If you carry Gettysburg in your heart, and live more than a days drive away, Virtual Gettysburg is a must have of the highest order.

The 360 degree visuals alone are worth the price, and the commentary by Licensed Battlefield Guide Gary Kross is spellbinding. All of the monuments are presented, as are easy to use interactive maps and many historic photos. I find something new every time. The CD's and guide will be with me each future time I'm able to visit Gettysburg.

Stephen Recker has produced a fascinating new presentation of history. I only wish something like this had been available when my sons were studying The Civil War - then they wouldn't even think of asking "Mom, WHY do you have all these books?"

Stephen's work is a gateway that will bring many new enthusiasts to the Civil War community. No school should be without it, nor should the home of any of us who understand Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain's:

"In great deed something abides.
On great fields, something stays.
Forms change and pass, bodies disappear
But spirits linger
To consecrate the ground for the vision-place of the Soul.
And reverent men and women from afar
And generations that know us not and we know not of,
Shall come here to ponder and to dream
And the power of the vision shall pass into their souls."

This great product allows educators to personalize their tours of Gettysburg. In our leadership training, we have selected those individual leaders from Virtual Gettysburg, clicked on the CD tours which feature them, and let the program take over from there. Great visuals, giving panoramas of the battlefield, and terrific commentary. We were able to conduct a virtual tour of Gettysburg with a group in Florida, and they felt like they were on-site. Kudos to Stephen Recker!

This software is a must have for anyone that has a love for this park and it,s history.
from the novice to the veteran civil war buff alike.
the work that went in to this project is well worth the asking price .just load the disc and your in Gettysburg .
HATS OFF TO MR. RECKER WHAT A PIECE OF WORK!!
I got this as a gift for christmas and I do not think I will tire of it anytime soon.
THANKS AGAIN AND HOPE TO SEE VIRTUAL ANTIETAM COMING SOON..

After Business Buy the Bible, I would rate this book; Success: American Style as Cook's most important book to date.

This is why foreigners have saved and planned to come to America.
It's SUCCESS: AMERICAN STYLE.

This is why we have FREE ENTERPRISE here.
It's SUCCESS: AMERICAN STYLE.

This is why Americans are far wealthier than people in any other country. It's SUCCESS: AMERICAN STYLE.

And this book tells me and all of us a lot about Mr. Wade Cook,
SUCESS: AMERICAN STYLE and a very proud American no doubt.

Notice there are no negative reviews here. I guess that tells us a lot about the bashers. I seriously doubt if Wades ever present bashers will ever read this book. Too bad--It's their loss!

And what a great book to shut Wades ever present detractors up. Only in this great country, does anyoe and everyone have the opportunity to reach the stars.Success American Style: Unfortunately terrorists and Wade bashers will never read and benefit from this outstandin work.Great book Wade. Keep em coming.

America is truly the land of opportuity.I found this book very motivational, inspiritional and rekindled my faith in the American Dream.This may be Mr. Cooks most important book to date (especially after 911). I also recommend Business Buy The Bible and Don't Set Goals The Old Way.These books will get your attitude tuned and help you reach those lofty goals that all too often lay dormant inside you.

This gentle, faithful little book is full of wonders to be read, and re-read -- personal insights, quick asides, random thoughts, elegant sermonettes on life and living. James Stephen Behrens doesn't waste words; these quick essays are like Cistercian chapels, with no unnecessary adornment, nothing to distract the mind from the matter at hand. This makes you savor each word, contemplate each story. Sometimes, in this book, the simplest notions are the most moving -- why he thinks, for example, that the most eloquent prayer is one word, "Stay." When I started leafing through this book, I folded over the corners of pages I liked. Bad idea. Now, nearly all the pages are dog-eared. But the best news is that discovering this book has simplified my Christmas shopping. Now I know what to get people who seem to have everything: this little package of wisdom, a book that looks at commonplace things with uncommon grace.

