book did not paint a fuller picture of Mitchell who had many interests outside of science which are (frustratingly) alluded to - music, architecture, farming, family - but never explored. For example, the authors state that family life was very important to Mitchell but give no examples of how a highly motivated scientist/entrepreneur managed to fit it in. Nor is there any sense of what domestic life was like living in an isolated research institute/manor/farm. In my opinion, if these aspects of his life had been more developed, the book would appeal to a wider audience and the reader would come away with a fuller appreciation of the man.
Technically, it is rather a choppy book. Each chapter is divided into subchapters, which detracts from its cohesiveness. Repetition of some points also gives the sense that the book was pieced together.
However, I did read the whole thing and found it an interesting study of how 20th century science works - or works imperfectly.

A 1976 classic, reprinted at the occasion of the 1999 Sea-Bean Symposium. As reprints go this is quite good, with a sturdy cover. The book consists of a general part (Introduction, History, Currents & Beaches, Collecting & Uses, Key) and a catalog. The latter, which comprises just over half the book, consists for each entry of a page (or less) of text and a page (sometimes three) of line-drawings. The line-drawings are not of top quality but adequate.

Although it is good to have this back in print it would have been far preferable to see a revised, expanded and updated edition. In this day and age the black & white photographs in the general part look distinctly out of place, especially for such an appealing subject matter, lending itself so well to spectacular color photography. The topic deserves better?

This book is ostensibly about crime. Specifically the amelioration of crime by a policy of zero tolerance of minor and petty crimes which became famous for the dramatic fall in crime in New York City.

This book has a slightly different focus. Rather than concentrating on what Zero Tolerance is and does, it seeks to place the crime figures and approaches to crime reduction in a broader context of community. The concept of community developed both in these pages and within a wider research agenda supposedly concerned with the development of a civil society in which the state plays a smaller and smaller role has a particular slant to it.

Zero Tolerance is the latest in a line of books from the Institute of Economic Affairs Health and Welfare Unit, now a free standing institute of it's own, CIVITAS, which postulate a decline in morals and behavious which result from a growing tendency in our society to becoming more individualsitic. The model of decency and good behaviour upon which this view is based is a rather idyllic view of the English working class family as portrayed by Norman Dennis in some of the earlier books of this series. Here it's scope is widened to incorporate views on how to tackle crime which involve the wider civil society. Policing in this view is both external and internal and the police forces themselves are seen as a legitimate part of the community, reinforcing the internal rules and moralities forged in the furnace of home and family. Headed preferably, of course, by working father, stay at home mother etc.

You will not find in this book any arguments about drugs save for the superior tone about how the use of drugs has grown in our society and is therefore bad. This cannot go unchallenged. In a passage devoted to the emphasis on education and development of working men's clubs and institutes the book praises them for their contribution to improving the moral fibre of those who participated. These clubs were segregated against women drinking in the public bar and fought hard to retain that position against equality laws and became more well known for the strong and cheap beers that they sold than for moral improvement. Their innate conservatism was a major contributor to why their customers deserted them and caused the closure of many in the North East of England. While the consumption of this legal drug is condoned, other recreational drugs are the cause of much petty crime. The book ignores the setting of the laws and blithley makes assertions about theft while ignoring the basic point that laws against drugs make them more attractive to the purchasers, more profitable to the suppliers and lead many who consume them to do things out of character in order to get their drugs. I could go on but this would be a book of it's own.

Zero Tolerance is a one sided book. It excludes any consideration of the diminishing role of the church in society as one of a number of relevant institutions, and it excludes any treatment of what changing structures in our society mean for those individuals who have previously been imprisoned by those structures, in particular, for women. The supposed golden age of the working class family is a modern myth, a sociological urban legend, which did not exist for many.

Ultimately, this is yet another attack on growing individualism in our society which begrudges any positive changes and which harkens back to an age which never really existed. The causes of crime run deeper than one parent families and tower blocks. The harsh reality today is that women are valued more by society than they were which is the real reason why female wage rates are increasing while male wages rates decline overall.

Perhaps we should be looking forward and not backward to see how a healthy individualist society might develop.

This is book is part of Zondervan's Counterpoints series. According to the editors of this work, the purpose is to bring Christian thinkers together to discuss the question of the salvation of non-Christians. The contributors are: (1) John Hick, advocating pluralism; (2) Clark Pinnock advocating inclusivism; (3) Alister McGrath advocating a somewhat exclusivistic position; and (4) R. Douglas Geivett & W. Gary Phillips advocating exclusivism.

As is often the case with this series, the book suffers from poor editing. All of the essays are worth reading, but they generally don't deal with the alleged topic of the book. For example, Prof. Hick tells us that he believes in universal salvation and that he has written a book arguing for this position, but he doesn't give his reasons in the essay. Prof. McGrath touches on the issue, but not in any great detail. Prof. Pinnock deals with the topic in a limited manner. It is only Profs. Geivett & Philips who actually go into the question in some detail. They provide an exegesis of Acts 4:12 and some other passages. However, none of the other contributors responds with any detailed exegesis. What is often seen as the key passage concerning the salvation of non-believers -- Romans 2 -- is only mentioned in passing. So, this book is really a discussion of religious pluralism, not salvation.

