Written by John Henry Newman in 1855, Callista is a fictional tale of life in the early Christian church. One of only two novels from his pen, this tale is set in northern Africa, near Carthage, about the year 250 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Decius. The talented and lovely young greek native Callista, along with her brother Aristo ply their handicraft in the shop of Jucundus, in the small provincial town of Sicca, by finishing and decorating the pagan images of gods, idols, charms and other items of superstition. Jucundus, appreciating her many talents, attempts to play the matchmaker between her and his poor befuddled nephew Agellius. This nephew, much to his continued dismay and consternation seems to be obsessed with the notion of Christianity, and worse, considers himself to be of their number. As the story unfolds, we become aware of the strange status Christians held in the Roman World. Rather than being hated for their zeal toward God, they are thought to be atheists, anarchists and traitors. Callista, though not a Christian, feels the emptiness and insufficiency of the Roman, and even the Greek world of morality and philosophy, and never did believe in their gods. Agellius, with much internal turmoil, because Callista is not Christian, wishes to propose marriage. But these are troubled times, natural disasters, Imperial edicts, demonic possessions and the breakdown of civil order bring this story to an exciting conclusion. Obviously Newman wishes to use this story as a sort of parable, while at the same time painting a picture for us of what the early Christian church was actually like. And while he may succeed in this aim, some may think the story occasionally bogs down in pedantics. For this reason I gave the story 4, rather than 5 stars.

John Henry Newman's CALLISTA, especially as introduced in this fine year 2000 edition by Alan G. Hill, stands on its own merits as a rollicking good love story, almost gothic in its plague of locusts, demonic possession of the young North African Juba, realistic depiction of mob violence, state torture and intolerance of the rising Christian religion whose adherents refused in the year 250 to worship the persecuting emperor Decius.

It is the story of a beautiful 17-year old Greek orphan who finds work as an artisan in Roman Africa, mainly fashioning statues and other adornments of various pagan cults. The evils of third century Roman imperial life depress her. She is tempted by the beauty of Christianity as hinted to her years ago by a Christian slave. Later she is wooed by the Christian Agellius who gives her another slant into his religion--though he fails to persuade Callista to marry him. Finally, Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage and the Gospel of Luke which he persuades her to read in a prison where she languishes falsely accused of being a Christian, tip the scales. She is baptized, confirmed and takes the Eucharist in one ceremony in prison. Shortly thereafter she is brutally martyred. The story stands on its own feet. It is a great read independently of any external impact or uses.

But CALLISTA is also, in my opinion, the most illuminating first book which any serious or prospective student of ALL the works of John Henry Newman should read (or now re-read). For CALLISTA opens the door to Newman's spiritual autobiography of conversion, APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA. It also adumbrates DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE, RISE AND PROGRESS OF UNIVERSITIES, his sermons and Newman's many musings on the echo of God's voice definitively heard in conscience. And what CALLISTA does not lead into, Newman's earlier novel LOSS AND GAIN most certainly does lead into: ARIANS OF THE FOURTH CENTURY, THE IDEA OF A UNIVERSITY, A GRAMMAR OF ASSENT and literally every serious thing the great Cardinal ever penned. Fortunately, the best edition of LOSS AND GAIN is by Alan G. Hill who gives us the best CALLISTA as well.

CALLISTA, perhaps the greatest of "Christian Romances," indeed deserves to be read both internally for itself and also externally as a first step into the huge ocean of Newman's essays, poems (e.g. "Lead Kindly Light"), sermons, histories, satires, educational theory, philosophy, theology and more than 20,000 letters. CALLISTA, set in Africa, paradoxically invites readers to step into the almost as little known spiritual world of 19th Century England, one of the most creative times and places the world has yet known.

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This is a fairly good book on the subject of Yoruba masks and drumming. Contains good pictures of masks (Gelede) and is very informative with regards to ceremonies performed at the Gelede.

Is recommended reading for any of the followers of the Yoruba religion and to students as well.