This book is full of "story sparks" that only take seconds to read but open the doors to considerable wisdom and hope - with humor as a bonus. The deft way that each is connected to a few lines of well-chosen scriptures breaks open that medium as well, connecting it unforgettably to lived experience.

Beginning each day with Fr. Behrens' meditations lifts my spirits and helps me find the humor, joy and love of God in seemingly ordinary things. His personal experiences and thoughts shine a fresh light on each day's Scripture passage. I also find that his vignettes of the daily lives of the monks demystify holiness and help me pursue it in my daily life.

I have never been to San Francisco or seen the Golden Gate Bridge but feel that I experienced a little taste if it by reading this book. The author creates a vivid picture that stays with you. I enjoyed the story line and the plot kept me interested from start to finish. The characters were wonderfully created - I can't wait to see what happens to them next. (I hope there will be a sequel!) I think this is an excellent first novel for Jim Zoller and I look forward to reading many more.

This book has it all. It holds your attention with the suspense and intrigue and you don't want to put it down. The characters are quite unique and blend together very well. This book puts you through an emotional range of feelings and keeps you interested until the very end. I really enjoyed this book and hope to see more from this author.

This book made me laugh out loud, kept me guessing and made me think about the bonds we create in life. We never know what life has to offer. This is a great story of suspense, friendships and life.

Blake Bailey's Edge Of The Cave is the enticing story of an ordinary lawyer who becomes drawn into the deep spiritual questions, who seeks wisdom from a variety of religions and philosophies - and finds so much of it that he winds up committed to the county psychiatric hospital. Witty, thoughtful, filled with subtle insights and a candidly askew look at life, Edge of the Cave is a most absorbing and rewarding read.

If you could imagine an argument that would decide the fate of the world and it's citizens, this is the book. The surrealistic imagery that allows one man to debate the fate of nations and their political representatives. Who is responsible for the "crime" of war? Is it a crime? How would you like to be the one responsible for proving it one way or the other. Bring your imagination, this book is an enthralling ride.

Although I'm relatively new to the area of philosophy, I found this book to be very understandable yet compelling. While many higher ideas are discussed by the characters, it's still written in such a way that a philosophical novice such as myself can grasp the concepts and thoroughly enjoy the book. It stretched my mind and challenged some of my preconceived ideas. The author has a real talent for presenting a likable, engaging character and yet presenting complex material at the same time.

Of Steve Page's 4 recent books, I found this one to be the most interesting. It contains all kinds of ideas for projects.

A communication strategy is obviously Steve's speciality. He knows how to use the various methods to the most advantage.

His idea for a compliance plan is a clever take-off on process control plans. He also adapts other quality tools, such as scatter and pareto diagrams to use with documentation. However, you would need another book for more details on the tools themselves.

Auditing is another of Steve's specialties which he shares with his readers.

I wish he had gone into more detail on determining the cost of documentation. He no doubt knows how to calculate it, as best as one can. He gives a detailed example on how a new (purchasing) procedure saved a company money, but not enough on the cost of producing the document itself.

I would definitely recommend this book to all who work with ISO 9000 compliance.

I bought and used all four of Stephen Page's policy and procedure books. From the very first day, I was able to get up and running on a project that was very demanding and challenging. Not only did he provide examples, but he was always there for advice when I hit a rough spot.

I HIGHLY recommend these books!

Dana Rosenboom

I was impressed with the amount of useful information included in this book; everything seems to have been well thought out. It would appear that the author has "lived" his words and this is what makes this make book so useful to me. Because I know that when I implement his ideas that they will probably work. His case study is also very meaningful as he very carefully explains how to go from a labor-intensive procedure and go through process improvement, metrics, and arrive at a streamlined, high cost saving, new procedure.

I have bought all four of his books on procedures and this book is what makes it all worthwhile. Though I found that each book is unique in its own way and that you really need all four to write a good system of policies and procedures.

I would definitely recommend this book. He has a 40-step plan of action at the front of the book that gives you an A to Z approach to the development of any policy or procedure or process. I have printed this list and I keep it tacked on my walls.

