A master work which starts off slowly and then fizzes into unexpected space. Pregnant with insight.

The Critical Edition of Q : A Synopsis Including the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Mark and Thomas.

This is an exceptionally clear and easy to use book.

The section on the history of "Q" research is a splendidly clear and concise review of the work done today and would bring you up to speed very quickly.

The layout of the synopsis in 8 columns is actually a great deal easier to understand than at first glance and quickly becomes user friendly.

The Synoptic Gospels, Q and other canonical texts are paralleled in Greek with the gospel of Thomas being paralleled in Coptic. Q is translated into French, German and English with the parallels of Thomas being translated into Greek, French, German and English.

I would not hesitate to recommend this work to anyone who is studying in this field or has an interest in it.

This newest updated version of Q is a MUST read for all!

Informative and thought provoking;for all serious thinkers..... this book clearly settles the case....once and for all.

Mike in Melbourne,Fla.

I found this book in a library and read it. I was surprised that Mark Twain wrote such a serious piece -- it did not contain his typical wit or sarcasm, but was a rather sentimental account of Joan of Arc. I wasn't sure when I started or finished it if it was actually a translation he made from a real account or if he had written it himself as a sort of historically based piece of fiction. I gather from what I have seen elsewhere that this is considered fiction -- a novel -- but he was painstaking in his attention to historical details and facts. It was a wonderful book, and I found it inspiring. He persuaded me to believe her story.

Albert Paine's biography, "The Adventures of Mark Twain" says: "It was just at this time [while Clemens was still in Hannibel working for his brother's paper] that an incident occurred which may be looked back upon now as a turning-point in Samuel Clemens's life. Coming home from the office one afternoon, he noticed a square of paper being swept along by the wind. He saw that it was printed . . . . He chased the flying scrap and overtook it. It was a leaf from some old history of Joan of Arc, and pictured the hard lot of the 'maid' in the tower of Rouen . . . . Sam had never heard of Joan before -- he knew nothing of history. He was no reader. . . . But now, as he read, there awoke in him a deep feeling of pity and indignation, and with it a longing to know more of the tragic story. It was an interest that would last his life through, and in the course of time find expression in one of the rarest books ever written. The first result was than Sam began to read. He hunted up everything he could find on the subject of Joan, and from that went into French history in general -- indeed, into history of every kind. Samuel Clemens had suddenly become a reader . . . ."

Mark Twain's best. I couldn't put it down. I was away for the weekend, found it on a book table in the lobby, and bought it for bedtime reading. The rest of the weekend was devoted to living Joan's story. A great weekend. An incredible book.

This book will make you feel like you walked with Joan, knew her, loved her - READ THIS BOOK. Truly one of the greatest reads of my life! A Book that really changed my perspective on a lot of things.

Britain started out ahead, but partly for that reason her carrier forces (and especially planes) were less suited for combat than America's. This is an excellent study of how that came to pass. Sadly missing is an equally insightful look at the Japanese carrier fleet, which in the winter of 1941-42 was arguably the equal of America's.

An intelligent and thoughtful study of how it happened that the United States started late, yet managed to enter World War II with a better carrier force than the Royal Navy. (In part, this was because the US *did* start late, and therefore didn't have an installed base of obsolete equipment.)

The only problem with this book is that it doesn't give equal time to the Japanese carrier fleet, which as it happened was America's only real competitor in this developing science.

This book has great photography and discription of various insects, however. this is a large book so you can't take it outdoors to try to identify a certain insect. It is a very good reference book

Wonderful photos and quite interesting text...and here I thought this was going to be a hokey little book.

This book is worth the price for the Colorado Fruit Tart recipe alone. The avocado dip is really good too. I only gave it four stars because I tried the Hazelnut cheesecake and the Balsamic Scallops and they are only "ok". I intend to keep trying the recipes and will report in when I find other winners.

This cookbook contain family favorites of Bob Bowersox. I like the family history associated with each recipe. The recipes are are great and seem easy to prepare (especially the Italian Wedding Soup). It is a collection of family favorites.

It seems unnecessary to point out that this book is only for the true political junkie, since it's unlikely that anyone else would pick up a 700-page book with Clinton, Bush, and Perot on the cover in the first place. But for diehard politicos like myself, this book is a terrific account of the '92 campaign. The lengthy passages on political strategy may be trying for some, but the behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the three major campaigns (not to mention those of Jerry Brown, Pat Buchannan, et al) are fantastic.