I would have liked to have seen a more in depth review of the ceremonies and religious aspects of the Gelede, therefore I have not rated it a 5 Star.

Nonetheless, I would still read it all over again !

I do recommend this nice book to all those engaged in the practice of the Yoruba cult. The author gives a good persp- ective of what is behind the cerimony. Mo juba Iyami Osoronga!

After reading this heartwarming story of the ugly
horse who blooms and wins our hearts and
breaks racing records I wanted to stand up and cheer.
I was inspired to visit this living legend
and found him as mystical and charismatic in
person as related in this wonderful book.
A good book for the horse lover and for anyone
who loves the unconquerable spirit.

"John Henry" is book number ten in the Thoroughbred Legends series published by the Eclipse Press out of Lexington, Kentucky.

Steve Haskin, an award-winning writer for "The Blood-Horse" tells a lively tale of the dumpy little bay horse that was back at the knees and, "like a bargain-basement sale item, ...always seemed to be available at a dirt-cheap price."

John Henry was a demon in his stall---he hated to be confined. He passed through the hands of a number of owners and trainers who thought he showed some promise as a runner, even though he was in the habit of ripping his feed tub off of the wall and hurling it down the shed row. Once, when he was stabled at a track he didn't like, John Henry did the same thing to his trainer:

"After one of the races, [John Henry] returned to the barn and was given a bath. Marino [his trainer] started walking him, and before he knew it, his jacket sleeve was in John's mouth. John picked Marino up off the ground and took off down the shed row, dragging him along. Marino was being lifted in the air and was completely helpless...'Thank God I had a goose down jacket or he would have taken a big chunk out of me,' Marino said. 'That's how mad the horse was.'"

Then the trainer, Ron McAnally took in the gelding that vented his anger on his water buckets, feed tubs, and sometimes his groom, and turned him into a demon on the race track. How did the trainer do this? McAnally says it was by treating him kindly and earning John Henry's trust.

The ugly little demon-turned-race-horse repaid his trainer's kindness by earning an amazing $6.6 million in eighty-three starts and thirty-nine wins. His durability and courage became a legend, and he attracted record numbers of fans to the tracks where he ran. He won his second 'Horse of the Year' title and closed out his racing career at the advanced age of nine.

John Henry and his trainer, Ron McAnally were both elected to the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame in 1990, which was only fitting.

John is now spending his retirement at the Kentucky Horse Park, and is shown to his visitors three times a day during the season (March 15th through October 31st). Go see him soon, as he turned twenty-six this year. Just don't visit the grand, old gelding on a day when he's been given medicine:

"John also hates medicine, and whenever he's given a dewormer, which is a pasty substance, he keeps it in his mouth for hours and refuses to swallow it. One time, Roby [his groom] took him out to show him several hours after he had been given the medication. 'John was standing in the ring,' she said, 'and all of a sudden, he blows this wormer all over the audience.'"

John still knows what he doesn't like.

This is not quite as good as 1 or 2, but it is still excellent! Shakespeare grabs us with the dispute between Henry VI and York. While it seems to end peacefully it does not, and the war goes on! York's death in 1.4 is another landmark in Shakespeare's writing. The scene (2.5) where Henry finds true terror is horror, sorrow, and yet beauty and yet another moving part of the play. (The son that hath killed his father and the father that hath killed his son.) The war pauses in disaster for Henry and some comic relief is offered. But the horror starts all over again when Edward IV and Warwick have a falling out. The war starts over again, and the King of France gets involved! The scene where King Henry VI is reinstated is a scene of beauty and hope. While all of this is happening, Shakespeare carefully prepares the monstrously satanic character of Richard III. From here, the play just gets more and more bloody. A final moment of horror is offered when the eventual Richard III proudly compares himself to the one who betrayed Christ. In part 4 "Richard III," the real terror begins!