Jim T. Armstrong

This was first published in 1979 as a sort of anti-manifesto by the founding president of the Not-Terribly-Good Club of Great Britain. As keen observers of the international scene will know, the country has been going down the tubes ever since. The book has thus enjoyed something of a success, which means it can only be called a failure.

If you don't wish to be taken for a hysterical lunatic, avoid reading this book in public. Stay at home, shut all the windows, and read how:

a municipal bus company in Staffordshire adopted an innovative policy of not stopping to pick up passengers, in order to avoid disrupting the timetable;
'The Times' of London managed to cram 78 misprints on to a single page, which is believed to be a British and all-comers record;
a dinner dance organized by Belfast Alcoholics Anonymous ended in a brawl after £385 had been spent at the bar

- and about 500 others, many of which sportingly record the futile attempts of non-Brit losers to muscle in on an age-old tradition of effortless incompetence.

Conclusion: it's funnier than Wittgenstein's 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus', and a lot easier to read.

This is my favorite book. I have nearly every story in it memorized and I find myself re-reading the book again and again. It's one of those rare books that you start reading it smiling, then laughing out loud, and soon you're wiping tears from your eyes. Highly recommended.

I read this at a B&B in Wales; then was ecstatic to find it at Half Price Books in the States. I have lent it to many, but make strong demands for its return. You will want to make it part of your permanent collection.

Job has a sudden change of fortune, he losses his health, wealth, family, and status. He addresses the question "Why?" Four human counselors --Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar-- (Elihu is not present in this translation) are unable to provide the insight Job desperately needs. It remains to Jehovah to address Job and let him know that he must trust in the goodness and power of God in adversity by enlarging his concept of God. Job is perhaps the earliest book of the Bible, author unknown. Set in the period of the patriarchs, the main character is a Gentile. Oddly enough, he has been personified as the virtue of patience, contrary to the Biblical Job who is angry to the point of blasphemy, and rightly demands justice.

This beautiful translation into English, directly from Hebrew, is to be praised for its sound, strong, energetic poetry and more so for its scholarly introduction. Mitchell's interpretation of the book of Job is not one of spiritual acquiescence, of capitulation to an unjust, superior force, but of a great poem of moral outrage, a Nietzchean protest. In it, Job embodies Everyman and grieves for all human misery, and acquiescence at the end of the poem is a result of spiritual transformation, a surrender into the light, the acceptance of a reality that transcends human understanding.

. . . even though I'd like to deduct a star for its omissions.

As with so much of Stephen Mitchell's work, it's easy to pick on him for what he's decided to leave out. Here, his translation of Job omits the hymn in praise of Wisdom and the speech (in fact the entire presence) of the young man Elihu. I tend to disagree with his reasons for skipping them. But having read his translation for nearly a decade now, I have to admit we don't miss them much.

His work has been described as "muscular," and that's a very apt term. Not only in Job's own language (from his "God damn the day I was born" to his closing near-silence after his experience of God) but in the voices of all the characters -- and most especially in the speech of the Voice from the Whirlwind -- Mitchell's meaty, pounding, pulse-quickening poetry just cries out to be read aloud.

And as always, I have nothing but praise for Mitchell's gift of "listening" his way into a text and saying what it "wants" to say. In particular, his translation of the final lines has a wee surprise in store for anyone who hasn't already read it. (He disagrees with the usual repent-in-dust-and-ashes version and offers a denouement more fitting to the cosmic scope of Job's subject matter.)

Moreover, all this and much else is discussed in a fine introduction that -- in my opinion as a longtime reader of Mitchell -- may well be his finest published commentary to date.

Essentially, he deals with the so-called "problem of evil" by simply dissolving it. The God of Mitchell and of Mitchell's Job is not a feckless little half-deity who shares his cosmic powers with a demonic arch-enemy and sometimes loses; this God, like the God of the Torah itself (and incidentally of Calvinist Christianity, at which Mitchell takes a couple of not-altogether-responsible swipes), is the only Power there is. Ultimately God just _does_ everything that happens, because what's the alternative? "Don't you know that there _is_ nobody else in here?"