I found this book to be extremely interesting and full of insight about the candidates and their campaigns. It also effectively represents the overall mood of the campaign and the issues facing the US at the time. Fascinating for anyone who is interested in presidential elections, and politics generally.

If you don't know Latin, you will have trouble fully understanding what Gilson says, for he uses many Latin quotes from St. Thomas, and Latin slogans, which are left untranslated. The book is a terrific examination and refutation of the recent attempts of neo-Thomists to establish a "critical ralism," which, so Gilson argues, is impossible because it is self-contradictory. There is no such thing as a critical realism. Gilson shows and explains why true Thomistic/Aristotelian realism is beyond the Critique of Knowledge and refuses to pose the critical problem. As soon as one accepts the Cartesian Cogito as one's starting point, it is inevitable that one will fall into idealism. True realism defies the Cogito, and can do so reasonably, for it starts with the true first principle, which is being. An excellet book by an excellent neo-Thomistic author, but sometimes hard to understand. What a pity it's out of print...

Etienne Gilson brilliantly plumbs the depths of Thomistic Realism, and false Thomisms as well, in this answer to Kantian modernism. The volume, exquisitely translated, is 'must reading' for any student entering the modern university. This book brings the essential elements of philosophy into view as a cohesive, readily understandable, and erudite structure, and does so rigorously in the best tradition of St. Thomas. If you must read only one book on philosophy or if you want to make philosophy you life's work, read this book first.

I'm working on a web services project using Java and purchased this book. There wasn't any coverage on web services. I supplimented this title with Java, The Complete Reference that covers web servers. Otherwise, this book is OK

The book is written with a good outline on each subject, however, it does not follow-up the same for each subject. For example, the section on JavaMail is good with multiple examples (except for a serious error in one of those examples). While they somewhat duplicate the examples in that chapter with a few variations, another chapter in the book will have much less supporting information. What I would criticize most about this book is the level of information written on each subject differs between chapters and within chapters. There is no real consistency of detail or emphasis. I also would expect a revision in the near future because of a few errors in the book (mostly typos). In defense of the book, I must say that about 75% of all programming books seem to do the same thing... that is being inconsistent with their level of information.

"J2EE Unleashed" covers the major aspects of the Java 2 Enterprise Edition. The three main pieces (servlets, JSPs, and EJBs) are each well covered with good examples. JNDI, JDBC, JavaMail and JMS are each given a chapter and XML is also covered. The strength of the book, though, is its coverage of designing J2EE architectures. For example, servlets are explained but then the authors go beyond the explanation to show how servlets fit into an overall J2EE architecture. Model 2 controller architecture is covered and Apache Struts is discussed as an example of using servlets as controllers. According to the publisher, "The goal of this book is not to teach the J2EE specification but to illustrate the best practices for developing J2EE applications." In fact, it does both. The example application which is used throughout the book is well designed to cover all the pieces of J2EE. I do have two complaints about the book. First, it concentrates too much on the SilverStream Application Server getting down to the level of showing screen shots of deployment wizards. Second, the book could have used some editing to give it a better flow. J2EE architecture is explained before any of the pieces that make up the architecture are discussed. EJB session beans are used to demonstrate how to use JDBC before EJBs are covered. Overall, however, the book is well done and can stand up against any of the books covering this complex topic.

Six lectures delivered by Carlyle in 1840. He classifies six kinds of heroes: as Divinity (Wotan, paganism); Prophet (Mohamed); Poet (Dante, Shakespeare); Priest (Luther, Knox); Man of Letters (Johnson, Rousseau, Burns); and Ruler (Cromwell, Napoleon). The trait that defines a hero is: absolute sincerity and firm belief in his principles.

In his highly rhetorical lectures, Carlyle highlights and reinforces the role of the individual in the social process, as opposed to the role of the masses. And he did that precisely when the foundations were being laid for the most influential "pro-mass" movement in History: Marxism. The tragedy of Marxism, at least one of them all, is that, when translated into action, the blind masses were also led by "heroes" of the most authocratic sort. Not properly the work of an historian, these lectures are vivid, inflamed and enthusiast. Their uselfuness for our present age is precisely that they remind us of the crucial role significant individuals play in history, to accelerate or slow down (and even reverse) the process of social change, which is usually more gradual, diffused, and diverse.