This was one of Shakespeare's earliest plays. (possibly his third) Yet, there is nothing to indicate he was only starting out. Right away he grabs our attention with the funeral of King Henry V. Henry V's brothers Bedford and Gloucester help us to see the virtues and strengths of the deceased king. The Bishop of Winchester is well drawn as a comical villain who plots and plans, but never succeeds in doing any real damage. (Not until the next play anyway.) Talbot is memorable as the selfless hero of the play. York is memorable as the hero who defeats Joan of Arc. King Henry VI himself is interesting. First we see him as a helpless infant. By the third act, we see that he has both strengths and weaknesses. He makes the mistake of dividing the command between the rivals Somerset and York. But also, we see that he does not tolerate treason or neglect of duty. There are also many memorable scenes. The garden scene that foreshadows the War of the Roses is well drawn. The scene where York comforts his dying uncle is tragic beauty. Bedford's death in 3.2 has almost a divine tone. The death of Talbot and his son is very lamentable. York's sudden rise to power is captivating. Perhaps Shakespeare's greatest achievement in this play is that he simultaneously shows us England's war with France and the dissension with England itself.

This is a difficult, but well written text of a series of lectures given by McDowell. Frankly, it required a lot of concentration on my part, but the effort was worth it. McDowell makes good sense of the problems of empiricism. He is also a good stylist.

This text with its new Introduction clearly demonstrates McDowell's prominence in American philosophy. McDowell is certainly one of the most important, careful, and creative minds in the field. Mind and World is crucial reading material on perceptual content, judgment, and experience.

Inspired by Sellars's Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind, McDowell interrogates the notion of a 'logical space of reasons' as having location in the natural world. At times adopting an obscure and abstract prose style, McDowell nevertheless identifies specific anxieties concerning the realtion between mind and world: tensions between a Kantian sensible intuition (or 'minimal empiricism')--how our thoughts are answerable to and directed at the world--and the idea of receiving an impression (or Kantian humility) as a transaction with the world, placing it in a 'logical space of reasons.' So there is a tension between a normative context, that is, how the world 'impinges' on us, which is within the logical space of reasons, and empirical concepts that are supposed to be within the logical space of nature. But if we take Sellars seriously, identifying something as an impression--an economy of logical space of nature 'giving' or 'impinging' on the mind, then we are responsible to characterize just how an 'impinging world' is different from justifying or placing a verdict on empirical descriptions. McDowell's tension is between a 'minimal empiricism'--thought is answerable to a tribunal of experience--and how experience is indeed a tribunal, which attributes verdicts on thoughts.

Along the way, McDowell critiques the Myth of the Given, Davidson's coherentism, and argues for 'direct realism.'
McDowell has a flair for characterizing and 'exorcising' philosophical anxieties between empiricism and naturalism, and he employs creative metaphors that are extremely helpful, such as the 'seesaw' and a 'sideways on view.'

The first three lectures are most important, wherein he discusses conceptual and non-conceptual content. Here he engages the views of Sellars, Quine, Davidson, Evans, and Peacocke.

Mind and World is a masterful example of careful and thorough-going philosophy--at its best.

This is a surprisingly in-depth outline of how to grow great young adults from little rugrats. The authors are quite adept at explaining complex ideas in straight forward layman's terms which, considering that they are both board-certified psycologists, shows they have a unique talent for communicating.

The focus of the book is on character and spiritual development. Many examples from both Dr. Cloud and Dr. Townsend of real life (and biblical) situations helped me understand how to take my child from a self-centered kid to a caring, responsible young adult.

Several moms have not been able to put it down when they saw it at our house. It doesn't have the flashy layout and colors of many modern books, but apparently the message is still riveting for mothers looking for encouragement and ideas.

I wish this book had been around years ago when my kids were just starting out. Still, it has become an invaluable reference for my wife and I in dealing with day-to-day family life with kids.

I loved this book. As a mother of a six month old it was a blessing to find this book. It opened my eyes to areas in my life that I needed to work on so that I will be able to teach my child when the time comes. It also gave me an outline of what I need to be mindful of as a parent raising a child. Excellent!!!