As I suggested, there are a handful of half-hearted jabs at traditional (usually Christian) religion, but for the most part it should be possible for a theologically conservative reader simply to read around them. (This is a nice contrast with Mitchell's Jesus book, which -- to the mind of this non-Christian reviewer -- seems to be brimming with anti-Christian "spiritual oneupmanship.")

So it's not only a fine translation that properly recognizes Job's central theme of spiritual transformation, but a universally valuable commentary into the bargain. If you haven't read any of Mitchell's other work, this is a great place to start. And if you _have_ read some of Mitchell's other work, do get around to this one. It's probably his best.

I first read the Book of Job in the New King James translation. That was a truly amazing event--I felt that somehow I had experienced what Job had, and that I was learned the same painful lessons that Job had. Great poems can do that.

I'm sure if I had read this version, it would have had the same effect.

Job essentially worships an idol. He worships an orderly God who runs an orderly, boring universe where the good get rewarded and the evil get punished. The real God shows him that things are a bit different. The universe is not simple, it is a grand, messy explosion of beauty where frail, innocent humans often get trampled. Is it just in a way that would conform to human standards of justice? God basically says, "Who cares, look at it."

Thus, a translator/poet has a tough job. In a few pages, he or she has to show the reader God's glorious universe. No easy task (except for G.M. Hopkins).

Mitchell gets it done with short "muscular" phrasing, reminscient of the way Lombardo treats the Iliad. I.e., Job ch 3 reads something like "Damn the day I was born/Blot out the sun of that day . . ." Along the way Mitchell eliminates some of the "interpolations" and "corruptions" that scholars have found were not part of the original text. And I don't think this detracts from either the beauty or the meaning of the poem.

I would have added a more detailed introduction however. If I may recommend a book, please also take a look at The Bitterness of Job: A Philosophical Reading, by John T. Wilcox. If you read these two together along with an orthodox translation like the JPS (mentioned in another review) or the NRSV, I think you will have a good grasp of this text from a wide variety of viewpoints, secular and religious. You can't get too much Job. As Victor Hugo said, "If I had to save one piece of literature in the world, I'd save Job."

Stephen King has written another attention grabber. I read, and listened, as I have both the paperback and the audio book. I found this book great, as it follows both the imaginary and the real sides of life. I found that as I read the book, I really would like to visit the library that is described in the book. This book follows down a strange path, emerging in what could almost be explained as a real story of fact in the past. I recommend this novel, and the audio book as the narrator does a great job, it will not dissapoint as "everything's eventual" did, in my opinion. Good luck and good reading! (Note: The audio version of this book is narrated by FRANK MULLER. Anyone who has listened to Stephen King Audio Books has sure to have been wowwed by Frank Muller. In this audio book recording, Frank Muller's voice is almost unrecognizable and amazing as he plays this roll. Frank Muller and audio books are truly like movies for your mind).

This is an excellent Stephen King story. It's written in an "old-fashioned" style, as though being told by an older, sophisticated man. It almost feels like a Sherlock Holmes story or at least "vedy British". The plot itself is summarized elsewhere, but suffice it to say that it is compelling, mysterious and that the climax is gory and fascinating. DIFFERENT SEASONS (the book from which this novella comes) is one of King's towering achievements, and this story is great.

Frank Muller is one of the best audio book readers around, and so the combination of King's great story and Muller's outstanding interpretation make this audio book VERY worthwhile. It is very highly recommended.