In spite of my criticism, I think this book is helpful to anyone who wants a background on the general issue of religious pluralism. If you are looking for a discussion of evangelical views of the salvation of non-believers, then this isn't the place to look.

I like all the differing views. While I am a conservative, I like the other points of view. This series is usually good for exposing differing views.

I was somewhat disappointed in this particular book, since I was hoping it would deal with what salvation means (Saved from what?) and how people are saved. Instead, it focuses exclusively on who may be saved.

Without a good understanding of the meaning of salvation, it is hard to be confident about who it may or may not apply to. However, the WHO question seems to be of more concern than the WHAT, WHY and HOW questions to most people interested in questions of salvation.

You should read Skipping Christmas, it is a good book.
You should not buy Skipping Christmas, it is not a good novel.

After hitting a cold spell with the Street Lawyer and the Testament, Grisham proved again that he is an excellent writer with The Painted House. This short little novel is also well written, humourous and entertaining.

Every neighborhood has a family who decorates their house for Christmas in every way possible. They put up lights and statues and snowmen and everything else. In Skipping Christmas, those people all move into one neighborhood. This book is a satire. Each family in the neighborhood represents a slightly different trait in looking at Christmas. Luther and Nora Krank represent the desire to not have to participate in all of the meaningless nonsense of parties and cards and decorating. The novel concludes with a tidy little episode that doesn't quite warm the heart, but does bring a smile to the face.

...It is only 177 pages (small pages) and can easily be read in afternoon...

...this could have gone directly to movie form, which is obviously what it is geared to. As mentioned earlier, there are no real characters in the story. Every single person is a stereotype, from the cops collecting for charity to the office Christmas parties to the boy scouts selling Christmas trees. Visually, this would make a great movie because there are many comedic moments, but for a novel it is too lightweight.

Also, the ending isn't original. It reminds me of the movie Funny Farm. While a lot of ideas are borrowed or shared, the ending also is very predictable. There was really no other way out of the jam Luther and Nora got themselves in.

I'm glad I read Skipping Christmas. It entertained me for a few hours. I'm also glad I checked it out from the Library instead of buying it. If I'm going to buy a novel, I want it to last awhile.

Having never read any of John Grisham's works, I had no idea what to expect when I picked up Skipping Christmas. I had reservations at first because I doubted that Grisham could separate himself from a writing style more appropriate for his best selling law dramas and write a light and brief Christmas piece. However, I found this book to be surprisingly enjoyable and very easy to read.
Luther Krank, the protagonist of the story, is portrayed as an Ebenezer Scrooge of the 21st century. He tallies up his family's spending from the previous Christmas and finds that $6100 of his money was drained with very few lasting benefits evident now, a year later. When Luther's daughter, a Peace Corp volunteer in Peru, informs her family that she will not be returning for Christmas, Luther sees an opportunity to evade the dreaded hustle and bustle of the holiday he despises. Luther books a 10-day cruise for him and his wife. The Kranks become targets to their incredibly jolly and spirited neighbors who pressure the couple to conform to the neighborhood standards.
Readers can laugh at the humor in the Kranks' situation and at Grisham's satire. He makes fun of the whirlwind of frenzy that settles over America every December. This novel is mean to be read for pleasure. If you are looking for well-developed plot and characters, this may not be the book for you. It is brief (I read it in one night) and light and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Skipping Christmas is a perfect story for anyone wishing to curl up by the fire and take a break from the Christmas rush.

I have already passed my copy of this book on to three people, all of whom enjoyed it every bit as much as I did. What a treat....a real Christmas gift from John Grisham. And if his name was not on the cover, I never would have guessed that he wrote this wonderful little gem.

Every year I buy a family Christmas book for us all to read...some years it is a pop-up book and other years it is something more serious. This year's book is "Skipping Christmas" and I think it will produce a lot of food for thought and some good discussion.

Although this book was full of humor and irony, I still felt the palpable tension as Christmas got closer, the feeling of being overwhelmed that many of us feel as the holidays approach. Even though the Kranks had decided not to celebrate Christmas, they still were under a lot of peer pressure from their neighbors, which created a lot of tension in their lives and gave Grisham an opportunity to show his humorous side (for example when the Kranks were hiding inside their house to avoid the carolers, the rooftop scene, and especially when Luther was "borrowing" his neighbor's Christmas tree).

In the end, we see what the real meaning of Christmas is and why all of the trappings of the holidays are not what makes it worthwhile. Anyone who has ever been a parent will understand the decisions the Kranks made.

Well worth reading every year, I believe, to remind us of what is and is not important in life.