I found Boundaries to be extremely helpful to me and my family. The authors point to Biblical references for boundary development & enforcement. The authors also illustrate real-life examples of people who have boundary issues and give practical advice on how to resolve conflicts in all relationships...parent-child, spouse-spouse, friend-friend, etc. I firmly believe that this book is vital for people who desire to have Godly, healthy relationships. When my children are mature enough to read & understand this book, I will definitely encourage them to read it. I believe that it will be helpful for my children as they prepare for adulthood and also as they begin searching for a mate. I highly recommend this book for everyone who is in the midst of relationship trials & tribulations.

The authors state that this book is not for spiritual development but for giving people practical tools for life. Nothing could be more true. This book is very practical and biblically based. How the authors were able to draw such revelation from the scriptures regarding boundaries is remarkable.

This book came highly recommended to me, but I had no idea how useful it would actually be. Most people can identify the major boundary lines that they know others cannot cross. This book teaches the subtle ways that we can be manipulated through our lack of boundaries. The authors describe our boundaries simply as our property lines and they are in place to protect what is ours. The authors really make it clear why it is important to have our own boundaries and explains what their effects can be to ourselves and others.

This book should be read by all Christians because it presents a way for Christians to protect themselves against those that don't honor what they have. It is really too valuable not to have. There are some chapters where it's easy to get lost in the details but it's not too much. The authors give excellent insight as to how to raise children with healthy boundaries that will help them all the way through life and how childhood boundaries affect adult behavior.

Pastors and counsellors cannot afford to go without this book. When you deal with people on a daily basis, you need to understand the principles of this book.

Most Christians struggle with the demands and frustrations resulting from their everyday relationships. Cloud and Townsend have produced a true classic in this volume, presenting Biblical concepts that address those demands and frustrations. I have just finished reading this book again for the second time, and chances are good I will read it again in the future.

The authors introduce their work with a short section entitled, "A Day in a Boundaryless Life." Most persons can easily identify with the young woman depicted in this typical life situation. The authors then describe the concept of boundaries in detail, and how boundaries are developed in our lives. They present ten laws of boundaries, and then proceed to describe common myths regarding them. These laws and myths, as well as the rest of the book's content, are very readable and easy to understand.

In the second portion of their work, the authors touch upon the areas of life in which boundaries can be helpful. I cannot think of any area that is unaffected. These areas are: family, friends, spouse, children, work, self, and God.

The authors conclude by describing typical resistance to boundaries. They also summarize the benefits to be gained as persons persevere through that resistance to a more ordered life. Before ending their book, Cloud and Townsend revisit the young woman depicted in the opening section. This time the title is, "A Day in a Life with Boundaries." She now has learned to incorporate boundaries into her own life, and the change for the better is amazing.

This book is a must-read for every Christian believer who wants a wealth of Biblical insight into Christ-honoring relationships. I have recommended it to others in the past, and after this second reading am even more enthusiastic about doing so. Buy it, read it, and allow God to transform your relationships for the better!

Henry David Thoreau's Walden is one of the great classics of American letters. Although its reputation has been somewhat unfortunately tainted in our modern day times by its reputation as the "treehugger's Bible", this, indeed, misses the point of the book entirely. Although Thoreau obviously loved nature, and was one of the nation's first enviromentalists - indeed, the modern day enviromentalist awareness outlook can be traced directly back to Thoreau - the core of this book is not a simple stating of the virtues of nature. No, indeed: Thoreau, in this book, lays down nothing less than a life philosophy. Both his essay "On Civil Disobediance" and this book, which preach the virtues of individual liberty and the importance of Man over State have been enormously influential on my own personal philosophy and views. Thoreau raises some staggeringly deep existential questions: If a man lives entirely outside of the State, doesn't depend on them at all, but still resides inside the boundaries of said country, need he pledge them any allegiance? Need he pay their taxes if he does not depend on their support for his welfare? Thoreau, here, tells us how to get the most out of life by living simply: using only what we need in life and doing without luxuries - cutting off the fat, so to speak. Indeed, much like the philosophy of Rosseau, Thoreau seemed to basically believe that the true essence and spirit of man resides in the state of nature: he assures us that, if all men lived as simply as he did at Walden, there would be very little theft, crime, violence, envy, or jealousy. He urges us all to live our own lives as we see fit, neither depending on or heeding others, and not merely become another mindless drone in the conformist society. For all of this greatness, the book, I must say, however, is not faultless. The book does tend to ramble at times - Thoreau might, indeed, have benifited from some editing. And, on a more personal note, I am far more interested in Thoreau's philosophical outlook on life than his observations on nature, and found many parts of the book focusing on the latter aspect to be a bit slow and trying. Still, if you belong to that camp, then I can only give this book an even higher reccommendation for you. An essential read for those who would have us return to a simpler state of things, as well as those in favor of preserving the natural beauty that is still left to us.

