As an educator, I think this book is one of the best I have read on this subject. It is factual and covers both social and medical aspects of HIV infection and AIDS. Its focus is scientific but it explains a wide range of technical concepts (eg current drug therapies, methods of detection) in suprisingly easy and straightforward terms. It has a very humane feel to it as its authors are both AIDS physicians and scientists involved in the searching for better therapies. I think this book can truly help people learn about AIDS.

This book contains short stories from some of the greatest minds in SF, Including a Dorsi novela that appears no where else. Quite simply a must for all warriors of the future.

Don't be misled by the title of this book, nor by what others may have told you about it. In the first place, it isn't so much a book about 'Melancholy' (or abnormal psychology, or depression, or whatever) as a book about Burton himself and, ultimately, about humankind. Secondly, it isn't so much a book for students of the history of English prose, as one for lovers of language who joy in the strong taste of English when it was at its most masculine and vigorous. Finally, it isn't so much a book for those interested in the renaissance, as for those interested in life.

Burton is not a writer for fops and milquetoasts. He was a crusty old devil who used to go down to the river to listen to the bargemen cursing so that he could keep in touch with the true tongue of his race. Sometimes I think he might have been better off as the swashbuckling Captain of a pirate ship. But somehow he ended up as a scholar, and instead of watching the ocean satisfyingly swallowing up his victims, he himself became an ocean of learning swallowing up whole libraries. His book, in consequence, although it may have begun as a mere 'medical treatise,' soon exploded beyond its bounds to become, in the words of one of his editors, "a grand literary entertainment, as well as a rich mine of miscellaneous learning."

Of his own book he has this to say : "... a rhapsody of rags gathered together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toys and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgement, wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, phantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet, ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry; I confess all..." But don't believe him, he's in one of his irascible moods and exaggerating. In fact it's a marvelous book.

Here's a bit more of the crusty Burton I love; it's on his fellow scholars : "Heretofore learning was graced by judicious scholars, but now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scribblers."

And here is Burton warming to the subject of contemporary theologians : "Theologasters, if they can but pay ... proceed to the very highest degrees. Hence it comes that such a pack of vile buffoons, ignoramuses wandering in the twilight of learning, ghosts of clergymen, itinerant quacks, dolts, clods, asses, mere cattle, intrude with unwashed feet upon the sacred precincts of Theology, bringing with them nothing save brazen impudence, and some hackneyed quillets and scholastic trifles not good enough for a crowd at a street corner."

Finally a passage I can't resist quoting which shows something of Burton's prose at its best, though I leave you to guess the subject: "... with this tempest of contention the serenity of charity is overclouded, and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a racket, that as Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to their own destruction."

To fully appreciate these quotations you would have to see them in context, and I'm conscious of having touched on only one of his many moods and aspects. But a taste for Burton isn't difficult to acquire. He's a mine of curious learning. When in full stride he can be very funny, and it's easy to share his feelings as he often seems to be describing, not so much his own world as today's.

But he does demand stamina. His prose overwhelms and washes over us like a huge tsunami, and for that reason he's probably best taken in small doses. If you are unfamiliar with his work and were to approach him with that in mind, you might find that (as is the case with Montaigne, a very different writer) you had discovered not so much a book as a companion for life.

Baum has done an excellent job at capturing the impact of slavery on traditional African religion. The fact that an often ignored subject is gaining insightful scolarly attention is great and represents a definite progression within the feild.

This book is just excellent for all students of the Lutheran Confessions. All these fascinating and relevant sources for the Confessions were out of print, or never published in English before.

As now involved in teaching class on the Formula, fascinated by the Leipzig Interim and Chemnitz' "Judgment on Certain Controversies." He states things so plainly and is not politically correct at all, e.g. "it is of utmost importance to establish what limits are to constitute the defining elements of this harmony. Often in the church not only princes and political advisors, but even theologians have sought harmony on the basis of human judgment which led people away from the purity of the Gospel. Therefore, it is necessary in the church that the rule for such harmony be the Word of God."

Wingert's translation of Luther's catechetical material as well as Melanchthon's Disputation, The Catalog of Testominies, Luther's sermon on descent into hell, and the Saxon Visitation ARticles of 1592.

This is great collection of wealth of background info which we Reformation students will sink our theological teeth into and be well rewarded, having greater perspective on the Confessions.

Translated by renown group of Lutheran scholars. Highly recommended.

Best thesaurus I've ever seen, now out of print (and my copy has walked off)

An excellent outline of the subject, written by a man who certainly knows his stuff.

This book is a joy to read. I've been in these situations far to often and unfortunately never encountered the "TEAM". I'm afraid I'd wear out poor Sarge. The illustrator did a marvelous job bringing these characters to life. I found myself day dreaming during the read, imaging all kinds of situations I'd been in and how MacDuff and his team would have helped extracate me. I though I'd fall off my chair laughing when MacDuff said Jake looked like a zeppelin. There are a lot of great one liners in this book I'll certainly use. The author's sense of humor is as he says, "slightly off centered". He is obviously an avid golfer because he did a great job of describing these characters and the need most golfers have for them. I think golfers and non golfers alike will find this a great read. This story would make a great animated series for TV.

The book is succinct and doesn't mince words.

This book is a great referrence tool. When first written, it was in keeping with the times and type of training methods being used. For todays methods, the basics are still the same. Reader should use good judgement when applying some methods in this book. Over all this is an excellent book. This book would compliment training classes.