This refers to the CD version of the book - but it is frighteningly and amazingly Stephen King at his best. I use audio books to help me on my exercise walks, and this one was so intense and so dripping with drama, I did extra laps just to see what would happen. Stephen King's extraordinarily ability to take the mundane and add the creep factor reigns supreme here. An unwed pregnant woman goes to her OB-GYN, at a time when unwed mothers were a huge taboo, and her OB-GYN is impressed by her strength and her fortitude and determination to go through with this birth. He is so impressed in fact, that he follows her carefully through each stage of her pregnancy. When it is at last time for her child to be born...well, then there comes a dark and gloomy night at a men's club, years later, where this certain OB-GYN proceeds to tell this tale. The club has been meeting for years, each member telling extraordinary tales, some old war tales, some cigar smoking tales, the usual, but THIS story, well this story is called "The Breathing Method", and the OB-GYN who chooses to tell the story begins by recalling that at the time of this woman's entrance into his life with her illegitimate pregnancy, he was just beginning to introduce the Lamaze technique (not yet called that) to his pregnant patients. He was adamant that it worked, and he was nearly called a fool because of the little pamphlets and booklets he encouraged pregnant woman to read and to try and use during labor. His unwed patient takes the breathing method to heart. So focused and so determined is she to use this method, it becomes almost a part of who she is. But I will leave you there, so as not to spoil the ending for you, however, I will say, the ending is shocking, and you will think about it long after you are finished this story. The reader, Frank Muller is perfect, just right for what Stephen King wants to say. Enjoy the breathing method, if you will, it's power will amaze you.

This lightweight (literally, if not figuratively) story of the hapless farmer Jabez Stone, of Cross Corners, New Hampshire, and his rescue from a cavalier deal with the devil by Daniel Webster is an entertaining, patriotic lark. Although Webster was a lawyer, the narrator tells us, and the "the biggest man...next to God...He never got to be President." Published in 1937, and with a homespun Twain-like love of freedom and the wry vigilance which watches over it, Stephen Vincent Benet's entertaining lark, set "in the border country, where Massachusetts joins Vermont and New Hampshire" is patriotic without being jingoistic or nationalistic. At the end, after the narrator informs us that devil keeps clear of Marshfield and hasn't been seen in New Hampshire he concludes: "I'm not talking about Massachusetts or Vermont."

A young nation, built on reason and skepticism, America doesn't have a whole lot of myths and legends. With the possible exception of Parson Weem's tales of
young George Washington, the stories of Washington Irving, and a few tall tales like Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and John Henry, the best might be found in Stephen
Vincent Benet's Faust-influenced but distinctly American short story and screenplay, The Devil and Daniel Webster, which has also been adapted for the stage and
turned into an opera.

Jabez Stone of Cross Corners, New Hampshire is a man of little luck, until, with his wife and children ill and a whitlow on his own thumb, he barks :

I vow it's enough to make a man want to sell his soul to the devill And I would, too, for two cents!

With that, a stranger appears and Jabez makes a deal, signing it in blood, which changes his luck drastically.

Over the next ten years, Stone prospers, becoming wealthy and an important man in politics. But with his mortgage to the stranger coming due, Jabez Stone regrets
the deal he's made and pays a visit to his neighbor, Daniel Webster, of Mansfield, NH--the nation's greatest lawyer and New England's most revered citizen--to see
if Mr. Webster will take him on as a client and see if there's not some way out of the deal. A lesser man might balk at the prospect of such a fight, but Daniel
Webster has a special regard for his constituents and cheerfully assures Jabez that they'll prevail :

For if two New Hampshiremen aren't a match for the devil, we might as well give the country back to the Indians.

Webster's first ploy is to challenge the stranger's right to prey upon Americans :

'Mr. Stone is an American citizen, and no American citizen may be forced into the service of a foreign prince. We fought England for that
in ë12 and weíll fight all hell for it again!'

'Foreign?' said the stranger. 'And who calls me a foreigner?'

'Well, I never yet heard of the dev -- of your claiming American citizenship,' said Dan'l Webster with surprise.

'And who with better right?' said the stranger, with one of his terrible smiles. 'When the first wrong was done to the first Indian, I was there.
When the first slaver put out for the Congo, I stood on her deck. Am I not in your books and stories and beliefs, from the first settlements on?
Am I not spoken of, still, in every church in New England? 'Tis true the North claims me for a Southerner, and the South for a Northerner,
but I am neither. I am merely an honest American like yourself--and of the best descent--for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster,
though I don't like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours.'