This book screams simplicity!

In this book, Henry David Thoreau takes an extended look beyond human nature and human habit. He brings forth a new and exciting view point on life and teaches how to live in happiness without the confusion of mechanical materials. I had to read this book for a 9th grade Language Arts assignment, and I had never heard of Walden or Thoreau before this project was assigned. When I completed this book, I felt very refreshed. It encouraged me to take a second look at my own life, and simply discard of the things which were causing complications or confusion. This book stretched past the limits and capacity of my mind as a 9th grade student. It forced me to think. Judging by the majority of my peers, I am convinced that anything that would force them to THINK harder, deserves 5 shining stars.

When I read Thoreau's book Walden, I was amazed to learn that Thoreau's writing had such a great influence on such men as Mohandas Gandhi and Dr Martin Luther King. They read Thoreau's book on "civil disobedience," which advocated passive resistance (Peaceful protest). Another thing that surprised me was the way that Emerson and James Russell Lowell degraded Thoreau in their speeches at Henry's memorial service upon his death. During the memorial these two so-called friends of Thoreau called him a lazy braggart, a societies maverick & a drop out! Perhaps by societies standards he was a rebel but certainly not the worthless ne'er do well that these men painted him. Thoreau sets out to build a cabin on Walden Pond in order to be at one with nature. Thoreau was at heart a naturalist. He resisted paying a tax which he spent one night in the Concord jail for. This was to prove a point. He lived at Walden Pond for 2 years. Upon returning to society, he continued to write his books. He said that, "most men lead lives of quiet desperation." Henry David Thoreau was born July 12, 1817 & died May 6, 1862 of T.B. He built his cabin on March 1845 at Walden Pond at a cost of $28,12 & half cents. Thoreau started out life in the Transcendentalist movement but he later departed from this group. He was a genus that was unappreciated in his day.

If you know the ballad of "John Henry", in any of its many versions, and have pondered whether the title character in the song is best viewed as a heroic or as a tragic figure, you will find this novel compelling. The story moves seemlessly between past and present as modern day slaves to capitalism wage their own contests against obsolescence. Juxtaposing these modern tales with the rich details of the larger than life steel driving man, John Henry, is both brilliant and chilling. The result is an interesting tale of self discovery for not only the main character, J. Sutter, but also for several subsidiary characters. This is not a quick read because each chapter is filled with prose so rich in detail and symbolism that you will be inclined to linger for fear of missing a clever observation, or the irony which abounds. You will no doubt find yourself wanting to read sentences aloud to anyone in earshot in order to share the humor and insights. When I finished the book, my first reaction was that the ending is unsatisfying. But I found myself continuing to think about and talk about the story and the characters long after I put the novel down. In retrospect, the final epiphanies of the characters, though subtle, are quite satisfying.

I really enjoyed John Henry Days, although it is hard to classify this book. It is so off-the-wall and unique that it does not fit into one single category/genre.

The book is about a group of junketeers who go to a small town for the unveiling of a stamp featuring local hero John Henry, a railroad man who was able to beat a steal-planting machine on a one-on-one competition. The book mixes legendary facts with Whitehead's present-day fictional story. But the book also includes many long, unecessary chapters about how the legend and John Henry himself have influenced people over the years. These chapters feel totally out of place; they feel more like space fillers than anything else.