Carlyle is not properly a historian or a philosopher, but a moralist, a fervent admirer of excellence, and a prose-poet of the first rank. Six meditations deal respectively of the hero as: Divinity, Prophet, Poet, Priest, Man of Letters, and King. If this book can't rightly be shelved with philosophy or history, it belongs in Literature with a capital "L," and Poetry. Carlylye loved the English Language and used it masterfully, energetically, and reverentially, without a trace of the trivial overindulgence of self-conscious and self-absorbed "poets."

This is an extraordinary work, let modern liberal critics say what they will of their 'mass movements' and 'diversity'. Long after they and their productions have bitten the dust, Carlyle will continue to speak to the enlightened few, and perhaps one day, it is to be hoped, to the enlightened many.

This work is much more than just a study of various influential men in history. Carlyle has very interesting notions of the historical process itself, the spread of religions and their demise, the importance of "true belief" in things, as opposed the unbelief that merely follows rituals and procedures. For Carlyle, true belief, is the beginning of morality, all success, all good things in this world; Unbelief, scepticism, the beginning of all corruption, quackery, falsehood.Unbelief, for instance, is at the root of all materialist philosophies, eg Utilitarianism which find human beings to be nothing more than clever, pleasure-seeking bipeds. It is also at the root of all democratic theories: faith in a democratic system means despair of finding an honest man to lead us.

Whether one agrees with Carlyle or not in his appraisal of democratic and other systems, one must admit, at least, that very little good is to be gotten from "the checking and balancing of greedy knaveries." If we have no honest men in government or in business, but only a bunch of self-interested quacks, then we cannot expect any system, however ingenious, to save us. Even the most skilled architect will not be able to construct a great building, if you give him only hollow, cracked bricks to build it with. Find your honest men, says Carlyle, and get them into the positions of influence; only then will it be well with you.

Want a book with an adventurous twist? Then Huckleberry Finn is the book for you. Not only is Huckleberry Finn an adventurous book, it is also can be comical and light, though the book has a grave meaning, showing the wrongs in society at the time in the late 19th century.
The book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer precedes Huckleberry Finn, where in the beginning of Huckleberry Finn, Huck lives with the widow Douglas, though doesn't like the high class living, and frequently leaves to see his father, who's always drunk, or just hangs out in the woods. While in the woods, Huck meets Jim, a slave who escaped and needs to cross the Mississippi River to the freedom on the other side, in Illinois. Although this book portrays a serious meaning, it can also be funny and witty.
I liked this book because it was witty and comical, though it had an important message at the same time. I really liked this book because of this, though the southern accent complicates the understanding of the book. Overall, I thought this book is definitely a classic and a must read for all age levels.

I wasn't too looking forward to the reading Huck Finn at first, particularly after glancing at the dialect of the first couple pages, but once I got started and more used to how the characters spoke, I loved the tale! Huck Finn is an extremely well-written novel that uses silly situations to explain how living was back then, and how slaves were treated. Jim is in the beginning of the book coming across as the stereotype of a slave, but as the novel continues, you really begin to see the real person, not just how Jim was "supposed" to be... Also, throughout the book, you see Huck mature and begin to get his own mind; among other things, Huck develops his own set of morals different from those of society... The Adventures of Huck Finn is a funny, exciting, and at times sweet book that everyone should have the chance to read... :):)

After reading many of the reviews below, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps this novel should not be taught at the high school level. Personally, when I read "Huckelberry Finn" my junior year, I thought that it was an enjoyable break from reading other early American classics, but judging from some of the reviews, others didn't agree. I don't understand exactly what was considered so "boring" about this novel. This book provides the reader with action, humor, and morals; what any 'classic' should do. For those who think of themselves as highly intellectual and felt that the novel didn't have a point, you may want to check your IQ, because I think your ego is in for a massive let-down. Although Twain clearly states at the beginning of the novel that he doesn't want his readers to try to find a point in his 'coming of age' story, the theme of the novel almost smacks the reader in the face. The 'point' is that friendship is more important than social standards and sometimes you have to put yourself at risk in order to save those that you care about. This classic will remain so as long as those who are forced to read it lighten up a little and actually open their minds to a great piece of literature.