This prompts Webster to recourse to Stone's rights as an American :

'Aha!' said Dan'l Webster, with the veins standing out in his forehead. 'Then I stand on the Constitution! I demand a trial for my client!'

'The case is hardly one for an ordinary court,' said the stranger, his eyes flickering. 'And, indeed, the lateness of the hour-'

'Let it be any court you choose, so it is an American judge and an American jury!' said Dan'l Webster in his pride.
'Let it be the quick or the dead; I'll abide the issue!'

And so begins a trial, presided over by Justice Hathorne, who likewise oversaw the Salem Witch Trials, with a jury made up of the likes of Walter Butler, Simon
Girty, King Philip, Reverend John Smeet, and Morton of Merry Mount. Inevitably, even these dastards are swayed by the rhetorical power of Daniel Webster and
Jabez is released from his contract. The stranger good-naturedly conceding :

'Perhaps 'tis not strictly in accordance with the evidence,' he said, 'but even the damned may salute the eloquence of Mr. Webster.'

Despite this graciousness, Daniel Webster grabs and threatens him, but then relents to his pleading. In exchange for being let go, the stranger predicts Webster's
future for him. The stranger well knows of Webster's desire to be president one day and of his pride in his speaking ability. He warns that the dream will never come
true and, perversely, the ambition will be thwarted by Webster's own talent :

'[T]he last great speech you make will turn many of your own against you,' said the stranger. 'They will call you Ichabod; they will call you
by other names. Even in New England some will say you have turned your coat and sold your country, and their voices will be loud against
you till you die.'

Webster takes the news surpassing well and in turn receives an assurance :

'So it is an honest speech, it does not matter what men say,' said Dan'l Webster. Then he looked at the stranger and their glances locked.

'One question,' he said. 'I have fought for the Union all my life. Will I see that fight won against those who would tear it apart?'

'Not while you live,' said the stranger, grimly, 'but it will be won. And after you are dead, there are thousands who will fight for your cause,
because of words that you spoke."

'Why, then, you long-barreled, slab-sided, lantern-jawed, fortune-telling note shaver!' said Dan'l Webster, with a great roar of laughter,
'be off with you to your own place before I put my mark on you! For, by the thirteen original colonies, I'd go to the Pit itself to save the Union!'

Sure enough, Webster's great speech in favor of the Missouri Compromise in 1850 would ensure its passage but with its provision for admitting a new slave state to
the Union would make him anathema to hardcore abolitionists and doom his presidential hopes.

Benet helped adapt this story for the screen and it made for one of the really underrated great American films. With sterling performances by Edward Arnold as
Webster and Walter Huston as the stranger, here called Mr. Scratch, the middle portion of the story, detailing Jabez Stone's rising fortunes and declining character,
is greatly expanded. This is problematic because James Craig as Jabez is pretty nondescript, but Jane Darwell as his mother and Simone Simon as a sultry vixen who
becomes the Stone's housemaid help to carry us through until the trial starts.

One interesting aspect of Benet's tale is his refusal to let his countrymen off the hook; the Devil is obviously integral to the American experience and though Webster
matches the Devil in the end, he too hears the siren call of Mr. Scratch. In the end though Webster is redeemed by his all consuming love of the nation :

And they say that if you go to his grave and speak loud and clear, 'Dan'l Webster--Dan'l Webster!' the ground'll begin to shiver and the trees
begin to shake. And after a while you'll hear a deep voice saying. 'Neighbor, how stands the Union?' Then you better answer the Union stands
as she stood, rock-bottomed and copper-sheathed, one and indivisible, or he's liable to rear right out of the ground.

What a worthy legend for America and for one of the greatest of her citizens.

GRADE : A

Daniel Webster might be a Yankee New Englander, a politician and peddlar. This fictious short story by Stephen Benet utilizes a great American statesmen in a great legal case, albeit a fictious one. I first read this in the 8th grade for a book report. It stands out as an entertaining classic of American literature. I also recommend books by James Fennimore Cooper.