The book is a bit overlong and Whitehead often gets lost in his own narratives (his sentences can run on for paragraphs!), although his style of writing is very unique and always poetic. All in all, the John Henry Days is a very intersting, very unique, very intelligent read. It's just not something you'll want to read over and over again.

I approached John Henry Days with some trepidation. I enjoyed Whitehead's first novel, The Intuitionist, and thought it could harken the arrival of a strong and enduring literary career. Second novels are challenging, both for the author and for the reader. The author is challenged to live up to the promise of his/her first work. The reader is challenged by virtue of his/her own heightened expectation and anticipation that the second work will outstrip the qualities of the first novel. Whitehead has met his challenge with ease. John Henry Days stands on its own as a great and compelling read. The book also met this reader's challenge. John Henry Days exceeded my heightened expectations. The book's 'big picture' involves the ongoing, primordial struggle between humanity and technology. The big picture is presented through the prism of John Henry's 19th century battle against the soulldless steam drill and J. Sutter's inner struggle to survive in the souless world of frelance, junketeering oriented writing in the 21st century. The book is layered and textured through time. The juxtaposition, in the hands of Whitehead works exceedingly well. His writing and prose style is superb. There were some pargraphs that I read two or three times in order to savor better their flavor. Well done Colson.

"Fish" is a parable that deals with Mary Jane who was assigned to the third floor of her company who had the reputation of being ineffective, unfriendly and labelled a "toxic energy dump." Mary Jane had to find ways to improve morale and basically changed the attitudes of some thirty employees under her supervision. She employed the tactics of fishmongers at Pike Place Fish, a world famous market in Seattle in order to learn from them how to make the workspace more fun and effective.

The four principles that Mary Jane learned from the fishmongers are "choose your attitude," "play," "make their day," and "be present." The book basically explains how these principles would improve morale in the workplace, making it fun to work even if the work itself is boring and at the same time, valuing both their internal and external customers. "Fish" is quite encouraging and it reminds me a lot of "Who Moved My Cheese?" as both books are short, concise and easy to understand.

Fish! is a deceptively thin but surprisingly inspiring book. I found it easy to relate to and engaging because the main characters, Lonnie and Mary Jane, were down-to-earth people in realistic circumstances. There weren't any business buzzwords or corporate strategies to make it feel contrived. While claiming that there are 4 things necessary to change the way we look at our work, I found one major theme prevailed for me: bring 100% involvement to our jobs - no matter what we do. The book talks about "choosing your attitude" and "playing" at work, but it was clear to me that these seem to happen naturally when you don't resist your work and become totally involved in it "being present" as Lonnie describes it. I believe these philosophies go far beyond work and apply to every area of one's life. If we are totally engaged in any activity, especially the one we spend most of our lives doing, learning to be present is easy when you simply do what you have to do.

The best book I have ever read on the subject of being present is Working on Yourself Doesn't Work by Ariel and Shya Kane. While Fish! is a fun way to learn how to enjoy even mundane tasks, it only scratches the surface compared to what Working On Yourself Doesn't Work will teach you about truly being present and satisfied in all aspects of your life. Both books are simple, fun reads and can help you discover magic in your life.

A wonderful book that simplifies the steps to have the right atmosphere in any environment.

Mary Jane has been given the difficult task of turning around the 3rd floor inefficiency to be a productive and pleasant place to work. In helping her in the task she meets Lonnie, who works in the fish market, and who makes her see how he managed to bring the best out of his employees even though they work in a stinky place.

The four lessons learned to achieve such results are: Attitude, Play, Make their day, and Be present. Those simple words and how to carry them between the employees and be able to transmit them to the customers should be enough to turn the life around.

A great book, that also helps with our daily lives and how to approach life on daily basis, make the best of things, give it your best shot and the rest is history.